Chapter : 1113

He opened his eyes, the grin on his face now one of absolute certainty. He looked at his three spirits, who had been watching his silent meditation with varying degrees of impatience.

"I have the solution," he announced. "We have our mountain-breaker."

He then looked directly at the fourth, often-overlooked member of his team. Doppelganger, his silent doppelganger of light and shadow, hovered at the edge of the room, a living question mark awaiting a purpose.

"And you," Lloyd said to the spectral mimic, "have the most important job of all."

The war council reconvened. This time, Lloyd was not a passive observer but an active participant in the strategy session. He stood before his spirits, a commander briefing his elite operatives for a high-risk mission.

"Bingyu, your assessment was correct," he began, his voice crisp and authoritative. "We need a decisive, overwhelming final blow. I have acquired the means to deliver it." He paused, letting the statement hang in the air. "It is a technique that multiplies my physical power exponentially over time. However, it requires a ten-minute charging period, during which I, or a proxy, will be completely immobile and vulnerable. The new plan will be built around protecting that charging process."

He turned to Doppelganger. "You will be my proxy. You will take my form, find a secure position at the edge of the battlefield, and initiate the [Lazy Sage] protocol. Your only function will be to remain absolutely still and accumulate power. Do you understand?"

The doppelganger gave a silent, fluid nod, its form momentarily shimmering into a perfect, spectral replica of Lloyd before resolving back into its amorphous state. Its loyalty was absolute, its purpose singular.

Next, he addressed the re-summoned Abyss. The water shark spirit, still feeling the psychic phantom of its recent dissipation, hovered nervously. "Abyss, your role is ground control. You will not engage the trees directly. Your essence is too vulnerable to their aura for a direct confrontation. Instead, you will saturate the earth around them, turning the entire clearing into a grasping, chaotic quagmire. Your objective is to immobilize their roots and slow their advance. You are not the weapon this time. You are the cage."

Abyss gave a low, gurgling affirmation, a wave of determined energy flowing through their bond. A second chance to contribute, a role that played to its strengths while minimizing its weaknesses. Lloyd could feel its resolve solidify.

He then faced his two original powerhouses. "Iffrit. Fang Fairy. You two are the guardians." He met Iffrit’s fiery gaze. "I know a defensive role is not your preference, but this is the linchpin of the entire plan. Your mission is to form a defensive perimeter around Doppelganger. You will intercept and destroy any and all threats that approach the charging zone. I don't care how much energy it costs. Nothing gets through." He then looked at Fang Fairy. "Your speed is our rapid response. Anything that gets past Iffrit's wall, you neutralize it before it can reach Doppelganger. For ten minutes, you are an unbreakable shield of fire and lightning."

Iffrit slammed the butt of his flaming zanbatō onto the stone floor, a gesture of silent, fiery assent. Through the bond, Lloyd felt the demon’s grudging respect for the audacity of the plan. It was insane, which appealed to Iffrit's nature. Fang Fairy's eyes glowed with a new intensity, a predator accepting the simple, brutal clarity of a hunt.

Finally, he looked to his new queen. "Bingyu. You are the conductor of this orchestra. Your blizzard will be our primary weapon of suppression. You will control the tempo of the entire battle. Your objective is to freeze the trees' branches, slow their reaction time, and force them to expend energy fighting the cold. Harry them, distract them, and keep their attention focused on the center of the clearing, away from Doppelganger's position. You are the art of this war."

Bingyu inclined her head, her sapphire eyes holding a flicker of what might have been impressed respect. "A logical and efficient allocation of assets. The risk is concentrated on the charging proxy, but the defensive layering is sound. The protocol is acceptable."

The plan was a masterpiece of synergy. A multi-layered, synchronized operation where every spirit had a critical, non-overlapping role. It was a complex, beautiful, and terrifyingly fragile house of cards. If any one part failed—if Abyss couldn't hold the ground, if Iffrit and Fang Fairy's wall broke, if Bingyu couldn't maintain the blizzard—the entire strategy would collapse, and the vulnerable, power-charging Doppelganger would be annihilated, taking the hope of victory with it.

