Chapter 212: Problem
Hmph!"
The female wrestler's face twisted in an arrogant sneer as she watched her opponent stand his ground, not retreating in the slightest.
She poured even more spiritual energy into the strike, creating a gale that pushed the surrounding air outward, generating a sonic boom before the punch even landed.
This single, terrifying punch carried enough sheer kinetic force to level a reinforced hill, yet Meng simply watched it coming, completely unfazed.
Then, just as the strike made physical contact, his entire figure violently changed form in the space of a single breath.
The densely packed flesh and bone that made up his physical body suddenly dissolved, dispersing outward in a chaotic blast of air.
His loose white monk clothes fluttered wildly, but the female warrior's fist passed straight through where his chest had been moments before.
There was zero resistance.
There was no physical impact.
There was absolutely nothing there but a cold breeze.
The muscular woman's vertical pupils immediately widened to their limits in absolute shock.
She knew full well that absolutely no Demi-god standing in this hall was a pushover.
At this elite level, there were simply no truly weak individuals left, only stronger and even stronger versions of Demi-gods.
Every single person standing in theGreat Hall had survived enough brutal border wars to earn their prestigious position here.
But Meng's newly acquired class was fundamentally different from anything she had ever encountered before.
How could any physical martial artist realistically fight a pure elemental entity that they logically couldn't touch?
And more importantly, how could they possibly survive fighting against that very same entity when it still possessed the power to touch and hurt them in return?
"Hey."
Meng's perfectly calm, carefree voice suddenly drifted from directly behind her exposed right shoulder.
The giant woman barely had enough time to react or try to turn her heavy body around.
A single, rapidly materializing section of a solid human arm, clad in white cloth, suddenly formed from the surrounding, swirling wind.
"Look right here."
Boom!
His solid fist slammed directly into her vulnerable lower ribs with a sound like a heavy boulder striking metal.
The concentrated force of the strike ruthlessly tore through her dense passive defenses and shattered the inner core of her strength.
Her glowing vertical eyes immediately went dull white.
A torrent of dark, thick blood erupted from her gaping mouth as her massive, heavy body was violently thrown backward by the raw kinetic impact.
She tumbled ungracefully across the stone platform before finally stopping near its very edge, unconscious.
The entireGreat Hall became perfectly silent, the cheering crowd completely paralyzed by the sudden, brutal display of overwhelming dominance.
Meng's solid arm smoothly dissolved back into its native wind form as he stood calmly in his starting position.
It was indeed hard enough for any warrior to fight something that their attacks physical pass through, completely unable to touch.
It was even harder when that same untouchable thing could suddenly solidify at will and deliver a punch capable of shattering a standard Demi-god.
"Air Nomad."
Ulric watched the brief, brutal battle with an incredibly complicated, almost concerned expression on his wrinkled face.
"You know, even now, we in the military council still can't get the full gist of that bizarre class."
Meng and Ethen were officially the two chosen talents representing the ancient Dawn faction this fiscal year.
But casually calling them "talented" was beginning to feel like a massive, insultingly weak understatement.
These two young men were more like the discoveries of the entire decade, a literal generational shift in power.
It hadn't even been a single full calendar year since they first entered the Bastion, completely unknown and unproven.
Yet both had already successfully reached the fully realized, S-Ranked Demi-god realm in record time.
They were now competing for the absolute highest position of the younger generation, facing against people who had been years ahead of them in cultivation.
And somehow, against all logic, they had already completely caught up to them.
No, it was far worse than that.
The terrifying reality was that these two newcomers had already completely, utterly surpassed the established elite.
"It'll be hard to beat…"
Ethen simply smirked to himself, watching his friend's performance with genuine, relaxed enjoyment.
He knew exactly what it took to obtain a fully realized, S-Ranked class, especially for a summoner type.
The gruesome Cosmic Tyrant class had nearly driven him completely insane with the requirements surrounding its immediate acquisition.
Whatever grueling ritual or sacrifice Meng had gone through to obtain his own rare class couldn't have been easy either.
