The darkness soon disappeared, replaced by a blinding, endless whiteness that forced everyone to close their eyes.

The elders frowned.

The ancestors stopped in their tracks.

As the light faded, Din and Nuk finally appeared.

The two were locked in a stalemate.

Their fists had collided and trembled in response to the terrifying energy being released across the battlefield.

At the front, Selene chuckled.

"Let’s get started, shall we?" she said.

As if it were a signal...

Two.

Three.

Fourteen.

Peak Rank 0 demon auras erupted one after another, stacking upon the already overwhelming pressure and drawing the attention of every Peak Rank 0 existence in the region.

The sect elders frowned, but their eyes remained solemn as they stepped forward.

Among the soldiers, the generals also rose into the air.

More than thirty Peak Rank 0 beings were now present.

Yet on the Super City’s side, there was no joy.

No confidence.

Even though they held the advantage in numbers.

They knew that unlike them, there was no "weak" Peak Rank 0 demon.

Every single one of them was terrifying.

Even the strongest among the humans could not face one alone.

It was precisely because of this that they were so confused and shocked by Din.

At the other side....

BAM!!!

Finally, the stalemate broke.

The two were blasted away from one another.

Nuk landed on the ground and skidded across it.

But before he could recover, a chill ran down his spine.

He turned to the right, narrowly dodging a spear of light.

The ground it touched was burned to a crisp.

Nuk leaped upward.

The surrounding air seemed to be sucked into his body as the temperature rapidly increased.

His body floated lightly through the air.

He caught Din’s incoming punch and flipped him upside down.

BOOM!

Din shattered the first sound barrier as he crashed deep into the ground.

Yet the earth around Din dissolved into light as Din emerged from the crater.

Nuk landed within it.

BOOM!!!!

The crater rapidly expanded.

The ground shattered, exposing deep layers of earth beneath.

Combustion erupted.

Fire came alive like a towering tree, its blazing branches spreading outward while its trunk tore through the ground.

A domain-like zone formed around Nuk.

The temperature twisted and warped around him.

Yet standing within that domain...

Din remained unharmed.

A soft white glow covered his body, protecting him from the heat as he walked toward Nuk.

Bang!

Bang!

The two exchanged attacks at blinding speed.

By now, they were already thousands of meters in the sky.

BOOM!!!

The clouds parted.

The sun glared down upon the battlefield.

The two grabbed each other as the glow surrounding Din slowly spread toward Nuk’s body.

"Interesting..." Nuk frowned.

The glow was obliterated by violent lightning strikes.

Dark clouds gathered as the two, locked together, plummeted toward the ground.

"Sigh... demon."

Din’s eyes glowed.

His body twisted like a serpent before he broke free from Nuk.

His leg lashed out.

Nuk was sent flying and crashed toward the earth.

But before he hit the ground, he spread his arms.

A wave of darkness exploded outward.

It reached the wall of Section Four of the Super City and collapsed it as it spread tens of thousands of meters in every direction.

Everything was obliterated.

The force of Din’s attack was completely neutralized.

Nuk landed lightly.

The ground sank a few inches beneath him.

But that wasn’t all.

Nuk moved.

His body blurred.

A deafening gunshot-like crack echoed through the sky as he punched upward.

The heavens seemed to split in two.

At least, that was how it looked.

Din spread his palm and pushed outward.

His position shifted as he barely dodged the attack in midair.

The dark ground shattered instantly.

Rain began pouring from the sky.

Din glowed as light filled the heavens.

Spears as large as mountains descended upon Nuk, who stood within a burning domain filled with fire and magma.

Nuk took a deep breath.

His aura exploded outward as he jumped into the sky.

Behind him, the phantom image of a gigantic beast briefly appeared.

A tremendous force erupted from his body.

BANG!!!!!!!!!

VROOOOM!!!

Everything vanished.

A gale swept across the battlefield, reaching distant forests.

Trees were uprooted.

Hills were shattered.

Even parts of mountains in the distance broke apart.

BOOM!

Din landed, sinking more than twenty meters into the burning ground.

The instant he touched down, Nuk was already in front of him.

Their battle was a clear representation of nature itself being rewritten.

The weather shifted from calm skies...

To blazing heat.

To torrential rain.

To violent winds.

