The Glorious Evolution

Sunflame, Void, aetheric constructs, sound constructs, enhanced senses, different weapons... Levi’s versatility usually allowed him to find an answer to whatever his opponent threw at him.

However, against the Borrower, every new solution risked becoming another weapon aimed at his own head!

Worse, the bastard didn’t need his copies to match their originals perfectly... a weaker projectile could still pierce Levi’s throat, and combining several unfamiliar abilities might even create something much more dangerous than the original standalone abilities!

Nevertheless, Levi realized that those imitations had a weakness.

The Borrower could reproduce an advantage without obtaining everything responsible for creating it... Copying Levi’s Sunflame didn’t give him a Sun Origin Seed, just as imitating his physical reinforcement didn’t mean his body had undergone the same transformations.

That difference showed whenever their abilities collided... Levi’s constructs endured slightly longer, while the Borrower needed another attack or a quick retreat to deal with what remained.

In simpler terms, it was a battle of quantity against quality... though the Borrower had mastered his arts to the point that he minimized these weaknesses by creating the best arsenal of envied abilities and techniques!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Levi reinforced his aetheric barrier while shifting sideways with Sun Jets, allowing the final projectile to strike the bars instead... He swiftly swung his staff toward the approaching Borrower, forcing him to interrupt his attack and defend.

However, before Levi could follow through, the energy signatures of the Borrower’s previously borrowed techniques disappeared one after another.

”Since you have no interest in showing your hand, I can only force it!”

Hearing this, Levi frowned as the Borrower’s four eyes started glowing brightly.

”Borrowed Glory Arts: Perfect Imitation!”

The Envy Aspect worked its magic and unleashed a surge of dark green energy across his body, which manifested a gigantic replica of Levi’s appearance above the Borrower!

The cloak, the three celestial stars, the spiritual aura... everything appeared identical to Levi’s, and this time, the colors matched!

Before the stunned eyes of the viewers, the Borrower blinked in front of Levi and unleashed a hellish bombardment!

Levi entered a flow state using his Harmonic Spine and blocked or evaded every punch, kick, projectile, and tail whip.

However, when he tried to counterattack using spiritual attacks, he was stunned to find that the Borrower’s subconscious barrier had extra protection that constantly adapted to natural frequencies and spiritual attacks!

Nothing could get through it unless Levi had enough spiritual prowess to shatter the entire barrier in one attack!

But Levi knew that was a mere pipe dream; the Borrower’s spiritual prowess was close to Solarbound’s third stage, which left them on a nearly equal level.

Worse, after he used his spiritual attack, the Borrower’s Perfect Imitation manifestation fired the same attack at Levi’s subconscious barrier!

Bam!!

Levi felt his subconscious barrier shake as the spiritual attack he’d used was meant to pierce the Borrower’s barrier!

He swallowed the pain and focused on surviving the onslaught, realizing that anything he used to counterattack was going to be blocked and then fired back at him.

This meant the harder he went, the worse it would get for him.

”Perfect Imitation! One of the Borrower’s infamous ultimates! The Celestial has been completely snared! He can only defend, but for how long?!”

Gamemaster Gamble confirmed Levi’s findings, his voice piercing through the feverish screams of the viewers as they watched such a one-sided beatdown!

Yet, Levi’s avid fans hadn’t doubted him for a second, as they knew what he was truly capable of... their voices blanketed the entire sky, leaving the Rifters confused.

Wasn’t the Celestial getting beaten left and right?

Wasn’t the Borrower owning him completely?

Why are you still supporting him this vehemently?

Such questions resounded in their minds as they watched the Borrower’s absolute strength with grim expressions... they already knew that he was no easy opponent, as he had made a name for himself in the Nocturnal Ring with a win streak of five wins in a row before losing his first-ever Baron rank.

Ever since that day, he hadn’t lost once... right now, he was a mere two games away from getting promoted to Viscount rank.

They knew that if he hadn’t been dragged into this special event, he wouldn’t have shown his face until he was fully ready to get promoted.

Yet, against such a terrifying, well-established Nocturnal Rifter, the chants continued... the cheers stood strong... and the support was as strong as before, like the battle had just begun.

