MIGHT AS WELL BE OP

Chapter 628: Illusion

Holy Radiance

At his words, a blinding surge of golden light erupted from Anthony, bursting outward from his form like the birth of a new sun. It swept across the void in every direction, devouring all it touched.

Every mote of chaos energy within kilometers was instantly dissolved, erased from existence. The countless spectral hands, so eager to claim his life moments before, disintegrated without resistance, their essence annihilated before they could even scream.

Then, as quickly as it came, the brilliance receded. Anthony’s figure emerged from the fading glow, suspended in the void with serene poise. His blue eyes shone with a tranquil depth, his expression untouched by strain, and a faint smile curved his lips.

His voice, calm yet brisk, broke the silence.

Spatial Blade

At his command, the galaxy itself seemed to still. Planets ceased their rotations. Stars hung frozen mid-flare. Moons halted in their silent arcs.

Then — reality cracked.

Space shattered like fragile glass, only to fold and weave itself anew under the weight of his words, which seemed to carry the authority of natural law.

Lilithra’s eyes narrowed, a shiver of mortality crawling along her skin. From the rifted void, crescent-shaped blades of condensed space began to take form, first in the dozens, then the thousands, until their number reached into the millions.

In the next breath, they moved, locked upon her like a predator upon prey, screaming forward from all directions, granting no opening, no hope of evasion.

But Lilithra didn’t move. Magic was her kingdom. It was the root of her throne, her absolute domain.

Phantom Phase

Her form shifted in an instant, turning translucent as though she had become nothing more than the ghost of herself.

The first wave of spatial blades reached her, and passed harmlessly through her body, dismantling reality itself but leaving her untouched, as though she were only a reflection cast upon the void.

Yet the blades did not pause for even a split second. They came endlessly, a storm without end, converging upon a single point in space with relentless, bottomless hunger.

Her arm rose, and with a simple snap of her fingers, the fabric of reality twisted around Anthony.

Spatial Exchange

In an instant, their positions inverted, Anthony now where Lilithra had stood, and Lilithra where Anthony had been, as though the universe itself had casually decided to swap them.

Anthony hadn’t even seen it coming. There had been no trace of spatial affinity from Lilithra, no telltale shift in energy.

But he wasn’t surprised. The world was vast, filled with skills and abilities that defied expectation, gifts that allowed their wielders to do what should have been impossible.

If he had activated the Mental Calculation of his Sense Dome, he would have predicted the exchange before it occurred.

But... it made no difference whether he had or not.

The collapsing storm of spatial blades converged upon him, yet they passed harmlessly through his form, unable to touch him. He hadn’t phased out of existence; no, the truth was simpler. His own attacks could never be turned against him.

Then — something.

A faint, crawling sensation beneath his skin, moving fast.

’Poison,’ Anthony thought, his gaze narrowing.

’Clever... such battle experience.’

The realization came swiftly: Lilithra had laced her position with poison before initiating the exchange. But it was a futile ploy, Anthony’s body was utterly immune to toxins.

With a thought, the countless spatial blades dissipated into nothing. Anthony’s eyes locked on Lilithra. She floated in the void, a faint frown creasing her brow as the truth set in.

Her plan had failed.

Suddenly, black flames erupted from Lilithra, writhing like living shadows. The temperature spiked instantly, climbing to a level that made it seem as though space itself could melt.

The flames surged higher, greedily devouring the chaos energy that surrounded her, each pulse feeding their infernal hunger. A smile curved across Lilithra’s lips.

Abyssal Supernova

The heat reached its peak, then everything dissolved. Stars themselves were consumed as the black inferno detonated outward with catastrophic force.

A galaxy-shaking explosion ripped through the void, swallowing worlds whole, tearing reality as though intent on erasing all traces of life.

Anthony stood unmoving. He did not defend. He did not counter. He simply watched the darkness close around him.

Space convulsed and split apart, ripped like cloth, shattered like glass. Cosmic dust spiraled in vast plumes, fragments of obliterated matter scattering in every direction. Across the heavens, the shockwave roared, shattering distant asteroids and warping the fabric of the void.

Within the chaos, Lilithra hovered in eerie stillness, her gaze fixed on where Anthony had stood. She had seen him face the onslaught without even the faintest attempt at resistance, as if conceding that no defense could withstand her spell.

But then, through the swirling haze, he emerged.

His clothes remained unblemished. His posture was straight, unshaken. His skin glowed with flawless fairness, his expression calm, his face untouched by strain.

He stood there as though nothing her flames had done could touch him.

Lilithra’s eyes widened in disbelief.

He should have been injured, burned, something. Even the smallest cut, the faintest scorch... anything to prove her attack had left a mark.

But she could not have known.

Anthony was utterly immune to all flames, no matter their intensity, nature, or origin. Whether divine fire, cursed flame, or chaos-born inferno, it was all the same.

Futile.

Suddenly, Lilithra’s instincts screamed, a warning flaring in the depths of her mind, but it came too late. A footheel crashed into her jaw with the force of a falling warship, the impact detonating through her skull.

Her body whipped sideways, hurling across the void before slamming into a pulsar star with a deafening, cosmic crack.

Her eyes snapped back toward Anthony, only to see two of him.

’An illusion,’ she thought coldly.

Her form blurred into a streak, chaos energy spiraling to her forehead. A spectral eye tore itself open upon her brow.

Illusion Eyes

The world shifted in her vision, falsehoods melting away, just in time to catch a fist surging toward her chest. Without hesitation, she slipped aside, her movement as fluid as thought.

But she had no intention of engaging in hand to hand combat again.

Spatial Exchange

In a blink, her position swapped with a drifting asteroid fragment. The moment she rematerialized, her chaos energy pulsed violently, and her figure split, again, and again, until hundreds of her stood in the void.

Illusion Clones

But Anthony’s calm blue eyes didn’t so much as flicker toward the decoys. They locked directly on her true self, cutting through her trickery as though the illusions had never existed.

With a thought, crimson flames ignited around him, each one coalescing into a flawless javelin. Without a word, they launched forward in unison, streaking through the void at breakneck speed.

Lilithra’s eyes narrowed. She discarded the illusions instantly, shifting elements with precision born of millennia.

Obsidian Rain