The mountain no longer felt like terrain.

It felt like something alive that was trying to shake them off, a collapsing battlefield that refused to remain still beneath their feet. Every step upward tore something apart around them, as if the very act of advancing triggered resistance from the world itself. The ground did not simply crack. It shifted, folded, and rose in uneven sections, forcing constant recalculation of footing.

Stone splintered under massive pressure waves, fragments lifting into the air before being crushed into dust by overlapping forces. The air bent and snapped where power collided, distortions rippling outward in visible waves that twisted light and sound alike. Beneath it all, the mountain pulsed. Deep, rhythmic tremors rolled through the ground, each one hinting at movement below.

Tier-100 entities were not waiting.

They were gathering.

The Regalons moved through it without breaking formation. Their pace did not change, but their positioning adapted continuously, each step placed with intent, each shift in stance aligning with the next action already unfolding.

A rupture formed ahead.

The ground split vertically, layers of stone forced apart from within as something pushed upward. The first Tier-100 creature emerged not by rising, but by tearing itself free. Its body was fused with the mountain, jagged ridges running along its spine like extensions of the terrain itself. Plates slid over one another as it stabilized, locking into place with a grinding, final motion.

It did not pause.

Its arm came down.

The strike carried enough force to distort the air before it even landed. Pressure collapsed inward, forming a visible compression wave that dragged debris toward the point of impact.

Rudra stepped into it.

His fist drove upward.

The collision did not explode outward. It inverted. The force compressed into a single point before fracturing, cracks spreading outward from the contact in branching patterns. Those fractures extended beyond the creature’s limb, reaching into the surrounding space itself, forming a web that bound structure and environment together.

From those fractures, the tendrils emerged.

They did not lash.

They threaded.

Each strand followed the cracks, pulling in opposing directions simultaneously. The effect was immediate. The creature’s limb twisted, segments shifting out of alignment, joints no longer matching the structure they were meant to support.

It did not break.

It failed.

Aryan moved through that distortion without hesitation.

His thrust did not target a single point. It mapped across the entire warped structure, striking at every intersection of fracture at once. Each impact reinforced the instability, deepening the structural collapse already underway.

Maya stepped in just behind him.

Her frost did not spread across the surface. It locked onto the distortion itself, freezing the misalignment into place. The warped sections hardened, unable to shift, unable to correct.

Rexion’s flame followed.

It split mid-flight into multiple streams, each one entering the fractures precisely where Aryan had struck. The fire moved through the structure rather than across it, burning along the lines of failure already established.

The creature convulsed.

Then collapsed inward.

The ground beneath it sank, pulling the remains down as if reclaiming them.

The mountain reacted immediately.

Two more ruptures formed.

Opposite directions.

Two Tier-100 creatures surged upward at the same time.

And from the side—

Another team crashed into the battlefield.

There was no transition.

No separation between engagements.

Everything collided at once.

An opposing fighter charged first, his weapon distorting the air around it, the arc of his swing carrying enough force to split the terrain beneath it. The attack was aimed directly at Rudra.

Chronavael moved.

Time shifted.

Not halted.

Not slowed completely.

Just enough.

The arc stretched.

Its trajectory became readable.

Marcus stepped in.

He did not block the strike. He redirected it, shifting the path by a fraction so that the force drove sideways into one of the rising creatures instead.

The impact detonated.

The creature staggered before it had fully stabilized.

Silvester and Hiroshi moved through the opening immediately.

Silvester’s blades carved along the creature’s misaligned joints, each strike leaving behind a faint afterimage that struck again a fraction of a second later. The layering created overlapping damage that compounded faster than the structure could adapt.

Hiroshi stepped into that moment.

One cut.

Clean.

Final.

The creature separated completely.

The opposing team did not retreat.

They escalated.

A field of rotating constructs erupted outward, filling the space with layered trajectories that left no clear path forward. Each construct spun at a different speed, creating overlapping zones of pressure that forced movement into predictable lines.

Pymon rose above.

Lightning gathered, not dispersing, but condensing into controlled strands.

He released it.

The bolts did not scatter.

They descended.

Each strike landed at a calculated position, disrupting the rotational flow of the constructs just enough to break their pattern.

Not destroying them.

Destabilizing them.

Rudra moved through those disrupted zones.

His pulses detonated within the instability, triggering chain reactions that caused the constructs to collapse into one another.

Aryan followed.

His strikes layered across both constructs and their creator, converging through multiple paths at once.

Maya froze sections of the battlefield, locking movement into place at critical moments.

Rexion’s flame threaded through those frozen zones, consuming everything caught within.

Silvester and Hiroshi closed the distance.

The opposing team broke.

They did not last long after.

There was no recovery.

The third Tier-100 creature reached them.

It did not rise.

It surged.

Its entire mass compressed into forward motion, speed tearing the air apart as it closed the distance instantly.

It hit.

The formation broke.

Rudra was thrown backward, his body tearing under the force. Aryan slammed into the ground, fractures spreading beneath him. Marcus took the follow-up strike directly.

His body collapsed.

Gone.

Rexion reacted immediately.

Flame spiraled outward, gathering fragments, reconstructing form.

Chronavael layered time over the process, accelerating restoration.

Marcus returned.

The next strike came immediately.

He shifted the ground beneath them, forcing the attack to slide wide.

"Forward," Alfred said.

The peak was visible now.

Clear.

Close.

Waiting.

A team stood there.

Still.

Watching.

They did not intercept early.

They let the Regalons come.

Through the monsters.

Through the chaos.

Through everything.

The final stretch compressed.

Three Tier-100 creatures converged at once.

One from below.

One from the side.

One from above.

At the same time—

The rival team moved.

Everything collided.

Rudra stepped forward into the center.

Both hands extended.

The fractures did not spread outward.

They collapsed inward.

Space distorted, pulling incoming attacks toward a central point, forcing the creatures’ strikes to collide with each other mid-motion. Their own power turned against them.

Aryan moved through that collapse.

His trajectories layered across all targets simultaneously, not distinguishing between monster and enemy.

Maya froze entire sections of the battlefield, locking movement into controlled zones.

Rexion’s flame split and threaded through those zones, consuming everything caught inside.

Pymon’s lightning fell in vertical strikes, marking everything still moving.

Marcus reshaped the terrain beneath them, forcing alignment and preventing escape.

Silvester and Hiroshi moved through the convergence, eliminating anything that remained.

One Tier-100 creature broke through.

It slammed directly into Rudra.

His body shattered.

Chronavael reversed the moment.

Rudra returned.

He stepped forward again.

No pause.

His pulse detonated through the creature’s core, amplified by every layered effect still active across the battlefield.

The creature split apart.

The second followed.

The third collapsed under combined pressure.

Only the rival team remained.

Five fighters.

Wounded.

Still standing.

They charged.

The Regalons met them head-on.

Close combat.

No distance.

No margin.

Blades clashed.

Frost locked limbs mid-motion.

Flames burned through openings.

Lightning struck between movements.

Pulses detonated on contact.

One enemy fell.

Revived.

Killed again before completion.

Another tried to break away.

Aryan intercepted.

Silvester followed.

Hiroshi ended it.

The last two resisted for a moment.

Then they fell.

Silence spread across the peak.

The storm above slowed.

The mountain stopped moving.

The battlefield stabilized.

A message appeared.

[Congratulations. Your team has emerged victorious in the event.]

Far away—

Another plane.

Another battlefield.

Almond and the others watched.

Numbers climbed.

Points rose.

Individuals approached the threshold.

One million.

The next stage was beginning.

[Leaderboard of Regalon Exarch]