Daniel stood still. Partly to catch his breath, and partly to synchronize himself. His heartbeat slowed, then faded. His thoughts were scattered.
He had more or less understood the content and purpose of this floor, and he knew what he had to do to end it. Still, he had to hope that his approach would work.
The guardian moved, but this time Daniel did not flinch.
The Heavens Honor rose, and he began to fight with precise, endless control. The clash of blade and fist shook the space.
Daniel did not retreat, and neither did the guardian.
For the first time, Daniel did not let eternity "flow." He kept it fixed. A halo formed around his body that neither expanded nor shrank. Every moment was exactly the same moment.
The guardian’s punch came, but Daniel twisted half a step. The fist passed by his side, as if its path had been defined a little too late. Daniel answered with his elbow, not to deal damage, but to fix the distance. The blow landed, and this time both of them stepped back.
The guardian raised his hand. From the void, a sword was formed, not light, not matter, but the endless repetition of a single moment. The blade was smooth, without a clear edge, yet every movement of it cut through space.
The swords collided.
Daniel swung horizontally, the guardian blocked vertically. The guardian’s fist came, Daniel took it with his shoulder.
The impacts were not heavy, but every exchange changed part of the "definition of battle." There was no ground anymore, no direction. Only two beings trying to bend eternity into their own shape.
[ Eternal Judgment ]
A massive sword formed from eternity itself and covered the entire sky. The surrounding space began to tremble, as if it could collapse at any moment.
The giant sword came down.
For the first time, the guardian stepped back. He raised his eternal sword, the two blades collided, and a wave of stillness swallowed everything. No explosion, no light. Just a momentary void that compressed both of them.
Daniel’s attack failed, but he was not injured. Still, a frown appeared on his face. The guardian of this floor was much stronger than he had thought. Even so, it was not a problem.
The guardian opened his other hand, and space twisted around Daniel. No strike came, but the pressure made everything heavy. Daniel felt that if he made one wrong decision, that decision would repeat forever.
His sword strike was soft, but precise. This time, the guardian’s body cracked, and the crack remained. It did not close. The guardian countered, his blade cutting Daniel’s cheek, but no blood flowed. Only the memory of pain remained.
Both stepped back. For the first time, the guardian slightly lowered his head. It seemed he had finally acknowledged his opponent.
Daniel tightened his grip on the sword. His body did not hurt, but his mind felt heavy. He now knew how to fight, but he still did not know how to finish it. His idea had not worked.
The halo of eternity around his body did not change, but its meaning did. It was no longer a shield, nor a battlefield. It became part of his existence, like a shadow you do not need to think about.
The guardian moved. His hands spread, and space compressed. Paths shortened. Daniel saw that the attack was formed before the decision itself.
The guardian’s strike descended, and stopped. It did not hit a wall, nor was it blocked. It simply reached a point where it could not continue. Daniel raised his sword and, with a simple and unadorned motion, shattered the guardian’s eternal blade.
This was exactly what he had learned in this Pagoda. Now that he could fully use the law of eternity here, why shouldn’t he do it?
The sword collapsed, like a concept that no longer had any use.
The guardian leaped back. For the first time, the order of his movements broke. He slammed his hand into the ground, and the endless surface beneath them rippled. Hundreds of layers of "now" overlapped, each trying to bury Daniel within itself.
Daniel did not even have time to breathe and was forced to respond immediately.
He raised his hand, and the same judgment, this time without any display, occurred within him. A wave of eternity spread out.
The layers collapsed one by one.
The guardian roared. His voice sounded like a law cracking. His body grew larger, the lines of his existence thickened, as if he were trying to regain superiority through sheer mass. His fists came down one after another, without pause.
Daniel stepped in.
His sword moved, not fast, but on time. Every strike landed before the punch could fully form.
Each clash invalidated one of the guardian’s decisions. A fist hit Daniel’s shoulder; he did not move. A knee strike came and was stopped with the palm. A new eternal blade formed in the guardian’s hand and was cut in half with a simple slash.
The guardian tried to close the space. Daniel ignored space.
He took one step forward, and the ground beneath the guardian collapsed. The intense pressure of Daniel’s eternity halo forced the guardian to his knees.
The guardian tried to stand. He could not. Even though he had no eyes, he could see clearly, and his gaze fell on Daniel. The pure eternity flowing from Daniel’s body had surpassed even him.
Daniel rested his sword on his shoulder and looked at him.
The halo of eternity compressed. Time, space, possibility, everything gathered into a single point. The guardian’s final resistance rose like a weak wave and was extinguished on the spot.
His knees slammed harder into the ground.
Daniel lowered his sword. He did not strike. There was no need. The guardian was no longer an enemy. The problem had already been solved. During the battle, Daniel had realized that the goal was not to defeat the guardian, but to obtain his acknowledgment.
"Congratulations. You have proven your worth to become eternity, and you have conquered this Pagoda," the being said before disappearing.
After that, space collapsed, and the world around Daniel went dark for a moment, until he found himself standing before a massive sacred building.
A place he knew very well.
The Church of Eternity.