Chapter 148: Annihilation

These several instantaneously cast powerful magic spells were, however, crushed one by one by Adonsa relying on its peerless speed and mass.

Adonsa's true form had devoured the flesh and blood of six billion humans, and had even bitten away a fairly thick layer of the planet's crust. Even just a tiny fraction of this terrifying mass being released would be enough to crush the sturdiest load-bearing structures, let alone when it was charging at supersonic speed.

No matter how miraculous these defensive magic spells were, they could not transcend their own upper limits, and in front of absolute kinetic energy, they were little better than a layer of paper.

Lancehans, who had instantaneously cast multiple layers of defensive magic, was not having an easy time either; the suddenly ignited mana circuits were nearly overheating and crashing, yet they still failed to stem Adonsa's charge.

He took a deep breath and finally uttered a short, unfamiliar sequence of syllables, which translated to:

"Time Stop!"

An illusory clock face suddenly appeared above the battlefield, and a wildly trembling second hand was firmly pinned down by a massive black hand, unable to move a fraction.

In an instant, every single molecule of air in this region violated the laws of thermal motion, plunging into absolute solidification. All movement became utterly meaningless in this realm that resembled absolute zero.

Even Adonsa, which had released tens of thousands of tons of mass and was advancing at supersonic speed, had to bow its head before this mighty force of spacetime.

Only the caster of this magic could move through it unhindered.

Lancehans's overheated mana circuits finally gained a brief cooling window, yet he did not dare to let down his guard or rest for even a second. Instead, he began to chant the next spell word by word.

Layers of unknown radiation rippled through the air, distorting light and electromagnetic fields into hazy brilliance. This was the manifestation of magical elements in the physical world; viewed from a mage's perspective, it was like a tsunami of elemental tides churning, boiling, and combining in the void.

The four fundamental elements formed the most ancient cycle, representing both primeval creation and ultimate annihilation.

Legendary Magic: Elemental Annihilation!

Elemental Annihilation was not a single spell, but rather a cycle of four magic spells governing earth, fire, water, and wind.

What Lancehans employed was a destructive magic composed of the Eternal Blazing Sun, the Roaring Ice and Snow, the Eye of the Raging Wind, and the Dust-Returning Funeral. Each of these spells individually was a terrifying forbidden curse capable of scorching a thousand miles of land bare, let alone when combined in a cycle following the elemental rules, which would annihilate the elements down to their most basic energy and recreate the Big Bang at the dawn of creation.

Before this magic was even fully unleashed, Lancehans instantly triggered a solidified teleportation spell, transferring himself to the ground a thousand meters away, leaving that terrifying magic to erupt on its own.

The moment the magic was completed, the solidified spacetime began to flow once more, and Adonsa would have to face alone the most powerful magic to erupt on this planet in ten thousand years of silence.

Without even a glimmer of a chance to resist, Adonsa's diminutive figure was swallowed by the destructive torrent of magic.

The Mother of Corpses, repeatedly enhanced by Adonsa, failed to withstand the might of Elemental Annihilation and was instantly reduced to dust.

Unlike the residual radiation of a nuclear reaction, this magic, created solely for destruction, converted all energy into light, heat, and a portion of terrifying arcane pollution. In terms of small-scale absolute lethality, it far surpassed a nuclear weapon.

The earth was gouged out into a massive crater several thousand meters in radius, with soil and rock directly vaporized, leaving behind vast stretches of molten magma only at the very edges.

The pillar of light soaring into the sky even dispersed the eternal gloomy clouds of the sky, revealing vast expanses of starlight, yet immediately afterward, massive amounts of cosmic radiation poured through the seemingly clean starry sky, irradiating the barren, ash-gray earth.

A mound of dirt erupted from the ground a dozen kilometers away from the crater, shaking violently as dust flew into the air, revealing two figures—one large, one small—that had nearly turned into mud statues.

When Adonsa was caught in the time stop, the hunchbacked figure, whether intentionally or unintentionally, extended the duration of the time stop, allowing Panda to finally escape with the little mage to a distance of several thousand meters.

