BANG!
Galantis immediately sent his fist forward with crushing force, not bothering to entertain conversation any longer.
Arthur's face paled and his eyes became solemn. Without another thought, he sent a fist forward to meet it.
BOOOOOOM!
A furious fluctuation spread for several million kilometers, even causing waves of heat to enter Beast Emperor Star's atmosphere.
A rain of Law concepts from opposing elements met and collided. It wasn't just a matter of strength, but complexity.
Blood Laws had a concept of regeneration. Used to attack, this concept could cause the force of the attack to amplify and strike in waves, essentially regenerating the attack's force,
Conversely, Galantis used a mixture of Wind Laws and the unique body system of the Cloud Giants. Within the concepts in his arsenal was one of amplification, a concept that did almost the exact same thing as the regeneration concept of Blood Laws, at least offensively.
When these two concepts came in contact during the collision of force, it wasn't a matter of which concept was stronger, rather, it was a battle of which concept was more defined.
In simpler terms, it was a battle of comprehension, something that seemed far more intuitive than what Galantis was capable of.
However, for anyone to reach the level of Supreme, at least their comprehensive ability had to reach a certain standard, a standard not met often on a universal scale.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Even as their previous attacks continued to collide and battle, Galantis and Arthur didn't halt their battle. Their fists clashed thousands of times per millisecond, their laws filled the atmosphere and started to change the properties of space. For a moment, it looked like they were evenly matched.
But this wasn't quite true. Arthur was both injured from losing a portion of his blood in the previous battle and forced to engage in physical combat with someone specialized in the area.
At the moment, Arthur struck out with fists coated in multiple layers of mana, his knuckles extended into nigh-indestructible spikes that heavily increased his attack and penetrative power.
To combat Galantis, he could only resort to this.
"I refuse to let you control me!" He yelled out in frustration.
Bang!
His fist slammed into Galantis' once more. His mana ballooned out and suddenly enveloped the collision point, including Galantis' fist.
Shik!
Galantis' thick skin wouldn't have been penetrated normally, but after taking so many blows from Arthur's spiked fists, it was impossible for him to not have a few cuts.
And that was enough.
Arthur's mana immediately invaded Galantis' body and began wreaking havoc, allowing him to feel what was currently happening to Damien.
"You did this…to my Young Lord…?" Galantis muttered, his eyes changing.
"How dare you?!"
A catastrophic windstorm formed around him and pushed even space itself away. Arthur began to back away, but before he could get too far, he found himself surrounded by these chaotic winds.
His mana was affected by their flow, drawn out and away from his body to weaken him.
Arthur gritted his teeth and responded in kind, tightening his control over the mana in Galantis' body and ruining him internally.
At this moment, they'd pinpointed each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Galantis would be an easy target if his body was weakened, and Arthur was a pig on the chopping block without his mana.
Though they were enemies, they were well aware of the apocalyptic effects their battle could have on the universe.
While Arthur didn't necessarily care for the universe's safety, he absolutely cared about face.
If he ignored this common courtesy of lowering the destructive force of the battle, those eyes in the distance that were surely watching the battle would take it as a provocation and would absolutely use it as ammunition against Blood Asura Holy Land.
When one was on the cusp of Divinity, all forces became enemies, and all enemies would do anything they could to make sure one fell before taking that final step.
A battle of Supremes could go through a myriad of changes in a single instance.
The current silent confrontation was one of such instances.
After all, whoever took the lead at this stage of the battle…
Would gain an absolute advantage if the battle continued.
***
The sounds of battle faded as the battle itself became more succinct, but to Damien, they were muddled into the background from the start.
It was hard to project his senses outwards. In this sense, Arthur definitely succeeded.
It was difficult to move his body before it was fully healed. In this sense, Arthur also succeeded.
But the Sanctuary wasn't external, nor was it internal. It was an ethereal existence tethered to Damien on a level far more intrinsic than either of these things.
This allowed Damien to escape his fate of immediate death, and to solve the prospect of a slow death…
Voom!
Like a rusty machine being brought back to life, the Void Physique revealed itself.
Waves of mana eclipsing the universe spread through Damien's body and swallowed the various manifestations of foreign mana that ravaged him.
It didn't matter their concepts, it didn't matter their power, the Void devoured all.
In the end, anything under Divinity couldn't resist the Void Physique. This was something Damien discovered long ago when he was still in the 3000 Beast Mountain Range.
But even as the mana was cleansed, Damien remained impaled and unmoving.
There was a reason he formed the motto: "Pain is power."
It was only when his body was so deeply inflicted with foreign substances and unbearable pain that he could truly comprehend the universe's secrets without boundaries or restrictions.
'So it's like this. The origin of a Supreme's great ability is...their Legend.'
The more the Void Physique devoured, the clearer this esoteric concept became in his head.
The wild conjectures he'd formed as he witnessed his own Legend grow were being confirmed and denied with rapidity, and his perception of "Legends" became more defined with every passing second.
A definitive change was taking place, not within his body but within his soul.
"Something" was forming there.
"Something" that even Damien, who couldn't perceive the soul in the slightest, could sense.
That "something" coagulated slowly, taking pieces of his affinities, of his mind, of his body, of his heart, and fusing them into one.
And when that "something" finally finished forming…
Damien shuddered.
A pale white light covered his figure and rapidly regenerated his injuries.
He reached up and grabbed hold of the needle ran through his skull, and…
Shik…!
…tore it out.
Shik…!
Shik…!
The two needles in Damien's chest followed soon after. Black mana swallowed them whole and turned them into sustenance for its owner, allowing him a peek into their laws.
Damien clenched his fist lightly.
He couldn't tell what the difference was.
He was still level 399.
His stats hadn't changed, his skills hadn't leveled up, and while his comprehension had increased, it wasn't a direct result of the previous process, but rather, the result of his efforts after being struck.
Yet somehow, Damien could tell.
After 15 years, 15 long grueling years filled with joys and sorrows…
He had finally stepped into the extreme peak and begun his path to Divinity.
