The darkness shrank as the man's roars became more desperate, like a black hole was sucking the darkness of the night, revealing the starry night sky.
Johan frowned, then yelled to the white-haired man by his side, "Use the seal."
His body emitted a bright light in the surroundings, as the flame rose from his muscles and limbs.
The man covered with black slime was directly hit by the eternal flames of darkness, not even being able to sense the perfect ambush. There was no time to either dodge or dispel such an attack.
"Ahhh, ahhh" the painful wails of the man affected no one in particular. Just making the two men look even more satisfied with their work.
The dark red flames of Melodis trembled on Johan's body. A devious smile took over his face.
'I try to stay humble, but even I can't ignore the obvious.' Johan raised his arms high, as if waiting for the audience's applause.
Just as he 'died' in the inn.
His body appeared just by the street, completely unharmed. It was just the perfect clone he used, but the more interesting part was he could also change his real body's location.
Similar to teleportation, and when he teleported the clone replaced him promptly.
He could never defeat the man who just attacked him in a one-on-one fight anyway, so why even bother.
'They are one in just different bodies, he split a small part of his power to attack the weaker me, baiting Kirin out beforehand with his aura, then setting up a simple yet effective trap for Sebastian.' Johan thought, shaking his head, but then, his whole body flinched.
A massive pressure fell on all four of them, their knees getting weak, their eyes watery, their tongues dry. Even Melodis seemed to be shivering—not from fear, but pressure.
Johan's blue eyes turned towards the massive black tree, a silent frown appearing as he turned to look at the green-haired man.
'This… I used the spirit pact to connect with Melodis, and ambushed him.' He turned his head towards the status window showing his depleting mana: 30/200
'Then why is this still happening? He shouldn't be able to control it…' Sebastian instantly used gravity magic to fly Kirin over to her side, sweat appearing on his forehead.
"Master…" Sebastian staggered, blood dripping from his lips. "What… what is this?" His voice cracked, barely audible above the screaming winds.
The green-haired man did not simply just kidnap Sebastian, but he was actually fighting after stealing Sebastian's power with the God tree's buff. Using his body as a kind of fuel source.
Sebastian clenched his hands, preparing a seal for the man roaring in pain on the ground. The man's body regenerated back as fast as it was burned, creating an endless pain loop.
His eyes, blood red, still dazed but filled with extreme hatred, stared deeply towards the black-haired man. He definitely killed him, with his own hands, leaving him alive just for a while longer so it could distract Kirin.
In a one-on-one fight, according to the man's sources, Kirin should've been able to elementalise into fire using the spirit bond with her great spirit.
'But for some reason she didn't, and now… this, this healer is the one standing with the great spirit's power?' He clenched his jaw at the increasing pain.
'My instincts are overloaded with pain, I can't use black hole right now… I need more power… so I could send information to my Leor…' His desperate gaze turned towards the massive black tree, oozing with the purest form of Aether.
'Melodis! Do you know anything about it?' Johan made a mental connection with something deep inside his body, frowning as the spirit pact used his precious mana.
This was the most important part of the spirit pact — it allowed its wielder to talk with these ancient beings with infinite knowledge. Later on, the real Leor also had it, but he got it in a more flashy way—
He just imagined a reality where he had this ability… and thought that he was trying to awaken this ability—he had it at the next second.
Johan's whole body shuddered remembering the monster he would have to face.
"Yeah, it's a cool tree I guess, I burned it a few times to kill everyone in the world instantly, it's pretty fun.
This is just him having an episode, if I was at my peak power, I could've easily blinked it out of existence, haha" a voice that sounded more like a parrot spoke, nothing like how Johan imagined a deity to speak like.
"I am not a parrot you bastard, I will burn away your genitals!!" Melodis screamed in Johan's ears, making him quieten his thoughts.
'So he can read my thoughts… I should be careful,' a thought slipped Johan's mind, instantly making him bite his lips, making Melodis only more curious about him.
Melodis had never heard of a human who could talk with a creature like him directly, and not get turned into a monstrous beast from the corruption.
Johan suppressed the thought to strangle the arrogant parrot, replying using his ultimate card.
"Kirin is in danger! Do you know how to stop this… episode?" Johan asked, his tone urgent but deliberate.
He remembered how, in the game, Melodis had annihilated billions—just to spite the people who killed the girl he was obsessed with. As expected, the moment her name came up, Melodis's expression shifted. He was listening now.
It's not like Johan didn't know how to deal with the God tree, he had in a way defeated it multiple times, from different choices too; like how in one Selene teleported the God tree to another dimension, which still connected to this world, saving the world peacefully.
In another, Leor befriended the God tree, getting a massive power boost, but it was also because he used his overpowered ability to make it more likely for the God tree to accept his friendship.
Or in another in which Radhaan used an attack that instantly wiped out the God tree, but he didn't actually destroy it—he compressed it using a high-level light magic seal and turned it into a small bracelet-like artifact.
None of these were possible anyway, so Johan didn't even try thinking about the topic, since he didn't want to reveal his deepest secrets to a sadistic, psychopathic parrot.
"That green-haired kid is a vessel for the bitch tree, he can already use more than 4% of its power. Once it gets to 60-something percent, you can try to kill it in one attack, then use the essence left as the stabiliser, seal him till then." Melodis spoke in a serious tone.
Johan's eyes widened, his stomach twisting as he looked at the man who just silently cryied from the pain, not screaming even as the flames of eternal darkness just got hotter the longer they existed.
Author's note: I feel the book is much more silent nowdays, is everything okay? Just say it, I can take it!