The Guardian gods
Chapter 582

Chapter 582: 582

He managed to reach his comrade, but not without a terrible cost. Half of Korvin’s head was torn away in a horrific spray of rock and essence, a testament to the speed and power of Vorenza’s strike. Kaelen himself wasn’t spared; a limb was ripped from his body as Vorenza seized the opportunity to inflict further damage.

The searing pain of his grievous wound jolted Korvin from his mental prison. As a sixth-tier being, he wasn’t instantly annihilated. His titanic body, intertwined with the abyssal armor, immediately began the arduous process of mending itself, rebuilding the shattered rock and regrowing the essence of his form.

Similarly, Kaelen’s lost limb was swiftly replenished, a new, intricate construct of black iron and shimmering conduits extending from his body. He turned to Korvin, his voice grave, the cold logic of his being cutting through the lingering chaos. "Keep your mind calm, when facing her," he warned, the message clear: Vorenza preyed on more than just physical vulnerabilities.

Lyra made a move to deal with the spawned shadow spiders as she with a surge of her will, colossal golems of living black ice erupted from the abyssal floor, each radiating an absolute zero chill that numbed mana and froze kinetic energy. These constructs lumbered towards Vorenza and her struggling shadow-spiders, their massive fists imbued with the power to nullify momentum, aiming to physically pin Vorenza down and crush her lesser summons into inert frost.

Kaelen, meanwhile, was a storm of computational fury. His black iron drones, though still occasionally dissolving or reforming as moths, now moved with an unsettling purpose. He had found a conceptual vulnerability in Vorenza’s ’multiplicity’. His Law of Recursive Self-Replication wasn’t trying to destroy the illusions; it was trying to flood the conceptual space with counter-definitions.

Each drone, each pulse from his armor, was now broadcasting a recursive concept of ’singularity’ and ’truth’, attempting to force Vorenza’s many forms back into one by overwhelming her Law of Concept Weaving with an inescapable deluge of its antithesis.

The illusions flickered more violently, occasionally revealing glimpses of the single, malevolent form beneath.

Korvin, his wounds visibly mending but his rage still a cold fire, lunged forward, no longer just punching, but becoming a living, breathing weapon of geological force. He channeled the Law of Compressed Creation into his entire being, turning himself into a hyper-dense missile of rock and iron. He moved in jarring bursts, compressing and releasing localized air to propel himself, aiming to pin down Vorenza with an onslaught of unyielding physical strikes, hoping to force her into a corner where her conceptual weaving couldn’t keep up with the raw, crushing inertia of his attacks. Massive, transient fists of bedrock erupted from his form, each carrying the weight of a mountain.

Vorenza, caught between Lyra’s conceptual paralysis and physical ice constructs, and Kaelen’s relentless conceptual erosion and proliferating energy attacks, began to snarl with genuine frustration. Her multi-faceted eyes darted between them, calculating. The constant conceptual pressure from Kaelen was making her maintain her illusions with far more effort, and Lyra’s stillness made every conceptual shift a struggle. Korvin’s brute force was a blunt instrument, but its sheer weight threatened to overwhelm her if she couldn’t weave fast enough.

Then, she moved. Her many legs scuttled with terrifying speed, dodging Korvin’s latest, ground-shaking strike. As she did so, a chillingly subtle conceptual shift rippled from her. She didn’t try to negate Korvin’s power; instead, she wove a new, ephemeral conceptual thread: ’escalation’. This wasn’t a direct attack, but a conceptual feedback loop. Any force she received, any conceptual pressure applied, would now subtly ’escalate’ within her, waiting for a trigger.

Seeing Kaelen’s recursive ’singularity’ concept beginning to truly break down her illusions, and Lyra’s ice golems closing in, Vorenza let out a piercing shriek. She didn’t fight the conceptual collapse; she embraced it. All her flickering, myriad forms snapped back into one single, terrifyingly solid Vorenza. This was the moment, the opening they had been fighting for!

Lyra pushed her Law of Chilling Nullification to its absolute limit, a wave of palpable ’absolute stillness’ radiating from her, seeking to utterly freeze Vorenza’s ’action’ and ’motion’. Her ice golems surged forward, aiming for a final, crushing embrace. Kaelen’s energy cannon array glowed, focusing its replicating beams onto Vorenza’s now singular form, ready to flood her with destabilizing algorithms from every angle.

