The next day, the elves arranged for a pay per seat policy. The normal seats were still available as usual but there were a few seats that were placed too close to the stage. Experts would be shielding those seats so that people could view the battles much more closely and feel the strength of combatants clearly. They introduced several types of seats based on their price. This was a blatant money-making move but it worked nevertheless. People were willing to pay the price so that they could view the battles much more closely.

It was not like there were no recording or viewing methods in Aterna. It was just that battles starting from the perfect realm onwards would feature using the power of laws. That was something that could only be felt and not seen unless in special circumstances. But this exposure to laws was extremely beneficial for anyone below the immortal-realm. But before the battle of experts could begin, the final battle of princes was to be held. The turnout was massive with many people coming over to specifically watch the battles afterwards. But anyone new who heard about the final battle would get excited. The battle was dubbed as the final battle of geniuses.

There was no doubt that both participants were popularly known geniuses. Thus, this battle was aptly named.

The battle began at the scheduled time with both the participants appearing.

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Mero was standing on the stage against his rival - Michael Rageberg. Closeby, he could feel that the person in front of him was powerful. His soul gave great pressure. Mero had been given a powerful soul-guard from his mentor. He had also learnt many soul defence methods in the past few days. His soul was only comparable to viscous-soul-realm but with this extremely powerful soul-guard and his methods, he should barely be able to fight against his opponent.

Michael's weakness was his martial arts. No one had ever him fight physically. He heavily relied on his soul arts in battle. While his body was quite powerful, Michael did not know to use it very well. This was what Mero had an advantage in. Thus, he had to make this battle a close combat thing. He remembered all the things that his teacher had told, all the methods to win against this difficult foe.

The bell sounded and Mero instantly jumped towards Michael. To his surprise, he found Michael coming forward as well. Michael tried to punch him.

Heh! How simple! His punch has great power but no sharpness.

Indeed, Michael's punch was nothing special to him. He countered with his punch. It was a specific method of countering from his martial arts lineage. He managed to punch Michael square in the face and dodge his punch at the same time. He could feel the release of devastating power from Michael's punch but paid it no heed and started executing his combo moves. Each move was reinforced by the previous one and hitting a fatal point in Michael's body despite his defences. Only when Mero felt a powerful blast to his soul that he staggered backwards.

Even with the soul-guard, he was injured. The soul shock causing several internal injuries to erupt. He felt as if a single hit had balanced his entire barrage of attacks. But, Michael was completely unharmed!

What a powerful body! I will need to use secret-arts.

Secret arts were meant to exert powerful force from muscles that was generally kept hidden. They allowed the muscles of humans to cross their set limit.

The psyche of every person did not allow them to exert more strength than a set percentage. This was done by the brain automatically in order to prevent damage to muscles. While this made sense for normal humans, saints who had ignited their vital force could easily recover from the possible damage. But their psyche would still not allow them to cross that limit. Secret arts in Aterna were methods that allowed one to use the full power of one's body. Needless to say, they were extremely rare and well regulated.

As soon as Mero executed the secret art, he could beat up Michael even better. But there was no avoiding the damage to his soul. Michael too tried to fight against Mero with his methods. And his methods were good. Michael had formidable martial-arts, illusion-arts and soul-arts. It was just that Michael was lacking in one thing - reaction time! He could not change his moves mid-way. He could not execute elegant and sharp moves. It was as if he could not control his body as well as Mero. After fighting several rounds, they separated.

Mero then heard a voice directly in his soul:

I was the one who had the Atrexia nobles killed. What are you going to do about it?

This caused him to blow his top. Seeing the smirk on Michael's face, he could not contain his anger. He immediately attacked with his entire body flying towards Michael. And that was the last scene he ever saw.

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Michael always wondered what it was that he was lacking. He had seen geniuses like Kandrif, Dracus Ming and even others. These martial geniuses learnt fighting techniques very easily which was needlessly hard for him. They were able to fight against stronger enemies with weaker strength. There was a dynamism to them that Michael simply lacked.

Earlier, Michael had thought that his perfect-persona blessing increased his control over his body and soul. Only after he got in contact with laws did he understand - the blessing allowed him to manifest willpower. Laws were formless, massless. Thus, his willpower seemed to affect them. His body and soul were also affected. But he still could not do telekinesis. This meant that it was a kind of blessing relating to his conscient. The comprehension of laws, the feeling of self came from his conscient - his consciousness. Anything associated with it could be made stronger with the blessing. It was just that his body or soul would face the rebound from rough use.

