MIGHT AS WELL BE OP

Chapter 938: Forbidden Magic

Mana rumbled and tumbled through the air as though it had become a new form of thunder itself, a living force that rejected silence. The atmosphere screamed with madness, shrieking as it thickened and grew unbearably heavy in real time, pressing down upon everything beneath it.

Neither Anthony nor Lucian had even tapped into the mana within their cores yet, yet the mana within the separate plane reacted violently regardless, responding instinctively to their clashing intents alone, as though reality itself recognized the coming catastrophe.

Lucian floated high above, staring down at Anthony with a wide smile stretched across his face, his eyes glinting with excitement and hunger. Below him, Anthony stood firm, gazing upward at Lucian with that very same smile, calm yet sharp, confident yet predatory. At that exact moment, both men regarded the other as prey, while simultaneously believing themselves to be the apex predator standing at the top of the food chain.

Although Anthony had tanked all of his previous attacks with absolute ease, Lucian was not the least bit bothered. If anything, the lack of effect only thrilled him further. His smile widened as exhilaration coursed through him, the thought of a battle that eclipsed anything and everything he had experienced before sending shivers through his core.

With that, the air around Lucian recoiled violently, compressing before expanding outward in a deafening boom. Mana erupted from his core like a crushing tidal wave, like a tsunami born from the depths of an endless sea. The earth below fractured violently, massive cracks spiderwebbing across the ground. Buildings in the distance shook uncontrollably, some outright collapsing as if reduced to sand. The asphalt trembled in pure madness as Lucian’s voice rang out, calm yet absolute.

[Forbidden Magic: Mana Zone: Jacob’s Ladder]

With a mind-numbing force, space shattered around him. The heavens themselves quaked as though struck by divine wrath. The sky parted violently, and from the roaring firmament above, a pillar of blinding, incandescent golden energy tore downward in absolute lunacy and derangement, a judgment that rejected mercy.

The entirety of the city, spanning endlessly into the distance, was instantly blinded beneath the overwhelming brilliance of the spell. Light dominated everything, erasing shadow, form, and depth alike.

Anthony’s smile twisted into a smirk. He had already defeated Lucian in a pure swordsmanship battle; he had no issue proving that he also stood above him in terms of raw magic and mana. With nothing more than a thought, his own mana echoed outward, surging like a raging thunderstorm unleashed upon the world.

[Forbidden Magic: Mana Zone: Null Collapse]

The moment those words left Anthony’s lips, his mana moved with terrifying obedience. With a thundering silence, everything within the endless battlefield fell completely still. Sound vanished. Motion halted. It was as though time itself had been seized and crushed within an unseen hand. The next instant, Lucian’s magic crumbled apart. The blinding pillar of golden energy cracked violently before vanishing entirely, the overwhelming light that had engulfed the city disappearing with it as though it had never existed.

Anthony had erased Lucian’s entire forbidden spell with a forbidden spell of his own.

[Forbidden Magic: Void Eater]

Anthony’s voice echoed from above as he suddenly appeared high over Lucian’s position. His mana thundered outward once more, rippling in colossal waves that shook reality to its very foundation. The next instant, reality itself began to decay. Space warped and tore upon itself as the void emerged, spilling forth into existence. From it formed a gigantic maw, vast enough to devour an entire solar system with ease.

The maw yawned open, and an overwhelming gravitational pull tore upward violently. The entire city was ripped from the ground, buildings streaking toward the monstrous black void like debris caught in a cosmic storm. Lucian’s eyes narrowed as even he was affected by the gravitational force, his body straining against it.

[Time Magic: Chrono Lock]

Using his newly acquired time affinity, Lucian locked himself within a fixed point of time and space. Yet even then, space trembled violently, and time particles slipped through his control like sand through open fingers. With a deafening boom, his spell collapsed entirely as gravity seized him, tearing him forward toward the abyss. Lucian did not need to be told that if he entered that maw, death would be absolute.

[Forbidden Magic: Light Of The Galaxy]

His core shook violently as another apocalyptic wave of mana erupted outward, splitting the heavens themselves. In the next second, a tyrannical and absolute light burst from his body, shining as though it were the very radiance of the galaxy incarnate. The separate plane itself seemed to disintegrate beneath the unbearable heat brought forth by that light, reality groaning under its intensity.

The enormous gravitational pull collapsed immediately, followed by the gigantic maw itself. It was erased in real time, disintegrating without resistance as the forbidden magic collapsed completely.

The battered and crumpled separate plane began regenerating at once. New buildings rose from nothingness, cars reappeared, roads and pavements snapped back into place as though reality was desperately stitching itself together. Yet before the reconstruction could even finish, another violent ripple of mana tore backward through everything that had just been restored, shredding it all apart and forcing the separate plane to restart its reconstruction once again.

[Fire Magic: Mana Zone: Burning Rays]

Lucian’s voice rang out as he launched into a counterattack without hesitation. Around him, space twisted and inverted upon itself like living vortexes. Their numbers increased rapidly with each passing moment, tens, then hundreds, then thousands, then millions. From each swirling vortex, a column of pure, burning destruction erupted outward toward Anthony, each capable of melting anything and everything in its path.

Within a split second, millions of attacks reached Anthony. Yet he did not panic. Instead, he flickered from his position, dodging effortlessly as he soared across the sky. The attacks followed relentlessly, some colliding and exploding behind him, yet their numbers never seemed to diminish. They pursued him like homing missiles, unyielding and merciless.

Their speed increased abruptly, closing the distance instantly. The next moment, they reached Anthony and erupted in a blinding wave of heat and storm, melting and charring even the sky itself. The temperature rose to such an extreme that even a planet would have liquefied beneath it.

Lucian floated calmly, his senses stretched wide. He never believed he had defeated Anthony with a single spell. The next moment, his head snapped upward.

There Anthony hovered above, his clothes and hair dancing violently in the lingering aftermath of the explosion.

[Summoning Magic: Mana Zone: Fallen Planets]

His voice thundered from above like the decree of a god. Mana tore through the sky like a storm unleashed in the dead of night, boiling like a raging volcano. Even after unleashing such massive spells, his mana reserves remained untouched, unfathomable, and absolute.