As Kingsley tore through the air, Aura Nova closed the distance in less than a blip. Her foot rose toward the sky before dropping down with the force of a dying sun, her target clear and merciless, Kingsley's throat. Kingsley's reaction was immediate. Without hesitation, he raised a single hand and parried the kick aside, redirecting its trajectory with frightening precision. His body recalibrated instantly, steadying itself midair as though gravity itself had momentarily lost its claim over him.

'She redirected my punch,' Kingsley thought to himself, his golden eyes narrowing ever so slightly. 'Might have to pull out a new move.' The thought amused him more than anything else, and a faint smirk tugged at the corner of his lips as he clearly enjoyed where this was going.

Without warning, he punched toward Aura Nova's head. She didn't hesitate to dodge, but the very next moment, a thunderous impact slammed against her temples. Her body snapped violently to the side as she was hurled downward, crashing into the earth below. The ground buckled upon impact, her body carving a deep trench through stone and soil alike. Dust and debris erupted skyward, but almost immediately, Aura Nova rose to her feet without even a pause, as though the devastation beneath her meant nothing.

Her blue eyes snapped upward, only to see a kick already flying toward her chest. This time, Aura Nova didn't dare rely on a simple dodge. Instead, she activated her Omniedit ability, vanishing completely from her position and reappearing a full kilometer away. Yet the instant she materialized, she felt it, a titanic impact detonating against her chest with the unmistakable force of a cannon.

Her body was torn backward once more as she lost control midair, pain coursing violently through both body and mind. The air itself screamed as she was flung across the sky.

'How?' she asked herself, unable to comprehend what was happening. She had dodged earlier, yet the attack had still landed. Now she had vanished entirely, reappearing a kilometer away, yet still, the impact had reached her. It defied logic, space, and even causality.

But she had no time to dwell on it.

Kingsley delivered another titanic punch to her jaw. This time, her head snapped upward, her body launched skyward as she tore through layers of clouds, the heavens themselves parting under the violence of the blow.

The ability Kingsley was using was known as Perfect Intent Projection. It allowed him to land strikes regardless of distance or spatial separation, rendering conventional blocking or dodging nearly meaningless. As long as his intent was locked onto a target, the strike would follow, unerringly, inevitably.

Aura Nova came to her senses almost instantly, her sharp mind already dissecting the mechanics behind Kingsley's attacks. In the very next moment, she tapped into her Omniedit ability once more, her eyes shining brilliantly as she read into Kingsley's technique, unraveling its structure layer by layer.

Kingsley appeared again, seemingly materializing out of nothing, his fingers tearing toward Aura Nova's eyes. But this time, she had already seen through it. She had analyzed the ability, understood its principle, traced its path. Strangely enough, she still couldn't mimic it, but that didn't matter. She snapped her head to the side, dodging the attack cleanly and, more importantly, erasing the projected impact that should have followed after the dodge.

She retaliated immediately, her fist tearing toward Kingsley's chest with overwhelming force. Kingsley didn't react. He didn't flinch. He simply stared down at the incoming attack.

Before Aura Nova could even process what was happening, her own punch collapsed inward, against her chest, with cataclysmic force. The impact detonated like a compressed star, blasting her off her feet. Her body shredded through the clouds as she was sent hurtling backward once again.

'What the hell is wrong with this guy?' she couldn't help but complain internally. She had just nullified one of his abilities, yet he had produced another with absurd ease. Worse still, she couldn't understand how she had ended up punching herself instead of him.

'And my own attack is twice as strong as normal,' she realized as blood trickled down her lips. She wiped it away immediately, her regeneration already kicking in. 'It's as if, since he entered that form, he's become an entirely different person.' Even so, she had already analyzed Kingsley's second ability without needing to activate Omniedit again.

Kinetic Reversal

Kingsley's second ability allowed him to reverse all physical attacks directed at him without moving, or even touching his opponent. Worse still, the returned force carried twice the original power.

'And that movement technique of his…' Aura Nova thought. The moment the thought crossed her mind, Kingsley was already beside her, his speed noticeably greater than before, space itself folding to accommodate his presence.

Omniedit: Command: Source Edit: Time Halt.

The moment those words left her lips, time ground to a literal halt. The world froze in absolute stillness, Kingsley locked in place mid-motion, suspended like a statue carved from reality itself. Aura Nova moved instantly, preparing to deploy a non-physical attack. Physical strikes were now useless against Kingsley, she knew that much.

Then something impossible happened.

Kingsley moved.

His elbow tore into Aura Nova's jaw with world-shattering force. Aura felt her consciousness reel violently, her mind struggling desperately to remain awake. Her body was sent crashing back into the earth, tearing through an entire canopy of trees before slamming into the ground below.

Aura Nova lay there, stunned.

She couldn't understand it. She had halted time, yet Kingsley had still moved. If that had been Aaaninja, she would have understood. But Kingsley?

Her eyes shifted once more.

Kingsley was already there, standing over her as she lay flat against the earth, staring down at her as though he were a god gazing upon something insignificant.

"Give up," Kingsley said calmly. "I don't want to use more cards."

Aura Nova didn't respond. In her entire life, she had never been overwhelmed like this. Never before. She had always ended battles before they truly began. Even when she froze her opponents, victory had been absolute. But now, even that was useless.

Kingsley arched an eyebrow as he sensed Aura Nova manipulating mana. "This will only get worse for you," he sighed.

He understood her weakness perfectly. She had been powerful since the very beginning, so powerful that everyone else had always been beneath her. She had never needed to struggle, never needed to adapt. But when faced with someone truly on her level, she couldn't immediately display the same dominance.

Even so, Kingsley could tell, she was learning. Adapting. Evolving in the middle of battle.

To him, however, it didn't matter.

He still possessed a ridiculous number of cards he had never once been forced to use since the universe itself had blessed him.

Aura Nova, he decided, would make a fine lab rat.

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