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Chapter 323: The New God (2)

‘What the…?’

He was in disbelief.

Arthus put his hand on his chest, swiftly covering the puncture wound to stop the blood from flowing like a stream.

To Henry, Magic Missile was among the easiest spells, 2nd-Circle magic at best, but to his enemy, it had been more powerful than an arrow shot by a master archer.

Arthus quickly concentrated divine power into his wounded chest. His flesh quickly regenerated, the wound closing up as it healed.

Arthus was bewildered by this turn of events, breaking out in an intense cold sweat as though he were standing in the rain.

He pulled his hand away from his healed wound and frowned once again. Then, in a peremptory tone, he demanded, “What the hell did you just do?! How were you able to…?!”

Arthus didn’t get to finish his question, for Henry already had his finger pointed at him once again, his smile cold.

“You…!”

“So it was true.”

Pnggg- !

Henry’s fingertips glowed again.

A beam of light shot forward, and Arthus, realizing the seriousness of the situation, hastily erected a barrier.

Ptz-!

The collision of the Magic Missile and the barrier created an unexpected sound.

Arthus had expected the impact to produce a horribly loud, ear piercing-explosion, but that wasn’t the case at all.

A ray of light flashed from the barrier a couple of times, and then the Magic Missile was instantly absorbed.

Seeing this, Henry said, “Is this the difference in… our divine powers?”

Henry had managed to pierce Arthus in the chest with his magic earlier simply because he had caught him off guard.

Arthus had been careless against the first Magic Missile, thinking that Henry’s magic wouldn’t work on him.

However, the second time was different.

Realizing that something had changed in Henry, Arthus had decided to take this seriously and not let his guard down again. Thus, he had channeled his divine power through the barrier so it could absorb Henry’s Magic Missile.

As he absorbed the Magic Missile, Arthus came to a realization.

‘He suddenly has divine power?’

This wasn’t mana or Aura.

Of course, the Magic Missile itself was a sphere of energy made from mana, but the overall force that enveloped the missile was definitely divine power.

‘Just how?’

Arthus’ mind was racing, and he was in shock. Up until this point, he had only thought of Henry as an insignificant ant he could play with, but it turned out that he was a ferocious hound that could bite hard.

However, Henry still felt that he wasn’t strong enough.

‘It’s still not enough.’

Even at this moment, the earnest prayers of the countless people who believed in him echoed in his ears.

However, no matter how many people prayed for Henry, it became apparent to him that divine power didn’t suddenly grow out of nowhere.

He still felt that his powers weren’t enough to face Arthus.

The rate at which divine power was currently accumulating in Henry was about the same as rainwater filling a large bucket.

Still, as he felt the unfamiliar power flow through him, he realized that he was no longer a mere human, but a god, just like La and Irene had told him. So even though his divine power was building up slowly, he could still wear a confident smile without any fear or nervousness.

Then, as though he had finally realized something, Arthus said, “I see. It was the rings.”

“Huh?”

“This was so fun that I forgot for a moment that you have those pesky rings.”

Henry nodded at Arthus’ point.

In fact, he himself had forgotten about Herabola’s rings, even though he and his allies had considered them the only way of facing the apostles.

Henry pulled out the eight rights from his pocket.

Seeing this, Arthus smiled and sneered, “You just happened to be lucky this time. It won’t happen again.”

Arthus sighed deeply at the sight of Henry’s rings because he felt like he had found the leash for a ferocious dog.

In any case, he thought that nothing changed, even with Henry’s previous successful attack. His arrogance had gone in hiding for a few moments, but it popped its head out again.

Znggg!

Arthus strengthened his barrier once again as though it were a magic shield. He increased its density so that it could withstand more than the divine power of Henry’s eight rings.

Seeing the barrier, Henry smirked and thought, ‘I can see it now.’

Henry could clearly see that the barrier had just grown thicker. He found it amusing that the things he hadn’t been able to see before because of his fears were now visible simply because someone had pointed them out.

In a way, Henry felt dejected at how long it had taken him to realize how powerful faith really was.

‘Anyway, you’ve collected quite a bit, Arthus.’

Henry’s gaze quickly shifted from the barrier to Arthus himself. Of course, it wasn’t his repulsive face that Henry wanted to see.

What Henry wanted to see was the flow of Janus’ divine power that emanated from Arthus.

This reminded Henry of how a wizard’s mana flow looked when they practiced Mana Breathing. As they did so, unknown forces permeated their body and were slowly drained back out.

Perhaps that was why divine power was so similar to mana.

However, that wasn’t all. As Henry watched the current of divine power flow through Arthus, it reminded him not only of Mana Breathing, but of a river as well.

The good part about that was that the power was abundant as a river, but the bad part was that, just like a river, the power was limited.

Even though Arthus had more divine power than Henry at this moment, Henry felt that his potential was higher. He could attain not a small river of divine power, but a vast ocean.

This was the obvious difference between a god and mere humans.

‘And most importantly… I can clearly see.’

