Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

"Feel sorry……"

“There was no need for that. Dying in war is the wish of the Skywing race. My sisters died a worthy death.” Jibril said softly, “I’m just… a little unwilling.”

“A world war…” Riku’s lips twitched, and he was about to say something. But the next moment, he suddenly felt a slight warmth in his pocket.

The 'golden apple' appeared silently before his eyes, and suddenly a sentence Zhao Yingkong had said shortly before the battle began echoed in his mind!

—【If you wish to achieve something, take this token and head to this place.】

A dynamic spatial coordinate appeared on the surface of the golden apple. However, just as the three people's attention was drawn to it, the sky was suddenly filled with pure white light!

A god has fallen!

................................................

Meanwhile, on the outer side of the God's Chessboard, Patchouli slowly withdrew her constantly breaking and then regenerating hand from the Goblin Lord's chest. A writhing mass of intense light, shifting into various strange shapes in microseconds, struggled to break free from her grasp. Beneath her feet, the Goblin Lord's lifeless, statue-like body lay silently suspended in space.

She gazed at the blazing light, her eyes swirling with countless runes. In the far distance, the combined fleet of goblins and forest elves was retreating steadily under the Moon Palace's offensive. As their gods fell, the morale that had been barely maintained under the suppression of the Moonlit and Machina races collapsed completely in an instant—like writing on a blackboard being erased piece by piece with chalk, their retreat turned into a rout, and the rout into annihilation.

The surrounding space, spanning thousands of kilometers, had already been anchored by Patchouli's powerful magic, making spatial jumps impossible. Furthermore, she hadn't given Tsukuyomi—the machine armor alliance—the order to accept surrender during the battle. Therefore, the fate awaiting these two races was utter annihilation, leaving not even a living specimen.

The downside of deities born from the faith of their tribe is that their strength depends on the strength of their tribe; the total number of life forms and the mental state of the tribe are often easily reflected in their actual combat power. Patchouli had made good use of this in the previous battle. She first gained the upper hand with a forceful attack, forcing the two deities to deploy their true forms to fight her. While maintaining a stalemate in the battle with the two deities, she had her composite legion engage in a high-intensity battle against the goblin-forest elf alliance. Even if it was a two-for-one or even three-for-one exchange, every time the enemy legion lost a member, her advantage increased.

The goblins and forest elves made only one mistake: misjudging her identity. They believed she was the racial god of the Moonlit and Machina races, and thus, even as their divine power waned, they were willing to endure heavy blows to attack Patchouli's army and even directly destroy the Moon Palace itself—they thought this would force the enemy to defend themselves, since Patchouli did indeed possess the energy characteristics of a racial god. However, they completely failed to realize that Patchouli didn't care about the casualties of her allied forces, and even more so, that the fairy races she truly controlled weren't even involved in this battle!

Information asymmetry ultimately led to a fatal blow after falling into a trap. Patchouli first feigned a war of attrition, deliberately reducing her own energy output. Then, after deceiving her opponents by revealing several of their trump cards, she suddenly unleashed her full power, causing the two gods to perish in one fell swoop.

Of course, it sounds simple in retrospect, but the actual operation was extremely complicated. She took several hits from both the Forest Elf's Spirit Destruction Spell and the Goblin's Marrow Explosion. It consumed about ninety percent of her mass... However, ninety percent is not one hundred percent after all.

Victory is victory, defeat is defeat, strength is strength, and weakness is weakness. The outcome of the war was already predetermined before the Moon Palace moved. Patchouli, who did not intend to act arbitrarily like Xiao Honglu, naturally obtained the victory she was destined to receive after following the plan.

She gazed at the sliver of light from the Goblin Lord's soul, letting the now meaningless divine body languish in space, turning into a withered stone statue like the remains of the Forest Elf Lord. She extracted many messages unique to this universe from this sliver of light, which grew increasingly dim as the number of goblins dwindled, and these messages became her resources.

Only when this light of the soul finally ceased to function, turning from intense brilliance to dim luster, did Patchouli gently exhale a long breath.

