Marvel's master of cosmic magic-Chapter 791

"So the church’s information was accurate," George murmured, studying the mass of writhing forms above the shattered throne. "Everything tied to the Fool’s path... it’s all here."

His gaze lingered on Antigonus’s monstrous body.

If this entire place was arranged by the Goddess of Darkness, then she had allowed him to walk straight into it.

Which raised an obvious question.

Was this a test?

A trap?

Or a game of mutual exploitation?

Perhaps she hoped Antigonus and Zaratul would eliminate George.

Or perhaps she intended for George to finish them both.

Either way, George didn’t care.

As long as he walked away with what he needed, her motives were irrelevant.

"Something just below godhood," George said softly. "Let’s see how close you really are."

Antigonus had never fully completed the transformation required to reach true divinity. Two critical fragments were missing.

Yet his loss of control, combined with the foreign will awakening inside him, had pushed his raw combat output frighteningly close to that realm.

Which made him perfect.

A measuring stick.

George expanded.

His body surged upward, growing into a towering giant.

He drove a massive fist downward.

"Giant’s Fist."

Brute force first.

George knew the Fool’s path excelled at deception, distortion, and manipulation, not direct physical confrontation.

If there was a weakness, it would show here.

The moment the colossal punch neared Antigonus’s head, it vanished.

Not deflected.

Not blocked.

Rewound.

The scene snapped back to the instant before George had thrown the punch.

"Time distortion," George noted.

Antigonus responded.

Countless slick, pale tendrils erupted from empty space, surging toward George from every direction.

Each was thicker, denser, and more lethal than the ones he had faced earlier.

"Time Lock."

George lifted a hand.

The entire palace froze.

Tendrils.

Air.

Antigonus.

All immobilized.

"Funny," George said calmly. "You confuse time. I command it."

His fist alone continued moving.

It slammed into Antigonus’s skull.

The impact detonated.

Cracks raced through the palace floor. The hidden barrier surrounding the mountain groaned under the strain.

The stone throne disintegrated.

Antigonus vanished.

In his place remained only a mangled fragment of a spirit-worm.

"A decoy."

Antigonus reappeared elsewhere.

The remaining worms convulsed violently, and a massive sphere materialized above George.

A planet.

"Concept grafting," George said, eyes narrowing. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

A technique that forcibly stitched unrelated ideas together.

Not summoning a real world.

Not teleporting matter.

But imposing the concept of a planet onto reality.

At full strength, the same method could impose the concept of a star.

George leapt.

His hand came down like a blade.

The planet split in half.

Debris dissolved before it could even fall.

"That’s enough."

George shrank back to human size.

He stopped testing.

A magic circle unfolded above the peak, vast and intricate.

"Fairy Law."

Light flooded the hidden realm.

This spell did not target bodies.

It targeted intent.

Anything George regarded as an enemy within its domain would be struck.

Antigonus had nowhere to run.

The Goddess of Darkness’s seal prevented escape.

The radiance swallowed everything.

When it faded, only a few hundred damaged worms remained from the massive swarm that once formed Antigonus’s body.

Barely alive.

"Good," George said. "Alive is better."

He stepped forward.

Then stopped.

The remaining worms began to dissolve.

Light twisted.

Form condensed.

A young man stood where the monster had been.

Human.

Calm.

Eyes filled with boundless authority.

No madness.

No distortion.

Only something vast, ancient, and profoundly wrong.

George’s lips curved upward.

"Antigonus... no."

He corrected himself.

"So you’ve finally surfaced."

"The Celestial Sovereign."