High above, Gideon leaned over the balcony rail, his voice enchanted by the colosseum’s magic to sound like rolling thunder."Damon Silverstar!" Gideon roared. "You are an anomaly! You broke the sacred trials of the system, and you insulted the Sovereigns! You think because you killed Silas in the dark, you are a God?!"Gideon raised his greatsword, pointing it down at the tiny figure in the center of the arena. "There are two thousand Chosen here! The finest mages, the strongest tanks, the deadliest archers! Your mana will run dry! Your lungs will give out! We will grind your bones to dust and offer your core to the heavens!"ROARR!!The two thousand avatars roared in unison. It was a deafening sound, the battle cry of an army. They banged their weapons against their shields, the clatter shaking the obsidian floor. The sheer psychological pressure of an army's killing intent was enough to shatter the mind of an S-Rank hunter.Damon just stood there, the midnight black Embrace of the

The golden sky of the Savage Lands felt oppressively heavy. The rusted iron walls of the Colosseum were gone, shattered into millions of fading light particles when Gideon’s head hit the floor. The dense jungle had reclaimed its space, but the center of the clearing was still a scorched, obsidian wasteland, a permanent scar left by the clash of concepts. Damon Silverstar stood alone in the center of the devastation.He didn't move or dismiss the Embrace of the Goddess of Fate coat. He just stared at his own hands, his physical body was fine. His Divine Vitality ensured he didn't even feel fatigued. But inside his head, something was deeply wrong. There was a strange, reverberating warmth sitting at the base of his skull. It felt like a phantom heartbeat, a second rhythm out of sync with his own chest. His thoughts were echoing, as if he were standing in a vast, empty canyon and someone was whispering the words back to him right as he thought them."System," Damon said, his voice sound

"The Anomaly," Aurelius’s voice resonated from the ice, smooth, and dripping with condescension. "I must admit, your performance against Gideon was entertaining. A brute beating a slightly larger brute, but you made a critical miscalculation coming here, Damon Silverstar."Aurelius tapped his diamond staff against the floor. "Silas relied on stealth, which you severed. Gideon relied on force, which you redirected. But Magic is not a sword, nor is it a shadow. Magic is the code of reality, and here, in my sanctum, I have rewritten the code."Aurelius sneered, adjusting his pristine white gloves. "You cannot use your gravity domain to crush what you cannot reach. I have folded the space between you and the peak of this mountain eight thousand times. Every step you take will trigger an arcane reaction that will freeze your cells to zero. You are a rat in a maze, and I am the architect."Damon didn't blink. He reached out his right hand, and the crystallized blood scythe shattered the col

If Aurelius’s Domain survived by reading Damon’s intent, then the solution was simple. Damon had to stop thinking. Damon exhaled slowly. He let the muscles in his arms go limp. He stopped holding the scythe with a death grip, letting it balance loosely in his fingers. He cleared his mind of anger, of strategy, and of the desire to win. He became an empty, hollow vessel, reliant on the muscle memory burned into his cells by Jubei.He opened his eyes. The crimson irises were blank, devoid of any emotion or killing intent. Aurelius scoffed, raising his staff. "Giving up? My Library says you are experiencing a spike in adrenaline. It says you are going to try a sweeping horizontal strike next. It's useless!"Aurelius cast a massive, layered barrier designed to counter a horizontal scythe swing. Damon didn't move horizontally. His body simply reacted to the opening in Aurelius’s posture. Damon glided forward like a leaf on the wind. His boots made zero sound. "What?" Aurelius gasped. He

Loki picked up the Fool card from the table, spinning it on his index finger."Damon Silverstar has a law of severance. So, don't give him anything to cut. Let him exhaust himself. Throw your holy barriers at him, Valerius. Let Lucius drop his choir of angels on the boy. I want to see how his new powers work.""You want us to act as bait?!" Lucius roared, his holy aura flaring. "I am the hand of the God of Light!""You're a charge, Lucius," Loki corrected, tapping the paladin on his chestplate, "and right now, the flashlight needs to be turned on so I can see what’s hiding in the dark. Break his stamina. Force him to use his Divine Mana. I will handle the rest."Loki turned his back on the two furious Guild Masters and walked toward the tent's exit. He flipped a gold coin into the air, catching it without looking."Oh, and boys?" Loki called out over his shoulder. "Try not to die in the first five minutes. It ruins the suspense."Loki stepped out of the tent, melting into the shadows