The massive expanse of white light slowly receded, and Christopher gasped for breath. His right hand trembled, with scorch marks and decayed flesh left on his skin. Activating his broken authority capable of controlling Super Force, he healed his wounds and recuperated his expended stamina in an instant.
Just as he did so, he suddenly sensed a towering aura engulf the clouds above. He whipped his head to the front, staring at the strange humanoid creature in the distance.
W-What is this… Christopher unknowingly took a step back, and immediately erected a barrier around his body. He squinted his eyes, focusing his vision on Braun.
His form had once again changed just like before. Previously, he appeared like a slim, black-armored entity with a bright nuclear core churning with endless energy found in the center of their chest.
Now, his form had elongated and warped, turning into a slim giant with long limbs and bent legs. Crooked wings unfurled behind his back as black and white revolved around his body. Every time he moved, even by an inch, traces of black and white were left on the world around him like a paintbrush painting over reality.
“Grow, evolve, transcend.”
Braun stretched out his hand and moved his body, leaving more traces of the otherworldly aura in the air. His wings rapidly increased in size, and a pair of blinding green light appeared where the figure’s eyesockets should have been.
So this is transcendence… Braun gazed at the sky, his thoughts an orderly mess. Why didn’t I attempt to do this in the first place? I’ve grown so strong even without a crystal to support me.
Oh, wait, I know why. A thin line formed on the figure’s face, revealing a row of void black teeth with accents of white. It’s because the situation right now is just perfect.
There is the overflowing energy of zenith gathered from the ascension of hundreds of avatars, the suffocating pressure of ten divine beings, my incoming death, and Christopher’s power that controls the very foundation of reality.
He lightly grasped the empty air in front of him and felt his finger slide through the fabrics of space-time like it was physical cloth.
I’ve transcended the fundamental forces of this reality. I am no longer bound to this world’s foundation.
Even though his strength had barely increased, his condition had far surpassed his previous self which was tied to the rules the universe functioned on. He had surpassed reality, partially existing outside of its limits.
From surpassing his limits as a normal human, to surpassing history, to now partially surpassing reality itself, he had truly grown to heights beyond comprehended, but what did it mean to transcend reality?
Braun’s grin widened as he stepped forward, traveling hundreds of steps in the blink of an eye.
Christopher felt the aura of death surround him, grasping at his soul and pulling him deep into the afterlife. He raised his arm and space-time around him froze in place, trapping Braun in a monochromatic bubble separated from the rest of reality.
Normally, anything trapped in frozen space-time would appear monochromatic as well, but Braun’s figure continued to shift between black and white as his presence continued to paint over reality.
He walked out of the monochromatic bubble as if it were the same as the rest of the world, and his long, crooked fingers seemed to arrive before Christopher instantaneously.
Transcend gravity and you’ll transcend the concept of space-time as well.
The moment his finger landed on Christopher’s chest, the same finger pierced through every point around Christopher’s body. Christopher’s body was enveloped by crooked black rods protruding out of his skin from every angle, and as they retracted into the void, his entire existence was erased from reality, down to the atomic level.
At this very moment, Braun had already surpassed the barriers of Level 4 and had reached an unknown level of strength. He may be as strong as Level 5 Demigods, or perhaps even Level 6!
This is the issue with having a power that exists beyond the grasp of this realm. I can’t measure it that well against weaker foes…
Although he had technically killed Christopher, he didn’t believe for a moment that the man would stay dead. In fact, he already knew where Christopher had revived.
His body splintered into two, each being as strong as the original.
The two black and white figures reappeared right in front of Christopher’s two clones, their hands stretched out.
The two Christophers dodged at the same time, reappearing right beside each other as space-time warped around their bodies. They interlocked their eyes and slammed their hands against one another, releasing a splendor of dazzling white light.
Their bodies transformed into pure white light, fusing into one as a new, fully revived Christopher opened his eyes, with an aura at least twice as strong as before.
“It seems you’ve comprehended a few nifty domains, eh? As expected of the one chosen by destiny,” Braun whistled, his voice warped and disharmonious. Just listening to it caused mental and spiritual disturbance for Christopher.
Poppy and Laura silently stared at the distant fight, their gazes heavy and despondent as if they were waiting for something. Taking this precious time, they quietly solidified their comprehension and deepened their foundation, gathering more domains under their respective authorities.
Christopher narrowed his eyes as he asked a strange question, “Why haven’t you ascended yet?”
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“Ascension?” Braun smiled, revealing a raw of jagged white teeth with black accents. “Die.”
Directly ignoring the question, he waved his hand, and a destructive, otherworldly cluster of light shot forward. The light warped and formed a crude, destructive blade that erased everything in its path, leaving behind a trail of nothingness.
Transcend space, transcend movement, transcend the very concept of time!
His attack landed in what felt like both an eternity and an instant. Christopher’s whole vision was swallowed by a devouring pitch-black darkness that threatened to end his entire existence.
Christopher’s eyes glowed brightly, and he unleashed the might of his supreme authority. Countless domains under his rule bent to his will and gathered into a primordial white light.
The primordial white light and the void-black darkness collided together.
When they met, rather than an explosion of grand power, they simply disappeared, as if they had perfectly countered one another.
Quite a smart move. Since my very existence breaks down reality due to my transcendent nature, he counteracted it by relying on the power of creation, with its power tied to the countless amount of domains under his grasp. Heh, what a monster. I should be at the very peak of Level 5 already, yet you can still contest with me.
“Too bad, your authority over the world is still lacking. You’re still just a Level 4 ant!” Braun cackled and he stretched out his hand, with particles of pitch-black darkness and pure white coalescing around his hand.