’Perfect Imitation... bold claim.’

Levi sneered inwardly as he noticed tiny fragments breaking off his cloned manifestation with each imitated counterattack.

He figured out that he needed an exchange that the Borrower wouldn’t be able to survive through imitation or adaptation... Levi blocked another projectile and glanced toward the prison bars, recalling how their earlier explosions had spread across the sealed boundaries instead of escaping.

Sealed Prison Cell.

The battlefield that had given Levi the most trouble and aided the Borrower’s constant bombardment might very well be the key to his victory.

’Let’s see how long you can keep copying.’

Levi blocked another projectile before releasing a sound blast between them, using the impact to push himself away from the Borrower... However, instead of preparing another attack, he transformed the Chainstaff into the Requiem Violin and surrounded himself with several aetheric barriers.

The Borrower immediately chased him, unwilling to give him time to prepare anything. His claws struck the first barrier while the gigantic manifestation above him bombarded the others with copied projectiles!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Levi ignored the barriers breaking around him and dragged the bow across the strings, causing thin aetheric layers to form beneath the damaged ones... Sunflame filled some of them, while Void occupied the rest, with the opposing forces kept separate.

The moment the Borrower’s next attack struck the outermost layer, a thunderous detonation erupted between them and forced him to retreat.

”That technique again?”

The Borrower narrowed his eyes as his manifestation produced a gigantic violin and began reproducing the same arrangement... He recognized the technique from the recordings of Levi’s battle against the Masked Butcher.

Unlike the Butcher, he wasn’t going to let himself get caught in the explosion without protection.

Levi sensed the copied layers forming around his opponent, but instead of changing his approach, he poured even more energy into his own!

Then, he added the secret sauce... a small golden core took form within one of the outer layers.

It compressed rapidly while the rubble under Levi began trembling, with the lighter pieces lifting off the floor and drifting toward it.

Akira was the first to react, her expression changing to shock.

’Stellar Fission?!’

She watched the core grow brighter before streams of concentrated solar energy poured from it into the surrounding Sunflame layers!

As this was going on, Levi had no intention of throwing the core at the Borrower... he knew if he did, it wouldn’t be enough to finish the job and kill this cockroach.

Instead, he was using it to fuel one of his best techniques: The Two-Note Aether Detonation!

Meanwhile, the pressure inside the prison kept on increasing, which forced the Borrower to stop approaching Levi as the heat began burning his exposed scales even through his defenses!

Still, his Perfect Imitation of Levi had created its own core almost immediately... despite its quick response, the cracks across its form were becoming more and more visible.

Levi noticed them and increased the vibration of the aetheric layers, making the opposing energies of Void and Sun strain against their restraints while the core continued feeding the Sunflame layers.

Levi’s forehead was already covered in sweat under the mask... yet he refused to allow the technique to detonate prematurely.

’Don’t forget that you’re going to face his explosion too,’ Ash’Kral warned as he watched the technique and its copy turn the prison into a furnace.

’I haven’t... I am relying on it.’

Levi called upon his dark energy while dozens of spiritual barriers formed close to his body, overlapping until nothing could touch his subconscious barrier without his permission.

Seeing this, the Borrower frowned at the extra preparations, but his attention returned to his own imitation of the technique when another section of the floor shattered beneath its immense pressure.

He knew he couldn’t afford to get distracted.

In his eyes, whatever Levi intended to do, Perfect Imitation was already reproducing it... All he needed was to maintain the Art until the exchange ended, then attack while Levi recovered from using so much energy.

Unfortunately for him, Levi had no intention of allowing another exchange.

He pressed his fingers against the violin strings and dragged the bow forcefully, releasing two sharp notes that filled the entire prison!

’Two-Note Aetheric Core Detonation!’

The fission core erupted inside the golden layers just as the vibrating aether’s natural frequency reached its limit, releasing the opposing energies outward in one devastating explosion!!

KA-BOOOOOOOOM!!!

The Borrower’s manifestation responded instantly, detonating its copied core and layers before Levi’s attack reached him!

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!