The conclusion of the third round left a heavy silence over the arena.
By this point, there were no weak candidates remaining.
No one could rely on overwhelming power alone.
Every person standing among the ten had reached a level where a single mistake, a moment of hesitation, or a slight misunderstanding of an ability could decide victory or defeat.
The previous battles had shattered countless assumptions.
Mark, the fastest existence among the candidates, had been defeated by Merito because even light itself could be outsmarted.
Javier, whose sword could sever nearly everything in existence, had been stopped by the power of absolute nullification.
Vladimir's flames that burned space and time had been suppressed by the strategic genius of Kashmir.
And even Daniel, the master of space-time, had fallen before William's terrifying understanding of relationships and existence itself.
Now, the fourth round would be even more brutal.
Because everyone had seen each other's abilities.
Everyone knew the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents.
There were no more secrets.
Only understanding, adaptation, and the ability to surpass one's previous limits.
The names appeared once more across the heavens.
William vs Merito.
Maria vs Javier.
Sarah vs Tiago.
Daniel vs Vladimir.
Kashmir vs Mark.
Even the ancient judge watching the tournament narrowed his eyes slightly.
This round contained battles that could easily be considered finals.
Especially the first two.
The clashes between concepts capable of touching the deepest truths of the universe.
William vs MeritoThe One Who Controls Connections Against The One Who Rejects Existence
William stepped onto the battlefield.
For a brief moment, his eyes met Merito's.
Neither showed hostility.
During the past rounds, they had developed a strange form of respect.
Both possessed Eternal Physiques.
Both had abilities that reached beyond simple control over elements.
And both understood the terrifying burden of wielding a power capable of affecting reality itself.
"I wanted to face you since the beginning," William said calmly.
Merito looked at him silently before answering.
"I know."
A moment of silence passed.
Then Merito continued.
"Your power is troublesome."
A slight smile appeared on William's face.
"Coming from you, I will consider that a compliment."
The judge raised his hand.
"Begin."
The battle did not start with an explosion.
It started with silence.
Both understood the danger of acting recklessly.
William immediately expanded his perception.
The countless threads that connected every atom, every form of energy, every force, and every concept around him appeared in his consciousness.
For ordinary beings, the universe was a collection of separate objects.
For him, it was a giant web.
A network of endless relationships.
Merito also moved.
He took a single step.
A slow step.
The same movement that had terrified countless opponents.
Because his speed had never been the source of his danger.
His ability was.
Where he walked, the meaning of existence itself became uncertain.
The surrounding space lost its definition.
The laws governing movement weakened.
Even the perception of the observers became slightly distorted.
William moved first.
He knew allowing Merito to control the pace would be fatal.
His hand extended forward.
Instantly, he cut the relationship between Merito and the surrounding space.
For a normal opponent, such an attack would leave them unable to move.
But Merito was not normal.
The broken connection disappeared.
No.
It was erased.
The very concept of being disconnected was rejected.
William's eyes sharpened.
He had expected this.
But witnessing it directly was another matter entirely.
"So you can even erase the consequences of my ability."
Merito answered calmly.
"And you can interfere with the laws that define mine."
For the first time, Merito accelerated.
His movement was still not fast compared to Mark, but it was enough.
His hand reached toward William.
A sphere of nothingness spread outward.
Everything inside it would lose meaning.
Matter.
Energy.
Memory.
Even the ability to perceive what was being destroyed.
William immediately reacted.
He did not block the attack.
Blocking was impossible.
Instead, he severed the relationship between himself and the approaching field.
The attack passed through the place where he had been.
To everyone watching, it looked as though reality itself had failed to recognize William's existence for a brief moment.
A rare expression appeared on Merito's face.
Interest.
"Excellent."
It was the first time he had ever praised an opponent during the tournament.
But William did not celebrate.
Because he knew something terrifying.
Merito had not used his full power yet.
And neither had he.
The true battle was only beginning.
The entire arena trembled.
The surrounding cosmic barriers activated automatically.
The judge's eyes became more serious.
Because what was about to happen was no longer a simple duel.
It was a collision between two powers that could alter the foundation of reality itself.
A deep silence fell over the arena.
No one spoke.
Not Mark,
Not Javier,
Not Maria,
Even Andrew, watching from his distant seat among the ancient beings of the universe, remained completely still.
Because everyone present understood one undeniable truth.
This was not merely a battle between two candidates.