Henry could also see clearly the reason Arthus was bound to lose. It was the fact that Arthus had not been able to absorb all the faith of the blind believers across the continent.

That faith was overflowing.

‘That’s the difference between you and me.’

Arthus had maximized his power by creating an almost endless supply of faith, namely his blind believers. However, even if they had all the food in the world, one couldn’t continue eating when they were full.

Arthus’ divine power was no greater than a river, and his abilities would pale against Henry’s when he reached his full potential and attained an ocean of divine power.

Henry felt the divine power slowly fill him up. He flashed Arthus a nonchalant smile and replied to his arrogant remark.

“Lucky, huh? Well, we won’t know until we put it to the test.”

“How foolish. The difference between you and me is evident, and yet you’re acting so immaturely.”

“Believe whatever you want.”

With that, Henry was done talking.

He snapped his fingers.

Snap!

Znggg!

With just a snap of his fingers and no chanting, numerous Magic Spears appeared around him.

“If you want to play with spears, I’ll gladly join your game.”

Snap!

Seeing this, Arthus also snapped his fingers, summoning countless Dark Spears around him.

Having summoned their weapons, which were different in color, the two mortal enemies no longer spoke. They merely looked each other in the eye and nodded.

The spears steadied themselves in the air, pointing their sharp heads at the enemy’s neck.

A smile tugged at the corners of Arthus’ mouth as he positioned his spears to end Henry. He then blew a short whistle.

Whoo-!

Whoosh!

Along with the whistle, the black spears shot forward.

At the same time, Henry’s spears also shot forward, leaving a trail of light behind.

The spears of opposite colors burst from their casters like shooting stars.

Each individual spear found its partner, clashing with each other like magnets of opposite poles. However, the spears made no sound as they collided. There was no explosion or wind pressure either.

As if two different kinds of light were being intertwined, the spears swirled around each other before merging and silently disappearing to a desert mirage. There wasn’t even a puff of smoke.

However, several spears still managed to get past the barrage, finding their way toward the enemy.

With each silent clash, Arthus’ eyes widened more and more.

‘J-just how…?’

These were the same Dark Spears he had used before, with the same amount of divine power.

More precisely, Arthus had infused roughly nine percent of his divine power into his spears, one percent being equivalent to one of Henry’s rings.

In other words, Arthus had made his Dark Spears one percent stronger than Henry’s eight divine rings combined.

Arthus had made no mistake with the amount of divine power he had allocated to his spears. Since Henry had a total of eight rings, Arthus had made sure to use the bare minimum of his divine power to give him the upper hand.

Even though his Dark Spears had only one percent more divine power than Henry’s, Arthus had been certain that they would obliterate Henry’s inferior spears and leave countless holes in him.

However, their spears were attracted to each other like magnets and disappeared into thin air without making a sound.

The reason for this phenomenon was simple: Henry’s spears actually had as much divine power as Arthus’ spears.

‘No, I must’ve made a mistake!’

Flustered, Arthus increased the amount of divine power in his spears by another one percent to make up for a possible miscalculation.

His divine power instantly flowed into his spears, and as soon as that happened, the Dark Spears became slightly longer, and their dark color turned to ink black. The increase in divine power was directly responsible for this change in their appearance.

The spears continued to collide, but…

“...!”

Nothing changed.

Henry smirked at this sight and locked eyes with Arthus, whose eyes open wide in astonishment.

“Y-you…!”

“What? Is something wrong?”

Seeing Arthus panic, Henry mocked him with a brazen expression.

Arthus’ face was flushed. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but he couldn\'t help but feel that he was being toyed with.

“I made a mistake…” Arthus murmured. He had made a mistake, and he admitted it out loud. However, the rage in his eyes showed that he wouldn’t make another one in his next move.

With that, Arthus completely discarded his arrogant playfulness and slowly increased the amount of divine power in his spears.

Soon, the percentage of divine power in his spears rose to double digits, the weapons gradually becoming stronger and stronger.

“I don’t know what kind of tricks you pulled, but let’s see just how long you can hold out!”

“As you wish,” Henry replied nonchalantly. In the past, such a warning from Arthus would’ve frightened him, but no more…

In response to the noticeable surge of divine power in Arthus’ spears, Henry proceeded to empower his own spears.

The silent war continued as both Henry and Arthus kept pouring divine power into their flying weapons. When they infused more than thirty percent of their divine power, their weapons no longer looked like spears.

They took the shape of a much greater weapon, one that looked like the giant bolt of a ballista.

“Die!” Arthus shouted arrogantly as he infused over thirty percent of his power. This amount was incredible, more than half of Arthus’ total amount of divine power, which was why he was confident he would emerge victorious from this fierce exchange.

Henry made sure to play along with him.

“Go ahead.”

At last, the two massive waves of divine energy took the shape of a giant crossbow, much larger than any of the weapons Henry and Arthus had previously fired at each other.

The moment their powers collided…!

Boom-!

A tremendous explosion erupted between them.