Chương 427: Chapter 415 - Wielder of the Stellar Expanse

Alonso stood there in silence, one knee on the muddy ground, blood still dripping from his torn body. The ashes before him stirred. They lifted, spiralling upward before igniting in green flame. From within, the shape of a tall humanoid figure emerged, standing well over two metres tall. Ancient armour covered its body, plates dark with corrosion and split in several places where time had eaten through the metal.

Torn lengths of seaweed and rotting swamp-vines clung to it like funeral wrappings, hanging from its pauldrons and waist as if the bog itself refused to release its grip. Beneath the broken gaps in the armour, pale green skin could be seen, tight and waterlogged, almost corpse-like. Long white hair spilled over its shoulders, drifting slightly in the stagnant air of the chamber as though moved by currents that no longer existed. In its right hand it held a single longsword.

The blade looked old, its surface dark and dull, yet its edge carried a faint warped shimmer that bent the air around it. Slowly, the creature raised its head. Its eyes were blue, deep and radiant, holding a light of their own, like abyssal depths where ancient waters still glowed far below the surface. Alonso raised his head, his tired gaze locking with the creature's. A cold prompt appeared above it. The Drowned Fen Champion – Thalor Veyr Power Index:??? The entity did not move at first.

It simply stood there, towering over the swamp, its silent gaze fixed on Alonso… as if measuring him. Alonso stood there for a moment… then chuckled. All that was inside him came out, burning through his lungs and tearing free in that ragged laughter, mixing with the blood and pain around him, echoing across the ruined swamp of the chamber. The creature didn't care.

Its stance shifted and a moment later its form vanished, appearing before him, sword already mid-arc, leaving a trail of distorted air in its wake, moving faster than sound itself. Yet the moment it was about to connect… CLANG! Two blades of Will clashed against it, one deflecting the blow, the other forcing it to disengage. Alonso's laughter slowly faded as an orb that had been in his pouch vanished, heat surging through his body while wounds tightened and the fatigue eased just enough to stand.

There was a brief silence while the creature assessed him. Alonso pushed himself upright from the half-kneeling position, mud sliding beneath his boots as his swords returned to his grip. Behind him the faint outline of the void that resembled his own figure manifested. Stars, planets, constellations and entire galaxies turned slowly inside it, all of them moving to the rhythm of his pulse… his breath… his Will.

He stared at the creature, that same crooked smile still hanging from his bloodied face, eyes tired yet sharp and piercing.

"Who… do you think you are?" The creature answered with motion. Its Will flared. The swamp itself responded. Water surged, mud rose, drowned roots twisted upward as if the entire fen had chosen its champion. Then it moved. The distance vanished. Its sword cut forward at impossible speed. The impact detonated between them. BOOM! The shockwave blasted water and sludge outward in a violent ring as Alonso's crossed blades barely caught the strike. The impact tore through his arms and hurled him backward like a ragdoll.

His boots carved trenches through the swamp before the force lifted him clear off the ground, sending him flying dozens of meters across the battlefield. CRACK! His body smashed through a half-rotted mangrove trunk that exploded into splinters and mud. Black water surged outward as he skidded across the swamp and vanished beneath the wreckage. For a moment the battlefield grew still beneath drifting mist and falling debris. Then a wet cough broke the silence.

Alonso pushed himself upright from the sludge, blood running down his chin as he spat into the dark water. His swords rose again, the motion slow and heavy, the blades trembling slightly in his hands.

"… Is that all you got?" The Fen Champion was already moving. Its sword flashed forward again. CLANG! The blades met and the swamp detonated beneath them. BOOM! The difference in strength surged through Alonso's guard like a tidal wave. His body spun through the air and was thrown across the battlefield once more before crashing into the broken remains of an ancient stone slab. The slab shattered beneath him and collapsed into the swamp, sending fragments and mud exploding outward.

For several breaths the battlefield remained silent except for the slow ripple of disturbed water. The Champion walked forward through the settling mist, its sword dragging a shallow line through the mud with each step. Step by step it approached the crater left by the impact. Then the rubble stirred. Alonso dragged himself upright from the mud, one knee still half-buried in the swamp as blood streamed down the side of his face.

His chest rose and fell in ragged breaths while his arms lifted the swords again despite the strain trembling through his muscles.

"You came here to kill me… so come on—" He spat another mouthful of blood into the water before lifting his eyes toward the towering figure.

"—I'm still standing." The void behind him flickered as distant galaxies turned slowly within it, the vastness of it narrowing around his frame. The Champion answered. It lunged forward. BOOM! The swamp floor detonated beneath its step as the sword descended in a brutal arc meant to split him in two. CLANG! Alonso intercepted the blow with crossed blades while two edges of Will erupted beside them, forming a second pair of weapons that struck in tandem.