This was a glimpse into the future of the throne itself.
William slowly raised his hand.
The invisible web of existence expanded from his consciousness.
Every particle.
Every wave of energy.
Every force.
Every interaction.
Everything became visible.
For a moment, the battlefield no longer looked like an arena.
It looked like a gigantic network of shining threads.
A system connecting all things.
The same system William had spent more than a decade learning to understand.
The same system that had allowed him to erase matter, alter energy, and even restore the remnants of things that had been destroyed.
Across from him, Merito looked at this sight with a rare trace of interest.
His power had always been the opposite.
Where William sought to understand the connections of reality, Merito simply denied them.
If William was the hand that reorganized the universe—
Merito was the void that rejected it.
Without warning, both moved.
William attacked first.
Thousands of threads surrounding Merito were cut simultaneously.
The connections between his body and space.
His relationship with energy.
The information that allowed his existence to interact with the world.
A normal being would have disappeared immediately.
Yet Merito remained standing.
A dark wave expanded around him.
The damaged relationships vanished.
The universe itself forgot that those connections had ever been broken.
The spectators narrowed their eyes.
This was the first time many of them had seen a direct confrontation between two Eternal Physiques.
It was terrifying.
Not because of destruction.
There were no exploding stars.
No galaxies collapsing.
The battlefield remained almost peaceful.
But everyone understood that beneath that silence, countless layers of reality were being rewritten every second.
William's expression became serious.
A direct approach was meaningless.
Every relationship he destroyed was simply erased from Merito's awareness of existence.
Then his eyes changed.
He remembered something Andrew had taught him.
"Every ability has a foundation. Even the impossible depends on something."
If he could not attack the result—
Then he would attack the process.
William closed his eyes.
His perception descended deeper than before.
Past atoms.
Past energy.
Past the visible structure of reality.
He searched for the source that allowed Merito's nullification to interact with existence.
For the first time in the battle—
Merito's calm expression changed.
He sensed danger.
The darkness around him exploded outward.
The entire arena was swallowed by absolute emptiness.
The spectators could no longer see William.
They could no longer sense him.
Even sound disappeared.
The only thing remaining was the terrifying idea of nothing.
Many candidates felt their hearts become heavy.
Even Mark, who rarely acknowledged anyone, whispered:
"Monstrous."
Inside the void, William experienced something terrifying.
There was no light.
No direction.
No sensation.
Even his memories began to blur.
For a brief moment, he forgot why he was fighting.
He forgot the tournament.
His family.
Earth.
Everything.
Then—
a single thread appeared.
A thread connecting him to his own identity.
William reached toward it.
And held it tightly.
His eyes opened.
A tremendous pressure erupted from his body.
"I see it."
Merito's eyes widened slightly.
The impossible had happened.
William had found a connection even inside complete nullification.
The connection between the void and the reality it was trying to deny.
Immediately, William acted.
He did not destroy the void.
He did not resist it.
He separated it from the universe.
The endless darkness around them cracked.
Like a mirror.
The arena returned.
For the first time since the beginning of the tournament—
Merito took a step backward.
The spectators were stunned.
Not because Merito had been injured.
He was not.
But because someone had forced the candidate of the Eternal Nullified Physique to retreat.
A feat no one else had achieved.
William did not chase him.
He knew better.
A wounded beast was dangerous.
A cornered concept was worse.
Merito looked at him.
For the first time, a faint smile appeared on his emotionless face.
"You continue to surprise me."
William smiled.
"Likewise."
Then both of them raised their hands.
The surrounding reality began to tremble.
The judge immediately stood.
His ancient eyes became serious.
He knew what they intended.
A final exchange.
One attack.
Everything they had learned.
Everything they represented.
Existence.
Against non-existence.
The entire arena became silent as both candidates prepared to decide the winner of the greatest battle the tournament had witnessed so far.
The arena remained frozen.
No one breathed.
No one moved.
Even the ancient cosmic beings observing the tournament from distant realms had focused their attention completely on the battlefield.
Throughout the entire competition, countless astonishing abilities had appeared.
Flames capable of burning space and time.
Swords capable of cutting the laws of existence.
Light that moved beyond ordinary perception.
Gravity that could imitate the hunger of a black hole.
Yet, at this moment, everyone understood a terrifying truth.
All of those powers were still techniques.
They were only manifestations of the universe's laws.
But what stood in the arena now were two beings whose abilities questioned those laws themselves.
