[The White-Hot Supernova]
BOOM!
A blinding shockwave of solar mana detonated between them. With a raw, explosive surge of power, Cynthia swung her arm, hurling Crimson across the arena like a meteor. He smashed through a massive obsidian pillar, sending ancient stone shattering in every direction as a cloud of thick volcanic dust blanketed the battlefield.
Crimson slowly pushed himself up from the rubble, wiping a streak of embers from his chin. His glowing red eyes narrowed through the haze. "What happened to you... suddenly?"
Cynthia reached up, taking her cracked dark sunglasses off and throwing them onto the ash-covered floor. With a smooth motion, she swept her fingers back, fixing her crimson hair.
"I stopped fighting who I was," Cynthia said softly, her voice carrying a resonant, metallic chime.
Her solar crown exploded into a blinding halo. The color washed out of her crimson locks, transforming her hair into a radiant, flowing mane of light, white-hot plasma that crackled with hyper-dense energy. The surrounding temperature in the arena spiked exponentially, turning the stone floor near her boots into pools of liquid magma.
Techyon's eyes widened as he held the flickering flame in his palm. "You... you can transform into your Supernova form!"
Crimson stepped out of the crater, a dark, thrilled grin spreading across his face as his red body runes flared with maximum output. "I think it's time to go serious now."
Crimson snapped his hands together. With a heavy, metallic clang, thick gauntlets of pure primordial flame materialized over his forearms and hands, radiating a intense, conceptual heat.
"Let's see what the Pyro Arcon can do!" Crimson roared.
Cynthia lowered her stance, her plasma hair streaming behind her like stellar winds. In a split-second frame, both warriors vanished, rushing straight at each other as twin streaks of white-hot and crimson fire.
[The First Floor Breach]
CRACK-BOOM!
Outside the trial dimension, the sky above the World Tree shattered like glass. The First Floor breach gate had completely exploded open, releasing a endless, pitch-black tide of Void-corrupted monsters and towering void knights into the real world.
The battlefield was total chaos.
Gaia slammed both gauntlets into the earth, raising a colossal wall of Geo-matter to crush a swarm of void beasts, while Neweland rode a massive wave of pressurized hydro-mana, sweeping away the vanguard forces of the void army.
"Watch the flanks!" Nefa shouted, her daggers blurring as she cut through three void scouts in a microsecond, with Fraxy floating right behind her, casting divine recovery barriers to block incoming void projectiles.
In the middle of the backline, Saina was busily recalibrating her tactical drones' anti-glitch tracking software when a massive, seven-foot Void Knight materialized out of a spatial glitch directly behind her. Its corrupted black blade swung down with lethal speed, aimed straight for her neck.
Saina's breath hitched as her interface flashed red with a fatal warning—
CLANG-BOOM!
A thunderous roar of mechanical lightning tore through the air. Captain Carod smashed into the space between them, his upgraded chassis venting blue-hot steam as his reinforced fist smashed directly through the Void Knight's chest plate.
"Inferno Volt Strike!" Carod barked.
Electric shockwaves blew the knight into scattered ash instantly. Carod turned his mechanical head toward Saina, his optics glowing fiercely. "Don't lower your guard, Saina!"
Saina caught her breath, nodding sharply. "Understood! Thanks, Captain!"
Carod turned back toward the front line, his engine hum deepening as he saw the horizon. Another massive wave of thousands of void monsters was surging out of the gate toward them.
Suddenly, Yoru dropped down from a spatial tear right beside him. Yellow-lightning crackled wildly across her arms and twin daggers, her dark eyes glowing with ruthless focus as she began charging her ultimate technique.
"We are not holding back!" Yoru declared, her voice echoing with dark power as the shadow mana gathered around her hands. "Annihilation Volt!"
[The Shattering of Primordial flame]
BOOM!
Crimson lunged forward through the white-hot air, driving a heavy, flame-wrapped right punch straight toward Cynthia's head.
Cynthia didn't even dodge. She simply raised her bare left palm, intercepting the fist mid-air. A concussive shockwave ripped through the arena floor, but Crimson's fiery gauntlet froze dead in its tracks.
Before he could pull back, Cynthia tightened her grip.
CRACK! SHATTER!
With her bare hands, she crushed Crimson's primordial flame gauntlet into a thousand flying shards of scattered light.
Crimson's eyes widened in sheer disbelief. "What—"
Cynthia's right fist wound back, glowing with an ungodly column of pure white plasma starfire, and drove straight into Crimson's stomach.
BOOOM!
Crimson coughed up a spray of blood, his eyes bulging as he was launched across the trial realm, smashing through three stone monoliths before skittering across the burning ash.
[The Shadow Over Floor 1]
RUMBLE!
Back on Floor 1, the sky tore further apart. Lapis looked up, his multi-layered pupils dilating as he tracked the spatial stability of the portal.
"Everyone! I think we are in very big trouble!" Lapis yelled over the roaring battlefield. "The dungeon gate is getting even bigger!"
High above the clouds, inside the swirling vortex of the black gate, a gargantuan, glowing crimson eye opened—the cold, terrifying glare of the Void Drachoon.
"I will erase you..." the Void Drachoon's echo boomed across the sky, vibrating the very ground beneath their feet. "Just wait for me to come out."
Lapis looked around the frontline, breathing heavily. Every single member was visibly exhausted—Carod's vents were spitting dark smoke, Gaia's rocky gauntlets were cracked, and Yoru's shadow mana was flickering dangerously low.
"Don't give up!" Captain Carod bellowed, locking his overheating mechanical knees into the dirt. "We have to fight!"
Behind him, Carod's veteran crew members—battered, bloody, but holding their weapons high—roared in unison. "Just like our Captain said! We have to fight to the end!"
"Everyone... look above!" Saina suddenly gasped, pointing her trembling finger toward the upper atmosphere. "What is that?!"
Neweland looked up, wiping a streak of water and sweat from his face. A massive, proud smile broke across his weathered features. "It's Hydrocity."
Gaia stared in total shock at the colossal, floating ocean-metropolis descending gracefully through the clouds, surrounded by shimmering blue elemental currents. "You never told me that your city can fly!"
Neweland laughed, shaking his head. "What do you even know about me? And it's not flying because of me."
[The Convergence of Humanity]
The view zoomed in past the soaring water spires and high-tech defense domes of the flying fortress.
Standing right at the forward deck was Alya, Neweland's daughter, her blue hair whipping in the wind alongside hundreds of elite adventurers, battle-mages, and heavy vanguard units lining the railings.
"We are here for help!" Alya shouted, raising her glowing trident into the air.
Beside Hydrocity's fleet, massive armored transport ships from Netland broke through the clouds, deploying thousands of ground troops and air support units onto the battlefield.
A Netland commander leaned over the deck railing, yelling down at the Z-Elites through a loud-speaker: "We can't just sit at home watching you all fight for our lives! We stand together today!"