Although Christopher had long prepared himself for this mentally, memories of the past four months still involuntarily flashed in his mind like blinding explosions of light.

From their battle at Civer Forest to being discovered by Aegis and going under Abbie King’s tutelage as her disciple, to being assigned to handle various Demigod-level monsters out in the wild, to then hunting his dear friend’s avatar for a month straight, and to now here, facing him in a duel to the death just like how it all started.

All of these events felt both like an eternity and an instant at the same time. Everything that he had experienced could only be described as absurd, transforming what should have been an ordinary life as a prodigious student with a bright future full of wealth and fame to now a Demigod fighting to save the world from a great evil, an evil that was his best friend, Freidrich Braun.

While his emotions continued to cloud his mind, Braun simply watched with an amused expression, unbothered by the fact that he was fighting the friend he was closest to throughout the majority of his life. If he could, he would have even killed Christopher in a heartbeat already.

Grasping the flashlight in his hand tightly, the flames of evolution lit asunder and elevated the existence of the normal flashlight. Its metallic frame turned long and slim, with the complex series of mechanisms inside it changing into a more futuristic arrangement.

When he pressed the button, a concentrated beam of solid light extended out of the flashlight, creating something akin to a sword’s blade.

Christopher released the concentrated ball of the four fundamental forces in his hand and let it fly toward Braun.

Glancing at the dangerous ball of iridescent white light, Braun simply laughed and waved his makeshift lightsaber made out of a crude flashlight.

The blade of pure light evolved rapidly under the illumination of zenith, condensing to the point that it solidified. Its size expanded many times over and shadowed the ball coming Braun’s way, engulfing it with its destructive presence.

“Things are different now, Christopher.” The brilliance of the flashlight receded as Braun loosened his grip. Faint scorch marks can be seen forming around the ends of his right arm, but his body rapidly evolved, resolving his damaged status.

Then, without another word, he stepped forward, arriving right before Christopher in the blink of an eye, exhibiting strength that was just below the recently advanced Poppy. His figure crossed a hundred meters with just a single step, pressing down on air as if it were solid ground.

The light of his saber once again flashed its brilliance. Instead of expanding out, the light concentrated into a thin blade and was aimed straight at Christopher.

“Cheap tricks,” Christopher mumbled and froze time, casting the world into a monochromatic envelopment.

Braun stood still in the monochromatic world, his blade aimed at the empty air.

Having long comprehended the domain of time, he could put anyone with weaker authority than him in a temporal stasis that virtually gave the target zero time to react. Even a vast majority of Level 4 would have no way of dealing with temporal stasis as time was one of the most fundamental domains of the universe.

In the next moment, however, profound green light shone endlessly in Braun’s lifeless eyes as his whole figure regained color.

Grow, evolve, transcend!

His body frantically evolved without pause, transcending the limitations of time. He swung his blade at breakneck speeds, arriving right before Christopher in less than a second.

Bang!

A collision of light formed in midair as Christopher stared at Braun. Dazzling white radiance continued to surround his body as he revolved his authority and gathered a massive amount of nuclear energy in the palm of his hand.

Braun smirked and ignored the threatening nuclear energy altogether. Instead, he pressed forward with greater strength. His muscles grew in size at a visible rate; his frame swelled and slowly became gigantic.

Grow, evolve, transcend!

Growth necessitated pressure for optimal gains. Even the roughest of gems could become a brilliant crystal under enough pressure, much less Braun who was facing against a full-blown Level 4 Demigod as a feeble mortal.

Not only that, he was essentially in a tumultuous situation that pushed his life to the very edge. Against Aegis and their worldwide power, the weight pressing down on his very soul as of right now is immeasurably vast.

He voluntarily used this pressure to sharpen himself to a new, higher state. Under the immense threat that loomed above his head, green light exploded out of his heart that extended out into his veins, and his soul shimmered brightly with a green glow.

His body and soul underwent rapid changes as they mingled into one. A white, jade-like substance poured out of every pour in his body and his eyes sunk inwards, gaining an ethereal depth. Exhaling a cold breath of air, Braun’s form morphed as he was covered in a layer of a strange white material.

Christopher felt the abrupt rise in Braun’s aura and squinted his eyes. Although he noticed it, he couldn’t exactly tell how big of a difference that increase was, so he decided to be cautious and pushed his defenses to the maximum while also sending out a probe.

Faint black and purple light containing the domains of both destruction and death gathered in the palm of his hands, coalescing into a black-purple crescent moon. Waving his hand, a black-purple crescent moon shot out towards Braun.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Having finished his transformation, Braun wore a smile, revealing his pearly white teeth. The blade of light in his hand stroked through the air at blurry speeds, forming a cross made out of light.

The black-purple crescent beam collided with the cross-shaped light, causing an explosion of energy to wash out.

As the explosion sent out waves of energy, Braun’s figure flashed through the smoke and arrived right before Christopher. His blade was pulled back and aimed straight at the many layers of light and differing domains surrounding Christopher.

Exhaling out a breath of cold air, he pushed his hand forward and stabbed through many different layers in an instant. Countless layers of light shattered like fragmented glass, with the tip of the blade of light reaching ever closer to Christopher’s bare flesh.

Christopher widened his eyes as he swiftly realized Braun’s level of strength!

Level 4?! As a mortal?!

Braun grinned at the results of his first massive evolution and was more than satisfied with the test. His body and soul, bathed by the flame of evolution, were forcefully pushed to a realm far above what they were before.

