Chapter 627 - 627: A God Can Do Anything

Jellal's short blue hair began turning pure white, the transformation spreading gradually from the tips to the roots until every strand seemed to radiate a sacred light.

The black cloak he had always worn to conceal his identity appeared to dissolve into a river of light. Countless luminous threads gathered around his arms, weaving themselves into elegant white-and-gold bracers.

A high golden collar formed around his neck, while intricate gold patterns spread down the upper half of his new white robes. Along the hem, delicate embroidery depicted the sun and moon shining together, their celestial forms intertwined in a magnificent golden design.

Jellal slowly opened his eyes.

The dark-red tattoo on his face began changing as well, its markings turning silver-white. Faint light flowed along the familiar pattern, gradually converging around his right eye.

Then that eye transformed into a brilliant golden pupil.

His left eye remained dark, creating a striking contrast.

A pair of silver-blue wings of light suddenly unfurled behind him.

The moment they appeared, the violent Magic Power surrounding Ennie was overwhelmed and dispersed. Even the arrogance on her face diminished considerably beneath the terrifying pressure.

"Whoa…"

Sawyer stared at his transformed leader, his mouth hanging open.

"He looks incredible!"

Macbeth was equally astonished, though his reaction was considerably more restrained.

"I can't read his strength at all. Not even a trace of Magic Power is leaking from his body."

He studied Jellal with growing amazement, but his gaze eventually settled on the Divine Ring.

Concern entered his eyes.

They had already witnessed what the other rings could do to their wearers. There was no telling what kind of price Jellal might have to pay for this transformation.

Ultear, meanwhile, noticed something even stranger.

"The surrounding Magic Power has stopped moving."

Her expression became serious.

The others looked around.

The countless rules floating through Ennie's artificial world had frozen in place. The mysterious words that had previously drifted through the white space were now completely motionless.

And the effect wasn't limited to Rule World.

Every member of Crime Sorcière could feel it.

Their Magic Power had stopped circulating.

Even Ennie was affected.

It wasn't like the sensation of having their magic stolen by the Fox Ring, where their reserves remained intact but their abilities became inaccessible.

Nor was it the emptiness caused by Magic Barrier Particles, which disrupted a mage's ability to retain and circulate Magic Power.

This was something entirely different.

It was as though Magic Power itself had suddenly gained awareness.

And in the presence of the power now radiating from Jellal, it had instinctively submitted.

Like servants kneeling before their sovereign, the surrounding magical energies seemed to tremble in fear of something incomparably superior.

They didn't dare move.

"What…?"

Ennie felt a chill of terror.

"How is this possible…?"

She desperately attempted to gather her Magic Power and activate the Fox Ring.

But her energy refused to respond.

No matter how hard she tried, the Divine Ring remained completely silent.

Jellal, meanwhile, was experiencing something extraordinary.

"All the powers of this world…"

His golden right eye shimmered with rainbow-colored divine light, while his left remained its familiar dark shade.

"…share the same origin."

His voice carried genuine astonishment.

After receiving the Pride Ring's power, an enormous quantity of information had poured directly into his mind.

And what it revealed overturned much of what humanity understood about magic.

According to the knowledge contained within the ring, the various forms of power wielded by living beings were fundamentally connected.

The Magic Power used by humans could also be called Human Power.

The Dragon Power and Divine Power that so many mages desperately sought were not completely separate systems.

All of them belonged to the same greater structure.

The difference was that Dragon Power and Divine Power existed closer to the fundamental laws governing the world.

Because of that proximity, their properties had undergone transformations that ordinary human understanding could scarcely explain.

But from the perspective of those laws themselves, Human Power, Dragon Power, and Divine Power were all merely different expressions of the same underlying source.

They were, in a sense, children born from the laws of existence.

What mortals normally called Divine Power was the authority possessed by divine inheritors—a power containing traces of the laws at their source.

True gods, however, were another matter entirely.

A god governed a law and wielded its limitless authority.

The Divine Power granted to an inheritor was only a small portion of what that god could truly command.

And above even that distinction stood the power of the laws themselves.

That was true divine power.

The unrestricted authority from which every lesser manifestation originated.

Its effects were beyond anything an ordinary human could comprehend.

And that was precisely what Yuluye had placed inside the Pride Ring.

The extraordinary ability he had painstakingly created allowed its wearer to temporarily borrow the power of a true god.

Not the diluted authority normally inherited by mortals.

Not a derivative power containing fragments of a law.

But power borrowed directly from the law itself.

To an actual god, the amount available through the ring was almost insignificant.

Yet in a world where even a trace of ordinary Divine Power was considered an unimaginable treasure, a human capable of wielding such authority could already be called a representative of the gods.

Jellal continued absorbing the enormous quantity of knowledge entering his mind.

He slowly raised one hand and partially covered his glowing right eye.

"What an incredible power…"

The words escaped him almost involuntarily.

Then, after a moment of reflection, he lowered his hand and gently swept it through the air.

A soft, soundless breeze passed over his companions.

Ultear felt it first.

The stagnant Magic Power inside her suddenly began circulating again.

Macbeth, Sorano, Erik, Sawyer, and Meredy experienced the same thing.

Within an instant, the oppressive sensation holding their power motionless disappeared.

Jellal had restored their magic with a casual gesture.

