Noir slowly raised the blue orb in his hands, letting the aura coming from it radiate toward the entire dome. When the semi-invisible aura passed by my side, I felt an extremely cold chill.

“Everyone, gather!”

I quickly called the girls.

Feeling something amiss with Noir’s actions, everyone followed without missing a beat, sticking close to me. As soon as I confirmed that everyone was accounted for, I raised a specific barrier to block energy waves from touching us.

*CLACK!*

As soon as I did, the surface of the barrier started transforming from something intangible to something like a crystal. Within seconds, the entire thing crystallized, rendering it almost useless as a barrier.

I quickly set up another barrier; however, just like the first one, it slowly turned into crystal as soon as the waves coming from the orb in Noir’s hands touched its surface.

“D*mn! What the hell is that?!”

I cursed as I layered barrier upon barrier just to see if I could completely block it. While I was fighting against the crystallizer wave (temp), I noticed the other gods and goddesses around us having a harder time.

Zeshion, the closest to Noir, had his left arm and left leg begin to crystalize. His face was warped in pain and chagrin, as if blaming himself for lowering his guard.

Ajax and Vermeil, both with extreme agility, were still flying around. The waves haven’t taken hold of them yet, seeing that they only had small sections of their exposed arms and cheeks turned into crystal.

Goddess Blanc, together with Alpha and Zeta, were all safe, as they, too, were using layers upon layers of barriers to block the waves that were coming for them.

The problem wasn’t limited to that, however.

The dark tentacles that were coming from all directions slowly turned into crystals too. However, instead of having negative effects, it was rather working as an enhancement, increasing the power of each strike.

“Hah! You’ve fallen far, God Tamer Blue Zeshion! I’ll make sure this place will be your grave!”

Seeing the state that everyone was in, Noir scoffed at Zeshion, who was just a few meters before him but unable to take a step forward.

“You think… this much is enough to break me?!”

Zeshion’s fighting spirit didn’t fade, despite the disadvantageous situation he was in. Without any precursor, the crystallization on his limbs disappeared, like it wasn’t there in the first place. That suddenness of recovery was pretty familiar.

“Recovery using void powers!”

Noir groaned in disgust, forgetting that Zeshion did have that move. After he recovered his mobility, Zeshion didn’t bother doing a roundabout attack and went straight for a direct punch to Noir’s face.

*BAM!*

It was a simple punch, but the impact of the hit was enough to shake the entire dungeon. What made me wonder, however, was that Noir appeared to have received no damage, as he was still grinning from ear to ear, his neck not budging an inch.

“…!”

A lapse of judgment and a crystal tentacle managed to land a hit against Zeshion’s back, slamming him against the floor, followed by another whip-like strike as if to send him away. It was too fast for him to dodge!

Zeshion flew in a straight line, crashing against the wall at the opposite end.

“Guh!”

As soon as he crashed, he started vomiting blood, as if he had sustained heavy internal injuries. Soon after, however, the familiar golden glow coming from the system’s halo appeared, healing him completely.

“As expected…”

Zeshion alone was not enough to handle Noir. In the past, the four god tamers needed to join hands just to “seal” him. Although it seems like Noir isn’t as powerful as he was in the past, the orb in his hand gave him more than enough power to literally trample Zeshion and the others.

Everyone must have realized this already and was doing their best to address the problem. However, the crystal tentacles, combined with the crystallizing wave, were enough to prevent the others from providing support.

“You forced me to do this, Noir!”

Zeshion gritted his teeth as he waved his sword forward, as if cutting the air in half.

“… God Domain: Sword’s Heaven!”

Following his words, a golden pulse flew from Zeshion’s body, spreading wide in the blink of an eye. I wasn’t sure how wide the domain was, as the entire place was sealed, but the energy I could feel coming from it was beyond what I’ve experienced before. Based on power alone, it was on par with Namia’s God Domain!

“… A Golden Sword Mausoleum?”

