Earth's Greatest Magus

Chapter 2856: Cosmic Bridge

The moment Emery confirmed his intent, the surrounding void shifted, and a translucent interface unfolded before him.

[Choose Your Path]

[Martial Path] [Spirit Path]

As his consciousness brushed against the words, detailed information streamed directly into his mind. The Thirteen Cosmic Bridges were divided into two principal trials.

The Martial Path examined physique, combat instincts, law comprehension, and real-time battle execution. The Spirit Path, by contrast, tested the soul’s strength, spiritual defenses, and mental domination.

Emery weighed the options carefully. His six-layered pagoda within his sea of consciousness stood firm and radiant; his soul power had already reached Level 6, bordering on the threshold of a Spirit Champion. In many ways, the Spirit Path should have favored him.

But combat was more straightforward.

Without hesitation, he selected—

A mechanical voice echoed within the vast emptiness.

[Level 1 Martial Path will begin in one minute. Prepare yourself.]

The world dissolved into radiant light. When the brilliance receded, Emery found himself standing upon a colossal stone bridge suspended in a boundless cosmic abyss. Two monumental gates stood at opposite ends, engraved with runes that pulsed with restrained cosmic energy. Beneath the bridge stretched an endless void, as if reality itself had been carved open.

A final instruction entered his mind.

First: in this arena, his injuries would be fully restored.

He felt it immediately.

The fractured layers of his second cosmos realm stabilized. The damaged three-layered foundation that had once collapsed during his failed breakthrough returned—perfect, whole, and humming with power.

Second: equipment access.

He could select from thousands of provided weapons... or summon his own.

Out of curiosity, he thought of Excalibur.

The silver sigil embedded in his wrist flared to life. It extended a thread of light that pierced through space—probing his domain. In a fraction of a second, a blade manifested in his hand.

It was Excalibur.

Identical in weight. Identical in aura. Even the faint resistance the divine sword sometimes displayed when wielded without proper intent was present.

Emery allowed himself a faint smile. ”Interesting...”

The preparation minute ended.

Across the bridge, light condensed and shaped itself into a metallic humanoid figure. It bore the same height, build, and posture as Emery himself. In its hand, too, rested Excalibur.

”I see... so I’m fighting myself.”

The realization settled quickly, but there was no hesitation in his movement.

The instant the signal to begin resonated through the bridge, Emery stepped forward and drew Excalibur in a clean, decisive arc. The blade sang as he infused it with the Dao of Heaven and Earth—light and darkness balanced at the edge, woven into a unified current. The air along the bridge trembled as the strike carved a luminous crescent through space itself.

Across from him, the metallic clone responded with flawless timing. It mirrored the same stance, the same grip, the same forward step. Its Excalibur descended in an identical arc—yet the aura was different. Instead of balanced fusion, the clone’s blade radiated concentrated brilliance: pure light intertwined with vibrant natural force, maximizing the inherent affinity of the divine sword.

The two strikes collided at the center of the bridge.

A shockwave burst outward, distorting the void beneath them and sending ripples across the stone surface. Light and darkness twisted against concentrated radiance; balanced duality met refined singular purity.

For a heartbeat, they were evenly matched.

Then the difference revealed itself.

The clone’s light-nature strike, though potent, lacked the stabilizing depth of his fusion. The metallic body shuddered as the backlash traveled through its frame.

Emery pressed the advantage immediately, stepped inside the clone’s guard, and unleashed a decisive second strike.

The blade cleaved downward in a clean vertical line. The metallic form split cleanly from shoulder to hip, dissolving into countless motes of light that scattered into the void.

Silence returned.

A calm notification appeared.

[You have completed Level 1.]

Emery lowered his blade slightly, exhaling through his nose.

”Start Level Two.”

The bridge shimmered as the environment reset.

[Level 2 Martial Path will begin in one minute. Prepare yourself.]

When the second clone emerged, Emery felt the difference immediately. The aura pressing from across the bridge was denser, more layered. This version carried not just structural similarity, but heightened presence.

To test the progression, Emery repeated his opening maneuver. Excalibur descended once more, infused with the Dao of Heaven and Earth.

This time, the clone did not meet the strike head-on.

Its figure blurred and vanished mid-arc. Spatial bending folded the distance in an instant. It reappeared to Emery’s flank, radiant wings of condensed light unfurling from its back as it lunged forward in a sweeping counterattack.

Emery reacted without panic and intercepted the incoming blade.

The battle accelerated as the clone demonstrated full access to multiple elemental laws—light, darkness, and the others he had cultivated.

Spells layered seamlessly over blade techniques. Darkness swallowed arcs of light; spatial distortions intersected with elemental bursts. It fought with his versatility, switching forms and affinities fluidly.

Yet after several exchanges, Emery twisted space beneath his feet, shifting a fraction to the side while compressing his Dao into a single precise arc.

Excalibur flashed.

The blade sliced cleanly across the clone’s torso before it dissolving into shimmering fragments of light.

[You have completed Level 2.]

