For a moment, no one moved.

Thenchaos erupted.

A warrior cloaked in golden flameslungedat Echo, his fists burning with condensed solar energy.

From the opposite side, a woman withcrimson bladesflickered into existence, her speed breaking the sound barrier.

Another competitor a brute wielding awarhammer infused with earth essenceswungdown with enough force to level a fortress.

Three attacks.

Three masterful warriors.

Echo didn’t flinch.

At the very last moment

He moved.

Not with the raw speed of a lightning wielder. Not with the brute strength of a titan.

His movement wasghostlike, a subtle shift in space an unnatural glide rather than a step.

Thegolden-flamed warrior’s punchmissed entirely, his fire extinguishing as itbrushed past empty air.

Thecrimson-bladed woman’s slashperfectly timed and lethalcut nothing but wind.

Thewarhammer strike?

It met somethingfar worse than resistance.

It stopped.

The brute’s arms trembled as his weapon refused to budge, as if it had struck an invisible wall. His muscles bulged, veins popping as he pushedharder

But the hammerwouldn’t move.

Then Echo finally spoke.

"You’re already dead."

His voice wascalm, almost indifferent.

The brute’seyes widened

And then, his chestcollapsed inward, as ifsome unseen force had crushed his ribs from the inside.

He fell.

Not screaming. Not gasping.

Justsilent.

Gone.

The remaining warriors hesitated.

The battlefield, once roaring withbattle cries and explosions, had fallen into a deathly silence.

Echo had yet tounleash any visible technique.

He had yet tosummon any weapons.

And yet, three ofGreater Earth’s strongesthad alreadyfallen before him.

Whispers spread among the surviving competitors.

"What... what kind of power is this?"

"He’s... he’s not using mana. He’s not using force energy."

"Then what the hell is he using?!"

Terror crept into their voices.

For the first time in the tournament’s history, fighters who had trained for decades—who had slain beasts, kings were considering somethingunthinkable.

They were considering running.

But thenthe air shifted again.

A deep, guttural laugh echoed through the arena.

Not from Echo.

But fromabove.

A colossal energy waveexplodedinto the battlefield.

The arenashookviolently. The air becamedense, pressing down on the warriors like an iron weight.

A new presence had arrived.

And it wasn’t justone.

Six figuresdescended from the sky, their auras so overwhelming that even the most seasoned fightersinstinctively knelt.

TheMighty Ones.

The rulers of Unified Energy.

The true kings of the battlefield.

The leader of the six, a man withsilver hair and glowing blue eyes, gazed directly at Eiko.

A slow smirk formed on his lips.

"So, the rumors were true."

His voice carried a weightgreater than mountains, a presenceheavier than death.

"You’ve returned."

Echo’s expression didn’t change.

He simply tilted his head, his voice devoid of emotion.

"And you’ve been waiting for me."

The silver-haired warrior’s smirk widened.

"Of course. Because only one of us is walking away from this battlefield alive."

----

The battlefield still trembled.

The presence ofthe Mighty Oneshad paralyzed the fighters.

Thesix figureswho had descended were not mere warriors they wererulers, beings who hadtranscended the mortal planeof Unified Energy. Each one of them was a living legend, a powerhouse whose very existenceshaped the balance of powerin the world.

Yet, even as they stood there, radiating power strong enough tocrush mountains, all eyes remained onEcho.

Because the impossible had just happened.

Heshouldhave been at the peak of theThird Worldat best. The limits of Unified Energy dictated that even the strongest fighters couldonlyascend so far.

But the energy radiating from Echo wasbeyond classification.

It was somethingnew.

Somethingterrifying.

The organizers of the tournament sat in their high seats, their expressions unreadable.

But behind their calm facades,panicwas setting in.

"How can this be?" one of them muttered.

"Did he break the power laws?"

Whispers spread among the gathered fighters.

Many of them had spentdecadestraining to reach their current level—pushing past physical limitations, breaking through bottlenecks, sacrificing everything to reach the pinnacle.

But now, standing before them wasa man who had bypassed it all.

And no one understood how.

In the judges’ area, a single figure remained silent.

Anold manwithcold eyes, his robes lined with faded gold, a symbol of theancient orderthat maintained the laws of power in this world.

His expression was unreadable, but his fingers clenched the stone table before him.

When his gaze locked onto Echo,his heart sank.

"That bastard..." he whispered under his breath.

"He has crossed the boundaries of the Third World..."

His mind screamed against the thought, but he knew what he was sensing.

"That’s impossible."

The silence stretched.

Echo remainedcalm, his expression unreadable.

Theleaderof the Mighty Ones thesilver-haired warriorwith piercing blue eyes finally spoke.

"Echo."

His voice carried no hostility.

Onlyacknowledgment.

"You’re not supposed to exist."

A murmur ran through the fighters.

Echo didn’t respond.

The silver-haired warrior tilted his head slightly.

"Did you think you could just waltz in here and no one would notice?"

Still, no response.

The smirk on the warrior’s lips faded. His gaze sharpened.

"Fine."

His bodyvanished.

The moment he moved,shockwavesrippled through the battlefield.

The sheer speed of his movement tore the ground apart, sending debris and dust flying in every direction. Fightersstumbled backward, shielding themselves from the force.

And in thenext instant

Aspear of pure energymaterialized in the warrior’s hands.

It was a weapon formed fromcompressed lightning, vibrating so fast that the air around itdistorted.

With a single motion, hethrust the spear forward

Straight at Echo’s heart.

The attack was sofastthat most of the fighters didn’t even see it.

But the next thing theydidsee

Was Echo standingcompletely still.

And the spear?

It had stopped.

Not blocked.

Not deflected.

It had simplyceased to exist.

The silver-haired warrior’s eyes widened.

"What?"

The battlefield wentdead silent.

Everyone had seen it.

There wasno movement.

No technique.

No counterattack.

The spear an attack strong enough toannihilate a city—had simplyvanished from reality.

The otherMighty Onesshifted uncomfortably.

One of them, a woman wrapped in a dark-blue cloak,narrowed her eyes.

"He didn’t dodge. He didn’t block."

Her voice wasflat, but there was an edge of disbelief in it.

"He rewrote the outcome."

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com