"Leon, please! Why are you doing this to ? You know how much I love you!"
The voice was perfect—absolutely identical to Seraphine’s pleading tone.
Leon knew intellectually it wasn’t actually her. His mind was completely certain of that fact. But seeing "her" like that—bloodied, crying, begging—it churned his stomach with maximum anger rather than sympathy.
How DARE it.
He pushed himself even harder, forcing more power into the forming black hole.
But the technique wasn’t as stable as his previous attempt. Both Leon and the demon were taking continuous damage from the increasingly volatile spatial distortion, their figures becoming progressively more bloodied.
However, Leon was faring significantly better due to the natural toughness of his Divinordial body, his constant regeneration, and his intimate familiarity with space elent itself, mitigating the worst effects.
The monster truly panicked now, sensing its imminent death.
Its appearance changed rapidly through multiple forms—from Seraphine to Ira, then to Loriel, then Liora, and finally even Archon Vyrra, all of them crying and desperately begging him to stop.
Even Archon Vyrra? That makes him think for a second...
Seeing the proud Archon reduced to tears gave Leon montary pause. But he didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop.
Gritting his teeth even harder, ignoring the phantom images of people he cared about, he increased the intensity even more, pouring everything into the final attack.
Then he fully unleashed the unstable black hole directly into the demon’s regenerating core.
Leon imdiately teleported as far away as possible using Void Step to escape the blast radius.
A shrill, inhuman scream filled the entire arena as the creature was systematically torn apart and consud by collapsing space. When the technique finally dissipated and normal space reasserted itself, the demon was completely gone.
Leon stood at the edge of the arena, breathing heavily. One arm from the shoulder down was completely gone, torn off by spatial backlash. Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. His clothes were shredded in multiple places.
But an intense green glowing aura surrounded him as his life elent worked at maximum capacity. His body healed at an absolutely breakneck speed, visible to the naked eye. The missing arm regrew completely within seconds, flesh and bone reforming perfectly.
Within monts, he was back to peak physical condition.
The system chi sounded in his mind.
[Eighth Layer Cleared Successfully]
[You have reached your conventional power limit]
[Recomnd withdrawal or transformation to continue]
This was my limit with standard techniques. Now I can only proceed by fighting in divine form.
Leon rested for only a couple of seconds, then began tapping into the vast reserves of holy energy stored within his golden heart.
Due to the ti dilation his dinsional realm had possessed, this energy had accumulated steadily for subjective years and years. He had enormous reserves—nothing to worry about regarding depletion.
More than enough for what cos next.
His body lifted gently off the ground, glowing with radiant light. The holy energy condensed and ford into brilliant armor covering his entire body—highly concentrated divine protection.
This wasn’t the first ti he’d attempted this technique. He’d practiced the formation multiple tis, gaining familiarity with the process.
At the sa ti, his Epic rank sword materialized in his hand, retrieved from storage just in ti. He’d almost forgotten about it—it would have been lost in the collapsing black hole otherwise.
Three figures converged in front of him simultaneously.
Two of them he’d seen in previous layers—but now they radiated power at Archon peak rank rather than their previous levels.
The third was completely new: a tall crimson demon with cruel tal hooks embedded directly into its own flesh—not armor, but part of its body. Living chains extended from its spine like chanical serpents, moving with disturbing intelligence and purpose.
That one. That’s the most dangerous.
Leon felt the greatest sense of danger from the chained demon, specifically.
He wasn’t particularly worried about the corrupting energy anymore—his condensed holy armor and constant supply of purifying energy would protect him adequately.
However, whenever he looked at those writhing chains, an inexplicable feeling washed over him. A premonition that if those chains made contact with him, sothing very bad would happen. The binding went beyond physical restraint.
Avoid those chains at all costs.
Three peak Archon-rank opponents simultaneously.
The battle that followed was intense and prolonged, lasting approximately 2 minutes and 40 seconds of continuous combat.
Leon engaged all three with everything he possessed. His blade moved in constant fluid motion, deflecting attacks from multiple directions while his holy armor absorbed impacts he couldn’t avoid. He teleported repeatedly using Void Step, repositioning constantly to prevent the three from surrounding him effectively.
But he discovered sothing critical during the fight.
Whenever he killed one of them individually—destroying a demon completely with overwhelming force—they would simply resurrect out of thin air monts later, completely restored.
They’re linked sohow. Killing them one at a ti is futile.
So Leon adjusted his strategy.
He spent the majority of the battle dodging, defending, and carefully positioning all three enemies while secretly preparing an overwhelming final technique that combined multiple elents at maximum power.
Then, when everything was perfectly aligned and all three demons were clustered together, he unleashed the accumulated energy in one massive coordinated attack that obliterated all three simultaneously.
The sheer concentrated destruction was enough to overco their resurrection chanism, and they dissolved into nothing.
It wasn’t even particularly difficult for Leon ultimately. In speed, raw strength, energy reserves, and pure lethality, he was consistently one clear notch above them.
Superior in every tric. They never had a real chance.
After the battle concluded, his holy armor was broken and cracked in several places from sustained impacts. But the armor reford itself in monts, drawing on his holy energy reserves to restore structural integrity.
Holy energy is different from mana. I recover it passively from the faith my people have in . It’s always growing, constantly replenishing.
Without taking much rest at all, Leon’s expression beca deadly serious as he chose to continue forward.
The system warning appeared again, more insistent than before:
[WARNING: Next layer difficulty significantly exceeds your demonstrated capabilities]
[Withdrawal strongly recomnded]
He ignored it completely.
But he did sigh with relief internally.
I’m still confident I can end the battle if it becos too dangerous. My divine transformation is still held in reserve.
For the upcoming tenth layer, he knew the monster would be above Archon rank entirely—entering the next major cultivation tier.
That represented a likely vast chasm of power compared to what he’d faced so far.
This is it. The most serious challenge I’ve faced. The most serious I’ve ever been.
His Epic rank sword began glowing with intensified radiance, faint runic symbols appearing along the blade’s length as he channeled power into it.
The system notification appeared:
[Final Layer: 10]
[Prepare yourself]
[This is your last chance to withdraw]
The starting ssage for the final layer arrived.
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