Chapter 114: Battle Through The Heavens!

For one long moment, nothing moved.

Valor floated within the endless starry void with his colossal poleaxe held across his body, black armor radiating waves of power while that ridiculous cape continued billowing despite the complete absence of wind.

Opposite him, Damian’s kaleidoscopic avatar held its energy longsword within the opening posture of the <Seven-Turn Sword Art>.

Damian himself remained trapped somewhere within its core, unable to speak nor move, not even able to communicate that there had been a rather significant misunderstanding somewhere along the way!

Then both giants vanished.

CLANG!!!

Damian’s consciousness felt a phantom whiplash from the sheer suddenness.

There had been no approach, nor any visible ’dash’!

One moment Valor stood hundreds of kilometers away, and the next, his massive poleaxe crashed against Damian’s longsword with enough force that the surrounding darkness seemed to physically buckle.

A ring of distorted space exploded outward from the collision, causing the distant floating plane to shudder within its protective barrier.

Farther away, an unfortunate moon-sized chunk of rock simply shattered.

Damian stared through the avatar’s eyes.

’Holy shit!’

Before he could properly process that, the giant avatar moved, its longsword rotating beneath Valor’s poleaxe.

First Turn!

The blocked attack flowed directly into another trajectory.

Second Turn!

The avatar stepped through empty space as though invisible ground existed beneath its feet, redirected the sword around Valor’s weapon and cut toward his shoulder!

Valor twisted his enormous poleaxe with frightening smoothness, the heavy weapon moving more like an extension of his arms than something that should have weighed an incomprehensible amount.

CLANG!

The sword rebounded into the Third Turn!

Damian’s avatar didn’t resist the force, but accepted and used it.

It converted the recoil into rotation and sent the blade back from another angle so naturally that Damian almost forgot his own body wasn’t controlling anything.

His thoughts immediately became distracted by something considerably more important.

’Is that... my sword art?!’

Technically... yes, it was.

Damian recognized everything about it, and the Seven-Turn structure was unmistakable.

Every transition followed principles already imprinted into him through his mastery at Perfection.

Every position possessed seven possible roads, every failure became material for the next attack, and momentum continually recycled rather than dying.

But this?

This was fucking ridiculous!

Damian’s current usage of <Seven-Turn Sword Art> suddenly felt like a child learning to spell after watching Shakespeare perform live.

There were no pauses between the transitions nor any obvious distinction between one road and the next.

The avatar’s shoulders, hips, wrists, feet and energy sword moved as though every possible transition already existed simultaneously, and whichever path became most suitable simply manifested.

Damian knew these movements and understood why they worked.

Yet watching them executed at this level made him realize how enormous the gap remained between possessing Perfection mastery...

And actually possessing the body, reactions and power necessary to express that Perfection without limitation.

Valor smiled then struck back, and the difference in their styles was immediate.

Damian’s avatar flowed through combat, but Valor committed to it fully.

Every swing of that monstrous poleaxe looked like the final attack of a boss fight!

He raised the weapon overhead and brought it down with both hands, his entire colossal body following the blow as if subtlety had personally offended him.

Damian’s avatar blocked.

BOOM!

The stars seemed to tremble, and even the manifested sword bent backward beneath the force.

Damian expected the avatar to be thrown away, but instead, it rotated.

Fourth Turn!

The poleaxe slid off its guard as the longsword lanced toward Valor’s ribs.

Valor somehow changed direction halfway through his own recovery, brought the shaft horizontally across his body and blocked with enough precision to make Damian’s eyes widen.

’Okay, this guy is genuinely amazing!’

Valor fought exactly like someone had taken the philosophy of an absurdly powerful heavy Fighter and removed every weakness normally associated with being heavy.

He made wide swings, overhead smashes, explosive charges, and even brutal aerial attacks that somehow accelerated him despite there being no fucking ground.

The poleaxe struck like a meteor every single time, but Valor never truly overextended.

Whenever his momentum carried him too far, another ability compensated.

Whenever Damian’s avatar slipped around his weapon, some secondary enhancement hardened his body or shifted his position.

Whenever the energy sword found flesh, Valor healed.

Whenever the avatar attempted to overwhelm him through speed, Valor simply became faster.

Mage abilities reinforced his movement, Cleric blessings strengthened his body, Rogue techniques appeared within impossible dodges, Ranger perception prevented blindside attacks, and Warden-like defenses emerged whenever a blow became unavoidable.

Even abilities belonging to paths Damian had barely studied flashed through Valor’s fighting style before disappearing into the next exchange.

And slowly, Damian understood something horrifying.

’This motherfucker multiclassed everything?!’

Every Standard Class Damian recognized had been developed beneath Valor’s absurd build until reaching the Legend levels at the very least!

The six standard classes and every other foundational path recognized by the modern Valorian Overworld System had been taken as far as ordinary mortal progression could carry it.

Only one had gone farther than the others, which was Valor’s original Class, The Fighter.

The power radiating from that path had crossed some line the others had not, into actual divinity!

Damian’s thoughts momentarily stalled.

Huh... so this was what an actual endgame character looked like?

This was not someone who reached Level 20 yesterday and immediately began posing on a mountain.

Valor had been at the top for years, perhaps centuries.

He had taken his absurd collection of powers and polished them until there was almost no distinction between ability and instinct.

Damian’s avatar possessed tremendous skill, but Valor possessed experience.

The difference became increasingly obvious.

Seven-Turn Sword was excellent, but ultimately, it remained a Human Rank martial technique Damian had obtained from Shengyuan.

Magnifying its speed and destructive power did not magically transform its underlying principles into some supreme divine sword scripture.

Valor’s repertoire, meanwhile, had reached the endgame level with him.

His techniques had evolved, his Feats had grown, and his abilities had undergone whatever transformations occurred when mortals stopped being mortal.

Worst of all, he knew every single one of them intimately.

The result was that Valor began winning exchanges, but not the battle.

His poleaxe struck Damian’s avatar across the shoulder!

KRAAAAAK!

A kaleidoscopic arm exploded into billions of fragments.

Damian barely had time to react before the missing limb flowed backward from the surrounding energy and completely regenerated.

"..."

Well.

That was bullshit.

Valor apparently agreed as his expression changed, but only slightly.

Damian wanted to laugh.

Yeah buddy, I’m confused too!

The avatar attacked again, and what followed could no longer reasonably be called swordsmanship or martial arts.

...or even combat in the normal sense.

It was a natural disaster with technique!

The two giants tore through the void, where one of their collisions sent them streaking past a nearby planet.

Valor’s poleaxe missed Damian’s head by what, proportionally, amounted to several meters.

However, the attack continued onward, and a glowing line appeared across the distant planet.

Then, the entire world split in half!

Damian’s thoughts stopped.

’Whose planet was that? Did we just genocide innocent people?!’

The planet exploded behind them, but neither combatant looked back.

Of course they didn’t!

Because apparently planetary destruction was background decoration now!

Damian’s avatar shifted sideways through a movement that resembled <Misty Step> only in the loosest possible interpretation, reappearing above Valor while the energy longsword came down.

Valor raised his poleaxe, and the weapons collided again with a thunderous clang, causing a nearby star to dim.

It simply lost brightness for several seconds as though the shockwave had bullied the thing into lowering its voice.

Damian had absolutely no idea how that worked.

He was rapidly reaching the conclusion that understanding was optional here.

Magic appeared constantly throughout the battle, yet neither man truly fought like a traditional spellcaster.

They didn’t stand fifty thousand kilometers apart throwing cosmic fireballs at one another.

No, the magic existed inside the physical exchanges themselves!

Valor’s armor would become impossibly dense seconds before a strike landed, his poleaxe would suddenly emit lightning, then switch to fire, then into something Damian couldn’t identify.

At times, a familiar healing radiance would close a wound while he was still swinging.

His position would change without interrupting the attack, and an invisible force would redirect his weapon halfway through an arc.

Damian’s avatar behaved similarly.

<Mage Armor> appeared over its body as a colossal translucent shell before merging so completely with its kaleidoscopic form that Damian could barely distinguish the two.

<Guidance> and <Resistance> flashed through it.

Refined Qi surged across its arms and weapon.

<Martial Adept> seemed to reinforce every physical movement simultaneously while <Perfect Combat Instinct> became something terrifying when paired with senses capable of perceiving an entire celestial battlefield.

<Battle God> simply kept building and Object Control became utterly absurd.

