Atticus’s Odyssey: Reincarnated Into A Playground - Chapter 1163

Chapter 1163: Arena
Whisker’s smile faded slightly. Varnok continued.

“Your betrayal, I don’t understand it. Your presence here, I don’t understand that either. I gave you a chance to serve me, despite my reservations. I believed you were intelligent enough to recognize your superior. I am better than you. More talented. I’m the only chance you have of ever standing in the same presence as the King. And you threw all that away.”

“And now, here you are… standing in a space where I could end your life with a thought. I showed you mercy before. What makes you think I’ll offer it again after this betrayal?”

Varnok paused.

And then… the world stopped.

The rustling leaves. The bustling cities. The very air. Frozen. Even distant waterfalls hung in space like unmoving glass.

In this entire world, only one person had been granted motion, Whisker.

Varnok’s voice returned, cold, absolute.

“You should explain yourself. Make your case. If you fail to convince me… I will kill you.”

Whisker felt a pressure that could only be described as the weight of the world. His body resisted movement. Even the air he breathed felt like a privilege granted at Varnok’s whim.

This… was the power of a god.

Absolute control over time, space, terrain, environment, everything.

But in the face of such overwhelming authority, Whisker only chuckled.

“As a ‘god,’ aren’t you supposed to be all-knowing?”

He tilted his head.

“Why ask me stupid questions?”

A silence fell over the Zorvan world.

Varnok gazed at Whisker’s smiling figure with an unreadable intensity.

“…Hmm. Looks like I misjudged your intelligence.”

“My IQ is bigger than your world,” Whisker said, grin widening. “Try again, Blue.”

Varnok ignored the jab.

“You’re clearly not here to beg. So why are you here? To die?”

He still sounded genuinely confused.

Whisker shrugged.

“What makes you think I’m here for anything other than to kick your ass?”

There was a pause.

Then, Varnok chuckled, and the Zorvan world quaked. Mountains trembled. Skies dimmed.

“I possess two cores of Eldoralth,” Varnok said. “You can’t have become its god. So what’s giving you this much confidence?”

His eyes narrowed slightly, thoughtful.

“…It’s that boy, isn’t it? Atticus.”

Whisker’s gaze flickered at the name, just for a second. Varnok caught it.

“No,” he said, voice low. “You can’t be that delusional, brother. We may not share the same mother, yours being a lesser slut, but we still share the same blood. I refuse to believe you’re that stupid.”

Whisker didn’t answer.

Varnok continued.

“I can still feel the twins’ will. They’re still in Eldoralth. And you’re here. Which means… you left the child to face them?”

He could only shake his head.

But Whisker, who had remained silent all this time, suddenly grinned wide, then laughed.

“You’re the stupid one if you think those clowns stand even the slightest chance.”

“Delusions,” Varnok said, eyes flashing. “That’s what killed your lesser mother.”

Whisker’s expression shifted in an instant, his smile vanished. His killing intent surged and flooded the world like a crashing tide.

But Varnok only smiled.

“And it’s exactly what will kill you too.”

A single thought, that was all it took.

And the world came crashing down on Whisker from all sides.

But Whisker didn’t falter. His cold expression twisted into a smirk.

He locked eyes with Varnok and said quietly;

“I will kill you.”

A blue glow erupted from Whisker. To most, it would seem normal, just the manifestation of his will.

But Varnok saw it. The faint, dark golden tint seeping through the edges of the glow.

His eyes widened to their extremes.

“Don’t tell me…!?”

But he couldn’t finish.

Whisker’s crazed voice cut through.

“Ahhh, I’m a fucking god too, bitch.”

His will exploded outward like a tidal wave, crashing toward Varnok.

The moment it touched him, a blinding flash of golden light blanketed the Zorvan world.

Whisker’s eyes snapped open… to a world of gold.

He lowered his gaze toward his body.

‘Hm. Neat.’

His form had changed, less solid now, more translucent. Blue, almost like a hologram. But enveloping him was something else. A presence. An energy foreign to the people of the lower plane.

It was absolute power.

The Will of a world.

Whisker lifted his gaze forward, toward Varnok, who now glowed with a deep, radiant brown light. His figure, too, had become translucent like Whisker’s… but his glow was brighter. Stronger. More pronounced.

They stood across from each other in an endless expanse of golden light.

“Since when have you been a god?” Varnok asked with a frown.

But Whisker only chuckled.

“Even now, you’re still asking stupid questions. Why not stop the rambling and just do what we came here to do?”

Varnok’s eyes narrowed.

The Arena of Gods.

That was what this space had come to be known as.

A being became a god by fusing with a World Core. Once fused, they gain control over everything, every law, every rule. They become, in essence, the soul of that world.

And with that, they gain access to an unmatched force:

The World’s Will.

The World’s Will was many things. But to put it simply, it was the collective will of everything in the god’s domain. Its people. Beasts. Trees. The air. The stars.

And what it did was terrifyingly simple:

It amplified the god’s own will, propelling it to impossible heights.

This was why, from the very beginning, Whisker had warned Atticus:

Only a god could battle a god.

In the presence of the World’s Will, even True Will could be shattered like fragile glass on contact.

The Arena of Gods had no origin, no known creator. No one knew how it was formed or when it first began.

But when two World Wills collided, when their authorities clashed, their avatars were forcibly pulled into this place. A divine battleground.

A realm where only one could leave alive.

The rules were simple: the victor absorbs the loser’s will. And with it, their world.

In all the centuries they had spent together in the lower planes, Varnok had never once known that Whisker… was a god.

But now, their World Wills had collided. Their avatars had been drawn in.

And here they stood, ready to fight to the death.

Varnok’s cold voice reverberated through the space, dark and threatening.

“I told you… you’ve always had a fondness for doing useless things, brother.”

His form flared, the brown light overwhelming Whisker’s golden glow.

“You became a god of some puny world.”

His tone was filled with disdain.

“What makes you think you can stand against me?”

Whisker smiled.

“Because I’m awesome?”