Chapter 1031

A flash of light, and soon enough, two figures materialized on unfamiliar grounds like they had always been there.

The moment they did, one of them jumped backward to put a lot of distance between himself and the man before him.

The moment they arrived, the entire planet groaned beneath their presence.

It was a world far smaller than most—compact enough that its horizons curved visibly in the distance, giving the unsettling impression that the entire landmass had been folded into a confined sphere.

Yet despite its size, it felt vast in intensity, every single inch of it brimming with untamed violence.

The terrain was savage.

Jagged mountain ridges tore upward like the broken fangs of some dead celestial beast, their sharp peaks cutting into a sky stained in shades of burning orange and blood-red.

Between them stretched dense forests of towering, black-barked trees, their branches twisted and leafless, clawing toward the heavens like desperate hands.

Their trunks were scorched in places, as if wildfires swept through regularly, leaving behind a thick smoke that still lingered in the heated air.

The ground itself was cracked and uneven, veins of glowing magma pulsing beneath the surface like the exposed arteries of the world.

Every few moments, bursts of steam hissed upward from hidden fissures, carrying with them waves of unbearable heat that distorted the landscape in shimmering ripples.

The air was brutal.

Dry.

Heavy.

Scorching enough to make breathing feel like inhaling through open flame.

Each gust of wind carried ash, dust, and the faint metallic scent of minerals baked under relentless pressure.

Above it all, the sky churned endlessly.

Dark storm clouds spiraled in unnatural formations, lit from within by veins of crimson lightning that split across the heavens without thunder.

It was as though the atmosphere itself was highly unstable, reacting violently to the existence of anyone powerful enough to stand upon its surface.

And because the planet was so small, everything felt connected.

A tremor in one region rippled instantly through another.

A roar in the mountains echoed through the forests.

A single clash between overwhelming forces here would not remain local—it would race through the crust, shake the skies, and send its impact across the entire world.

This was not a place meant for peace.

It was an arena.

... An arena between father and son.

"Welcome, kid, to our own personal battlefield away from the petty, useless, weak clash of the others." Gustav grinned as he stretched his hands wide as if he were ready for a hug.

Grey scowled, his brows twitching in irritation as he looked around the desolate place.

’I was also planning on taking him somewhere private when he made a move because I didn’t want the others to be caught in our spat. But he did exactly what I was thinking.

But what the hell?! Why does he keep appearing inside my personal space without me sensing him? If he keeps using his teleportation magic like this, this fight will become impossibly hard soon.’

"... You see, the reason I chose this place is because this particular race was quite annoying to deal with. I had to send Zodiac Two to deal with them before we could conquer this planet."

Sighing, he lifted his gaze to stare at Grey, who was pointing his lightning sword downward, though his body was still obviously tense as if ready for whatever was to come.

"Since that race was an annoying, persistently pesky roach, I chose here because, in the same sense, you are no different from them. Roach..." Gustav’s brows twitched in irritation.

Grey shifted his foot slightly against the ground for a second.

"Are you sure you want to do this without your leeches helping you? After all, you have just three affinities and I have five plus ki."

Gustav smiled deeply, his voice dripping with absolute confidence.

"If it were determined by the amount of affinities one had, then Blake would have been able to defeat me before he ascended into becoming a celestial."

"Then doesn’t that mean he is better?" Grey countered smoothly.

"Even after years of being an Original and living, you haven’t ascended to the celestial realm yet, while he did. Or are you simply unable to?"

"....."

Gustav angled his neck to the side with an amused look on his face, as if he had just heard the funniest joke one could possibly tell him.

"You see, life isn’t black and white like you think, Grey. There’s more to existence than just what you have been seeing."

Rubbing his chin for a moment, he looked around the desolate place before directing his gaze right back at the Supreme Magus.

"... You have encountered the warrior race, you encountered Blake as a celestial, you encountered demons too, encountered Thalos the gargoyle, and even that lightning Phoenix of yours... would you have guessed or thought that such things existed when you were younger?"

Grey scowled deeply.

It was true.

He had been visibly surprised about all of these things when he first discovered them, as he hadn’t known back then that there were even tons of different worlds out there.

Though it was because of the book he received from Blake that he was first introduced to the Dwarven world, he still couldn’t believe the absolute amount of different races he had met since then.

For example, Vayun.

He hadn’t expected that there would be a whole other world with humans on it who used ki and fought with weapons as opposed to mages using magic.

But still, what exactly was Gustav getting at?

"Aside from those blasted Celestials... do you know that there are beings termed as ’Godslayers’?"

"....?!"

Grey’s gaze sharpened in confusion at what the man was saying.

Godslayers? What was that?

Yet from the name alone, he could deduce that these people literally hunt down and slay gods.

Kind of...

"Ha! Judging by your confused gaze, you never knew. Well, just for your information, your pops here is a Godslayer. A being with the exact same strength as those damned Celestials. So yes, I’m not a celestial; I’m something on par with them."

Sigh—!

Grey shook his head and then twisted the lightning sword in his hand, ki swirling around his legs.

Putting heavy pressure on his limbs, the ground cracked beneath him, with deep fissures snaking through the earth.

"Whatever... whatever you are, I don’t give a fuck."

The next second, Gustav vanished entirely from view and reappeared directly before Grey with a wide grin on his face.

"Oh, you will...."

His hand shot forward as a gleaming metal sword appeared instantly in his grip, slicing straight for Grey’s neck.