Ch-340. **The Supreme Soul**
—
It wasnât a friendly tone.
If anything, it was outright hostile.
A voice steeped in anger.
The **Forgotten God** boasted with absolute certainty that I could never defeat her.
At the same time, she referred to the two goddesses as *âdespicable.â*
Which meant she knew of the goddessesâand harbored deep resentment toward them.
It was proof that she had seen through the fact that I was blessed by them.
In other words, she had no intention of allowing me to win from the start.
I shrugged.
âOh? You know **Leah** and **Pina**?â
Ordinarily, speaking the names of goddesses so casually would be considered blasphemous.
If anyone from the Goddess Church had heard it, they wouldâve clutched their necks in horror.
But calling someone by nameâespecially so naturallyâalso implied *familiarity*.
Not reverence from below, but a relationship on equal footing.
Like friends. Like lovers. Like neighbors.
Comfortable, unburdened, close.
That was what the two goddesses were to me.
Wilhelm worshiped them with devotion,
but I wasnât originally a resident of Pangaeniaâso to me, they felt familiar rather than distant.
ââŠDo not utter those despicable names before me, child.
As expected.
The Forgotten Godâs reaction was extreme.
An overly sharp reply.
A sensitivity unbecoming of a god.
*Forgotten gods must be bad at controlling their emotions.*
Come to think of it, the first Forgotten God Iâd encountered hadnât been able to restrain himself either.
When I broke through his trial in my own wayârather than following the prescribed pathâand shattered the gate, hadnât he flown into a mad rage?
âWhy? Did Leah and Pina scam you or something?â
âHah. I can tell youâre not someone who listens to words.
That was fair.
Even I had to admitâI did whatever I pleased.
Still, I was genuinely curious.
It was rare to see anyone who *hated* the goddesses.
Let alone a god.
And using a word like *despicable* implied there had been *something* between them.
That wasnât a term one used lightly.
It was the kind of word reserved for betrayal, deceit, or truly unforgivable acts.
*I really donât know much about the goddesses.*
Thinking about it, that was true.
I knew the broad strokes of their legends, but that didnât mean I truly *knew* them.
I knew nothing of their daily lives.
And the same likely held true for Wilhelm and the Goddess Church.
Yet here stood a **Forgotten God** who seemed personally entangled with them.
I grinned.
âLeah and Pinaââ
âShut up!
Whew.
I let out a small whistle.
Looks like those two names were her reverse scaleâsomething not to be touched.
ăMysterious Achievement âProvoking the Forgotten Godâ has been achieved.ă
âŠWait.
Thereâs an achievement for *that*?
Even reading it left me dumbfounded.
But simple taunting alone wouldnât trigger an achievement.
Which meantâ
no one before had managed to provoke a Forgotten God to *this* extent.
And the appearance of a Mysterious Achievement also meantâ
ăThe âForgotten Godâ places you upon the âTrial Platform.âă
âŠShe was well and truly enraged.
âLetâs see whether your skill matches that loose mouth of yours.
So angry that sheâd circled back to cold calmness.
I nodded and replied,
âI donât think thatâll be an issue.â
ââŠOriginally, I planned to take only half. But against you, Iâll take *all* of the souls.
The **souls of the Forgotten Knights**.
Lose them all, and you lose your wayâwandering forever.
Not just me, but every member of the knight order.
She was threatening to take *everything* instead of half the moment we lost.
âAnd what will *you* put on the line?â
If something is taken, something must also be risked.
It couldnât be just meâor just the Golden Scale Knight Orderâbearing the risk.
Besides, it had already been stated that defeating the Forgotten God granted a *symbolic artifact*.
I asked because it seemed there was nothing more she could possibly stake.
âThe **Supreme Soul**, formed when all my children merge into one. Something all gods envy and covet. Iâll give you that.
A Soul completed by the fusion of thirteen beasts.
Just two had already merged into a **Primordial Dragon**.
If all thirteen fusedâwhat would it become?
I couldnât even imagine.
And she was offering to hand over the Soul that stored such a being.
*The Supreme SoulâŠ*
I see.
A Soul worthy of the name *supreme*.
As a reward, it was more than sufficient.
But I couldnât simply nod along happily.
Because in the end, it meant Iâd have to fight the **Supreme Soul** itself.
âIf youâre scared now, after all that bravado, you donât have to accept.
She taunted me back when I fell silent.
She mustâve thought Iâd refuse.
After all, facing endlessly merging Souls with nothing but Dianax might seem impossible.
If she knew all the cards in my hand, she wouldnât be offering additional rewards like this.
*She definitely doesnât know about the Nameless Eagle.*
The Forgotten God didnât know.
But now, *I* did.
I knew what her final card was.
The **Supreme Soul**.
If a monster worthy of that name were completed, it would indeed be terrifying.
Butâ
âI accept.â
âŠIt wasnât an unwinnable fight.
ăThe âForgotten Godâs Additional Trialâ has been established.ă
Nothing really changed.
We would keep fighting as before.
Only the *weight* of what was at stake had increased.
It was just like when I first faced a Forgotten God.
*All or nothing.*
So letâs stake everything and clash.
Letâs see whose *everything* weighs moreâyours, or mine.
I was curious myself.
*
*
ââŠâŠ
The Forgotten God fell silent for a moment.
She hadnât expected me to nod.
*With nothing but an enhanced Dianax⊠how reckless.*
The World Tree Dungeon was filled with countless **forgotten beings**.
Among them, Dianax was nothing special.
There were far more incredible, terrifying existences here.
