I activate my new ranked-up buff, the [Divine Elemental's Astral Form], and feel a very strange energy vibrate out from my True Core. At first, it feels like pure mana, as if I'm just activating a normal system skill, but the artificial feeling of a True Core's ability triggers in my mind. By the time a yellow aura begins to grow outward, making another figure expand larger than my Greater Form, it feels extremely natural, like my divine energy is tethering with the mana manifestation and replacing it entirely. If I wasn't completely focused on the silver sword above me, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the mana particles being activated and the divine energy that is melting together with it. Ember grows larger as well, both of us expanding many times our original size before making contact with the silver blade that falls down on us. My energy form grows to over 150 meters tall, making my sword alone near the size of a sports field. I brace for a mind-bending pressure to vibrate through my bones again, pouring every drop of power into this buff, feeling as though there is no end to the expansion it's allowing. I would have grown even larger if there wasn't a time constraint of having to block the falling sword. However, on impact, it doesn't even feel heavy at all... Before I know it, the second blade comes crashing down, then the third, and the fourth as well. My intense concentration is broken out of shock at how easy this block was, but it doesn't even matter; all four blades combined don't even stack up to the pressure I felt in the first round. As silver text for the 5th round and an ancient voice ring in my ears with far more clarity than before, I shake myself out of the awe of the new form and continue pouring every drop of mana and divine threads I have into it. The five silver blades come crashing down on us one by one, and my Flaming Yellow Astral Form reaches over 200 meters in height. The blades that collide with my crimson-glowing Astral Soul Sword definitely hold weight this time, but it still feels like something I'd receive in a friendly spar. Ember's eyes are as serious as they were in the third round when we were almost crushed to death, and when this round finishes and the 6th begins, his bright yellow Astral Claws start to shimmer with silver light. My body becomes over 250 meters tall, and at this point, I can feel the growth begin to slow. The excess divine aura radiating off of me feels as if it's constrained within this small room, as none of my yellow threads can seep out of the black walls. It reminds me of the green serpent I saw in the sky of celia's construct, as its aura stretched thousands of kilometers. Ember even said it would be limited in a room . With the amount of power surging through me now, it's hard to believe this is still somehow an incomplete version of this Astral Form. That, coupled with the fact that the mere availability of my True Core's threads is also holding me back. I feel as though I could grow this form to an astronomical size, with no natural limit at all given enough divine energy and space to push my aura outward. As the three silver blades on each side of the demon fall down on us, I activate my hexagonal barrier this time around, as Ember isn't taking any chances either. It withstands the first four blades but is shattered by the fifth, and once I take the full impact of the sixth blade, with Ember even sending a wave of flames from his Astral mouth, the true weight of the Demonic Statue is felt throughout my body. I've reached an absurd amount of power, and am certain I'm at my limit. The blades pushing down on me are manageable, and I don't feel as though I won't block this attack, but I do have to use my full focus and push upward with considerable strength. If I didn't block the blow with a defensive array beforehand, I would be sweating. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. The countdown commences, and the six silver blades disappear. This is when the true gravity of the situation kicks in, as there are three rounds to go... The 7th round comes and goes, and it is even worse than I expected. While pushing upward with everything I have, the second of seven swords breaks through my defense array, and myself and the 250-meter-long glowing silver and yellow dragon take a beating from seven massive blades. I feel my links of loyalty surpass 19 million while the countdown begins. My mind is elsewhere, but a new surge in power is noticeable as an abnormally high amount of links come rushing in from somewhere. All new and old eyes stare through mine, looking past the seven silver swords at the two remaining dormant and the three silver eyes staring down at me. "Send your location," is all that is heard back, and soon after, two flashes of white light blink through the sky to a base 200 kilometers away from the capital. While my fight with Redgrave battled on and the Trials began, Rodrigo and Bri find themselves teleporting into an old underground headquarters in the middle of the Central Headquarters mountain built far before the divine flames were made around the mountain. Neither of them wastes time and breaks through the ceiling upward many floors before they find themselves in one of the many Central Association branches full of C- and B-Grade hunters. Normal intruder protocol is followed, but there are barely any elite forces present in Central at the moment. Almost every single divine core holder, minus a small select few red and orange cores to man widespread security, has left the world capital to fight in the Dark Continent. The duo, wielding light magic and mana control that far surpasses anyone on this entire mountain, subjugates everyone in their way until they reach the control rooms and people in charge of large-scale public transmissions. Mass confusion ripples throughout the city, as one of the ten Local Sectors seems to have had their transmission cables breached and a message sent out to millions of civilians in a populated area. Then 9 other branches that keep the Central Headquarters in line send troops toward this headquarters, flying through the skies the instant this message is sounded; and the few remaining divine cores in the city that actually know what is going on today instantly move out to stop this security breach from spreading further.