Second World

Chapter 1997: Chapter 1997. God Mode

"How...? How do you...?" Jack was lost for words seeing the scene.

Master didn't respond. He was admiring himself. The Earth Titan Suit no longer covered his body. A layer of multi-color aura instead cloaked him.

"How do you learn to enter the mana awakening state?" Jack finally asked.

"Mana awakening? Is that what this is called?" Master asked.

"Impossible!" Peniel stated. "You need to empty your mind while retaining awareness to invite mana into your body and merge with it. We didn't see you lose consciousness..."

"Is that how you achieve your state? So troublesome," Master chuckled. "My method is different from yours. Still, if I hadn't studied your energy during our battle, I wouldn't be able to achieve this."

"You studied mine...?" Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"That's why I thanked you, didn't I?" Master replied. "I tried mimicking your condition after sensing your energy. But unlike you, I didn't invite mana in. I simply tap into the mana within me, my divine mana that you lot somehow suppress. I used all the second skills from the divine treasures. Those five elemental divine buffs are compatible with each other. Their perfect fusion, adding the technique I learned from studying you, allowed me to draw the divine mana. It's only a fraction of my divine power, but it is enough. Well, since our method is different, I shouldn't give mine the same name as yours. No..., I shall call this power... God mode."

Finished speaking, a spell formation appeared on Master's staff. It was completed almost as abruptly as it appeared. Jack also acted. His hand went up as his runic ring of defense appeared in the form of a ball encapsulating Peniel. An intense flame ignited as it tried to burn through the defensive ball. Master was trying to take out the fairy the same way he did during their first encounter.

'Hide inside your dimension,' Jack sent Peniel a message.

Peniel didn't argue. She phased out.

Master was grinning. He wasn't upset that his attempt failed. Another spell formation was cast speedily.

The winds churned with Jack at the center as a hurricane formed. The hurricane's speed and power were augmented under Master's God Mode. The hurricane was composed of uncountable sharp blades that ground whatever was within its AOE.

Jack moved the instant the hurricane appeared. He used War God's Stride and phased out of the raging winds right into Master's position.

Master zoomed away before Jack landed any attack. Jack gave chase. Before, when Master was using divine incarnations, he almost matched Jack's strength but not his speed. This time, his speed was not that far off from Jack. The two moved at high speed in a game of cat-and- mouse. The two flew higher in altitude, leaving the battling armies.

Master repeatedly cast spells while he kited Jack. Jack either dodged the spell or broke through it using brute force. He had his runic ring of defense active as he gave chase.

Jack used Devil Eye Flare. The two beams turned into two fiery pillars that split. The two beams raced to Master's flanks to block his escape path.

Master's eyes also flared. The same fiery pillars emerged from those eyes. The two fire pillars intercepted Jack's. Their collisions resulted in fiery explosions.

Master's eyes flared again, this time with black light. A black hole appeared within Jack's path. Jack pulled away before he was caught by the black hole's sucking force.

When Master was a God, Devil Eye Flare and Void-displacement Eye were among the skills he acquired by hacking.

A gigantic earth hand materialized when Jack dodged the Void-displacement eye. At the same time, Master cast Flame Wrath. The fireballs he produced were much larger, and their number

was more numerous.

Jack used Flame Strike to destroy the earth hand. When the fireballs arrived, his runic ring of defense turned into a sphere that protected him. Explosions after explosions shook the sky as the fireballs battered Jack's defensive sphere.

Master already cast another spell even before his Frame Wrath was exhausted. The spell he cast was the Sea of the Elementals. The spell under God Mode conjured a massive tidal wave of multi-color elements. This tidal wave washed into the sphere like a waterfall.

Master continued casting one spell after another. All were offensive elemental spells. Some of these spells were ones no one ever witnessed before. Some had been seen cast by a different caster. Among them were the Sky Tsunami and Primal Storm once cast by Broidrireg. Some others were Lightning Turbulence from Asmodeus, Dark Plaguing Spears from the Eldritch Beholder, Flame Bloom from the Herald of Greed, and many more.