At the most critical juncture, the iron-willed Panda had unhesitatingly used its massive body to shield the little mage, causing its own body—far harder than steel—to be more than half burned to a crisp.

In comparison, the little mage, who suffered only minor burns, could be considered only lightly injured.

Anglora clenched her teeth, fished out healing potions from her sturdy spatial pouch, and forcefully shoved them into the mouth of the dying yet serene-looking Panda.

Lancehans stood quietly in midair as the fierce wind blew back its hooded cloak, revealing an ugly visage covered in tumor-like growths, resembling a fiendish demon.

Its two mismatched eyes watched the giant mushroom cloud slowly dissipate, revealing a pitch-black abyss at the center of the crater.

Lancehans frowned.

Although Elemental Annihilation was powerful, this scale was far from enough to pierce the spatial structure.

So-called spatial cutting or spatial black holes in spatial magic were merely illusions under the rules of magic, not actual tears in the fabric of spacetime.

Yet behind this black hole, there permeated a suffocatingly frantic and twisted aura, as if a giant beast were about to burst out of its cage.

It tightened its grip on the bone staff.

It was not "as if"—it was certain!

Without a doubt, Elemental Annihilation had successfully decomposed Adonsa's physical body into its most basic atoms, and even generated new elements under high temperature and high pressure; yet in reality, that was only an insignificant fraction, and instead, Pandora's box had been flung open by the terrifying destructive force.

The seal of "Sloth" had completely loosened.

The black hole jerked violently, resembling the occurrence of yet another Big Bang. Near-infinite ash-red tissue surged from the black hole at a terrifying speed, erupting, re-merging, combining, and dividing, instantly transforming into a world-destroying behemoth that even a crater several thousand meters in diameter could not contain!

In an instant, Anglora felt her heart turn to ash.

The hunchbacked figure was undoubtedly a legendary mage, and even stronger by two tiers than ordinary legendary mages, capable of arbitrarily compressing and instantly casting legendary spells. He must have already touched the threshold of the seventh tier.

And the body of this giant monster right before her eyes was filled with visual impact, its edges entirely out of sight from a single glance, and it was still continuously expanding.

Anglora clenched her teeth, her frail body carrying the unconscious Panda on her back as she fled with all her might, getting as far away as possible from the two dangerous entities who had surpassed the fifth tier.

She did not know how far she needed to escape; fleeing to the other side of the continent might still not take her out of their kill zone.

She seemed to hear Adonsa's sneer echoing in her ears. Anglora ran with all her strength, and the magic array components all over her body were practically on the verge of burning up.

At this moment, Roger the rabbit appeared by her side out of nowhere, using a chain to hoist the two of them up. With a leap of a hundred meters per stride, he rapidly fled the center of the conflict.

From the center of Adonsa's continuously deforming body, a straight tentacle pierced outward, tipped with a giant mouth lined with multiple layers of razor-sharp teeth, flashing like a lamprey as it struck lightning-fast toward the terrifying demon king in the sky known as Lancehans.

Simultaneously with the tentacle's strike, its skin rolled and tumbled, rapidly sprouting dense clusters of tentacles that formed a massive web, resembling a terrifying flower watered with blood blooming to welcome a beautiful butterfly.

The tentacles struck countless flashing magic arrays, erupting with dazzling sparks as the two sides locked in a stalemate once again.

Lancehans's voice was slow, but its articulation was exceptionally clear: "Adonsa, your arrogance will bring you endless disaster. I only hope you can halt your greedy actions and stop disrupting the balance of this world."

Adonsa sneered: "Balance? All I see is a world full of rotting flesh without sensation. A planet that has lost the illumination of its sun, no matter how it gasps along on its last breath, cannot escape destruction!"

A hint of irritation surfaced on Lancehans's ugly visage as it said: "Shut up, monster. My magic has given this world ten thousand years, and it can give it another ten thousand."

Adonsa's countless tentacles writhed restlessly: "Ten thousand years? How many ten thousand years do you have left? I see your aging and your weakness, great legendary mage!"

A martyr's light flashed in Lancehans's deformed yet limpid eyes as it said: "I will remain. Even if I must be reincarnated as a lich, I will save this world."