Four blades met the descending strike in a burst of sparks and warped air. For the briefest instant, the battlefield held still under the force of the collision. Then— BOOM! Alonso was blasted backward again, his body skidding across the swamp before smashing through a cluster of drowned roots that snapped apart under the impact. CRACK! The roots collapsed around him and swallowed him in mud and shattered wood. Silence followed once more.

The Champion advanced through the drifting mist, its Will pressing outward like a moving wall of pressure that bent the waterlogged ground beneath its steps. Then a haggard breath broke through the stillness. Low and hoarse, dragged from lungs already burning with blood. Alonso rose once more from the wreckage, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he pushed himself upright. His arms trembled as his swords lifted once more, and through the blood he slowly raised his gaze toward the approaching Champion.

No words were spoken this time. The swords spoke for them. CLANG! Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Their blades collided several times, the impacts rolling across the swamp like thunder. CLANG! Another strike crashed against Alonso's guard, followed immediately by a third that detonated against his blades. CLANG!

Each exchange launched him further across the battlefield, forcing him to ride the momentum as his body tore through black water and shattered roots before crashing into whatever ruin lay behind him. Over and over his body was thrown away, and yet… after countless collisions… Alonso rose again and again. His body was torn, battered, bruised, bloodied from head to toe and yet— He stood. Every single time he rode the impact, crashed… and stood once more.

There was no longer a smile on his face, and the mad laughter had faded. The strain on his body and mind forced him to narrow his Will Manifest until it covered barely beyond his frame, as he could no longer bear the pressure beyond it. His gaze began to darken, and the blood running from his brow started to blur his vision. But he could not care less. He didn't need it. For all he cared… it could take his eyes if it wanted. The Fen Champion surged once more, its strength and form intact, as it lunged toward him.

Alonso stared at it while standing motionless. Yet just as the Will-infused longsword was about to sever him, the creature suddenly stopped. It anchored its heel into the ground and stepped back in an instant, its form blurring as it reappeared several meters away from Alonso. Alonso's eyes shifted slowly toward it. The fatigue and exhaustion remained, but now something deeper lingered within them. The Fen Champion, whose armor had been untouched until now, carried a one-inch deep line across its shoulder plate.

The air within the dust-filled, torn swamp seemed to still as faint particles from shattered roots and broken stone drifted slowly between them. And then— Alonso moved. A single step. Then another. The Fen Champion stood still for a moment, hesitation lingering for a breath in its stance before it surged forward once more with impossible speed.

Yet as it closed in on Alonso and reached striking range, its sword flashed around it as collisions echoed through the still air, then another, and another, the creature seemingly fighting the world itself. Then, in the brief instant it regained its balance, it stared ahead— But Alonso was no longer there. A moment later the Champion burst forward without looking back, and yet as it did a deep gouge tore through its back.

A thrust had pierced through a gap in its armor and ripped into its flesh, dark blue blood seeping from the corpse-like body. The creature shifted, its longsword rising as it settled into a defensive stance, no longer advancing as it gazed at the young man before it. Alonso stood there. His body was in the same ruined state as before. Yet the air around him felt unnaturally still. The water that churned and moved through the swamp did not ripple where he stood.

Even the Will of the Fen Champion seemed to avoid the space around him. Alonso stood there as if he were not… and yet it was not because his presence had faded. His presence remained there… strong and clear, like the midday sun. And not once had he attempted to hide it. Because… why should he? If the world wanted to crush him, then let it try. Let it try as many times as it wished. Let it come. Let it face him with everything it had, for here he stood. This… is my path. So come on… break it.

The Fen Champion grew restless as it once more pressed toward him, its Will intensifying as the swamp gathered around its form, water merging into its frame like the cloak of a twisted world. Its figure reflected the dim light of the chamber, its body moving several times faster than sound itself. And yet, as it seemed to pass an invisible barrier, it collided with a force. A force many times weaker than itself… and yet a force that blocked its path. A force that shattered its momentum.

A force that slipped beneath its Will, the protection of the swamp, the armor, and tore through it until blue blood scattered through the air. Alonso pressed forward. His eyes burned not with fury… but with the coldness of absolute defiance. Of a Will that refused to back down. His presence was authority. His Will was command. In that instant, all of it merged, as if a barrier had finally been shattered. Distance, timing, intent, opponent, himself, environment, Will… all of it fused together. Vectors converged.

Sequences aligned. And from it all… A new realm of combat was born. A realm that divided the perfect fighter… From the sovereign of combat itself. The swamp trembled. The Fen Champion surged forward again, its towering form tearing across the battlefield as the swamp gathered around it. Black water wrapped around its limbs like living armor while its blade descended with the same crushing force that had hurled Alonso across the battlefield moments before. The strike fell. Steel met steel.

