In the center of the arena, William stood motionless.

The casual, confident posture he had maintained while decapitating the "Soul Eater" was gone.

His grip on his sword hilt tightened until his knuckles turned white, but the blade remained in its sheath.

To the observers, it looked as though he had been turned to stone.

His eyes, usually sharp enough to cut through illusions, were clouded, reflecting the turbulent struggle occurring within his spiritual sea.

Within William's mind, the world was fracturing.

The ringing of the bell felt like a massive hammer striking a crystal sphere.

Each chime sent cracks through his consciousness.

As a half step transcended being, his soul was tempered like divine steel, yet this artifact bypassed physical defense entirely.

He felt his connection to his mana thinning.

The "weight" Noah had sensed earlier was now a crushing reality for his General.

High in the VIP tower, Noah's relaxed expression vanished.

His eyes narrowed, turning into cold slits of obsidian.

He could feel William's distress.

It wasn't that William was weak; it was that he had become slightly overconfident.

Reaching the status of a half-step transcended being in a universe that capped power at the Immortal King level had given him a sense of invincibility.

He had forgotten that while the level of power was capped, the variety of ancient, mystical tools was infinite.

"William, stop trying to endure it with brute force," Noah's voice rang in William's head, sharp and commanding.

"Activate your Sword God Physique. Now. This is an order."

The message was like a lightning bolt through the fog of William's mind.

It wasn't a suggestion; it was a royal decree.

"All right, Your Majesty," William replied internally.

The mental strain was evident, but the core of his loyalty remained unshakable.

The Fire Dragon Ancestor, a man named Emberion who had lived through three cosmic eras, saw William's hesitation.

A cruel, thin smile touched his lips.

He had seen this look a thousand times.

It was the look of a "prodigy" realizing that their talent meant nothing in the face of true heritage.

"The flame of a candle cannot compete with the sun, little human," Emberion rumbled.

His voice carried the heat of a furnace.

"You have played your part. Now, return to the dust."

Emberion raised his hand.

It wasn't a fast movement, but it carried the weight of a falling star.

He struck forward with a simple palm strike.

A massive, spectral claw of crimson flame materialized in the air, rushing toward the frozen William.

In the stands, a collective breath was held.

The Dragon Emperors leaned forward, their faces twisted into smug masks of satisfaction.

The Spirit Emperor, still mourning the loss of Natalia, gripped his chair so hard the obsidian cracked.

The envoys of the smaller systems, who had momentarily felt a spark of hope, slumped in their seats.

To them, the fall of William represented the end of the human "miracle."

"Noah, do something!" Liara cried out, leaping to her feet.

Her Phoenix wings partially manifested in her agitation, showering the floor with sparks.

"That is a strike from an Ancestor! Even if he survives the soul suppression, that palm will incinerate his physical form! Use your authority to stop the match!"

Even the Phoenix Race, known for their pride and their eternal flames, viewed the Fire Dragon Ancestors with a degree of holy dread.

They were the apex predators of the elemental world.

Noah didn't move.

He didn't even look at Liara.

He remained reclined in his throne, a cup of nectar in his hand.

"Don't worry, Liara. Have some faith in me. My General is not so weak that any Tom, Dick, or Harry can defeat him just because they have an old bell."

"Tom... Dick...?" Liara blinked, confused by the human slang, but her worry didn't fade.

"Cocky bastard," the Earth Dragon Emperor spat from a few seats away.

"After losing your champion, we'd like to see where you put that arrogant face of yours. We will peel the skin from your bones for the insult you've offered the Dragon Race."

Even the Grand Sage of the Chaos Temple, a man shrouded in robes that seemed to swallow light, leaned forward with an amused glint in his eyes.

"What will that little human do?" he whispered to the void.

"Show me the limits of your species, Noah."

The flaming palm was inches from William's chest.

The heat was so intense that the obsidian floor beneath him began to liquefy into glass.

Then, it happened.

A sound louder than the bell erupted from William's body.

It wasn't a sound of metal, but a sound of intent.

A terrifyingly sharp aura gushed out of him, so concentrated that it acted like a physical barrier.

The flaming palm strike didn't hit him; it was sliced into a thousand pieces by the mere pressure of the aura before it could make contact.

The Fire Dragon Ancestor gasped, his eyes widening.

He felt a sting on his hand.

He looked down to see a clean, hair-thin line across his palm.

Blood, hot, molten dragon blood, dripped onto the sand.

He immediately retracted his hand and leaped back fifty meters, his expression turning from arrogance to intense caution.

"What is this...?"

Every sword in the arena began to vibrate.

It wasn't just the swords of the guards; even the decorative blades and the daggers hidden in the boots of the spectators began to rattle in their sheaths.

It was as if a king had entered the room and every subject was compelled to bow.

