The tension in the air escalated with each passing mont.
The atmosphere chilled several degrees as the suspenseful and much-anticipated eting of the Virodhabhasa seeds.
The three seeds who had chosen to accept the invite that Rui had ensured they had gotten arrived together, but they were by no ans allies. An air of hostility and friction could clearly be detected between them. After all, they had each been jousting with each other for the position of the Antithesis. Because there was no Sage-level seed, one could be certain that the Antithesis was most likely to erge from them. That was until Rui broke through to the Master Realm and beca the youngest Master in the history of the Master Realm. The three seeds had beco aware of a spectacular profile who was able to threaten their claim to the title of Antithesis.
What they hadn't expected was that he would shoot past them and beco the unrivaled favorite for the identity of Lord Virodhabhasa after his ability to trigger mass breakthroughs on demand beca public knowledge.
It had shaken the world. But more than any nation, it had shaken the Virodhabhasa Theocracy.
For it matched the description of Lord Virodhabhasa's power, which described him as being able to raise Paths.
In the entire world, Rui had been the only one who truly fit that description.
Thus, instantly, he had gained a powerful religious faction in the Virodhabhasa Theocracy that strongly regarded him as the true Antithesis, comprised of the seven Sages who had sworn absolute loyalty to him. The three old seeds couldn't even do anything to stop his rise to becoming the most favored candidate for the Antithesis. Perhaps they had the slimst of chances before the inception of the Beast Incursion and the Era of Darkness, but after Rui beca one of the two pillars of hope and salvation, a living deity worshiped by the masses by his own rit, albeit spread by the Beggar's Sect.
They couldn't match his achievents even if they tried their hardest.
And no one even had any expectations of them doing so either.
After all, Martial Masters simply could not make such an enormous impact on human civilization by virtue of their own rit, not in a world of Sage-level powerhouses. The Reign of the Master Realm was long, long gone.
And yet, this common sense did not seem to apply to the Dawnbringer. The three seeds could only watch with frustration and dismay as he singlehandedly improved the strategic outlook of human civilization.
When he was scheduled to co to the Virodhabhasa Theocracy, the three seeds of old saw their one and only opportunity to fix this.
Defeating him in combat.
They couldn't rival his ability to affect human civilization, but they were confident in their Martial power as peak Martial Masters reared by the Theocracy.
As for the rumors of him gaining an advantage against a Martial Sage and eventually the one of him actually defeating a Martial Sage in the Nest of Terra, they refused to believe that these were the absolute and straightforward truth.
They couldn't. Acknowledging that truth ant acknowledging that they simply did not stand a chance against him in battle, for they could not hold so much as a candle against a Martial Sage. Thus, they rationalized these shocking events as exaggerated or the Martial Sages holding back trendously, or so other context that was not spread that explained the nonsensical feats.
Regardless, all the hype around him being one of two pillars of hope and salvation and being a worshiped deity across human civilization would die if they successfully humiliated him on the battleground.
Naturally, they wouldn't kill him.
Or at least the Mindbreaker and the Worldfolder wouldn't kill him. The Anti-Life, however, simply gazed at him with a deathly gaze.
He didn't posture aggression or hostility.
Nor did he attempt to project power.
He simply gazed at Rui with eyes devoid of life, sizing up the legend in the flesh before issuing his judgnt.
"Your reputation does not do you justice."
His voice was devoid of vibrance and vigor.
It was no more than a sound.
And yet, what surprised not just the two seeds beside him but also Rui was the complint.
It was not perfunctory or obligatory.
Rui could sense with his mind sense that he was being entirely honest and sincere.
The sa could be said about what he said afterward. "Your reputation does not do you justice, but that does not change the fact that you are still a fraud."
The tension in the air boiled once more. His deathly gaze bore itself deep into Rui's pitch-black eyes.
"I am the Antithesis."
His declaration reverberated across the entire hall.
"I alone am Lord Virodhabhasa."
He explained to Rui with a mundane tone, as though they were talking about the weather. "I am the one who will deliver this world unto salvation and dispel the Era of Darkness after breaking through to the Transcendent Realm and becoming a deity even beyond it."
Rui's eyes lit up with amazent.
Amazent at how delusionally narcissistic one person could be.
He truly believed every word he uttered.
He truly believed that he was the chosen one. Rui felt secondhand embarrassnt for the poor chap and his fellow seeds, who also regarded themselves as the Antithesis.
"Watch your words, you disgusting wraith," the burly Worldfolder growled. "You are not the Antithesis."
"My, he's right about that much, at least," the Mindbreaker smiled eerily. "That, of course, would be ."
The three of them expectantly gazed at him, as did the rest of the gathered crowd.
"N-Nay, it is I who is the one true Antithesis," he barely managed to squeeze out. At that mont, he wished the ground would open up and swallow him wholly to save him from the sheer embarrassnt that he felt at uttering those words.
His determination to kill all of them for putting him in a spot for uttering those words only grew.
"I challenge you to a death battle. One that will decide once and for all who the true Antithesis is."
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