CHAPTER 189: CH 189 : END OF SECOND ROUND

The matches of the second wave of demigods were underway, a breathtaking display that spanned a thousand different battlefields.

Sunny’s gaze was drawn to one specific part of the arena, where his newest creation, Nexus, had just materialized.

As soon as the small, unassuming black slime opened its nascent consciousness to the world, it felt... everything.

Through its Controller talent, its senses were not limited to its own tiny form; the entire million of worlds sized arena were like us body.

It felt the whisper of the wind over every grain of sand, the scorching heat of the twin suns beating down, and the sudden, confused auras of the 999,999 other demigods who had just appeared alongside it.

For them, it was a moment of disorientation, a frantic scramble to assess their new, hostile environment.

But for Nexus, it was a homecoming.

Before a single opponent could even take a step or cast a spell, Nexus acted.

It did not attack. It did not defend. It simply... claimed. With a single, silent exertion of its will, the entire arena bent to its command.

The ground, the very biomes beneath the feet of a million demigods, turned against them. It was a subtle, almost imperceptible shift, but the effect was absolute.

The fundamental law of the arena, a rule that stated only the Controller of the realm could truly command it, was asserted.

For the 999,999 demigods, the world simply dissolved. They were trespassers, foreign entities in a body that had just rejected them. Their tokens didn’t even have time to shatter.

The arena itself, recognizing only one true master, ejected them. They reappeared on the spectator stands, their minds reeling, their expressions a mask of pure shock. They hadn’t been defeated; they had been... deleted.

In the now-empty desert arena, a single system panel materialized before the lone, quivering slime.

[Congratulations... You have passed the second round of the Tournament of Gods]

A profound, terrified silence fell over the entire multiverse. The demigods who had been ejected stared in horror, their pride and power rendered utterly meaningless.

They hadn’t lost a fight. They had lost to the very ground they stood on. A new, chilling understanding settled in their minds: Never, ever underestimate the demigods of the Emperor.

The lifeforms watching were even more confused.

Lifeform16737: "Did the system glitch? Why isn’t the match starting? I’m waiting!"

Lifeform27737: "I saw the demigod from my world appear, and then he just... disappeared. What happened?"

Lifeform277481: "You mean to say the match is already over? Someone eliminated a million demigods in less than a second? Is that even possible?!"

Adam’s voice, laced with a hint of his own shock, boomed across the cosmos. "What a... quick match that was. I believe many of you may not have registered what just happened." He waved a hand, and a replay filled the cosmic screens.

It was not a visual replay, but one that showed the projection of the entire arena. The audience saw the moment Nexus appeared, a tiny, insignificant dot.

Then they saw its energy signature, a gentle blue pulse, suddenly spike, expanding in an unstoppable wave that engulfed the entire arena.

The other million energy signatures, representing the other demigods, simply vanished, snuffed out like candles in a hurricane.

"I hope you now understand what happened in the arena," Adam said with a dry chuckle. "Now, time for another round!"

One by one, the matches began and finished, a year passing in the blink of a cosmic eye. Sunny’s demigods, each in their own spectacular fashion, dominated their respective crucibles.

Nova, her form a colossal black dragon, unleashed a single dragon breath, a focused storm of time and space that selectively erased every opponent, a far more precise and terrifying display than Kalzarin’s brute-force freezing.

Umbra, a shadow, created millions of shadow clones, one for every shadow in her arena. Her opponents were all assisanated, a silent touch from a darkness they never saw coming.

Shenlong, with a single, resonant word, "Collapse," broke the entire arena, but with a gentle, benevolent will, he plucked the 999 souls with the greatest hope from the falling debris, granting them passage to the next round.

Loki, in a display of pure, audacious mimicry, stole Nova’s talents and her very form, transforming into a second black dragon.

His dragon breath was weaker, a pale imitation, but it was more than enough to clear his arena in a mere five minutes.

Thea simply self-destructed a fraction of the particles that already connected her to every contestant, a silent, surgical strike that left only the ten most resilient demigods standing.

Cerberus, unable to shatter worlds, did what he did best. He hunted. He stalked his opponents one by one, a relentless predator who did not kill their bodies, but simply reached in and snatched their souls, a terrifying display that left his victims’ physical forms to be teleported away, their minds scarred by the experience of having their very essence manhandled.

Sugata, like Isiah, did not fight. He simply sat, his aura of peace so profound that any demigod who approached him with aggression found their fighting spirit vanish, replaced by an overwhelming urge to sit and listen to his gentle, calming wisdom.

Veylara, the World Tree, turned her arena into a forest of death, her roots a sentient, unstoppable army that hunted down every opponent.

Ember, the phoenix, simply burned. She was a living sun, her infinite mana fueling a relentless fire that wore down even the most powerful defenses.

The demigods of the races, though weaker and with fewer copied talents, fought with a desperate, clever tenacity, their connection to their people and the power of Divine Growth allowing them to punch far above their weight.

Even the demigods of the dwarves and the Machina, with their technological marvels and mana-fueled nuclear blasts, secured their places in the next round.

But the most impressive among them was Diablo. As the demigod with a race born from his own blood, the merits he had accumulated were immense.

He had used them to purchase a formidable arsenal of talents, and he tore through his crucible with a practiced, brutal efficiency that marked him as a true contender.

The demigods of the spirits and auxiliary demigods also passed the round somehow.

While the last to enter among Sunny’s demigod was Mammon, his void affinity and talents resosance worked like a charm, he had combined multiple powerful talents to create something that was even more terrifying and obliterated the whole arena slightly slower than Nova, even though he could have done it much faster.

The second round was over. Not a single one of Sunny’s champions had fallen. The message to the rest of the multiverse was clear, absolute, and terrifying.

They were not just playing in the Emperor’s tournament. They were living in the Emperor’s world.