Hearing this, Feng Ling’s eyelids twitched, but he didn’t object... although Levi’s team was currently winning on paper, he knew that they were bound to meet Evangeline and Yanhuan in the remaining battles.
Hence, it might be better this way... all three captains at full strength, duking it out. The winner would decide the outcome.
"I accept."
Yanhuan was the first to agree, his expression unreadable... he contained his spiritual aura and walked a few steps before uttering with his back facing them, "I hope you’re as strong as your spiritual aura... after all, battles aren’t decided on who has the bigger aura."
Then, he continued on his way until he arrived at the edge of the arena. Meanwhile, Evangeline merely gave Levi a cold look and backed off to a different side... clearly, not over her quest for justice.
Levi said nothing... he smiled serenely and walked back to his friends.
Seeing that the three of them agreed, Dominic gave them a five-minute break until they expanded the arena’s range... He knew these three monsters would need more space.
"A three-way battle... ahh, I wanted to have some fun too." Nurah pouted after Levi returned to their side.
"Me too... ever since we crossed into this camp, my bloodlust hasn’t let up for a second. I need to beat someone." Shia joined in the protest.
"You will have your chance."
Levi smiled while checking on his brother... he could see that his body had been recovering at a steady pace thanks to the recovery totems and inherent powers of Aurikara’s Gemheart. Though all the emerging crystals had returned to their place, awaiting the day he received another wicked beating to awaken.
Fortunately, after the transformation concluded, the increase in strength after restoring the body wasn’t lost 100%... a significant portion of it remained permanently, as Levi could see that Arthur’s muscles and bones had been strengthened immensely.
It was the same process as breaking one’s muscles through intense heavyweight workouts and then rebuilding the muscles tougher... or making small bone cracks to allow the bones to heal strongly. The only difference was that Arthur did it with the help of Aurikara’s Gemheart, which didn’t just heal the broken parts but infused them with microdoses of Orryn’s crystals to make them as hard as the gemstone itself!
’Is my family’s name cursed...’ Levi’s brow twitched, recalling that his power-ups were also accompanied by hellish agony.
But soon, he shook his head and refocused on the battle ahead... he spoke big game, and it would be an embarrassment if he didn’t show up.
As he began strategizing, the thought of Yanhuan and Evangeline joining forces against him never even crossed his mind.
Yanhuan’s ego was clearly on cloud nine to actively seek anyone’s help in his battles... as for Evangeline? He knew that her powers were based on the strength of her beliefs in Justice. The moment she decided to be sneaky or do something that would tip the scales in Levi’s favor, her powers would weaken immensely.
While Levi and Evangeline were preparing for the battle, Yanhuan remained standing in silence with his hands hidden inside a royal purple robe. It was like Levi’s spiritual aura demonstration didn’t faze him a bit; his confidence unshaken.
’He is blind and his spiritual prowess must be at a Solarbound rank. My spiritual attacks might have trouble bypassing his defenses, but it doesn’t matter... his other attributes are still lacking, and they won’t pose much of an issue to my spatial attacks.’ He thought inwardly, his inner voice as cold as it could be, ’Anomaly class? I will show all that such a title means nothing before me... I am the heir of the Imperial Sun Lineage, the strongest Lineage on the planet; nothing and no one is stronger than me under Solarbound rank.’
’No one.’
He clearly took Levi’s words to heart; his pride and ego were left wounded even when he tried his best to appear nonchalant.
For people like him, who were too used to being glorified and worshiped since birth, they didn’t see their actions or words as arrogance... but the norm.
After all, to inflate a child’s ego from birth nonstop, one shouldn’t expect it to have it shrink on its own. The only way was to get humbled, but... no one was able to do it in his peer circle.
Sometime later, Dominic called for the three fighters to step into the new arena. It was still the same, but its borders were increased by a third, pushing the staff and other watchers far from the action.
This forced many of them to summon their flying nightmounts, planning to spectate from high above.
When Feng Ling saw that Levi and the other two were in their position, he lifted his hand to the sky and waited a moment... then.
"Fight!"