Even Souls she herself didnât know.
She thought Iâd been baited by her provocationâ
yet something felt off.
Because I had accepted far too readily.
*Even if he has a hidden card, thereâs no way he can defeat me here.*
No matter how much one evolved within the given time, there were limits.
In contrast, her Souls had been with her since the moment she fell into this place.
No matter how hard I tried, it was impossible.
Time itself was what granted rank and power to Souls.
And that was precisely what I lacked.
*He wonât even defeat the Primordial Dragon.*
He wouldnât reach the fusion of all thirteen.
The **Supreme Soul**, completed at last, was an existence beyond comparison.
Truly invincible.
Of courseâhe would never live to see it.
GRAAAAAAAH!
The battle began.
The **Primordial Dragon** pressed Dianax from the very start.
She had seen Dianax endure elemental fire in the previous matchâ
âbut this was different.
*The piercing force of a Primordial Dragon isnât something mere hardness can withstand.*
The Primordial Dragon possessed extremely high physical penetration.
And while it lacked breath attacks or magic like other dragons,
it embodied the most primitive form of savagery.
ROOOOOOOOARâ!
ăThe Primordial Curse, âDragonâs Wail,â is cast.ă
ăAll resistances are reduced by 50%.ă
ăHP decreases by 20.ă
ăMental stamina is greatly consumed.ă
A curse incomparable to ordinary Dragon Fear.
It forced the target to confront fear in its most primal form.
The fight was meant to be decided from the very beginning.
And yetâ
ăDianaxâs âCurse Reflectionâ activates at 40%!ă
ăThe duration of curses inflicted on the Primordial Dragon is increased by 30%!ă
Dragonâs Wail reflected back onto the Primordial Dragon at 40%.
*Dianax⊠has curse reflection?*
No.
Dianax didnât possess such an ability.
*âŠItâs his ability. To think a child beloved by goddesses would wield power tied to curses.*
This wasnât a power one gained merely by being holy.
It was the result of mastering the system of curses.
And even then, it was exceedingly rare.
Which meantâhe *understood* curses.
At a very high level.
*I donât know which branch he mastered, butâŠ*
It didnât matter.
If the opponent wielded curses, the fight became simpler.
Because curses always lost to *stronger* curses.
And the Forgotten God was a deity who had mastered calamity and misfortune.
ăâCursed Soul (Blessing Removal)â is cast.ă
ăâWeaken (Sensory Impairment)â is cast.ă
ăâSluggish (Speed Reduction)â is cast.ă
ăâLife Extraction (Continuous Bleeding Damage)â is cast.ă
ăâNatural Regeneration Reduction (-10,000%)â is cast.ă
âŠâŠ
An endless barrage of curses.
The reduction to natural regeneration alone should make the bleeding damage devastating.
*Even with high defense, it wonât endure continuous bleeding.*
All she had to do now was wait.
Only she could impose a curse that reduced natural regeneration by *10,000%*.
Even someone blessed by a god of regeneration couldnât withstand that.
âŠOr at least, they shouldnât have been able to.
*The bleeding⊠isnât doing anything?*
Even as time passed, Dianax was perfectly fine.
A phenomenon that occurred only when regeneration exceeded bleeding.
Impossible.
That would mean regeneration far beyond ten thousand percent.
And that wasnât something Dianax possessed.
The longer the fight dragged on, the more damage the **Primordial Dragon** began to suffer instead.
Grr⊠Grrrrr!
It looked exhausted.
Naturally so.
*Curse reflectionâŠ!*
He possessed that absurd abilityâ
not as a spell, but as a *passive* effect ingrained into his being.
Even for her, such a form of reflection was unfamiliar.
And the more curses she cast, the more they stackedâ
the faster the Primordial Dragonâs HP drained compared to Dianax.
An utterly incomprehensible level of regeneration.
Combined with that damned ability that reflected curses *and* extended their durationâ
*So thatâs why he was confident.*
The Forgotten God had to admit it.
She finally understood why he had accepted the challenge so boldly.
*âŠIâll crush him.*
ăâRadiant Dragonâ (Consumes all HP to enhance power) is cast.ă
She hadnât wanted to use itâbut one battle was enough.
She didnât want to face him again.
If she was to end it here, this was the only way.
GUOOOOOOOâ!
Light poured from the Primordial Dragonâs entire body.
A self-sacrificial curse that consumed everything to end the opponent in a single blow.
Dianax was already under multiple cursesâ
there was no way he could escape this.
WHOOSH!
The Primordial Dragon soared into the air.
And thenâ
SHOOOOOOOOONGâ!
KRAAAAAAAAAASH!
Engulfed in light, it slammed directly into Dianax.
A point-blank explosion.
The entire coliseum shook.
A final move no one could survive.
But it was fine.
*Thereâs no such thing as a draw. Both will be considered defeated.*
He wouldnât get another turn.
That was enough.
And thenâ
ăThe âGolden Scale Druidâ has won!ă
ââŠâŠ?
The result appeared, and the Forgotten God froze.
Did he really survive even the Primordial Dragonâs self-destruction?
Impossible.
Such an outcome shouldnât exist.
Thenâ
as the dust cleared, she saw what remained.
The Primordial Dragon had already turned into a **spectral soul**, merging into another Soulâ
but there was clearly *something* still standing.
And it wasnât Dianax.
From within the settling dust appearedâ
ââŠAngel⊠Behemoth?
âŠâŠ
She couldnât comprehend it.
Had it evolved *in that instant*?
