After more than an hour of fighting with no victor, James decided to change the way.

"It seems if we go on like this, we won't finish this fight. So can we take it to the next level?" James asked.

"Of course...."

Kael did not complete his sentence when he heard.

"Earthcore Ascendancy." A calm voice resounded.

Around James, at a radius of only 10 metres, was suddenly imbued by Qi. Much earth Qi, which serve as a boost to him.

"Yoo, he used his domain. Let's check if I can fight him normally without a domain." Kael deliberated.

With this influx of Qi he is getting from the earth core, he attacked Kael.

As his punch reached Kael, he quickly teleported but the force of James punch disrupted the space around that area so Kael could not teleport but speed away. Kael could not help but become serious as James started to attack him and getting stronger at the same time.

"You are surprised right, yes, it's my domain in work." James said laughing as he maniacally attacked Kael.

Kael's grin tightened as he slid back, boots grinding trenches into the cracked earth. The air inside James's domain felt heavier—almost sticky—like every movement demanded double the effort. The entire 10-metre radius pulsed with dense, molten-thick earth Qi, all funneling straight into James like a primal engine roaring awake.

James stomped once, and the ground buckled. "Come on! Don't tell me that speed of yours is already struggling!"

Kael blurred forward instantly—speedforce strands streaking behind him—but the moment he crossed into the Earthcore Ascendancy, it felt like diving into syrup. The space trembled; his steps lost that clean sharpness.

James' laughter boomed. "Yes! Exactly that. Within this domain, your momentum bleeds out. Can't run your way out of everything!"

Kael vanished—voidstream flicker.

But James slammed his foot into the earth again, and the ground detonated upward in waves. The collapsing shock made the surrounding space ripple, severing Kael's teleport mid-shift and forcing him to appear normally beside the shockwave.

Kael tsked. "Disruptive spatial turbulence in a 10-metre radius… annoying."

James was already mid-swing.

A colossal punch wrapped in pressurized earth Qi hammered toward Kael's jaw. Kael tilted his head, barely dodging, then countered with a razor-thin speedforce slash. The strand cut across James's arm, but the earth Qi shielding thickened instantly, reducing the damage.

Still equal footing.

Still insane.

Kael kicked upward—speedforce-amplified knee strike. James crossed his forearm, blocking. The impact sent cracks spidering across the ground, both of them sliding back, neither overpowering the other.

Then James spread his arms slightly, his aura spiking.

The domain reacted.

The ground hardened, turning into polished obsidian. The air gained crushing density. Kael's blade shards trembled as the earth Qi suppressed their velocity.

James smirked. "In here, everything bends to earth. Even metal listens to me more than to you."

Kael raised a brow. "Oh? Let's test that."

With a snap of his fingers, 50 shards ignited yellow and blasted forward.

James punched.

A dense wall of solidified earth erupted in front of him—yet the shards drilled through it like heated needles, bursting out the other side. James dodged two, blocked three with his sword, and let the final wave hit him. The blows staggered him, pushing him a few steps back—but his grin never faded.

"Good… GOOD!"

He pulled his fist back, earth Qi spiraling around it like a planet forming.

Kael inhaled deeply.

Voidstream flared beneath his feet.

Speedforce flickered along his arms.

A dual-layer aura.

James lunged.

Kael charged.

Their punches collided—raw, unfiltered force versus condensed earth might.

The explosion was deafening. The ground caved inward. Dust erupted like a volcano.

Both figures shot backward from the rebound, but both landed perfectly.

Equal.

Perfectly equal.

James grinned wildly, eyes shining. "YES! That's it! Fight me like that! Push me further!"

Kael cracked his neck, speedforce strands forming unconsciously around his fingers. "Careful… if I push too far, you'll regret it."

James pointed his massive blade forward, earth Qi spiraling into a raging vortex around him.

"Then make me regret it!"

Facepalming inwardly, Kael muttered in his mind, "Children will always be children."

To James, he spoke aloud as the speedforce crackled around him, crawling across his skin like golden veins. "Alright… let me show you a few tricks I cooked up out of boredom."

His eyes shifted—deep yellow radiance blazing beneath the strands of blue hair that stubbornly covered most of his face. Only those glowing slits were visible.

"Why can't we ever see your full face?" James asked, tightening his grip as earth Qi began to surge through him, pushing his domain to its peak.

"Because…" Kael said, voice quiet but distorted with speedforce hum, "I don't actually know what I look like. Only one old man and his scientists ever saw it."

"Tsk! Enough talking—we fight." James' patience snapped.

Kael vanished.

Not blurred, not fast—gone.

Then the world split.

Dozens of Kaels flickered into existence at once, every one of them exuding the same pressure, the same killing intent. They attacked as a synchronized storm—punches, shards, speedforce slashes, all perfectly timed.

James reacted instantly, swinging his earth-enforced blade in a wide arc. He smashed one Kael apart—

—but the moment it exploded, it divided into two, both maintaining Kael's original force.

"What—?!" James barely raised his guard before the doubled afterimage struck.

BOOM!

BOOM!

Each hit carried Kael's genuine strength, not illusions, not shadows—real blows, real damage.

Even within his Earthcore Ascendancy, James felt pressure mounting. His combat power, pushed to the absolute limit of the master realm—999,999—wouldn't rise another point. He had reached his peak.

Yet Kael's clones kept multiplying, overwhelming him with relentless precision.

James roared, slamming his foot into the ground. The domain shuddered. Monolithic slabs of earth erupted upward like fangs, shielding him on all sides.

But Kael's copies dashed through them—phasing, splitting, reinforcing each other.

For every clone James shattered, two more replaced it, attacking in perfect unity.

James' fist blurred as he punched through another Kael—only to be caught off guard as a shard spun at him from behind, ricocheting with unnatural angles.

"Tch—your tricks are annoying!" James barked, forcing more Qi into his strikes.

The ground caved, the air twisted, and yet Kael didn't slow down—he was accelerating, adapting, evolving with each microsecond.

The fight reached a new height.

The ground within the domain cracked from pressure alone. Dust no longer existed—everything was reduced to fine particulates floating in the distorted Qi.

James wiped blood from his lip, grinning wildly.

"Fine then… come at me!"

Kael's voice echoed from every direction at once:

"You asked for it."

A hundred Kaels surged forward simultaneously.

James clenched his blade—

And the next collision shook the entire horizon.

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