Considering the agreement that Vigdis had made with Sarasvain, although she would only need to scratch him to win, Theodore would have to manage to actually injure him to be deemed the victor of their duel.
Therefore, he really couldn't pull his punches. If he began their confrontation by slowly powering up step by step, seeking to understand his opponent before fully committing, then Sarasvain would do the exact same thing to him instead. And that would only reduce his chances of coming out of top.
'I'll need to use a different approach from earlier. With Ninna, it didn't truly matter whether I won or lost, but if I fail here, then I'll encounter a temporary but annoying setback. Yeah, I'd rather pass on that.'
Going over his plan again in his head, he made absolutely certain that he hadn't overlooked any problematic details. Then, with both resolve as well as excitement sparkling in his eyes, all six of his bodies moved in unison.
His main, first body took a central position, whereas the other five spread out until they were a few dozen meters away. When they came to a stop, they had formed a peculiar pattern. Achieving an initial resonance with each other, the surrounding temperature immediately began to plummet, rapidly diving until it got closer and closer towards what scientists in John's old world had referred to as 'absolute zero'.
'Are they forming a five-pointed star together? No, that's not it. It's more like... a snowflake? Yeah, that should be it. As expected of the Winter Family.'
Nodding to himself, Sarasvain curiously observed Theodore's every move. At first, he had thought that a pentagram had been formed, but the extreme cold radiating out from the nascent formation served to lead him down the correct path of deduction.
'Wait, what is he doing now?! Is he using himself as an Array material?!'
Under the shocked, disbelieving gaze of his opponent, Theodore did just that. Relying on his perfect control over his physical bodies, he manipulated them to create obscure shapes and symbols, both on the top of his skin, and all throughout his insides. Their sheer number was staggering, easily eclipsing any Array or Compound Array that Sarasvain had ever come across–and his own Array Formation Proficiency was nothing to scoff at!
"I see, so he's summoning 'that'. Substituting other Winter Family members with his surplus bodies–ingenious!"
Far away, Ninna sat up straight in excitement, instantly understanding what her husband-to-be was trying to do. If he truly succeeded, then his power boost would be unlike anything he had ever shown before. After all, he was about to use a part of his heritage. In the grand scheme of things, it might be inconsequential, but it was still a tiny piece of a Supreme Pillar's foundation!
"Excuse me, sister Ninna, but what is 'that'?"
A sweet, if somewhat restrained, voice suddenly chimed in from the side, causing Ninna to look over at the young beauty having just referred to her by such an... 'intimate' title. Admittedly, it felt strange and embarrassing, especially considering why the two of them could be reckoned to have such a relation to begin with...
'Ugh, get your mind out of the gutter, me!'
Shooing away her lustful thoughts, Ninna responded to Xie Mei's question, the blush on her cheeks painfully evident nonetheless.
"Well, to give you a simplified explanation, many Supreme Pillars eventually create their own, completely unique, Compound Arrays, which can only be activated by members of their family. Those can have a plethora of effects, with each family having their own strengths and weaknesses. In general, though, they are incredibly powerful, and synergize extremely well with their family members' fortes. In the Winter Family's case, as far as I'm aware, they are most famous for their Array Eidolons."
Seeing the mixture of realization and confusion on the other's face, Ninna felt a bit helpless. Clearly, this girl had far too much fundamental knowledge to catch up on. Right now was simply not the time, though. After all, Theodore wasn't merely standing still and doing nothing while they were chatting away.
"I'll explain what those are another time. You'll get a decent idea even if you just wait and see, though."
With that, she focused most of her attention on the duel again, leaving not only Xie Mei, but also Han Junqiao, Annis, and many of the other Subordinates to digest her words. Without exception, they all were now looking forward to what their boss was about to reveal. Vigdis, on the other hand, evidently had a good idea already, nodding in understanding.
Fully focused, Theodore was still expanding the various Compound Arrays extending all throughout his bodies, his eyes narrowed and his mind stretched taut. The main reason for his mental burden was that he had never once done what he was about to do.
Sure, he had relied on his family's Arrays many times in his illusory lives, and he knew them like the back of his hand. But using his physical vessels as Array materials was something that he had only dabbled in a few times since meeting Vigdis and getting inspired by her. Additionally, he needed to manually adjust every single Compound Array that he was physically engraving upon his selves, because his own current situation was far removed from what his family had considered back when they had created their Eidolons.
Still, this non-life threatening scenario was the ideal time to put his theories into practice. His own Array Formation Proficiency had long since reached the required standards to pull off such modifications without much of a problem.
As the last symbol settled into place, all Theodores took a deep breath, allowing themselves a second or two of rest. Then, their bodies all began to hum, the resonance between them strengthening in intensity by multiple orders of magnitude in less than a moment.
Just like he had done earlier today when he had fought Ninna, Theodore began to successively power himself up–but this time, it was a bit different. He wasn't only infusing one body with limitless Energy, but six!
Usually, draining his Dantians of such ungodly amounts of Energy at once would have caused his body to burst, but due to the Compound Arrays that he had laid out, he could temporarily directly access his main body's Dantians with his other five bodies! The extracted Energy would then get transported to them straight from the Dantians, without impacting his physical vessel in the slightest.
