Becoming a God Starts with Acting-Chapter 403: Turbulent Seas (10)

Silvanus dodged, his speed like a flash of light, leaving only afterimages behind.

He saw the skeletal merfolk’s bone fingers pierce straight into the ground. A moment later, its body twisted violently. Its tail swept across the space and instantly coiled around the tree, its posture rising like a cobra preparing to strike. Huge pitch-black eye sockets locked onto Silvanus, filled with rage and warning.

It did not want Silvanus to touch this place.

And now that Silvanus was here, there was only one possible outcome—one of them had to die.

There was no time to breathe. The rattling crack of bone echoed once more, loud and jarring, like countless joints being forcibly snapped, the sound sharp enough to make one’s teeth ache.

The skeletal merfolk twisted its serpentine body and lunged forward like a fired bullet, its long, bony fingers outstretched, dragging silver-white soul energy behind them. Every slash tore through the very space itself, moving so fast they were nothing but streaks of motion.

Even though Silvanus’s speed was far from slow, he was on the verge of being overwhelmed by the relentless barrage. He needed space—space to cast his magic.

Silvanus swept his hand upward. At the same instant, a massive ice sword materialized in his grasp, slicing toward the colossal hand reaching for him.

The strike was powerful, yet it couldn’t fully stop the incoming attack. The skeletal merfolk let out a scream filled with wild excitement—but then its movements suddenly slowed. From the point where it had been struck, the surrounding water began to freeze at an impossible rate, compressing and locking firmly around it, holding it in place without letting it move an inch.

By then, Silvanus had already leapt high into the air. His raised hand gathered energy in the space above, and in the span of a heartbeat, a massive chunk of ice formed—large enough to completely crush the skeletal merfolk beneath it. At the same moment, the merfolk’s tail twitched. The ice encasing it shattered instantly.

Both actions collided at the same time. As the skeletal merfolk shattered the ice around its tail, Silvanus’s colossal ice mass plummeted downward at unbelievable speed.

"BOOM! CRASH!"

The fragments of ice still clinging to the monster were smashed apart. The entire skeletal merfolk was driven into the ground under the overwhelming weight of the falling glacier, carving a massive crater, dragging bones and wilted blossoms down with it.

"CRACK! BOOM!"

But everything lasted only a moment. The enormous block of ice was suddenly ripped apart from within. The skeletal merfolk crushed the remaining shards in its hands. Its body twisted sharply, and its massive tail snapped upward, moving with impossible speed. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Silvanus spun around and barely had time to raise his hand, forming a shield of light. An instant later, the enormous tail slammed into him, hurling him like a streak of light, sending him hurtling straight down toward the ground.

But the skeletal merfolk had no intention of stopping. It lunged forward again, chasing Silvanus at impossible speed, even with half its chest crushed and cracks spiderwebbing across its hands from the weight of the massive ice block.

Silvanus took the full brunt of its direct strike. His shield shattered instantly, and a powerful force slammed into his chest. His eyes widened as he coughed out a mouthful of blood.

He glared upward and began chanting.

Before the skeletal merfolk’s hands could reach him and tear him apart, Silvanus’s entire body vanished from the spot, leaving not a trace behind.

The merfolk skeleton opened its skull and let out a roar like a frigid gale shrieking through a cavern.

It swept its gaze around, its massive tail writhing across the ground as if searching for him.

And then, from above, a glimmer of light appeared.

An instant later, light burst outward and engulfed the land below, carrying an immense wave of energy that made the skeletal merfolk flinch, its body curling slightly inward.

High above, Silvanus hovered at the center of that radiance.

Fresh blood still clung to his lips and chin. His cloak and shirt were torn across the chest, exposing the muscle beneath—still dripping from the merfolk’s earlier strike.

Yet Silvanus seemed to feel no pain. Rings of light formed above him one after another, each arrival sending a new tremor through the sea, as if declaring dominance over everything below.

Whether from the overwhelming brilliance or something else entirely, the reflection in Silvanus’s irises had turned a blazing gold.

Light streamed through his hair and cloak. The rings of radiance expanded outward, stretching until they nearly enveloped the entire central region of the Azure Depths. From within them, the tips of countless light-forged swords emerged, disrupting the very flow of illumination.

The skeletal merfolk dropped to the ground, then roared up at him with earth-shaking fury. Its serpentine form twisted in agitation as both arms rose high. From every direction, energy surged toward it, flooding into its core. The glowing flowers became a vast wellspring of power, streaming into the monster.

Crashes rang out across the land. The ground split open, flowers were buried beneath upheaved soil, and sharp bone-like spikes erupted from the gathered energy, thrusting fearlessly into the air.

They had yet to attack, but the energy gathering at their tips screamed with violent intent.

Until finally—Silvanus stood at the heart of a sea of blades, his gold eyes shining with a cold, absolute resolve.

His lips moved faintly, and even his blood seemed to shimmer with a golden hue.

"Luminary Judgement."

He spoke slowly, his voice barely more than a breath—yet it carried the weight of a quiet, inescapable decree.

The next moment, the blades of light tore through the air, plunging toward the ground like a torrential storm, each one shrieking with a fierce, piercing howl.

The skeletal merfolk roared in response, its body surging upward. Bone spikes erupted from the earth, wrapped in silver-white light, shooting skyward to meet the descending swords head-on.

For a heartbeat, time seemed to slow.

When the countless sharpened tips collided, waves of force rippled outward—and then...

"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"

A barrage of explosive impacts echoed through the air, the clashing of energies twisting white and gold together. The brilliance flared so intensely it nearly erased all sight.

Silvanus moved with the cascade of detonations, countless blades trailing behind him like a luminous storm.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he cut straight through the blinding light—and in that instant, he saw the skeletal merfolk hurling itself forward with reckless abandon.

A surge of blades gathered behind Silvanus and shot toward the monster simultaneously.

The creature shrieked, its arms tearing wildly at the incoming swords. Even so, the rain of light did not slow. Cracks began spreading across its body as the radiance gnawed at its bones. The fractures on its arms warned that those massive limbs could shatter at any moment.

At this point, the skeletal merfolk no longer cared about anything. It hurled itself headlong into the storm of swords with impossible speed. Blades sliced through its entire body, smashing bone into shards—yet its arms stretched unerringly toward Silvanus.

Silvanus didn’t intend to evade. He raised his sword and thrust forward, no slower than his opponent.

Before their bodies could collide, their overwhelming energies struck each other.

"BOOM!"

A massive explosion swept across a radius of more than twenty meters, flattening the glowing flowers. The shockwave screamed outward, traveling even farther.

Both Silvanus and the skeletal merfolk vanished completely into the blast—

which one would fall remained unknown...