Around the ten-year mark of his elongated stay within [Glimpse of Eternity], Reivan had begun studying more about chaos energy.

And that was also when he discovered just how lucky he was to be alive, what with all the times he'd been keeping it on.

When the chaos energy went berserk — truly berserk, not like the paltry amount of internal damage it caused him after using it normally — he was shocked to discover that he just died.

In a massive explosion too.

There was barely any warning. His body just exploded. Bits and pieces of him flew out like shrapnel from a grenade, his life snuffed out before he could truly understand why.

Luckily, even before that unique experience, he'd been getting killed by a weakened version of his mother all the time. Because of that, Reivan grew accustomed to receiving fatal damage. It barely mattered since he could revive infinitely within that massive white room inside his head — not that he wanted to repeat the experience too much, of course. Dying was quite unpleasant.

For science and discovery, Reivan tried again and again, repeatedly getting blown up in the process. Soon enough, he gathered plenty of data and even formed his own thoughts on why he had never gotten blown up when he used it in real life.

First of all, he learned that there simply wasn't a pattern to when he would explode. Sometimes, his energy flared up within a few minutes of connecting to the "Chaos Origin". Sometimes, he could leave it on for hours, and maybe even days without anything happening aside from some mild aches. One time, he blew up the moment he turned it on. As such, there simply wasn't a pattern.

It was chaos.

Random. Erratic. Unpredictable.

As for why it had never happened so intensely before, he of course thought that his luck was somehow involved. But another pet theory he had was that he was simply too weak back then. It was like a toddler on a small bike ramming into a wall — sure it would hurt them, but since they weren't going that fast, they wouldn't die.

Now though? Reivan was somewhat, maybe, kinda strong.

It was something he was a bit hesitant to admit when he was constantly in the company of Transcendents and Ascendants. But he supposed that he belonged pretty high up on the hierarchy when the entire world was considered. There were a few billion people weaker than him after all, living normal lives and dying normal deaths.

The strength he'd obtained came with risks, as far as chaos energy was concerned. Using the same analogy as before, he was now an adult riding a sportscar, crashing into a thick steel wall at full speed. There was no way to confirm his theory's correctness though. Aside from seeking out a certain world-devouring serpent somewhere out in the cosmos.

In any case, just the randomness of [Chaos Origin] and its risks almost made Reivan seal the ability forever. The years he'd spent learning aetherblade arts from various elemental attributes felt wasted too. The realization was almost enough to crush his heart since he'd been betting a lot on [Chaos Origin] as well as the [Omni-Resistance] and [Elemental Immunity] it provided while active.

Not having it safely available was a huge hit to his plans.

There was simply no way he was going to bet his life on the line by using it though. Not when he now knew how high the stakes truly were. At least, not in the exhibition match. Maybe if he was truly in a hopeless situation where the lives of his loved ones were in peril, he would pull it out as a last resort.

No matter how important the tournament was, his life was way more important.

Still, he had decided to study the ability a bit more before setting it aside. If he still didn't have any results — or at least, a visible path to raising his power — then he would move on.

Thankfully, the heavens didn't fail him.

Or rather, it was Karuna who shed some light on his path. She had been observing him carefully and had insights of her own as someone who belonged to a higher realm during her life. Something she'd said in passing served as a great clue.

She had said that the reason that Reivan blew up was because his body simply couldn't handle the power produced when the chaos energy acted up.

He really was akin to a grenade. In this case, the chaos energy was the explosive material inside the grenade's body. There was some sort of detonator that caused it all to blow up, but he simply didn't know what it was or when it caused the chaos energy to detonate. Or maybe the chaos energy was both the explosive chemicals and the detonator, nobody knowing when it would all be over.

And with the analogy, Reivan was able to come up with a solution to his problem using another analogy.

Nobody was dumb enough to fire a gun when the barrel was sealed shut. That would just cause it to explode, maybe even killing the dumbass that fired it in a shower of shrapnel. A gun was only mildly dangerous to its user because the force generated by the gunpowder could be directed in some way.

Hence, Reivan would simply have to be the gun — the type that didn't have its barrel sealed, of course.

