I Regressed With a 10,000x God-Tier Multiplier-Chapter 54: The Duel Dominance [i]

"I challenge you to a Sovereign’s Duel," Lucifer declared.

Isolde did not answer. She could not.

The multiplied cryogenic magic of the Primordial Frost and Wyrm Hearts hit the absolute center of her dormant core.

The 10,000x potency did not just wake the Royal Dragon. It violently overcharged her entire system.

Isolde’s back arched sharply off the diamond throne. Her jaw locked open in a silent agonizing scream.

Blinding, pure blue light erupted from her eyes and mouth. The pale blue veins beneath her flawless white skin bulged, pulsing with a terrifying, limitless energy.

[System Warning: Entity Core Overload!]

[Target: Isolde, The Winter Sovereign]

[Status: Critical Mana Surge. All Stats temporarily increased by 300%.]

The four massive pillars of solid starlight holding her down began to groan.

Sarah fell to her knees. The Star-Touched Oracle gripped her Scepter of Cosmic Alignment with both hands. Blood poured freely from her nose and eyes.

She pushed every drop of her mana into the Starlight Bind, trying to hold the Sovereign down.

It was useless. The power gap was too massive.

"I cannot hold her!" Sarah cried out.

With a deafening CRACK, the solid starlight shattered like cheap glass.

The silver chains exploded into a million harmless sparks. The concussive backlash of the broken spell hit Sarah instantly.

The Oracle was thrown backward through the air, completely unconscious before she even hit the ground.

Elara moved very fast. She caught Sarah mid-flight, absorbing the impact with her heavy armor.

Elara slid back ten feet across the ice floor, driving her boots into the ground to stop their momentum.

Lucifer did not look back. He kept his eyes locked on the throne.

Isolde slowly stood up.

The jagged diamond throne beneath her cracked and shattered into thousands of pieces, unable to endure the sheer pressure of her awakened core.

She rose to her full height. The crystalline horns at her temples glowed with a deadly, icy light. Her gown of interlocking ice crystals shifted and chimed softly like chainmail.

She was beautiful, proud, and absolutely furious.

She took a deep breath.

The temperature in the Throne Room of Eternal Ice plummeted past the limits of the system’s standard environmental curses.

Isolde looked down at Lucifer. Her reptilian white eyes narrowed into deadly slits.

[System Warning: Dragon Fear Activated.]

[Source: Royal Dragon Shifter (Level ??)]

[Effect: Inflicts absolute paralysis and extreme psychological trauma to all entities below Level 80.]

A wave of pure, draconic malice exploded from Isolde.

It was an invisible wall of terror. It crashed into the Throne Room. The glowing sapphire doors at the far end shattered instantly, and the ice walls groaned under the force.

Near the back of the room, Elara dropped to one knee. The Fallen Valkyrie gritted her teeth, throwing her golden wings over the unconscious Sarah to shield her.

Elara was a divine being, but even her holy core trembled under the ancient, primordial weight of a Royal Dragon’s fury.

The Dragon Fear slammed into Lucifer.

It washed over his dark armor. It tried to crush his mind. It tried to force him to his knees. It demanded absolute submission to the apex predator of the old world.

Lucifer didn’t even blink.

[System Notice: Dragon Fear Resisted.]

[Modifier: ’God-Slayer’ Mythic Title active.]

[Effect: Absolute immunity to Divine and Primordial Intimidation.]

Lucifer stood perfectly straight. He did not take a single step backward. He stared directly into Isolde’s burning white eyes.

Isolde stopped.

For the first time since the First Convergence, a mortal had not instantly died or gone mad in her presence.

The human standing in front of her was completely unfazed.

"A mortal dares disturb my slumber?" Isolde hissed. "You break my sanctuary. You pour raw, volatile mana down my throat. And you stand before me without begging for a quick death?"

"I didn’t disturb your slumber," Lucifer corrected her. His voice carried the deep, echoing hum of the Void. "I ended it."

Isolde sneered. It was a terrifying expression on her flawless face.

"You are an insect," Isolde stated coldly. "You possess a strange, dark aura. You resist my fear. But you are still meat."

She raised her right hand. The air around her fingertips warped.

"I will turn you into a statue," Isolde promised. "And I will leave you here to rot for another thousand years."

A swirling sphere of dense, liquid frostfire formed in her palm.

It was a spell powerful enough to freeze an entire mountain range in an instant.

She drew back, ready to hurl it straight at Lucifer’s chest.

Lucifer raised his right hand.

He held the translucent, shimmering short blade he had looted from the Sovereign’s Casket. The Blade of the Sovereign’s Duel hummed with authoritative, ancient magic.

"I challenged you," Lucifer said again.

Isolde looked at the blade. "You invoke the old rules. You wish to lock us in a dimensional pocket. You think trapping me with you will save your life?"

"It will save the rest of the city from being destroyed when I break you," Lucifer replied smoothly.

Isolde laughed. The sound was cold and brittle, completely lacking any trace of humor.

"The arrogance of current era mortals," Isolde mocked. She lowered her hand slightly, the frostfire still spinning in her palm.

"You wish to duel a Queen. Very well. Speak the terms. What do you wager for your miserable life?"

"If I win, you serve me," Lucifer declared. His eyes locked onto hers. He did not hesitate. "You pledge your absolute loyalty to the Lord of Obsidian. You become the Matriarch of my air force. You fly for me."

Isolde’s eyes flared with fresh outrage. "Serve? A Royal Dragon serves no one. We rule."

