On the other side, in the spectator area, Kuroka and Koneko simultaneously felt a surge of danger—as if the air around them suddenly thinned, making it harder to breathe.
Ophis, meanwhile, simply sat at the edge of a pillar, reaching for another snack.
This time it was a chocolate-topped doughnut that seemed to appear out of nowhere.
With her small, expressionless mouth, Ophis took a slow bite, utterly unfazed by the drastic shift in aura spreading across the arena.
Unlike Ophis, both Kuroka and Koneko were clearly wrapped in concern.
Kuroka muttered under her breath, her eyes narrowing. "Vali… don't tell me you're going to use that?"
"Rian-senpai…" Koneko whispered, her body tensing, bracing for something terrible.
But before Koneko could react any further, Kuroka leaped to the pillar where her sister sat. In one swift motion, she grabbed Koneko and pulled her tightly into her arms.
A teleportation magic circle formed beneath their feet, radiating a sharp violet light.
In an instant, both of them vanished from the spot—leaving Ophis alone, still quietly enjoying her doughnut as if nothing in the world mattered.
Meanwhile, in the center of the battlefield, Rian frowned.
Behind his interface glasses, his Six Eyes picked up the details of the aura erupting before him: an overwhelming surge of energy shooting straight into the sky, as if trying to pierce the very horizon.
"That brat… he really intends to kill me, huh?" Rian muttered irritably. "This kind of insane energy… haah… looks like this charismatic man has to get a bit more serious. Fine… whatever."
At last, Rian removed his interface glasses and stored them inside the Infinity Ring.
Now, his Six Eyes were fully open—unrestricted, unfiltered, unhindered.
On the other side, Vali's tone hardened as he began to chant the incantation for the awakening of the Juggernaut Drive:
"I, who am about to awaken, am the Heavenly Dragon who lost all to the principles of supremacy."
"I envy the 'infinite,' and I pursue the 'dream.'"
"I shall become the White Dragon of Supremacy, and I shall take you to the limits of innocence."
"Juggernaut Drive!"
Amidst the swirling energy, Vali's body became shrouded in an ever-thickening white light.
Segment by segment, his Scale Mail cracked like porcelain shards, releasing flashes of energy that evaporated into the air.
The clanging of metal mingled with the roar of a dragon, shaking the atmosphere around them.
From the fractures, massive white scales began to emerge—thick, gleaming, reflecting light like snow under the sun.
His wings spread wide, unleashing a storm of wind that shattered the ground beneath him.
The tips were sharp like silver blades, with membranes glowing faintly, as if forged from pure light.
The Scale Mail helmet covering his face shattered, elongating and manifesting into a massive white dragon head that jutted forward.
His blue eyes blazed, holding a calm yet deadly ferocity. His body had grown far larger, towering like a fortress, clad in solid muscles and thick scales.
From his chest, a deep, resonant voice echoed—not just through the air, but into the hearts of all who heard it.
["—Juggernaut Drive—"]
The aura exploded, piercing the sky with blinding white light, forcing clouds to split apart.
The ground beneath cracked, stones scattered, and the air vibrated violently.
With the full form of Vali's Juggernaut Drive white dragon now majestically hovering in the night sky, a sudden idea struck Rian.
"Hmm… maybe later I'll collaborate with Alice to make a mecha dragon. Of course, out of vibranium. That would be awesome… as part of my army."
As the thought formed, Rian's fully-awakened Six Eyes processed the image within a fraction of a second—projecting the blueprint directly into his mind.
A massive dragon, three stories tall.
Its entire body clad in shimmering vibranium scales that reflected a cold, metallic sheen.
Wings of dark bluish-gray stretched wide, humming with kinetic potential. And its eyes—sharp, glowing in a dual gradient of red and blue—radiated the presence of a mechanical apex predator.
But for Alice to actually build such a vibranium dragon, a ridiculous amount of high-grade materials would be required.
Rian, the one who came up with the idea in the first place, quickly acknowledged the issue.
And to solve it… he casually considered harvesting a chunk of Vali's Juggernaut Drive form—just chopping a piece off and repurposing it as prime material.
A crooked grin tugged at his lips. "Heh… I'm getting excited already."
Before the thought could fade, Vali—still in his Juggernaut Drive—suddenly opened his massive draconic maw and unleashed a torrent of dense white energy, blazing like a divine laser.
Instead of letting the blast crash harmlessly into Infinity, Rian chose to sidestep, glancing briefly toward the impact zone.
