Chapter 95: Divine Juggernaut Drive, Overload

A whole room filled with speechless people, watching the large holographic screen with their eyes wide open and jaw slacked.

None could believe nor comprehend what happened. Not even the super genius Da Vinci has the answer to everyone's questions.

"Did the guy just survive the third noble phantasm with his bare body?" Romani asked in disbelief.

Da Vinci however shook her head in disagreement.

"No, for a moment. I am sure that after his barrier collapsed, then all traces of the light beam vanished. Almost… No, it is like denial of causality. The event simply never happened and the only proof it happened was the crater it created. Like all we see is just an illusion if there isn't proof that it happened." Da Vinci's eyes flash in analytic gleam to decipher the event that just took place.

With a regained hope for victory, the plummeted morale of the staff invigorated once again. Though, it seems that none of them noticed their Master was drugged and kidnapped within the chaos.

———

"Hah.. hah.." Ray breathed laboriously while supporting himself with Void Brand.

Goetia however didn't look tired. No, he biologically cannot get tired. On his monstrous facial expression, he looks like he just saw something ridiculous.

His opponent, merely A feeble human that is able to reach him due to the sheer power of his equipment. Someone that becomes strong simply with borrowed strength. But, even so. How?! How he couldn't kill this hum- No, this reincarnator!

"Tch, you damn cockroach! Why wouldn't you die already!" Goetia shouted his frustration.

TEN! TEN TIMES! He released his third noble phantasm and this damn cockroach survived all ten of it.

'Incomprehensible' Goetia thought. However, he realised something.

After all ten times, Goetia resorts to using his Demon God pillars that in functionality are the same as supercomputers to find the reason this cockroach wouldn't die. He found it. the reason why all his attacks are nullified.

Everytime the barrier on the reincarnator broke, all attacks simply nullified into nothingness. This happened consistently even when he used normal attacks. As long as the barrier is broken, the attack will be nullified. The barrier also has exactly 1 minutes of cooldown before it reformed.

Goetia chuckled and grasped his face with his hand.

He was looking down at his opponent too much, thinking the reincarnator as mere human and forgoing to analyse and make use of information gathering to find his opponent's weakness and loophole in his invincibility.

"HeheHahahahahaha." Goetia laughed at his own arrogance.

"I apologize, reincarnator. It seems that I had looked down on you thinking of you as mere human only and trying to win with brute force."

"However, worry not. For now, I will fight you with my full capability! By my will, Ars Paulina. My Demon God pillars, serve me and defeat my opponent!" Goetia lifted his hand and summoned all the Demon God pillars scattered across this singularity to converge in the Temple of Time.

Hundreds of gigantic tentacles rise up from the ground. Each of them are of different colour and size. Then, each of them opens its eyes to lock on Ray before executing their King's will. Thousands of red laser beams bombarded Ray but he immediately ignited Ouroboros' thrusters and performed a zig zag maneuver to evade the bombardment of laser beams at speed of Mach 4. But the lasers still hit him because their shooters all have calculation ability of a supercomputer and that translated to extremely accurate aimbots that predict even his flight pattern to shoot the path he is going to fly through.

"Tch, why in the hell I never thought that my offensive ability is severely lacking." Ray complained and couldn't put off anymore to decline Ophis's plea to assist him.

Temporarily, he relinquishes the control of his movement to his AI while he dive into his consciousness under the request of Ophis.

———

Inside the black void, a little girl waited until a man entered. There she nervously waited for the man to arrive.

"Accept my power. Become my kin and you will become powerful enough to kill the demon tree guy." She offered but unsurprisingly, the man declined again.

"Your defense is powerful but you didn't have the power to kill the demon tree guy."

"I know." The man replied.

'What if you died!' She continued to herself while biting her lips in annoyance. Why wouldn't this idiot accept my power? Many would pile up an ocean of corpses, rivers of blood and a continent of ruined kingdoms just to get a trickle of my power. Yet, he refused. Again and again regardless of how generous the offers are.

She felt the frustration but couldn't comprehend the feeling, the emotions she felt.

Why would a weak human like him continue to refuse her power and now even try to kill an opponent that is certainly outside of his league. His defence will hold but his offence is too weak to scratch, much less injure his opponent.

How long will the stalemate last? His opponent already comprehends the loophole in his invincibility. How long will he remain stubborn like this?

Hidden by all this thought, she couldn't recognise that she was terrified. She is a Dragon God. A being that lives in the apex of the world. Fear is something foreign to her and added to her airhead trait. She simply couldn't understand she feared that the man that she bonded to would disappear.

That's why she keeps offering her power. She wants him to be victorious. She didn't want him to die here even knowing that he is harder than a cockroach to be killed. She is naïve but not ignorant. She had gleaned over Goetia and knew Ray had little chance of killing Goetia because it can revive endlessly as long as the Demon God pillars survive and the Temple of Time will revive the pillars endlessly.

To put it simply, to kill Goetia. Ray needs an attack that can destroy the Temple of Time that in turn makes the death of the Demon Gods permanent and the same applies to Goetia. Once there aren't any Demon God pillars anymore, it is also unable to revive anymore.

"Ugh!" A sharp pain assaulted Ray which was a result of his physical body being inflicted upon by injury.