"As expected, even if it is infinitely close to the real thing, its essence is still just a fake evolved from the Hunting Saint Ritual... It is similar, but not the same. Although the activated divine essence has the same effect as the real light of the mind, and even has some unique features in certain special areas, it will eventually reveal its flaws under the high pressure of the outside world, and then it will be destroyed."

Two equally inactive Soul Beams appeared in her hands, their dim appearance a perfect illustration of the phenomenon of [Divine Essence Deactivation]. The moon, dismantled like a bitten apple, floated silently about a hundred kilometers below her. The Tsukuyomi Alliance, with only about two-fifths of the mechs at the start of their deployment, was methodically clearing the battlefield and rearranging its formations according to her instructions.

With this matter settled, she doesn't need to interfere in the remaining two main battlefields for the time being. Or rather, even if she wanted to, she couldn't, since both the Lord of War and the Descended Satan are definitely at the limit of the Four Realms, or even beyond, and neither of them can compare to the two worthless True Gods she has just killed.

However, they can't really be considered counterfeit goods.

Patchouli lowered her eyes, summarizing the information about these two objects—more divine than spiritual lights—in her mind. In fact, she had seen similar things in the world of The Lord of the Rings—the dozen deities pulled down by the Cataclysm of Revelation, whose power was similar to that of the current Forest Elves and Goblin Lords. They clearly possessed the characteristics and power levels of spiritual lights, but they had flaws; they could be fatally struck by the entanglements of faith and sacred objects. And the methods used against them, if applied to reincarnators of the same caliber, would likely be, if not entirely useless, at least not as effective as they had been then and now.

Patchouli, at least, didn't believe she would be dragged down and demoted from her rank by the Apocalypse across a different dimension. Nor did she believe the survival of the fairy race would have a decisive impact on her. But this situation clearly only applied to reincarnators like her; for the native gods of this world, it was a different story.

Born of prayer, it will also perish because of prayer. For Patchouli, the greatest gain from this experience was mastering the ability to create this kind of spiritual light, perhaps more accurately described as divine, using the prayers of her race. Although it has many limitations and weaknesses, with the Tower of Babel world at her disposal, at least this method can ensure the survival rate of the lower-combat-power members of the team.

She took a deep breath, preparing to head to the next battlefield. But just then, a sudden flash of inspiration struck her!

No, it's not a flash of inspiration, but a kind of déjà vu, a déjà vu that inevitably arises when you encounter events related to someone after you've become extremely familiar with their behavior!

It's Alice!

Alice must have done something about this! And she most likely predicted that Patchouli would react at this moment!

[Is that so? Alice's arrangement... setting this world's previous era as the Lord of the Rings must be for this reason. Ah... that's really her style. She seems to feel like she's missing out if she doesn't accomplish several goals simultaneously while handling one task... Wait a minute!]

Her eyes suddenly lit up, and some obscure causes and consequences became clear in her mind.

[...I see. That explains why an extra era was added between the Ancient Progressive and No Game No Life Zero. While guarding against interference from the 'future,' they used an entire era as their experimental ground, sowing the seeds of 'faith in divinity' as this new era unfolded, and then waiting to reap the rewards...]

[But if that's the case, then there should be another triggering device.]

Patchouli raised an eyebrow, her eyes gleaming with information. The recent major events on the God's Chessboard unfolded clearly before her eyes, and she quickly traced the clue she had identified, bringing the scene it pointed to back to life before them!

She witnessed the finale of the Apocalypse: Cradle of the Demon King, and the moment when a bewildered Zheng Zha rose from the crimson. And while Zheng Zha was preoccupied with the arrival of the Lord of War and preoccupied with his surroundings, she saw the blood ring—given to her by Remilia and then given to Alice to initiate the ritual—transform into runes upon completion, then coil around Zheng Zha's hand, becoming a golden magic ring!

On Zheng Zha's finger, he wore the Ring of Power modified by the Middle-earth team—the Middle-earth team's Ring of Power could house the divine essence of the true god in the Lord of the Rings universe, or rather, the light of the mind, and transform it into the power of the wielder—the process of the activation of the divine essence of the true god in this world is equivalent to the principle of the true god's achievement in the Lord of the Rings universe.

As the three pieces of known intelligence converged, the underlying strategy became clear to Patchouli. She looked towards another main battlefield beyond the sky and couldn't help but chuckle.

