The mont Ery confird his intent, the surrounding void shifted, and a translucent interface unfolded before him.
[Choose Your Path]
[Martial Path]
[Spirit Path]
As his consciousness brushed against the words, detailed information stread directly into his mind. The Thirteen Cosmic Bridges were divided into two principal trials.
The Martial Path examined physique, combat instincts, law comprehension, and real-ti battle execution. The Spirit Path, by contrast, tested the soul's strength, spiritual defenses, and ntal domination.
Ery weighed the options carefully. His six-layered pagoda within his sea of consciousness stood firm and radiant; his soul power had already reached Level 6, bordering on the threshold of a Spirit Champion. In many ways, the Spirit Path should have favored him.
But combat was more straightforward.
Without hesitation, he selected-
A chanical voice echoed within the vast emptiness.
[Level 1 Martial Path will begin in one minute. Prepare yourself.]
The world dissolved into radiant light. When the brilliance receded, Ery found himself standing upon a colossal stone bridge suspended in a boundless cosmic abyss. Two monuntal gates stood at opposite ends, engraved with runes that pulsed with restrained cosmic energy. Beneath the bridge stretched an endless void, as if reality itself had been carved open.
A final instruction entered his mind.
First: in this arena, his injuries would be fully restored.
He felt it imdiately.
The fractured layers of his second cosmos realm stabilized. The damaged three-layered foundation that had once collapsed during his failed breakthrough returned-perfect, whole, and humming with power.
Second: equipnt access.
He could select from thousands of provided weapons... or summon his own.
Out of curiosity, he thought of Excalibur.
The silver sigil embedded in his wrist flared to life. It extended a thread of light that pierced through space-probing his domain. In a fraction of a second, a blade manifested in his hand.
It was Excalibur.
Identical in weight. Identical in aura. Even the faint resistance the divine sword sotis displayed when wielded without proper intent was present.
Ery allowed himself a faint smile. "Interesting..."
The preparation minute ended.
Across the bridge, light condensed and shaped itself into a tallic humanoid figure. It bore the sa height, build, and posture as Ery himself. In its hand, too, rested Excalibur.
"I see... so I'm fighting myself."
The realization settled quickly, but there was no hesitation in his movent. The instant the signal to begin resonated through the bridge, Ery stepped forward and drew Excalibur in a clean, decisive arc. The blade sang as he infused it with the Dao of Heaven and Earth-light and darkness balanced at the edge, woven into a unified current. The air along the bridge trembled as the strike carved a luminous crescent through space itself.
Across from him, the tallic clone responded with flawless timing. It mirrored the sa stance, the sa grip, the sa forward step. Its Excalibur descended in an identical arc-yet the aura was different. Instead of balanced fusion, the clone's blade radiated concentrated brilliance: pure light intertwined with vibrant natural force, maximizing the inherent affinity of the divine sword.
The two strikes collided at the center of the bridge.
A shockwave burst outward, distorting the void beneath them and sending ripples across the stone surface. Light and darkness twisted against concentrated radiance; balanced duality t refined singular purity.
For a heartbeat, they were evenly matched.
Then the difference revealed itself.
The clone's light-nature strike, though potent, lacked the stabilizing depth of his fusion. The tallic body shuddered as the backlash traveled through its fra.
Ery pressed the advantage imdiately, stepped inside the clone's guard, and unleashed a decisive second strike.
The blade cleaved downward in a clean vertical line. The tallic form split cleanly from shoulder to hip, dissolving into countless motes of light that scattered into the void.
Silence returned.
A calm notification appeared.
[You have completed Level 1.]
Ery lowered his blade slightly, exhaling through his nose.
"Start Level Two."
The bridge shimred as the environnt reset.
[Level 2 Martial Path will begin in one minute. Prepare yourself.]
When the second clone erged, Ery felt the difference imdiately. The aura pressing from across the bridge was denser, more layered. This version carried not just structural similarity, but heightened presence.
To test the progression, Ery repeated his opening maneuver. Excalibur descended once more, infused with the Dao of Heaven and Earth.
This ti, the clone did not et the strike head-on.
Its figure blurred and vanished mid-arc. Spatial bending folded the distance in an instant. It reappeared to Ery's flank, radiant wings of condensed light unfurling from its back as it lunged forward in a sweeping counterattack.
Ery reacted without panic and intercepted the incoming blade.
The battle accelerated as the clone demonstrated full access to multiple elental laws-light, darkness, and the others he had cultivated.
Spells layered seamlessly over blade techniques. Darkness swallowed arcs of light; spatial distortions intersected with elental bursts. It fought with his versatility, switching forms and affinities fluidly.
Yet after several exchanges, Ery twisted space beneath his feet, shifting a fraction to the side while compressing his Dao into a single precise arc.
Excalibur flashed.
The blade sliced cleanly across the clone's torso before it dissolving into
shimring fragnts of light.
[You have completed Level 2.]
Ery stood alone once more upon the bridge, the cosmic winds curling
around him.