William and Merito.
Two candidates whose powers touched the deepest principles of existence.
Merito raised his hand.
The darkness surrounding him did not spread wildly as before.
Instead, it became smaller.
Denser.
More terrifying.
A single sphere of absolute nullification formed above his palm.
It did not release any aura.
It did not emit any pressure.
Because even the concept of "presence" around it had been erased.
Everyone watching understood that if such a thing escaped the limits of the battlefield, the consequences would be impossible to predict.
William stared at the black sphere.
For the first time in the tournament, he felt genuine pressure.
Not fear.
Not hesitation.
But the acknowledgment that one mistake would be enough.
The memories of his years of training flashed through his mind.
The mountains.
The oceans.
The deserts.
The countless attempts to understand the universe.
The years spent creating a single stable platform.
The white room where even breathing had to be learned.
The endless search through the threads connecting all things.
Andrew's teachings echoed in his heart.
"Do not fight the world. Understand it."
William closed his eyes.
He reached deeper than ever before.
Not to atoms.
Not to energy.
Not even to the visible threads connecting existence.
He searched for the hidden relationships that gave meaning to those threads.
The reason why existence itself remained coherent.
Slowly, a new structure appeared before his mind.
A vast network beyond ordinary perception.
A foundation beneath all foundations.
For the first time, William touched a level of his power he had never reached before.
The spectators felt nothing.
No explosion occurred.
No ocean of energy appeared.
And that made it even more frightening.
Because the greatest changes in the universe did not always announce themselves.
Sometimes, they happened silently.
William stretched his hand forward.
A spear began to form.
Not from fire.
Not from ice.
Not from space.
Not from ordinary cosmic energy.
It was created from the relationships that allowed all energies and matter to exist together.
A weapon designed not to destroy existence—
but to redefine it.
The two attacks moved.
The black sphere of nullification.
The spear of fundamental connections.
When they touched, there was no explosion.
There was no sound.
For a brief moment, everyone watching lost the ability to understand what they were seeing.
Some saw darkness.
Some saw endless light.
Some saw nothing at all.
Even the strongest candidates could not comprehend the collision completely.
The battlefield itself disappeared.
Not destroyed.
Not erased.
It simply lost its meaning.
The judge moved.
For the first time in the entire tournament, the ancient being personally interfered before the attack had concluded.
He raised his hand.
An incomprehensible force descended.
The collapsing reality stabilized.
The broken concepts were restored.
The arena slowly returned to its original state.
When the light faded, William and Merito were still standing.
However, both had reached their limits.
Merito's breathing was heavier than before.
The darkness around his body had become unstable.
For the first time since the beginning of the tournament, his calm expression showed signs of exhaustion.
William was not in a better condition.
His body was covered in wounds caused by the strain of touching a level of power that he had not yet mastered.
His arms trembled.
His vision blurred.
But he remained standing.
For several moments, neither moved.
They simply stared at one another.
The entire universe seemed to wait for the next action.
Then—
William took a step forward.
Only one.
A small movement.
But it was enough.
Merito looked at him silently.
He understood.
If the battle continued, William had a slightly greater chance of landing the decisive strike.
Not because he was unquestionably stronger.
Not because Merito had been defeated.
But because his ability had shown a tiny advantage in this particular confrontation.
Merito slowly lowered his hand.
"You have surpassed my expectations."
William smiled weakly.
"And you have shown me how far I still have to go."
The judge stepped between them.
His ancient gaze examined both candidates.
After a long silence, his voice echoed throughout the entire realm.
"This battle has no winner."
A wave of whispers spread among the spectators.
"Official result: Draw."
The judge paused.
The audience did not react with disbelief.
They understood what they had witnessed.
The difference between the two was so insignificant that only a being of the high level could measure it.
Merito had displayed a power capable of denying the universe.
William had displayed a power capable of understanding and altering its foundations.
Both had reached a realm beyond ordinary geniuses.
As the two left the battlefield, the other candidates watched them with renewed seriousness.
Mark remained silent.
Javier tightened his grip on his sword.
Maria's eyes reflected deep thought.
Even the proud Vladimir admitted inwardly that there were heights he still needed to reach.
The tournament had revealed something undeniable.
The battle for the throne of the universe would not be decided by overwhelming force alone.
It would be decided by who could understand the truth of existence more deeply.
And the monsters standing in this arena had only begun to reveal their true potential.