Level 4 Soul-Body Vessel! Assimilating the two components into one another, Braun became a figure both of flesh and blood and of soul—half-spiritual, half-physical.

In less than a minute, Braun raised the state of both his body and soul to Level 4, acquiring Demigod-level strength! This destroyed all common sense, because no matter how strong an organism may be, having the strength capable of toppling buildings and bending the world is almost unachievable and impossible to do without the assistance of superpowers or technology.

That was the very fundamental rule of this reality!

Even the mightiest of dragons were entities with superpowers, but through the limitless future brought by zenith, Braun gained godlike power without any crystal.

Christopher widened his eyes upon noticing Braun’s rapid rise in strength that could even break through his defenses, and he rapidly backed away. His figure teleported to a hundred meters in the distance, with blinking orange light having already gathered in his hands.

He pressed his hand forward and a beam of nuclear energy exploded out that then gathered into a sphere in the middle just before it would hit Braun.

Braun slammed his legs on solid air the moment the ball of nuclear energy approached him. His eyes glinted with green light and he opened his mouth wide as if to welcome the incoming attack.

The layer of white on the outermost surface of his vessel burned and charred as the nuclear ball approached, transforming the tips of his hands, the center of his chest, and the edges of his mouth black.

He reached out both of his hands, discarding the evolved flashlight to the area below his chest in the process, to grab the incoming sphere and pressed down his feet onto the solid air for dear life.

The nuclear ball of light warped and changed shape as it tried to expand in size, but Braun gritted his teeth and didn’t relent. He kept trying to shrink the ball smaller and smaller while his mouth siphoned off streams of nuclear energy from the ball, causing its size to gradually decrease.

Christopher noticed Braun’s attempt and tried to stop him from fully absorbing the nuclear ball of light, but bloats of white spiritual liquid flew out of his body, transforming into illusory clones vaguely resembling Braun’s inhumane figure.

Fighting through the couple of clones that came his way, using his authority to overpower their dependence on raw physical strength, he slowly approached Braun’s struggling presence.

Grow, evolve, transcend!

Braun, whose body had rapidly shifted from pure white light to a dark, charred darkness, felt that the time was ripe and slammed the ball of nuclear energy into his mouth. His body rapidly inflated in size as if it were struggling to control the intense nuclear explosion currently occurring in his stomach.

Throughout the past two months he had been holing himself inside his pocket dimension, he didn’t have the opportunity to evolve this fast. He had been constantly splintering off his zentihral flame to feed the birth of his avatars and the evolution of his web artifact, which left his body and soul stagnant at the entry level of Level 4.

There was also the fact that he prioritized his brain over his vessel to account for the extreme mental computations he had to do to successfully reach this stage, micromanaging hundreds of avatars and guiding them in secret to overcome the oppression of Aegis.

Things are different now though. He can endlessly evolve and adapt to the colossal known as Christopher, and he took this opportunity in stride.

Absorbing the endless nuclear energy in his stomach, Braun’s body and soul fused deeper as he slammed the handle of the flashlight into his chest. Mechanical-like parts began to protrude out of his obsidian-black armor, with green lines shining brightly.

A pair of jet-black wings formed on his back and a glowing core of nuclear energy revolved in the middle of his chest. Green light flooded his frame, propelling his evolution to a whole new level.

With hundreds of avatars having ascended to Level 4, along with the massive threat known as Christopher Divus and Aegis, Braun’s zenithral flame had long reached an incomprehensible level. The stronger he gets, the more he can tap into his zenithral flame and exhibit the might of zenith!

The stronger he is, the more zenithral flame he can muster, which equates to faster growth. It’s a cycle that defies logic, where being stronger means he can get stronger faster!

Back then, with a body and soul at the entry level of Level 4, he could only muster what is essentially Level 4 zenithral power, but now, due to constant evolution, the amount of flames he could release had multiplied by many folds!

The rate at which he evolved was now astonishing, and he went from being a normal human to now becoming this weird flesh-soul creature hybrid with a nuclear core.

Christopher stared intently at the strange form Braun had transformed into and felt his resolve glow brighter.

Just what kind of power had he awakened to grow this fast? If he somehow escapes, it wouldn’t even be a joke to say that he could potentially achieve Level 6 in less than a year!

Braun growled with a hoarse voice and opened his mouth. Green nuclear energy gathered in his mouth as he unfurled his wings.

Nuclear breath!

A bright beam of green light flooded the sky and was aimed straight at Christopher.

At this point, categorizing Braun into the normal Super Level system created by Aegis was just stupid. He utilized a form of power outside the very limits of this world, using his bare body and soul to rival Christopher.

He was a monster that surpassed logic. He was an entity that defied common sense.

Christopher erected a barrier of light in front of him in an attempt to block the incoming attack, but unexpectedly, a void-black fist as large as a building and ginormous serpentine-like vines burst out of nowhere.

When he was met with these attacks, he finally realized the severity of his mistake by stopping time. Because of the way superpowers functioned, his grasp over the domain of time far outstripped his clones and he had also placed them in temporal stasis just like everyone else.

This wouldn’t normally be a problem since only he would be the one moving in this section where time had come to a pause, but with three different demigod-level entities now attacking him at the same time…

Crap…

The vines bound him in place, the void-black fist slammed down from above, while the endless nuclear light broke through his barrier like paper.

Before he knew it, he found himself in a precarious situation with a grim outcome.