Marvel's master of cosmic magic-Chapter 792

Antigonus had never truly gone mad on his own.

The source of his collapse was the awakening of the Celestial Sovereign’s will inside his body. To prevent himself from being overwritten, Antigonus had been forced to devote every fragment of consciousness to resistance. Control over his powers slipped away as a result.

The Goddess of Darkness seized that stalemate.

She sealed both of them together.

Antigonus was prevented from rampaging across the world.

The Celestial Sovereign was prevented from fully claiming a vessel.

George’s earlier strike changed the balance.

Antigonus was gravely wounded.

The seal weakened.

And in that instant, the Celestial Sovereign suppressed Antigonus’s remaining will and took temporary control.

George did not retreat.

On the contrary, his eyes lit up.

"Perfect," he said quietly. "Compared to Antigonus... your memories are far more valuable."

Antigonus’s experiences amounted to history and fragmented advancement knowledge.

Useful.

But replaceable.

The Celestial Sovereign, however, was something else entirely.

One of the primal personalities born from the First Creator’s division.

Within that consciousness existed complete knowledge of multiple supreme paths. Not only the Fool’s path, but the Door and Error paths as well. Methods of merging adjacent paths. Steps toward becoming an Outer Deity. Even truths regarding lost primordial substances.

In terms of raw informational value, the Celestial Sovereign dwarfed Antigonus.

More importantly...

Antigonus’s body was already on the brink of collapse.

Even with control, the Celestial Sovereign could not draw out truly overwhelming strength.

Which made this moment ideal.

"You hold the gray castle," the Celestial Sovereign said coldly, gazing at George. "Interesting. I did not awaken within you... but it changes nothing. I merely need a bit more effort."

He reached out.

Space above George twisted.

A massive door manifested, stained with faint blue-black corrosion.

Endless gray-white fog churned behind it.

Within the fog floated countless spheres of light.

Each sphere was composed of writhing worms fused together, etched with obscure symbols.

The gray castle.

Manifested.

If he reclaimed it, even with an incomplete vessel, the Celestial Sovereign would instantly regain power on the level of an Outer Deity.

At that point, he could forcibly retrieve every fragment of authority tied to the Fool, Door, and Error paths.

Even if true gods currently occupied those paths, he could strip them clean.

Because he was not a usurper.

He was one of the world’s original architects.

A being born as an Outer Deity.

The gray castle was his by nature.

Darkness thickened across the Hornacis peak.

Yet George remained unmoved.

He formed a hand seal.

Runes ignited across the massive door.

Layers upon layers of sealing arrays unfolded.

"The world doesn’t belong to you anymore," George said calmly. "It belongs to me."

The gray castle shuddered.

Then stopped.

Suspended in midair.

The Celestial Sovereign’s eyes widened for the first time.

"How...?"

The gray castle had already been refined by George using methods far beyond this world’s conventional system. It was no longer a raw divine artifact.

It was a bound construct.

A sealed treasure.

Even if the Celestial Sovereign had once been its living core, that connection had been forcibly severed.

Silence stretched.

Then the Celestial Sovereign chuckled softly.

"So that’s how it is."

He studied George anew.

"I slept for too long. The world has developed... unfamiliar rules."

George’s body radiated power that did not belong to any known path.

At the same time, he wielded techniques capable of sealing even the gray castle itself.

Concepts that should have been impossible.

"But you still chose my branch of power," the Celestial Sovereign continued. "Which means your defeat is inevitable."

His gaze flicked toward the unseen darkness surrounding the palace.

The one maintaining the ancient seal.

The Goddess of Darkness.

That was the true complication.

The Celestial Sovereign had not fully erased Antigonus’s will. He merely held the upper hand.

If the hidden god intervened directly, the situation would revert to stalemate.

So he changed tactics.

Instead of trying to seize George’s body...

He reached for the Fool-aligned power within George.

He intended to destabilize it.

Corrupt it.

Force it into collapse.

Turn George into a monster he could control.

With that, he would gain two weapons.

Control of the gray castle.

And a living shield capable of stalling the Goddess of Darkness for the fraction of a second he needed.

One second.

That was all it would take.