The crowd and Levi’s fans went still at Gamemaster Gamble’s announcement, their eyes incapable of accepting the view before them... they simply couldn’t accept the idea of the Celestial’s legacy ending like this... this early.
Jasmine felt her heart stop for a split second as she stared at Levi’s miserable condition... her mind fed her with images of reality, but her heart refused to paint it as it was.
Levi, dying? Jasmine found herself incapable of accepting such a thought.
Ka-thump!
Following a single heartbeat, Jasmine’s heart, hair, and eyes were inked as black as the night... she had a single thought leading her at the moment: saving Levi at any cost.
’Oh, dear me... children and their emotions.’
However, before she could embark on such an impossible quest, N’ibby took control of Jasmine’s body... in an instant, Jasmine was no more, replaced by N’ibby in Jasmine’s body.
Then, she affixed her gaze on the cause of her troubles.
’Levi, is this really the end of the Equilibrium of Chaos’ heir?’ She murmured under her breath... somewhat disappointed?
Meanwhile, Levi wasn’t having a picnic... his mind was fading between consciousness and unconsciousness... any moment, he could drop dead.
Drayven’s attack left him damaged much worse than anything he went through... he ate an expanding nuke, and even when he had activated the Sun Divine Skin, it absorbed only the heat, helping him avoid getting burnt alive. But the kinetic force? He ate most of it... his aetheric/sound barriers did only so much.
’Shit... I am not having another dead partner under my hands... not him.’ Ash’Kral uttered coldly as he reached out with his consciousness towards the Harmonic Spine.
Then, he gained partial control of it due to their souls’ connections through the nocturnal contract... immediately, his Harmonic Spine started showing him cloudy images, scenes, anything to stabilize Levi’s soul while at the same time recovering his physical condition through the silver threads coursing through his entire system... it was like Ash’Kral was wielding a medical living form assisting its host survive through self-knitting his cuts, wounds, sucking off blood, and such.
The viewers couldn’t see it, but Levi’s Harmonic Spine was currently moving in a hypnotizing manner, its silver sheen made it resemble nanotech.
However, Levi didn’t seem to pay it any attention... his mind barely functional... but it didn’t remain like this for long. Thanks to the shown images and scenes, Levi’s consciousness was pulled back in, awakening him and feeding him memories of what had just happened.
"Cough... argh..."
Levi coughed a mouthful of blood as he gazed at the messy vision around him... the Harmonic Spine’s focus was on rebuilding his body as fast as possible, not painting his world. But not Ash’Kral.
’Levi, damn it! I am not starting over! You hear me! You better get your ass up and eradicate that f*cking lizard!’ He shouted in his mind... his tone solemn but furious.
Hearing his scolding, Levi didn’t care about Ash’Kral or his goal... he didn’t even think of him. But his voice did remind him of his promises... his promise to his murdered parents, his promise to his brother to get strong together and avenge their parents... his promise to the three ancestral trees, who trusted him with their powers... his promise to his friends, and Seraphis... but, most importantly... his promise to himself of seeing again with his own eyes.
’Is this how I am going to let my story end... a blind child who lied to himself that he can do it all...’
Levi’s fingers twitched, and then his head was slowly raised.
The stunned viewers watched as the three celestial stars were still orbiting... wobbly, but still orbiting... they could feel it: they were telling them that they would never stop their orbit.
"No..." Levi blurted out, clearing some blood from his mouth... the moment he felt the cold air reaching his damaged lungs, Levi didn’t care about anything else; the pain, Drayven, the win, he just focused on one thing... To Live
"CORONA TEMPEST!"
His cosmic growl resounded across the combat room as Levi’s body was instantly set ablaze... consumed by massive, white tendrils of golden sunflames. He resembled a raging massive flame symbol, but in pure gold!
Levi felt a hellish level of pain course through his body like a normal mortal set in flames... his neuron system was being burned, fried, boiled, melted, and all four at once!
However... as much as the pain was real, the physical damages weren’t increasing, but reversing at an insane rate!
His cuts, bruises, imploded organs, broken or shattered bones, everything was being healed like he was being blessed by divinity!!!
