Chapter 39: The God of Freedom and Creation

How do you feel when a stranger dies before your eyes?

My first thought will be, “I’m sorry. May God take them to a better place.”

But when you know more about that person, the pain digs deeper, sadness cuts sharper.

And now, right in front of me, someone I had fought beside through all this, she was gone. Her name is Ysanthe, she was just a girl, a player like us, drawn into the grand illusion of Onlife. But what was it worth? Like Jarrod, the price was everything, it was her life.

After she spoke her last words, 
Niobeorth grabbed the staff that Ysanthe used, and then walked in front of her while she was down on her knees.
Without a word, he shot with the staff at Ysanthe.
Before she died, her gaze was on me.
She was in tears, and blood was spilling down from her mouth. She mouthed.
“I’m….sorry…..”
Her existence shattered in an instant, her body dissolving into turquoise dust.

Niobeorth had killed her.

I screamed. The sound tore from me raw and endless. But even so, I couldn’t hear my own voice. The sound was silent.

Niobeorth didn’t smirk, didn’t laugh. He only said, almost coldly,
"I knew she’d betray me eventually. I gave her that staff to hunt for survivors in the dungeon… but she used it against my own monsters. So I cut her down."

I barely heard him. My right arm, glitching and glowing with Nova Bloom, overflowed, the energy surged through my body, too much to contain. Rage ignited, and I felt myself becoming a living bomb. I shouted.

The world shook. My vision warped. I saw everyone, they were calling for me. Terrence, Durgan, Aster, Judeth, everyone. Vut their voices couldn’t reach me. Diana, Katarina, and everyone who were unconscious were starting to awake, but nevertheless it won’t work, I couldn’t hear a thing. They could only watch me unravel.

Then Takayuki’s voice broke through the chaos.

"Jack. Close your eyes."

I gritted my teeth, screaming, trembling.

"Don’t ignore me. Listen. Don’t make my mistakes. Right now, you’re letting grief and rage consume you. Let it go—for ten seconds. That’s all I ask."

"Why?" I gasped.

"Just wait."

He began to count. My eyes burned. My body cracked with light.

Then his voice came again: "It’s ready. Your Nova Bloom sped up the process. You can now access the role of God of Freedom and Creation. From here, you’ll have total control—your decisions matter. Don’t repeat my failures. I lost my wife. My daughter. Your friends didn’t die because of you… they died because of me. And now, your rage is about to kill everyone here."

His words cut deep.

"If you don’t want that to happen, then trust me. Look at your HUD. You’ll see it: a golden cross behind a dove with wings spread wide. That’s Creation. Press it, and the glitch will calm."

With trembling hands, I searched, found the icon, and pressed.

A clear aura enveloped me. Lines of light traced across my skin and clothes, circuits of data and magic weaving into harmony. My glitching calmed. My mind grew still.

Takayuki’s voice steadied me. "This form lasts only ten minutes. Once per day, and fortunately you don’t have to wait, because you can recharge with your Nova Bloom. But it’s enough."

"Enough to stop Niobeorth," I whispered.

When I looked up, Niobeorth’s eyes flickered with interest.

"Well," he said, raising his blade, "this makes us equals. A true, fair battle."

But before he could move, I struck. I teleported behind him, grabbed him, and turned to the others.

"Leave this place. Now."

"We shall do," the queen answered, her tone steady and commanding.

"Go [BEEP] his ass!" Terrence shouted, pumping his fist in the air.

"Don’t die," Aster muttered, her voice low but urgent.

"Go forth, my boy," Durgan declared proudly, chest swelling with conviction.

"Please… be careful," Judeth whispered, her words trembling with worry.

Diana and Katarina met my eyes. They didn’t speak, only offered a silent nod, heavy with unspoken meaning.

With Niobeorth still in my grasp, I turned my gaze skyward. In the next instant, the ground fell away beneath me, and I vanished into the heavens.
I dragged Niobeorth into the heart of the storm, where the dark clouds boiled endlessly, and the only light came was from me and me only.

"I see that you didn’t want any spectators?" Niobeorth smirked. "Now it doesn’t feel like a game anymore. Too shy for all this?"

"No," I said, my voice steady. "I just needed a place where I can unleash everything—without hurting anyone but you."

Here, he had no control. My glitching powers couldn’t be suppressed. The world itself bent beyond his grasp. For the first time, the Dark Magician would have to fight me head-on.

