If anyone thought that Supreme Pillar heirs would be having an honourable duel when they ran across each other and chose to partake in hostilities, then they could only be described as a hopelessly delusional romantic.
Although Theodore and Eleanora couldn't truly be considered close and wouldn't be leaving their backs wide open to each other, they would still not shy away from ganging up on someone who had attacked them and could pose a threat to them.
Originally, Vigdis and Cheong Suhyeon should have retreated already, but the two of them insisted on running interference from the sidelines, confident in at least managing to be a nuisance. 'Dying' was something which they had long since anticipated before coming here, therefore they didn't consider it a real loss.
Currently, Theodore's Standard Attributes were about two thirds of Eleanora's, and around one third of Sverre's. Worst of all, he was unable to properly utilize Energy, unlike his peers. If it wasn't for plenty of situational trump cards that he was keeping, he wouldn't dare to stick his neck out with confidence right now.
Prior to teleporting the trio here, he had begun to focus primarily on the Energy constantly created by the innumerable Energy Veins within him. After such a long time of being in a state like this, as someone who could manipulate Energy as if breathing in the past, he had figured out a couple of tricks–now, it was a good opportunity to show a few them off!
First, he allowed his entire body to become suffused with far more Energy than normal, to the point where even his extremely high Endurance was put to the test. This allowed him to further reinforce himself–and not by a small margin! All of his Standard Attributes approximately doubled while he was in this state, although he couldn't keep it up forever, because he had to section off a portion of his mind which would focus on manually maintaining its operations.
The sudden increase in power obviously couldn't escape the eyes of the others, who sent a plethora of different looks his way. Vigdis and Cheong Suhyeon were naturally relieved, whilst Eleanora didn't show any particular emotion–Sverre, however, grew a bit more serious.
Without a word, the Úlfr Family descendant shot towards him at his fastest speed, his arms shrouded in Energy fashioned into dark red vortexes. They looked simple on the surface, and his punch appeared like a mere probing blow–yet Theodore felt an even more suffocating danger than earlier.
'He likely already guessed how to circumvent my Absolute Reflection Talent and has reinforced his attack with a considerably high-grade Talent of his. But let's see if he can make it through both!'
Dodging slightly so that the approaching vortex would only hit his shoulder, he allowed Sverre's attack to land on him–and it did. Kind of. At first, it was even further deflected, to the point where it would at best merely scratch Theodore's skin. Then, it left a tiny mark, before most of the force of the attack was reflected towards Sverre's arm, causing it to be almost ripped off. Yet, what should have been a significant injury began to heal nigh instantly.
Furrowing his brows, Sverre glanced between his arm and the amused grin on his adversary's lips, feeling a headache coming on. It wasn't that he couldn't hit any harder or utilize even higher-grade Talents–yet he feared that the backlash from doing so might obliterate his fighting power for a while.
'Screw it, I'll save this one for last!'
Instead of chewing on the most annoying, thorny bone first, he turned to face Eleanora, who seemed to have patiently waited for this initial blow to be exchanged, gauging both of their prowess from the side. But when he arrived in front of her, now shrouded in the image of a World-destroying Red-maned Celestial Wolf, he felt an extreme threat out of nowhere.
Accompanied by a slight smirk on her lips, a previously non-existent volcano erupted from underneath, the lava spewing out of it having been reshaped into spears and enhanced with her Energy, all honing in on him. Every single direction had been sealed off–he would have to face this attack no matter what!
'Insignificant tricks! But well played, it was really too obvious that I'd target her next.'
Snorting derisively, he fused with the image that had surrounded him, temporarily transforming into a true Celestial Wolf, his power rising rapidly–Theodore wasn't the only one who could rely on buffs of this sort.
With a brutal howl, he rushed straight towards the weakest link of his encirclement, much of his skin and mane getting burned or even turned into charcoal as a result. However, shortly after his successful escape, he would have recovered, therefore it wasn't a big deal.
Or it shouldn't have been. At that moment, three more attacks had zeroed in on him. Two of them were significantly weaker than the last, yet they were still surprisingly threatening. One was an angelic moon-shaped crescent blade carrying an outrageous power of faith, and the other was a drill created out of pure Energy, strengthened with a heavy aura of metal. On their own, and under normal circumstances, these wouldn't do much more than scratch him, but he was already injured and incapable of dodging further.
Lastly, there was Theodore, who relied on a good, old-fashioned punch aimed straight at his face. But worst of all, he had somehow managed to wrap his entire body in an extremely dense layer of pure Energy. It should have long since dispersed, yet it was attached to him as if it was a thick coating of armour.
'Wait, how did he grow stronger again!? Wasn't he already at his limi–'
Before Sverre could do much more than widen his eyes, Theodore appeared in front of him at an incomprehensible speed, as if he had teleported. Then, he let his blow's full force bear down upon Sverre's nose, which shattered and was pushed into his skull as a result. Fortunately, they didn't significantly rely on their brains any longer at their stage, therefore this was nothing more than a humiliating flesh wound.
'Scratch that, he definitely teleported! So annoying!'
Moving slightly so that Vigdis' and Cheong Suhyeon's attacks only served to harm him a little, he wanted to gather his breath and recover for a bit. But then he realized that more of these weaker attacks were already on the way, forcing him to repeatedly alter his position.