At one point, the avatar released its longsword, and Valor immediately adjusted for the incoming Flying Sword attack.

Except the avatar created another sword, then another, then dozens!

Damian stared as enormous kaleidoscopic longswords surrounded Valor from every direction before attacking in perfect synchronization while the avatar itself rushed forward barehanded.

’Holy shit, I can do that?!’

Correction, he could apparently do something that eventually evolved into that.

Maybe... hopefully.

Assuming this entire experience wasn’t some World Stone-induced fever dream.

Valor destroyed the Flying Swords with broad sweeps of his poleaxe, shattered several through sheer aura, and slipped between others with movement so perfect that Damian finally understood why his avatar still hadn’t decisively overwhelmed him.

Valor was slightly better.

He wasn’t stronger nor faster per se, and definitely not more durable.

What he was though, was more skilled with a deeper toolkit and higher level techniques.

Along with that, his experience in regards to operating at this scale of existence was incomparably greater.

If everything had been equalized, Damian suspected Valor would have eventually won.

Unfortunately for Valor...

Nothing was equal in this world!

The kaleidoscopic avatar was cheating harder than Damian usually did!

Its power did not decrease at all!

Every spell was free.

Every burst of Refined Qi was replaced.

Every physical enhancement was constant.

Every destroyed weapon simply reformed.

Every wound was gone faster than it arrived.

Valor carved the avatar in half with one horrifying sweep, and Damian experienced precisely half a second of existential concern before both halves became liquid light, pulled together and reformed perfectly.

Valor stared speechlessly and Damian stared with him.

’Bro... I am so sorry.’ Damian muttered inwardly with shame.

Unfortunately, he was not sorry enough to stop the autonomous body apparently, as it punched Valor through an asteroid belt.

............

The battle escalated and space finally gave up, a massive fracture appearing when their weapons collided again.

At first Damian thought it resembled broken glass, then the crack opened wider.

’Something’ existed behind reality, a void of darkness that did not feel like ordinary space, but more like a... subspace?

When the young man foolishly scanned inward, a hostile region filled with shapes Damian’s mind refused to properly understand appeared in his senses.

Many great silhouettes moved in distances that didn’t behave correctly, eyes larger than continents opened between tendrils of unfamiliar matter, while something with far too many mouths crawled toward the crack.

Damian’s thoughts became remarkably concise.

’OH HELL NO!’

Valor noticed it too, and for the first time since the battle began, both combatants simultaneously moved away from something rather than toward one another.

The crack snapped shut, and Damian remained staring at where it had been.

’Excellent discovery there. Apparently subspace has eldritch monsters. Good to know!’

’Ah, the wonders of our beautiful universe... welp, never doing that again!’

His avatar immediately punched Valor hard enough to crack space somewhere else.

’WE ARE APPARENTLY DOING IT AGAIN!’

............

Valor finally realized the fundamental problem.

He could not win normally.

Skill, Technique and Damage weren’t enough.

Every advantage he created vanished because his opponent simply restored itself.

Valor floated several thousand kilometers away, visibly wounded for the first time, cracks ran across portions of his black armor while blood drifted from one side of his face before evaporating into light.

His breathing had become heavier.

Damian’s avatar was still in mint condition, with not a single wound, missing fragment, nor even enough courtesy to look tired.

Valor stared at it for several seconds, then his expression became calm... too calm!

Damian immediately disliked that.

’Ah shit.’

Valor raised the poleaxe as every trace of power surrounding him suddenly collapsed inward.

His Mage abilities, Cleric blessings, Fighter enhancements, every other Class, every Feat, and every bit of strange energy Damian could perceive.

All of it compressed in one instant!

The distant stars became visibly darker while the space around Valor distorted so severely that Damian could no longer tell whether the Divine Spirit was growing larger or reality was shrinking around him.

The figures inside the floating plane reacted immediately.

Damian couldn’t hear them, but he didn’t need to.

That was universal body language for ’Don’t you fucking dare!’

Unfortunately for them, Valor dared!

His body exploded forward, everything he possessed compressed into one final attack!

The poleaxe descended while Damian’s avatar raised its sword.

The two weapons met in the middle!

For one strange instant, there was nothing.

No sound, no force, no movement.

