Chapter 75 – Grandmaster level
Lyra stood tall on the platform, her fire and light essence weaving in radiant spirals around her. Across from her loomed Gorr—the mysterious space elemental beast summoned by Jin. His presence was stoic, his body still healing from previous matches, though the cracks on his obsidian-like hide glimmered with spatial ripples. He moved slowly, deliberately. Not due to fatigue, but purpose.
He was stalling.
Lyra noticed immediately. Gorr, for all his power, was not pressing the attack. He created space rifts that warped her projectiles harmlessly aside. He blinked across the stage, dodging elegantly rather than retaliating. Lyra's brows furrowed. Then she smiled faintly.
"You're holding back, aren't you?" she whispered, her voice swallowed by the hum of the arena.
Gorr didn't respond. Instead, he flickered into another position, tail whipping up a gust of displaced energy that disrupted her next volley of radiant fire.
So that's how it is… she thought. He's helping me last longer… buying time so I secure third place.
Her heart warmed slightly. She knew Jin wouldn't let her die.
So she put on a show.
Fire surged into a blooming lotus, and light converged into blinding arcs that painted the battlefield. Gorr responded in kind with a spatial pulse that shattered the illusion and blinked back, his claws slicing harmlessly near her cheek to sell the danger. The audience above, seated on the sky-viewing platform, marveled at the spectacle.
But down below, in the heart of the alternate realm, something far more terrifying was unfolding.
---
Jin, seated at the far edge of the preparation zone, was deep in concentration. Glowing symbols surrounded him—array fragments, half-built scripts suspended mid-air, countless tiny orbiting runes stitched from fire, earth, and spatial resonance.
Then—
His head snapped up.
The ground trembled, and every hair on his body stood erect. He wasn't under attack, but every part of his being screamed danger. An oppressive force was building somewhere not too far away. Like a distant thundercloud splitting open the sky, it bore down on his very soul.
Jin's instincts kicked in. Without thinking, he layered himself in five layers of earth defense. Pillars of stone rose around him, shielding him from a threat that wasn't even headed toward him.
Then—
Boom.
A terrifying surge of power erupted from the east side of the realm. Jin's breath hitched. That's not normal power… that's— his mind reeled. He couldn't see the battle, but he knew what was happening.
Thorne and Ignis.
On the other platform far from Gorr and Lyra's match, their battle had escalated to absurd proportions.
---
Ignis stood bloodied, his fire flickering erratically, his breathing ragged. With gritted teeth, he pulled from his robes a blazing red talisman inscribed with divine flame—a gift from his master, meant for life and death. He whispered "Master Theodore, I don't think I will get the inheritance"
He activated it.
A pillar of golden flame shot skyward, melting the very fabric of the realm. The power surged far beyond the Adept Realm—it was the wrath of a Grandmaster.
Thorne, finally pushed to the edge, tilted his head.
"Tch. I had hoped to save this."
He reached calmly into his cloak and pulled a black wind talisman. With a flick of his wrist, he shattered it.
You know what they say, "Attack is the best defense."
Wind, pure and malevolent, roared outward like a black hurricane, clashing with Ignis' heavenly fire.
The sky above them warped. The ground vanished. The air hissed and cracked.
Two Adept cultivators had, for a moment, become Grandmasters in miniature.
---
High above, cultivators watching from the viewing platform paled. One by one, they began retreating, unable to handle the oppressive energy flooding the realm.
"This… this is power above the adept realm!" someone shouted.
"Monsters… They're not human!" another yelled, fleeing.
Even those who had once stood proud as elite disciples of sects felt their knees weaken.
---
Back at the arena—Lyra felt it too.
She turned toward the east, smiling faintly.
It's done. One of them lost.
With a graceful twirl, she launched one last flurry of firelight that Gorr blinked through, and then, almost casually, she stepped back and exhaled.
"I yield."
The voice of the realm echoed:
"Victory: Jin."
---
The four finalists had become two
Jin. Thorne.
The realm shifted again. The viewing platform was suddenly cut off. All remaining cultivators were brought into a suspended alternate dimension—an arena suspended between stars and void.
The throne above pulsed, its will descending once again.
But this time… something was different.
A dark, malevolent aura rolled down from the throne like a tidal wave. Jin and Thorne froze. Their limbs locked in place. Their hearts thudded. Their instincts screamed.
They weren't in danger.
They were prey.
The will of the throne now wore a humanoid form, draped in robes of shadow and starlight. It smiled—wide, crooked, devilish.
"This," it said, "will be a Deathmatch."
Jin's jaw tightened. Thorne's eyes narrowed.
The throne continued:
"The final inheritance must go to one who is strong in will, unshaken in resolve. Weak minds breed weak heirs. The final victor must slay the other. There is no yield. No retreat. Only one may live."
A silence deeper than death settled over the realm.
Jin turned slowly to Thorne.
Thorne turned to Jin.
Their eyes met—and neither looked away.
Primal instinct awakened. A pure, savage desire to survive. Jin's killing intent bled into the space between them—raw, old, and natural. Not something taught. Something learned.
Thorne's killing aura responded—cold, composed, and tinged with the souls of those he had crushed to reach the top.
Both were calm. Deadly.
But they both knew only one of them would would walk away.
They both knew winner takes all.