The cheers sounded good to Alex as he waved his hand at the audience.

In Simharian, it didn’t matter who won the fight. The winner was always respected—unless they did something against morals, of course.

So, to them, Alex was now someone who should be respected like Velmar before he lost.

Meaning that Alex would now receive respect equal to that of a kingdom’s duke’s son.

Velmar, on the other hand, would be stripped of it.

To normal people, he would be nothing more than another normal person.

If he wants to earn his respect back, he would either have to defeat Alex in another fight or earn it back by fighting numerous other fights.

Right now, however, no one cared about it.

They were welcoming a new champion.

Not everyone was carefree, though.

A few people, including Reganath, Lilia, Mira, Kael, Bahir, and Alex, knew this wouldn’t be it.

They knew it wouldn’t end this simply.

Whoever had made this duel happen must have thought of something else. They must’ve predicted Velmar’s loss.

If not, then they probably weren’t that big of a deal.

When such thoughts passed through those few people’s heads, as if proving them right, a change happened.

Velmar’s body twitched.

Just once.

But it was enough.

The sudden jolt beneath Alex’s foot sent a spike of tension through the air like a wire stretched to its limit.

The cheers outside the arena continued in a rolling sound wave, but inside the Circle of Flame, everything stilled.

Alex’s brows furrowed. He stepped back instinctively.

The judge—Master Varek, a peak star connection realm cultivator handpicked by Reganath himself—tensed.

He was someone Reganath had placed as the judge to ensure Alex’s safety in case something unexpected happened.

So, as he saw the unexpected happening, his eyes narrowed, and he stepped forward with one hand glowing faintly, ready to act.

The twitch came again—this time stronger.

It was unnatural. Almost… digital.

And then something worse.

A low hum pulsed through the arena.

It was subtle but wrong, like a ripple through reality.

Master Varek’s hand rose fully now, and he barked, “Back. Something’s wrong—!”

In the audience, several heads turned—powerful ones.

Reganath. Bahir. Even Kael, ever the lazy observer, straightened with narrowed eyes.

And on the noble dais, Duke Thornmere—Velmar’s father—stood with a clenched jaw, his eyes locked onto his son’s convulsing form.

He felt it. A twist in the air, the kind that only those near the higher thresholds of cultivation could perceive.

But before anyone could act—

BOOM.

A second barrier snapped into place, faster than lightning, crashing down over the arena like a closing eye.

This one wasn’t made by royal mages.

It was alien.

Translucent, shifting like glass dipped in oil, it wrapped around the Circle of Flame in a perfect dome—cutting Alex, Varek, and Velmar off from everyone else.

“W-What is that?”

“Is this part of the duel?”

“No—it’s not. That wasn’t made by the court!”

“Is this an attack?”

Panic began to ripple through the audience.

Guards moved, nobles shouted, but they were all powerless outside the foreign seal.

Zahara slammed a fist against the barrier. “Alex!”

Mira’s heart stopped. Her fists balled as she stepped forward. Even Lilia’s usual scowl was gone—replaced with worry.

Even Reganath had jumped down, analyzing the dome, trying to knock it down, but after applying some mana into his fist and trying to push it as hard as he could, being unable to budge it, his gaze turned grim.

“This barrier is strong enough to hold me off.”

His words only increased the girls’ worry, as they had found out not long ago that even Alex could face defeat.

In the fight against the glitched entities during the leap year competition, Alex had lost.

They feared the same result. But they believed in Alex. That was the only thing they could do.

…………………….

Inside the dome.

There was silence once again.

Alex’s gaze snapped to Velmar—just as his body twitched again—and then—

Split.

Velmar’s body opened.

No blood or wound could be seen. It did split open, but Velmar still seemed alive.

The way he was split open seemed glitched.

Reality buckled around his form as if he were a puppet unraveling.

No blood. No gore. Just a shimmer—lines tearing through his skin like static.

His entire body convulsed—and then shattered like cracked code.

“Not again,” Alex murmured, eyes narrowing.

He knew this.

He remembered this.

That time he barely escaped. That thing that almost killed him. The same fractured laws. The same unreality. Except…

This one was worse.

Not in strength. No, it was weaker than that one. But it felt smarter.

Alex could tell that as it emerged.

A hulking beast with three heads, each snarling and wreathed in flickering digital flame.

A Cerberus—but not one from this world.

Not from any world that belonged.

Its paws slammed onto the ground, distorting the arena stone with rippling waves. Its heads opened and closed with glitchy flickers as if struggling to exist within a world it wasn’t coded for.

Its eyes, however, remained fixed on Alex, studying him.

While the creature observed its surroundings, Varek broke free of his shock—he reacted first.