Master's library of spells was otherworldly. Even without using Necronomicon's power to reduce cooldown, he would still not run out of spells to cast.

"This is odd...," Jack said. He was using his Runic Ring of Defense to tank through Master's offensive spells. Cracks started to be visible from all those punishments. He was channeling his mana awakening power to help the ring endure. "He is casting all these powerful spells. He should have gone into a blackout with this much expenditure."

"Perhaps it is like he said. The state you two are in is different even if they look the same," Peniel offered her opinion from inside her hidden dimension. "He is drawing from the divine power within him. Perhaps that allowed his body to tolerate it."

"Damn it!" Jack cursed. This meant he couldn't rely on outlasting Master. To make it worse, he was already in this state for some time. It was the runic suit from the Runestone of the Devil King and his conservative usage of skills that allowed him to last this long.

The sounds of screams drew Jack's attention. He looked back and saw the armies fighting below were assailed by the overflows of Master's spells. He descended little by little from the knockback force of Master's assaults until he was close to the battling armies. The overflowing spells hit both the members of the Council of Elpo and Master's legion.

Master didn't care even if his spells harmed his allies. He continued to dispense spells without reservation. Jack was now pushed until he was among the battling armies. Everyone in the vicinity, except for the zombies, moved away to avoid getting hit. Not only did the zombies stay, but they also grabbed the nearest enemies to prevent them from leaving.

Master's next spell was a powerful non-standard elite spell from the Priest class, the Hand of God. A massive hand made of light stormed down from heaven. Under the bombardments, Jack could only take it when this hand of light slammed into him.

The hand forced its way down until it smashed into the floor of Sky Haven. Cracks spread from the point of impact. The floating island itself jerked down from the impact before returning to its original position.

When the Hand of God vanished, Jack was seen deep in a crater. He was unharmed, but his Runic Ring of Defense was full of cracks.

Jack gritted his teeth. If he remained conservative in using his skills, he couldn't compete with Master's God Mode. But if he stopped reserving, he would go into a blackout faster. Both

options were bad.

Jack didn't have the time to ponder. Master already cast his next spell, Hail of Ice Calamity. The ice swords that rained from the sky were coated with multi-color auras. These ice swords didn't fall in straight lines as they should. They flew as if alive, weaving through those in their paths as they made their way to Jack.

Jack used the Scourge of the Demon Swords. One hundred demonic swords materialized. They quickly charged at the incoming ice swords. The Scourge of the Demon Swords was a stronger skill than the Hail of Ice Calamity. With both skills augmented by the multi-color aura, the demonic swords won the encounter. The ice swords shattered when they made contact.

The ice swords had more numbers, but none reached Jack. The demonic swords destroyed each incoming ice sword while spreading out. Once all the ice swords were gone, these demonic swords headed toward Master.

None of the swords hit Master, though. Master cast Extreme Telekinesis, another non-

standard spell he hacked. He modified the spell so that it could affect targets way more than it should. All one hundred demonic swords stopped in their tracks. Not long after, all of them

were broken to pieces.

Master then cast Mirror Image. Under God Mode, each mirror image had Master's mana signature. The multiple Masters went their separate ways. Jack used Gold Dragon Sight to identify which one was the real Master.

Some of Master's copies rushed at him. He originally thought the real one was among these copies. He was surprised to learn that the real Master was heading in another direction. He soon noticed Master's target.

Red Death wasn't aware that Master had come behind her. Like Jack, Master had mana concealment. Master shoved his hand into the unsuspecting woman. His hand was glowing with an eerie light. His hand was like that because of a spell he had cast before arriving. The spell was Hand of Death, a spell with an instant-death effect.

The glowing hand slammed into Red Death's back. She didn't even know what had happened when her HP dropped to zero. She, who was supposed to possess the best class for assassination, had been assassinated by an ambush.