Emery stood alone once more upon the bridge, the cosmic winds curling around him.

Two levels cleared.

”Start Level Three.”

The bridge darkened slightly as the third opponent took shape.

The moment the signal to begin pulsed through the arena, the clone moved.

It did not wait.

Excalibur rose, and this time the blade carried the unmistakable signature of the Dao of Heaven and Earth—light and darkness fused in equilibrium, nature woven with void, opposing forces rotating in seamless harmony. The strike that came toward Emery was not an imitation of a single law. It was his path.

Emery met it head-on.

The two arcs collided in a detonation that cracked the surface of the bridge. Twin crescents of balanced force crashed together, neither yielding immediately. The recoil sent both figures sliding backward, boots carving grooves into the stone.

So it has reached this level, he thought.

Without pause, the clone extended its free hand. Twilight vines erupted from the ground, infused with the same balance Emery himself commanded. The vines twisted midair, forming a lattice meant to bind and restrict.

Emery countered with his own vines, and the battlefield turned into a writhing storm of tendrils.

Then the pressure changed again.

A domain expanded outward from the clone.

[Battlefield Domain]

At level three, it already displayed the power of two cosmos. Emery wondered if this was the level at which all one-cosmos Grand Magus would be completely suppressed.

The air grew heavy. Space compressed. Time seemed to drag against his limbs.

The battlefield domain resisted his movement through layered applications of spatial distortion and temporal friction. For a split second, his step faltered.

The clone exploited it instantly.

It slipped through the vines and reappeared at his flank, blade descending toward his neck in a perfectly timed execution strike.

Emery quickly unleashed his own battlefield domain and barely managed to tilt his body aside. The edge of Excalibur grazed his shoulder. Had his reaction been a fraction slower, the level would have ended there.

”Level three... and already this strong,” he muttered.

Instead of rushing to finish it, Emery chose to observe.

He unleashed his Twilight Form.

His aura intensified as spell resistance and raw battle power increased. The clone mirrored him immediately. Its own figure shifted, muscles tightening, twilight energy wrapping around it in a nearly identical configuration.

The clash that followed lasted minutes.

Blades met again and again, each collision releasing balanced shockwaves that shook the bridge. Domains overlapped and crushed against each other. Spatial folds intersected. Time slowed, accelerated, distorted in layers.

Yet amid the intensity, Emery began to perceive the pattern.

This clone possessed his full three-layered Two Cosmos realm. It wielded his weapon, his bloodline, his battlefield domain.

But its mastery was not identical to him.

The first clone had displayed only a single aspect of his comprehension. The second had distributed his laws broadly. This third one unified them—but its depth was not equal to his own.

Its understanding of spatial bending lacked the subtle compression he had refined through hundreds of fights. Its twilight vines were powerful, but their control was marginally less precise. Its Dao, though balanced, did not carry the same intuitive flow.

After dozens of exchanges, the difference compounded.

That was enough.

He condensed his Dao into a narrow line, stepping through the collapsing distortion and driving Excalibur straight through the clone’s guard.

The blade pierced its chest.

The metallic figure froze, twilight energy unraveling from its form before it shattered into drifting fragments of light.

[You have completed Level 3.]

Emery exhaled slowly.

”Start Level Four.”

The bridge reset once more, and the pressure that emerged from the far gate was suffocating.

When the fourth clone appeared, there was almost no discernible difference.

Its aura, its stance, even the subtle cadence of its breathing—everything felt nearly identical. When it activated its domain, the compression of time and space felt as sharp as his own. When it shifted into Twilight Form, the surge of power was indistinguishable.

The battle that followed was no longer a test of superiority. It was a true duel.

Strike met strike in perfect symmetry. Spatial folds canceled each other. Domains collided and overlapped until neither side could gain advantage. Times passed with no clear edge.

For the first time, a flicker of exhilaration rose within him.

To fight an equal version of himself—one that forced him to confront every weakness, every inefficiency—was exhilarating. Each clash refined his timing. Each exchange deepened his understanding. He felt his comprehension of the Dao sharpening under pressure.

He almost forgot this was a trial.

Almost.

When the realization returned, Emery changed tactics entirely.

Instead of matching strength for strength, he compressed all of his laws inward, abandoning broad equilibrium in favor of a single, concentrated burst. He allowed the clone to push him back, to believe momentum had shifted.

Then, at the peak of the clash, he collapsed his domain deliberately—creating a momentary vacuum.

The clone reacted by expanding its own domain to dominate the space.

That instant of overextension was the opening.

Emery stepped through the distortion and unleashed a decisive, downward cleave infused with the full depth of his Dao—no hesitation, no balance withheld.

The blade struck true.

The fourth clone split from the crown to the core and dissolved into radiant fragments.

[You have completed Level 4.]

The bridge fell silent once more.

Emery steadied his breathing, feeling his wounds instantly restored by the system’s regeneration.

Now only one remained.

Level Five.

To clear it would mean passing the Nephilim requirement of the Trial of Distinction.