Author Disclaimer: my apologies over yesterday, the same situation occured. More than 16h blackout. The details are in the discord. I will be releasing one Chapter now, and at midnight two more. Tomorrow there will be double to triple release as an apology. Thank you for your patience.
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He was absolutely right! The moment Levi accepted the notion of the Masked Butcher coming for the kill, he put himself in his shoes.
That’s when he figured out that he would never waste a special card slot on a defensive card that might not work against his sun-flame-based attacks.
What’s the best offensive combo? It was none other than a numbered nine Offensive card and a King card.
He trusted his judgment and committed to an Ace card on offense while believing that a numbered nine Defensive card would be enough to deal with whatever he threw at him.
He had that much belief in Aether Two-Note Detonation.
He was right to believe in it as the Masked Butcher had gone through five more offensive techniques and still... nothing could bypass Levi’s defenses.
If he used an overwhelming attack, Aether Two-Note Detonation got rid of it... if he used anything else, Levi had the antidote prepared. Even if the Masked Butcher could wield great spiritual attacks, Levi had something stored for them.
With thirty seconds remaining on the clock, the Masked Butcher was left heaving raggedly, his forehead drenched in sweat.
He had only one more attack and an ultimate ability... the Masked Butcher glanced at the clock and noticed that he was running out of time.
’I can’t risk my last attack to be a normal technique.’ The Masked Butcher narrowed his eyes coldly, ’I have to end this right now, right here... regardless of what it takes.’
The Masked Butcher straightened his pose and took a deep breath... then, he pulled the King card and faced it in Levi’s direction.
"I don’t care if I am leaving this room crawling and bleeding... your legacy shall perish here." The Masked Butcher uttered coldly as the King card disintegrated in his hand.
"King Card has been used!" Gamemaster Gamble shouted eagerly, "Are the Celestial’s defenses enough to handle it?!"
The Masked Butcher stopped moving... his breathing slowed, and he lowered his cleaver to his side.
For a second, it looked like he was done... but then he dragged the blade across his own ribs! The cut was long and deep, causing blood to spill out in a thick stream.
Yet, he didn’t flinch.
He made other cuts across his shoulders, then another down his thighs... he looked like a madman who was giving up. But Levi only showed a deep frown, realizing that the Masked Butcher wasn’t kidding around. He truly was going all out, using the most wicked and powerful ultimate in his disposal.
As blood poured from every wound, running down his cloth in sheets, the crowd went silent, unsure if he was killing himself or preparing something worse.
Then his body reacted as the blood leaking out turned darker, thicker... almost syrup-like. But his muscles started squirming and twitching like crazy for a moment.
Then... his entire figure started swelling, veins bulging, as his muscles kept increasing in size from head to toe!
His body was expanding at a speed that looked painful... and it was, as his frame stretched upward, ribs widening, legs thickening until they resembled support pillars.
Such a transformation didn’t come without a price.
More blood poured out, but with every drop he lost, new blood coursed through him... blood rich with growth hormones, forcing his body to keep expanding far beyond normal limits!
His height climbed past four meters... five... six... he didn’t stop until he reached seven meters tall!
The viewers gasped in shock as they gazed at this newly born scarlet giant, whose mist of blood evaporated around him with every breath he took, hanging in the air like a red fog!
His skin turned darker as a layer of hardened blood began forming along his arms and chest... crystallized, like armor grown from his own veins.
Beneath it, sections of bone pushed outward, shaping into a crude, natural plating that locked his bloated muscular body in place so it wouldn’t burst from the pressure inside.
His Cleaver used to be massive, but now? It looked like he was holding a ruler... this didn’t last for long as the Cleaver also started stretching and expanding in his hand, becoming a weapon that fit his new size... massive, brutal, and heavy enough to crater the ground with a tap!
When the transformation finally completed, the Masked Butcher stood completely still, covered in crystallized blood armor and bone while surrounded by a slow-moving red mist.
His breathing was harsh, looking like he couldn’t maintain this form for long... but his bloodshot eyes behind the mask showed nothing but a reflection of Levi.
He wanted him dead... at all cost.
Meanwhile, while he was going through his transformation, Levi didn’t wait for him to finish... he had kicked off with his defensive preparations.
