Ava and his team descended onto a barren wasteland.
A dead world.
The ground was cracked and dry.
Massive skeletons of ancient titans lay half-buried in the sand.
Countless corpses of fallen warriors were scattered across the dunes like a battlefield frozen in time.
The instant they arrived
CRUSH.
An overwhelming force slammed into them.
It wasn't gravity.
It wasn't magic.
It was law.
The higher law of existence.
7th Dimensional pressure.
Star gasped, knees buckling.
Demeter staggered, clutching her chest.
Dallas fell to one knee, face pale.
All three struggled to breathe
struggled to exist.
And then it got worse.
Their vision fractured, as if reality itself was shattering.
Star looked down and saw another version of herself walking through the sand… then another… then thousands, overlapping like a broken mirror.
Parallel versions of themselves flooded their senses living, dying, fighting, screaming every possibility occurring at once.
Voices echoed in their heads
their own voices from other timelines.
Some crying.
Some laughing.
Some begging to be saved.
Dallas clutched his skull. "Make it stop MAKE IT STOP!"
Demeter's arms flickered between different forms child, adult, old woman as timelines overlapped inside her body.
Their flesh began to disintegrate, flickering between existence and nonexistence
Because the 7D reality was rejecting them.
Only one of them stood firm.
Ava.
He was the only one untouched.
The only one whose body did not flicker.
The only one who did not see other versions of himself.
Because every parallel version of Ava was already one.
Even he felt strain pressure trying to crush his essence but he didn't panic.
"Don't move," he said quietly.
He closed his eyes.
FWOOOM.
His golden irises ignited.
Tenshi no Me.
The golden life strings manifested around him, weaving through space, connecting existence itself.
They wrapped around his body
And his form shifted.
His body adapted to the 7th Dimension.
Then the strings extended
and wrapped around his teammates.
Star gasped as the crushing pressure vanished.
Demeter straightened, eyes wide.
Dallas blinked in disbelief. "I… I can move again."
Star stared at Ava. "How did you do that? I feel… stronger."
Ava's eyes glowed with golden fractals.
"These eyes connect to life strings and the Hopf Fibration," he said calmly. "They will never allow a higher-dimensional existence to destroy me. They let me map lower dimensions into higher ones… and reshape reality to match."
Tenshi no Me allowed Ava to see the life strings hyperversal threads that connect everything: existence and nonexistence, the Omniverse and the Shadow Omniverse, and beyond. Even concepts, laws, and truths themselves could be seen, shaped, and created through this sight. Everything that is, was, or could be had life strings, and even things that never existed but were possible still had them. By touching those strings, Ava could experience infinite parallel versions of every being, every choice, every path and even create his own parallel simulations within his eyes to master power before using it in reality. Meanwhile, Hopf Fibration allowed him to translate dimensionality itself mapping a 3D being into 5D or higher, or forcing higher beings down into lower forms reshaping any entity to any dimensional state he desired. With these combined, the 7th Dimension could not reject him… because in his eyes, every dimension was already his to command.
He paused, thinking.
If I were at full power… I could do far more. But even like this… it's enough.
Suddenly
BOOOOOOM!!!
The desert exploded upward as something colossal erupted from beneath the skeletons.
A 7D monster rose, towering like a nightmare born from the void.
Its body was purple and black, covered in jagged spikes that pulsed with chaotic energy.
A massive tail whipped behind it, tearing through mountains like paper.
And draped over its body… was a giant titan's skeleton, rotted and fused into its flesh
worn like armor, worn like skin.
Its mere presence warped space in terror.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!"
The monster roared and hurled a massive punch
Dallas stepped forward, engine-sword roaring to life.
VROOOOOOM SLASH!!!
With one clean strike, he cut the monster in half.
A huge cluster of points appeared above Dallas's head before fading.
He blinked. "That's… way more than any fight so far!"
He looked at Ava. "I don't know what you did to us with those life strings… but I've never felt stronger."
