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Caine stood with his arms crossed, unbothered by the chaos that ensued after the reaper had uttered those words.

It was as though the world itself had flipped on its head, as thousands of abilities were cast in an instant and thousands of transformations were unleashed.

The skies filled with clashing figures and maelstroms of chaotic energies of all kinds.

'Bothersome,' thought Caine as his gaze locked onto the horde of entities surrounding him, all targeting him, as within his cage, he seemed to still be the weakest.

Or at least, they thought so.

Caine shook his head and gathered some of the white mist that flowed through his body, forming a beautiful yet simple spear in his hand.

His aura towered, and he vanished.

'I suppose this will be a good way to familiarize myself with my power.'

He reappeared among the crowd of enemies pouncing on him, his spear so fast that the shadows of his past and present movements overlapped to form a deific fresque.

A swing would reap a thousand lives, a sidestep would dodge a hundred blows, and a cleave would end a million lives.

The world was his canvas, his spear was his brush, and the blood of the Defiers was his paint as he began to paint a picture of indifferent supremacy.

Among the many arts Caine had mastered, martial arts were one of the most fundamental ones, specifically weapon arts.

He'd mastered every single weapon imaginable to its highest level, before boiling and distilling all his insights into one singular path.

One singular spear.

SHAH!

A blinding silver light enveloped Caine as the world around him seemed to slow to a crawl, and enlightenment after enlightenment hit him in waves.

While it was true that as a mortal, he had mastered all arts to such a degree that he could match cultivators, at the end of the day, he was still nothing but a mortal, unable to fully capitalize on his skill.

Both because his body had been too weak and because his mind had been too slow to execute all he had mastered.

But now…now that his soul form was comparable to that of a god's, his true talent bloomed along with years of blood and sweat.

It all exploded forth at once.

WHOOOOSH!

An echoing bubble of silver flames burst from his body, incinerating everything in its path as nine resplendent rings manifested at his back and his silver crown reappeared.

The light Caine emitted was so bright that for a moment, all battles across Samsara paused and all gazes locked onto his divine figure.

The reaper, still sitting on his throne, looked at Caine with narrowed eyes.

'An Irregular Defier with nine [?] rings…and an innate crown…' he shook his head. 'What the hell could those human emperors be planning…'

***

After Caine's enlightenment came to an end, his crown faded once more, as did his rings. He floated down, and his silver flames vanished.

He reopened his eyes and, instead of being in a daze, dove back into the heat of battle, uncaring of the fearful gazes he was receiving.

In less than ten minutes, he had cleared and killed all he could, standing in a pool of endless blood as nine other naked, traumatized figures lay at his feet, shaking in fear as they bowed and begged for mercy.

"PLEASE! SPARE US! WE'LL DO ANY—"

Caine clicked his teeth in annoyance and ignored them, looking into the distance toward the other battlefields.

He wanted—no, needed—more battle. But unfortunately, he couldn't kill the remaining nine or else he would die. Even if he could, they still wouldn't be able to satiate the deeply rooted desire he felt.

It wasn't that he had suddenly become a bloodthirsty idiot, but rather that he needed battle to test something, something deeply linked to the path of cultivation he had created.

'I see, my mind has become fundamentally more powerful. In fact, I could go so far as to say it exists on a plane that supersedes my previous one—a transcended plane of thought, or perhaps a godly one. So by default, since I'm viewing all my past knowledge from a higher vantage point, I can see all its flaws and possible evolutions.'

'I can see all the links between my mastered arts and, from those arts, deduce and create many more. It's all fusing to become one perfect whole, greater than the sum of its parts—greater than anything I previously thought possible.'

Immediately, he sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes, falling into a deep state of meditation.

'Thirty minutes is all I need to bring all my knowledge to that plane.'

****

Just like that, an hour passed.

All battlefields were left with exactly ten Defiers each, all surrounded by countless bodies and rivers of blood.

Of the hundreds of millions of Defiers, only thirty-eight thousand remained, perfectly divided into three thousand eight hundred teams of ten. To say these were the best of the best would be an understatement.

Due to the incredible number of dead Defiers, the world was filled with white mist, but for some reason, none seemed to pay attention to it or absorb it, except for a single person.

Suddenly, as the reaper stood up to speak, all the white mist vanished at once.

Caine slowly opened his eyes.

"Congratulations, you've survived the culling, as we call it. I, the Reaper of Redemption, now officially grant you the Sacred Title of Samsara Defiers."

The air shook as the reaper's crown shone with a resplendent light that washed over all the Defiers.

"With this, we can officially begin the Fate Defying Samsara Festival."

"As you've seen, you've all been divided into teams of ten. Before I continue, choose a Fate Defier, or in other words, a leader."

It didn't take more than a minute for all the Fate Defiers to be chosen.

"There will be three trials: The Trial of Thriam, The Trial of False Limerence, and finally, The Trial of Reflection."

"These trials will be successive and, together, form a race. Beyond passing these trials, you must also complete them quickly so that other teams don't finish before you."

"If a team clears all the trials before you, all hope is not lost, as they will then have to race to the throne. The race to the throne is exactly what it sounds like—a race. But it is the most deadly part of this festival for obvious reasons."