The impact rolled through the swamp and vanished beneath Alonso's feet. The Champion pressed harder. Its Will surged outward and the swamp answered, dark water spiraling toward Alonso as the creature drove forward with overwhelming strength. Yet the battlefield had already changed. The mud beneath the Champion's stance shifted. The drifting debris altered its path. The shallow pools of water curved around Alonso's presence as if guided by an unseen tide. The creature stepped forward to strike again…

and stepped exactly where Alonso's blade already waited. The cut opened across its armor. Blue blood scattered across the swamp. The Champion recoiled for a moment before pushing forward once more, again and again, every strike faster and heavier than the last. Yet every movement carried it deeper into a flow governed by another.

Alonso stood, his mind no longer overwhelmed with variables. The battlefield had stopped being countless vectors and possible sequences. The battle and everything within it… felt as natural to him as the blood flowing through his veins or the air passing through his lungs. His blades moved with calm certainty. They did not chase the enemy… The enemy chased them. Every step the Champion took followed a path Alonso had already claimed. Every swing of its sword opened another line waiting for his own.

Another cut split across its chest, steel grinding across ancient armor as sparks scattered through the swamp air. A second strike followed, the blade carving through the corroded plate at its side and tearing the metal apart with a harsh metallic screech. SHHK! A third thrust slipped through the gap beneath its ribs and drove deep into the flesh beneath before ripping free. Blue blood splashed into the swamp as the towering figure staggered for the first time. For a single heartbeat the air held still.

Then the Fen Champion roared and unleashed everything it possessed, its Will crashing outward like a collapsing storm as the swamp erupted beneath its power. A Will that refused to fade in silence. Under its force, water erupted across the battlefield. Mud split apart. Fragments of shattered roots and black water spiralled through the air as the Fen Champion moved.

Its blade descended with the weight and Will of the swamp itself, a strike so immense that the ground seemed to tear open beneath it as water and debris were hurled skyward by the force of its charge. BOOM! The world shuddered under the blow. The swamp burst outward in a violent surge, black water rising in towering sheets as the Champion's final assault consumed the entire battlefield. For a moment… nothing remained visible within the storm it had unleashed.

Dust, water, and broken roots slowly drifted back toward the ground. As the haze thinned, the Fen Champion still stood. Then its body faltered. The towering figure staggered… and dropped to one knee, the mud swallowing half its frame. Four deep lines had opened across its body. One across the shoulder. One through the ribs. One carved down the length of its chest. And the final wound… driven straight through its core. Blue blood flowed down the ancient armour and spread across the dark water beneath it.

The creature remained there for a single breath… Then its form dissolved into drifting motes of pale light that scattered across the swamp and faded into nothing. Silence followed. Water slowly settled across the shattered ground, drifting back into the craters left by the aftermath of the clash. And several steps behind where the Champion had vanished… Alonso stood. His blades hung low at his sides. His head tilted slightly upward as he stared into the fake sky above the ruined swamp.

Behind him the vast void turned slowly, distant galaxies circling within its depths while the world itself seemed to hold its breath around him. Grade 07 - Title Earned:"Sovereign Before His Time" Effect: +49% Power of Will, +49% Pillar and Physical aptitude, +0. 7% Authority [Congratulations, Climber Your Path has been acknowledged Now follow it… and prove it worthy] Rank 1 - [OBSERVER] ➤ Rank 2 - [CONTENDER] Access to the Fourth Fusion State has been sealed… design your own Skills cannot be learned from others…

create them Titles below Grade 7 will no longer be granted… they are not worthy Future challenges have been adjusted for you… overcome them Death within The Tower…

will be absolute Unique Contender Title Granted: [Wielder of the Stellar Expanse] Contender benefits: Access to Grade 8 to 14 Titles granted During the waiting time between stages, the Wielder of the Stellar Expanse may travel freely between the waiting room and his native world, and bring with him up to seven existences from the same instance and origin.

Regardless of their location, all will be summoned when the next challenge begins The Wielder of the Stellar Expanse will be notified when observed by his native civilization and may request that the transmission be suspended. Requests may be denied The Wielder of the Stellar Expanse may designate up to seven existences from his native civilization to participate in the next Ascent.

This right may be exercised at any time and place, and applies to every Ascent granted to his civilization The Wielder of the Stellar Expanse can recognise, and will be recognised by, other Contenders.

Slaying a Contender from another participating civilization will yield significant rewards Each Tier I civilization may have no more than seven Contenders at any given time The following effects are granted to compensate for the deficit between accumulated Title effects and expected Contender status, as Titles below Grade 7 can no longer be earned: +16% Power of Will +21% Pillar and Physical aptitude +49% Resistance to all detrimental effects