960 Chapter 960 — A God

A moment later, a portal appeared, and a man stepped through.

He was a tall man with short blonde hair. His haircut was very professional, almost like he was working in an office.

He wore a black jacket with a white shirt underneath, and he wore black pants.

For some reason, Shang's mind immediately associated him with some managers from Earth.

"Yes, Abaddon?" Bina Ching asked.

Yes, this was King Sanctified Death, Abaddon.

Abaddon just smiled brightly and gave a short nod of respect to Bina Ching before he turned to Shang.

Shang looked back, and for just a bit, the two of them looked at each other.

For the first time, the two of them met with their real bodies.

'I've never felt such an intense Aura before,' Shang thought.

Even though he had been prepared, he had still been surprised by the sheer intensity of Abaddon's Aura.

Abaddon's Aura was a warm yellow. He felt like a nice and kind person.

However, that was only on the surface.

Deeply hidden inside the intense Aura was a white nothingness. It was almost like a white hole was trying to act like a warm sun.

But it was very difficult to actually see through the disguise.

Of course, Shang's Aura felt just as intense and brutal as Abaddon's Aura, but Abaddon had already felt Shang's Aura before.

"I think we should give him a chance," Abaddon said.

The Emperors immediately furrowed their brows.

"Don't misunderstand me," Abaddon quickly said with a helpless smile before any Emperor could speak up. "I'm not saying that this tournament is suddenly for warriors or whatever Path he thinks he treads. I'm saying that we should allow him to compete but without his weapon or Weapon Mana."

The Emperors looked with skepticism at Abaddon.

"I mean," Abaddon continued with a friendly chuckle, "Paths don't necessarily need to be exclusive, right? I have a pretty powerful body, and I'm a Mage. I can also use a couple of Domains that don't rely on Magic Circles."

"You're different," Brutus Cesar interjected. "You've created a completely new way to use Domains, and you did it by extrapolating Domain—related parts from Concepts. That's different from normal Domains."

"Naturally, Uncle Brutus," Abaddon said, "but I used a sort of reductive method to create my Domains. In a way, my Domain doesn't even use a single Concept, and as we all know, Magic is based on Concepts."

"I don't know if he has a Domain, but based on his power, he very likely has one. A Domain is a Domain. In my opinion, if we ban his Domain, we have to ban every

Domain."

The Emperors weren't happy with Abaddon's words.

"I disagree," Bina Ching said. "We don't have to ban every Domain, only yours."

Abaddon's expression didn't change. "I'm not a Mage, then?"

Bina Ching just slowly shook her head. "You know exactly what I meant."

"No, you're right," Abaddon said. "I'm not a Mage."

WHOOOOOOM!

Suddenly, everyone was swallowed by some kind of formless Domain.

And yet, the Domain did... nothing.

It just surrounded everyone, but there was no effect on anyone.

It was just like one layer of reality had overlapped another layer.

Yet, the Mage Lords felt like they had left Aterium and had entered a different world.

Even more, they started to fall without being able to do anything about it!

The Emperors narrowed their eyes.

CRACK!

The reality around the Emperors broke apart, making it appear like they hovered inside cracks in the sky.

The Emperors were also stopping their candidates from falling.

"Explain," Bina Ching coldly demanded, her calm demeanor gone.

Just now, the Emperors had actually felt threatened!

That Domain had felt actually dangerous to them!

"The Sanctified Domain," Abaddon said as he lifted his right hand with a smile. "The core of my power."

"I do not cast Spells."

"I impose the Concepts of the world onto the world itself."

"I don't need a brush or a diagram to impose my will on the world."

"I will it, and the world does it."

"My Domain doesn't use Concepts, and I don't use Spells. I don't even use a Focus or a similar weapon."

"I am not a Mage."

Silence.

No one had expected Abaddon to come out in defense of Shang.

Even more, Abaddon's words actually made sense.

The way they had defined Magic made it impossible to include Abaddon as a Mage.

'He's not a Mage,' Shang thought.

Just now, when he had felt the Domain, he had felt the difference.

The way Abaddon used his power wasn't even related to Magic anymore.

No Spells.

Just pure Concepts imposed on the world around him.

It was like he was controlling the world itself.

Shang had only seen that kind of power from one other person before.

'He's a God.'

'He might not be a True God just yet, but he is walking on the God Path. The God is the only being that can use such a direct way to unleash his power.'

'Lucius was the Mage God, for however short his reign was.'

'Lucius was still a Mage.'

'Abaddon isn't a Mage anymore.'

'He is already on his way to becoming a God, and if he achieves that level, he will become a Pure God, a True God.'

'I don't think Lucius managed to reach such a level.'

In the beginning, the Emperors thought that Abaddon was just a contrarian.

But now, they realized that he was actually right.

He wasn't a Mage.

He might have started out as a Mage, but now, he wasn't like any Mage they had ever seen or met, including Lucius.

Several seconds of silence passed.

"He's right," Nivera Preston, the Deepsteel Empress, said. "He doesn't fit into our definition of Magic anymore."

Nivera took a deep breath. "He's more."

The other Emperors looked at her, but they didn't interject.

"Cultivators focused on their minds and evolved into Mages."

"And now, a Mage has focused even more on his mind and evolved yet again."

"This might be what Mages will eventually become."

"The Perfected Mage Path."