Due to the influence of the "absorption" array below, the "Light Sanctuary" could no longer be sustained. And for a moment, the array couldn't fully absorb all the light elements descending from the sky. Without any shielding, the situation didn't look promising.
Seeing Adrian calling everyone to retreat towards the indoor space we came from, I raised the Water Abyss Sword and swung with all my might at Beluto's neck again.
This time I finally landed a hit, but his neck didn't show any signs of dehydration as expected...
"Haha, did you fall for it? I'm not limited to just a human form - any part of my body can transform into any shape!"
Was it really necessary to be so arrogant? I hadn't even asked a question, yet he boastfully showed off to me. Talk about candid!
Observing carefully, I noticed a faint metallic luster on Beluto's neck. This guy actually transformed his entire neck area into a metallic texture - no wonder the Water Abyss Sword had no effect.
That's the downside of this sword - it has absolutely no physical attack power. Aside from rapidly dehydrating enemies, it seems to have no other uses...
Fortunately, I wasn't too surprised, having already seen the God of Light manipulating light elements into various physical forms in Liana's memories - be it living flesh or inanimate objects. And he didn't gain an absolute advantage from this either - my attack may have failed, but his "light judgment" didn't achieve the intended effect either.
After a period of accumulation, the attraction force of the absorption array became too powerful! It formed a large "vacuum" area of light elements within a radius of dozens of meters in the lower airspace, even preventing the "light judgment" from penetrating through.
The massive descending light elements hadn't reached the ground yet, with the vast majority directly attracted towards the array center, forming a spectacular "light funnel" phenomenon in mid-air. Adrian and the others on the ground had a big scare, but emerged completely unharmed.
"Can you really transform into anything?"
Seeing this situation, I felt relieved and purposely questioned Beluto while pointing my sword at him.
"Then can you turn your entire body into this kind of metallic, hard skin? Otherwise, as long as your body is composed of flesh, you can't escape my Water Abyss Sword!"
"Hmph, you think I can't? Of course it's no problem!"
Beluto fell for the bait, coldly snorting to indicate it would be very easy. Soon after, his entire body surface emitted a faint yellowish metallic glow.
This guy actually turned himself into a gold tycoon - how extravagant!
Indeed, I definitely couldn't cut through Beluto in this state, since a gold-composed body contains no moisture for the Water Abyss Sword to act on. But as expected, he should...
"Wah--ahhhhhh!"
Just deserts arrived! Beluto had barely gloated for a second before his body plummeted towards the ground like a wilted scallion.
"Hehe, you think you can still fly like that? Dream on!"
How could twelve wings support an actual solid gold body? Seeing him crash into the ground, forming a large crater and unable to get up for a long time, I could barely stifle my laughter up in the air. The God of Light's intelligence really wasn't too high - practically on par with a child's.
"Mike, it's your turn now!"
Adrian had been waiting below for a while. Seeing this, he immediately prompted. Mike didn't dare neglect it, dashing over to Beluto's side in the blink of an eye and digging him out.
In the end, Beluto was about on par with Cyra. Aside from his excellent control over light elements, his physical offensive abilities were extremely poor, and he didn't know any martial arts either. Once his light element abilities were breached and that advantage lost, his weaknesses were almost entirely exposed.
And this gold body he formed from light elements, aside from slightly more strength than an ordinary person, was virtually useless. Especially against a physical enhancement expert like Mike, it was simply a punching bag - an extravagant, luxurious one at that.
"Impossible, how can a human possess such immense power!"
Seeing himself completely unable to fight Mike head-on, getting pinned down the moment they engaged, Beluto could only curl up like a turtle, hugging his head and not daring to move. His entire defensive capability relied solely on that metallic hardness, and though he seemed to feel no pain, he kept wailing.
"I am the God of Light of this world, you can't go this far!"
"So what if you're the God of Light? Is this golden body really that hard? To me it's just a lump of soft dough!"