Then, a sudden, completely different thought crossed Ethen's active mind.
How exactly does someone actually become a summoner in this world?
There was no class requirement required, and no special bloodline needed, as far as he could tell.
There were no known complex rituals or specific conditions.
As far as Ethen knew, becoming a fully realized summoner simply required praying sincerely to Karth.
That simple fact alone was incredibly strange and unsettling when he really thought about it.
He had never once bothered to question how the divine process actually worked, assuming it was just how things were.
Perhaps he would eventually try to ask someone how the pact was officially sealed.
"Meng, the Air Nomad. The obvious Winner!"
The senior referee's voice quickly brought Ethen back to his immediate reality on the hall's floor.
With a single, effortless blow, Meng had already physically blasted his veteran opponent completely out of the arena bounds.
"Is there anyone else?"
Meng smiled brightly, maintaining his friendly, carefree expression as he casually looked down at the crowd.
Only a few short months ago, many of the very same people standing in this Great Hall had been his trusted seniors.
Now, they couldn't even bring themselves to meet his friendly, golden gaze, much less challenge him.
Absolutely nobody in the room stepped forward to challenge his new position.
Some of the Demi-gods near the front even subtly, nervously moved backward when they saw him look their way.
Ethen frowned, his dark eyebrows narrowing as he observed the crowd's reaction.
"What's going on?" He murmured quietly, sensing a massive shift.
He turned toward Ulric, waiting for an explanation.
The mass retreat of the established, battle-hardened Demi-gods was incredibly strange.
Did nobody in this place actually want the prestigious position of a faction's youth leader?
"Blazing Star has already chosen a new youth leader for the Ascendant faction," Ulric explained, his smile deeply bitter.
Seeing the genuine, unbothered confusion on Ethen's face, he continued.
"You might not follow the inner politics, but Falcon is already the designated youth leader of our Dawn faction."
Ethen's dark eyes lazily shifted toward the beautiful, icy young woman dressed in white sitting proudly beside Blazing Star.
"And to successfully succeed the former leader and take the position, you must take a single strike from the newly ascended faction leader without dying."
The exact moment those serious words landed in Ethen's ears, his relaxed expression completely darkened with intense hostility.
Falcon didn't like him, and she hadn't made any secret of her feelings in the past weeks.
That obvious fact was as clear as day.
And everyone in the hall knew that Meng was his only true friend and ally in the Bastion.
From the outside, simple, purely political minds might think Meng refusing to participate here could look like he was simply giving Falcon face.
But how would a vindictive, arrogant person like Falcon interpret the situation?
She could easily, effortlessly interpret it very, very differently, turning a gesture into an insult.
She might very well see his friendly smile as a mocking insult aimed at her authority, or as an act of hidden defiance from Ethen.
"But Meng can handle himself against her, no?"
Ethen genuinely, honestly didn't understand the sudden, massive concern radiating from the older man.
Meng's brand-new ability to turn himself completely into the formless wind was the ultimate, absolute, and undeniable defense.
Even Ethen himself, with his massive Tyrant output, wasn't entirely sure he could actually physical hurt him in that form.
"Not necessarily," Ulric's face became incredibly serious, all hints of warmth vanishing.
"The nature of Angelic powers is fundamentally strange, human; they are completely different from a Demi-god's raw output."
"They usually have something directly to do with the physical authority, their conceptual domain, or an associated abstract concept of their associated God."
Ethen frowned, processing this vital information for the first time.
That made logical sense.
The difference between a fully formed Demi-god and a high-ranking Angel wasn't simply a matter of possessing slightly more energy reserves or raw power output.
Angels began fundamentally touching and manifesting complex, abstract concepts in the mortal world.
Their powers became fundamentally, terrifyingly different and unpredictable in battle.
Ulric glanced worriedly toward Falcon, who was watching Meng with a passive, bored expression.
"I can legally step in and stop her physically if things go entirely too far and she attempts to kill him," He murmured, his tone hesitant.