In a sense he was, as Levi was being healed due to his Divine Sun Skin recovery aspect... unfortunately, because there was no sunlight available in the boundless expanse, Levi couldn’t use his full Sun Form and be blessed with all of its powers.
The Divine Sun Skin absorbed what it could from the intense burning sunflames to help him heal back to his peak as it could feel that his recovery was the most priority.
Hence, it couldn’t afford to split the little sense of solar power it was getting from his ultimate ability.
This meant Levi chose to put himself in the most torturous experience one could live to survive... the experience of being burnt alive, flesh and all!
"I can’t believe my eyes!! The Celestial is burning himself back to peak form!! What kind of sicko survival technique is this!!"
Gamemaster Gamble shouted passionately, putting a close-up on Levi’s burning body inside the blinding golden light.
If he saw it, it meant Drayven also saw it... he narrowed his slits in Levi’s direction and murmured under his breath, "I am not letting you steal the show anymore... not in your dying breaths... not when I am using my Ancestor’s form and I know this is my final battle."
Instead of finishing Levi off with another concentrated nuke, Drayven wanted to show the universe the true prowess of his ancestor... to make them recall his name and his legend during his times while also having it in connection to his name to build a new legacy on top of it.
He wanted to do this instead of finishing Levi because he knew that after his transformation finished, he would be done for... he could no longer compete against anyone, even if the Dealer or the Ruiner were heavily injured.
The Ancestral Manifestation was powerful, but its side effects were absolutely brutal. But, if he didn’t use it, he would have never been able to defeat Levi.
’We were used to being feared... now, we are included as one of... not during my time.’
Drayven’s eyes turned scarlet as he opened his mouth wide and started gathering an insane amount of scarlet rays tens of meters above his mouth.
The viewers’ attention was instantly stolen back to Drayven just like what he wanted... all of them showed shocked expressions at the sight of a scarlet orb getting bigger and bigger until it was about two hundred meters in diameter!
It was so big, it turned Drayven into a dwarf dragon... the moment it reached such size, Drayven stopped gathering the plasma off and closed his mouth shut.
He turned his focus back to Levi, who was trying to stand up with great difficulty... the surrounding blaze was dying off little by little.
"Against all odds... you were a great rival... but Scarlet Dragons’ prowess is unquestionable." Drayven uttered calmly, "Not even a Half-Radian/Half-Oblivar abomination can put us down."
The viewers responded with immense hype, shouting his name as loud as they could, creating a thunderous chant inside the combat room.
The universe’s viewers reacted and loved one thing... absolute strength. It didn’t matter if a Rifter’s personality was dog shit, as long as he could back it up with immense strength, they would worship him.
This was the culture born out of a universe in conflict since the Era of Chaos... this culture of war was only amplified during the Chained Universe Era, where the CRS Platform was initiated.
Now... almost everyone across the whole Chained Universe and its realms were slaves to strength and its pursuit. To be born in a culture of the strong eat the weak... this quest became necessary for all capable.
Meanwhile, the majority of these viewers were the opposite... they didn’t have what it took to seek strength and could only tune in to these Death Games and worship those who had what they lacked. As they gazed at Drayven’s insanely massive scarlet sun, their eyes were captured instantly.
However, many fans of Levi were diehards... this showed when their cheers exploded across the room after they saw Levi standing back up fully, resembling the heart of the distorted sun.
Celestial!! Celestial!! We believe in you!! Show him what you got!! Drayven!! Ancestral Dragon!!...
As the chants of two groups clashed in the sky, Levi summoned his staff and grasped it tightly... then, he lifted into the heavens and spoke with a grim, pained grimace behind the mask.
"Sun for a Sun? Then, I raise you..."
The viewers couldn’t hear the pain behind his cosmic echoey voice... even when he was under intense pain, the image of the Invincible Celestial must be maintained... not for fame, but for survival.
Showing any sort of weakness in the Nocturnal Ring might be one’s end as it meant the rest of the Rifters no longer would dread him.
"The Celestial is creating his own SUN!!!"