"Then I’ll begin," he said.

Green energy erupted from his heart, flowing into his blade. He lunged, strikes flashing like lightning. I stood firm. Every slash passed harmlessly through me, as though my body were untouchable code. One minute passed. Then two. His blade still hadn’t reached me.

Niobeorth’s expression faltered, surprise cutting through his usual composure. No matter how many attacks he launched, he couldn’t touch me. I was too fast, slipping past every strike.

I slid my Dangatana back into its sheath, focusing instead on my Magime. That was when Niobeorth pressed his hand to his chest, summoning power from the Everett Stone embedded within him. Shadows swirled, and from his heart he began to call forth a horrid, grotesque creature, its twisted wings stretching wider with every heartbeat.

The name appeared in his health bar. The Titanic Typhon.

Takayuki’s voice cut through the rising storm:

“Place your palms together. One up, one down. Now.slowly push in the direction they face.”

I obeyed. My right hand lifted upward, my left pressed downward.

The air around me tore with a violent crackle. Static exploded across the battlefield, ripping through the summoning circle. The grotesque form of the Typhon flickered, twisted, and then, disappeared into nothing. Its body failed to manifest, its presence banished before it could ever breach this world.

At least I avoided a long term and unnecessary battle.

But the effort had cost me. My chest heaved, the seconds slipping through my grasp. The disruption had worked, but it had taken precious time from me.

Time was now short. Takayuki’s warning echoed, You only have ten minutes. Seven were already gone.

I clenched my fists, Nova Bloom igniting across my forearms. Energy crackled violently as I met his next rush with explosive punches, detonations flaring each time my fists connected with his aura.

His movements grew desperate, jagged with anger. He raised his left hand, conjuring a mass of dark energy, while his right hand birthed volatile monsters. From the storm above, colossal demonic hands tore through the clouds, chaining my limbs.

Then he roared, unleashing his aerial monsters to devour me.

The chains held me, but they could not suppress my Magime. I pressed my palms together. Power surged, and a devastating shockwave ripped outward. The monsters disintegrated. The demonic chains shattered. His magic was torn apart like paper.

Niobeorth froze, disbelief painted across his face.

"I still have time," I growled.

Drawing deeper, I forged something greater. Power twisted with glitching light, expanding beyond imagination.

"My finishing move…feast your eyes on this. Nova Bloom—Full Magime: Blossoming Big Bang!"

A massive sphere of blazing energy formed between my hands, unstable and radiant, threatening to consume everything. It locked my body in place, but I split myself in two, dividing the Magime between us. Enough to move. Enough to strike.

We launched forward.

Niobeorth unleashed a storm of arrows, each one pulsing with dark magic.

My clone and I slipped between them, teleporting and phasing at the last instant, but it couldn’t last forever. One arrow finally struck true, tearing through my clone and shattering it into nothing. No matter how many times I split myself, Niobeorth always managed to bring one down. At this rate, I wouldn’t be able to get close.

That’s when Takayuki’s voice cut through the chaos,

"Stand still. Focus on your Magime and hold it between your hands."

I obeyed.

And then, something changed. The next wave of arrows tore through the air… and passed straight through me. My phasing ability hadn’t triggered. It was the Magime, fusing with my glitching power, bending reality around me.

It wasn’t just defense. It was amplification. The glitch twisted tighter, sharper, stronger, until I felt the surge burning inside my veins.

In just a matter of seconds, I turn the table around.
I had become even stronger.

Through the HUD, I could’ve that his stats was going haywire.

Niobeorth panicked, lashing out wildly as I multiplied again. One became two. Two became four. Four became eight. Eight became sixteen. Sixteen became thirty-two. Thirt-two became sixty-four. Until the storm was filled with one thousand and twenty-four versions of me.

Surrounded, blinded, he spun and slashed. His blade tore through every one of my clones.

He thought he was smart, that I wouldn’t be able to get near him.

But what he doesn’t know is that the real me was already at his chest.

Together with my double, I hurled the Blossoming Big Bang into him.

The explosion ripped through the heavens. Clouds evaporated in an instant, torn apart by the blast, and the sun, hidden for far too long, broke through, bathing the world in light.

Niobeorth’s body plummeted, broken from the sky.

I dove after him, I reached my hand and then I caught him.