The third battle began.
After witnessing the clash between Vladimir and William, and the terrifying battle of speed and nullification between Mark and Merito, the remaining candidates understood a single truth:
There were no weak beings among the top ten.
Every one of them possessed a power capable of rewriting the battlefield.
And now—
it was the turn of two completely different paths of combat.
Javier, the Candidate of the Severing Body.
Against.
KASHMIR, the Candidate of the Shadow Body.
The moment the judge announced the start of the battle, KASHMIR acted immediately.
He knew better than anyone that allowing someone like Javier to attack first was the same as giving him control over the entire fight.
Darkness exploded from beneath his feet.
The shadows spread across the battlefield like a living ocean, swallowing the ground, the air, and even the light itself.
Within seconds, half the arena had become a part of Kashmir's domain.
The Shadow World.
A dimension where his strength reached its peak.
From the endless darkness, figures began to rise.
One.
Ten.
A hundred.
Shadow warriors carrying different weapons emerged silently.
But among them stood a special group.
The elite swordsmen of his shadow army.
Warriors created from the memories and techniques of countless defeated enemies.
Each one possessed swordsmanship capable of challenging powerful beings.
Kashmir raised his hand.
His eyes remained fixed on Javier.
"Attack."
The army moved.
A black tide surged toward the lone swordsman.
Thousands of blades descended from every direction.
A scene capable of overwhelming most candidates instantly.
Yet Javier did not move.
His expression remained indifferent.
His hand simply rested upon the hilt of his sword.
A silence filled the battlefield.
Then—
he drew his blade.
The movement was so simple.
So natural.
That ordinary beings would have believed he had not moved at all.
Even the candidates watching from outside struggled to follow what had happened.
Only the strongest among them—William, Mark, Merito, and a few others—managed to perceive a vague trace of the motion.
A single cut.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
And the result was immediate.
The shadow swordsmen stopped.
A second later—
their bodies shattered.
The cut had not merely destroyed them.
It had severed the very connection that allowed them to exist in the physical world.
Their forms exploded into black particles and returned to the Shadow World.
But the attack did not stop.
The invisible wave of severance continued forward, moving toward KASHMIR himself.
Kashmir's eyes narrowed.
The entire Shadow World surged before him.
A wall of infinite darkness rose to intercept the attack.
The two powers collided.
For the first time, Kashmir's calm expression changed.
His shadow domain trembled violently.
Cracks spread throughout its surface.
He managed to stop the attack.
But the cost was terrifying.
A huge portion of his energy disappeared.
His breathing became heavier.
He understood.
A battle of endurance against Javier was impossible.
If he continued defending, defeat was guaranteed.
Then his eyes became sharp.
"Then everything will be decided with a single strike."
The countless shadows surrounding the arena suddenly returned.
The vast Shadow World collapsed inward.
Every soldier.
Every creature.
Every fragment of darkness.
Everything condensed.
It entered his sword.
The blade transformed into something that seemed capable of cutting the boundary between worlds.
This was the strongest attack KASHMIR could produce.
A strike carrying the power of his entire domain.
Javier looked at him quietly.
For the first time in the battle—
he nodded.
A gesture of respect.
"An excellent attack."
His hand tightened around his sword.
"I will answer it with my strongest cut."
The atmosphere changed.
The universe itself seemed to react.
Above the arena, a terrifying illusion appeared.
A colossal figure holding a sword larger than stars manifested in the distant sky.
It raised its blade.
And split the heavens.
The cosmic phenomenon caused even the spectators to become silent.
They knew.
This was not an ordinary technique.
This was the manifestation of the very principle of severance.
"Go."
The two moved at the same time.
Kashmir's sword carried the entire Shadow World forward.
Javier's slash descended like a judgment from the cosmos.
The attacks collided.
For a brief moment, the battlefield shook violently.
But only for a moment.
Then—
The attack of KASHMIR began to break apart.
The concentrated Shadow World could not withstand the absolute nature of Javier's severing power.
The sword strike shattered.
The shadows disappeared.
Seeing that his final attack had failed, Kashmir made his final decision.
With the last fragments of his strength, he condensed what remained of his Shadow World into a defensive barrier.
A final wall between him and defeat.
The slash arrived.
The barrier resisted.
For a second.
Two.
Then—
it broke.
The cut continued forward.
KASHMIR watched it approach.
For the first time in the battle, he understood that he had no means left to resist.
The blade of severance reached him.
And his body was split in half.
But before the consequences could unfold—
a hand moved.
The judge appeared.
Without any visible effort, he touched the approaching force.
And the attack disappeared.
As if a phenomenon capable of cutting reality itself had never existed.
A simple action.
Yet it displayed a level of power that made every candidate silently reevaluate the ancient being standing before them.
Someone capable of stopping Javier's ultimate attack so casually was a monster far beyond their current understanding.
The judge looked at the exhausted KASHMIR .
With a wave of his hand, his body returned to its perfect state.
The injuries vanished.
His energy recovered.
The battlefield became silent once again.
Then the judge announced:
"The winner of the third duel..."
A brief pause.
"Javier, Candidate of the Severing Body."
KASHMIR look into Javier and gave him a small smile
"I suppose my shadows still have much to learn."
Javier returned his sword to its sheath.
"No."
His calm voice echoed across the arena.
"Your shadows were worthy."
For a warrior like Javier, who rarely spoke, those words were the highest form of respect.
And everyone watching understood something terrifying.
The difference between the highest-ranked candidates was no longer a difference of strength alone.
It was a difference of whose concept could reach closer to the fundamental laws of existence.