Then, light swallowed all of existence...

............

Damian couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, and couldn’t even feel the avatar.

There was only white.... then even the white disappeared.

’...Am I dead?’

That would be super embarrassing.

He had been killed during a battle he hadn’t agreed to, while piloting a giant body he couldn’t control, against the founder of another world’s power system?

How was anyone supposed to explain that obituary?!

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, color returned, revealing billions of fragments of kaleidoscopic energy floating through the void.

Damian’s avatar... was gone!

Valor remained, though barely.

The giant Divine Spirit floated with his poleaxe lowered.

Most of his armor had vanished, one arm hung uselessly, and the aura around his body flickered violently, yet he remained standing.

Valor breathed heavily, then his eyes widened.

Behind him...

The scattered kaleidoscopic fragments stopped drifting and reversed, every single piece flying toward one location.

Valor turned to watch the fragments merge.

An arm formed, then a torso, a head, and then two legs.

The energy longsword reappeared last.

Within seconds...

Damian’s avatar stood perfectly restored.

Damian himself had no words at this moment.

Even if he possessed the ability to speak, he would have been left sputtering in disbelief.

Motherfucker, that attack practically disintegrated us!

And this thing just... regenerated?!

Valor’s expression became indescribable.

He had the look of a veteran gamer realizing the extremely difficult hidden boss had entered Phase Two with a full health bar.

Damian even felt anger on Valor’s behalf!

The avatar vanished, forcing Valor to barely raise the remaining portion of his poleaxe.

However, it was too late as the kaleidoscopic fist struck him squarely in the chest.

BOOM!

Valor became a streak of black and gold light, crossing the distance to the floating plane almost instantly!

Its barrier opened, Valor shrinking rapidly as he passed through until he returned to human size and slammed into the ground.

KRAKOOM!

A crater erupted across the landscape!

The figures who had watched from within the barrier moved immediately, three mature and beautiful women of different styles rushed toward him with horrified expressions.

Several younger girls who resembled the women or Valor began weeping, while a few young men who also either resembled Valor or one of the women roared with fury and started toward the barrier as though planning to challenge the gigantic being that had just beaten Valor half to death.

Damian’s consciousness was left facepalming.

Brother, I didn’t even want this fight, why are you going anime rage mode on me?

Fortunately, the avatar did not attack them, its enormous hand simply extending toward the crater.

Valor lay at the center, his black armor fractured while cracks had appeared across his body itself, faint light leaking through them as though his physical form could barely contain what remained inside.

One of the three mature women dropped to her knees beside him while another reached toward the wounds.

The third looked upward to Damian with an expression containing enough fury to personally declare war upon the cosmos.

Then Damian’s avatar moved, curling its fingers to ’pluck’ something from Valor.

A tiny strand of luminous energy emerged from his body, and Valor did not weaken after this extraction.

It was almost as though the avatar had... ’copied’... something rather than taken it.

The glowing strand crossed the barrier and flew toward Damian’s consciousness in the avatar’s core.

Before Damian could examine it, the avatar extended one finger toward the crater as a beam of kaleidoscopic light descended.

The figures around Valor recoiled, trying to stop it or protect Valor from it, but it was too late.

The beam struck Valor directly!

Damian’s nonexistent heart almost stopped, thinking his avatar was truly cruel, before noticing that the cracks across Valor’s body began closing.

His mangled arm straightened, his shattered armor reformed, and the terrible injuries vanished one after another as the same energy which had casually rebuilt Damian’s avatar flooded through the Divine Spirit.

Valor’s eyes opened, as his aura erupted!

He had not merely been restored, but actually made stronger!

The surrounding landscape trembled as power surged from him in waves, forcing even the figures beside him to step backward.

Valor slowly sat up, his expression utterly bewildered.

It was understandable though, because Damian was right there with him!

The enormous kaleidoscopic avatar began dissolving into motes of light, starting from its legs.

By the end, the energy sword vanished into countless particles before the head finally began breaking apart around Damian’s consciousness.

The floating plane grew distant while Valor remained inside the crater, staring upward.

The others, who were likely his family surrounded him.

The ’gaze’ of the two men across the distance, and in Valor’s confused eyes, there was a hint of gratitude, as if Damian had solved a problem that had been pressing him for ages.