Chapter 486: Erased from Existence

Garrick frowned, his brow furrowing as he stared at the writhing figure in the distance. The heat rolling off the plaza made the air shimmer, and every breath felt like swallowing embers.

"What do you mean?" he asked, his voice low and rough.

Selena didn’t take her eyes off Wincent. Her remaining hand rested against the wall for balance, sweat dripping down her temple.

"Those two energies," she said quietly. "Mana and aura. They were supposed to be the same thing from the start. They can’t be merged, not by absorbing one into the other. He misunderstood what he was supposed to combine."

She watching Wincent’s body convulse as the white and red light clashed inside him.

"And now he’s overdosing. There’s too much energy in his body. More than any living thing was meant to hold."

She turned her head slightly toward Gill.

"Am I wrong, Archivist?"

Gill stood a few paces away, his arms crossed casually. He seemed to already know about that information and listened to it with a relaxed air.

"You’re right." He said calmly. "I had doubts about the theory from the beginning. Even if Wincent absorbed everything, the result would have been the same."

He looked up at the burning figure, his eyes narrowing.

"We’re too late to stop him from trying. But we can still stop him from finishing."

Garrick heard that with irritation, feeling that his worries had been for nothing. His fists clenched at his sides, and the fur along his forearms was already bristling.

"So from the start... it was impossible?"

Gill nodded slowly.

"From the very beginning."

Then the air shifted.

A massive surge of energy erupted from Wincent’s body, a shockwave that tore across the plaza and shattered what remained of the surrounding buildings. The ground cracked. The sky itself seemed to tremble. Golden fire and white light and crimson veins all twisted together, spiraling upward in a column of raw, unstable power.

And then, slowly, it began to stabilize.

The chaotic storm condensed, compressed, and took shape. A new energy began to pulse at the center of the storm.

Garrick took a step back, his eyes wide.

"Oii... what is that...?"

Gill’s face went pale. His glasses slipped down his nose, but he didn’t bother to push them back up. His voice came out in a whisper, trembling with disbelief.

"No... that’s impossible. Did he actually succeed? Did he create a new energy?"

He took a step forward, then stopped, his hands shaking.

"This shouldn’t be happening. It’s not supposed to be possible."

Garrick’s head snapped toward him.

"What do you mean?! Didn’t you just say it was a failure?!"

Gill didn’t answer. He just stared at the pillar of light, his mouth slightly open, his eyes wide with something between horror and fascination.

Selena also saw and felt it. She sensed that Wincent’s aura had become completely different, more divine in nature, and overwhelmingly oppressive.

"Maybe it’s because of that artifact...." She said, her voice tinged with doubt.

She nodded toward the God Hand, still fused to Wincent’s arm, its crimson veins now pulsing with threads of gold and violet.

"He used it as a catalyst. That arm absorbed everything, forced them together, and created something new."

The light intensified. Wincent’s body began to peel apart. His skin cracked and burned away, layer by layer, revealing something beneath that was pure radiant energy.

His form turned divine, and his silhouette blurred. A halo of light formed above his head, and his body became translucent, glowing from within like a being made of starlight.

When he spoke, his voice echoed across the plaza, layered and resonant, as if a dozen voices were speaking at once.

"Finally..."

He raised his hand, which had transformed into a form that shared the same energy as his body, as if fused into his very existence.

"My power... it’s surging. This is it.... This is what I was meant to become."

The golden fire still clung to him, burning brighter than ever. Ignis stood at the edge of the crater, her flames roaring, her eyes locked on the transformed figure before her.

Wincent looked down at the fire still eating away at his new form. He raised a hand, and the white energy around him pulsed, trying to smother the flames.

"It’s useless," he said, his voice calm, almost pitying. "I’m no longer something you can burn. I’ve transcended—"

He stopped mid-sentence as he felt a searing pain, as if he were burning.

The fire didn’t go out.

It burned hotter. Brighter. It crawled up his arms, his chest, his face, sinking into the energy that made up his new body.

Wincent stared at the flames in disbelief. He tried to put them out with his hand, but they only spread across his entire body.

"What... what is this? Why isn’t it stopping? I’m not flesh anymore—"

The flames consumed him without mercy, continuing to scorch his body. His arms dissolved into motes of light that scattered and vanished.

"This... this can’t be...!"

His voice rose, desperate, breaking apart.

"What kind of fire is this?! What—what is this?! Can fire... can it erase existence itself?!"

Ignis stepped forward, the golden flames still coiled around her body, licking at the air, casting long shadows across the ruined plaza. Her eyes, cold and unwavering, fixed on the divine creature before her.

Wincent saw her coming. His new form trembled. The halo above his head flickered like a candle in a storm. His body, made of pure energy, was already cracking at the edges, golden fire still eating into his core.

He tried to retreat. His legs moved, but the pain tearing through his mind like claws. His consciousness itself was burning. Every thought, every memory, every fragment of who he was, caught fire and dissolved.

"AAAGGGHHH!!! STOP IT!!! STOP!!!"

Ignis kept walking, each step melting the stone beneath her feet.

"Creatures like you," she said, her voice low and cold, "who always chase the pinnacle of power through shortcuts... you always suffer in the end."

She stopped a few paces away, close enough that the heat of her flames washed over him like a wave.

"I will erase your existence," she said quietly. "So you can never hurt anyone again."

Wincent clutched his head. His fingers dug into his own skull as if trying to hold himself together. He stared at her, his eyes wide, desperate, burning with fear and denial.

"Don’t joke with me!!"

His voice cracked, rising into something manic.

"I’ve become the pinnacle! I’ve obtained the power of a god! This fire—this fire can’t erase me! It can’t! I’m beyond—"

But his head began to burn slowly, which made him even more terrified.

In desperation, he lunged at her.

"AAAGGGHHH!!!"

His right fist shot toward her face. But the moment it came close, the golden fire caught it, wrapped around it, and burned through it in an instant. His hand crumbled into ash before it could even touch her.

Wincent stared at the empty space where his arm was. His legs gave way and he fell to his knees, his divine form flickering, cracking, shattering into pieces.

"No... no, no, no..."

Ignis looked down at the one who had hurt her friends. She felt that the person beneath her was someone who deserved to be erased from existence.

"For a savage like you," she said, "die in hell."

Wincent’s head snapped up. His mouth opened, ready to scream, ready to curse, ready to deny her one last time.

"I won’t—!"

But the fire didn’t wait.

It consumed him. Every trace of him dissolved in a single, blinding flash. The halo above his head shattered. The divine energy that made up his body scattered into the air like embers caught in the wind.

He faded away, as if the world itself had erased him.