Staring at the opponents who had already finished preparing not far away, Orsaga immediately understood—the earlier conversation had only been a stalling tactic.
But he didn't care.
Such things were trivial.
After all, games were only fun when there was a challenge.
[Spellcycle – Wheel of Infinity]
This was an ability that allowed him to permanently engrave various types of spells—arcane magic, incantations, witchcraft, divine arts, and more—into his being.
By this point, Orsaga had solidified a total of 3,860,000 distinct spells or spell-like effects within himself.
"Since you're all ready now... let's begin."
In the very next instant—
A brilliant cascade of overlapping magical wheels erupted behind him.
Countless beams of light shot forth from thin air!
Each beam transformed into a different stream of radiant energy, sealing off every possible escape route the enemy might take.
Some of these were space-type spells that directly nullified the opposition's ability to teleport, forcing them to confront the attack head-on.
In the face of this overwhelming assault, the Speaker of the Psionic Council showed no change in expression. He calmly extended one hand in front of himself.
An invisible shield materialized before him!
It quickly began to rotate, transforming into a massive void that enveloped all of them.
Every one of Orsaga's spell attacks—each like a streaking meteor—poured in without delay.
The void, absorbing all the various effects and impacts, began to distort. It was like an overstuffed balloon—bulging in places as if it were packed with unstable matter and pressure.
Seeing the changes, Orsaga clearly sensed the void's maximum capacity.
Without hesitation, the magical wheels behind him released another barrage of energy beams, forcefully attempting to overload and rupture the void.
After all, he wasn't running low on mana.
In the blink of an eye, the void reached its limit!
Cracks began to spider across its surface.
And just as it was about to explode—
A mysterious power intervened.
In an instant, the void's location was swapped with Orsaga's current position.
All of the energy it had absorbed—everything—was now unleashed directly onto Orsaga.
A flicker of surprise crossed his face!
At that very moment—
Under the will of the world's consciousness, a rift appeared in the outer boundary of the world—a passage leading out into the void beyond.
That passage opened directly beneath Orsaga's feet.
A colossal repelling force—like an unstoppable flood of raw energy—crashed down on him with a dim, eerie brilliance.
In an instant, part of Orsaga's body was warped.
The force tried to twist his three-dimensional form into a two-dimensional data construct, and eject him from the Gaienser World.
Having lured Orsaga into the trap with the help of the world's power, the Speaker didn't hesitate.
He immediately threw a sphere-shaped artifact into the mix.
With that, the repelling force grew exponentially stronger!
Orsaga's body began to liquefy, his form elongating like a strand of noodle being pulled into the spatial rift.
All of this happened in less than a nanosecond.
Just as the crowd began to exhale in relief, and the rift was about to close—
BOOM!
A massive arm smashed through the nearly-healed boundary.
Through the crack, they saw it clearly: Orsaga, clinging to the outer shell of the world like a gecko, bracing himself against the raging spatial storms of the void!
In a flash, the Speaker teleported beside him.
He raised his weapon and slashed down with all his might!
BANG!!
The clash was like two continents colliding. The impact created a vacuum zone from the sheer pressure.
The multiple layers of protective magic on Orsaga's arm were torn apart. Even his armor-like scales were split open.
But in the next heartbeat—
Before the Speaker could even pull back his weapon, the defenses and wounds fully regenerated.
Meanwhile, the Speaker's weapon—and the arm holding it—were riddled with cracks, as if made of fragile porcelain.
[Spellcycle – Wheel of Infinity — Persistent Spell Effects: Damage Rebound + Damage Amplification + Damage Feedback...]
Agonizing pain made the Speaker clench his jaw.
"...What kind of monster is this...?"
Seeing this, the others were stunned—and immediately launched their own attacks in every way they could.
But Orsaga gave them no chance.
His arm melted, liquefying into a pool of crimson blood.
And with the disruption removed, the spatial rift rapidly sealed shut.
But the danger hadn't passed.
In a timespan so short it couldn't even be measured—
That blood began to twist and transform.
Runes flickered rapidly within it.
Its internal time flow was rewritten.
The ratio between its time and Gaienser World's time shifted from 1:1 to 100,000:1.
At that accelerated pace—
Almost as if created from nothing—
Even under intense repelling forces from the world, the blood, without consuming any outside energy, began to rapidly replicate using only its own endless reserves of power!
By the time the others reacted, their faces had already changed.
The blood mass had expanded to dozens of times its original volume.
At that moment, the world consciousness, with faster reflexes than any living being, launched its counterattack.
A blinding blue pillar of light descended from the sky and struck the blood mass directly!
Its goal was clear: pierce through and completely incinerate the threat!
But it was too late.
A fully-formed arm burst forth from the blood.
It extended five fingers—each slim and long—and revealed a gaping mouth in the center of its palm.
The mouth bared its razor-sharp teeth and erupted in mad laughter.
With a sound like millions of thunderclaps at once, it lunged toward the blue light and bit down!
A searing flash exploded across the land.
More than half of the Gaienser World's surface was dyed in an intense deep blue!
Amidst the never-ending booms and explosions—
Before the light even faded—
Orsaga slowly walked out of the blood pool.
With a grin, he said:
"That was close... almost got kicked out of the game."
Though he had been here before, Orsaga hadn't realized that this world's consciousness possessed a limited degree of self-awareness.
It could even coordinate with native powerhouses in a joint assault.
That unexpected synergy had caught him off guard.
When the world consciousness had forcibly swapped matter, he had been instantly ejected.
Still, Orsaga had seized the moment—
He had forcefully thrown one of his arms back into the world.
Then, he allowed his external body to self-destruct.
Using the arm that remained inside, he resurrected himself from scratch.
Now, fully restored and whole once more, he faced his enemies.
The Speaker ignored Orsaga's taunt.
Knowing that further battle and loss were inevitable, he silently transmitted a command.
In the far reaches of space...
The colossal star responsible for providing light and warmth to Gaienser's homeworld and its surrounding planets...
Began to reveal metallic rings orbiting its surface, constantly intertwining and resonating with each other.
An invisible gravitational force activated.
It instantly crossed the void of space and locked onto Orsaga.
This was power drawn directly from the star itself.
Unless one could move stars, there was no way to brute-force escape it.
At the focal point where the star's rings converged—
A searing energy beam, hundreds of kilometers wide, burst through the star's surface like a divine pillar—
Charging straight toward the now-bound Orsaga!
The blast enveloped him, then continued without losing momentum—
Piercing through the entire Gaienser planet, and launching out the other side into the distant reaches of space.
On its path, several planets were impaled like candied fruit on a skewer, one after another.
Each impact created blinding explosions, leaving only scattered debris behind in the cold, silent starry void.