"I see, Alice. So this is your backup plan in case of unforeseen circumstances... no, your decisive move when the battle is at a stalemate? You're as meticulous as ever!"

The next moment, she released the spell binding the two deactivated spiritual lights. Immediately afterward, some unknown force activated, carrying the two deactivated spiritual essences towards the other main battlefield where Zheng Zha was!

—The battle between Zheng Zha and Artesius is at a stalemate.

Chapter Ninety-Eight: The Decisive Battle - Part Eight

—The battle between Zheng Zha and Artes is at a stalemate.

A stalemate meant neither side could gain the upper hand. In fact, from the moment the full-scale battle began, Zheng Zha had a vague premonition that this fight might drag on for a long time. And when the crimson star was reduced to dust by his all-out attack on Altshu, yet neither side had emerged victorious, that premonition became reality.

'God Strike—'

A detached voice came through the energy vibrations. In Zheng Zha's understanding, a single strike could pierce through several planets, a terrifying force comparable to the bursting of a solar flare, which then slammed into his body. In that instant, he sensed that more than 99.99% of his mass had been completely vaporized by this attack, while the remaining violent energy surge, carrying his remaining one ten-thousandth of his mass, shattered several layers of spatial membranes. In less than half a microsecond, he was forced to jump more than ten times until he collided with a solid star resembling Venus, and then the surface of the star immediately shattered.

The Earth's crust was torn apart, the mantle was ripped open, and the star's core was immediately exposed to space. Its own mass shrank from one ten-thousandth to one millionth, and the seventy trillion cells that made up its body instantly dwindled to about seven million. And it couldn't even sense how the attack had been launched!

But what can be done about it?

With so much matter and energy nearby, what difference does a mere six decimal places of mass structure loss make?

With a slight thought, his crimson spiritual light burst forth. The power he called 'Blood Dragon Transformation' directly used his remaining seven million cells to reconstruct a dragon-like body with crimson wings. The price was that the core of this star, which looked somewhat like Venus, withered away. The originally incandescent core turned into icy dead iron within microseconds, and an even more powerful outer body was quickly constructed.

The reasons for the destruction of his body rapidly constructed tens of thousands in his mind, and almost instinctively, he controlled the gene fragments within his cells to express biological traits to cope with various situations. Whether it was the alien structure to resist strong impacts, the blackbody coating to resist high-energy radiation, the dimensional anchor of the cellular organelles to resist spacetime fractures, or the energy-devouring mechanism to absorb specific energy at high speed, all were constructed in an instant. Then, under the connection of the crimson light of the mind, all the rejection and conflict were suppressed and merged into one, thereby awakening the powerful inner strength.

With a slight gesture, the greatsword that had been blasted to some unknown corner of the universe by the 'Divine Strike' reappeared in his hand, tearing through space once more. The next moment, another 'Divine Strike' arrived.

Venus was split into two hemispheres of unequal size from top to bottom. Even without an atmosphere, the roar caused by the vibrations of matter and energy resounded throughout this vast interstellar region. The two enormous hemispheres were instantly torn apart and shattered by the dissipating blade and sword energy—perhaps that's the right word, since the combatants were indeed wielding blades and swords. Approximately three seconds after the planet's collapse, it disintegrated into hundreds of millions of fragments of varying sizes.

The second 'divine strike' hit him accurately once again.

However, this second 'divine strike' failed to send Zheng Zha into a spatial rift—in fact, it only reduced the mass of his body by about 70%. Only about 300 nanoseconds passed by the time his body fully recovered. This 'long' time was even enough for him to adjust his stance, gather energy, concentrate his mind, and then face the impending third 'divine strike'.

His body was constantly being destroyed and reconstructed, the crimson light of his mind unifying all his instinctive reactions and the fantastical ideas emerging in his sea of ​​consciousness. And in this transformation, each moment more powerful and more targeted to a specific enemy than the last, he finally accurately grasped the truth of 'God's Strike' as the third strike arrived!

His heart skipped a beat.

