Chapter 501
The flaming goblin mage spoke first, his voice crackling with heat and ritual authority.
"By the rules that bind us, battle here is forbidden."
With those words, he and the two other mages vanished, their forms flickering out like candles snuffed in the wind. It was not a retreat. No, far from it. Their magic flared as they blinked away, not concealing their trail, but broadcasting it—like beacons flaring in the dark, daring Ikenga to follow.
And he intended to.
A smile tugged at the corner of Ikenga’s lips. He prepared to vanish in turn, to simply blink after them. But as he gathered his will, he felt it—the pressure of this world resisting him. A thick, unseen weight wrapped around his existence, slowing his thoughts, constricting his being. It was no surprise.
After all, Ikenga had severed his connection to this world long ago.
Not just a detachment, but a decisive, sundering. He had shattered the bond between himself and this world resisdent that once recognized him as a god in turning making this world accept his presence. With that break came a price: rejection. The world no longer welcomed his presence. It suppressed him, pushed back against every breath he took, every movement he made.
But Ikenga learned something from observing Gurnak and Vorenza fight.
It was something he had applied in his confrontation with the old mage—an innovation born from necessity. Since the world sought to suppress him, all he needed was to forge a sanctuary within it. A boundary. A personal space in which the world’s rules no longer applied.
A domain.
It was within this controlled sliver of space that he had dismantled the old man with such eerie ease. And now, as he prepared to leave, he remembered it again. The very earth beneath him recognized his defiance. The ground groaned, not in protest, but in awe, as if peeling back its skin to reveal his presence.