We should’ve been inside the dungeon, but after Zeshion revealed his domain, the surroundings changed drastically. Everything around us became golden, composed of myriads of golden swords stuck together.

Seeing this, Noir’s face changed from a carefree smile to a serious expression. Judging from his actions and the flow of his energy, it was obvious he was calling for his own God Domain, but unfortunately, he was a step too late.

*SHING!*

Zeshion waved his sword once, and along with it, everything before him got bisected horizontally. Noir was no exception, as his neck flew from his head, a surprised expression covering his face.

“Now!”

Zeshion roared, signaling for Zeta to begin.

If they kill Noir, then he’ll simply revive at a certain place in a certain state. However, after that happens, the skill would enter a pretty long cooldown. Zeta, the master of space manipulation, was focusing all her senses on a single task. That was to make Noir stay in place even after he revived!

“Blue!”

However, right as she finished pinning Noir’s coordinates in place, crystal tentacles suddenly pierced Zeshion’s chest, stomach, and neck. Even I felt cold seeing such a severe injury, which seemed almost fatal.

Like a ragdoll, Zeshion’s body fell to the ground, powerless. Zeta immediately pulled his body into Goddess Blanc’s barrier, hugging his limp body tight as tears flowed down her eyes.

“No! Quick, use the halo once more!”

Although he did use the halo already, there’s a special function that can eliminate the cooldown of other functions in exchange for doubled cooldown time. However, Zeshion could only shake his head.

The use of his God’s Domain to inflict damage directly against Noir took most of his energy. With what he had left, even if he forcefully ended the heavenly halo’s cooldown, he wouldn’t have enough energy to fix his wounds. 𝘳𝑎.𝗇t

“Leave the healing to me!”

Alpha ran to his side, placing her hands over his wounds. However, her face suddenly turned dark. The wounds were having a hard time closing, as if they were now resistant to void powers.

Seeing her struggle to heal Zeshion, Goddess Blanc had no choice but to participate.

“Let me help!” .

With a wave of her arm, Zeshion’s body got covered in a golden glow. The grave wounds all over his body started to stagnate, but they were not healing fast enough.

“His wounds have curses! Blanc, you handle the curse while I handle the healing!”

As the two were trying to fix Zeshion, Noir’s revival finished. However, nothing seemed to change about his appearance, as he was still embedded in the wall. However, his expression changed, now covered in extreme anger.

“How dare you! You made me waste my extra life!!!”

In anger, he sent a wave of tentacles to where Zeshion and the others were.

*BANG!*

At that moment, Blanc’s barrier, which mostly turned to crystals, cracked and broke into a million pieces in a single hit. Fortunately, there were several layers more, ensuring their safety for a short while.

“D*mn! Now I’m babysitting?!”

“Stop complaining and do your job!”

Seeing the others in a pinch, Vermeil and Ajax rushed to their sides, handling the hundreds of tentacles that were coming to attack Blanc’s barrier. With their speed, they could handle the crystal tentacles with ease. However, that made them unable to do anything else.

“If only I could use my wide-area annihilation skills!”

Vermeil cursed.

With us present, she basically couldn’t use anything that could affect others. Blanc was already focusing on dispelling the curse cast on Zeshion, so she couldn’t handle it if Vermeil used skills that could end in friendly fire.

Noir wasn’t stopping, however. He was having tunnel vision from anger, focusing on taking out the god tamers, Zeshion specifically, first.

“Fatima, are you ready?”

“I still need a minute!”

Of course, our team wasn’t just biting our nails while watching the gods battle. Not only did I fix Fatima’s arm, I also ordered her to fire the strongest bullet she could. Now, right beside her, was the familiar gigantic artillery weapon, the “Black Dragon,” a Howitzer M1.

In her hands, a large shell was held, but Fatima and the girls hadn’t finished inserting the required energy yet. As she said, it should take a minute more before they finish inserting the required energy to the limit and loading it into the artillery.

One minute! A short but long period. Against Noir, a god tamer, I would need to buy a minute of time!

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