Mere moments later, Eleanora's next scorching means had found their way to him, and then Theodore awaited him once more at the point of his breakthrough. While being pestered by the two small fries, the two Supreme Pillar heirs kept him in a spiral of increasing injuries, never giving him an opportunity to meaningfully heal.
No matter what tactics he tried, they had easily anticipated his movements beforehand, and always awaited him wherever he went. Even hoping for a swift getaway was a luxury. This cycle repeated for thousands of times within a couple of seconds, until Sverre was finally forced to fall back on more serious means.
'Good, then I'll simply take you down with me! Heh, if we all lose, then I can still be considered to have beaten you two.'
Not letting the spark of insanity that had overcome him show, he allowed a couple more cycles to play out, preparing for his counterattack all the while. Then, right as Theodore and his two cronies had just begun their next round of attacks, Sverre gave up all resistance. Their blows landed, injuring him a lot more than before–if he had been a regular person, these alone would have been fatal.
"I won't lose round two."
Having grabbed Theodore's arm tightly, not allowing him to free himself or teleport away, a bloody grin spread across his lips. He was certain that what had already been triggered would cost all of them their single use life-saving items.
'Oh shit! What a waste!'
Due to his connection to the worldwide Array, Theodore noticed what was happening first, his face a mask of utter shock and annoyance. The entire world had begun to shudder, as from deep within the Energy Vein network, previously hidden 'packets' of Energy began to emerge. They blossomed into Red-maned Celestial Wolves far larger than Sverre and started to devour and rip apart everything in their surroundings.
While his current peak strength was not all too powerful, he had accumulated a lot of surplus Energy over the past few months, storing it in secret so that it might transform into these World-Devouring Avatars should he need to play this card.
They only had one downside: Once they were triggered, in his present state, he couldn't control them. Therefore, if he merely activated one of them, then even if it appeared in the centre of his battlefield, it might not choose to attack his foe first. As a result, he decided to simply flip the board!
When Eleanora realized what was going on, her expression darkened a little, then she dashed to the closest location with high enough Energy Vein density and attempted to teleport to another world. However, it felt as if the Longxin State had been cut off from the outside–and not by Theodore this time.
"... bastard!"
Angrily muttering underneath her breath, she joined him, Vigdis and Cheong Suhyeon in crazily injuring Sverre's body, but he simply cackled like a madman and ignored the ever-increasing wounds.
"Ahaha–cough–haha!"
Dozens of seconds flew by, but they hadn't managed to kill him–he was too durable, had no real vital spots, and they were currently far weaker than him. At the same time, a large portion of the Longxin State had already been devoured, letting Theodore once more experience the sight of an entire world being ripped to shreds. The Lesser True Void was creeping in all around, with their current location being one of very few leftover 'safe havens'.
"Cough, cough!! Bye-bye, suckers!"
With barely a third of his teeth remaining, Sverre activated his own item, a ring, and disappeared from the spot, leaving the four behind in a doomed world fragment.
"... we'll go first."
All of a sudden, the frantic expressions on everyone's faces melted away and a calm returned. Cheong Suhyeon thrust her hand into Vigdis' chest, who didn't bother to put up any defence. With a relaxed smile, she allowed her heart to shatter, then disappeared from the spot. The moment after, her 'murderer' vanished, in her previous position now a piously praying old man.
"Oh goddess, I thank you for this opportunity to prove my faith! My soul shall never falter, and will eventually make it to your celestial halls!"
Mumbling words like these over and over again, he ignored the encroaching void and remained rooted on the spot, his devotion never faltering. Naturally, both of the Supreme Pillar heirs ignored him.
"Ladies first~"
Smiling and bowing slightly, Theodore pointed invitingly at the Lesser True Void rapidly approaching them, motioning for Eleanora to get on with her escape act already. He was met with an amused smirk and a slight nod.
"Far be it from me to deprive you of the honour of being a gentleman. Let's have tea sometime~"
Gracefully strolling straight into what would mark almost anyone's death, she departed from here. Right after entering the void, now in a spot that Theodore couldn't see, her clone transformed into a gentle glow, which hurried on towards the Gulong State, utterly unbothered by its surroundings.
'... an entire world's population, wasted... oh well. At least that Úlfr used his item. It's a worthwhile trade.'
Sighing helplessly for a bit, Theodore grew far more serious than before during their battle, wrapping himself in an ever-increasing amount of Energy. It was ridiculously difficult for both his mind and body to bear the strain–although the former had a far easier time than the latter.
When the Lesser True Void finally swallowed the last fragments of the world–alongside the wolf avatars who had been frantically gorging themselves all this while–it had reached a thickness of dozens of meters!
Knowing that he didn't have a lot of time, and feeling every cell of his body threatening to tear apart, he utilized his Energy 'armour' to momentarily resist the void. At the same time, he channelled whatever else he could muster into an Array Disk which he had at hand. Now that the cage was gone, he could teleport once again.
The only downside of doing this was that it took a little bit of time. But in his current state, even lasting a few seconds would put his life at risk! Feeling his body gradually break down, he frantically repaired his rapidly dwindling Energy 'armour'.
After four long seconds which felt like centuries, the Teleportation Array finally activated.