Then he raised his head toward the seemingly endless artificial world surrounding them.

The silver-white markings on his face glimmered.

A flash of golden light passed through his right eye.

And the world broke.

CRACK!

A fracture appeared across the white space.

Then another.

Countless cracks spread outward, branching across the entire environment like the surface of a shattered mirror.

There was no explosion.

No devastating spell.

Jellal hadn't even raised his hands.

Yet the Rule World that had resisted every one of his previous attempts to destroy it was now collapsing effortlessly.

Ennie stared in disbelief as her carefully constructed artificial world began falling apart.

The floating rules disintegrated.

The white walls shattered.

The space itself fractured into countless fragments before dissolving into nothingness.

And in the blink of an eye, everyone found themselves standing inside the familiar cold, damp dungeon once more.

Ennie barely seemed to notice the destruction of her greatest alchemical technique.

Her eyes were fixed on Jellal's hand.

More precisely—

the Pride Ring.

The greed in her expression intensified.

"Mine…"

She clenched her teeth.

"That's mine!"

Her voice became a frantic growl.

"IT BELONGS TO ME!"

Jellal shook his head.

The silver-blue wings behind him fluttered gently.

Then his figure vanished.

He appeared directly in front of Ennie, moving so quickly that the transition seemed indistinguishable from teleportation.

Ennie flinched.

She hurriedly raised a fist, preparing to strike.

But before she could complete the movement, Jellal's golden eye flashed again.

"Stop."

His voice was quiet.

Yet the command carried an absolute authority that permitted no resistance.

Ennie froze.

Her body stopped moving as though an invisible hand had seized every part of her and forcibly locked it in place.

She could still think.

She could still glare at him.

Her face twisted with fury as she desperately struggled to regain control.

But not a single muscle obeyed her.

Jellal looked toward her hand.

"Remove the ring."

His voice sounded again.

Ennie's expression became almost feral.

Veins bulged across her forehead as she resisted with everything she had.

But her hand moved anyway.

Slowly and smoothly, her fingers reached for the Fox Ring.

Then, despite her obvious horror and fury, she pulled it off.

The sight was deeply unsettling.

Her face showed nothing but resistance, yet her body carried out Jellal's command with perfect obedience.

And when the ring finally left her finger, something unexpected happened.

Her anger didn't subside.

Instead, the greed and resentment in her expression became even more intense.

Jellal regarded her thoughtfully.

"Just as I suspected."

"Removing the ring actually made its negative effects worse."

Ennie had spent the entire battle using Rule World to suppress the divine artifact's influence.

But that suppression had never truly eliminated the corruption.

It had merely held back some of its outward effects while the ring continued affecting her mind.

Now that the ring had been removed, the consequences of that prolonged interference had finally caught up with her.

Jellal accepted the Fox Ring from Ennie's unwilling hand.

He held it in the air.

Then he raised both hands toward the empty space in front of him.

His fingers moved gently, pinching and pressing at something invisible.

The space itself began deforming.

It behaved almost like a lump of soft clay being kneaded between his hands, bending and folding into whatever shape he desired.

The other members of Crime Sorcière watched in astonishment.

Within seconds, Jellal had molded a small section of space into a box resembling frosted glass.

Its surface was translucent, but whatever lay beyond it appeared blurred and indistinct.

Jellal placed the Fox Ring inside.

Then he closed the box.

The ring was sealed away.

Almost immediately, the fanatical expression on Ennie's face disappeared.

Her features relaxed, and the madness that had consumed her eyes finally faded.

For a moment, she simply stood there looking confused, as though she couldn't understand what had happened.

Jellal studied her briefly.

Then he spoke.

"My apologies."

His voice was calm, without a trace of hostility.

"But you're an enemy who infiltrated Ishgar, and I can't allow you to carry information about this Divine Ring back to your allies."

He reached toward her head.

His palm settled gently against her hair.

Then he pulled backward.

Something emerged from the back of Ennie's head.

It looked like a long, fluffy strand of cotton candy.

Or perhaps a peculiar cloud, soft and wispy, stretching between Jellal's fingers.

But the substance wasn't ordinary cotton.

Countless images were embedded within it.

Each scene was depicted from a first-person perspective, displaying vivid fragments of Ennie's experiences.

The images changed one after another, almost like individual frames of a film being played in sequence.

Jellal calmly examined them.

The members of Crime Sorcière stared.

Sawyer's jaw slowly dropped.

The others weren't doing much better.

Their understanding of magic—and perhaps reality itself—had just been overturned.

Jellal had already stopped Magic Power, shattered a world by looking at it, forced an enemy to obey his commands, and molded empty space into a physical container.

Now he was pulling someone's memories out of their head as though they were strands of candy floss.

"What…?"

Sawyer pointed at the fluffy mass in Jellal's hands.

"What the hell is that supposed to be?"

His voice trembled.

"This ring's power is way too—"

He stopped.

Because Jellal had just raised part of the cloud toward his mouth.

And started eating it.

Sawyer stared.

His expression slowly deteriorated.

Jellal continued examining the remaining memories, apparently finding nothing unusual about casually eating a handful of the strange cotton-candy-like substance.

The rest of Crime Sorcière watched in stunned silence.

Then, almost in unison, they finally found the only words that seemed appropriate.

"That's just creepy…"