The battlefield was in ruins.
What once was a lush forest teeming with life had now become a graveyard of broken terrain. Mountains were torn in half. Rivers had changed course. Flames, ice, and smoldering debris littered the land, creating a patchwork of destruction that stretched for miles. {A/N: This Ice and flames were caused by an overload of mana during the battle}
And yet, the battle was not over.
Xandros stood calmly in the middle of the chaos, his breathing even, his expression relaxed. His lip curled up ever so slightly.
In front of him, the three King-class beasts still stood, though barely.
The rhinobear panted heavily, its fur burnt and matted with blood. The red gorilla's right arm hung limp, shattered beyond recognition. The serpent's scales were cracked and twitching, poison leaking from its split fangs.
They were strong. Strong enough to push the average genius to their limits.
But to Xandros… this had just been foreplay.
"Let's end this on a high note, shall we?" he said, twirling his staff in the air.
The staff hovered behind him again, waiting like a loyal guardian as Xandros stepped forward and vanished in a blur. He reappeared above the serpent, driving his heel down into its skull with a thunderous impact. A second later, he rotated mid-air and delivered a spinning kick to the gorilla's jaw, sending it flying into a jagged outcrop.
He turned before he landed, grabbing the hilt of his staff mid-spin, and hurled it with frightening speed at the rhinobear. The staff expanded mid-flight, growing long enough to impale through the beast's shoulder and pin it to a mountain wall.
"Still standing…" Xandros said, stretching his neck. "You're more durable than expected. I'll give you that."
The beasts roared in rage. Their killer instincts pushed them forward, charging in unison one last time, determined to take him down no matter the cost.
But that was the end of the fun.
Xandros's eyes narrowed.
And then he commanded internally—"Activate: Omni-Eye."
A golden ripple pulsed from his forehead, and in the next instant, his right eye transformed, its pupil a golden sword.
A halo of radiant, shifting energy circled his iris, which now resembled a clockwork mechanism of shifting runes and spinning geometries. Time and space themselves seemed to bend around him.
The moment the eye was activated, reality cracked.
The sky warped.
And then—A domain formed.
WHOOOOOOM!
The three beasts froze mid-charge as the ground beneath them twisted, the space around them folding like a distorted mirror. Everything outside the domain faded into a surreal blur. The winds fell silent. Even the sound of their breaths vanished.
Inside the domain, only Xandros reigned.
Floating in the air, his body exuded a power that eclipsed logic. Runes spiraled from the Omni-Eye, forming constellations around his body. The very laws of nature had bent to his will.
The instructors watching from their spire gasped.
"He's created a pocket space—no, it's more than that. This is… a dimensional lock!" one exclaimed.
Velasquez stood frozen. "That's not just space magic. That's authority. That's Divine-tier mastery. Wtf, how does a participant have this? Is this even legal?."
Morgana's eyes widened. She didn't even try to hide her reaction this time.
"…He was never a participant," she muttered. "He's the final test."
In the forest, Jason dropped his ration bar mid-bite.
Ronald was getting dizzy.
Andrew was scared out of his wits. If this monster found out he had plotted to use him as a meat shield, he would die.
Back in the domain, Xandros raised his hand gently, as if conducting an orchestra.
"Elemental Manipulation: Divine Lightning."
The clouds outside the domain darkened as if answering a divine summons. Thunder rumbled. Static surged through the air.
The beasts screamed in protest, but they could not move. Space around them had twisted so severely that escape was impossible. Their limbs felt like they weighed a thousand tons. The domain had become their cage—and their coffin.
From the heavens, a rift formed.
The sky split apart like paper being torn, revealing a vortex of pure celestial lightning swirling within.
Xandros pointed upward.
A single, massive bolt of lightning, thick as a mountain, howled down from the sky.
KRAKKA-BOOOOOOM!!!
It wasn't just lightning. It was divine judgment—an attack infused with so much elemental force and spatial collapse that even the light from it came slower than the sound. The bolt struck all three beasts simultaneously, obliterating them in a flash of pure white.
Their screams were snuffed out instantly. There was no explosion. No shockwave.
Only silence.
And then—ash.
Nothing remained of the beasts. Not bone. Not blood. Not soul.
They had been erased.
Xandros hovered mid-air, his arms folded behind him.
Above his head, a golden crown materialized, spinning gently.
It wasn't an artifact. It wasn't a construct. It was symbolic—a crown of divine acknowledgment, formed from the very energy of the world that had witnessed his might.
The instructors watched in stunned silence.
Velasquez whispered, "That crown… the power it's radiating. It's unreal
"Who is this man?" someone asked in awe.
The host of the assessment remained still. His face cracked slightly into a frown, though whether from surprise or another reason, no one could tell.
He spoke only one word.
"…Impossible."
Back on the battlefield, the domain began to fade.
The twisted sky uncoiled. The scorched ground cooled. Nature tried, hesitantly, to reclaim its space.
Xandros descended slowly, his feet touching the ground.
Jason, who had managed to stay conscious, stumbled toward him with wide eyes. "Bro… I think I just saw God."
Xandros raised an eyebrow. "Did he look good?"
Jason blinked. "He looked exactly like you, dude."
Behind them, Morgana arrived with a whoosh of wind, her gaze unreadable. She scanned the devastation, then looked at Xandros with a calm, assessing expression.
"You're not from the Celestial Continent, are you?" she asked.
"Nope," Xandros replied, twirling his staff before it shrunk into a tiny pin that slipped into his sleeve. "I'm just passing through."
Jason whispered, "Passing through? You nuked half the continent, my guy."
Ronald finally calmed himself, he looked at Xandros with fear. He still remembered the lightning bolt that hit him, too.
Andrew ran immediately after the battle ended.
In the spire, the central monitors began flashing red.
A robotic voice rang out through every viewing room, across the forest, and to all participants:
"Warning: Assessment has been completed due to unforeseen circumstances."
"Assessment terminated. All participants are to evacuate immediately."
A moment of silence passed.
And then, with a lazy smile, Xandros stretched and yawned.
"Now that was fun."
--- ✦ ---
So, guys, how was the fight? He had a lot of skills, I had to pick the most versatile ones in combat. Hope you guys enjoyed it.
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