"It's a legendary lich. You all go ahead; I'll hold them off!"
The giants sent by Muria to assist the western nations of the continent in suppressing the undead quickly noticed the undead and ghost ships charging toward them, soon after Barbossa spotted them. The strongest of the storm giants was the first to detect the approaching undead. Without hesitation, he immediately sent a distress signal to the legends in Synapse and ordered the cloud giants behind him to retreat with their floating ships.
This was both a protocol and a matter of pride for the storm giants. A storm giant could not allow himself to flee while leaving weaker cloud giants behind. If he did, he would feel too ashamed to return to Synapse and continue serving Muria.
"Barbossa, do you enjoy bullying the weak so much?" Just as the storm giant was surrounded by countless undead and had closed his eyes, ready to meet his end, a thick golden beam of light shot past him. The lightning radiating from it instantly obliterated all the undead besieging him. The golden beam then hurtled toward the mass of ghost ships ahead, smashing through everything in its path, no matter what stood in its way.
"The Titan's exclusive weapon!" Standing on the bridge of his ghost flagship, Barbossa watched the rapidly approaching golden beam with eerie calmness, even a hint of excitement. With his sensing abilities, he could see the true nature of the golden beam—it was a spear nearly two hundred meters long, inscribed with ancient divine runes that carried the power of fundamental laws.
Barbossa didn't make any move, but his ghost ship, which he had named the Ghost Palace, began to fire. The main cannon, nearly ten meters in diameter and mounted at the center of the ship, began to glow as it gathered pure death energy. It then fired a gray-black beam of light that annihilated everything in its path, directly colliding with Muria's Sun-Spear.
Boom—
The two forces clashed for only three seconds before Muria's Sun-Spear began to falter. The light enveloping it dimmed rapidly, revealing its true form. Then, the death beam struck it, and with a mournful cry, the spear was blasted into a spatial rift and vanished.
"The power of that cannon is impressive!" Muria, now in his Titan form, suddenly appeared in front of the storm giant who had been prepared to sacrifice himself. He faced the death beam that Barbossa had just fired head-on.
Boom!
To protect the storm giant behind him and to showcase his strength to Barbossa, Muria didn't retreat. Instead, he punched toward the death beam.
It was a contest between Muria's personal strength and one of Barbossa's greatest creations. For half a minute, Muria punched again and again, seemingly slowly yet quickly, without taking a single step back.
"Little one, you've got some nerve, daring to appear before me again," Barbossa's lifeless voice echoed across the battlefield, filled with mountains of corpses and seas of bones, as he observed that his warship's main cannon couldn't overcome Muria. He realized that Muria was using a technique to deflect most of the cannon's power into spatial rifts. Such a brute-force attack, relying solely on raw power, wouldn't work against him.
But Barbossa didn't care. The main cannon was meant for clearing out lesser enemies. "Why shouldn't I dare? Do I have any reason to fear you?" Muria replied, lowering his fist, which was now emitting faint wisps of smoke. The Holy Emperor's Abyss armor covering his hands had begun to glow red—a first for him.
"You stole from my shipyard, Titan and Dragon's child," Barbossa said, growing more cautious now that he sensed the legendary power in Muria. He was uncertain about the attitude of the Titans and the Golden Dragon clan toward Muria. Given the normal growth rate, Muria shouldn't have reached legendary status yet; he should still be in the Soul Intent stage.
"If you return what you took, I might let bygones be bygones," Barbossa decided to bide his time, willing to let this slide. After all, his experience in Synapse had left him shaken. The little brat apparently had someone capable of killing him nearby at all times—an extraordinary level of protection. If that were truly a guardian assigned by his elders, it meant his elders doted on him to an exaggerated degree. If Barbossa pushed things too far, would he end up being hunted by a legendary Titan or Dragon King?
Although he had the backing of the Council of the Dead, being targeted by a legend was still highly uncomfortable. For someone not yet a legend, being targeted by one was a recipe for disaster. So, to be safe, Barbossa decided it was best to just reclaim what was his. The position of the Council President, after all, could wait another two thousand years. Whether he ascended to the void or chose to become a god, he could only hold the position once anyway.
"I took it fair and square; why should I give it back?" Muria replied confidently. As someone with the bloodline of a Golden Dragon and a champion of goodness, robbing a peak legendary lich wasn't something anyone could argue against. It was perfectly justifiable. Wait, no, it wasn't robbery—taking from evil to uphold justice was merely enforcing righteousness.
"Don't be so arrogant, little one. You're only at the second tier of the legendary rank." From his ghost flagship, which hovered like a mountain in the sky, Barbossa unleashed an endless surge of death energy. It poured out from every opening and seam, converging to form a colossal skeleton over a thousand meters tall. This was a being of pure death energy, akin to an elemental lord, though much larger.
The enormous deathly skeleton gazed down at Muria, its hollow eye sockets igniting with two scarlet lights, like twin blood-red suns, exuding a powerful aura of intimidation. "Now that you stand before me, where do you think you can escape to?"
"Just because you're big doesn't mean you're invincible! Hold on a moment," Muria scoffed as he saw Barbossa's impressive display of power. He retrieved the Sun-Spear from the spatial rift it had been hiding in, turned, and grabbed the storm giant and his giant roc. Then, with a mighty throw, he launched them into the distance, transforming them into two shining meteors streaking across the sky.
"Hm!" Barbossa watched Muria's actions but made no move, letting him help his subordinates escape. After all, a mere Soul Intent-level giant was of no concern to him.
"Now it's just you and me," Muria said as he looked up at Barbossa's towering, skeletal form. Creating such a massive body was no small feat, and Muria had to admit it was impressive. He couldn't replicate something of this scale himself. Size alone could evoke a sense of despair, and Muria knew this was no mere display of power. He could sense that a spatial domain had formed with Barbossa's transformation.
"I have no more reservations now." Brilliant lightning arced around Muria's body as his power surged, seemingly preparing for a fight to the death with the colossal death god before him.
"As expected of a Titan, your courage is commendable," Barbossa remarked, a hint of admiration in his voice as he observed Muria's readiness to battle. He seemed to appreciate the Titan's fighting spirit.
"Captain Barbossa, the mountains stand unchanged, the rivers flow forever. We'll meet again in five hundred years." Muria gave Barbossa a respectful nod, then, under Barbossa's surprised gaze, transformed into a torrent of lightning and shot off in the opposite direction, leaving only a trail of light in his wake.
Muria had no reservations left. If he didn't flee now, when would he? Did he really intend to go toe-to-toe with the legendary lich? He wasn't that foolish; he knew his own strength well enough. A battle with Barbossa would only end in defeat.
Fighting someone he couldn't defeat, who he'd already looted, would be madness. So, after rescuing his subordinates, Muria chose the only sensible option—escape.
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