But then
More monsters appeared.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
All of them 7D entities.
The team shared one look…
And attacked.
Demeter
She slammed her spear into the ground.
The entire desert rose like a tidal wave.
She raised her spear high, its tip blazing with divine light, and slashed through the air splitting reality itself. From the rift, countless golden portals burst open across the sky. Out of each one poured infinite golden spears, streaking downward like divine meteors, annihilating every monster that dared to move beneath her gaze.
The ground trembled beneath her fury as points surged around her.
Star
Star's fists ignited with radiant pink flame.
She summoned tiny burning suns that orbited her arms like planets
Then punched through monsters with explosive force, vaporizing them in bursts of stellar energy.
Every strike gave her more points than entire planets had.
Ava
Ava moved like a phantom.
His black blade carved through 7D matter like paper.
Black and purple lightning the Thunder of Chaos erupted from his sword, ripping monsters apart like storms tearing cities from the earth.
Buildings of flesh and bone collapsed with every strike.
Monsters fell like rain.
And then…
The ground trembled.
A deep rumble rolled across the desert as cracks split the earth apart rivers of dust and flame bursting upward.
Two colossal hands black and jagged, dripping with void energy erupted from the abyss, clawing their way toward the surface.
The ground quaked again as the creature pulled itself free, its towering head breaking through the crust of the world. The monster larger than a planet, eyes burning with chaos. The sky dimmed instantly its shadow swallowed everything.
For a heartbeat, all fell silent.
Then it roared.
"RRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
The sound shattered mountains. Space itself warped around the monster's sheer presence.
Demeter, Star, and Dallas looked up in horror, their reflections caught in its glowing eyes.
Before they could move
BOOOOOOM!!!
Its massive tail swept across the land, obliterating everything in its path. The three heroes were hurled through mountains, crashing into the shattered ground, dust and agony consuming the air around them.
They stood, bruised, and attacked with everything they had
Their strikes did nothing.
The monster slammed its fist down
BAM!!!!
All three were crushed into the earth, barely conscious.
Ava blurred forward, rage in his eyes.
"LEAVE THEM ALONE!!!"
He roared, golden eyes blazing.
"CHAOS THUNDER!"
He swung his sword with all his strength, the blade erupting with black and purple lightning as it collided with the monster's hide
Nothing.
The monster backhanded Ava with godlike force.
CRAAAAASH!!!
Ava slammed into the ground beside his team, blood running down his arm.
The beast raised its claws
And formed a planet-sized energy sphere swirling with annihilation, warping the 7th dimension.
Demeter coughed. "A-Ava… we need to escape"
"We can't!" Star yelled. "It's too fast!"
The energy blast began to fall.
Dallas whispered, trembling, "We're… gonna die"
A shadow stood up in front of them.
Ava.
Protecting them.
Standing tall.
Unmoving.
His golden eyes Tenshi no Me scanned the massive blast with perfect clarity.
Analyze it. Understand it. Counter it.
His vision split into infinite parallel worlds, each one simulating this exact moment this attack this outcome.
He mastered every version of it.
Purple and black energy wrapped around his body, surging into his arm… then into his sword.
He held the blade out.
A calm breath.
"This," Ava said softly, "is your own attack… sent back at you more chaotic, more corrupted the perfect counter that devours your power… and time's infinity."
He raised the blade
And roared:
"CHAOS COUNTER!!!"
BOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!
A massive torrent of chaotic energy erupted from his sword, colliding with the monster's attack.
The energies screamed against each other
Then Ava's power tore through it.
The blast ripped straight through the monster's skull.
KRRSSSHHHHHHHHH!!!
The 7D beast's head imploded
its entire body collapsing in on itself.
Silence.
Then
A STORM of massive points appeared above Ava and vanished one after another.
The ground trembled.
His teammates stared at him in awe.
Ava lowered his sword.
Ava stood panting, chest heaving. The aftertaste of battle hung in the air sand dust, scorched bone, and the iron tang of exhausted power.