The problem was he didn't know when the chaos energy would go berserk, so it was still incredibly dangerous to maintain his connection with the chaos origin for too long.

Fortunately, through countless deaths, Reivan also figured out how to intentionally cause volatile chaos energy to go berserk; he simply had to want it to go berserk, and his [Formless Will] — an ability that worked particularly well when used on "energy" — somehow managed to do it.

Unfortunately, the useful ability wasn't very effective in stopping the volatile energy from running amok and blowing him up. That's why he had tucked the knowledge away, deep in his brain as a colorful way to kill himself if he ever had suicidal thoughts — which he probably never would, since that would imply he was courageous enough to kill himself in real life.

But with all of this, he finally had a way to weaponize [Chaos Origin] without too much risk.

The exhibition match would be the first time he would use it in reality.

Reivan closed his connection to the chaos origin before the light from the explosion even subsided. The beam fired using the berserk chaos energy had destroyed a significant chunk of the stage, filling the air with clouds of dust. It was a shame he couldn't make use of the [Omni-Resistance] and [Elemental Immunity] that the skill afforded, but he much preferred keeping his body in one piece.

Hence, from now on, he would only be activating [Chaos Origin] in one-second bursts.

'One down, Two to go.'

With not even a grunt of pain as he landed on the ground, Reivan pulled out the long arrow that Blue had planted into his stomach, ripping out quite a bit of gore with it. He placed a lightning-charged hand over the wound to stop any bleeding, all while healing just his insides with [Effect Reproduction]. As long as he didn't show that he had a fraudulent ability to heal all wounds instantly, all was well. Such controlled healing was easy for him.

It wasn't pretty though. From outside, it truly looked like he'd burned the wound shut. A seared scar could be viewed from within his holy black gambeson, eliciting cries from the audience. But that hardly mattered to him at the moment. He naturally didn't forget to take note of his opponents' locations while putting on his little act, though the dust kicked up by the destroyed stage over at that area made it a little hard.

That's when he realized something strange. If all had gone well, Red should have been teleported away by the Sword Star before the beam he fired landed.

'Why's she still here...?'

Reivan could feel her presence from beyond the dust. His superior senses as a warbeast — albeit just half of one — afforded him at least that much. The fact that Red was still on stage meant that either the Sword Star couldn't react fast enough, or he didn't think Red was in any danger.

'There's no way he couldn't react fast enough. So that means...'

The red-plumed knight charged out of the dust cloud. All of her halos were gone, but she appeared completely unharmed. A large shield, glowing with sacred light held up in front of her as she flew through the stage to bash it into Reivan's face.

'Did she... use Sormon's Corona...?'

Reivan dodged by momentarily transforming into a bolt of lightning again, all while feeling amazed that Aizen actually managed to snatch someone so amazing from the Church of Sormon. Having a knight who could theoretically block one hit from anything as long as they had enough halos — even a hit from a Transcendent — would be an amazing boon to the nation's power.

The amazement faded as quickly as it came, however. He was fighting that person, after all. And he had to win against them too.

'I'm not going to be able to use it again for a while...'

Reivan frowned as he flexed the fingers of his left hand, still tingling up a storm after he used an imitation of Son Goku's signature move. Sadly, none of his healing methods helped with the unique damage caused by chaos energy running through his body. Only time healed this particular wound.

'I was hoping to use it to take out their strongest in a surprise attack, but I ended up accomplishing nothing.'

Now wasn't the time for frustrations though. Repressing his displeasure, Reivan shot across the air, his sword aiming for the red-plumed knight's back. He didn't want to miss the opportunity to take her out while her halos were out. From what the Saintess mentioned, someone who had just used Sormon's Corona couldn't have halos placed on them for a few minutes.

Sadly, the other two knights had no intention of letting him act as he pleased.

Blue was already lining up a shot and Yellow had somehow gotten right behind him, her rapier aiming right for his back.

As for Red, she suddenly bolted to the side as if she'd known he would go for her at that exact moment.

'Damnit. This is why I hate fighting against knights... Everybody has intuition.'

