After the breathtaking draw between William and Javier, the atmosphere in the arena remained heavy.
No one applauded immediately.
The candidates were not ordinary spectators who became excited by simple displays of power. They were beings standing at the peak of their generations. They understood exactly what they had witnessed.
A battle between two concepts that refused to submit to each other.
William's manipulation of the relationships governing existence.
Javier's absolute path that could cut through all things.
Neither had achieved complete victory.
And that fact alone made everyone even more cautious about their future encounters.
The judge allowed the battlefield to restore itself completely.
The fractured dimensions sealed.
The broken laws of space returned to normal.
Then his voice echoed once more.
"The next battle will begin."
Merito vs DanielNullification Against Space-Time
Daniel stepped onto the battlefield calmly.
Unlike many others, he did not appear intimidated by Merito's reputation.
His eyes remained focused.
His power over space and time was among the most complex abilities in the tournament.
If anyone could resist Merito's nullification, perhaps it was him.
Merito looked at him silently.
"Your control over space and time is impressive."
Daniel answered:
"And your ability to erase them is terrifying."
A short silence followed.
Then the judge announced:
"Begin."
Daniel moved first.
The battlefield folded.
The distance between him and Merito became meaningless.
Countless spatial fractures appeared around Merito from every direction, each carrying a distortion capable of tearing apart stars.
However—
Merito merely raised his hand.
The distortions disappeared.
Not destroyed.
Not blocked.
They simply stopped existing.
Daniel had expected this.
The attack was never his true objective.
The moment Merito focused on the incoming distortions, Daniel manipulated time itself.
Thousands of temporal echoes appeared.
Each one represented a different possibility of Daniel's next movement.
For the first time, Merito had to observe carefully.
If he canceled the wrong target, the real Daniel would attack.
A smile appeared on Daniel's face.
He had created uncertainty.
But that smile disappeared quickly.
Merito did not choose.
He erased the very concept of "possible movements" within his range.
Every temporal clone vanished.
Daniel's eyes widened.
"Even that..."
He immediately retreated.
For the first time in the entire tournament, Daniel realized why Merito was feared.
His ability was not merely destruction.
It was denial.
The denial of every system that allowed something to exist.
But Daniel was not weak.
He gathered the surrounding space and compressed it into an infinitely dense point.
A miniature collapse of dimensions.
He launched it toward Merito.
The attack did not travel through ordinary space.
It appeared directly beside him.
This time, Merito could not completely ignore it.
He stepped backward.
A rare sight.
The audience noticed.
Merito had moved.
Without hesitation, Merito extended his finger.
The region around Daniel became gray.
Color vanished.
Sound disappeared.
The flow of time slowed.
Daniel immediately understood the danger.
If he remained inside that field, his entire authority over space and time would be erased.
He concentrated every ounce of his power and tore open a pathway outside the field.
He escaped.
But a portion of the nullification touched him.
His left arm disappeared.
Not cut.
Not destroyed.
It was simply gone.
The spectators became silent.
Daniel's expression hardened.
He immediately reversed time around his body.
The arm returned.
But sweat appeared on his forehead.
Even restoring himself required enormous effort.
The battle continued for several minutes.
Daniel continuously changed the battlefield.
Creating alternate spaces.
Reversing moments.
Separating causes from effects.
Each technique forced Merito to spend more energy nullifying them.
Yet every time Merito advanced, the pressure became unbearable.
Eventually, Daniel understood the truth.
He possessed countless techniques.
Countless strategies.
But every one of them depended on a system that Merito could reject.
Daniel took a deep breath.
Then he smiled.
"I understand now."
Merito looked at him.
"You cannot defeat me with a system."
Daniel nodded.
"Then I will have to create one you cannot understand."
For a brief moment, his aura transformed.
He had learned something.
A new direction.
A deeper understanding of his physique.
But before he could complete that realization, the judge stepped between them.
"Enough."
Both fighters looked at him.
The judge continued:
"The purpose of these battles is growth, not destruction."
He turned toward the two warriors.
"The winner of this battle..."
The entire arena waited.
"Merito."
Daniel accepted the result.
There was no frustration in his eyes.
Only thought.
He had lost.
But he had discovered a new path.
Merito looked at him before leaving.
"You have potential."
For Merito, a man who rarely acknowledged anyone, this was a great compliment.
Daniel smiled faintly.
"I will remember that when we meet again."
Maria vs VladimirThe Eternal Adaptation Against the Flame That Burns Reality
The next battle began.
Vladimir entered the arena surrounded by silent flames.
They simply existed as a fire capable of burning space, time, and even concepts themselves.
Across from him stood Maria.
One of the three candidates possessing an Eternal body
A being who could copy and transform the pure cosmic energy into countless forms.
However, Vladimir's expression remained confident.
He knew her greatest advantage.
And he also knew her limits.
There were powers that could not simply be reproduced.
Just as Maria had failed to understand Javier's absolute path.
The battle between adaptation and absolute destruction was about to begin.
Vladimir spoke first.
"Your power is troublesome."
Maria smiled faintly.