He had already created an aetheric layered dome infused with Void and Sunflame... though, this time he created the dome about twenty meters away from him.
It was like the moment Levi figured out how to create the Aetheric Infused System, all possibilities were unlocked.
Seeing this, the Masked Butcher raised his Cleaver to the Heavens and uttered, his murderous rugged voice booming across the room.
"I am going to slice your explosion apart... you have my wo..."
Alas, before he could finish his promise, the words stuck in his throat after noticing Levi creating two more layers a mere half a meter behind the first ones!
He didn’t stop there... he kept going, adding a layer after a layer, playing the violin with such passion and speed; it felt like watching Wallace Hartley’s band playing one last tune while the Titanic was sinking to its damnation!
"No, no, no..."
The Masked Butcher felt his heart skip a beat in dread as he watched the layers stacking one dark, one gold, one dark, one gold, until they stopped three meters away from Levi.
Only then did Levi slow down his playing and lift his head, gazing into the Masked Butcher’s face.
"You attack, you die... you don’t attack, you die." He uttered emotionlessly.
The watchers were left stunned, their hearts beating out of place in excitement and anticipation... on one side, they had the Masked Butcher using his strongest ultimate.
On the other side, they had the Celestial stacking up defensive nukes.
They could tell... one of them wasn’t making it out of this alive.
"I made peace with my choice!" The Masked Butcher tightened his grip on the Cleaver and roared as he swung it down, "CELESTIAL!!! I SHALL SURVIVE FOR I AM DESTINED FOR GREATNESS!!"
When he swung, the cleaver didn’t just cut the air... it seemed to slice reality itself!
A long, overwhelming aura shot out from the blade, forming a scarlet strike that looked like a giant blade of blood-charged force!
It roared forward and slammed into Levi’s outer dome!
The moment contact was about to happen, Levi dragged the bow on the strings, releasing a harrowing high-tuned pitch, acting like a detonation fuse.
Then... Ka-boooooom!!
A powerful burst of energy swallowed the scarlet blade, ripping it apart, but it didn’t fully erase it this time... residue of its energy rolled forward until it hit the next layer of Levi’s defense!
That one exploded too, making the blast grow larger and brighter... although the Masked Butcher saw a chain reaction starting with each dome collapsing into pure chaotic force of Void and Sunflame, he kept swinging his Meat Cleaver left and right... roaring at the top of his lungs as he did so!
Whoosh! Whoosh!...
Scarlet blades kept slicing through the battlefield, crashing into the growing wall of destruction... but they kept vanishing instantly, eaten by the expanding shockwave.
He swung a fourth time, then a fifth, then a sixth, each strike bigger and heavier than the last, making the viewers understand that he wasn’t pulling his fists!
Alas, every blade he fired only made the explosion swell, pushing it closer and closer to him.
The Masked Butcher watched it come... felt the ground tremble and the air vacuumed, but he couldn’t move... he glanced at the clock and saw that only a couple seconds remained before his turn ended.
This was it... he knew there was nowhere to go... nothing could outrun the fate awaiting him in Levi’s turn.
So, he swung harder until his fingers split, and his cleaver groaned under the strain.
Two seconds.
The explosion was tens of meters away... the heat and chill ruined the atmosphere in front of him.
One second.
The explosion was at his feet... his body had already started breaking apart, but he still made another swinging animation, not giving up until the last moment.
Sadly...
"CELESTIA..."
His final scream was also devoured by the golden and dark explosion, getting erased almost instantly without a trace...
The explosion continued for a second more before finally disappearing into a flash, leaving a similar artistic canva on the floor, but with a radius of two kilometers.
As for Levi?
He was still in the same position... no more aetheric-infused dome around him.
Just him.
On a chair of gentle sunflames.
Resting the violin gently near his feet... the three celestial stars were the only things still in movement in the entire room.
Jasmine, N’ibby, and the rest of the watchers were left staring at him with shocked eyes... having no clue what the hell had just happened.
Gamemaster Gamble was there to awaken them from their stupor... he shouted with spit hitting the microphone, "The winner of the first round without using an offensive card... The Celestial!!’’