Gacha Sovereign

"!!!" Alex was shocked by the sudden movement from the ground that tried to impale him. However, he managed to react by parrying it with his strength, albeit the force coming from the ground itself still managed to launch himself to the sky.

The ground, at the same time, rose again, creating a few mountains in all directions.

"Tch." Alex clicked his tongue and waved his weapons.

"Mythical Fire Slash."

He used the Triple Draws as well to launch six Sword Waves, cutting the mountains on its body. The peak soon crumbled due to the inclination of the cut and fell to the ground.

"What is it this time?" Alex muttered to himself while observing the ground with his Spiritual Energy. "Now I feel like I understand why this place is weirdly shaped together with the terrain."

Alex noticed this while watching how the six cliffs formed because he cut six mountains that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"I see. The Divine Tribulation itself is not coming from the sky… At least, not in this stage like the usual Lightning Tribulation. Instead, this is the challenge from the world itself as if I am fighting against it. And because of that, the world can weirdly shape itself, so it will transform the island as it wants to. In other words, this place is specifically created to let the world manifest according to everyone's Divine Tribulation.

"The island and the environment were created by all those people who had undergone their Divine Tribulation in the past," Alex muttered to himself.

The energy coming from the ground was far more bountiful than he expected, and it flowed intensely to the six mountains.

After cutting the tops of these six mountains, the energy had accumulated enough to launch something, and Alex noticed this.

"Swallowing Heaven!"

He summoned two dragons from his weapons, making them fly toward the mountains and swallowing the earth. The moment it reached their stomach, the ground and the Spiritual Energy powering it was burned altogether.

Unfortunately, Alex could only swallow two of the tops of the mountains before the others shot out powerful energy at him. The Spiritual Energy turned into a spike that rose to the sky at fast speed.

"!!!" He was a bit shocked by the speed itself and barely dodged it by shifting his body.

"Are you serious? What is that speed? It's like the ground is strengthened by that Time Element guy with his Acceleration!" Alex sweatdropped as he remembered what Anna said and doubted. "Is the difficulty really as low as my previous Lightning Tribulation? That anticlimactic Lightning Tribulation?"

From the way he saw this matter, it didn't look like it. Instead, it might be the hardest one he had ever seen.

Still twisting his body to dodge these four spikes, he waved his hand to cut them, breaking free from the restrain.

He summoned a thousand firebirds, coloring the sky with red, and rammed them on the mountains.

*Boom Boom Boom!*

A series of explosions filled the atmosphere with a burnt crisp smell lingering in the air. Alex didn't find anything in the ground, so he thought he should clear the area first with his firebirds, so he could find something.

And yet, it was just his wishful thinking because the moment the smoke disappeared, the only thing he could see was the same mountains with only a bit rougher surface due to the small explosions.

"It doesn't do much…" Alex let out a long sigh. "I don't have that much expectation since this is the weakest attack I have ever had that is relying on my control alone. Still, I thought I could find a clue with this."

He wondered what he could do at this point. Since he was in the sky at the moment, he took another look at the surrounding of the island.

"The sea has nothing special. The forest around the coast also has nothing. Only the main area turns into six mountains from a lake. From how the Divine Tribulation appeared for the last three stages, it only affected the lake area alone. Is the range of Divine Tribulation only reached that far?" Alex thought for a moment. "If that were the case, I can focus my investigation on this area."

"For now, I should assume my speculation is right." Alex nodded and took another look at the mountains with his Spirit Eyes. "Since that is the case, should I cut all these mountains? It will take a bit more Spiritual Energy than I have expected, but it should be fine."

Even though he said it was a mountain, its shape was relatively close to a hill instead. And it had a few hundred meters in diameter with the height only reached one hundred meters. Of course, the height stopped increasing because Alex cut the tip, so that was the reason he called them mountains. He believed the mountain could go a bit higher if he didn't do it.

Thinking about this, he suddenly recalled what he did earlier.

"That's right. I should cut these mountains instead of destroying them. After cutting them, I can teleport them to the sky, so it can destroy themselves with the momentum… Wait, I can't use any Teleportation thingy during this period." Alex gritted his teeth, realizing how versatile his Teleportation ability was and how he relied on it this whole time.

He took a deep breath and raised his hand. Since the first plan couldn't be used, he still had another plan.

Symbols after symbols appeared on the sky as Alex prepared his array. At the same time, the mountains were preparing to strike again.

Alex found that Spiritual Energy was concentrated in twenty areas instead of six like the previous one. And with the same concentration, Alex was assured that they were making the same attack as before but with more numbers.

"I am not that easy to beat!" Alex smiled as a blue spear formed above the array. He waved his hand down, and the spear moved down as if it was going to penetrate the Earth itself.

Suddenly, those energy spots vanished without a trace, and a new energy spot appeared.

"That… That energy is the accumulation of those twenty spots. This is going to be bad." Alex clicked his tongue, seeing the concentrated energy that was in the middle of the six mountains. He coated the spear with his Absolute Blade Intent and Pure Fire.