"Not anymore," Lucifer said. "The world has moved on. The Abyss is coming. If you stay in this ice, you will die in it."

"And if I win?" Isolde demanded, stepping down from the ruined dais. She towered over Lucifer, radiating lethal cold.

"If you win, I die," Lucifer stated simply. "You keep my Warlord core. You keep the Star-Metal in my vault. And you go back to sleep."

Isolde looked at him. She analyzed his dark armor, the dormant red artifact on his hip, and the swirling voids in his eyes.

He was Level 50. She was a Royal Dragon. To her, the power gap was an absolute, undeniable reality. He was committing elaborate suicide.

"I accept your terms, insect," Isolde said. Her voice dripped with condescension. "Activate the blade. Let us see how long you survive the winter."

Lucifer gripped the leather hilt of the Law-Weapon.

He channeled a single drop of his Void Arcanist mana into the translucent blade.

[System: Law-Weapon Activated.]

[Initiating Sovereign’s Duel.]

[Target 1: Lucifer of Obsidian (Level 50)]

[Target 2: Isolde, The Winter Sovereign (Level ??)]

The shimmering blade shattered.

It did not break into pieces. It dissolved into a blinding ring of pure, white light. The ring expanded instantly, rushing outward and encircling Lucifer and Isolde.

The physical world vanished.

The shattered diamond throne, the freezing ice walls, and the unconscious Oracle disappeared. Elara’s shout of warning was instantly cut off.

Lucifer and Isolde were violently pulled out of the mortal plane.

They materialized inside a pocket dimension.

It was a vast, perfectly flat arena of flawless white marble. There were no walls. There was no ceiling.

The sky was an endless expanse of swirling gray mist. The air was entirely neutral neither hot nor cold.

[System: Pocket Dimension Established.]

[Rules of Engagement:]

[- No external interference.]

[- No environmental hazards.] 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

[- Combat ends upon elimination or absolute submission.]

Isolde stood thirty feet away from Lucifer.

She looked around the blank, gray arena. She raised her hand. The sphere of liquid frostfire she had been holding instantly fizzled and died.

She frowned. She tried to summon the ambient cold of her glacier, but the pocket dimension refused to comply.

The Law-Weapon strictly enforced a neutral battlefield. She could only use the magic contained within her own body.

"You strip away my lair," Isolde noted. She did not sound worried. She sounded amused. "A clever trick. But I am still a Royal Dragon. My physical strength alone will snap your spine."

"You are welcome to try," Lucifer said.

He drew his longsword. The Carnage Core on his hip immediately flared to life. The violent, ruby-red light of the True Damage enchantment flooded the blade, casting a bloody glow across the pristine white marble.

Isolde looked at the red blade. Her arrogant smile faded slightly. She sensed the terrifying, rule-breaking nature of the enchantment.

"You rely on cursed artifacts," Isolde sneered. "A true warrior fights with their own strength."

"I am a Warlord," Lucifer corrected her. "I fight with everything I have."

Isolde crouched slightly. The ice-crystal gown around her legs shifted, hardening into thick, overlapping plates of solid diamond armor.

Her hands transformed. Her pale fingers elongated into massive, razor-sharp reptilian claws.

"Then die," Isolde hissed.

She lunged.

Her speed was incomprehensible. She crossed the thirty feet of white marble in a fraction of a second.

She did not use magic. She swung her massive, diamond-hard claws directly at Lucifer’s chest, aiming to tear his Warlord core straight out of his body.

Lucifer did not activate Zephyr’s Grace. He did not use Void Step.

He stood his ground.

He raised his left hand. The void in his eyes spun wildly.

"Gravity Crush," Lucifer commanded.

A microscopic black hole materialized directly between them. The intense gravity caught Isolde’s arm mid-swing. The sheer physical pressure slammed into her, dragging her downward.

But Isolde was a Royal Dragon. She did not collapse.

She roared in fury. She flexed her arm, her muscles swelling with raw, ancient strength.

She literally fought the gravity well, dragging her claws forward inch by agonizing inch through the spatial distortion.

"You cannot hold me!" Isolde screamed.

Lucifer smiled. It was a cold smirk.

"I don’t need to hold you," Lucifer said softly. "I just needed you to commit."

He raised his right hand. He did not swing his sword.

He snapped his fingers.

[System: Soul-Bond Resonance Activated.]

[Summoning Bound Entities...]

Behind Lucifer, the air warped and tore open.

Two figures materialized onto the white marble of the pocket dimension.

Elara stepped out of the rift. The Fallen Valkyrie’s golden wings flared to their maximum span. She leveled her celestial spear, her eyes burning with holy fire.

Beside her, Sarah stepped forward. The Star-Touched Oracle was fully awake. The Scepter of Cosmic Alignment pulsed violently in her hands, drawing power directly from the neutral, gray sky above them.

Isolde froze. Her reptilian eyes went wide with absolute shock.

"What is this?!" Isolde roared, her voice cracking with sudden panic. "This is a Sovereign’s Duel! External interference is forbidden!"

"They are not external," Lucifer stated coldly. "Their souls are permanently bound to mine. The system classifies them as an extension of my own existence."

Lucifer lowered his sword, pointing the red-glowing blade directly at the Dragon Queen.

"I told you," Lucifer said. "I fight with everything I have."

Elara launched herself into the air. Sarah raised her scepter, her eyes glowing with cosmic light. Lucifer tightened his grip on his sword.

The Warlord had brought his entire arsenal into the cage. The duel for dominance had begun.