The Gods’ Gacha Game: Return of the God-King

Chapter 99: A Clash of Magic Blitz

Born into a prestigious family of mages, Lucian Arkwright was hailed as the up-and-coming genius of the Amethyst Magic Tower. At only twelve years old, he had claimed the seat of the youngest professor in the Tower’s history, his mastery of magic eclipsing every peer of his generation and even those older than him. At that time, it seemed certain his path was set—he would one day ascend as the undisputed master of the Tower.

But everything changed when calamity struck. The Tower was besieged by dark forces, swarms of monsters that resembled the spawn of eldritch horrors. The mages fought bravely to defend their home, yet they were utterly overwhelmed. Just as Lucian prepared to take the field and fight alongside other mages, fate tore him away. He was pulled into Divine Will, summoned as one of Istellia’s divine warriors.

From that moment, he carried a vow etched into his very soul: one day, he would return to his world and exact vengeance upon the abominations that had destroyed everything he cherished.

Right now, the sun was already dipping low, streaking the sky with bands of gold and crimson. Lucian tapped his foot impatiently against the stone floor of the courtyard he’d prepared. He had spent the last hour fine-tuning the dueling ground, preparing the wards and the arena that would host his triumph.

“Why isn’t he here yet?” he muttered, irritation flickering across his young face. The duel was supposed to take place in the afternoon, yet evening was fast approaching. To him, it was obvious what this delay meant. That guy, Maxim, was nothing but talk—his reputation inflated purely by luck and circumstance, not true strength.

Lucian folded his arms, lifting his chin with the air of someone who already believed the outcome decided. If that guy failed to appear, it would be no different from conceding defeat—and in that case, there was no reason to join him for the scenarios. And yet, despite his smug confidence, Lucian’s heart beat with restless anticipation. He wanted the duel. He wanted to show everyone the difference between pretenders and the genius of the Amethyst Magic Tower.

Then came the sound of footsteps echoing from beyond the courtyard, mingled with voices. Lucian’s sharp eyes darted toward the source—and there he was. Maxim entered at last, walking with that infuriating calm. At his side trailed his companions, Michelle and Boris, while Tuilë followed with a casual grin, as though the entire duel were nothing more than a passing amusement.

Lucian smirked, his irritation twisting into condescension. “Hmph. You’re late. I was beginning to think you’d run away.”

Maxim’s gaze met his, calm and unflinching, offering not even the satisfaction of a reaction. That composure, that refusal to rise to the bait, made Lucian grit his teeth all the more. It didn’t matter. Soon enough, Maxim would be forced to show his hand. And when he did, Lucian would crush him with the brilliance of a true mage.

***

I saw Lucian standing at the center of the courtyard of his residence with his arms crossed and chin tilted high. The entire space had been inscribed with runes, turning it into a carefully prepared dueling ground. Though it lacked the restorative functions of a dueling cube, it warded off prying eyes, muffled sound, and reinforced the area against physical and magical forces. Clearly, he had spent considerable time arranging all this.

“Hmph. You’re late. I was starting to think you’d run away.” Lucian sneered the moment our eyes met.

The delay hadn’t been intentional. I had been too absorbed in refining my control over the new magic, so much so that I hadn’t noticed the hours slip away. If Boris, Michelle, and Tuilë hadn’t come knocking to drag me out, I might very well have forgotten the duel altogether.

Even so, I gave him no reply. I stood calm and composed, my gaze steady upon him. That alone was enough to make his smirk falter, if only for an instant.

“Let’s skip the small talk and begin the magic duel,” I said, stepping forward toward the center of the courtyard.

“Great, I’ve been waiting.” Lucian’s eyes lit up with anticipation. “We’ll follow the mage’s tradition. The rules are simple: each of us will cast {Mana Shield}, and the winner will be whoever destroys the other’s shield first. No cold or hot weapons allowed—this is a pure magic duel. Unarmed physical attacks are permitted so long as they don’t involve skills. If you wish to forfeit midway, simply say ‘I give up.’ Do you understand?”

“{Mana Shield}? What if I can’t cast that spell?” I asked calmly.

The truth was, despite knowing several forms of magic, I had never learned {Mana Shield}. It couldn’t be helped; it hadn’t been long since I began studying magic, and free time to pursue such fundamentals had been scarce.

“Tch. You can’t even cast such a basic spell? Are you taking this duel lightly?” Lucian scowled, annoyance flashing across his face. “Fine. Normally, a magic tool to provide the spell would be used, but since I don’t have one, I’ll cast it on you myself—{Mana Shield}.”

He lifted his hand, chanting as a translucent barrier shimmered into being around me.

“Alright. Let’s not waste any more time,” Lucian said, his voice brimming with confidence, as though victory had already been decided.

Good. The higher his arrogance, the harder the fall.

Tuilë walked between us, taking her place as referee. “Alright, alright, listen up, you two. No funny business outside the rules. First one to break the other’s {Mana Shield} wins. No weapons, no excuses. And Lucian, don’t pout if you lose, okay?”

“Shut up,” Lucian shot back with a scowl.

“Begin!” Tuilë shouted.

The atmosphere grew tense as the duel started. Mana surged from both sides, filling the courtyard with crackling pressure. Without hesitation, I raised my hand and funneled energy into a familiar spell.

“{Mana Arrow}.”