"But she's a newly ascended Angel, legally recognized by the World's Will. Undermining her authority publicly in front of everyone in the hall won't be taken well by the military council."
Then, he let out a long, heavy sigh and reached into his spatial storage space with his free hand.
"Here, just in case."
He pulled out an intricately carved, heavy cane sword and casually tossed it directly toward Ethen.
Ethen caught the unexpected weapon cleanly out of the air.
"What's this for?"
"For if she genuinely goes overboard with the conceptual strike."
Before Ethen could open his mouth to ask another question, Ulric's physical figure completely vanished.
"Seriously?"
Ethen looked at the cane sword resting in his hand, feeling a strange weight on his shoulders.
Then, he looked directly toward the platform, his senses preternaturally sharp.
"Congratulations, my friend."
Falcon smiled warmly from the upper helm, standing up slowly.
"I truly, sincerely look forward to your strong leadership of our young generation."
She was seated casually beside Blazing Star, appearing to the outside world as a perfectly harmless, supportive sister-in-arms.
Her polite facial expression looked perfectly friendly on the surface.
Entirely too friendly to be true.
Ethen narrowed his dark eyes, his newly acquired Tyrant's Gaze passively analyzing her spiritual flow.
Then, completely suddenly, a violent, blinding eruption of pure white light exploded outward from her physical body.
The massive Great Hall brightened significantly, blinding several of the ordinary observers.
A single, terrifying, suffocating conceptual pressure immediately descended upon the entire area of the arena platform, ignoring everyone else in the hall.
Meng's usually carefree expression instantly changed, becoming serious and intensely focused.
The conceptual strike she was preparing was indeed real and deadly, that much was obvious from the density of the auras.
But a test of succession was also legally ceremonial, designed to push, not crush.
At least, that was what he had been told by previous victors; nothing serious.
Nothing was ever intended to actually kill the candidate.
Just enough to prove with absolute mathematical certainty that he was truly worthy of becoming the new youth leader.
Yet the exact moment the localized concept of her power physical touched his body, his absolute primal instinct took over completely.
His entire human figure instantly dissolved, breaking apart under the pressure.
Swirling wind spread throughout the entire arena platform in a panicked, chaotic pattern of evasion.
His passive, defensive class skill, [Formless], was violently activated instantly to repel the conceptual attack.
And then—
The surrounding air, the hall's floor, the very light of the Bastion, all simultaneously froze solid.
[You are now in the presence of an active God Almighty.]
Meng's wind form violently trembled throughout the arena, unable to maintain its form against the absolute pressure.
Ethen's dark pupils wildly contracted as his heartbeat violently pounded in his ears.
Something was incredibly, catastrophically, and unmistakably wrong.
This crushing, world-ending pressure descending upon the hall wasn't simply an Angel showcasing her new power.
The weight pressing down upon them was far beyond anything a newly advanced Angel should have ever been capable of producing.
Before the immediate situation could spiral any further, three figures suddenly appeared completely silently in the exact center of the Great Hall.
The violent white conceptual light of Falcon's strike simply vanished into the ether.
The suffocating conceptual pressure completely disappeared from the hall's atmosphere, instantly restoring normalcy to the air.
Absolutely everyone in the Great Hall, including the massive crowd, the elite Demi-gods, and even the Angels, completely froze in absolute terror and shock.
"We have a very serious problem."
The legendary man standing at the very front of the three newcomers looked around the Great Hall with a deeply tired expression.
His mere physical presence was enough to command absolute obedience.
"Absolutely everyone in the hall, sit down immediately." He commanded, his calm voice echoing loudly.
Ethen's dark eyes instantly widened to their full, contracting limits as he recognized the central figure.
He had personally seen this legendary man countless times before, but only inside the highest level of the pyramid, behind heavy, locked doors.
This was officially the very first time he had ever seen him physically outside his divine chambers.
"Karth…"
The absolute King of the entire Spirit World.
The ultimate, undisputed God of all Summoner.
And one of the absolute most terrifying, powerful, and mysterious beings currently in existence had personally, physically appeared in the Bastion's Great Hall.