Reivan clicked his tongue and gave up, turning into a streak of lightning once again — this time, aiming for the blue-plumed male knight with the great bow. His qi and magic power easily combined into essence, willed together by his [Formless Will]. He surged through the air much faster than he had ever done — much faster than how fast he had made them think he was.

Tracing an arc across the void, his blade — its edge glowing with the bright purple light of << Spellblade >> — traced a line right through the knight's stomach, slicing through weapon and armor with ease.

Instead of celebrating his small victory, Reivan's heart clenched. With how fast he was going and how much essence he'd pumped into his attack, its penetrative power was hard to match. But there was far too little feedback from his sword as if he'd cut through the air.

Not even a second later, Reivan felt the fine hairs all over his body stand on end. The blue-plumed knight's body vanished, replaced with a dense cloud of mist that invaded his body through his nose and ears. A palpable malice gripped his heart, looming ominously over him as smoke rushed into his lungs.

Unlike the pure destructive tendencies he'd encountered in battles with nightmare spawns, this malice felt colder—more chilling and intelligent than anything he'd ever experienced. It was as if the reaper stood behind him, its scythe already poised at his neck, ready to claim his life.

He did not remain paralyzed for too long. In the back of his mind, he remembered how the Sword Star had also exposed him to malice much like this one — though at that time, Reivan could tell it wasn't true malice, despite its intensity.

This time, it was different. He truly felt like his life was in peril.

Reivan quickly channeled frost energy from within his body, freezing the mist in his lungs into an icy slush. Once water became ice, it fell into his domain as someone with the ice attribute, so he hastily expelled it from his body. His intuition flared after a fraction of a second, urging him to change locations as fast as possible. He followed his instincts just in time to dodge a blast of fire from underneath the stage, throwing rocks and dust up into the air. A spear-like arrow came from who knew where to strike the same spot as if to make sure he was extra dead.

Not even getting a chance to rest, the dust quickly gathered into several stone thorns that shot toward him from every direction. Various other debris flew at him as well, each charged with essence that would most likely cause follow-up damage after the makeshift projectiles collided with flesh.

Reivan easily dodged that once again by transforming into another bolt of lightning but he was starting to run out of patience — and resources. Using << Lightning Transformation >> so much also wasn't sustainable, even if he was using a higher form of energy that was much more efficient as fuel.

As expected, Yellow hounded him wherever he went, as if she knew exactly which spot he was headed to — which she probably did because of her special ability. Fighting her in melee combat was also nigh impossible since she would easily evade all of his strikes while landing just about every one of hers.

That's why Reivan decided to go for a different attack this time.

Just before the knight's rapier pierced another hole through his flesh, Reivan's essence flared. A deep dark mist spread out from the pores of his skin, filling every inch of the stage. He hadn't wanted to use this technique in close combat since it hindered vision a little, but his first trump card had failed and these guys were looking to be a bit too competent for him to worry about something so trivial. Luckily, serving as a smokescreen wasn't its main purpose, so it wasn't too thick.

Right after the fog made contact, the knights' armor was immediately covered by a layer of dark frost, all while their resources were absorbed to refill his own.

Reivan capitalized on the opportunity to go after Red once again, still deeming her as the greatest impediment to his victory. The surroundings were dark enough for him to use Xander's favorite move while using barely any energy at all. His body dissolved into a dark clump of mist that reappeared right behind the red-plumed holy knight. He brought his sword up in a high stance, aiming to chop into the knight's skull.

Red had been expecting this too, however. Or maybe her intuition did some work. In any case, she held her shield up to block her head without even turning around to face him.

'She fell for it.'

Reivan swiftly switched stances, his feint a success. No doubt, if he hadn't willed the notification screens to stop, one of them would have informed him of how [Essence of Falsehood] had activated. But even a knight's intuition could not see through his lies.

Instead of swinging down, Reivan stabbed forward, aiming right at the red-plumed knight's heart. Not daring to save his energy, he stacked various aetherblade arts to empower his strike, making sure that she was deader than dead. His sword pierced right through her armor as Reivan felt the familiar spatial distortions caused by teleportation.

The red-plumed knight vanished without a trace as Reivan's lips curled into a smile.

'One down.'