Thus, Michael wanted to fight a genius like Mero to clearly understand what he lacked. That's why he fought for a long while without really trying to win. He wanted to feel his weakness. It was so that he could hide them in life and death battles. This was also the reason that he had been following Mero since the first time he saw him. He was envious of the kid's talents. The past few days had been of great contemplation and importance to Michael. He was trying to figure out his weakness.

What he found out was that his weakness was just that - control. It seemed that his control, reaction time etc were not good enough. This was the basic difference. This was an innate weakness - a lack of talent.

One might say that Michael was very talented but it was not true. His body-cultivation progress came from his blessing, not his talent. His soul-cultivation progress was from the fact that he could bear through the constant pain. His only talent seemed to be in learning soul arts. His law comprehension was also not too great. He had made law breakthroughs by putting his life on the line both times. In fact, if he simply did not have the perfect-persona blessing, he would be no better than a simple genius in humanity. Thus, Michael's talent was pretty much average in the grand scheme of things.

But, what he had was willpower. He had a tremendous amount of it. His heart was firm, his entire personality solid. He could go through any difficulty and setback and rise again. He could bear through any pain or grief and continue on. His focus was so sharp that it could cut the firmament. This was what he had. And that made it even more clear to him.

He would win by his strength. He would risk his life again and again to learn the laws. He would bear through all the pain for cultivation. Even if he lacked talent, he would gather raw power. He would use anything, do anything to succeed. This was who he was. He was Michael Rageberg - this was his will! This was his nature - unyielding in front of fate. This was his nature - unyielding in front of heavens. This was his nature - unyielding in front of death. This was his nature - standing till the end!

This enlightenment of himself caused a different kind of breakthrough for Michael. His dao-seed sprouted.

Michael's aura suddenly changed. He felt as if all his thoughts had new clarity. His boundless willpower seemed to grow even further reaching unimaginable limits. And most importantly, he could feel a different kind of power coming from his core - an unyielding aura of dominance. The power gave off the aura that it would remain standing even if the sky was to fall!

This was the power of his self, his nature. This was the power of his dao.

As soon as it appeared, he was already familiar with the power. It was his dao after all. There was no delay, no need for comprehension. He knew what it was and what had happened.

Michael looked at Mero and decided that it was time to end this farce. He sent a soul transmission:

I was the one who had the Atrexia nobles killed. What are you going to do about it?

He added the dao-power to his physical power and punched towards Mero.

It was as if the world trembled at that moment. His physical power was taken congregated from major completion Flowing River Art. For his late-saint-realm comparable body strength, his normal attacks were already close to perfect realm experts in physical might. But as soon as he added the power of his dao - the unyielding dao, his physical strength seemed to become unyielding.

Michael had punched simply. There was no fighting technique being used. But the physical force after leaving his body refused to die! The power continued to churn till the air beyond Michael's fist shattered! But that was not the end! Even the vacuum created was not sufficient to stop it. The power of his punch rushed forward like a raging dragon parting the air itself! It was defying the laws of the world by transmitting itself through space! But it was possible because there was a hint of dao-intent in that power. The physical force rammed into the incoming Mero catching him completely off-guard. Before he could even let out a scream, the power ravaged into his entire body damaging it thoroughly. His organs and blood vessels ruptured, his bones cracked and shattered, his flesh torn off. Still, the power refused to die down! It continued after Mero had died, destroying his body even further. It ultimately caused the entire body to turn into bits of blood and flesh that rained down on the stage. The power then landed on the stage and destroyed it completely! Only then did the dao-intent die down and it dissipated. All this happened in the fraction of a second.

The entire crowd stood stunned. The audience, the commentator, the referee, the protectors and the immortals. No one had seen such a devastating blow come from a saint. Even Michael was stunned at the output. While he knew his own dao-intent better than anyone else, the battle power that came with it still pleasantly surprised him.

The dao was mysterious and only beings that finished their law transformations tried to dabble in it. Even among them, the number of people who could understand it was too low. But, even among them, there were very, very few people who had a dao as powerful as Michael's unyielding dao. And while his dao cultivation was also only in the beginning stages, it still held extremely shocking power.

Michael did not know what this power was called or how he could cultivate it, he still knew that it came from his nature, his very core. He might not rely on his body and soul. He might not rely on laws. All these could fail him. But as long as he existed, this power would be with him. He could feel his sprouted dao-seed and knew that this would grow into a tree. He did not know how to grow this tree but he was sure that no one else could tell him as well. He would have to discover himself more and more and prove his dao again and again for him to grow the tree.

This was also the reason that dao-cultivation was so rare. It was a personal journey of self-discovery and self-enhancement. No one else could help.

