Chapter 427: Primord vs. Divine Tortoise

Maverick and Stygian watched from the far end of the colosseum, both already partially transformed, stone plating along Maverick’s arms and back, and Stygian’s three heads wreathed in flickering purple flames to withstand the pressure.

Because Ethan and Galeno’s mock battle wasn’t something ordinary beings could simply observe.

The ground trembled constantly under their feet, each exchange sending ripples through the arena like distant thunder.

“Tsk… Master actually told Gal to go all out,” Maverick commented, wings twitching with excitement.

Stygian’s middle head huffed, the other two snapping in unison as another pulse of power washed over them.

“He did say he wanted to test his new abilities,” the right head replied.

“And Galeno-sama is the perfect wall for that,” the left head added, flames intensifying.

They watched Ethan flicker across the battlefield, time distorting around him, as Galeno responded with crushing Earth force that bent the arena’s structure without hesitation. Nothing but pure power and skill, no hostility.

Stygian squinted all six eyes at the whirlwind of destruction.

“…I can barely track Master’s movements anymore.”

Maverick folded his arms, trying to look calm despite the grin tugging at the edges of his lips.

“That’s Master for you. He was suppressing himself when he sparred with us.”

A massive shockwave erupted, the ground buckled, dust rising like a volcanic plume.

Stygian’s tails slammed the ground to stay balanced.

“Galeno-sama is enjoying this,” the middle head remarked as the Divine Tortoise’s booming laughter echoed between impacts.

“And Master too,” the right head said.

“They look like kids playing in the mud,” the left concluded with a faint chuckle.

Maverick nodded, claws scraping lightly against the cracked floor.

“That’s what makes it scary. They’re not even serious.”

The air hummed again, an even stronger pulse forming.

Stygian’s flames crackled brighter.

“Should we evolve more, Maverick?”

Maverick smirked.

“We have to. Master is widening the gap again.”

Both stood tall as the next clash lit the arena in silver and gold and deep earthen green.

A friendly match.

But one that reminded them of a truth:

Their Master’s path only went one direction.

Forward.

…

The arena trembled as Galeno shifted his stance, the earth beneath his feet rippling outward like liquid stone. His golden eyes glowed brighter, and the air thickened with an ancient presence. Ethan stopped moving for just a second, recognizing the feeling.

Galeno wasn’t releasing more power.

He was releasing authority.

The Divine Earth Domain unfolded silently. Gravity multiplied. The arena floor sprouted monolithic pillars as if a mountain had grown fangs and reached upward. Every grain of sand was suddenly under Galeno’s command. Ethan’s feet sank half an inch into the compressed ground. His bones felt heavier. His muscles strained instinctively.

Good. Exactly what he wanted.

Ethan’s right eye flickered with an eerie silver sheen, a foreign but familiar force awakening in him. Time itself hesitated around his body. Dust stopped in midair. Galeno’s Domain still moved, pushing, crushing, reshaping. But everything near Ethan slowed, resisting change.

Stagnation Field.

Not Sloth. Not a sin.A conceptual ability born from Elaine’s evolution and woven into his existence.

The two opposing forces clashed like ideas in a storm.

Domain of Immovable Earth versus Field of Still Time.

Galeno grinned, his steps loud and deliberate as he forced reality to obey him. Ethan countered with effortless shifts, teleporting short distances that felt like the world blinked him forward rather than the movement he initiated.

Each attack became a test of dominance. Galeno punched forward, his fist coated in the compressed weight of a mountain. Ethan parried with a bare hand, space twitching around him, slowing the impact just enough for his strength to redirect it. The collision sent silent shockwaves stretching like ripples in water, many seconds delayed before they finally boomed into existence.

Galeno stomped. A fissure split open. Spears of jagged rock shot up from every direction.

Ethan didn’t dodge.

The moment the spears neared him, they stalled inside the Stagnation Field, trembling in place like they were caught between moments. Ethan snapped his fingers. The frozen spikes burst into harmless soil.

Galeno laughed.

And the ground swallowed Ethan whole.

