The favour of a deity was much like that of a Human, it was random and often did not follow any set patterns or train of thought that could easily be traced back. Certain deities went above and beyond to protect their contractors, while others didn't care as much.

Mercedes was heavily favoured by both Aphrodite and Photos, so it made sense that she had a few life saving measures. The armour not only protected her, but it brought with it a cleansing light that purified her mind, bringing her back from the land of confusion. Mercedes proved that she was not an ordinary mage at this moment.

Although she had panicked at first, it had only taken her a moment to notice the Valhalla array and Will's preparations underneath.

"The enemy will fall without fail! Let my aim be as true as my resolve. I fear not for Gungnir always finds my foe. Against adversity my spear shall prevail!"

After Will had finished speaking his chant, he expanded the dominion on his skin outwards. It was no longer a thin membrane but it was now in its original form.

At almost the exact same time, the dragon also expanded its own domain. The two rapidly expanding spheres of black came together and formed one large mass of darkness. Aphrodite's Phantom and Mercedes were not affected much by the darkness. None of them were releasing any energy attacks so none felt the effects of the dominion. They were both heavily saturated by divine energy and thus retained most of their battle capacity.

The Dragon's Breath rapidly condensed and shrunk until it was just a vortex of energy the length of a spear while it was as wide as tree branch. It changed in shape from being more circular to being more like a pole of rotating concentrated winds, like an extremely thin yet intense tornado of energies. Mercedes felt grateful that the breath was not aimed at her, and her realization of her fear of the dragon made her despise Will even more.

"Peerless, I will kill you!" screamed as fuming Mercedes. She had been thoroughly embarrassed in this match and desperately sought to cleanse herself of this embarrassment.

The disadvantage of the armour that covered her was that it made her unable to move, but that did not matter because she was confident it her defense.

'I have to spend a lot of mental energy to maintain the shield. Photos makes many demands of me every time use this armour. Peerless, I will make you pay dearly for forcing me to use this.'

Life saving measures from deities almost always came at a cost, ones mortals could not afford often. Just thinking about being in Photos' debt made her feel a greater discomfort. Her face contorted with anger as she carefully considered her next move.

Mercedes falling body was only a meter away from Will when it was met by an unsavoury feeling of danger. In a flash of a second, Will went from holding Gungnir in a throwing stance, to holding a thin pole-like swirling vortex of concentrated energy of the same attributes as before, except this time something else was included.

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'That vortex, it has dragon's might, that's Dragon's Breath!'

Mercedes didn't need a psychic to tell her that Will had enhanced his Gungnir with the breath the dragon had been storing. She had no clue how Will had control over the attack the dragon had created or how it had even arrived in his hands from far away.

'Loki's Substitution? Does it also work with remote spells? Perhaps a feature of fusing two Hela's Dominions? Or was it another spell?'

Mercedes' Brain operated at full capacity to figure out what had happened. Her perception was unable to pick up the dragon's whereabouts, but she was sure that the breath it was saving up was long gone.

Adelda and Odin broke into smiles above. Even Hercules could not help but be impressed. The muscular Olympian was amused by Will's display.

'He used Hela's Dominion to fuse the dragon into the darkness. Once the two dominions fused, the dragon became one with Will. The dragon then cast a spell that coated its breath onto Will's Gungnir. To think Will was able to fuse the dragon back into his dominion in such a short space of time. His control and mental strength are far better than I imagined. But the calculations for such a setup should be beyond what a human should be able to accomplish…'

Hercules' line of sight focused on Will's left hand as a knowing light flashed in his eyes.

'The Medici Matrix, it's actually capable of making a mage this powerful…'

While Hercules ruminated the sequence ahead, Will imbued the boost from the Valhalla Matrix into his spear and thrust it above. Mercedes, now with her mental faculties in check, did not want to make any more mistakes and summoned a five layer shield of light in front of her. She concentrated the armour's defensive strength to the front and concentrated her own mental energy to form and invisible barrier to protect her from intent.

'I can barely block this if I sacrifice most of my mana. After this he should be empty and fatigued, I'll finish him off as soon as I block this attack!'

Will thrust force with great intensity. Just as the tip of the spear was about to come into contact with Mercedes chest, the princess heard a voice filled with derision creep into her ears. This was not a sound spoken, but rather a transmission of intent straight to the mind.

'Psych.'

Before Mercedes could process what had happened, she felt a large surge of pain get her from the back. What followed was an explosion that covered the entire arena, changing it into a hurricane of negative energies.

…

Once the storm of energies had calmed, a desolate floor that could barely be called an arena appeared before the crowd. A mixture of rock, ice and odd patches of dark energy covered the arena along with all types of marks such as scratches, cuts and cracks. It was as if multiple bombs had gone off in succession only to have the arena flash frozen multiple times.

The dragon, Hela's Dominion and other spells cast had long since disappeared, along with Aphrodite's Phantom, leaving nothing but the figures of the two combatants behind. To the crowd this meant only one thing. All eyes focused on the center of the arena.

Mercedes' body was sprawled on the ground in a bloody mess. She had multiple wounds covering her from head to toe while her body spasmed from time to time. Her body faced the ground and Gungnir's tip was pointing at the back of her head.

Will only had his Frozen Asgard Mask on but it was a mess as it's entirety was forming the blood red mixture once again. It was a sign that Will had once again been injured severely by the clash. The amount of Energy he contained and released was too much for his body. His mind and soul were strong but his body was still lacking, despite all his enhancements. Nevertheless, no one had to be told what the result of the match was.

'He used Bifrost Shift and Odin's Substitution to leave a silhouette at the last second. And it was all so precise…'

Will retracted his spear and walked away from his opponent's mess of a body. No one believed he was actually going to kill her as that would spark a whole mess of things. It was different if she had died after his final attack, because he could not control the output and that was a desperate attack, but if he finished her off now, that would be a declaration of enmity to her backers. Hence no one believed he would kill her.

Will was not afraid of her backing, but he had his own reason for sparring her live.

'Ulysses Rijkaard, I hope you are a man that keeps his word.'

The hooded figure slumped back on his seat. He could not believe his eyes, and neither could most of the observers. But time waits for no one, Hercules couldn't care less about people digesting what they had witnessed. He had a job to do.

His figure appeared next to Will's and raised the young man's hand, "The winner of the Truthseeker Ranking tournament is, Peerless Dao Master!"