Din stepped backward and grabbed Nuk’s incoming leg, pulling him closer.

Seeing this, Nuk twisted his body.

His tail shot forward like a dark spear aimed directly between Din’s eyebrows.

A killing blow.

Yet Din remained calm.

DING!

A metallic sound rang out.

The sharp tip of Nuk’s tail bounced away.

Seeing this, Nuk’s eyes widened.

Before he could react, a soft palm touched his chest.

SPLURT!

Nuk vomited blood.

Shockwaves exploded from his back as the ground shattered, reaching indescribable depths.

Gigantic holes formed all around as he was driven deep into the planet itself, destroying layers of rock and earth behind him.

Din then lowered his palm toward the ground and struck it.

The instant he did, brilliant light erupted from the earth.

A region more than a thousand kilometers deep and continental in size was instantly vaporized.

And the moment that happened...

The foundation of the Super City gave way as it began collapsing.

"No!"

One of the ancestors shouted as he tried to withdraw from the Peak Rank 0 demon he was fighting.

But why would the demon allow that?

Blocking the attacks of the other two human experts, it grabbed the ancestor’s body and delivered a devastating knee strike to his ribs.

Cracking sounds echoed as bones shattered.

Din raised his head.

His expression changed.

He shot through the air and appeared directly above the Super City.

His hands formed a series of signs.

The crumbling city slowly came to a halt.

Then it seemed as though time itself was rewinding.

The shattered structures began rebuilding.

The destruction reversed itself as the city slowly healed.

"Huh...?"

Suddenly, Din heard a voice behind him.

He hurriedly tried to dodge.

But it was too late.

Nuk grabbed Din by the head and smashed him downward toward the Super City below, where billions of lives resided.

"Stop..."

Din spoke.

His voice cracked as he coughed up blood.

Then both he and Nuk suddenly came to a stop.

Nuk’s eyes widened.

He felt a strange force binding his body.

Looking down, he realized they were only inches away from touching the ground.

Only inches away from fundamentally destroying the entire Super City.

Yet Din had forcibly stopped both himself and Nuk.

He had completely negated the terrifying force generated by their fall.

A force far greater than a nuclear bomb.

And before that...

He had rewound time itself.

All of this pointed toward one conclusion.

The being currently controlling Din was not the Din Nuk knew.

And from what Nuk had said earlier...

This was a god.

"No..."

Nuk chuckled.

"Multiple gods."

From the very beginning, Din had used the element of light.

He had also used blood when he created the wall of blood and the spears that stopped the demon army.

And now he had used the element of time.

Then what else?

He had stopped both himself and Nuk from crashing.

He had negated an unimaginable amount of force.

Looking at the blood dripping from Din’s mouth, Nuk understood something.

This power had limitations.

Din was merely a vessel through which these gods had descended.

But the vessel could not withstand their full strength.

So when pushed too far...

Nuk’s gaze lingered on the cracks spreading across Din’s skin.

The vessel could shatter.

**********

Author note.

Reminder for you guys, I should probably drop the official power system but yeah.., reminder.

Rank 0 beings are the first truly transcendent lifeforms, entities that have surpassed ordinary limits and entered the Continental Tier. At this realm, their strength, speed, and durability increase with every sub-rank to absurd levels.

An Early Rank 0 can destroy buildings and devastate dozens of meters with a single attack.

A Low Rank 0 can wipe out city blocks and shatter hundreds of meters of terrain.

By the Middle Rank 0 stage, entire cities can be reduced to rubble, with attacks capable of affecting several kilometers at once.

High Rank 0 beings are where true monsters begin to appear. Their attacks can devastate regions spanning tens or even hundreds of kilometers, altering landscapes and leaving permanent scars upon the world. Nations would view such individuals as living disasters.

At Peak Rank 0, a being stands at the absolute limit of the realm. Their attacks can ravage thousands of kilometers, split continents, alter weather patterns, and permanently reshape the geography of entire regions. A battle between Peak Rank 0 existences can affect continents and threaten the lives of hundreds of millions.

Beyond this lies Quasi-Rank 1, the final step before ascension. These beings possess near-planetary destructive capabilities and can devastate continents with ease. Their speed approaches the speed of light, allowing them to cross vast distances in moments and operate from the atmosphere to orbital space. They are entities standing at the threshold of godhood.