The green light in his eyes continued to glow brighter as time passed, pushing his existence to greater heights. Reality continued to break apart around his otherwordly figure, which defied more and more of the universe.
As the oppressive vortex of black and white light in his hand revolved with increasingly greater power, a strange change abruptly occurred.
In front of him, space was cracked open and a tyrannical fist shot through. Although it was as big as a normal human fist, it appeared as if it was as large as the heavens and as heavy as mountains.
Braun couldn’t even react when the fist smashed into his face. The fist held the profundities of the divine, surpassing what is considered a normal punch and allowing it to target him, a being that lies beyond the physical plane of existence.
As the fist smashed into his face, he was sent flying at breakneck speeds, with a trail of destruction being formed in the process. Braun’s body tore through the boundaries of space-time, ‘landing’ in the sky as space around him solidified, cushioning his flight.
In the next instance, a figure flashed into the sky in a single step. He had sharp gray hair and a crazed pair of amber eyes. A layer of muscle, slim yet holding terrific power, covered his frame as his aura overflowed the entirety of the city.
“Having fun bullying the weak?” The man boomed with incredible might. Raising his leg into the sky, a formless power gathered above him, transforming into a strange sword-like projection.
Martial Arts? Braun wordlessly stared at the axe as it crashed right through his body, which imposed the concept of cutting into his body.
His body was cut in half, revealing the pitch black and pure white insides of his body. Not minding his situation one bit, Braun quietly observed the unknown man, his body reappearing hundreds of meters away with no indication as to how he got there in the first place.
He calmly grabbed his lower half and slid it right back onto his torso. Black and white lines stitched together from the surface of his skin, reconnecting his two severed parts.
“I didn’t expect a council member would arrive in just five minutes…” The bright green light in his eyes darkened, while his form underwent rapid change.
“You okay, boy?” The gray-haired, amber-eyed man appeared right beside Christopher in a flash, grabbing him by the shoulder with an impressed look. “Your power… If you can ascend to Level 6, you’d easily grab the fourth seat without questions asked. You might even surpass Adam and take the first seat for yourself if you reach Level 7.”
“Don’t worry, now that the 10th Seat Martial Emperor of Aegis has arrived, you can rest without worry!” He grinned confidently, patting Christopher on the back. He then cast a profound look at Christopher as he said, “Perhaps you can even attempt to reach Level 5 and beyond now. You possibly don’t need any more domains now that you’ve comprehended the domain of primordial chaos, the source of all, right?”
Christopher silently nodded, his eyes shining brightly as he understood what the 10th Seat Martial Emperor wanted him to do.
Although Christopher overpowered Braun so easily, his aura continued to rise at a terrifying rate as he transcended more and more domains of reality. Although with his Divine Authority, the 10th Seat Martial Emperor can suppress Braun’s transcendental status, the amount of domains he has under his authority is still limited compared to the number-limited domains Braun could transcend given enough time.
If the two of them wanted to defeat Braun, then there was only one way to do so, ascend to Level 5, grasp full authority over the domain of Primordial Chaos, and suppress Braun completely!
With the power to control the source of the universe, he would assume supreme power and crush Braun.
However, Braun did not give a damn about their plan. In the first place, Christopher reaching Level 6, as unlikely as it already was, didn’t pose that big of a problem to Braun.
His main objective was to grow as strong as he could, then dip! Fighting was just pointless because realistically, he could just say goodbye to this solar system and escape into the wider universe, live on some deserted planet, cultivate for a million years, and achieve supreme power.
The only reason he went through all this trouble to cultivate his desired authority, to scheme and let hundreds of avatars ascend to Level 4 to facilitate his body’s rapid evolution, and the reason he was fighting against Aegis instead of just tucking his tail and running away two months ago right after they had set up the barrier that sealed Dela from the rest of the world was because…
Wait, why am I doing this exactly? I could have just locked myself in some small pocket dimension and discretely escaped the cage surrounding Dela using the overpoweredness of zenith, so why?
Am I stupid?
Braun shook his head, discarding his random thoughts.
The point is, no matter the danger he was in, he could escape wherever and whenever he wanted to.
Even if all ten seats were to surround me, with my transcendent status, I could just escape, and off into the wider universe I would go! A wide grin formed on his face at the next moment. And it seems like the preparations of my other body have finished.
…
In the very middle of Dela, in a small pocket dimension as small as a cell, a human quietly sat in the center of a pitch-black void with a giant sphere hundreds of meters large covering the entirety of the space within.
If this attack were to be released, it would be akin to a nuke exploding!
“Finally, that damned cage can finally be broken!”
The man laughed as he forcefully raised his arm into the sky, shouting loudly in the process, “Break for me!”
All of a sudden, a massive purple beam of energy formed out of nowhere in the middle of an empty sky. It was thousands of meters long and many kilometers wide, appearing like a heavenly pillar straight out of heaven.
An invisible barrier was outlined high in the sky, and massive cracks covered the strange barrier.
People all across Dela, having already been paralyzed with fear from the crazy supernatural phenomena that they had witnessed these past few minutes, were now shaking in fear at the seemingly apocalyptic pillar of light in the distance.
Eventually, the barrier was broken, with the pillar piercing straight into space.
Braun, having just healed himself, wore a wide grin as he sensed the cage trapping him inside Dela get broken.
“Sayonara, motherfuckers!” Without a hint of shame to be found on his face, Braun’s ginormous wings flapped, and his figure disappeared, leaving both the 10th Seat Martial Emperor and Christopher dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events.
To think Braun, someone who was insanely hungry for battle moments ago, would run without hesitation!