The Domain shifted the moment Ethan blinked out of sight. Gravity rotated sideways. A tidal wave of land crashed forward. Ethan reappeared above it, silver-gold aura blazing bright as he wrestled against the crushing rules of the Domain.

He was being pushed. He was actually struggling.And he loved it.

Galeno’s shell partly manifested behind him as a titanic spectral tortoise, its presence adding even more weight to the world. Ethan’s eye pulsed once. Time thickened so violently that sound itself faltered.

Two conceptual authorities collided: Earth’s Absolute Stability against Time’s Reluctance to Move.

The arena ruptured from the philosophical violence.

Neither held back. Neither faltered.

Master and Guardian clashing not for victory, but to see who would force the world itself to yield first.

…

Galeno’s Domain didn’t crack. It didn’t buckle. It learned. The moment Ethan’s Stagnation Field pushed harder, the ground responded like a living beast, shattering free from temporal hesitation. The next wave of force came faster than logic allowed, as though Earth itself rejected the very concept of slowing down. Ethan narrowed his eyes. Galeno had adapted.

The tortoise guardian stamped a foot, and the arena instantly inverted. Up became down, gravity twisting sideways like the world wanted to fold Ethan into a singular direction. Ethan teleported, but even the space he stepped into tried to clamp him down like stone jaws. He felt it. The Domain was reading his movements, adjusting the rules to contain him. A prison born from the patience of Earth.

“Alright, Galeno… You want me to think?” Ethan muttered as his aura flickered. Space warped incorrectly for a full second, creating a tunnel of silver distortion. Ethan dove through it and reappeared behind Galeno, driving a kick into the tortoise’s side. The hit connected, but instead of being sent flying, Galeno rooted himself deeper. The floor liquefied and swallowed his feet, anchoring him to the world. The force redirected into the ground, erupting elsewhere as a tower of rock.

Galeno’s laughter rumbled like the shifting of continents. He thrust his palm forward, and the entire arena lurched, tilting in his favor again. Ethan slid but twisted midair, countering gravity with sheer physical will. A pillar shot up to impale him, yet the moment before it hit, Ethan’s Stagnation Field froze the spike. Galeno clapped his hands together and the spike shattered forward anyway, defying the frozen moment. Not even delayed. Just breaking Ethan’s rule entirely.

Stagnation Field wavered. Ethan inhaled sharply. “You hardened time… with Earth?”

Galeno didn’t respond verbally. He smirked and advanced. For every rule Ethan tried to impose, Galeno reinforced reality with stubborn, immovable force. Time slowed. Earth accelerated. Pressure exploded. Ethan was forced into a rare state for him these days.

Fighting seriously without overwhelming strength.

The Domain surged, turning the arena into a maze of constantly shifting landmasses. Peaks rose, valleys sank, and boulders flew, all without breaking the steady rhythm of Galeno’s marching steps. Ethan teleported again, but gravity twisted with him, slamming him back into a hardened wall that hadn’t existed a second earlier. He grinned despite the pain tingling across his back.

“Good. Very good.”

He surged forward at full speed. Even warped time struggled to keep up with his physical power. Each punch he delivered cracked the Domain’s stability, and each crack Galeno instantly repaired with another surge of earthen authority. Ethan flicked a finger and space distorted violently, but Galeno pressed a hand to the ground and absorbed the chaos into the stone beneath them.

Ethan realized something. He wasn’t battling a wall.

He was battling the planet.

Galeno’s voice finally rumbled through the arena, calm and respectful. “Master. If you want to beat Earth. You must use more than Time.”

Ethan’s eye gleamed, silver lightning crackling through it. He leaned forward, one foot stepping into his own field as his aura stabilized into pure domination of the moment. “Then I’ll just have to do that.”

Galeno grinned wider, shell shimmering into view once more, Domain tightening like the jaws of an unbreakable trap. Their power collided again, shaking the arena, the empire, and perhaps a little of the world’s patience.

Ethan wasn’t losing.Galeno wasn’t winning.The mock battle had evolved into a contest of philosophies.

And neither intended to give in first.

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