A streak of condensed mana shot forward, whistling sharply through the air toward Lucian. He barely flinched, lifting his hand as a circle flared before him. His own three bolts of mana burst forth, one colliding with mine and shattering it instantly, while the rest streaked onward in my direction.

I slid aside, mana already gathering at my fingertips as I cast {Frozen Icicle}. A shard of frost tore through the air, colliding with one of his arrows and exploding into glittering shards of ice. The other slipped past me by mere inches before striking the protective barrier of the courtyard.

Lucian chuckled condescendingly. “That’s the spell you’re proud of? Too weak.” Flames flared in his palm as he invoked his next attack. “{Flame Orb}.”

A sphere of fire roared toward me, its heat warping the air. I answered with my own fusion of magic, shaping a spear of ice reinforced by Weapon Manifestation. The crystalline weapon solidified instantly, razor-sharp and gleaming cold.

“Go.”

The spear streaked forward, colliding head-on with the orb. A deafening hiss followed as steam exploded outward, a dense mist rolling across the courtyard as fire and ice annihilated each other.

Lucian’s grin froze. “Intermediate Cryo Magic? No… something else?”

I didn’t give him time to think. Mana surged in my core as I cast {Spinning Mana Arrow} in rapid succession. A dozen spiraling bolts tore through the mist, streaking toward his shield. But Lucian was already prepared as he cast a spell.

Dozens of smaller projectiles erupted from his side in a dazzling storm, tearing apart my arrows and pressing on toward me like a rain of bullets. But I reacted instantly, conjuring over a dozen ice daggers, each one infused with Weapon Manifestation. With a flick of my wrist, they shot outward, colliding with his barrage in midair. Sparks and shards filled the space between us, the courtyard echoing with the sharp clang of magic clashing against magic.

Fragments of our clash scattered against my shield, sparks and frost mingling into glittering motes of light.

So, this is the genius of the Amethyst Magic Tower? Even with the fusion of Cryo Magic and Weapon Manifestation, I could barely keep pace. Clearly, in a drawn-out exchange, I would inevitably lose since his mana reserves dwarfed mine, and his proficiency in pure magic was simply greater. This only meant one thing: the surefire way to win was to catch him by surprise.

Channeling my mana from my core, I launched another {Frozen Icicle}, this time not at him but at the ground near his feet. The shard struck, bursting into a spray of frost that spread across the stone, coating it in a slick, glassy sheet of ice.

Lucian stepped back instinctively, his eyes widening as his footing became slippery. This caused his attack to falter for a split second. I seized the opening, forming another ice spear and hurling it straight toward his shield.

However, just as the weapon was about to crash against him, a complex array of circles flared beneath his feet, lifting him smoothly off the ground. Flames coiled along his arms as he hovered above the frost-coated courtyard, looking down at me with a sneer.

“Such a cheap trick won’t work against me. Do you think a mage of my caliber is bound to the ground? Can a fake magician like you, who can’t even cast {Mana Shield}, fly?”

From above, his confidence only seemed to grow, ready to rain down spells at me without reprieve. Nevertheless, this moment was exactly what I had been waiting for.

“I may not be able to fly, but I can drag you down,” I said with unshaken confidence.

“What do you mean?” Lucian scoffed, though he looked slightly uneasy.

Before he could demand an answer, I drew mana from my core and chanted, “{Gravity Field}.”

At once, the air grew heavy. The courtyard quaked under the sudden shift, frost splintering across the ground as an invisible weight bore down. Lucian’s body jolted midair as the invisible force bore down upon him. The smug grin on his face melted into sudden alarm.

“What—what is this?!” he spat, straining as the unseen pressure wrapped around him.

I pushed harder, amplifying the spell until the force tripled. The gravity surged to three times its natural pull, and in an instant, his body dipped lower. The magic circle beneath his feet flickered in and out as though on the verge of collapse.

But I wasn’t finished. “{Mass Alteration}.”

The spell latched onto him instantly, and his body grew threefold again in weight. Lucian flailed helplessly, his levitation buckling under the crushing burden until it finally gave way.

Lucian’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Impossible… What kind of magic is this?! Neutral? Elemental? No—it can’t be!”

His voice strained as he fought back, but the pressure was relentless. At last, his body slammed into the ground face-first, pinned so tightly he couldn’t even lift a hand.

“Don’t you underestimate ME!!” Lucian roared, refusing to accept defeat. A massive sphere of condensed mana swelled above him, threatening to blast me into smithereens once it fully formed.

Before he could finish, I reversed the effects of both {Gravity Field} and {Mass Alteration}, rendering his body light as a feather. He almost lost his control instantly as he was thrown into the air. Extending my arm, mana coiled like chains around my fingers. “{Graviton Pull}.”

The spell took hold, and in an instant, Lucian’s body was wrenched through the air toward me, dragged like iron to a magnet. His limbs flailed uselessly, no more than a puppet on invisible strings. Our eyes met for a fleeting instant—shock and indignation blazing in his gaze—before I closed my hand around his neck. With a twist of will, I restored the crushing weight of my spells. His body grew impossibly heavy as I swung him downward and slammed him into the ground with a resounding crash.

The courtyard shuddered violently, a spiderweb of cracks spreading out from the impact point. Dust and frost erupted in a choking cloud, and when it cleared, Lucian’s mana shield was destroyed, and he lay pinned beneath the suffocating grip of gravity itself, unable to rise.

“Do you admit defeat?” I asked coldly.