"Accept my power. Please." Panic in her voice increased.

"I still have nine more lives, Ophis. I can still fight." Ray replied while rubbing her head to comfort her, confused why she was this panicked. An expression she never showed to anyone.

In his mind, he still has nine more lives and he still has a chance to overturn the table. He still isn't at his wits end. A stubbornness that he had since before his transmigration. For example, if he cannot reach 100% completion on a stage. He will keep trying until he does. If he cannot do it, he seeks out information on how to do it and keeps trying.

Obviously this isn't a game but Ray is so comfortable with his God Hand ability and his invincibility once every minute that he didn't even think that he could die. He simply has too much belief in his own ability that he thinks that if he keeps trying, he will eventually seize victory. He never thinks that his victory is impossible.

Ophis is conflicted. This foreign emotions, this frustration. It is turning her crazy.

"Why wouldn't you understand?" Ophis said with her head lowered enough that her hair was able to hide her eyes from Ray.

"Ophis like Ray. He always gives delicious food. He gives Ophis a home to belong to. He gives Ophis a sister and mothers to befriend and play with. He always pat Ophis head and ruffle Ophis hair. His touch feels warm and comfortable. Ophis didn't want him to die. I didn't want him to disappear! Why wouldn't Ray understand?" An unexpected outburst from the usually monotone and emotionless Ophis.

Surprise is an understatement for what Ray is experiencing right now. Ophis always keeps her emotions hidden and has difficulty expressing them. However, here he is literally seeing an equivalent of a dam burst open and the emotions overflowing from her.

Terrified, afraid and frustrated. This is the emotions Ray can feel from Ophis.

"You know me long enough, Ophis. Do you really think I will die that easily?" Ray tried to convince Ophis and make her stop her tears but the opposite happened instead.

"Ophis knew. She knows Ray cannot win, that's why I want to help. I didn't want Ray to die. She didn't want Ray to disappear." Ophis sobbed while her small little fist is gripping tightly at Ray's clothes that it is ripping apart from her immense strength.

"Even if Ray kills the demon tree guy, he will keep reviving with the presence of the pillar. The pillar also revived endlessly with the existence of the Temple. To kill the demon tree guy is only possible if Ray can destroy all three in one strike." Ophis explained while trying to wipe away her tears with Ray's help.

"I… see. In that case, I am really incapable of killing Goetia." Ray surrendered after hearing Ophis's explanation.

He also heard Goetia declare that he already found the loophole in Ray's invincibility. If he continues then he would indeed waste all his life in vain and be defeated. Once again, his stubbornness is going to be the cause of his demise.

"It's my mistake. Then I apologize that I ignored your plea to save me from my stupidity." Ray apologized while kneeling to reach the same eye level as Ophis.

"Will you accept my apology?" Ray couldn't even finish his words when Ophis nodded and once again gave Ray the same offer as before.

"Well, I know I apologized just now. But I'm still going to decline because I prefer my humanity. I didn't want to become a dragon… yet. Not yet. Not before I reach my maximum potential." Ray still has his stubbornness which made another emotion appear in Ophis's heart.

"OUCH! Why are you biting me?" Ray startled when Ophis suddenly showed her fang and buried it deep into Ray's arm in annoyance.

"Ray is mine. I will not let you die even if you want to." Ophis said her last piece of words before violently kicking Ray out of his own consciousness, his own mindscape.

A dragon is innately protective of their own property after all. After they declared their property, they would defend it with all their might and pride. Trying to steal a dragon's possession? One should be prepared to face the wrath of the dragon and this one isn't just any dragon but a Dragon God. A creature that reigns supreme over even gods like Yahweh. Who's Goetia? A creature created by the power of Yahweh.

If even the god itself fears being like Ophis, what will Goetia, a product of the said god's creation, do to oppose what its own creator itself fears?

———

On the outside, Ray returned to his body and resumed control of his body. He noticed a cauterized wound on his abdomen. Other than that, the AI has been doing a great job evading all the lasers.

Then he suddenly feels Ophis's power flooding into his body at unprecedented levels. However, what boggles him the most is that the energy isn't harming him at all. Like a herd of elephants delicately rushing through a paper bridge. The power flows very delicately and carefully so that none injures his body at all.

A violet neon colour halo of a serpent biting its tail appeared behind Ray and his mecha suit glow intensified. The glow consumed everything and blinded everyone looking at the glow. But, everyone is blinded. A primal voice echoed to everyone's eyes regardless of distance. All can hear the declaration very clearly.

"I, who am about to awaken,

Am the Dragon God of Chaos and Infinity born from the void of primal chaos.

I am the 'Infinite' that shall devour the 'Dream'

I shall manifest as the avatar of the Dragon God of Infinity, Ouroboros.

And shall deliver my judgement as the serpent that devours the Land of Steel when the time ends!"

"Divine Juggernaut Drive, Overload."

—————

(The chant is modified to have hints of moonlit world aspect on purpose because they are in Fate world. The land of steel is basically the state of the world during Ragnarok. She basically cannot descend in this world due to Alaya and Gaia. So, she uses the Ouroboros or serpent Jormungandr as her mask to appear.)