Naturally, this didn't serve to resolve all of the problems that his self reinforcement routine suffered from–his bodies were still being strained to their limits, and eventually breaking apart. But with recovery and healing abilities like his, this wasn't an issue.
Whilst his surplus bodies couldn't duplicate many things, they could all make use of all of his Talents! And although a lot of them didn't effectively stack, the Sacred Phoenix Physique's healing was a wholly different beast. Every body could use it, and target all six of his physical vessels simultaneously. With all of them using it at once, there were now six layers of gentle healing light working their magic and stitching his bodies back together under their terrifying, self-destructive strain.
Of course, it wouldn't just end there. Controlled by the Compound Arrays, even more Energy was siphoned from Theodore's Dantians and transformed into Eternal Ice. Under the astonished gaze of Sarasvain and most of Theodore's Subordinates, the aforementioned Eidolon finally took shape.
Surrounding the half a dozen bodies functioning as the Arrays' cores within, a towering figure made up of snow, the cold itself, and Eternal Ice began to manifest in everyone's view, somewhat shakily. Only after a short period had passed did it become more corporeal, stabilizing itself.
'Phew, it worked! I'm glad I didn't mess up somewhere.'
Marvelling at the mostly familiar figure surrounding him like a thousands of meters tall suit of armour, Theodore couldn't help but smirk to himself a little smugly.
Wrapped in a white mantle sewn directly from Eternal Ice flakes, a titanic figure had appeared. It wore a deep blue Eternal Ice plate cuirass, a visored barbute helmet hiding its true visage from view. Only a chilling darkness could be made out where its eyes were supposed to be.
The chain mail and leather garments it wore underneath were also fashioned from snow and ice of the eternal variety. A blade forged from the same material and a shield emblazoned with the Winter Family's seal rounded out its equipment.
Aside from its impressive appearance, what truly made it terrifying was the fact that this artificial being's Standard Attributes were as high as those of all six current Theodores combined. That alone already served to make it surpass the Celestial Stage altogether. Fortunately, it didn't actually have a cultivation stage of its own, as it was not a real creature–else, the Brocade Guards' intervention could have been attracted.
'What the hell is this!? And why do I dread it so much?'
Furrowing his brows, Sarasvain's relatively relaxed stance had all but vanished. By now, he was fully alert! After all, although he was confident that he could withstand this sort of might directly, this armoured figure somehow made all of his warning bells go off like there was no tomorrow.
Unfortunately, he wouldn't get the answer that he desired just yet. The accumulation of a Supreme Pillar was so far beyond what he could currently imagine that he had no hope of figuring out the full truth on his own.
An Array Eidolon was not simply a manifested Array spirit, or something similar. No, it was a family-controlled and -created concept given form, and accessed via specific Compound Arrays. It could be strengthened continuously by its creators, although utilizing the full extent of its abilities wasn't easy–Theodore had barely scratched the surface today.
This imposing titan, whose sheer presence threatened to freeze even the Lesser True Void in its surroundings–unsuccessfully, for the record–was also merely the weakest Array Eidolon in the Winter Family's arsenal, called the 'Winter Soldier'.
During many of the past clashes with Supreme Pillars, or even forces from beyond the Heavenly Dao, countless numbers of them had been deployed to the battlefield. Stronger Eidolons like the 'Winter Centurion', the 'Winter Knight', and a multitude of others had been all over the place. But those were stories for another day.
"I'm ready now. Can we begin?"
Sounding from within the Winter Soldier, Theodore's voice reached Sarasvain's ears. In response, the Undying President wrapped himself in a thick layer of Divine Energy armour, which he supplemented with a generous dosage of the same kind of higher order power that had crushed Vigdis with ease.
"Yes. Come! Show me what you're made of!"
Beckoning his sparring partner with a confident smile, Sarasvain was anything but as assured of his victory as he presented himself to be. Yet that didn't mean that he would shy away from a fight that he himself had requested! He still had quite a number of cards to play as well–and as someone following the typical protagonist template, overcoming his limits was just a regular Tuesday to him.
'What kind of power is that? I've never seen it before. Vigi was right, it's definitely at least as potent as Eleanora's inherent Silver Dragon power. But now that it's coupled with a Celestial Stage expert... yeah, this will be tough!'
The six Theodores' grins widened, letting their fighting spirit take the reins. He could continue to rack his brains about these unknowns while they were exchanging blows, there was no need to waste any more time!
Accompanied by a world-destroying momentum, the Winter Soldier moved. With a single large stride, it had already arrived next to Sarasvain, its blade bearing down on him with bone-chilling power.
Rising to meet the challenge, the Undying President retrieved an unassuming, plain and unadorned spear from his Storage Ring, then stabbed straight at the incoming blow.
The instant the two attacks met, a devastating maelstrom of force rippled outward. If somebody other than the two of them had been anywhere nearby, then they would have simply ceased to be at this very moment.
But for the two duellists, this apocalyptic result was merely the beginning. Both of their battle, and of their future yet to be told.