Dyon's conversation with the Dragon King lasted all of a split second. Their minds processed information at such a fast pace that the hole of a sinking water Dyon had burst from was nowhere near closing.
In the next moment, Dyon's black armor began to shine with a crystalline blue light. The combination of black, gorgeous blues, and the white flames that danced across his body made him look like a God descended from the skies.
'He really does carry the will of the War God...' Head Void grit his teeth. Just who was this young man? What had he gotten himself into?!
"Hey old man." Dyon's voice reverberated across the sea. "If you want to survive, obediently become my slave. If you want to die, feel free to ignore my words."
Dyon said no more, shooting toward the Giants on his own as a brilliant half-step dao array, shining with light blues appeared at his back.
'Ninth level intent?!'
Head Void was wrong. Dyon's Weapon's Master will was only at the 9th will level. However, for some reason, still unknown to Dyon, it manifested itself as a half-step dao.
This is exactly the reason why Dyon was so lucky to receive this challenge now. Consider for a moment if this was a dao formation trial. In that case, instead of being equated to 4th level intents like this trial was now, it would be the equivalent of the power the Weapon's Master will would have at that 1st dao level.
If the will level of this will was equivalent to an intent... And the intent level of this will was equivalent to a dao... Then what would the dao level be equivalent to? It would be something that transcended the mortal plane of existence...
The dense energy in Dyon's meridians churned, surging into his armor. The blinding lights of the silver mirror constitution made their will known.
There were three defensive constitutions that rose above the rest. The durability of Dyon's Titan Diamond body was simply on another level entirely. Any other lower celestial who faced the strength of a dao formation expert would have had his body turn to an eruption of blood even with the help of the Dragon King. Yet, Dyon's bones and organs only sheered apart partially.
However, despite being a Heaven Grade constitution, the silver mirror constitution was even better in defense. It was just that the Titan Diamond Body had many other aspects that resulted in its God Grade.
Dyon didn't choose a Giant, instead, he swung his axe toward them both. His eight wings stretched outward more than twenty meters, his body towered at over ten meters, and above his head, his manifestations appeared into the world.
His eyes glimmered with violet, red and blue star lights, evoking the will of Asura's Eyes. Six black-gold halos hovered to his back, rotating to allow a god-like eye to rest at the very top.
At the same time, his battle axe expanded in size. Its handle lengthened to over five meters in length and its twin blades dwarfed half the size of Dyon's enormous body even as intricate half-step daos lit the world afire behind Dyon.
It was then that Dyon finally clashed with the Giants. However, without any suspense, his arm shattered into a mist of blood only held together by the dragon armor that coated it.
The second Giant completely ignored Dyon, as though he wasn't worth its time, surging toward Head Void.
'Isla, I need your help.' Dyon spoke into his Mind's Eye. 'My soul stamina will last for a long time, weeks even, if necessary. I need you to focus on recovering my Mental Energy. I can't sustain what I'm about to do without you!'
This time, Dyon didn't fly away from the blow. He purposely stood his ground, using his silver mirror constitution to contain the blow in his arm before immediately healing himself to face a second round of strikes.
The Giant seemed almost too adept at battle. Those who used axes were stereotyped as meat heads who only knew one direction: forward. Yet, this giant had a nimble and clever fighting style that almost killed Dyon with every strike.
His axe seemed to be as light as feather when he moved it, but it struck with the weight of millions of jin. Whenever he switched hands, the momentum of his previous strike wasn't lost, so it was as though he had double the time to power his blow. And, even worse, Dyon could see a path to victory.
Every blow he took, he would concentrate it into a single part of his body, withstanding the pain of having his limbs erupt into a mist of blood time and time again. The blows the giant was emitting were so fierce that the silver mirror constitution's reflection ability couldn't hold on...
Under normal circumstances, Dyon would have received a blessing of saint energy first, filling a portion or all of his first 9 meridians, before being given a tribulation. But, it seemed that the universe withheld this award due to his "cheating". Because of this, he was stuck with essence energy...
Still, his vitality was seemingly endless. Not only did his Titan Diamond Body increase his vitality to Godly levels, his death will made it so that his life could be sustained with even the minimum amount of vitality available. The combination made Dyon like an undying Emperor, facing the enemy of his life.
Dyon took a deep breath. 'Second Stage Selfless State...'
The world suddenly opened up to him. The movements of the Giant became even slower and Dyon could almost see the laws of the universe being written into existence.
Dyon swung his axe. At that moment, he didn't notice it, but there was a subtle change reaching back toward the ancient vicissitudes of martial arts.
Dyon hadn't noticed until now, but this avatar of sorts that he was facing, didn't use any energy or qi. Somehow, he had reached into the depths of what it meant to be an axe wielder to the point where he became the very embodiment of its will.
The Giant calmly watched the arc of Dyon's swing. It didn't have any emotions, so it couldn't be surprised. It simply reached forward to block...
However, that was when the axe disappeared from Dyon's hand, entering his left and becoming coated in a blaze of black flames.
BOOM!
Dyon's axe sliced the Giant completely in half. It was at that point that Dyon understood how to defeat this trial even as the Giant fused back into one.
'My attack was still lacking.' Dyon grunted as his arm once again erupted into a mist of blood, second torrents of crimson liquid flying from the creases within the Dragon Armor.
Before the trials even began, Dyon's intuition told him that no weapon would have a chance of surviving against these avatars. At that point, the goal of the trial seemed clear. Since these pinnacle weapons were so perfect that no weapon could survive against them, then all Dyon had to do was raise his own weapon's level to supersede theirs. As long as their weapon was shattered, this would all come to an end.
However, something like this was easier said than done. But, it was easier than what it could have been at the same time.
Due to the fact that this was a saint trial, Dyon only had to master control of his weapons to a saint level to win. This was the equivalent of the 4th intent level, or, rather, a 4th will level in this case. It was possible! He could do it!
While others might fall into despair thinking about how there were still eight more impossible mountains to climb, Dyon's eyes shone with a fierce light.
What he didn't know was that in a world filled with fog, a pale Ri sat cross-legged, bleeding from her seven orifices as she struggled to sustain Isla's output of power.
Dyon's mental energy drained completely every split second, only for Isla to step in once more with a saddened expression to refill it again.
To call this selfless state of Dyon's the second stage was disingenuous. It was more accurate to say that this state was the equivalent of Dyon's third stage selfless state except without the support of his life force to sustain it. This meant that what Ri was doing was the equivalent of what Dyon had done just months earlier...
At that moment, an ancient voice spoke into Ri's mind as the large, dark gold tree at the center of the fairy-like kingdom vibrated gently.
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
Ri ignored the elves that sat around her, refusing to move as she continued to funnel her strength to Dyon.
"The Elvin Queen was just born, it would be a shame if you died just days later." The World Tree spoke once more, seeing that Ri didn't answer.
'Elves have three times the life span of humans.' Ri said stubbornly. 'I can afford to give up one or even two life spans, leave me be!'
