In the bunker, Silas jumped up and pumped his fist in the air. "Yes! Cut the tree down, brother! Chop by chop!"Lyra smiled through her tears. "He is using the delay as a trap. He is forcing Valerius to run into the blade."In the throne room, Valerius pushed himself up from the floor. He looked down at his bleeding leg. He touched the golden blood. Then, the giant started to breathe heavily. His massive chest heaved up and down. Sweat began to form on his forehead. For the first time in three thousand years, Valerius felt out of breath. The Code Degradation from the Null-Edge was acting like a virus. It was injecting pure, human exhaustion directly into his digital muscles. His legs felt heavy. His arms felt like they were made of lead. "You..." Valerius grunted, turning to glare at Everett. "You poison me with a dirty weapon!""It is not poison," Everett said quietly. He rested the tip of the heavy black sword on the floor. He kept his eyes locked on the giant's shoulders. "It i

The massive stone pillar came down from the ceiling like a falling meteor. Valerius, the Ancient God of Conquest, swung the fifty-foot column of solid rock with both of his giant hands. The monster was entirely lost in his Enrage Phase. His skin was boiling red. His eyes were pure, pitch black. He did not care about martial arts anymore. He only wanted to crush the tiny, broken man in front of him into red paste. Everett looked up at the falling mountain of stone. He had no magic shields. He had no super-speed. His left wrist was broken. His right arm, the pale, artificial gray hand, had a terrible one-second delay. He was standing on a shattered knee. He could not run away. So, Everett did the only thing he could do. He timed the delay. “Swing,” Everett commanded his brain. “One, Mississippi.”Exactly one second before the giant stone pillar crushed his head, Everett’s pale right hand violently jerked upward. He swung the Null-Edge, the massive, jagged black greatsword. The sha

In the throne room, Everett slowly pushed himself up. His stamina bar blinked at 0%. His muscles were completely numb. He was moving purely on raw adrenaline and absolute survival instinct. He used the heavy black sword like a cane. He forced his body to stand upright. He swayed on his feet. Blood ran freely down his face, dripping from his chin onto his bandages. He looked at Valerius. The giant was still on one knee. He was panting heavily. The System Fatigue was destroying his muscles. The god was finally learning what it felt like to be exhausted. Valerius looked up at Everett. The giant's black eyes were filled with pure, furious disbelief. "Why won't you die?" Valerius gasped, coughing up golden blood. "You have no magic. You have no shield. You are nothing but bone and water. I have hit you with the force of a falling mountain. Why do you still stand?"Everett spat a mouthful of red blood onto the broken marble floor. He looked at the giant. His single, open green eye burn

The massive, heavy bronze boot of the giant fell from the sky. It was aimed directly at Everett’s face.Valerius, the Ancient God of Conquest, was putting all of his terrifying, Level 999 strength into the kick. He wanted to smash Everett’s head into the broken stone floor. He wanted to end the fight. He wanted to prove to the millions of people watching the live broadcast that a mortal could never defeat a god. The heavy boot rushed through the air. The wind howled. Everett lay on the cold stone. His left arm was completely shattered. He could not roll away. He could not dodge. But exactly one second ago, Everett had whispered a command to his pale, gray, artificial right hand. “Grab it.” His right hand was resting on the floor, right next to the giant’s other leg. The leg that Everett had cut deeply with the black iron sword. The leg that was bleeding golden blood. The one-second delay felt like an eternity. But Everett knew the math of his broken body perfectly. “One, Missis

Everett swung the massive black sword upward in a flawless, brutal, devastating arc. He aimed perfectly for the gap in the giant’s bronze armor, right at the thick, muscular neck. The Null-Edge hit the giant’s neck. The jagged, shark-like teeth of the black iron tore into the immortal flesh. But it did not stop at the skin. The sword bit directly into the deep, foundational code of the ancient god. Green and red pixels exploded outward in a massive shower of digital sparks. The black blade cut through the muscle. It cut through the thick spine. It severed the code of reality holding the giant together. Everett pushed with all his might. He roared, a deep, earth-shattering sound of pure human victory. The black sword swept cleanly through the other side of the giant’s neck. Valerius’s scream stopped instantly. The throne room fell completely, perfectly silent. The giant’s hands went limp. He let go of the iron spear stuck in Everett’s arm. Time seemed to freeze. Slowly, the