Mike didn't hesitate to slam his fist straight down. Each swing of his arm left a deep imprint on Beluto's body. Soon, Beluto was beaten into an unrecognizable pulp - truly a "lump of golden dough"! This guy even tried expanding his size midway to break free, but failed - with the surroundings so depleted of light elements and no external replenishment, just sustaining this form without dissipating was already quite difficult.
"He's still not dead?"
I landed on the ground to find Mike had pummeled Beluto into a misshapen mess. Only a vaguely mouth-like part remained, continuously making noises.
"Cunning humans, I need light elements... otherwise you... would never be my match!"
"Mike, Feliciana, you'd better finish him off quickly, before something else happens!"
One of Adrian's explosive arrows shot over, shattering Beluto's golden body into dust. But those "gold fragments" immediately changed their material composition, melting into a liquid that converged towards the center.
"But how can we kill him?"
I suddenly felt a sense of helplessness. This ability was just too overpowered. Essentially, whether that puddle or the previous gold form, it was just a vessel controlled by Beluto. But we had no means to directly exterminate his soul - no matter how many times we scattered him, he would just regenerate repeatedly.
We could only watch helplessly as that puddle reconverged into one mass, growing larger and larger, eventually solidifying into an enormous spherical boulder.
But this was way too huge - practically the size of a small mountain!
The stone's density was far lower than gold, hence the drastic expansion in volume. But I never expected Beluto to also start resorting to shameless tactics - he began as a humanoid, but now wasn't even taking human form anymore, leaving Mike dumbfounded where he stood. No matter what, we never anticipated the opponent would employ such despicable methods.
Unexpectedly, it didn't roll over to crush Mike and me. Having taken enough abuse from Mike's hands, it actually changed directions, rolling towards Vivianne on the other side instead!
The mere fourth-tier Vivianne had never witnessed such a scene. Having never seen the God of Light's abilities, she stood gaping at the massive boulder above, taking a long while to come to her senses.
"Watch out!"
Before I could attempt a rescue, a blur of movement flashed by - Ron darted out from the side like lightning, pushing Vivianne out of the boulder's crushing range just in time, both of them rolling away in a tangle.
Phew, that was a relief!
But the boulder didn't stop there, continuing to roll forward. A sense of foreboding rose within me.
"It's the absorption array! Quick, stop it - that's Beluto's real target!"
Judith's shrill voice came from in front of the boulder. Having stayed by the array, she jumped aside early after seeing the bad omen, shouting a warning to us.
"Oh no!"
Mike and I immediately gave chase. The absorption array had amassed a large amount of light elements - if Beluto made contact, the consequences would be unimaginable! The entire array could be utterly destroyed.
But it was already too late. Beluto had rolled right up to the array's vicinity, about to make contact with the light elements...
Suddenly, an invisible barrier appeared in front of the boulder, halting its progress and leaving us all baffled for a moment. Where did this magic defense wall come from?
"That's..."
Being closest, Judith soon noticed an arrow embedded in the ground beside the array - the answer was obvious.
"I've used 'Wall' to protect the absorption array. It can't get any closer!"
Here is the translation to English:
Holding a bow and arrow in his hands, Adrian ran over and leapt up onto the top of a huge boulder, asking below.
"Beluto, do you surrender? If we keep fighting, without the supplement of the light element, you will not be able to keep regenerating endlessly, right?"
"..."
After remaining silent for a long time, when we had grown impatient and thought we would have to keep fighting, finally a very faint and small voice resounded in everyone's minds.
"I surrender!"
In an instant, the colors of the world changed, and everything around us suddenly disappeared, including the huge boulder under Adrian's feet. I turned around and found myself back at the edge of the forest where we first entered this trial space.
Of course, besides me, all the others had also gathered at this place.
"What's going on, weren't we just fighting the God of Light Beluto in the palace on the mountaintop?"
Vivianne called out in an astonished tone, looking around. Clearly she was unable to recognize this place. But for me and Adrian, it couldn't be more familiar.
"Could it be that Beluto couldn't beat us, so he transported us all here?"
Mike and Ron thought this was Beluto playing tricks.
"Or perhaps, it's not like that..."
Realizing what had happened, I couldn't help but laugh.
"We won, we finally cleared it!"