"Sky Spear Array! Destroy!"

As if it responded to his attack, the ground rose again, creating the seventh mountain. The mountain might not be huge, but it contained the most power, especially when it also started absorbing the energy from the other six monsters.

"Since you want a frontal confrontation, I will destroy you!" Alex's expression turned serious as the spear struck the new mountain.

*Bang!*

A huge shockwave shook the entire island. Many plants in the forest got blown away by the sheer pressure while the other six mountains were crushed. Without the Spiritual Energy from before, the mountains lost their ability to withstand this kind of attack, so it started crumbling and turned into piles of rubbles.

On the other hand, the seventh mountain was still going strong, opposing Alex's spear with all of its might.

*Crack!*

"No way!" Alex watched this confrontation himself, but never expected that the cracking sound he just heard came from his own spear.

Not wanting to lose, Alex gritted his teeth and used a bit more of his Spiritual Energy. "Swallowing Heaven!"

The two dragons descended to the mountain, trying to swallow a portion of the mountain.

And yet, two spikes with the same speed of what he experienced pierced them.

"Hmph! They don't have a physical form." Alex snorted while smiling, seeing that the dragons only let the spikes enter their mouths and finding it disappeared because his Pure Fire inside the dragons had burned it.

The mountain got bitten on two sides as a portion of energy got swallowed.

Because of this, the mountain was the one starting to crack, especially on its tip.

Alex poured a bit more energy into the spear and pushed it as hard as possible.

"Crush it!"

*Crack!*

The moment its tip was shattered, destruction followed. The spear finally won and pierced its body, sending six giant cracks to all directions that stretched to the bottom of the mountain. After that, the body began to be shattered, and the rubbles flew away.

Alex watched solemnly as the mountain slowly turned into a crater.

*Boom!*

The spear ended it with a bang, turning it into another lake with no water and an island in the middle.

"Huft." Alex took a deep breath. Although he wasn't sure earlier, he realized that the seventh mountain was the key to beat this stage. That was why he could use all these attacks just to crush it.

And the movement of Spiritual Energy underground ceased, showing that Alex's speculation was right.

When he was about to descend, he suddenly got pushed from behind, blowing him away to the ground.

"Gah!" Alex never expected there was something behind him. He immediately stood up and looked at the sky, finding a huge amount of Spiritual Energy inside in the sky slowly marching toward him.

"…" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and commented. "What is this? This looks similar to the one I have experienced in the Potential Tower. But since I can't use my teleportation or Spatial Gate, the answer doesn't lie in the sky. I need to search for it right now."

He investigated his surroundings while keeping the energy on the sky in tab. Although the speed wasn't that fast, the energy generated a huge amount of wind energy that might shred him if he carelessly passed it.

"The crater is alright. Nothing is extraordinary. The forest is the same as before. As for the sea… It's too far, and the energy from… Wait." Alex stopped as soon as he found four other walls in his surroundings.

It separated him from the sea. In fact, Alex already couldn't go to the forest because it had gone past him.

"I am trapped inside a region. Each test should have a certain kind of solution. There must be something I can do to pass this." Alex thought for a moment before he waved his sword, trying to cut the barrier itself.

"Mythical Fire Slash."

The Sword Wave flew like normal, but when it reached the top barrier, it suddenly bounced back to forty-five degrees to the left, flying toward the barrier in his right.

Alex dropped his jaw because he noticed another thing from it.

"The wind pressure is so strong to the point it can deflect my Sword Wave? If I only send my fire there, it will only find itself deflected… No, I can certainly see that a portion of its energy was chipped away when it bounced as if it was shredded. This… I think my flame can burn it, but because of this strong gale, not only it won't integrate with the wind, but it will also disappear before reaching it." Alex sweatdropped, wondering what he should do.

"Is there no way to destroy that wind barrier?" Alex frowned. With nothing to find from his surroundings, Alex looked at the ground, searching for something that could destroy the wind barriers that would soon rip him into pieces.

However, he suddenly came to enlightenment when he looked at the ground. Not knowing why, but he felt like the ground was the answer.

He descended on the ground after floating ten meters to the sky.

"This… Can I seriously do this?" Alex hesitated for a second. "I think I have ten minutes before the barriers reach me. I will do it."

The moment he landed, two dragons appeared around his body, staring at the ground.

"Swallowing Heaven!"

Alex called the name of his move, but he sighed when he ordered them. "But… Now can only swallow ground. Go!"

"…"

The dragons had no thought about it and swallowed the ground vertically for fifteen meters. Alex then turned its direction to the left as if he was mining horizontally.

"If I am not wrong, the wind barriers are only on the surface. I should be able to escape from the Underground. In fact, I believe this is not suitable to be faced head-on like usual. Instead, I should know when to escape."

Alex nodded as he kept drilling until it reached the wind barrier. It was supposed to be inside the range, but there was nothing in that area. A smile appeared on his face as he said, "Gotcha."