MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 938: Forbidden Magic

Mana surged and churned through the atmosphere like a sentient thunderstorm, a restless force that refused to be quieted. The air itself seemed to shriek in a fit of madness, thickening and becoming oppressively heavy with every passing second, crushing everything beneath its weight.

Even though neither Lucian nor Anthony had actively drawn upon the mana in their cores yet, the energy within the separate plane responded with violent instinct. It reacted to the mere collision of their intents, as if the fabric of reality sensed the impending doom.

Hovering high in the sky, Lucian looked down at Anthony with a broad, manic grin, his gaze burning with a mixture of hunger and thrill. On the ground below, Anthony stood his ground, meeting Lucian’s stare with an identical smile—composed yet piercing, serene yet predatory. In that frozen moment, both warriors viewed the other as their prey, each fully convinced they were the apex predator at the pinnacle of the food chain.

Lucian remained entirely unphased by the fact that Anthony had shrugged off every previous strike with effortless ease. If anything, the lack of results only added fuel to his excitement. A surge of exhilaration rushed through him, widening his smile further; the prospect of a duel that surpassed all his prior experiences sent a literal shiver through his core.

Suddenly, the atmosphere surrounding Lucian recoiled before exploding outward in a thunderous boom. A tide of mana erupted from his core, resembling a monstrous tsunami surging from the depths of a bottomless ocean. The ground beneath them splintered, with massive fissures spiderwebbing across the earth. Distant structures trembled violently, some crumbling into dust as if they were made of nothing but sand. The asphalt heaved in a frenzy as Lucian’s voice cut through the chaos, sounding both tranquil and commanding.

Space fractured around him with a force that numbed the senses. The heavens quaked as if struck by a divine hammer. The sky was torn asunder, and from the roaring firmament, a pillar of incandescent, blinding golden energy descended with deranged fury—a celestial judgment that offered no room for mercy.

The vast expanse of the city was instantly drowned in the overwhelming radiance of the spell. The brilliance dominated the world, erasing every shadow, silhouette, and sense of depth.

Anthony’s smile sharpened into a smirk. Having already bested Lucian in a contest of pure swordsmanship, he felt no hesitation in proving his superiority in the realms of raw magic and mana. With a single thought, his own mana resonated outward, rushing forth like a violent thunderstorm unleashed upon the earth.

The moment the decree left Anthony’s lips, his mana obeyed with terrifying precision. With a heavy, thundering silence, the entire battlefield was plunged into total stillness. Every sound vanished and all motion ceased. It felt as though time itself had been gripped and crushed by an invisible hand. An instant later, Lucian’s magic began to disintegrate. The blinding golden pillar cracked apart before vanishing entirely, taking the light that had consumed the city with it, as if it had never existed at all.

Anthony had neutralized Lucian’s forbidden spell by manifesting one of his own.

Anthony’s voice boomed from above as he materialized high over Lucian. His mana surged once more, rippling in massive waves that rattled the very foundations of reality. Space began to decay almost immediately. The void spilled into existence as reality warped and tore itself apart, forming a colossal maw large enough to swallow a solar system without effort.

As the maw gaped open, a violent gravitational surge pulled upward. The city was uprooted from the earth, with buildings flying toward the dark cosmic abyss like debris in a hurricane. Lucian’s eyes narrowed as the gravity took hold of him, his frame straining against the overwhelming force.

Activating his newly gained time affinity, Lucian attempted to anchor himself to a fixed point in space-time. Even so, the area trembled, and particles of time slipped through his grasp like grains of sand. With a deafening roar, his defensive spell shattered as the gravity took hold, dragging him toward the darkness. Lucian understood instinctively that entering that maw meant absolute death.

His core vibrated violently as another cataclysmic wave of mana burst forth, splitting the sky. A second later, a tyrannical, absolute light radiated from his body, glowing with the brilliance of an entire galaxy. The separate plane seemed to melt under the unbearable heat of that radiance, and reality itself groaned under the pressure.

The massive gravitational pull snapped instantly, followed by the destruction of the great maw. It was erased in an instant, crumbling without a fight as the forbidden magic failed.

The ravaged separate plane began to heal itself immediately. Buildings reconstructed from nothing, vehicles reappeared, and roads snapped back into place as reality tried to repair the damage. However, before the restoration was complete, another ripple of mana tore through the newly mended world, shredding it once more and forcing the plane to restart its reconstruction.

Lucian’s voice rang out as he pivoted into a relentless counterattack. Space twisted and inverted around him, forming living vortexes. Their numbers multiplied in a heartbeat—tens, hundreds, thousands, and then millions. From every swirling hole, a beam of pure, incinerating destruction shot toward Anthony, each one capable of turning anything it touched into molten slag.

In a fraction of a second, millions of strikes reached Anthony. He did not flinch. Instead, he blurred from his spot, weaving through the air with effortless grace. The beams pursued him doggedly, some crashing and detonating in his wake, yet their numbers never dwindled. They hunted him like relentless homing missiles.

Their velocity spiked suddenly, closing the gap in a flash. They converged on Anthony and erupted in a blinding surge of heat and storm, charring the very sky. The temperature reached such a peak that a planet would have been turned to liquid beneath the strain.

Lucian hovered quietly, his senses fully alert. He was under no illusion that a single spell would end Anthony. Moments later, he snapped his gaze upward.

Anthony was hovering there, his hair and clothes whipping about in the fading heat of the explosion.

His voice descended like a divine decree. Mana ripped through the sky like a midnight storm, boiling with the intensity of an active volcano. Even after casting such high-level spells, his mana reserves remained untouched—limitless, unfathomable, and absolute.