Because he didn't see any complex moves, nor did he observe any strange changes. In his extraordinary perception, Altshu's so-called 'divine strike' was essentially nothing more than tearing through space to get close, then unleashing a full-force slash and releasing all the energy within his body!

Simple, brutal, yet undeniably effective. Since Zheng was able to observe this attack, it meant he himself had reached that level. Therefore, he followed suit, violently colliding the positive and negative energies within his body and releasing this chaotic fusion of positive and negative forces through the blade before the third 'divine strike' he could detect arrived!

'Oh?' — Zheng Zha seemed to have heard such a sound.

And the next moment, pure light illuminated this starry sky!

Pierced, split open, and shattered, the 'Venus' was instantly transformed into a rapidly expanding ring of stars upon impact, while the point of clash between the swords unleashed a devastating spacetime storm. Time, space, matter, and energy coalesced into an unobservable broth. And Zheng Zha, at the tip of his slash, vaguely felt as if he had struck something!

It seems...?

No, perhaps it wasn't just 'seems'. Because supernatural beings don't have illusions, and true gods certainly don't. He felt he had indeed struck something. Caused some damage, yet he also knew that such a mere 'strike' meant absolutely nothing.

Energy surged within him, and free-floating high-energy particles drawn from the void by the 'Revenge' divine spark rapidly replenished all the magical energy he had released in that all-out attack. He could clearly sense that in his current state, he could probably maintain the 'Primordial-Blood Dragon Transformation' composite mode continuously for a year in a high-intensity battlefield without any major mishaps. And since he could be so relaxed and at ease, then his adversary, the Lord of War, probably didn't bear much of a burden either.

The spacetime structure stabilized, and the chaotic waves caused by the clash of swords subsided. Zheng Zha's eyes narrowed, and he clearly saw the Lord of War hovering silently about a thousand kilometers away from him. He subconsciously wanted to rejoin the battle, but before he could act, he realized that the Lord of War was not watching him, but was watching a certain place behind him.

The Lord of War had a constantly breaking and healing rift in his abdomen, and in that instant of exchanging glances, that rift had completely healed. The energy he had fully released when using 'Divine Strike' had been completely replenished and even slightly increased by the 'Supreme' Divine Spark, and the direction his gaze was pointing was another battlefield.

Another battlefield, the battlefield where Alice is located.

Even without turning around, Zheng Zha could sense the faint noise coming from the battlefield over there. It was a strange perception that he himself could not fully explain—he only knew that a battle was taking place there and that it was very intense, and the only way for him to know more was to actively jump over and step into the battlefield on the other side.

"That's not a battlefield I should be on." Zheng Zha thought to himself, the 'Revenge' divine essence within him resonating slightly with the fluctuations of his will. For some reason, his gaze swept over his fingers, and then a golden ring clearly appeared in his eyes.

This is the One Ring, and it's the One Ring that Alice managed to retrieve from the previous era of this world. Although Zheng Zha had no idea what the point of such an action was, he felt that this ring from the previous era would provide him with some help at the right time.

It was just a feeling. Extraordinary beings don't have illusions, but he couldn't yet determine what event or entity this subtle feeling pointed to—he simply raised his knife quietly, pointing it at Altshu, ready to start the next round of battle, which would probably still be a draw.

However, before he could act, he heard Artesius's voice.

“Zheng Zha. That’s the name, isn’t it?” The eleven and a half pairs of wings behind Altshus fluttered as it watched its opponent, a thousand kilometers away. The giant sword in its hand drooped slightly, indicating that the sword-wielding hand did not intend to continue fighting at this moment.

"So what if it is?" Zheng Zha frowned slightly.

“It’s a good name.” The wings behind Altshuu gradually slowed, stopped, and finally ceased functioning. He seemed to sigh, a hint of melancholy appearing on his resolute appearance. “This must be the name your parents gave you. Although I don’t know its exact meaning, it should represent some kind of expectation your parents had for you, and you should be a mortal, at least you were a mortal in the past.”

Zheng Zha's furrowed brows relaxed as he gazed at the War Lord, who seemed to have lost all will to fight, yet whose body remained in the composite state of 'Primordial - Blood Dragon Transformation'. He wasn't sure what this formidable enemy intended to do at this moment, but he felt he probably didn't need to interrupt.

