The serpentine woman's expression hardened. She made her decision and unleashed the worlds burning within her regardless of the cost — because refusing to do so meant black god would find the opening he needed to annihilate her. Her full strength surged forth, a monstrous fifty trillion times the strength of an ISG. But the laws woven into the continent's very fabric slashed that output to a mere third. And even that remaining third — still a staggering 16.6 trillion times the strength of an ISG — was halved once more by the continent's double restriction, laws drawn up by Bragon himself, an eight-turn level being. The serpentine woman spat curses at Bragon's name for the crushing suppression placed on her power. Yet even cursing him, she knew the truth: what remained still far exceeded anything black god's spiritual body could withstand for long, since he was not truly a peak-turn level being, and a spiritual body pushed past its limits would eventually give out.
Drawing on her full might, the serpentine woman bore down to suppress black god's spiritual body. Sensing the danger, black god understood his spiritual form — bound by the same crushing restrictions — would not endure much longer unless he called upon the source-defying flames, the ones that could transform into the phoenix. After trading blow after blow, he judged the moment right and let the phoenix descend with everything it had. Weariness crept through the serpentine woman's voice as she muttered to herself, "These restrictions have weakened me too greatly — I can't even invoke the world sovereign's ability to seal him within one of my worlds."
NB: The world sovereign ability is a power unique to true peak-turn beings. Wielding it, a true peak-turn can carve out an isolated timeline and world entirely their own. Within that world, its creator reigns as the Supreme Being, and none of the laws or rules governing the outside world hold any sway — unless a higher power forces its way in and shatters it. The ability exists chiefly to help those beneath the true peak-turn level attempt their peak-turn trials and grasp the mysteries hidden within them.
Black god's spiritual body lifted its arm and swept it downward, pointing straight at the serpentine woman. The phoenix let out a piercing screech and dove with blinding speed, leaving behind a trail of burning feathers wherever it passed. The serpentine woman, seeing death rushing toward her, slipped into a frenzied state and lunged to meet the descending phoenix head-on, claws bared.
BOOM!
Sizzle, sizzle.
The phoenix and the crazed serpentine woman collided again and again until the phoenix finally scattered into countless burning feathers. The serpentine woman was flung backward, her skin scorched and blistered, the stench of charred flesh clinging to her. She had lost 15% of her total energy — and the loss only stoked her fury further. Her hands blurred through a rapid sequence of seals, which she slammed into the ground beneath her. The instant she did, black god Solanky felt the spiritual killing array around her falter and unravel — and for the first time, true dread took hold of him.
Three colossal snakes, each born from the continent's raw energy fused with her own, tore up from the earth. Each stretched 1000 km in length, each carrying combat strength to rival the serpentine woman herself. All three surged toward black god's spiritual body, seeking to bind him, while the serpentine woman herself struck out toward his physical form. His spiritual body understood at once what she intended — to annihilate his physical body and sever any hope he had of advancing further.
Realizing he could no longer command the spiritual killing array while contending with three separate threats, black god's frown deepened. Then he roared, "Phoenix rebirth!" — and the scattered feathers began to tremble and gather back together. The serpentine woman, seeing this, pushed harder still, racing to shatter the protective barrier and tear down the array shielding his true body. But before she could close the distance, a wave of scorching heat grazed her tail, reducing half of it to ash in an instant. The reborn phoenix climbed skyward until it brushed against the dome itself. Still bound by the three serpents, black god could only cry out, "Glorious descent of the phoenix!"
At his words, the phoenix's flames roared to searing new heights, consuming 45% of the source-defying flames held within both his physical and spiritual bodies. Its divine radiance blazed so brightly that elites far beyond the dome could catch sight of the glow. The phoenix folded its wings and plummeted, instantly hitting the continent's speed limit — a hundred million times the speed of light. Talons outstretched, it blurred through the serpentine woman's body, wings like blades slicing and tearing at her again and again. What felt to her like an eternity finally ended when the phoenix scattered once more. With 45% of her total energy now gone, the snakes binding black god's spiritual body began to weaken and dissolve. Sensing the faint dip in his spiritual power, the serpentine woman resolved to throw everything she had left into one final strike — this junior had humiliated her with his spiritual body alone, driven her to the very edge of annihilation, and worse, Bragon himself had already slaughtered every clone she had planted in the outside world.
But before she could act, she saw the phoenix reforming once more — and this time, black god's spiritual power hadn't diminished at all. If anything, it was recovering. The phoenix's cry tore through the continent as it beat its wings and began climbing again, preparing for another deadly descent. Knowing then that the battle was truly lost, the serpentine woman made her choice: she surrendered part of the core from her main internal world to black god, in exchange for her life.
Black god was stunned by the offer, though inwardly he felt a quiet flood of relief — he knew full well that his spiritual body alone could never have killed a true peak-turn level being; the gap between them had simply never been wide enough. He accepted the core and recalled the phoenix into his palm. The moment he did, ancient rusted chains materialized out of nowhere, binding the serpentine woman once more and reactivating the restriction beneath her. Black god returned to his physical body, exhaustion crashing over him like a tide. He sat down several kilometers from where the serpentine woman lay bound, and began the devouring heart technique, drawing in and refining the energy locked within the world core of a true peak-turn level being. Through it all, only the forsaken god and the three guarding ancestors had borne witness to the battle.
On another continent entirely, a petite young woman stood facing down a three-headed drake — a creature towering 1000 km from shoulder to crown, dwarfing her six-foot frame into insignificance.
But this was no ordinary young woman. This was the primordial ancient dragon empress herself, monarch of all dragons within and beyond the beyond realm — Elisa. The drake before her was a special life form, a half-step peak-turn being wielding 500 billion times the strength of an ISG. Unlike black god Solanky, whose strength had already been measured by the world treasure and who therefore faced only a single opponent across three escalating trials rather than three separate contests, Elisa had no such privilege — her true strength remained unknown, and so she would have to prove it the hard way.
The drake charged, but before it ever crossed within a hundred kilometers of her, it dropped lifeless in its tracks — felled by nothing more than a single pointed finger from Elisa. Beyond the world treasure, the watching ancestors froze in shock at what they had just witnessed: Elisa raising her hand, drawing upon the elements of the continent itself — including the very paths of its restrictions — to strike her opponent dead instantly, without expending a shred of her own energy. The ancestors understood exactly what that meant, because that technique belonged only to beings at the true peak-turn level, capable of annihilating anything beneath that threshold in a single stroke. Watching from afar, Jenny smiled and quietly relayed to Behan, Govot, and the forsaken god that she intended to claim Elisa as her personal disciple once the trials concluded.
The forsaken god proposed they conceal the remainder of Elisa's trials from outside eyes. Jenny agreed without a moment's hesitation.