Chapter : 1114

"We have one attempt at this," Lloyd said, his voice dropping to a deadly serious whisper. "There is no room for error. Every second counts. We hold the line for ten minutes, and I will end it. That is the mission."

He looked at each of his spirits, feeling their collective resolve, their shared purpose flowing back to him. He could feel Iffrit’s burning pride, now channeled into a protective duty; Fang Fairy’s razor-sharp focus; Abyss’s nervous determination; Doppelganger’s silent obedience; and Bingyu’s cold, analytical confidence. They were no longer just a collection of powers; they were a team. A family of gods and monsters, forged in the crucible of his will.

"Positions," he commanded.

The spirits dissolved and reformed in his mind, their power contained but ready. Lloyd took a deep, steadying breath and walked towards the shimmering, opaline portal that led back to the ninth level. The Unbeatable Orchard had beaten him three times. It had humiliated him, broken his spirits, and forced him to fundamentally re-evaluate his own power.

Now, he was returning. Not just with a new weapon, but with a new philosophy. And he was going to teach the orchard a brutal, final lesson in the art of the mountain-shattering fist. He stepped through the gate, the cold, cloying air of the dying grove washing over him like an old, unwelcome memory. This time, he wasn't here to fight. He was here to conquer.

The moment they stepped back into the orchard, the atmosphere of predatory silence descended. Lloyd didn't hesitate. He was no longer a participant in this battle; he was the conductor, and the downbeat was now.

"Execute," he commanded through his shared mental link.

The world erupted into a controlled, strategic chaos.

While his spirits exploded into action, Lloyd himself moved with a quiet, deliberate purpose that was the antithesis of the violence about to unfold. He retreated to the edge of the clearing, finding a secure position in a shallow alcove formed by the petrified, overlapping roots of a long-dead leviathan of a tree. This was his throne room and his prison for the next ten minutes. He sat, crossed his legs, and rested his hands on his knees. He took a single, deep, centering breath, and then closed his eyes.

The world of sound and fury vanished, replaced by the inner silence required by the [Lazy Sage's Secret Art]. A shimmering, almost invisible aura began to form around him, the first stirrings of the paradoxical power. He was now a statue, a battery, a point of absolute vulnerability. His life, his entire plan, rested on the absolute, unwavering loyalty of the gods and monsters he called his family. He had placed his fate completely in their hands.

On the battlefield, his proxy took his place. The Doppelganger, a shifting, amorphous being of silver light and shadow, flowed to the center of the clearing. It coalesced, shimmered, and took on a perfect, spectral replica of Lloyd’s form. It held a practice sword forged from solidified shadow, and its empty, vacant eyes surveyed the three malevolent trees with a cold, machine-like focus. This was the new commander on the field.

The rest of the symphony began. Abyss dove into the earth, turning the ground into a churning quagmire. Bingyu ascended, unleashing her tactical blizzard of Absolute Zero, coating the orchard in a glittering, energy-sapping frost. The trees, enraged, began to move, their frost-crusted branches lashing out with sluggish fury.

Their target was the source of the cold, Bingyu. But their path was blocked.

Iffrit and Fang Fairy materialized in front of Lloyd's meditating form, a living wall of fire and lightning. They were not on the offensive; their sole purpose was to form an unbreakable defensive perimeter around their vulnerable master. As the first wave of necrotic branches screamed towards them, Iffrit roared and met them head-on, his zanbatō a whirlwind of molten parries. Fang Fairy darted back and forth, disintegrating any threat that slipped through with surgical bursts of lightning.

And in the center of it all, the Doppelganger went on the attack. It moved with a fluid, ghostly grace that was a perfect mimicry of Lloyd's own combat style. It didn't possess Lloyd's raw physical power, but it had something else: access to his entire suite of Void powers.