In the void, surrounded by planetary fragments, the two "strongest" faced each other.
With the Elemental Corridors destroyed, the Star Grail, the initial cause of the great war and coveted by all the gods, floated beside Su Mo. But no one cared about this prize.
In the flames of war that burned even the stars to cinders, Artosh, relying on his "strongest" divine essence, had increased his strength hundreds, even thousands of times, swelling to a point where he could rival a star.
However, even such power could not harm Su Mo in the slightest.
And as Su Mo's voice announcing the end rang out, a long, narrow sword of fire manifested in his hand.
It needed no aim, for it was guaranteed to hit;
It needed no speed, for it was impossible to escape;
It needed no power, for it was guaranteed to defeat the enemy.
Under the brilliant blade of sacred fire, the War God Artosh had no time to resist and was directly defeated.
Sensing the sudden interruption of his divine essence, both his divine power and Imaginary Energy dissipated as if they had seized up.
His entire body was instantly so powerless that he couldn't even lift a hand. At first, Artosh tried to resist.
But soon, he realized that he was stepping into an irreversible death. No matter how he resisted, it was futile.
Although he couldn't understand what had happened, he understood one thing: he had been defeated.
"So this is defeat…"
Tasting the bitterness of defeat for the first time in tens of thousands of years, Artosh carefully savored this unfamiliar taste, then turned his gaze to his final and strongest opponent. "Can you tell me, what power did you just use?"
In the final moments of his life, he asked this question.
He had long had a premonition of his defeat.
This premonition did not arise when the Star Grail directly chose Su Mo, but much earlier, even more than ten thousand years ago, before he had even met Su Mo, brought to him by the End Dragon Hartyleim.
Although Hartyleim's prediction had ultimately been wrong—it was not some worthless weakling who ended his life, but a powerhouse from another world—the end result was the same.
He had long been prepared for defeat.
Noticing that the Flügel he had created had been transferred away by the other party before his defeat, Artosh no longer held any attachments to those children.
He believed that Su Mo could take good care of those naive and reckless wings.
With this concern gone, in the moments before his death, what he cared about most was the power Su Mo had used.
That feeling of being irresistible, invincible, and unbeatable was like a decree of fate, making him feel that he absolutely could not be its enemy.
What kind of power could make even a War God lose his will to fight?
To Artosh's question, Su Mo was as frank as ever.
"If you're asking about the nature of the power, I can tell you that it's mixed with the concepts of many mythological armaments. For example, the Brahmastra, which is guaranteed to pierce to victory; Gungnir, which is guaranteed to hit when thrown; Tyrfing, which is guaranteed to tear upon impact; and many other powers…"
The so-called mythological armaments, although their effects were heaven-defying, each had corresponding rules. As long as one knew these rules, it was possible to counter them.
And naturally, if these characteristics were woven together, it was possible to forge a bug-level mythological armament, making it a power that ordinary beings could hardly resist.
However, no matter how much was said about the nature of these weapons, they were still just the results of mythological art weaving, with no qualitative difference from his previous techniques.
A mechanism of this level was naturally not enough to be Su Mo's current trump card.
After destroying and rebuilding the entire Divine Realm and becoming its master, Su Mo's Mythological Thaumaturgy had also undergone a qualitative leap.
This leap was no longer the result of weaving Divinities, but of weaving myths.
"If you want to know the real reason for your defeat, there is only one: good will always triumph over evil. This is the absolute rule from the Zoroastrian cosmology."
"A mere 'strongest' divine essence is not enough to contend with the weight of an entire cosmology. Your divine essence concept is too simple."
Justice will always triumph over evil, and good will always triumph over malice. This fairytale-like paradigm happened to be the embodiment of the good and evil dualism of the Zoroastrian cosmology.
After completely destroying the Zoroastrian pantheon and unifying all of its myths, Su Mo had initially grasped this cosmology.
The benefit of mastering a cosmology was the ability to use an absolute concept to crush an opponent who did not possess a concept of equal weight.
This crushing force was almost a dimensional-level advantage.
