The moment I locked his domain in place, the battlefield shifted. My summons did not waste that opening.
They moved instantly, launching into the legion with renewed force, taking advantage of the sudden halt in the constructs that had been pressing them from all sides.
But it was Lyrate who changed the flow the most. As if she had been waiting for this exact moment.
The massive tree she had summoned earlier stood rooted deep within the battlefield, its presence already dominating a large section of the void. Lyrate rose above it, her figure steady as she lifted her hand and spoke softly.
"Eternal Bloom."
Above the tree, space parted.
A giant flower began to form, unfolding slowly as five large petals opened outward. Its color was a soft yellow at first, glowing gently against the chaos around it. At its center, a golden orb pulsed.
Then the orb released a ripple.
It spread outward across the battlefield, smooth and silent, passing through everything in its path.
The moment it touched the Eternals their bodies began to shrink. Their life force was pulled out of them, drained in visible streams that rose into the air like threads of green light. Those streams flowed upward, drawn toward the flower above, merging into the golden orb at its center.
The effect spread rapidly.
Wherever the ripple passed, the same thing followed. Legion members weakened, their presence dimming as their vitality was stripped away and fed into the bloom.
The flower responded as its glow deepened.
The golden center brightened.
And slowly, one of the petals began to change.
The yellow shifted.
Turning red.
As if the life it consumed was staining it, transforming it into something far more dangerous than it had been before.
But Sek did not panic. He did not even look surprised. His gaze remained steady on me, as if what I had done was not something unexpected, but something already accounted for.
Then he moved.
The frozen constructs did not break free immediately. Instead, the particles that made them began to change in a different way. They did not try to move from their anchored positions. They began to merge.
At first, it was subtle.
The humanoid figures around me, thousands of them, started collapsing inward. One would fold into another, their forms compressing, their structure condensing without violating the anchor itself. It wasn’t movement in space.
It was change in state.
My eyes narrowed.
"Clever..."
I tightened my will. I reinforced it, pushing harder, extending the condition deeper into the substance itself. The merging slowed, resisted, but it did not stop entirely.
Sek had found a gap. The battlefield around me began to change shape. What had once been thousands of frozen forms was now becoming something larger. He was sacrificing quantity for control, compressing everything into fewer, denser constructs.
I felt the pressure increase on my Right. The strain built gradually, like something pushing from the other side, testing the limits of what I had fixed in place.
Then it broke completely.
The anchor slipped and the remaining particles surged.
Three forms began to take shape. The first rose upward, forming into a massive humanoid giant, its body thick and dense, every inch made of that black crystalline substance, its presence heavy enough to distort the space around it.
The second stretched outward into a weapon, a colossal sword, its edge jagged, its form unstable yet sharp enough to cut through anything in its path.
The third twisted into something far more dangerous.
A vortex.
Rotating slowly at first, then faster, its pull growing stronger with each rotation. Its size alone was enough to swallow Silver’s full form, its presence bending space inward as it turned.
Then they changed again as a silver glow spread across them.
Sek activated his Saint authority. The constructs sharpened instantly, their presence spiking and improving.
I exhaled slowly and released my hold on the Right.
If he wanted to escalate, so would I. I checked the description of Runic Ascent.
[Node 1 Activation]:
All stats increased by 5%.
Activation cost: negligible Essence drain and physical strain.
[Node 2 Activation]:
All stats increased by 10%.
Activation cost: moderate Essence consumption and mild muscle strain.
Can be sustained for several minutes before strain accumulates.
[Node 3 Activation]:
All stats increased by 20%.
Activation cost: extreme Essence consumption and severe physical strain.
Activation time limited to minutes before risking injury and Essence backlash.
The silver glow returned, spreading across me as I activated my Saint body once again. Behind me, the tablet reacted, its surface lighting up in response, the chains trembling as Essence churned violently within my generator core.
The space around me thickened with energy. I raised my hand and formed my own constructs.
Natural essence roared and gathered toward me from the void and began merging with the churning violet essence out of my body.
A giant.
A weapon.
A vortex.
They rose into existence, mirroring his, but carrying a completely different presence.
Both of us waved our hands at the same time and the constructs rushed at each other.
They collided.
The impact shook the battlefield.
The two giants met first, their fists crashing into each other with enough force to send shockwaves across the void. The swords followed, clashing with a violent screech as both edges tried to overpower the other. The vortexes collided last, their pulls grinding against each other, tearing at space as they fought for dominance.
For a brief moment, the clash between our constructs held in balance, the opposing forces grinding against each other in a violent struggle that sent waves of energy rippling across the battlefield.
However, that balance did not last long. I began to feel the shift as Sek’s constructs started pushing forward, not through overwhelming force or sudden bursts of speed, but through something far more subtle and far more dangerous.
His control was better.
The difference became clear almost immediately. His laws were tighter, cleaner, and far more refined in execution.
The black crystalline constructs did not waver under pressure, nor did they lose structure when struck. Instead, they adapted in real time, adjusting their form and density with an efficiency that my own constructs could not fully replicate.
The strain showed on my side first.
The giant I had formed staggered under the sustained pressure, cracks spreading across its body as the opposing force pressed into it. The sword followed soon after, its edge chipping away as it was gradually forced back, unable to maintain its integrity against the constant refinement of Sek’s control.
The vortex was the last to falter, its rotation destabilizing as the opposing force disrupted its flow, causing its pull to weaken until it could no longer hold its structure.
The collapse followed soon after, the pressure building to a point where maintaining the structure any longer no longer made sense.
"Alright, off you go," I said, my voice calm as I made the decision.
I activated [Fractured Unity].
The control I had been maintaining, keeping my natural Essence and the violet Essence separate, gave way. The balance broke instantly, and the two forces surged into each other without restraint.
My constructs reacted at once.
Their forms, which had been struggling to hold under pressure, suddenly flared with a blinding silver light as the conflicting Essences merged violently within them. The instability that followed was immediate and overwhelming, their structure no longer able to contain the surge of power.
Then they exploded in a violent release that tore through the space between us, sending waves of energy crashing outward and disrupting everything in their path.
BOOM!!