A powerful sense of danger surged through Lucian's heart. The projection of his primary fate constellation violently shook his soul. Through the mental link he bellowed "Be careful!" even as he cast the fastest possible short-range teleportation.
His body vanished from where he stood. Lucian appeared at the door of the auxiliary laboratory, where he saw the grimy mirror become smooth and clear, a blurred, distorted figure emerging from within!
It made no effort to conceal its aura, pressing down on Lucian until his mind raced in panic. Mechanical Mind, Mental Barrier, and other spells proved utterly useless.
This was the monster's aura!
This was the pressure of a quasi-god!
"Has it finally caught up?" During their two prior encounters, the monster had revealed its true aura at the moment of its defeat and when merging with its two illusory doubles. So Lucian recognized that this gray, blurred figure was the guardian of the Gate World!
Rhein's image standing in place shattered like a dream. At the laboratory entrance, black Shadow reconstituted into his form, and through the mental link he spoke with unprecedented gravity: "A quasi-god… this is the true pressure of a quasi-god…"
He had always judged that the monster did not possess quasi-god strength; otherwise it would have killed him long ago. But now it seemed the monster had been toying with everyone who entered the Gate World all along, letting them drag themselves slowly toward death in despair and anguish.
Lucian had once witnessed a God-Descent Art and had been possessed by Etna — he was intimately familiar with the pressure of the quasi-god tier. Without waiting for Rhein to remind him, he immediately chanted the incantation: "Scepter of Space-Time!"
The flow of time around him accelerated violently, his body splitting into several identical copies of Lucian that fled at full speed toward different sections of Thanos's laboratory.
The monster let out a cold snort: "Illusions that haven't even reached Legendary tier — you think they can fool me?"
With those words, its transcendent, vast aura dropped, instantly restoring time to normal and shattering the Real Simulacra one by one.
In the void, Lucian's true figure materialized. Even facing a quasi-god, he did not give up. A delicate, ornate pocket watch appeared in his right hand, its black second hand ticking steadily.
Click. With a gentle press of his thumb, the gray around him drained to a ghastly white, and everything froze.
Yet the monster — whose face shifted endlessly — remained completely unaffected. It stepped fully out of the mirror and advanced slowly toward the two of them. Its mocking voice pierced through the different streams of time and reached Lucian's ears:
"If you were at the peak of Legendary, then Greater Time Stop might affect me a little. Unfortunately, you're not. Believe it or not, a single casual strike from me could annihilate you completely. That is the gap between a quasi-god and a non-peak Legendary."
The Legendary-tier artifact Rhein had been using to resist Greater Time Stop had already been expended, leaving him frozen in place like a statue. Inside Lucian's mind, chaos reigned as deep despair surged upward. The monster was a quasi-god — this was completely beyond anything he could handle. If he had encountered someone like Ivan, who wasn't immune to Greater Time Stop and Gravitational Collapse, he might still have had a chance to escape using the unique properties of the Gate World. But who could have guessed he would run into a quasi-god!
The monster hadn't maintained its usual rule of staying only one rank or half a rank above its targets — it had gone all out from the start. Now that he thought back, the fact that the Moon Dial had worked at all when he first encountered the monster disguised as Rhein was only thanks to it playing by its "game rules"!
Amid the despair, a fierce tenacity buried deep in Lucian's heart and the unwavering conviction he had cultivated over a lifetime made him grit his teeth: "Nothing is certain! Even if it's a matter of probability, I'll still fight! So what if it's a quasi-god — can it possibly be more terrifying than Fate itself?!"
"Gaze of Vengeance!"
"Gaze of Vengeance!"
"Gaze of Vengeance!"
Within the frozen time, three consecutive crimson beams laced with the Hand of Uncertainty shot from Lucian's ruby-red left eye.
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
Inside the arcane tower of the "Atomic Universe" demiplane, Natasha sat before the Piano in her black knight's uniform, her slender fingers striking the keys with force, as though venting the emotions roiling inside her and steeling her own fighting spirit.
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
Natasha's eyes were faintly red, her face set with unyielding stubbornness as the melody of the Fate Symphony crashed over her with overwhelming power. The nearby servants trembled in terror, like tiny petrels caught in a Storm — unable to resist the horror of nature, unable to escape a destined fate.
Why be weak? Why lack confidence in ascending to the Epic realm? Why believe herself completely useless? Natasha played and gnashed her teeth, interrogating herself with every note.
The effect of Greater Time Stop ended. The crimson beams, now traveling at true light speed, struck the undefended monster — passing through it as though through a wisp of smoke and slamming into the mystic-lock-protected wall behind it, sending scorching light rippling outward.
"This…" A trace of alarm suddenly entered the monster's voice, as though it had sensed something. But then it laughed again: "If you were at the peak of Legendary, then the bizarre magical effect you secretly added might have truly hurt me. I've never seen it and couldn't replicate that uncanny thing."
"Very well — let me show you five percent of my power."
A colossal, terrifying storm of energy erupted without warning. The monster launched its attack with a sweep of its arm in the manner of a knight.
"Elemental Aegis!" Lucian rapidly activated the Grand Archanist's Robe.
Colorful motes of elemental light condensed into a semi-transparent defensive layer, shielding Lucian's body.
Crack! The energy storm slammed into the Elemental Aegis barrier, shattering it into pieces and hammering into Lucian's body.
Elemental Skin, Spell Absorber, Stone Skin, Energy Immunity — arcane spells detonated one after another, finally reducing the energy storm enough that it could no longer prevent Lucian from teleporting short distances.
Even so, Lucian appeared at the doorway of another room with his blood churning, suffering no trivial injury!
"How is it? Feeling desperate yet? I absolutely love the taste of despair. And that was less than five percent of my power." The monster laughed heartily, closing in on Lucian and Rhein step by step like a cat toying with mice, while simultaneously seizing control of Thanos's laboratory's mystic locks to prohibit spatial teleportation within.
Suddenly, it took a single step forward — the potion-preparation platform, the alchemical benches, and the experimental tables all shattered like dreams. At the entrance, Rhein staggered back a step, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
"A True Dream? Pity you're not Dracula. My own aura alone is enough to shatter your pleasant dreams." The monster grinned smugly. "Come now — whatever spells and innate abilities you have, feel free to bring them out. I adore slowly toying with the heart, letting you sink into genuine despair."
Lucian struggled to suppress his injuries with magic, transformed into the Epic Knight — Shield of Truth — and raised his guard, swinging the silver-gray longsword in a devastating slash!