"It took a lot out of me," he admitted quietly.
His teammates hauled themselves up, bruised and bleeding but alive. Dallas wiped grit from his lip and stared at Ava, wide-eyed. "What was that? Seriously what did you just do?"
Ava steadied himself, fingers still wrapped around the black hilt. He spoke slowly, like a teacher explaining something dangerous.
"That was one of my strongest techniques," he said. "The technique is called Chaos counter."
He watched his friends absorb the words, then continued.
"What Chaos counter does is simple and terrible," Ava said. "It takes whatever attack is coming at me… and creates a corrupted, chaotic version of it. My golden eyes Tenshi no Me map that attack across infinite parallel worlds, and create infinite parallel worlds in each one… I practice and master the movement perfectly. Then I bring back a perfected, corrupted copy that counteracts and destroys the original. In other words, whatever that energy blast was, my Chaos Strike made the perfect chaotic mirror of it and shattered it because infinite versions of me mastered it… and I absorbed all of that power into one perfect counter."
Star huffed, relief softening her voice. "I don't care how it works. I'm just glad you got us out of that."
Before anyone could speak, movement stirred at the edge of the dunes.
Two groups of students descended from the higher planes, each group four strong. They drifted down through the shimmering air, landing with theatrical grace their confidence as heavy as the heat around them.
One of them smirked. "Impressive. You actually made it this deep."
Another laughed. "We figured we'd be the only team left to farm all the monsters out here."
The second group advanced, weapons already humming with power. "Beating you?" one said with a grin. "That'll be worth a fortune in points."
Their teammates chuckled, spreading out in a loose semicircle as golden dust whirled around them.
Demeter glanced around, realizing they were surrounded. Calmly, she raised her hand, a faint glow forming at her fingertips.
"No one's scared of any of you guys.
Dallas folded his arms, eyes narrowing as he scanned the opponents. "One thing's clear they've got a ton of points. Way more than we do." He smirked. "Maybe we should be scared."
"Yeah you should be" one of the newcomers replied, stepping forward. His aura flared, cracking the sand beneath his boots. "We've already conquered a multiverse. This place is practically ours."
The others laughed behind him, their weapons igniting brighter a storm of rival energies beginning to build in the air.
Ava tightened his grip on his black sword and glanced at his team.
Demeter's hands curled confidently around The Golden Underworld.
Star's blade, The Star Breaker, hummed like a living star ready to ignite.
Dallas rested his engine-sword on his shoulder, the weapon's metallic core still purring like a cosmic engine.
"Focus," Ava told them, voice low and steady. "We can take them."
Two leaders stepped forward to speak for the rest.
The first was a tall figure with long, spiked black-and-white hair and green eyes that glittered like poisoned emeralds. He wore a tailored suit braided with dark armor and carried a staff shaped like a scythe. He lifted his chin and introduced himself with a cold, theatrical bow.
"My name is Mortis Regalia Lord of Resurrection," he said. "I saw your fight in the tournament. It will be my honor to kill you and bring you back again as my zombie."
Beside him strode the second leader: a compact, lethal spark in orange-and-white armor, hair spiking gold like sun-fire and bright blue eyes burning with a dangerous light. He grinned wide, teeth on edge, then slammed a fist into his palm and barked, voice cracking with manic excitement. "Forget honor forget sending him back to class!" he yelled. "I don't want to capture him or embarrass him. I want to kill him before he gets the chance to vanish. Tear him apart here and now take every point and erase him from the dungeon!"
Their teams responded with a roar. The leaders barked the order and six attackers surged forward in a coordinated charge, blades and spells converging on Ava's small group.
Ava looked to his friends one by one.
"Team ready?" he asked.
They braced, weapons raised, faces set.
"Ready," Dallas breathed.
"Always," Demeter snapped.
Star's smile was fierce. "Let's dance."
They held their ground as the gap closed and the duel began.