Done And Dusted

A battle is not only a game of numbers–although having higher Attributes than one's opponent certainly has an extremely strong influence on the outcome. Several other factors also have to be considered: Proficiencies, combat experience and–most importantly of all–Talents.

Due to Coattail Ascension, Theodore's Subordinates were on par with even the most outstanding experts amongst the attacking forces, whilst their Proficiencies and combat experience–on average–was about the same as well.

This was nothing to scoff at, though. For a military that had been established for but a century to be able to contend with one whose soldiers had been on the front lines for many, many orders of magnitude of time longer than that was already quite impressive.

Where some of Theodore's people really excelled, however, was when it came to Talents. Due to all originally being Heaven's Chosen, they each had something to rely on. In the eyes of their Leader and Master, it might not be much, but when compared to the regular population inhabiting all worlds, they were each truly outstanding figures on their own!

Even Conrad, who solely had an extremely simple and straightforward Talent to rely upon, was no slouch. Heck, amongst the guards, he could easily hold his own even against a dozen or more of them combined!

The Naxsir soldiers, in comparison, at most had some Outstanding- or Superior-grade Talents to rely upon, with many of them being even less impressive than that. Therefore, naturally, in a one-on-one scenario, they were easily taken down.

But... this wasn't exactly a series of fair duels. Instead, everybody had to hold off at least a few hundred thousand enemies! Fortunately, they couldn't all attack at the same time, as there was simply no space for that–therefore that allowed for a little bit of breathing room.

A situation like this one was not entirely unfamiliar to Theodore's guards. After all, they had always been the ones with vastly inferior numbers when they had been invading other worlds. Still, today was definitely by far more dreadful and dangerous than any of those little skirmishes!

What made it all worse was that they had to be careful not to kill any of their opponents. Admittedly, they were very experienced when it came to this, but the additional difficulty was stressful, draining and exhausting.

Do not mistake the ease with which Navya, Xie Mei and Han Junqiao were pummelling their targets for the overall battle situation. Nearly everybody else was severely struggling! Well, except for Satoru.

Whilst others felt like they couldn't hold on much longer against the endless bodies that tried to drown them underneath and snuff their lives out, he stood utterly unshaken, with a relaxed smile playing across his lips.

Every now and then, amidst the unceasing onslaught of attacks, a few of them managed to draw blood and injure him minutely, causing him to be even more elated. As the Martial God's Incarnation, this was his natural habitat!

Whether it be Kjartan, Navya, Satoru, Xie Mei or Han Junqiao, the Naxsir soldiers around them dropped like flies. And in Kjartan's case, he wasn't even relying upon his Fly Slaves, but purely on some of his other Talents.

'So far, so good. It's all still under control.'

Flickering from one position to the next, Vigdis occasionally slightly interfered, preventing one of the guards from being overwhelmed. The frequency of such interventions was steadily rising, but not yet at the point where she and Cheong Suhyeon would have to end this extreme 'training exercise'.

At the end of the day, this was all that it amounted to–just a controlled confrontation that couldn't really develop into a truly perilous trial. When compared to what most of the Named Family members went through during their illusory lives, it was outright divine and relaxing!

Holding on against a genuinely endless number of more powerful enemies than oneself was merely one of the most basic parts of the exercise routine which they had to endure far too many times to count.

Still, that didn't mean that the guards were having it easy now. An ever-increasing number of them were close to reaching their breaking points. At least two thirds of them would have long lost their lives within the first half an hour if it hadn't been for Vigdis and Cheong Suhyeon giving them a helping hand!

Covered in frightening wounds, Conrad twisted his body slightly to evade an Energy-infused, blazing slash, its heat almost scorching his face at this distance. At the same time, with his left arm, he swept his cyclone-enveloped spear backwards, deflecting yet another attack. His right arm was currently busy strangling one of the Naxsir until he passed out.

He had long since lost count of how many enemies he had taken down, or how often their blades had come dangerously close to fatally injuring him. Still, even after an hour of doing all that he could to survive and complete his mission, he had yet to throw in the towel.

Under normal circumstances, surpassing one's limits wasn't easy. However, when in a high-pressure environment like this one, growing and adapting were a sheer necessity.

On the surface, Conrad had always sounded like one of the most unimpressive of Theodore's Subordinates. After all, he 'only' had his Cultivation Luminary Talent to rely upon. And although a faster cultivation speed was indeed enviable, having no other strengths or abilities was simply not good enough to stand out.

Fortunately, the 50 percent chance of entering a state of enlightenment during cultivation allowed him to 'game the system' and raise his Proficiencies far faster than any other guard. After all, if he was doing something else whilst cultivating, then once that indescribable state arrived, he could simply focus on the non-cultivation aspect, raising it to greater heights in the process.

This had allowed him to also obtain a few combat- and weapon usage-related Talents–although they were mostly still of Inferior- or Average-grade. In the future, though, they had the potential to grow, if he put in enough effort. And amongst all of Theodore's Subordinates, he might have been the one who had worked the hardest, so that shouldn't be an issue.

'I might be doing fine, but the others... not so much. It seems that this'll come to an end very soon...'

Temporarily observing everyone's battle situation whilst holding off the dozens of foes that were currently attacking him, Conrad almost felt a little reluctant to let everything end here. Yet, as the leader of the guards, he was responsible for everyone else and couldn't allow himself to be too selfish.