Korvin, seeing Vorenza consolidate, roared in triumph. This was his chance! With every fiber of his being, he manifested the ultimate expression of his power. His arm swelled to grotesque proportions, becoming a mountain of hyper-compressed abyssal rock, imbued with an impossible density and momentum. This was a direct, crushing blow, designed to end the fight. He lunged, unleashing the full, unbridled force of his Law of Compressed Creation.

His attack connected. There was no conceptual resistance, no re-weaving of ’solidity’. Vorenza simply took the punch.

But in that intial moment of impact, the conceptual ’escalation’ she had woven into herself, the ’vulnerability’ she had temporarily adopted, triggered. Korvin’s immense, world-shattering force, rather than crushing her, was absorbed and conceptually amplified within her own form. It was a perfect, horrifying conceptual counter-transfer. The force he unleashed became her own, multiplied.

Vorenza’s massive, segmented head snapped forward. Her multi-faceted eyes, burning with abyssal malice, locked onto Korvin. In an instant that defied the conceptual ’stillness’ Lyra was desperately trying to impose, Vorenza’s entire being became a single, focused weapon. Her primary spider leg, now imbued with the amplified, reflected force of Korvin’s own power, shot out. It wasn’t just a physical strike; it was a conceptual severing.

With a sickening, wet tear, Korvin’s head was ripped from his shoulders. There was no time for his sixth-tier regeneration to kick in. The very concept of ’life’ and ’being’ was conceptually ’severed’ from his body. Before Lyra or Kaelen could even scream, Vorenza’s cavernous maw opened, and with a single, dreadful gulp, she swallowed Korvin’s head whole, followed by the sickening crunch of his body and the armor he wore.

The silence that followed was more deafening than any scream. Korvin’s massive, headless body, now inert, began to crumble, the unyielding rock returning to mundane dust. Vorenza stood amidst the remnants, her multi-faceted eyes gleaming with cold satisfaction.

The chilling silence after Korvin’s demise was thick with horror, but Vorenza was putting on a calculated front. What she’d just accomplished wasn’t as effortless as it appeared. While Korvin’s final, devastating attack had been absorbed and amplified, the sheer strain of it was immense. Her demonic spider form, though now crackling with borrowed power, was taxed, a subtle tremor running through her segmented limbs.

In her palm, the ethereal form of Korvin’s soul shimmered—a potent, swirling vortex of compressed creation. Devouring it would undoubtedly restore her to full health, instantly mending the deep-seated strain. Yet, she hesitated, a flicker of ambition overriding immediate need. She had partially achieved one of her primary goals, a step closer to something far greater.

She didn’t need to fight with such intensity anymore. Her new strategy was simple: a prolonged conflict that would slowly wear down Lyra and Kaelen. But a slow, draining fight wouldn’t help her achieve her ultimate objective: "The Abyss’s Grace." To earn that, the Abyss itself demanded more than just a single death; it craved a true spectacle of blood and utter destruction. She highly doubted Korvin’s brutal end was enough.

Her multifaceted eyes, now gleaming with newfound vigor, turned to the two remaining foes. Lyra’s face was a mask of shock and burgeoning fury, her gaze fixed on Vorenza with an intensity that promised unrelenting vengeance. Lyra was a direct, passionate threat.

Kaelen, however, was a different problem. He moved with cold, calculating precision, reading her like an open book. This forced Vorenza to expend far more energy and cunning than she preferred. If she prolonged the fight, Kaelen wouldn’t miss an opportunity to deliver a decisive, perhaps fatal, blow.

With this thought solidifying, Vorenza made her choice. She opened her maw once more, and Korvin’s soul, still swirling with his essence, was drawn into her. It transformed into a powerful current of pure energy that coursed through her being, healing her strained body instantly, purging the lingering pain and fatigue.

Lyra looked on the verge of shattering, her face contorted in a silent scream of grief and rage. But then, a palpable surge of her domain emanated outward, pressing down on her own form. Her turbulent emotions were abruptly quenched, her thoughts becoming cool and calm, like the absolute chill of her Law of Chilling Nullification. The raw pain remained, but it was now encased, frozen beneath a veneer of icy, strategic resolve.

Kaelen, seeing her regain such composure, let out a silent breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. He truly didn’t want to be the sole rational mind facing Vorenza. The demon queen was too smart, too strong, and far too cunning.

Her actions proved she’d been observing them as closely as they observed her. She knew he was a being of pure calculation, and she was already planning for that. Her conceptual weaves, once decipherable with intense focus, were now becoming maddeningly vague, her shifts in reality no longer easily predictable.