Although the War God Artosh was powerful, and had even learned how to absorb Imaginary Energy on his own, in the realm of divine essence concepts, he was still too weak, collapsing at the first touch.
Just as a sun god would not fear a fire god, a god of the underworld would not fear a god of death, and a sky god would not fear a thunder god, divine essence concepts also had their own hierarchy.
And no matter what god it was, even the One God, its concept could not be greater than the entire world.
So, when a war god like Artosh faced the concept of a cosmology, even if he was the strongest, he could not achieve victory.
In the system of good and evil dualism, if he was truly the strongest, then he must be of the camp of good.
Then he would have to obey the orders of Su Mo, the Pontiff, and would inevitably be defeated. If he was not the strongest, then it went without saying that he would be defeated directly.
Strong or not, he would lose. From the very beginning, the outcome of this battle was already determined.
The only thing that could contend with a cosmology and escape the power of the good and evil dualism system was another cosmology.
Unfortunately, the world of No Game No Life, whose civilization had not developed that prosperously, did not have this concept.
"My divine essence concept is too simple?"
Hearing this answer, Artosh was stunned for a moment, then quickly understood. Although he had always held the aesthetic that simple and pure was powerful, Su Mo's previous sword strike had indeed given him the feeling of facing an entire universe, an unavoidable feeling.
In fact, he had felt during the battle that Su Mo's energy output was not as great as his.
But when the divine essence concept became extremely complex, pure energy could no longer make up for the conceptual disadvantage.
No matter how much power he absorbed from the void, he would ultimately just be a stepping stone for the other's system.
Just as matter obeys energy, energy must also obey a higher concept. In this regard, he had indeed lost.
With the doubts in his heart resolved, Artosh's body had already dissipated by half. In the last few seconds, he turned his gaze to the sword of fire in Su Mo's hand and asked one last question.
"What is the name of this sword?"
Hearing this, Su Mo glanced at the long sword in his hand, pondered for a second, and said, "It used to be called the Sword of Victory, the incarnation of radiance. After comprehending the dualism of good and evil, this technique has undergone a qualitative leap. Now, it should be initially worthy of this name."
"Its name is the Radiance of the King. Its meaning is certain victory!" This sword represented the core concept of the Zoroastastrian cosmology: the "certain victory" in "good will always triumph over evil."
Hearing this name, Artosh wore a look of relief, then turned into specks of light and completely disappeared.
With that, the battle ended. The War God Artosh was dead.
Witnessing this scene, within Avalon, except for the Flügel girls who wore expressions of grief, everyone else breathed a sigh of relief and showed expressions of joy. In any case, the battle was over, and their side had won. There was nothing more worthy of celebration.
However, after the celebration, looking at the shattered home planet before them and the endless starry sky, everyone fell silent again.
Yes, we won. But what now?
In this completely destroyed starry sky, was there still a place for them to live? For a moment, most of them were lost. Only now did they have time to think about what came after the great war.
Looking at the world that had lost all space for survival after the flames of war, even someone as slow as March 7th realized this problem.
"It was called the war to end all wars. Now the war is over, but it seems like there's nothing left!" She scratched her head, not knowing how to solve the problem before her.
Ask Himeko to buy some basic supplies and then transport them over myself? With the Astral Express's financial resources, it seems like a drop in the bucket!
"Um, do you guys need to restock on food? I might be able to help with that." After some thought, March 7th still spoke up.
In the interstellar era, the price of simple food was not too expensive. If she went to ask Himeko, she might be able to help a little. One life saved is one life saved!
Faced with the girl's enthusiastic question, Jibril, at the side, came back to her senses and shook her head. "Don't worry. Just leave small matters like this to Master!"
"Lord Su Mo?" Looking at her confident appearance, March 7th was a little puzzled.
In this situation, what good could mere strength do? Even if Su Mo could cross the starry river, it would take a long time to find a habitable planet, right?
In the chat group, many people had similar questions. However, before these questions could be voiced, a change occurred.
The light of the Star Grail illuminated the entire universe. Su Mo's hand directly grasped the Star Grail.
In the next second, he spoke.
"Let there be light."
And so, a scene like the creation of the world appeared in the starry sky.