Chapter 264: Big Bang

Arafat swung a fist low, aimed at Jacob’s abdomen. The dark-skinned man’s elbow glowed with flickers of white light, suggesting that his punch was propelled forward to hit hard against the young man.

Jacob blocked with his palm.

BOOM!

There was a loud-sounding impact that tore through the gravitational expanse, causing the entire planet of Mars below them to shatter into pieces of rubble. Both men floated in the air now. Jacob grabbed Arafat by the sides of his neck with both hands and headbutted him. Another resounding impact echoed through space.

There were planets all around them. Somehow, the people watching were still able to visually follow them as they crash-landed into a dozen planets, destroying about four during their clash.

Neither of the men were bleeding, sweating, or showed any signs of slowing down. Arafat could be injured, as Jacob saw after many hits, but the man had Endless Regeneration, so his injuries were gone before they could even be properly perceived.

The two men kept going at it, punch after punch. Arafat dodged, Jacob blocked. The dark-skinned man kicked upwards, and Jacob merely moved his face to the side, pushed Arafat’s foot away, and landed a sharp hit against his chest with a loose elbow.

Arafat flew across space a couple hundred meters, but Jacob was already at his destination with another blow loaded up. The punch collided painfully with Arafat’s jaw, smashing it on impact.

POW!

The man flew into Saturn, crashing the rings into pieces and creating a man-sized hole in the middle of the planet, which then caused the planet to implode from within and break into a million tiny pieces.

Jacob had avoided Earth the entire time. Before he could even get to where Arafat was, the man was already healed. Jacob tried to punch but was blocked. Arafat grabbed the young man by the neck and pushed him through a field of asteroids. Jacob’s back slammed into large boulders of hard rock.

Granted, he did not feel anything, but he still refused to have Arafat touch him again. Both men floated a reasonable distance from each other now, both still with glints in their eyes, clearly enjoying the battle.

They had torn through half of the solar system with their bodies. But neither of them looked damaged in any way.

“You fight well, Jacob Ironfell,” Arafat yelled after a moment of silence.

“So do you, Arafat Zandross.”

“If you survive, come to Dysporia sometime. I will hold a feast in your honor.” Arafat smiled.

“How do I know it’s not a trap?” Jacob raised a brow and slicked his hair backwards, feeling its brush against the nape of his neck.

“Us Dysporians are not honorless. We do not scheme evil, nor bite the hands of those who have gained our favor. And as the leader of Dysporia… you, Jacob Ironfell, have gained my favor. I pronounce you the strongest warrior I’ve ever had the honor of facing.” Arafat held his right hand out towards Jacob as though he were making a declaration. “But I’m afraid we have to end the battle here.”

…

Arafat had a special skill called Endless Prison. This was a skill that activated on anybody that Arafat had ever touched. It was a skill that would place someone in a mental state of any endless state of Arafat’s choosing.

It could be bliss, it could be pleasure, and it could be unbridled suffering. Arafat was the only one who got to choose. In this case, he would place Jacob in endless torture, which would render his body completely useless and cause him to forfeit the battle by default.

It was a fair victory, judging by the display that the two of them had just put up.

Arafat’s eyes glowed deeper, his hair glowed as well, floating majestically in the air. The man suddenly began to do hand signs, putting his hands together, then crossing his index and middle fingers.

After the entire sequence, the man merely spread his arms outward.

The next thing Jacob saw was that he was in a room, chained to a wall. There were a bunch of tools laid out on a wooden table, tools obviously used for physical torture.

Jacob looked down, and he discovered that he was completely naked. He merely smiled. The vision did not even last about two seconds when he said to himself, in his mind:

‘Your skill does not work on me.’

Arafat had already lunged himself at Jacob to deliver a final blow when he immediately caught a glimpse of glowing white chains shattering into motes of light around Jacob. But it was too late by then.

Arafat flew right into Jacob’s iron grip, and Jacob opened his eyes. His white lashes fluttered powerfully as his pupils glowed blue and gold.

“I cannot be trapped, but your affinity can be destroyed by the sun,” Jacob said.

“Wha-What? How d-did you escape my Endless Prison? The sun! What is it that you speak of?”

Just above them, heat began to intensify. A small ball of fire formed and eventually increased in size endlessly. This small ball of fire, in less than three seconds, had grown to mimic the exact same size of the sun.

“You will not die, but you will be rendered powerless against me,” Jacob declared.

Then, immediately, he launched the man into the large sun that now burned directly above them. Arafat flew up rather helplessly and crashed back-first into the burning heat of the sun.

“Aaaaahghhhhhh!!!”

The pain was excruciating. Arafat yelled as his affinity for endlessness tried its best to keep up with the rate at which his body was burning, but this was no ordinary sun.

The sun was not just burning his skin. It was sapping away every single strain of his affinity and energy.

By the time Jacob felt like the man had had enough, he snapped his fingers, and the sun vanished into thin air. Arafat’s body was left floating in the vast expanse of space. It was completely healed, but there was burning smoke exuding from this man’s body.

“When you’re ready, invite me. I’ll be there,” Jacob said as he watched the man’s body float away, completely passed out from the enormous amount of pain he felt.

…

Jacob looked around and saw the amount of damage he and Arafat had caused in Earth’s solar system, the amount of death that had occurred as they smashed through planets. In the end, he had used his Grand Authority to defeat the man, but Grand Authority was not a power meant only for destruction. Just like the Dao of Creation and Oblivion, it was one to be used as deemed fit.

Jacob decided that he would do some good with the power, and therefore, he willed that everything would return back to the way it was before the battle began.

He did not have to say anything. He merely just thought it. Planets began to heal immediately, reform, and grow. Pieces of rubble that were scattered in space began to fall back in place like they had never left, and every tear began to heal.

Before long, the solar system looked as it did before they got there. New races and creatures were even formed by Jacob to cohabit on each of these planets. Jacob had not just healed that universe; he had expanded it, like a god looking down on the world.

Jacob chuckled inwardly because he just realized how he had done something similar to the Big Bang. The expansion of the universe.

The only thing out of place was Arafat’s body floating, but he only knew it was a matter of time before the hospital Meereens came and took him.

…

His battle was finally over. It was time to advance to the next round. A portal opened before him, and he floated through it mindlessly. He hadn’t even put a single thought behind anything; he had just expanded a universe.

He knew that somewhere in this Tower, there was someone who could do just about the same thing.

But even if he were to meet someone like that, the person would not have what he had: Luck.

Jacob was not joined by Uga. The only time he would be joined by Uga would be when he had decided to stop fighting for the day.

Jacob advanced, round after round that day, defeating everyone he met with practiced ease. Now, he had stepped onto the 78th floor. The entire space was pitch black.

It resembled his astral projections to his grandfather a few years ago, only this time, he was to have a deadly battle in this darkness.

Jacob immediately got in a lotus position and closed his eyes with everyone watching. They did not understand why the man would all of a sudden start cultivating in the middle, or at the start, of a battle.

But Jacob was not cultivating.

In less than a few seconds, a bright light spread from him to the entirety of the space, causing the dark expanse to immediately be washed white…