Arnos and Vanir were both early-stage Immortals when they had entered but now reached mid-stage after acquiring resources.
Marcus and Maya had also reached mid-stage Immortal-rank, getting their Body, Mental, and Soul constitution at around 2.5k after getting resources so far.
As Arnos and Vanir arrived inside with a shattered crimson-moon dimension and broken floating platforms of rocks, Marcus and Maya had already gone all out, activating their Regalon Spirit Armament at full form.
Marcus was fully armored and wielded a pair of swords & shields while Maya’s Regalon Spirit Armament’s armor was a frozen-crystalized mage-like dress with star and hexagonal patterns while wielding a palm-sized orb s her weapon, which changed colors of different hues of blue with eccentric runes flashing inside.
“Powerful,” Arnos narrowed his eyes as he also used his Geneline sourced Bloodline power, boosting his stats to almost 5k-6k.
“Indeed. That’s one hell of a status boost you got there,” Vanir’s eyes glinted as he spoke, his aura surging uncontrollably in response to inspecting them.
Regalon Spirit Armament at full power practically tripled their stats, so Marcus and Maya had Body, Metal, and Soul constitutions at around 7.5k!
However, Marcus and Maya saw Vanir’s stats rising as his figure enlarged slightly while his body produced jagged scales outward.
His stats were also boosted to almost 7k!
‘Maya, this guy stinks badly…’ Marcus frowned.
Maya’s eyes narrowed. ‘He is not some average Immortal-rank powerhouse. But whatever the case, we can’t afford to lose…not anymore.’
“How about this?” Vanir gestured with his clawy hand while a wide grin showing white-jagged teeth spread on his face. “If you can last ten seconds against us, we will surrender.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the four of them heard a notification that seemed to pierce through the dimensional frame and reach into their minds.
[An anonymous spectator from Arcadia Spectrum has placed a Wish Stone as a reward for the winners of this 2v2 battle, but this only applies if the losers die instead of surrendering.]
Instantly, most of the viewers watching the stream jumped onto this screen as a flood of comments surged.
“A fucking wish stone?!”
“The fuck, who can even reward people with such a thing?”
“It’s either the spectators of the third layer or some apex Supreme Emperor who had a Wish Stone eating dust in his storage.”
Maya and Marcus were startled to hear the notification.
On the other hand, Vanir laughed. “Hey, isn’t this great? A Wish Stone is no joke as in the right hand, it can literally make a single arsenal of yours reach the peak as long you utilize it fully.”
“Let’s fight it out till death,” Vanir grinned. “We all can revive with many means anyway, especially us who have Genelines as our Bloodline sources and other means. We’ll just lose our powers and will have to start over. Not that bad, right?”
Dying and revival indeed wasn’t uncommon in the second layer. People feared humilation and torture more, though revivals also had different methods as that meant losing a lot of things and starting over. Moreover, if there was no one to revive their allies, it was over, like how Almond and Lily completely annihliated Darton Blaze clan with no chance of revival.
“Humph, speak for yourself. We aren’t interested in starting over,” Marcus snorted as a giant golden-brown avatar ten meters tall manifested over him.
“And we aren’t interested in losing either,” Maya spoke as the orb she held glimmered with runic symbols flickering rapidly inside, causing streams of various blues to flow around her.
“Well then, suit yourself,” Vanir’s eyes glinted as he vanished and appeared right behind Maya with his claws already extended over a meter.
Hyper Speed 2!
But right before his claws were about to hit Maya, they were forcefully bent by some force and went to the right side where Marcus floating with his shield at frontal and sword upward, ready to slash.
‘You are not attacking anyone else in my presence,’ Marcus used one of his abilities that could forcefully taunt and change the target of an attack towards his shield as long as the originally targetted ally was within 100 meters of himself.
*BOOM!*
The rippling black-red claws struck the shield as sparks flew, while Maya wasted no time as ten drilling projectiles of different blues, patterned with eccentric runes shot at Vanir.
Arnos acted as support, immediately forming a shield around Vanir, but Maya’s eyes glinted as her attack suddenly spun dreadfully while changing direction at Hyper Speed 2, instantly shooting toward Arnos.
Shocked, Arnos quickly made a move, but it was too late and he was too slow for a prompt defensive measure to save himself.
The first drill that struck him instantly froze him before the other drills suddenly released some kind of resonance, streaming buzzing sharp liquid needles and skewering him all over before exploding!
*BOOM!*
Vanir’s eyes popped. “Fucking trash just died?!”
Suddenly, he felt a threat and turned into a dark stream, appearing a hundred meters away before Marcus’s original sword and avatar’s sword could strike him.
A sense of heaviness still struck him as he dodged.
