Whether it's skyscrapers or the dust on the streets, none of it can be shaken in the slightest. This place is like a constant world, with no external force able to change its order.
"Impossible... Impossible!" Helbo's voice trembled slightly, "My soul's accumulation over thousands of years, how could it fail to move you?"
He was terrified, roaring madly, his voice filled with unwillingness and anger, and of course, desperately hidden fear and unease. This Legendary Black Wizard felt the impossible eeriness for the second time.
"What did you do to me! Where is this place? You can't possibly have a stronger soul than mine! Impossible! My soul surpasses all legends!"
Helbo, eyes wide with rage, questioned loudly.
Facing his hysteria.
"Who knows."
Ian's voice suddenly resonated, as though coming from all directions. Helbo tried once again to trace the sound and find Ian's soul, but then heard the sound of wings flapping.
The sound was deep and powerful, like the flow of fate.
"You!! How could you be a bird!?" Helbo looked up, face horrified, and saw a raven perched on a telephone pole, its eyes blood-red and icy.
The incomprehensible doubts in his mind awaited no answer.
Because.
Before Ian opened his mouth.
Helbo's soul began to change—like the Sun God, he stared directly at Ian's soul, yet he clearly lacked the Sun God's resilience.
At the beginning.
Helbo's eyes silently began to crack, quickly spreading throughout his body, his entire soul seemingly torn apart by some invisible force.
"I..." Helbo felt an unbearable shock, blankly raising his hand to touch his face, the nose on his serpent-like face falling onto his hand first.
Perhaps all who underwent this kind of magical transformation first lost their noses.
"Cannot comprehend..."
Helbo only managed to mumble.
In the next moment.
His entire soul completely shattered, becoming nourishment. In reality, Ian slowly opened his eyes, seeing the Fierce Goddess beside him looking worried, as if trying to enter his subconscious.
"I think you'd best not do that."
He chuckled lightly.
"You truly have a big secret!"
Seeing Helbo's "Divine State" completely engulfed by magma in the distance, the Fierce Goddess knew Ian was the winner of the soul duel, which made her relieved yet also showed a complex expression.
"I hope this third miracle didn't disappoint you." Ian was helped to his feet, and by now, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius was nearing its end.
The entire city had been buried by volcanic ash and lava, with the once bustling prosperity completely swallowed up and vanished. Cassandra came over and tugged at Ian's clothes.
"My lord, thank you."
She still didn't blame Ian for the disaster, grateful on behalf of the hundreds of priests who remained here. The young girl seemed to have matured considerably overnight. The priests were all crying and grieving, their homes, loved ones, dreams, all turned to nothing at this moment.
"Those who live must continue to tell the stories of the deceased." The Fierce Goddess comforted the priests, feeling her own helpless sorrow.
"This story isn't very complete."
Ian also felt some regret.
Hearing this, the Fierce Goddess revealed an aged look in her eyes.
"No story is complete, there's always regret and pain within. The important thing is that you indeed saved so many people. Perhaps years later, what happened today will be sung."
"It might become... some kind of fairy tale, who knows." She looked at the Little Wizard beside her, her tone sighing, meaningful, while the priests also gradually calmed their emotions.
Singing arose.
As if praying to transcend the souls lost in this disaster.
"You should go too..."
Ian nodded to Cassandra.
The little girl immediately joined the ranks of the surviving priests. Her voice was crisp and ethereal, particularly moving in this sorrowful atmosphere, like a beam of light piercing through the darkness.
"The person you're looking for, and your friend, it seems they've already been buried along with Helbo's ambition..." The Fierce Goddess watched Ian stare at the wreckage down the mountain.
She tried to comfort Ian.
However.
Before she could finish.
She noticed that Ian himself was beginning to exhibit signs of anomaly.
"What's happening?"
Even Ian felt somewhat surprised, his eyes suddenly began to glow, and then, magical runes lit up all over his body, his consciousness seemingly pulled back into the world of thought.
"This is..."
Ian saw.
The blurry figure was becoming clear. Some ancient and powerful force was growing within him, as if flowing from somewhere, not coming from nowhere.
It was... the authority of a paradox.
Ian felt incredulous at this harvest. Meanwhile, in reality, golden magical runes spread all over his body, exuding a faint layer of light.
On this land washed by disaster, a new, unprecedented Legendary Wizard was about to be born. The wave of power made even the Fierce Goddess feel awed and trembling.
"This legend's characteristic... How could it be so powerful!?"
She stared wide-eyed, stunned.
In the sky.
The thick dust stirred by the volcanic eruption was suddenly dispersed, the volcanic ash of the real world gradually settled, the Sun God's chariot passed across the sky, silently arriving beside his daughter.
"You crazy girl, you don't even know who you chose?" The Sun God's appearance wasn't noticed by any priests, but his voice startled the Fierce Goddess.
"What's going on?"
She swallowed in bewilderment, looking at her father.
"With disasters anticipated, haven't you realized the problem? My child, at this moment, this is the historical node, the true torrent hidden beneath Pompeii's downfall." The Sun God glanced at Cassandra nearby and then at Ian, a profound light flickering in his eyes.
"It is... a song leading, the Elder God will awaken."
Amidst the ruins of destruction.
The infinitely radiant Sun God was restraining his brilliance.
His deep and resonant voice gently echoed.