Thousands of blades hummed in a low, terrifying unison, a chorus of steel singing for its master.

William's aura stabilized.

He looked different now.

His hair seemed to have a metallic sheen, and his eyes had turned into glowing silver pools.

The "Sword God Physique," a legendary constitution that turned the user's entire being into a weapon, had fully activated.

"Old lizard," William said, his voice cold and echoing.

"I was told to play with you, but I find your bell quite annoying. I don't want to kill you, the King has uses for your kind. But I think I'll chop off those legs of yours. I've heard dragons taste quite good when roasted properly."

Before Emberion could retort, William vanished.

There was no afterimage.

There was no gust of wind.

"Arrogance!" Emberion roared, his rage overcoming his caution.

"You wish to eat an Ancestor? I will show you the true form of your nightmare! Transformation!"

The old man's body exploded in a pillar of fire that reached the clouds.

Within the inferno, his bones cracked and expanded.

Scales as hard as celestial diamonds grew in an instant.

A hundred-meter-long fiery red dragon emerged from the smoke, its wingspan eclipsing the sun.

Its presence was so overwhelming that every Fire Dragon in the stadium, including the Emperor, dropped to their knees in a primal display of genetic submission.

The dragon scanned the ground for the human, its golden eyes burning with divine fury.

But it felt nothing.

Then, a sharp, cold sting.

A gargantuan roar of agony ripped through the arena.

The dragon's massive right leg, thick as an ancient oak and covered in impenetrable scales, slid away from its body.

The cut was so smooth the bone didn't even splinter.

Slash.

Another blur of silver.

The left leg followed.

The 100-meter beast crashed into the arena floor, the impact shaking the very foundations of the city.

Blood gushed out like a river, turning the golden sands into a crimson swamp.

William appeared suddenly, standing on the dragon's neck, his blade resting lightly against the soft scales just below the jaw.

"Surrender or die," William muttered.

The Ancestor's pride was immense.

He opened his maw, a gout of fire building in his throat.

He was prepared to say that a Dragon would rather die than serve a "monkey."

But then, William leaned down, his voice dropping to a whisper that only the dragon could hear.

"If you become our subordinate race, you will be able to enter the Realm of Infinity with us in a hundred years. We will ascend the Middle Dimension. Do you want to die as a big fish in a small pond, or live as a god in the Great Void?"

The fire in the dragon's throat died out instantly.

The golden eyes, previously filled with rage, were now filled with a desperate, ancient longing.

For eons, he had hit the ceiling of this universe.

He had searched for a way out, a way to grow, but the laws of this world were a prison.

"I surrender," the Ancestor said, his voice booming through the stadium, but lacking any of its previous malice.

"The Fire Dragon Primordial Empire... surrenders to the Earth Empire."

"What?!" The Fire Dragon Emperor screamed, standing up.

"Ancestor! You cannot! We are the blood of the sun!"

The old dragon, still bleeding but remarkably calm, turned his massive head and sent a single mental burst to the Emperor and the other Dragon Kings.

It was a fragment of the truth William had shared, the vision of the Realm of Infinity.

The reaction was instantaneous.

The faces of the other three Dragon Emperors, Earth, Water, and Wind, transformed.

The rage vanished, replaced by a look of profound realization.

They looked at Noah, sitting calmly in his tower, and they saw not a lucky human, but a gatekeeper.

"We surrender as well," they said in unison, bowing their heads toward Noah.

The stadium was in a state of shock that transcended words.

The four great Dragon Empires, the pillars of the universe, had folded in a single afternoon.

Noah smiled.

It had been faster than he expected, but the allure of the "Next Level" was the ultimate bait for any immortal.

He stood up, his white robes flowing in the wind, and projected his voice so that every soul in the star system could hear him.

"I am a man of my word. If you become my subordinates, if you swear fealty to the Earth Empire, you shall all have a place in the Realm of Infinity. I do not seek to be your tyrant; I seek to be your pioneer."

The Spirit Race, seeing the writing on the wall and having lost their greatest "vixen" and their pride, didn't hesitate.

They were beings of energy; they understood the flow of the universe better than anyone.

They bowed as well.

It was a scene of unprecedented peace.

The "Grand Tournament" had turned into a mass coronation.

But just as the atmosphere began to lighten, a sound sliced through the cheers.

It was a laugh, dry, raspy, and filled with a madness that made the hair on Noah's neck stand up.

"Hahahaha! Hahahahaha!"

The Grand Elder of the Chaos Temple, the man who had sat silently through the entire proceedings, began to float into the air.

His robes tore away, revealing a body made of shifting, purple-black void matter.

"The Realm of Infinity... the Middle Dimension... yes... yes!" the Grand Elder shrieked, his eyes glowing with a hunger that was not of this world.

"I have waited ten million years for someone like you, Noah."

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