The reason why Rudra chose to pick a fight here today with the envoy of Lucifer was because of two very calculated reasons.
1) He needed to showcase his abilities to the higher powers so that they gain some respect for him and try leave him and earth alone, even if it is for a short time
2) He might as well make his take on the dark faction crystal clear and announce to the universe that he is pro light and anti dark.
To achieve this goal he needed to bait his enemy into beleiving that he was wayy to impudent and needed to be taught a lesson in respect.
Raxa definitely had it upto his neck by this point, as his voice started to tremble with anger when he addressed Rudra, although he had instructions to not tangle with the earthling today, he was re-evaluating the situation.
" Oh you think you are such a bigshot eh mortal? Alright, I will humor you, accept a duel of death against me with the universal queen as witness, reject me if you are a cockless c*** "
Gaia : " SYSTEM NOTIFICATION : Player ' Raxa' has challenged you to a duel of death in the immortals arena.
Since you are the challenged party you can set the terms of the fight and the weapons limit.
Do you accept?
Yes
No "
Rudra hummed as he saw the system screen, he was perplexed by a game notification since he was in reality. However Gaia cleared her confusion pretty quickly
Gaia said " Master, the game Sigma is stretched out throughout the universe. Everything in the universe is a part of the game however the laws governing various parts are different.
There are 3 basic zones into which the universe is divided
Safe-Zones, Wild-Zones, and Battle-Zones.
Safe-Zones are areas governed by the universal queen and have an active soul barrier around the region which means that no items can be dropped upon death and there will be no loss of life/ experience.
Master for an area to be considered as a Safe Zone , it would need to be surrendered permanently to the universal queen for governance, the queen cannot annex territories herself by her own free will and can only govern territories assigned to her by will.
Master, while soul barriers can be purchased by private organizations, unless they have the support of a god of life like Beniogre to perform Resurrection magic for them, perfectly resurrecting the dead without any memory/ Attribute loss is an art only mastered by the Universal queen.
The safety of an individual inside a safe zone is guaranteed by the universal queen herself which is why if one died in a safe zone they are resurrected for free and the cause of their death is investigated by the local authorities.
Wild-Zones on the other hand are areas that have no universal queen jurisdiction. These areas still do have an active soul barrier to prevent dead souls from the corruption of the elements but have no active arbitration.
If one dies inside a wild zone they need to pay a fee to the universal queen to be resurrected, there is a loss experience and there is also a possibility to drop equipment upon death.
Theoretically one could die infinite deaths inside a wild zone and a Safe-Zone and still be the same individual because the universal queen can perform the perfect form of resurrection.
With one only going as low as level0 , in a way all players are immortals.
However master , there is a third zone in the universe called the Battle-Zones or what we refer as reality.
Private planets, space stations, and everything that is not a part of the Sigma infrastructure is considered a Battle-Zone.
Deaths in battle zones are real and permanent and although a priest/ healer capable of performing resurrection magic could resurrect an individual if their soul had not dissipated yet, a resurrected individual by a priest is never the same person as parts of their life memory and personality are always lost upon resurrecting.
Although theoretically resurrecting could be done an infinite number of times the limit for battle-zone resurrecting has been observed at 3 for all individuals across all races.
No matter how hard anyone tried, nobody could be resurrected for the fourth time.
For now, Earth is a planet that has no active soul barrier master, which means that at least at the moment resurrection magic is altogether impossible to be done on the planet and all deaths are permanent.
However earth is still part of the universal infrastructure and classified as a Battle-Zone with you as it's warlord.
Your word is law in this part of the galaxy and deaths are permanent. However there are some universal laws that still apply to you, one of which is the duel of death which is enforceable by the universal queen.
You can decline without consequences, or accept to settle this dispute".
Rudra gained a lot of clarity about how things worked with Gaia's explanation, he was truly grateful for the A.I's support as without her he would make a lot of uninformed decisions.
After thinking Rudra said " I will accept on one condition Raxa.... "
Raxa was genuinely surprised to hear this, he had thrown in the challenge on a whim, never did he think that a mortal would actually accept it, is the mortal truly out of his mind?
" I am putting my life on the line, so you must put something on the line too if you lose, and i don't want your stupid head , it serves me no good, if i win i want something more tangible, like gold , blueprints or resources". Rudra said as he good a flood of messages from the other representatives who thought that he had absolutely lost his mind.
Raxa thought for a moment before replying " 140 patrol battleships, 10 million universal gold and one legendary artifact ".
Rudra had no idea wether or not it was a fair offer but after Gaia assured him that it was he accepted the duel request.
All major factions reported this development back to the headquarters and within minutes the area above earth was abandoned.
Rudra was teleported from his location into some unknown arena, as a system notification told him that he had been teleported to the Immortals arena.
The Immortals arena was a grand-stage controlled by the Universal queen and it was the stage where god's settled their disputes and fought to death.
A fight between god's could easily tear apart planets and create unnecessary destruction across the universe which is why the special arena was constructed using the finest materials found throughout the universe.
Made by a team of the greatest grandmaster dwarves using the power of a dying neutron star, the arena was nearly indestructible.
As Rudra walked onto the battle area, he saw thousands of god's present in the spectator stands staring down on him trying to gauge his stats and his level as he was flooded with inspection spells.
Moments later the entire arena was in a dissarray as nobody could inspect Rudra, and were shocked to know that a freshling out of Omega could actually not be inspected by omnipotent god's!
Murmurs turned into heated discussions as the dark faction god's frowned upon noticing this development.
Loud cheers enveloped Raxa as he walked onto the arena and Rudra took a good look at his opponent for the first time.
It was difficult to estimate Raxa's race, he looked like a humanoid figure , however the color of his skin was pitch black and there were runic linings glowing in red running throughout his body.
He had a set of wings on his back, however they were not demon like wings, but looked something like wings off a bat.
In the end Rudra did not care about his race of origin anyway as he did not fear the skill set of his opponent.
Raxa brought out his weapon which was a single edge saber with a nasty curve at its top, and pointed it towards Rudra as he said " This arrogance of yours that you wear on your sleeve, will be your undoing, mortal ".
The moment he used the word mortal, the god's went into uproar as the immortal arena was not a place for mortals at all. In the history of the universe only two mortals had ever been invited to fight here by the Universal queen and both went onto become tier 8 powerhouses.
Rudra scanned around the building and saw a myriad of races and god's seated in the stands. Their gazes sharp and their aura's booming with power.
It had been a long time since Rudra had been surrounded by such strong individuals that were his equal, as except for a handful of gods in Omega there was nobody to rival his strength.
' Haha , this is it, a new start , a new ladder to climb. Well better make a grand entrance then! Let the universe know that Shakuni the undefeated is here to conquer them all! '. Rudra thought as he smugged confidently
Spreading his arms wide Rudra said " You say I'm arrogant? I say damn right I am! Thats pride , pride in the human I am!
The patriarch of the True Elites Guild, and the enigma known as SHAKUNI THE UNDEFEATED, if you really think you can beat me? Then come! Clash with my Excalibur if you dare!".
Rudra unsheated both his swords and the glistening blades drew a roar of approval from the light faction god's.
The newbie now had the attention of the universe!