“Not bad,” Vanir clicked his lips as he looked at the duo. “But I don’t really mind one vs two, you know?”
Vanir’s grin twisted, bloodlust roaring as black lightning rippled along his limbs.
His body pulsed—scales shifting and darkening to obsidian-black, jagged bolts of crimson energy sparking between them. Two long tendrils of metal-threaded lightning unfurled from his spine like wings, and his eyes burned silver with fractured hexagonal pupils.
Marcus and Maya instantly felt a threat that wasn’t there before.
‘What the fuck? Why is this Immortal so powerful like us Regalons?’ Marcus felt goosebumps.
‘There’s only one answer…his Geneline sourced Bloodline is as powerful as ours at least. Could it be he is one of the Big Ten?’ Maya frowned, but her eyes sharpened in the next moment. ‘Whatever the case, we are not losing this, you got it?’
‘Of course, my lady.’
“Here I come,” Vanir’s voice crackled like thunder.
Crimson-black arcs cracked across the air as Vanir vanished, reappeared above Marcus, and slammed down with a roar, his claws blurring faster than most could perceive.
CLANG—CRACK—BOOM!
Marcus blocked the first two hits with both shields, but the third claw twisted unnaturally mid-swing, crashing through his left defense and ripping across his side.
“Agh!” Marcus grunted, blood spewing as his body was thrown backward into a floating platform, shattering it.
Vanir’s attacks were terrifyingly potent!
‘Don’t get hit, Maya! I am coming!’
Maya responded instantly. Her orb spun rapidly, the runes inside morphing into snowflake matrices as she formed a dome of condensed frozen time around herself.
Vanir sneered. He phased through, tearing through the dome with a spiraling drill formed by his right claw, which now resembled a drill-lance made of black metal and lightning.
Maya felt a threat of death, her pupils shrinking to the maximum as she quickly made her move.
Before Vanir could reach her, Maya opened her palm, and her orb exploded into hundreds of mirrored shards, each reflecting different versions of herself.
Vanir paused for a moment too long because of that. And that was enough.
From behind, Marcus, now partly healed with a crackling golden aura, merged with his avatar, forming a hybrid form that nearly doubled his size, muscle density, and defensive pressure.
“Stand down!” Marcus roared as his sword and shield vanished, replaced by a giant golden hammer.
He struck Vanir but didn’t make physical contact. Instead, the very space Vanir was standing in shuddered and inverted as the hammer seemingly struck a fixed space above him, making Vanir feel nauseated and stunned while locking him in place for just 0.2 seconds—less than a blink, but it was all Maya needed.
Her mirrored selves all raised their hands simultaneously. Each one held a miniature astral projectile, like a frozen star pulsating with layered rune matrices.
Hexafrost Convergence: Eternal Core Burst
Vanir’s grin faded. “Oh shi—”
The shards all compressed toward Vanir’s locked form, weaving together like a spiral snowstorm blade, then detonated, releasing a blinding blue-white implosion filled with piercing resonance and bone-seeking frost energy.
The explosion consumed a large area, and turned everything frosty as Maya had given her all, and even the viewers watching felt their screens shiver.
When the smoke cleared, Vanir was barely floating, body partially frozen, scales shattered, and breaking down as his vitality had hit bottom with no way of recovery as his Prana core was shattered.
“You…bastards…” Vanir’s pewed dark blue frozen shards of blood that prickled him further. Still, a grin stretched on his face. “Looking forward….to the next meeting.”
And then, he shattered and dispersed. His Soul left, but it was grabbed midway before it could enter Grimworld Tree’s maw.
“That was an awesome finisher, Maya!” Marcus said with a grin while still oozing blood from his nose, ears, and mouth.
“I used the Regalon Overdrive by sacrificing some Spirits I had to boost myself further since there wasn’t a guarantee I could finish him off otherwise,” Maya said, her heart calming down.
Marcus ate a pill and used an ability to heal himself and recover. “Yeah, he was a tough and strong bastard. Even with my Aegisron Irnheart Engine talent working at max, I took significant damage and he threw me off my stance. He had me scared about you for a moment there.”
Maya smiled. “I am stronger than you. Don’t forget. But without you, I wouldn’t have defeated him.”
“Feels bad, though. I wanted to win one versus one against him,” Marcus sighed, but his eyes had an evergrowing blaze. “We gotta get more powerful.”
“And so, I surrender,” Marcus suddenly added with a grin. “Take the resource and absorb it. The next one is mine.”
As soon as he left, Maya got a notification of the win.
When she emerged from the dimension frame, space rippled and a mini-portal formed from which a Wish Stone emerged.
[Congratulations. Here’s your winning reward from the anonymous spectator—A wish stone.]
Marcus and Maya couldn’t help but get excited as they looked at it.