Rye's pupils shrunk as he saw a magic circle appear between the serpents. In a split second, he cast an alteration spell in front of it.

Seeing another spell appear to alter his alteration spell, Rye faintly ticked a smile and alter it again as the first spell was released.

"You're going to play like this?"

In under 10 seconds, almost 20 layers of alternating magic circles formed between Rye and the serpents.

After casting another alteration, Rye disappeared from his spot and cast 5 different spells surrounding the serpents simultaneously. The serpents only managed to alter 3 of them before the rest of the three spells, including the Rye's last alteration circle, released their magic.

A beam of white light, a rain of poisonous acid arrows, and a blast of molten lava slammed into the serpent. Rye erected 5 layers of barrier to block his altered spell of crystal spears, dark lightning bolts, and water tornadoes containing sharp wind blades.

He didn't think he would need to protect himself from his own spells.

Four of his barriers shattered and he was flung back powerfully from the force. He timely shifted his body and hit the door with his soles before jumping away from the incoming lightning bolts.

The serpent prioritized altering the spell it deemed most dangerous. Indeed, it seemed that way, but…

Rye glanced at the serpent hissing in pain as its scales melted away from the acid and the lava seeping into its vulnerable flesh. The poison in the acid spread through its whole body, shedding down its scales.

The light beam contained a chaotic imbalance between light and dark magic from two different sources that malfunctioned the mana channel inside anybody who got hit with it temporarily in addition to its high damage rate.

Getting the serpent's eyes away from his last circle was his earlier objective.

Furthermore, the serpent didn't have time to completely alternate every aspect of his spells and made an error in alternating the new target. Instead of chasing him, his alternated spells only went straight ahead to where he was at. After they crashed into the door, the spells finished their attack.

From the looks of it, although the gap between spells was only half a second, the serpent couldn't cast several spells at once. If he was like Rosetta with a gap of at least 2 seconds in each cast, he wouldn't be able to survive its first attack.

As he thought, chanting spells were ineffective. He would already be dead by now if he needed to chant his spells.

"!!"

Rye looked up to see the serpent's massive body that was previously on the ceiling was falling straight down. It covered the whole area with layers overlapping one another and he has nowhere to run.

He cast a wind spell to slow down the serpent's fall and soon found a small gap enough for it to pass him. Once he was in that safe spot, he dropped the serpent down.

The drop caused the whole cave walls to shake. Previously, they heard the bone-chilling hiss and felt the powerful force blasting inside. Aerindel and Freanor who were waiting outside became increasingly restless, contrary to the bird who was leisurely combing its feathers with its claws.

"I-I'll go get Ludric!" Freanor turned around.

"No! It's too dangerous. You wait here. I'll go get Ludric," Aerindel held her back before rushing out.

He saw the marks left by Rye and followed them.

Inside, because the fire on the ground was completely extinguished by the serpent's body, Rye reached out to cast a fire spell. He halted his movement and paused in thought.

A few minutes later, light orbs filled the ceiling, brightening the room more than the initial fire.

He flew from his spot and landed on the serpent's body right in front of its two heads. Its scales were still falling down one by one from the poison that hasn't lost its effect. Its two heads and upper part of its body were pitifully burnt black with the lavas hardening on its flesh. One of its eyes was completely covered with it.

Rye, "…"

This is undoubtedly Der'asa, isn't it? It looked exactly the same as the one at the door.

Why did it lock him in and tried to kill him?

"You came back after all, Der'asa…" the serpent hissed into his mind.

Rye, "???"

You're Der'asa.

Did it attack him because it thought he was Der'asa?

"I think you are misunderstanding something. Are you not the one whose name is Der'asa? I am not even a serpent."

The serpent seemed surprised by Rye's words before it relaxed again as if understanding something.

"I see. You do not have your past memory yet the world sends you here. How unpleasant," the serpent scrutinized Rye up and down, "and you managed to snag that god you always go crazy about. Glad that you died, didn't you?"

Rye fixed his glasses, "I will appreciate it if you can stop talking to yourself and explain to me what your words meant. First of all, who are you?"

"I'm Der'ete, your twin. Since you left, the world assigned me to replace you as the dwarven god. I sensed your rebirth 20 or so years ago and I thought you had failed."

Rye, "…"

So all the gods in this world were created by the world itself. Not only Octavian.

"What do you mean by my twin? I am fully human. Both of my parents are humans. It is impossible for me to have a serpent twin."

Der'ete looked at Rye like an idiot, "You are as stupid as ever, huh? Is your brain only filled with Octavian?"

Rye's eyes shifted around, "H-Huh? It is not like I am thinking of h-him right now!"

Der'ete, "…"

You think I'll believe that?

"That doesn't explain why you tried to kill me."

Der'ete scoffed, "That kind of petty magic is not going to kill you. Can I not vent for all the troublesome things you dumped on me? You are the one who went overboard. Look! I cannot even heal myself."

"I am saying that I am not Der'asa."

"And I am saying you are that idiot Der'asa as much as you do not want to admit."

"There is no proof that I am Der'asa and it is impossible! Are you saying my mom has an affair with you?"

"Who wants a son like you!?" Der'ete hissed angrily, "you opening that door by yourself is enough proof that you are Der'asa. And do you think just any human can talk to me?"

Rye, "…"

"What? You want me to point it out one by one? The world has rules that no creature in this world can wield every attribute. Even us, the gods. You have checked what your attribute is, right?"

"Yes, it is a silver color I have never seen before."

"That is the creation attribute. The attribute bestowed to us which then we use to bless the dwarven race the crafting attribute. With this attribute, we can create everything we can think of."

"…Like spells?"

"That is the medium to use it. Why am I even explaining this?" Der'ete sighed in annoyance, "as long as it has a formula to it, a physical form, or can be explained we can make it. That is why we cannot use mental-related magic. The world also put some restrictions on our space-related magic since our form is this big and you often ran away."

"Me?"

Der'ete rolled its eyes and said mockingly, "You always sneaked away to play with your beloved Octavian. Saying he is lonely, sad, and that he needs some company. In the end, you would never forget to mention how handsome he is at least 10 times!"

Rye, "…"

He's…strangely feeling embarrassed.

"You look prim and proper right now, but you always gave me second-hand embarrassment every time I saw how you act around Octavian. All the gods know how smitten you were with him."

Rye silently pushed his glasses up.

"You finally have shame now? Thank the world who reborn you," Der'ete sneered, "I see that you are slowly regaining back your godhood. It must be Octavian's doing. Did he take you to the Cleansing Pool? Did you drown?"

"The water did not touch me."

Der'ete was stunned for a while before it clicked its tongue.

"I guess you do not change that much even as a human."

"?"

"Rye!! Rye are you there!? Answer me if you're alive!!" Ludric shouted from outside.

Rye and Der'ete looked towards the door. Feeling its mana was gradually getting back to normal, Der'ete started healing its body after flicking Rye down from its body.

"Rye? Is that your name now? Who is that noisy human?"

"My older brother, Ludric Cazmere, the Supreme Hero."

Der'ete assessed Ludric's strength from beyond the door, "Hm. Not bad. He'll barely survive 50% of the current Demon Lo– Huh? What is he–!?"

Boom!!!

Both Rye and Der'ete were startled by the loud sound, but the scene in front of them was even more shocking.

Ludric forcefully broke inside.