Immediately after, Yanhuan summoned his porcelain-decorated Briar and brought it close to his mouth... then, he murmured as he took a slow, deep breath.
" Immersive Cloud Arts: Ninth Cloud."
As he exhaled, a massive blue cloud billowed out and engulfed him like a living scarf. The remaining cloud thickened beneath him, lifting him gently into the air as he floated above the ground... Then, he sat with his legs crossed... calm, indifferent.
He glanced at Levi and Evangeline for a moment, noticing that they had already summoned their weapons and seemed to wait for one of them to make the first move.
"I will do the honor."
Yanhuan took three deep breaths until his chest seemed bloated... yet, he still went for more, unafraid that his lungs might explode.
It was for a reason... he had awakened a mutation that strengthened his lungs beyond human capabilities to handle his Aspect and its related arts.
With a deep exhale, tens of meters were covered in blue smoke, and he was still pumping out more like his lungs were a smoke generator machine!
The moment he finished, he uttered coolly for all to hear, "Living Cloud, show the world their worst fears."
The blue cloud was awakened and swiftly rushed in the direction of Evangeline and Levi, akin to tentacles, splitting into hundreds of tendrils!
Seeing this, Evangeline’s expression turned solemn as she held the sword with both hands... then, she pointed into the sky as she shouted, "Yanhuan! I mastered this technique just for you... Scales of Retribution Arts: Aura of Order!"
The sword started flashing with light into the sky, and then it broke off into wisps and fell over her, akin to rain... Evangeline bathed under it until she started to resemble a divine knight with a single purpose in life: to uphold righteousness regardless of what it took!
Then, she walked in the direction of the blue smoke tendrils, unafraid... why? With the Aura of Order surrounding her, no lies, no illusions, nothing could affect her.
She became the epitome of order, casting away anything related to chaos and what could bring such chaos to her soul and body.
Under everyone’s astonished eyes, she walked through the blue smoke... her expression stoic, untainted.
"Hmm... not bad," Yanhuan raised an eyebrow at the sight, "Took you long enough to master something to counter my aspect’s spiritual side... but, how long can you last?"
He knew that countering one’s powers was significant in battles and could change the whole narrative... However, any ability used as a counter consumed a continuous stream of solar energy or spiritual energy, depending on the type of Battle Arts.
In this case, Yanhuan was spending a mixture of spiritual energy and solar energy while Evangeline was fueling her Aura of Order through solar energy alone... This meant that as long as she was in the smoke, she was constantly losing solar energy.
"As long as it takes."
Seeing them interacting with each other without acknowledging his presence, Levi merely cracked a faint smile... Then, he switched his focus to the smoke tendrils that were getting dangerously close to him.
’This will do just fine... Resonance Barrier.’
Levi coated himself in a barrier of agitated frequencies... the moment the blue smoke touched it, it dispersed outward, like the smoke particles couldn’t move past it.
’Sound agitates the air, and without air, smoke can’t move... simple approach, but effective and energy saver.’
Dominic nodded in approval, appreciating simple abilities much more than complicated ones... he knew that while complicated abilities were more powerful, their energy consumption made them inefficient for multiple uses.
Just like Evangeline’s Aura of Order... he could tell that it must have taken her months to visualize such a technique through the Solarity System... Yet, if she kept it active for too long, it would be her downfall.
Meanwhile, Yanhuan clicked his tongue in irritation after noticing that his blue smoke was moving around Levi, avoiding him, akin to a plague.
’How bothersome... two counters to my spiritual attacks at once, I might need to take this seriously.’
While Yanhuan was too deep in his own vanity, Levi switched his focus back to Evangeline.
’I can’t use that ability with both of them around... she needs to be taken out, and fast.’
Levi bent his knees slightly, both of his foot soles arched above the ground, appearing like he was taking a sprinting position, but not fully committing to it. Then, he concentrated on the bottoms of his soles, creating two compressed, agitated sound cubes. Next, he extracted the aether energy from around him into the center of each cube until condensed green wisps appeared before Shia and the girls behind him.
Before his movement could attract anyone else’s attention, Levi pressed his heels into the ground while uttering, "Combustion Leap."
In the next instant...
BOOOOM!