'What a monster…' despite being a monster himself, the Twisted Principality of Permanence, Zhang Tian, couldn't help but exclaim in his mind as he watches the young man in front of him continues to struggle underneath the immensely powerful, extremely painful effects that his domain of petrification is giving, the fact that the young man is still holding on even after a prolonged period of time making him feel all the more amazed.

'It's not even a matter of talent anymore, he's just holding on there through will alone…' he then added, drawing such conclusion from the fact that he can already see the immensely pained expression on Azrael's face, who is clearly just barely holding himself together from total collapse due to the ever-increasing strength of Zhang Tian's petrification.

While all of this is happening though, the young man merely continues to hold on, thinking that he will need as much resilience as he can in order to fulfill his deal with this man that is helping him in improving his abilities and combat prowess even more.

As he continues on stubbornly receiving the brunt of the Twisted Principality's attacks, Azrael couldn't help but smile amidst the sea of immense pain as the azure floating screen appears in front of him once again, revealing something that made him think that holding on for as much as he can take definitely gave him something good in return.

[It is detected that the ascender has sustained damages that is way beyond the current body's limits…]

[An additional point on the Hidden Stat: Resilience will be added.]

[Resilience: The ability of any existence in the tower to force their own body to endure beyond their theoretical limits. Ascenders with higher Resilience are able to resist majority, if not all of the method that any other ascender can use to damage opponent, the rate of this damage reduction being one in ten thousandth of a percent for every single point of resilience the ascender possesses.

In addition to that, any skill that can cause any sort of self-inflicted harm towards the ascender will have their negative effects reduced by a tenth of a percent for every point of resilience the ascender has.]

Once again opening the information regarding this new stat that he acquired, the young man then decided that he is getting more and more used to the power of petrification bearing down on him, this little bit of freedom increasing by the second making him want to do nothing more than to try this newfound strength against an extremely strong opponent.

As for who this strong opponent is, the one he has in mind is the very same individual that is standing in front of him as he continues holding on for dear life, the assault of the immense power of petrification not turning even a little bit easier even despite the fact that he can feel like his body is getting stronger and stronger by the second.

Hence why he decided to just continue holding on for now, feeling each and every minute changes happening on his body as he continues bathing on the immense pressure suppressing not only his strength, but also even the very thing that allows him to grow explosively in a short amount of time climb the tower once more.

Looking at the determined expression not leaving Azrael's face as he continues to take in the petrification power without even uttering a single word of pain, Zhang Tian nodded before he thought that if this young man truly won't be able to grant him the death he so desire, then he thinks that there's no one else in the entirety of existence who can do so.

"Looks like you're getting better and better at this… get ready, we'll fight under these circumstances, I'll just keep up with your strength…" as he saw Azrael's complexion improving as time goes by, the Twisted Principality of Permanence announced as he starts stretching himself, taking quite some time as he completely prepares his body for what is about to come.

Thinking that the young man will start transforming once again, Zhang Tian felt gravely mistaken, baffled and yet pleasantly surprised all the same as the young man whose appearance never changes as he disappears into thin air, making an illusion that even high-ranking ascenders might fall into without them being conscious of it at all.

Pulling the Evil Fang Sword out of its sheath as he decided to attack first, the young man then swung his sword dark as the night sky, obviously infused with his Demonic Energy, towards the opponent in front of him.

Should this attack lands on anyone else but the Twisted Principality of Permanence, then they would just turn into dust if they are lucky and if they are not, then they will be completely obliterated, body and soul as a whole.

With the towering, cracking figure receiving such attack though, it will be nothing more than a scratch, especially since Azrael is currently not using his demonic transformation anymore.

Seeing the surging black sword wave approaching right ahead of him, the monster merely smiles as he held his hand on the same level as his face as if he is merely dealing with something just like that, this speculation turning true as the moment that the sword wave comes into contact with his hand, it was dispersed into the air as if it never even existed in the first place.

Shaking his head as he wonders what Azrael is trying to achieve by first launching a sneak attack, then forfeiting said attack, the Twisted Principality of Permanence couldn't help but feel like there's something wrong in the surroundings, something that he had only felt for once when he accepted this very same young man's offer to exchange a singular, uninterrupted attack between the two of them,

Feeling like he is in grave danger, the Twisted Principality felt like he shouldn't be stopping in his own movements, his feet now nimbly moving all across the area they are in, barely avoiding each and every singe one of the invisible attacks that he is merely relying on his sharp, trustworthy senses to detect.

[Slashing the Void (A-Rank Unique Active)]

[With the mind as the sole need to sever the very space itself, unleash a massive wave of attack intangible to the naked eye, can only be felt but never be seen, the sole display of its might only observed once this attack hit anything in its path.]

[Effects: Relying on the mental prowess of the ascender, unleashes an attack that severs the void itself, an attack that can never be seen no matter how high someone's strength is; however, it can still be felt to a certain degree, destroy everything under the ascender's strength that comes in contact to its trajectory.]

[Note: this skill can further be improved with the improvement of the ascender's mastery, allowing the ascender to conceal the attack even deeper so that even far stronger beings can fail in detecting it.]

Looking at the information of the skill he is currently using to continuously harass his opponent and not give him time to think of a counter attack, Azrael felt quite excited as he thought of something that might improve this skill even more should he succeed in this try.

'After all, it's basically an item materialized in this world, right?' he asked himself repeatedly as if to convince himself that there will be nothing that will horribly go wrong even if he messes this up.

[Demonic Energy]

[A violent, powerful energy that stems from all that its deemed as negative by the divines, mortal desires, mortal sins, and even mortality itself. As much as it is a shunned by the users of Divine Energy though, the two energy stands on equal term with each other, possessing power just a bit below the legendary Immortal Energy.]

[Effects: This energy can be consumed and used as a source of improving the ascender's overall combat power, the rate of combat power increase completely depending on how much Demonic Energy the ascender wants to spend within a certain amount of time, with the baseline being ten units of Demonic Energy for a ten times amplification of combat power within one minute. This energy also grants the user the ability to passively create and materialize objects through intent alone, without the expenditure of Demonic Energy. Demonic Energy however, can be used to enchant said objects, temporarily increasing their damage by one percent for every unit of Demonic Energy poured into it.]

[Note: The recovery rate of Demonic Energy is completely dependent on the strength of the user, the current rate of recovery is one unit every one minute, this can be accelerated through the use of Immortal Energy, converting one unit of Immortal Energy to two units of Demonic Energy.]

Smiling as he himself also felt the absurdity of this idea of his, the young man decided to continue as his eyes glow, his hair flickering that hue of white it once has during his demonic transformation.