Then, a shout came from the audience that rattled the entire crowd:

BEAST! Die!

Bluewind suddenly appeared in front of Michael and threw a punch. It was a powerful punch from an immortal-cultivator that aimed directly for his head. Michael did not use vitality burning or perfect persona. He did not use soul arts either. He simply added his dao-intent to his lifeforce. Suddenly, he felt his body thrumming with great power! It was as if he had become indestructible! The punch landed on top of his head. The blast caused the entire stage to shatter. Michael's feet pressed through the rubble and even the ground rippled at his feet. But nothing else happened. Michael was still fine with no visible injuries.

While the attack had indeed rattled his brain and caused some internal injury, it healed instantly with his unyielding life-force. He looked Bluewind.

Bluewind's expression was a sight to behold. His eyes had opened extremely wide and his face was filled with shock and disbelief. Before he could get away, Michael started vitality burning and perfect persona blessing. Then, he grabbed Bluewind's hand and punched with his physical power and dao-intent! The power was like a huge explosion launching Bluewind into the sky like a rocket.

Michael then came out of the rubble and stood in front of the crowd. He said:

Lord Nicholas, I am the winner of the Battle of Princes and I won righteously. Still, someone attacked me in midst of all the guards that you have. Are you trying to win against me by cheating your way through. If you dare to do so, I shall start a bloodbath!

Nicholas came out of his shock at that moment. He said:

It was not my people who attacked you. You killed Lord Bluewind's disciple and that's why he attacked you. I don't have the responsibility for protecting the experts that came here.

Michael : It is indeed reasonable. After all, even immortal slaayers are around. You definitely can not take the responsibility for protecting everyone. So I assume that this policy will not change when I attack someone not from the elves?

Nicholas : Indeed, it will not change. As long as you don't act against us, we will not step into your matters.

Michael : Thank you Lord Nicholas.

It was then someone saw Bluewind coming down from the sky like a meteor. But before they could see him clearly, Micahel vanished from the place. He activated light of dawn and the Styx incarnation reaching the height of his powers. Then, he added his dao-intent to both his body and soul. His aura seemed to encompass the heavens! He also started circulating the second chapter of death scripture - death force.

Michael had thought to keep the death force as a trump card but there was no longer a need to do so.

He converged his physical powers and soul powers in his fist. His laws - life force and death-force merged along with vitality burning and perfect persona blessing and was enforced with the light of dawn. This was already a fist that was extremely dangerous, even for immortals. But now, his unyielding dao intent merged with these things making the entire power even more concentrated. The aura that came off his fist caused everyone's heart to shake.

The majority of the audience had to kneel down. They were pressed to the ground with the aura even with the several protective mechanisms. Even the immortals felt a sense of death when they saw that fist. Nicholas himself felt his soul shudder in response. Goliath who was in the city was also feeling dread. The entire city and several kilometres surrounding it became suppressed. Even the beasts in the forest were whimpering due to this spectacle.

Bluewind was naturally able to sense the danger as he screamed:

Forgive this old man! I was wrong!!

But Michael did not forgive him. After all, the bow had been drawn so the arrow had to be shot. Had Michael bee weaker, he would have died to Bluewind. So there was no reason for mercy.

He attacked with the entire power.

BOOOM!!!!

The sky seemed to be on the verge of collapse from the power released. It was as if the apocalypse was coming. The shockwaves shattered several reinforced infrastructure in the city. Many people with weaker cultivation bled from the shock and died. The entire arena was barely able to stop the shockwave or else all the people gathered there with cultivation lower than saint-realm would have died for sure. Perhaps even saints would have died with the shockwave.

There was no reason to ask about Bluewind who suffered the direct brunt of the attack. Michael's physical power was comparable to Igor and the power refused to die down in his body. His immortal energy scattered and his condensed laws were not able to hold a candle against the destruction. His body recovered but was destroyed again and again. It was as if he was being refined into a treasure! But his soul was simply the worst off. Even with a superior soul-guard and peak-sublime-soul, the death force and styx incarnation were sufficient to cause serious injury. But the unyielding dao-intent simply caused the released power to ravage his soul till it was completely destroyed.

Bluewind died but his body was still undergoing the process of destruction and creation. The corpse of an immortal expert was one of the most precious treasures, so Michael fully intended to collect it.

Michael stood at the centre of the arena after the explosion subsided. As he stood there, it was like he was the emperor of the area instead of Nicholas.

It was the day Michael Rageberg had created history with a single fist. It was the day when Michael stunned the entire Aterna with a single fist. It was the day Michael became the leader of Aterna with a single fist.