"So is yours."
A moment of silence passed.
Then the judge's voice descended.
"Begin."
Vladimir did not hesitate.
He had learned from his previous battles that giving an Eternal Physique time to analyze and adapt was a mistake.
A single spark left his fingertip.
It crossed the battlefield almost instantly.
Where it passed, the surrounding space cracked like glass.
Time itself became distorted.
Even the invisible laws maintaining the arena trembled.
Maria did not attempt to stop it directly.
She had already learned from observing Vladimir's previous battles.
A force capable of burning the structure of existence could not simply be blocked by ordinary defenses.
She raised her hand.
The space before her folded.
A layer of compressed cosmic energy appeared.
The flame entered it.
For a brief moment, it slowed.
But then—
it burned through.
Maria had expected that outcome.
At the same instant, she opened a dimensional passage beneath the flame, redirecting its trajectory into an empty region prepared by the arena's restoration system.
A faint smile appeared on Vladimir's face.
"Good."
Without warning, hundreds of flames appeared around the battlefield.
Not launched.
Created.
Every direction became a possible path of death.
Vladimir had learned from William's methods.
If an opponent could counter one attack, then overwhelm their ability to respond.
The arena became a sea of crimson.
Maria closed her eyes.
For a brief moment, she reached toward the surrounding universe.
An immense quantity of pure cosmic energy flowed into her body.
Then it changed.
Ice.
Lightning.
Gravitational waves.
Spatial blades.
Thousands of different powers manifested around her.
The spectators watched in silence.
Every technique represented years of understanding for ordinary beings.
Maria created them in an instant.
The two storms collided.
Flames that burned reality itself.
Powers born from the pure source of existence.
The battlefield collapsed repeatedly.
The cosmic restoration system activated again and again to prevent the destruction from spreading.
At first, Vladimir appeared to have the advantage.
His flames destroyed everything they touched.
Ice evaporated.
Lightning disappeared.
Spatial attacks were burned before reaching him.
Even gravitational pressure was consumed.
But slowly—
the rhythm of the battle changed.
Maria was learning.
She was not copying Vladimir's flame.
She could not transform her power into his exact ability because his flames were a unique manifestation of his Celestial Physique.
However, she was studying its behavior.
Its consumption.
Its interaction with reality.
Its limits.
Vladimir noticed the change.
His expression became serious.
"Already?"
Maria opened her eyes.
"The flames destroy what they touch."
Vladimir remained silent.
"But they still require a relationship with what they burn."
For the first time, Vladimir's eyes narrowed.
Maria raised her hand.
The countless energies surrounding her vanished.
She stopped trying to oppose the flames directly.
Instead, she altered the environment around them.
She created a region where the energy sustaining the flames became increasingly unstable.
The flames still existed.
They still possessed their terrifying power.
But maintaining them became much more difficult.
Vladimir laughed.
A deep, sincere laugh.
"Excellent."
His aura exploded.
The small flames surrounding him merged together.
A colossal dragon of crimson fire appeared behind him.
The same technique that had once collided with William's spear of cosmic energy.
The attack that had nearly destroyed the battlefield.
The spectators became serious.
Even Maria's expression changed.
She knew that avoiding this attack would be nearly impossible.
So she chose another path.
She raised both hands.
The pure energy of the universe gathered above her.
Unlike before, she did not divide it into thousands of abilities.
She concentrated it.
Refined it.
Compressed it.
A dark silver sphere appeared before her.
A mass of energy so dense that the surrounding space bent around it.
Vladimir's dragon roared.
Maria released the sphere.
The two ultimate attacks collided.
No explosion came.
For several seconds, the entire arena became silent.
Fire attempted to consume the sphere.
The sphere attempted to stabilize and suppress the destructive nature of the flames.
Two opposite concepts struggled against each other.
Then—
both attacks disappeared.
The battlefield was left in ruins.
Vladimir was breathing heavily.
Maria's arms were trembling.
Neither had enough energy to continue their strongest techniques.
Vladimir looked at her and smiled.
"Had this been a real battle, I would have continued."
Maria answered calmly.
"And I would have adapted further."
A brief silence passed.
Then Vladimir laughed again.
"That is exactly why fighting an Eternal Physique is troublesome."
The judge observed them for a moment.
He could see that neither side had reached a decisive advantage.
However, the purpose of the battle had already been fulfilled.
"Enough."
The arena returned to normal.
"The result of this battle is..."
Everyone waited.
"A draw."
The audience did not react with surprise.
This outcome made sense.
Vladimir possessed a terrifying destructive force capable of threatening even an Eternal Physique.
But Maria possessed an endless ability to analyze, adapt, and create solutions from the infinite energy of the universe.
Neither had truly overcome the other.
As they left the battlefield, both warriors carried something more valuable than victory.
A deeper understanding of themselves.
And the remaining candidates watched silently.
Because each battle brought them one step closer to the moment when they would have to face their own physiques and earn their recognition.
The seventh round was still not over.
Two battles remained.
Mark vs Sarah.
Kashmir vs Tiago.