“Roar—!” Lanoras let out a bellow, struggling to control his body. Seeing this, the Grand Sage smiled. “Stop wasting your effort. The power of the Grail of Power is far beyond your understanding. It’s not something you can possibly resist!”
“I taught you and raised you back then. Now it’s time for you to repay me!” The Grand Sage’s phantom licked his lips, clearly harboring ill intentions.
“You old bastard! What are you planning to do?” Lanoras quickly realized that the Grand Sage’s intentions toward him were anything but good. He definitely wasn’t planning to kill him—he wanted something else!
“Naturally, I’ll reforge a powerful body, use it to obtain even greater power, and then resurrect myself!” the Grand Sage answered with a laugh.
“I’ll use your body as a vessel and, with the power of the Grail of Power, fuse all the power of this world into my own body. When that happens, I’ll surpass the eternal-rank gods and become a mighty Creator God!” The Grand Sage proclaimed his grand ambition before throwing his head back in laughter.
“Gather!”
A gigantic formation blossomed beneath the Grand Sage’s feet and rapidly began to spread. Like blood vessels, it extended into every corner of the world. The blood of the countless races and gods who had died in the wars before this all began rushing toward the central formation beneath the Grand Sage’s feet. Before long, a massive blood pool appeared.
According to the Grand Sage’s legend, he had once traveled through every corner of the Oloses Divine Domain. Thus, these formations had all been laid out by the Grand Sage long ago, with the purpose of collecting the blood essence of countless living beings and forging an incomparably powerful body for his resurrection!
Even the legends of the Grail of Power had been deliberately spread by him, all so he could encourage the contenders to slaughter one another and provide him with more abundant and powerful blood essence.
The Grand Sage’s plan was to use the blood essence of countless living beings to construct an extraordinarily powerful body, then fuse the entirety of the Oloses Divine Domain into his power, ultimately causing his strength to undergo a leap-like transformation!
He had made an incredibly grand move in this game of chess!
“You old bastard, you’re courting death!” With a roar, the God of War Lanoras swung a blood-red greatsword down at him, instantly shattering the Grand Sage’s phantom.
Yet things couldn’t possibly end that simply. After the phantom shattered, Lanoras’s true body began to change. The Grail of Power sank directly into his chest, and in an instant, he lost all control over his body. At the same time, the Grand Sage’s power began devouring his soul!
“You old bastard, you’re courting death!” The God of War Lanoras exploded into action, bringing his sword down on his own true body. He cleaved it in two, then seized that fleeting moment to let the true body’s soul escape and merge with the God of War Lanoras!
Lanoras had no way to stop the Grand Sage from controlling him. In order to survive, he could only make a choice: abandon his physical body and preserve his soul. Otherwise, once his true body’s soul was devoured, he would truly be dead…
At least he still had a God of War’s body!
“You old bastard, if you were dead, you should’ve stayed dead. Why did you have to come back?” The God of War Lanoras looked at the body he had cut apart. Because his soul had left it moments ago, the Grand Sage had now taken complete control of the body. However, that earlier sword strike had also completely destroyed its usefulness!
“Tsk, tsk, tsk! You really have managed to surprise me, my student!” The Grand Sage’s voice came from within the Grail of Power.
“Hmph!” Without another word, Lanoras raised the blood-red greatsword in his hand again and swung out a powerful sword aura, completely scattering his own body. Only a head remained more or less intact.
“But you’re still a little too inexperienced!” the Grand Sage’s voice rang out once more. As the flesh scattered into the blood pool below, power began gathering around the Grail of Power at its core. His head was then lifted into the air and surrounded by a vast amount of blood. The blood essence below began to condense, transforming into a giant that looked as though it had been formed from masses of fused flesh. Yet the giant’s head was pitifully small.
Naturally, this was not the body the Grand Sage wanted. Although it was powerful, it was not pure enough, nor did it match what he had envisioned.
The body the true Grand Sage needed was one that condensed the essence of this immeasurable blood essence—a separate body being nurtured within the flesh giant, with the Grail of Power as its core!
“Bang—!” The flesh giant extended a massive, octopus-like tentacle and viciously lashed Lanoras away.
“I thought I was cruel enough, but I never imagined you, the Grand Sage, would use every living being in the entire world to achieve your own ends!” How could Lanoras fail to see what the Grand Sage was doing? He knew about such methods as well, but he still couldn’t bring himself to go that far!
“What does that amount to? Today, your teacher will teach you one final lesson: in this world, there is only one eternal truth—power. Nothing else matters!” the Grand Sage said in an utterly crazed tone. “Besides, becoming a part of my power is their honor!”
“I may not be as ruthless as you, but it’s still too early to say who will win and who will die.” Lanoras laughed. “Did you really think you were the only one who had made preparations?”
“Rise for me!”
“Shua, shua, shua—!”
As Lanoras’s voice fell, countless pillars of light rose from the land of the Oloses Divine Domain. Each one happened to stand at a node of the Grand Sage’s formation. The blood essence that had been flowing endlessly suddenly came to a halt, and only a small portion continued surging toward the Grand Sage!
