Reincarnated in a novel: I am the villain!-Chapter 297: Surpass Your Limits!
[Location: The Exchange – Stage Three Arena]
*BOOM.*
The explosion of conflicting mana tore through the Chrome Jungle.
Trees made of rebar melted into slag.
The acidic river evaporated into a cloud of toxic steam.
In the center of the crater, two figures stood locked in a stalemate.
On one side, the Diamond Champion.
It had transformed into a grotesque mockery of Damien’s Dragon Form.
Half its body was covered in jagged, shifting black scales that leaked of smoke.
The other half was a blinding, chaotic mess of golden light that scorched the air.
On the other side, Zero.
He was pushed back, his boots carving deep trenches into the metal floor.
His coat was torn, revealing the faint glow of his Will Armament straining to hold back the Monster’s raw power.
"I see it," the Monster rasped, its voice a distorted echo of Damien’s own.
"Your balance. It is fragile."
The Monster raised a claw wreathed in Black Shadow.
"You hold the Light and the Dark apart with your Will. But I..."
It raised its other claw, wreathed in Gold. It slammed them together.
"I AM THE CHAOS!"
*KRA-KOOM!*
The Monster didn’t fuse the energies.
It smashed them together, creating a volatile reaction, a mana like nuke.
A sphere of destruction expanded outward.
Damien’s eyes narrowed behind his mask.
’It’s brute forcing it,’ Damien realized.
’It doesn’t have the Celestial Life Physique to stabilize the mixture.’
’It’s just using its regeneration to survive the backlash of the explosion.’*
Damien didn’t try to block right now he couldn’t, that explosion was on the verge of peak seventh order if not more.
An attempt to be block it would be like suicide
*[Shadow Warp.]*
He vanished.
The explosion consumed the spot where he had been standing, vaporizing a hundred tons of steel.
Damien reappeared in the air above the Monster.
"You aren’t Chaos neither are you oerfection," Damien said coldly.
He gripped the Pantheon Sword.
The blade hummed, hungry for the massive amount of mana leaking from the Monster.
"Like I said before, you’re just a cheap copy."
"And I’m going to surpass myself, right here right now!"
Damien dove.
[Pantheon Art: Falling Star.]
He turned his body into a projectile, the sword leading the way.
The Monster looked up.
Its mismatched eyes, one black, one gold widened.
"Copy," the Monster droned.
Its flesh rippled. A bone blade, identical to the Pantheon Sword, erupted from its wrist.
It mimicked Damien’s stance perfectly.
"Counter."
The Monster swung upward to meet Damien’s strike.
*CLANG!*
Sword met Bone. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
The impact shook the entire Colosseum floating above the city.
Damien gritted his teeth. The physical strength of the Monster was overwhelming.It was pushing him back.
"I am you," the Monster mocked, pressing the advantage.
"A you that does not tire, does not bleed. I am the Evolution."
"Evolution?" Damien laughed. It was a strained, jagged sound.
He looked into the Monster’s eyes.
"You copied my stance, even copied my mana and my eyes."
Damien’s pupils constricted. The horizontal bar of the Cross-Shaped Pupil flared.
"But can you copy This?"
[Will Art: King’s Domain – Localized.]
This time, Damien didn’t expand his domain outward instead he pushed it *forward*.
He injected his pure, unfiltered Intent directly into the Monster’s eyes.
*VWMMM.*
The Monster froze.
Its mind, the complex matrix of learning algorithms and instinct was suddenly flooded with data it couldn’t process.
It didn’t see an attack.
To him what attacked him just now was nothing but pure desire.
It saw a hunger so vast it could swallow the world.
It saw the greed of a man who wanted to save everyone, own everything, and defy Fate itself.
The Monster’s mind scrambled.
’Analyze,’ the Monster’s internal voice screamed.
’Copy Intent. Copy Desire.’
It tried. It tried to simulate what it saw.
Unfortunately that requires a Self. It requires an Ego to want things.
The Monster had no Ego. It was but a blank slate.
*CRACK.*
A fissure appeared on the Monster’s face.
Not a wound from a sword, but a stress fracture from its own shapeshifting biology trying to mimic a soul it didn’t possess.
"Error," the Monster gurgled, its form flickering.
The golden light on its right side began to eat its own arm.
The shadow on its left began to collapse.
"Data... corrupt... Cannot... want..."
"That’s the difference," Damien whispered.
He retracted his sword.
The Monster was paralyzed, caught in a logic loop of trying to be Damien and failing to exist.
Damien held the Pantheon Sword with both hands. The blade turned a deep, thirsty grey.
"You are just a mirror," Damien said.
He swung.
"And mirrors break."
[Pantheon Art: Hollow Sever.]
*SHING.*
The blade passed through the Monster’s neck.
There was no resistance. The sword drank the mana holding the construct together.
The Monster’s head slid off its shoulders.
As it fell, the body didn’t bleed, instead it dissolved.
Without the Will to hold the stolen forms together, the biological mass lost its cohesion.
The gold and black mana exploded outward, then vanished into the air.
The Diamond Champion turned into a puddle of grey sludge on the metal floor.
Silence descended on the Chrome Jungle.
Damien landed. He flicked the sludge off his sword and sheathed it.
He looked up at the VIP box, where the hologram of the Platinum Prince was watching.
The Prince wasn’t bored anymore.
He was leaning forward, his chin resting on his knuckles, a terrifying smile stretching his pale face.
"Winner," the Announcer’s voice boomed, trembling with fear.
"ZERO."
The crowd in the Colosseum erupted in the surprise as this was the first time a solid had won the exchange
Damien however didn’t wave. He turned and walked toward the exit elevator.
As the doors closed, he checked his status.
[System Alert: Enemy Defeated]
[Detecting you have successfully won the exchange, affecting current timeline..]
[Reward: 150,000 DP.]
[Current DP: 152,000.]
"one hundred and fifty two thousand," Damien muttered, leaning against the wall as his knees finally gave out.
"Still not enough."
DING.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened.
Standing there, blocking his path, were four figures.
They wore armor made of pure white platinum.
In their hands they held halberds that hummed with 7th-Order mana.
The Royal Guard.
"Zero," the Captain said, his voice devoid of emotion.
"The Prince invites you to the Spire."
The Captain stepped aside, gesturing to a private teleportation gate behind them.
"He is waiting for you."
Damien straightened his coat. He adjusted his mask.
He looked at the gate. This was it. The lion’s den.
"Lead the way," Damien said.