In a perfect straight line, the earth, the trees, and even the distant hills were split apart and detonated violently—as if the world itself had been cleaved by a colossal blade of light.
"Damn… dragons really are busted," Rian muttered.
A heartbeat later, Vali shot forward like a white meteor, claws aimed to tear Rian apart.
But Rian vanished instantly, teleporting to Vali's right side.
The white dragon's claws missed, carving a massive trench across the ground—a wound in the earth itself, deep and clean like the slash of a giant beast.
Rian's right hand was already raised, fingers bent into a gun-like gesture.
"Phase."
"Pāramitā."
"Pillar of Light."
The incantation left his lips, and a small vortex of repulsive red energy materialized between his index and middle finger.
The vortex spun violently, expanding to the size of a basketball—before abruptly compressing, shrinking down into a pearl-sized orb that glowed with fierce intensity.
"Reverse Cursed Technique: Red!"
CHIIIIING!!!
With a sharp, slicing whir, the condensed energy sphere grazed past—then struck Vali's shoulder with a repulsive force that detonated like a collapsing star.
BANG!!
Vali's Juggernaut Drive form was thrown back violently.
The organic armor covering his arm cracked apart, shattering into fragments that rained down like pieces of a giant broken shield.
This was no ordinary Red.
Rian had fused it with a Black Flash—boosting its output by 120% beforehand.
On top of that, his fully awakened Six Eyes operated at 100%, and the Red incantation was optimized to its limit—another 100%. In total, the destructive force skyrocketed to 320%.
That was why Rian's Red was able to pierce the Juggernaut Drive's defenses—and even more, it moved at 0.5 seconds, far too fast for Vali to react or activate Divide.
"Kugh…"
Vali grimaced, his voice a mixture of a dragon's guttural snarl and his own strained tone.
Even so, a Red that powerful still wasn't enough to bring down Vali in his Juggernaut Drive.
Vali turned toward Rian, jaws spreading wide. White energy began condensing inside his mouth, gathering into a devastating blast—ready to fire at point-blank range.
Rian's lips curved into a faint smirk.
Still hovering several meters above the ground, he raised his right hand. His middle finger folded back against his index finger—aiming, preparing.
The dragon breath was unleashed.
But instantly, Infinity expanded to its maximum output, forming a barrier as dense as reality itself. At the same time, the Reverse Cursed Technique surged through Rian's brain at full throttle, pumping power into every neuron.
Learning from his earlier mistakes, Rian now understood how to elevate Infinity Void beyond its previous limits.
Simply put—Rian finally grasped why a Limitless user had to master both the Reverse Cursed Technique and Red before they could reach the true state of Infinity Void.
At that exact moment, the dragon breath—and even Vali's massive body—froze in midair… as if the world itself held its breath with him.
In the distance, Ophis stopped chewing her donut. The wave of energy radiating from Rian made her blank, emotionless eyes widen by a fraction.
With a voice calm as still water, and an aura that made space and time ripple around him, Rian spoke:
"Domain Expansion: Infinite Void."
{Ryouki Tenkai: Muryōkūsho}
Suddenly, black cracks split across reality—spreading in a perfect radius of twenty meters.
In an instant, a circle resembling a silent black hole bloomed behind Rian's body, spinning without sound yet releasing a pressure that twisted the air.
All of it happened in just 0.10 seconds. In other words, Rian activated Infinity Void in a time frame so small it barely existed.
Brief as it was, it was more than enough.
Vali—along with Albion—was assaulted by an unimaginable torrent of information, overwhelming their senses, consciousness, soul, and mind all at once.
In an instant, both Vali and Albion "experienced" a full one year and eight months—compressed into a single moment of distorted space and time.
The result: Vali's body locked up completely, frozen in place.
Juggernaut Drive, the Scale Mail, even Divine Dividing itself shattered—breaking apart into bluish-silver particles of light that scattered into the night sky.
Once the armor vanished entirely, Vali remained standing like a statue. His pupils were dilated, his mind and soul overwhelmed by the flooding barrage of infinite information.
On the other side, Rian slipped his interface glasses back on and stretched his back.
With this… victory was unquestionably his.
Rian gently patted Vali's shoulder and spoke: "A great fight. I'm impressed. Consider this my payback… for casually taking away my future EXP."
Then, with a completely relaxed tone, he added, "You know, Vali? You actually made me burn 30% of my energy outside training."
After that, Rian activated Blue, pulling the broken organic armor pieces of Juggernaut Drive and Scale Mail from the distance, collecting them all.
He stored everything neatly inside the Infinity Ring.