As expected, Altshu didn't expect a reply from him.

“I am different from you. I have no parents,” the Lord of War said calmly. “No parents, no companions, no compatriots, no relatives—I originally thought I didn’t need these things at all, because I am a god, born a god, and gods don’t need these trivial things that mortals would value. I originally thought that was the case, but after thinking about it for a very long time, I found that I seem to be wrong.”

"Because after a long period of reflection, I realized that I didn't even know why I was called Altshu, or why I was in charge of this power of war."

Why is God God? If you asked Alice now, she'd probably just smash a ton-heavy electronic catalog in the questioner's face and make them go through a hundred years of schooling to at least fill in some essential foundational knowledge before she'd spend months explaining it from both materialist and idealist perspectives. However, if you asked Zheng Zha that question, the result would be entirely different.

Because Zheng Zha himself didn't know why a god was a god, just as he still didn't understand the situation unfolding around him. Since he knew nothing, his only options were either to disregard everything and draw his sword to attack, or to remain silent.

He chose to remain silent. Then, in that silence, he suddenly struck!

A streak of light traversed space, aiming for Altshu's neck, only to be thwarted by the suddenly raised sword spine. The next moment, an endless barrage of sword strikes followed, tearing space apart, severing time, and then, in a warped temporal arc, partially rewinding to a few seconds earlier, to the very moment Altshu had just uttered his first word, delivering a devastating blow!

Who the hell has the patience to listen to your rambling? Getting the job done is the only right thing to do!

The reckless Zheng Zha remained silent. In his Primordial Blood Dragon Transformation state, upon reaching the point in time several seconds prior, he unleashed a devastating strike, a fusion of positive and negative forces, directly at Altshu at that point in time. However, just as the strike was about to hit Altshu's past self, it abruptly collapsed, returning to a point several seconds later. From a tricky angle, Zheng Zha, now in the 'present', slashed fiercely at Altshu's husk!

Zheng Zha didn't name this move because he felt it was unlikely to kill in one strike. And this surprise attack did indeed sever Altshu's head as he expected, destroying about seventy percent of his body mass.

For a true god, this level of trauma is practically negligible. The next moment, Altshu, now fully recovered, reappeared, his greatsword sweeping away all the imbalances in the surrounding spacetime.

“You outsiders have no patience,” Altshu’s voice came calmly. The next moment, the Star Core Greatsword in his hand and the Destruction Blade in Zheng Zha’s hand clashed a full 100,000 times. Each strike gave one side the upper hand, and then the balance was restored when the next strike came. “But I’m actually the same. I’m not a very patient god either.”

Swords clashed, and while the stalemate continued, a continuous barrage of fist and foot fighting ensued.

"Therefore, I decided to take a more decisive approach to answer my questions."

A silent explosion resounded in the void, and Zheng Zha's vision went black. When he regained his senses, he found himself on another planet that was almost touching the edge of the sun! The next moment, the surface of the planet he crashed into shattered with the force of the impact, and Altshu, whose aura was more than ten times stronger than the previous second, reappeared in his senses!

In his eyes, Altshu at this moment was no less powerful than the sun beyond the stars. And he clearly felt that the concept of 'supreme strength' emanating from Altshu was rapidly fading as his aura surged!

He is burning his own divine position, burning his own divine essence! He is burning his life!

And the most powerful strike is gathered in his hand!

"You've probably realized it by now, haven't you? If we don't risk everything, this battle could drag on for a thousand years. So, let's end this with a single, all-out attack!"

The next moment, Zheng Zha's aura surged!

Chapter Ninety-Nine: The Decisive Battle

The moment the sword and blade clashed again, time and space lost their meaning, matter lost its properties, and a rift pointing directly to the primordial chaos was created in the instant of the clash. Both Zheng Zha and Altshu lost their original forms at that moment.

With the rules governing energy no longer in place, the material structures upon which they rest naturally vanish as well. Within this battleground, all concepts of the universe are reduced to nothingness in that instant of clash. To describe it in a more 'science fiction' way, the entire battlefield has transformed into an uncertain quantum cloud at this moment. However, the true depth of the phenomenon is far greater than that.

What happened?