Two levels cleared.
"Start Level Three."
The bridge darkened slightly as the third opponent took shape.
The mont the signal to begin pulsed through the arena, the clone moved.
It did not wait.
Excalibur rose, and this ti the blade carried the unmistakable signature of the Dao of Heaven and Earth-light and darkness fused in equilibrium, nature woven with void, opposing forces rotating in seamless harmony. The strike that ca toward Ery was not an imitation of a single law. It was his path.
Ery t it head-on.
The two arcs collided in a detonation that cracked the surface of the bridge. Twin crescents of balanced force crashed together, neither yielding imdiately. The recoil sent both figures sliding backward, boots carving grooves into the stone.
So it has reached this level, he thought.
Without pause, the clone extended its free hand. Twilight vines erupted from
the ground, infused with the sa balance Ery himself commanded. The vines twisted midair, forming a lattice ant to bind and restrict.
Ery countered with his own vines, and the battlefield turned into a writhing storm of tendrils.
Then the pressure changed again.
A domain expanded outward from the clone.
[Battlefield Domain]
At level three, it already displayed the power of two cosmos. Ery wondered
if this was the level at which all one-cosmos Grand Magus would be completely
suppressed.
The air grew heavy. Space compressed. Ti seed to drag against his limbs.
The battlefield domain resisted his movent through layered applications of spatial distortion and temporal friction. For a split second, his step faltered.
The clone exploited it instantly.
It slipped through the vines and reappeared at his flank, blade descending
toward his neck in a perfectly tid execution strike.
Ery quickly unleashed his own battlefield domain and barely managed to tilt his body aside. The edge of Excalibur grazed his shoulder. Had his reaction been a fraction slower, the level would have ended there.
"Level three... and already this strong," he muttered. Instead of rushing to finish it, Ery chose to observe.
He unleashed his Twilight Form.
His aura intensifying as spell resistance and raw battle power increased. The
clone mirrored him imdiately. Its own figure shifted, muscles tightening, twilight energy wrapping around it in a nearly identical configuration.
The clash that followed lasted minutes.
Blades t again and again, each collision releasing balanced shockwaves that
shook the bridge. Domains overlapped and crushed against each other. Spatial folds intersected. Ti slowed, accelerated, distorted in layers.
Yet amid the intensity, Ery began to perceive the pattern.
This clone possessed his full three-layered Two Cosmos realm. It wielded his
weapon, his bloodline, his battlefield domain.
But it's mastery was not identical to him.
The first clone had displayed only a single aspect of his comprehension. The
second had distributed his laws broadly. This third one unified them-but its depth was not equal to his own.
Its understanding of spatial bending lacked the subtle compression he had
refined though hundreds of fights. Its twilight vines were powerful, but their
control was marginally less precise. Its Dao, though balanced, did not carry the sa intuitive flow.
After dozens of exchanges, the difference compounded.
That was enough.
He condensed his Dao into a narrow line, stepping through the collapsing
distortion and driving Excalibur straight through the clone's guard.
The blade pierced its chest.
The tallic figure froze, twilight energy unraveling from its form before it
shattered into drifting fragnts of light.
[You have completed Level 3.]
Ery exhaled slowly.
"Start Level Four."
The bridge reset once more, and the pressure that erged from the far gate
was suffocating.
When the fourth clone appeared, there was almost no discernible difference.
Its aura, its stance, even the subtle cadence of its breathing-everything felt nearly identical. When it activated its domain, the compression of ti and space felt as sharp as his own. When it shifted into Twilight Form, the surge of power was indistinguishable.
The battle that followed was no longer a test of superiority. It was a true duel. Strike t strike in perfect symtry. Spatial folds canceled each other. Domains collided and overlapped until neither side could gain advantage. Tis passed with no clear edge.
For the first ti, a flicker of exhilaration rose within him.
To fight an equal version of himself-one that forced him to confront every weakness, every inefficiency-was exhilarating. Each clash refined his timing. Each exchange deepened his understanding. He felt his comprehension of the
Dao sharpening under pressure.
He almost forgot this was a trial.
Almost.
When the realization returned, Ery changed tactics entirely. Instead of matching strength for strength, he compressed all of his laws inward,
abandoning broad equilibrium in favor of a single, concentrated burst. He allowed the clone to push him back, to believe montum had shifted.
Then, at the peak of the clash, he collapsed his domain deliberately-creating a
montary vacuum.
The clone reacted by expanding its own domain to dominate the space.
That instant of overextension was the opening.
Ery stepped through the distortion and unleashed a decisive, downward
cleave infused with the full depth of his Dao-no hesitation, no balance withheld.
The blade struck true.
The fourth clone split from crown to core and dissolved into radiant fragnts.
[You have completed Level 4.]
The bridge fell silent once more.
Ery steadied his breathing, feeling his wounds instantly restored by the
system's regeneration.
Now only one remained.
Level Five.
To clear it would an passing the Nephilim requirent of the Trial of
Distinction.
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