His body moved like a lightning strike, arms drawing sigils in the air.

“Spirit Lock: Star Cage!”

Chains of radiant light snapped out, wrapping around the Cereberus’s middle head and one forelimb. The beast thrashed—roared—and bit through the chains as if they were mist.

Varek didn’t flinch even though he knew he was outmatched.

He was a peak star connection realm expert, but that didn’t mean he could face a creature one realm higher than him.

He knew he wasn’t that sort of genius.

But that didn’t mean he would run.

He was loyal to Reganath, and since his king had asked him to protect Alex, he would do it.

He wouldn’t care if he died doing that.

Seven illusionary stars, all connected with strings and filled with red, appeared on his chest, shining brightly.

Varek was going full throttle from the start. That was the only way he could ever hope to land a hit on the creature.

“Stand behind me!” Varek yelled, surging forward with his fists blazing, palms wreathed in fiery color.

He struck the side of the beast’s flank—only for his hand to pass halfway through.

“What—?”

The beast glitched again, and one of its heads lunged—

CRACK.

It sent Varek flying across the arena like a ragdoll. He crashed into the barrier and slumped, blood trailing down his chin.

Still breathing.

Still alive.

But done.

The guy was unconscious.

“Not to be rude, but that was anticlimactic.” Alex exhaled.

[Rude. You were rude.] Sophie’s voice echoed in his head, making him shrug.

“I’m just stating facts. The build-up made him look like an important character.”

Sophie sighed at his words.

And then the smile vanished from Alex’s face.

He cracked his knuckles, and the air shifted.

Staring at the beast, which was still looking at Varek, probably hoping for some comeback, he muttered, “Let’s get serious, shall we?”

He could still remember his crushing defeat against one of these glitched entities last time.

But it was because he was weak.

Now, he was leagues ahead of his former self in power.

He was so strong that after reaching the star connection realm, he had yet to use his full power against any opponent he had faced.

He himself didn’t know how strong he was right now.

But he was going to find it now.

He could use his everything on the creature before him.

It was a creature an entire realm above him. What could be better than this creature to test his power to the full extent?

As if sensing his intentions, the Cerberus turned all three heads toward him. For a moment, the glitching paused. It tilted slightly, analyzing him.

Then it pounced.

The arena shattered beneath its launch—but Alex was gone.

Boom.

He reappeared mid-air above the beast’s back—his form now changed.

Alex was in his astral form, but unlike always, dark purple dragon wings and horns were attached to his body.

They weren’t astral but physical.

He could finally bring out his dragon traits. He could finally use his dragon powers without bearing a heavy toll.

“Wrong place, wrong realm,” Alex muttered, and brought his heel down.

BANG.

The Cerberus crashed into the ground, stone erupting in a crater beneath it.

The glitch surged.

It tried to phase out again—but Alex was already there. His fist met the monster’s neck—and held.

“Not this time.”

A pulse of purple energy erupted from his strike, counteracting the distortion.

It was destruction, and it was destroying the glitch.

The Cerberus shrieked in tones that didn’t belong in reality. It twisted, snapped, and lashed out with a limb, but Alex caught it effortlessly.

Without giving the beast a chance to breathe, he threw it into the barrier, cracking the interior surface with the force of the impact.

Outside, people stared.

They couldn’t see clearly—but they saw the flickers of light, the bursts of energy, and the impossible movements.

“What the hell is going on in there?”

“Was that Alex?”

“Is he fighting something?!”

Inside, the Cerberus surged again, leaking corruption and trying to rewrite its presence.

Alex was faster.

He closed the gap—and this time, his hand glowed.

Not just with strength but destruction.

It was a concentrated mass of destruction energy—capable of erasing anything.

He placed it on the beast’s chest and whispered, “Collapse.”

FWOOOM.

The entire space rippled.

And then the Cerberus began to fall apart—not explode, not die—and wither away.

It howled and clawed at the air, trying to glitch away, but Alex held it in place—forced it to remain—as it unraveled.

A final shriek, and—

Silence.

The glitch vanished like smoke pulled into a drain.

The barrier cracked.

And then shattered.

Light poured in. Sound returned.

And everyone saw Alex standing in the center of the ruined arena.

Unscathed.

Power thrummed around him like a storm waiting to strike again while Velmar’s body remained twitching behind him, glitching violently as if ready to break down at any moment.

Zahara stared, stunned.

Mira gasped silently, one hand over her mouth.

Lilia blinked slowly, then whispered, “…what the hell was that?”

And in the shadows behind the stands—where no one was looking—a man with half-glitched eyes and a cracked grin watched.

“Test complete,” he whispered, smiling wider now.

Then he vanished.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep