Heaven's Greatest Professor

Three seconds into the stalemate.

He ignored her blatant flaunting of her power, and focused more on the Way. He would need a lot of power if he were to contend with her like this. His radiant heart worked automatically, providing him with more essence than he should be capable of wielding under normal circumstances. Your journey continues with m v|l-e'm,p y r

The complicated layers of scripts over the matrix spun to accommodate more of the power he pulled from the way. He didn't think he could overwhelm the Radiant Heart, but it only took a month and a few days for him to reach the ceiling of the ability.

For all it was worth, he was contending with a transcendent's one by two-thousand five-hundredth fractions of power. And she wasn't like her younger avatar, who had barely advanced to the fifth step recently.

No, the elder avatar had been transcendent for decades, cultivated all her abilities to a deeper realm of mastery, and who knew how far she went in the paths.

Eight seconds...

Seconds flew by, as he focused on two important things. The first was on restricting the spear from drilling into his body, or affecting his core, while the other task was to inflict whatever damage he could.

A nerve-wracking agony impaled his mind, only his quirky [Indomitable Will] keeping him conscious. His mind had become numb within a dozen or so seconds into the stalemate.

Yet he was not prepared to give her an inch. He glared at her with all his might, while she met his gaze with cold intensity. Her look was vacant as she studied him with a practised expression of coolness. Her eyes were ancient, as though he could feel the staggering amount of time she had existed.

Or it could be her depth of power.

Fourteen seconds... Halfway there... he thought, gritting his teeth. The scripts were worn out with each passing moment, burning away all their efficiency to withstand her attack.

[The Divider] had found purchase in her wings, wrung in them, as essence bubbled up. Even if she was feeling some distress, she didn't show it in her expression, which had been stoic since they fell into this stalemate.

Well, calling it a stalemate was giving him too much credit, as with each passing moment, she was gaining more advantage over him. He was running out of void light, along with how it had become to draw void essence, making it nearly impossible to go any further with his attack.

And the most awful thing about this whole ordeal was that the masochistic part of [Void Vanquishing Physique] had awakened itself and was growing under this ungodly amount of stress. His whole being swelled with the tearing improvement, as his skin turned angry red and purple.

Unfortunately, he didn't think he would survive the amount of time it would take for his physique to reach a 100% completion rate. He believed he had already gained one or two percent throughout the battle already.

One by two-thousand-five hundredths, he thought, clenching his jaw. Nine seconds more.

He had to withstand it for thirty seconds... Half of that had already passed, to his delight. Unfortunately, she had gained an edge on his void core as well. The purple destructive essence was doing its very best at destroying the foreign essence establishing a link within it...

He gave up on offence and put all his undivided attention into defence.

But then three more cones of elder Ariha appeared around him, putting all their cumulative force into distracting him, while the real Her drilled a hole into his abdomen.

He screamed as she found more ground into the mysterious void core, which churned in a fleeting motion, causing him to almost shift maddeningly. [Wings of Radiance] flapped frantically, attacking the clones—their existence had already weakened, on the very edge of dispersal. Unfortunately, they had finished what they were called for.

Five seconds remained. He deliberated whether he could withstand the remaining time, or if he would have to succumb to [Absolute Invulnerability].

Meanwhile, he tried to withdraw, using his radiance wings. Unfortunately, Elder Ariha stuck to him like glue.

Four seconds...

He clutched at the last two straws of trump cards in his possession. He went for the Hybrid script, and power bloomed within him.

The hybrid script was a complicated mess of four and a half tier-5 runes, glued together to bring out a volatile surge of power. It wasn't a tier-6 script, but the instantaneous power rush was higher than that.

Anti-gravity, Empower, Amplify, Restoration, and Heightened Sense all worked together, amplifying and augmenting together in all their power, as he shot upwards.

Three seconds...

Ariha was still stuck to him, but he was giving her a run for her money. He even managed to withdraw the spearhead from his gut by a couple of inches.

Two more seconds... He ignored the annihilation ringing in his mind, zeroing down all his mental faculties.

They shot through the storm, lightning churning, thunder booming deafening roars. He hadn't been able to see the end of them before in his three months' stay here, but he reached for a way out of them.

One second. The balance tilted in his advantage for one slight moment.

He tried to capitalise on that...

The bell rang for the fourth time, announcing the passing of the fourth minute, and also an end to the thirty seconds of her challenge.

But he didn't end.

Ariha didn't push for further ground. But he didn't stop. His mind had centred around only one work task. One accomplishment. To see it to the end.

"You have amazed me," a voice transferred into his mind. Ariha's voice. "With your creativity, wild demeanour, the thrill, and most importantly, with your nihilistic idiocy."

It took a moment for his mind to resist what she told him, and even still, he was flabbergasted to make sure he interpreted them correctly.

"You did good, kid," she said in a soft voice. "Now leave the rest to me."

Then she drilled the spearhead into his gut.

[DOMAIN DECREE: MANDATE OF RENEWAL]