Li unleashed the power of the [Fusion Seed] building up within him. Just like it had been when he had loosed its power with Ven'thur, light sprang forth around his form. A vast, immensely bright, hungry light that seemed to overpower and swallow up all the darkness around him, and with that light came the mighty heat of the sun itself.

As the overwhelming light shone outward from Li, it began to vaporize all the unclean Dark beast flesh around him. The heat of the light was so intense that anything it touched, it simply blazed out of existence.

That immense heat and blinding light traveled through the length of the Dark beast amalgamation's body until finally, when the light settled down, Li found himself floating in mid-air, the entire upper half of the abomination's body completely disintegrated.

But already, it began to regenerate, the lake shimmering and squelching and bubbling as it flowed organic matter up to restore its avatar.

Li opened his skeletal mouth, and an intense stream of heat came out like an engine releasing exhaust.

Such was the ability of the [Fusion Seed].

It was not inherently a spell meant only to detonate what was essentially a nuclear explosion, though certainly, it could. It was, in reality, an immense power boost that, when planted into a capable body, could grant them the total and unfiltered energy of the sun, enhancing everything from physical stats to the power of spells.

Of course, there were precious few beings that could handle the unbridled power of the sun flowing through them, and so the [Fusion Seed] dealt continuous damage to whoever had it planted within them, the damage increasing the more they let the energy continue to build up within them until, at a critical point when they could no longer handle it, it would explode into the immense explosion that had happened on the moon when Li planted it into Ven'thur.

But Li did not want to allow an explosion of that scale to occur here. It would wipe out most of the forest. Not only the forest, but likely many of the surrounding populated human territories as well.

Thus, he had to keep the energy reacting within him regulated by consistently casting spells to vent excess power, but even to him, maintaining the [Fusion Seed] was difficult, damaging him considerably even now.

It was a double-edged sword, in essence, and it became harder to keep the power in control the longer he let it build up within him. Therefore, he aimed to utterly destroy this by using up all the energy that had built up within him, planning to shunt it into a single spell to [Fusionboost] it, elevating even a regular spell into Ultima tier firepower.

This would deactivate the [Fusion Seed] and also provide enough damage to one shot the hand.

Li casted [Lesser Shapeshift: Wings of Simurgh] to get some wings to prevent himself from falling as he was now fifty meters in the air from having freed himself from the amalgamation's maw. Large but adequately sized wings compared to his frame emerged from his back, flapping once to send him backwards, away from the Dark beast hand as it began to rapidly build itself up.

Li then wrapped himself up in his human skin again. If he was going to annihilate this creature, he had to do it in his human to minimize the risk of being revealed. Here, the [Fusion Seed] was once again an apt choice as since it was already cast and rooted in his being, he could be in his human form and still tap into its power.

But the power of the [Fusion Seed] was leaking out, pushing through his fragile human form. Cracks appeared all throughout Li's skin, and through them, bright light shone, like he was a hollow puppet about to burst apart at any given moment.

But, in a way, his form was beautiful now. In the vast darkness of the black smoke, Li was like a single shining star, emitting light that radiated far and wide, standing strong and alone against the vastness of the dark.

Li gritted his teeth and focused on the battle in front of him, aiming to end it quickly. Intense heat surged through his body, and he had to use up the fusion energy now.

The Dark beast hand was almost done regenerating now, but Li knew he could finish channeling his spell before it was done. Although it could regenerate a hand quickly, restoring its entire upper half took a good while longer.

He raised a hand to the air, to the sky so clouded by smog so very much like that which had plagued his past world, and he began to channel the final spell, moving out all the fusion energy in his body to his hand.

His hand started to crack apart, flakes of skin falling like white snow before disintegrating, but he held on. In a few seconds, he would be done channeling, and then, it truly would be as if the heavens themselves had descended upon this abomination to purify it entirely.

But what he did not expect was that the Dark beast would have another ability up its sleeve. Before it was done regenerating, it attacked Li in the middle of his channel.

Not with its body, but with the lake. The water around the arm began to swirl and surge as if it had a mind of its own. It stopped regenerating the arm, sensing that it was a lost cause, and instead, the water itself acted like a living weapon, curling upwards in countless spiked streams that aimed at Li.

Li frowned. He would have to tank this attack too, his channel still ongoing. He did not sense as much power from coming from the weaponized water as he did emanating from the Dark beast, so he did not worry too much, but this was still an annoyance.

But then, something utterly surprised him.

Li looked down to see Launcelot at the edge of the lake again. He blinked, thinking that there was absolutely no way the man was still here. He completely expected the heroes and Launcelot to have just escaped by now, or, at the worst, to have orbited the battlefield from high up, where it was hard to see anything going on.

Yet, there was Launcelot in the thick of it all, bending his knees as if to jump, his shield raised up.

Li had to admit that at the moment, he was actually annoyed. He would have to protect the adventurer as well.

But when Launcelot jumped, Li instead was surprised.

The adventurer leaped far higher and faster than any normal human could have. Or rather, any human of a level Li was familiar with in this world.

Launcelot soared through the air at breakneck speeds, outpacing even the tendrils of water that were rapidly snaking their way up to Li. Li zoomed in his eyesight onto Launcelot, and he realized then what was happening.

There was a distinct aura of divine energy shrouding the adventurer's bronze shield, wreathing it in a fiery red glimmer. Launcelot's eyes were like two points of fire, the whites and pupils completely covered by familiar flickers of flame.

Before the tendrils could reach Li, Launcelot intercepted them and thrust his shield down in a powerful shield bash. A surge of energy blasted from the bash, streaking out from the shield in a wave of rippling fire that disintegrated the dark beast water tendrils, leaving Li completely free to channel.

Launcelot looked up to Li with a smile. A smile that was not his. It was confident and full of brimming joy.

"Nice to see you again, Chi-You," said Li with a faint smile of his own.

"And it is nice to see that you have grown even stronger. We must have another match!" said Chi-You through Launcelot's body.

"Ask me another time. As you can see, I am rather busy right now."

"Hm, then I shall look forward to seeing what you, New God, have learned in Valhul! If you do return. You really should. It does get dreary there, and this vessel is not yet quite ready to coexist with me."

With that, Chi-You left Launcelot's body, sending out one final burst of power that propelled Launcelot away from falling into the depths of the dark beast lake and onto parts of the ground outside the swamp that were not yet destroyed and ravaged by Li's battle.

Launcelot was unconscious at this point, his body growing limp as he hurtled down, but there was still just enough latent divine power in him that he could survive any regular old fall and the attacks of dark beasts if any did somehow try and ambush his body. That much, Chi-You had generously left, even if it could have been used to manifest his consciousness just a little while longer. 

Leaving Li free reign to cast his now fully channeled spell. He looked down at the dark beast arm. Once more, the lake was trying to regenerate it again, but now, having wasted time and water trying to strike Li with a surprise attack, it was too little, too late. 

It would not escape divine judgement.