Chapter 1797: Five Minutes Timer!
Chapter 1797: Five Minutes Timer!
The flame that Ervin had knocked away drifted toward Revona’s side, but Revona did not reach for it immediately. Her Void Origin Eyes flashed, and an invisible cube trap around the flame vanished.
Only then did she stretch out her hand and take it calmly. The moment she obtained it, two guardians rushed toward her from the void below, but before they could reach her, she looked at them once. Their bodies became faint, then the attacks forming inside their cores disappeared into nothingness.
A breath later, Ervin’s spear pierced through both weakened cores from afar, destroying them before they could recover.
Revona looked at him. "Thank you."
Ervin replied, "You removed the dangerous part. I only finished the rest."
Even while competing, none of them fully ignored cooperation. That was the cruel balance of the trial. If they focused only on stealing from one another, the guardians would overwhelm them. If they focused only on helping one another, the marks would not be distributed in their favor.
Every movement had to carry two meanings, survival and advantage, defense and theft, assistance and calculation.
The timer continued falling.
[04:12]
The Genesis Flames around everyone trembled faintly, and the first stabilization was approaching.
Max had already understood the rhythm of the trial. The flames needed to be held for sixty seconds before becoming stable, but the closer the stabilization came, the more aggressive the guardians became.
The system was not giving them free rewards. It was forcing them to defend their gains under increasing pressure while tempting others to steal at the last moment.
The Genesis knight raised both swords.
The space around Max shifted.
Dozens of cube blades appeared from every side, and the knight itself vanished from his front, reappearing behind him through a sudden spatial shift. If it had been anyone else, that attack might have struck before they even sensed the danger.
But Max’s Dimensional Sovereign Body had no blind spot. He saw the spatial shift from the moment it began, saw the cube blades forming around him, and saw the hidden flame behind the knight that the trial had placed as bait.
Max moved.
His body slipped through the smallest gap between the cube blades, Dragonheart curved behind him without looking, and his sword edge met the knight’s twin swords with perfect timing. Sparks of Genesis light burst outward.
The knight’s attack was redirected to the side, and Max’s left hand reached through the gap between two shifting cubes, pulling the bait flame into his possession before the trap fully activated.
[Participant Max Morgan Has Obtained 1 Genesis Flame.]
[Guardian Aggression Toward Participant Max Morgan Increased.]
Varkhon looked over and laughed. "You are insane. You are still taking more?"
Max’s eyes remained calm as he kicked off the platform and moved away from the Genesis knight’s next strike. "The trial placed it there."
Tamara shouted, "It placed it there to kill you."
Max slashed apart three cube blades and replied, "Then it should try harder."
The words made Varkhon laugh again, while even Tamara’s mouth twitched slightly. Revona only shook her head faintly, and Ervin’s smile deepened as if he found Max’s response interesting.
Then the first stabilization arrived.
[04:00]
[Genesis Flame Stabilization Initiated.]
White light descended on the arena.
Several flames around each participant changed color, becoming more solid and sinking into their trial marks. The unstable flames that had been circling them became divided into two types. The stabilized ones could no longer be stolen, while the unstable ones still remained vulnerable.
[Stabilized Genesis Flames Cannot Be Stolen.]
Max felt several of his flames become safe, but he did not relax. The moment stabilization ended, the trial released a new wave of guardians.
This time, the guardians were different.
Five Genesis knights appeared, one for each participant.
Each knight carried a weapon reflecting the person it targeted. The one facing Tamara held a cube spear. The one facing Varkhon had massive gauntlets. The one facing Revona had mirror-like eyes that seemed designed to resist erasure. The one facing Ervin held a long black-white spear. The one facing Max carried a sword, but its body was wrapped in faint spatial distortions.
[Personal Genesis Guardians Awakened.]
[Warning: Personal Guardians Will Adapt To Participant Combat Style.]
Tamara’s smile became fierce. "Now this is better."
Her spear collided with the cube spear of her personal guardian, and the sound rang across the arena like two armies crashing together. The guardian’s spear arts were not weak. It copied the rhythm of Tamara’s war spear, using formation-like footwork and heavy battlefield pressure to match her advance.
Tamara’s eyes grew sharper, and her war intent surged as she began overpowering it through sheer dominance.
Varkhon’s guardian rushed at him with both gauntlets raised.
The demon met it with a punch.
The two fists collided, and the platform beneath them cracked. Varkhon’s grin turned savage as the guardian punched again and again, each strike growing heavier as it adapted to his raw strength. Instead of retreating, Varkhon became even more excited. His demonic markings burned brighter, and he started trading blows with the guardian like a beast enjoying a storm.
Revona’s guardian was the strangest.
It did not attack immediately. Its mirror-like eyes stared directly at her Void Origin Eyes, and the space between them became distorted as erasure and reflection fought in silence. Revona’s expression became more serious than before.
The guardian had been created to resist her, and each time she tried to erase part of its attack structure, the mirror-like surface reflected part of that power back toward her. She stepped back, adjusted her gaze, and began targeting the gaps between the reflection layers instead of the surface itself.
Ervin faced his spear guardian calmly.
For several breaths, neither moved.
Then both attacked at once.
Two spear lights crossed in the air, one black-silver and one white-black. Their movements were so fast and precise that even Tamara glanced over for a moment. Ervin’s spear was monstrous, but the guardian was learning with every exchange.
It copied his angles, mirrored his distance, and tried to predict his next point of attack. Ervin’s smile did not vanish. If anything, it became a little more genuine.
Max’s personal guardian attacked last.
Its sword cut through space.
The slash did not travel normally. It vanished halfway and appeared near Max’s neck. At the same time, the guardian’s body blurred, creating three false spatial positions around him. The trial had understood that ordinary attacks would not work against his perception, so it used spatial distortion, false position, and delayed sword cuts to interfere with his senses.