"Can we not do anything to him?" A celestial god asked sullenly.
"No, there's nothing we can do but hope for the best. The challenges in the middle stage are random. It can be a short trip or it can be a long one. But he will have to face at least one of you before he can reach the final stage. So you must kill him then."
Ode didn't design the middle stage of the final stage. There were set instructions within the dungeon core that were executed to create those stages. Only in the first stage was he permitted to modify a little. So the gods don't have any control over the mechanism of the middle stage.
If Soverick is unlucky then he will face a hundred mana entities. He might also face several former Celestial gods. It will ensure he never reaches the final stage. But Ode wasn't counting on that. He had been counting on the attackers not reaching the middle stage at all. Even if they did, then most of them would have died there. Now, the attackers get to rest and send as many as they want into the middle stage unhurried.
Ode chose to count on only himself to stop Soverick when he reaches the last stage. Thankfully, he has just the thing that will freeze Soverick up and put an end to his rampage.
Back To Soverick.
He appeared within a circular room with a diameter of 100m. The ceiling is only 20m tall. The walls are black and they glistened as if made from gleaming metal. The ceiling is the same color as the walls. It is probably made from the same material too. At the center of the room is a mana entity who is to be Soverick's opponent. The mana entity wore loose robes and held a staff.
"Who do we have here? A challenger that came to die." The mana entity said.
Soverick was examining his opponent with his divine sense.
'It is an apparition.' He concluded.
His opponent is a vestige of a once-powerful god. It is composed of energy and understanding. If he kills this vestige, another one will simply be created. There is no end to them. So the middle stage cannot be overwhelmed by numbers. There will be as many opponents as there are attackers.
"What is this? A vitality core? This will be easy." The mana entity mocked.
They may be apparitions but they have the strength and wisdom of a mana entity. Enough wisdom for this mana entity to not consider Soverick a threat. Or is it foolishness?
"Come. Come at me. Give me your best shot." The apparition encouraged him without a care.
Soverick shot forward. His acceleration would have caught a vitality core off guard. The mana entity wasn't caught completely off guard. It was able to react, just barely to the thrust aimed at his body.
The reaction time of mana entities outclasses vitality core refiners. Soverick's opponent used the staff he was holding to block the thrust. The mana entity was thrown high up but he wasn't helpless.
Spells began to rain down on Soverick. Ice spears materialized in the air and shot toward him. Ice bolts, hail barrages, and water spells were conjured and aimed at him by his airborne opponent.
"Lack of weapon mastery confirmed. A spell specialist then." Soverick thought to himself.
He had suspected as much when his opponent held a staff instead of a warrior's weapon and didn't wear any armor. The moment when their weapon clashed also confirmed it. This god didn't even have the first step of weapon mastery. That only meant he must have focused on spells.
"Must not let him fly," Soverick concluded.
He stepped hard on the ground and jumped towards his thrown enemy. Fighting a spell specialist that is a mana entity is very tricky. Soverick knows a lot to expect constant and instant spell barrage. You could either reciprocate with your own spells or get close to them to engage in close-quarter combat. But you must never let them fly unless you can fly too. Mana entities can fly with the aid of spells or harmonization.
Soverick can't fly. He would need more power from his soul but his body is already burdened with gates. He can levitate at best, that's if he removes all the shield on his body. Removing the shields will mean he can't run fast since he won't have protection. So he reinforced his shield as he shot toward his opponent.
He didn't plan to weather the assault with only his magical shields. Ice spells will slow him down if they accumulate on him. His spear moved in a blur as he deflected and blocked the attacks. He was rotating it in his hands and using the rotation to smack spells aside. Only the stray ones caught him but his momentum was too high to be stopped from his assent.
He closed in on the floundering mana entity in the air and brought his spear down for a smash. His spear made contact with a barrier that he knew would be there. That's why he didn't thrust. It would have pushed the mana entity away from him. His smash felled the mana entity. It was slammed onto the ground enough to crack it.
The barrier protected it from the worst of the fall but the mana entity was disoriented. It was disoriented enough for Soverick to land and smash the mana entity again. This time a barrier broke. Soverick kicked the mana entity hard toward the wall. His foot came in contact with a barrier just as he had expected. It is an underestimation to think that a mana entity will have only one shield. It is foolish to think a spell specialist will have just two shields.
The mana entity flew towards the wall but Soverick was on him before he got far. He punched the mana entity with his thundering fist that broke the sound barrier.