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The heavy, suffocating atmosphere of the marketplace was unable to disturb the noble princess in the slightest.
While the very air vibrated with the killing intent of two high-grade warriors, Vanessa remained straight with composure of royal indifference.
If anything, the escalating violence made her irritated; she viewed the entire life-and-death struggle as a tedious interruption to her leisure time.
Around them, the crowd was paralyzed by tension.
Onlookers watched the clash with wide eyes, whispering predictions about which of these two high-grade entities would emerge victorious.
Yet, the majority of the beast-kin predicted that the Red Sun Tiger was merely toying with the human guard.
They heard his ferocious shouts but failed to understand the desperate seriousness behind them—they couldn't see that the Tiger was fighting for his life.
Behind the shimmering spatial shield Dreleon had erected for her protection, Vanessa's annoyance reached a breaking point.
Her patience was a fraying thread.
At one point, she even moved her hand toward the barrier, as if tempted to shatter the shield herself and intervene just to end the noise, but she stopped halfway, her fingers curling into a fist of restrained fury.
In the center of the dust, Dreleon's transformation reached its peak.
He saw a massive, blood-red claw lunging toward his face—a strike meant to decapitate the opponent.
He blocked it with his own transformed claws, the sound of grinding energy screeching through the air.
But the Tiger was cunning; the fiery red claws suddenly dissipated into a hot, blinding mist, and a colossal tail whip lashed out from the blind spot behind him.
Dreleon's sword moved in a blur, parrying the tail whip and slicing through the Tiger's reinforced fur.
In that same heartbeat, he felt a subtle ripple through the spatial shield behind him.
He didn't need to look back to know that the Princess was losing her patience.
The pressure from her irritation was more demanding than the Tiger's flames.
His golden eyes ignited, and every muscle in his body began to vibrate at a high frequency.
Activating the Ant Genes he had spent the energy devouring and maintaining, the very scenery seemed to change.
In a fraction of a second, the power dynamic shifted.
Dreleon caught the "Invincible" Tiger's strike with his bare hand, the sheer density of his muscles absorbing the impact.
With a sickening sound of rending flesh, he gripped the Tiger's wing and tore it clean from the socket.
Before the beast could even process the pain, Dreleon stabbed two clawed fingers into the Tiger's eyes.
The legendary warrior of the Alliance let out a scream that no longer sounded like a predator; it was a pathetic, high-pitched wail that sounded like a slaughtered pig.
"STOP!"
A commanding tone resonated across the sky.
From the distance, a four-winged tiger soared toward them at impossible speeds, but the true horror was above it.
A colossal, mountain-sized mirror manifested in the heavens, surrounded by swirling clouds of sickly grey-green.
"As per the rules established by the Thousand Kingdoms present, I—the Invincible, the Overpowered, the Supreme Holy King, Lord Golden Mirror of Heavens—grant you death," the mirror thundered.
BOOM!
A pillar of pure white and purple thunder poured down from the firmament.
It was a divine execution.
But instead of obliterating the marketplace or destroying the scenery, the bolt was sucked entirely into Dreleon's chest, targeting his very essence.
In the Mind Space...
Dreleon opened his eyes to find himself standing upon a vast, silent sea of clouds within his own consciousness.
But the tranquility was gone.
The divine thunder had invaded his sanctuary, slowly shredding his mental landscape.
Panicked, Dreleon tried every technique he had ever learned, every pillar of power he possessed, but his efforts were almost destroyed by the sheer weight of the heavenly lightning.
Before he could formulate a new plan, the thunder gathered itself for a final sprint.
It ignored the landscape and surged directly toward the center of his mind—targeting the Soul that sat in the Lotus position.
This was the soul Dreleon had separated from himself long ago to create a clone, to practice the cloning with it in the second pillar he had learnt.
With a final, echoing crack, the thunder struck.
The Lotus Clone was obliterated, shattered into a billion fragments of light as it absorbed the full "Death Grant" of the Holy King.
Once the target was destroyed, the thunder—believing its task complete—left his body.
To recover from the shock and damage in mind space, Dreleon immediately took a new Lotus position within his mind space, drawing on his core energy to neutralize the damaged realm and stabilize his consciousness.
When he finally opened his eyes in reality, he was met with absolute darkness and a crushing heaviness.
He couldn't breathe.
He couldn't move.
After his mind cleared somewhat.
He looked up and saw the distant stars and a beautiful, indifferent moon.
As his senses returned, he heard strange voices nearby.
Concentrating his hearing, he realized it was the soldiers who had accompanied them to the market.
As he was finally able to move, his gaze fell upon a sight that made his blood run cold.
Vanessa was there, but she wasn't in a tent or a carriage.
She was sleeping in the open air, her royal form resting on the "stony grasses" beneath the dark night sky, unprotected and exposed to the elements.
A sharp, stinging pain flared in his heart, and his throat felt as if it were being clutched by invisible hands.
It wasn't the lingering damage from the thunder—it was fury.
He stood up, ignoring the agony of his healing soul.
His transformed golden eyes began to shine with a flickering, dangerous light as he turned his glare toward the cowering soldiers.
"Who..." he rasped, his voice heavy with a killing intent that made the air grow cold.
"Who made Her Highness sleep on the stony grasses in the open sky?"
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