Moments after he had made that mental remark, he felt two distinct, incredibly powerful fluctuations sweep through the entire battlefield. Wherever this tide of Energy and aura swept past, Theodore's Subordinates got to relax and watch the Naxsir getting violently suppressed with ease.

Both Cheong Suhyeon and Vigdis had their own means to practically ascend to become pseudo 'divine'–and compared to when they had made use of them back during their spars with Eleanora, they now allowed them to be even more overwhelming!

Whilst they couldn't exactly battle Spitamaneh, they could certainly overpower the Naxsir twins who had recently joined them. And that much power, combined with their countless other means, was easily enough to turn this clash from a desperate battle into a mere formality.

Seeing the tides turning in an instant, many of the soldiers tried to escape, but they simply had no way of doing so. With their backs against the literal wall, they eventually joined their comrades and became prisoners of war, scheduled for execution.

There was no surprise, and no upset. With Theodore's two currently strongest fighters taking action, this side of the confrontation came to a complete close.

The guards swiftly entered a state of recovery, dozens of them barely preventing themselves from fainting. Shortly after they had patched themselves up, though, they couldn't hold on any longer. In the makeshift camp that they had set up right after the battle's conclusion, they lost consciousness. Fortunately, the beds had all already been prepared.

While the majority got their well-deserved rest, Cheong Suhyeon, Vigdis, Navya, Xie Mei, Han Junqiao, Conrad and Satoru–alongside all others who could still hold on–were guarding the prisoners. Although they had been securely restrained and shouldn't be capable of doing anything at all, there was always a chance that some unforeseen Talent could spell trouble.

-----

'I guess that's my cue.'

Taking note of everyone else having wrapped up, the somewhat strained expression on Theodore's face faded, replaced by an amused smirk. For over an hour, he had been locked in a non-stop battle with Spitamaneh, with neither of them seemingly capable of truly gaining the upper hand.

But that wasn't really the case. About five to ten minutes into their duel, Theodore could have ended everything right then and there, as he had already forced every single one of his opponent's trump cards out into the open.

At their level, a singular minute could play host to billions of clashes, if not more! Therefore, their Energy, Numen and mental strength expenditure was unfathomably huge. By now, Spitamaneh was outright exhausted, but still stubbornly hanging on.

It wasn't his Numen or his mind which gave out first, but rather his Energy reserves. Having been forced to constantly 'carpet-bomb' their entire arena all this time, to withstand the Eternal Ice's unceasing encroachment, and to exchange countless other blows with Theodore during the past hour, his Dantians had practically dried up.

Spitamaneh was no stranger to war, or to prolonged confrontations–heck, they were his bread and butter! Still, never before had he been forced to his limits to such a degree. And to his terror, Theodore–a mere Holos Acclimation Stage cultivator, who should by all rights have far less Energy to spend than him–didn't appear as if he was in dire straits at all!

"It's been fun, but playtime is over. It's time for you to get some rest–of the eternal kind."

The words spoken in between Theodore's constant teleportations caused Spitamaneh to grow even more horrified, desperately shoring up his defences in preparations for what would indubitably be a terrifying offensive.

Then, to his initial confusion, it felt like his foe sped up by many orders of magnitude in an instant, and an unimaginable gravitational pull appeared behind him. Although it took him only a fraction of a nanosecond to realize what was happening, he was still too late–and he couldn't have done anything to begin with.

'So this it how it ends...'

Staring at the utterly inconceivable amount of Eternal Ice bearing down on him–far more than he could possibly withstand even at his peak state–he had a wistful look in his eyes... before having all of his desperate resistance shattered in mere moments.

With a calm smile, Theodore finally came to a halt, ceasing his unending teleportations. For the first time since the Heavenly Succession had begun, he had made use of a particular Talent of his in battle–Gravity's Proxy. It had simply never been necessary for him to pull out this card of his, other than when he had tried his damnedest to escape that ray of light at the beginning of the second round.

By increasing the strength of gravity in an extremely minuscule area right behind Spitamaneh, he had artificially created not just an event horizon–and therefore a 'black hole'–but pretty much an outright spacetime singularity! The difference in spacetime curvature had allowed time to flow 'faster' for him than for his opponent–or rather, it was the opposite. Due to being extremely close to the source of enormous gravity, the flow of time around Spitamaneh had become–practically–slower.

This technique wasn't particularly threatening or dangerous on its own, as it couldn't truly damage a Celestial Stage expert. They were simply far too resilient to be significantly injured by something as 'inconsequential' as that, or even the obliteration of the spacetime that they were in. However, the difference in the flow of time was key.

From Theodore's observations, Spitamaneh's ability to utilize dimensional rifts clearly indicated that he could manipulate spacetime to a certain extent. Then there was also the fact that he had noticed Cristyn spying on him via a prophecy.

The method that he had used could likely only get results once, and he had an extremely short window of opportunity–which was exactly why he had run around until the man's Energy was almost entirely drained. If he was going to try this, then he would give it his best shot–and evidently, his prudence had paid off, for he had succeeded.

With an expectant glint in his eyes, he focused on the newest notification that had popped up as a result of Spitamaneh's demise.