A few minutes later, Vigdis and Sarasvain stood facing each other a considerable distance away from the federation's territory, as well as from the Voidfaring Vessel that had carried Theodore's Subordinates here.
From far away, both Amir and his fellow leaders, plus their aides, as well as Jules and the rest of the guards, were observing them, the two groups keeping a cautious distance from each other as well. They were not qualified to participate in this conflict, but at the very least, they had to watch how it would play out.
Vigdis hadn't been this excited in a long time. Back when the Naxsir fleet had attacked, she hadn't even got the opportunity to have a good battle. Only the duel with Eleanora in the last round had been satisfying to her–although she had still been pathetically weak back then.
Naturally, she hadn't slacked off in the slightest. She was now about two cultivation stages stronger, and had spent the vast majority of the first round relying upon her metal-absorbing Growth-type Talent to enhance her Standard Attributes far above and beyond the limit that she would have otherwise been stuck at.
Only during the early cultivation stages had she been unable to combine both cultivation and absorption into one process–however by the time that she had reached the Dawning Numen Stage, she could engage in both at once. The efficiency of either was ever so slightly reduced, but the result was still far better than one plus one equals two.
That aside, back when she had faced Eleanora, many of her means and methods had simply been inaccessible to her, courtesy of how early into her journey it had been. By now, many of these restrictions had either loosened, or entirely disappeared.
Coupled with the extreme strengthening that Theodore had experienced–especially the most recent one during his Talent Upgrade–she was an altogether changed woman. Ever since then, he had also stepped into the Apex Mortality Realm, providing her with yet another boost.
In truth, if she had played all of her cards back when they had fought Spitamaneh and his troops, then she could have likely defeated the Naxsir's general herself. But it would have been close, and would have left her weakened for a long time thereafter.
Sarasvain was clearly incomparably powerful when compared to Spitamaneh, so even if she did her utmost, she was certain that she could not possibly beat him–but that wasn't exactly the goal here, was it?
During the journey to this area, she had swiftly changed into an attire more suited for battle, removing her secretary-style outfit in favour of a black combat uniform that tightly clung to her devastatingly tempting figure. It was very easy to move in and provided her with a considerable amount of protection.
Most importantly, though, it was capable of withstanding ridiculously high temperatures and Energy concentrations, as well as had many tiny runes etched into it. She had personally requested it from Theodore while they had waited for the Naxsir fleet to arrive. He and Faavi together had created it, and had inscribed it with a multitude of powerful Arrays that could work well in tandem with her own runic tattoos.
Her hair no longer done up in a ponytail as before, but now rather in a singular bun at the back of her head, Vigdis narrowed her eyes and scrutinized Sarasvain, who had a patient smile on his lips. Evidently, he was not going to make the first move.
"Then, I shall begin."
For this spar, she didn't have enough confidence to arrogantly warn her opponent to be careful–she was simply at too much of a disadvantage. With five entire cultivation stages as well as a few realms separating the two, purely on a numerical basis, her Standard Attributes lacked too far behind. And who knew what cards this man truly held close to his chest?
But at least when it came to the first issue, she could still even the playing field a little more!
Deciding not to fool around and slowly escalate her power, she chose to kick everything into high gear immediately, enhancing herself to the most extreme limit that she could withstand without breaking a sweat, or even sustaining injuries.
Contrary to when she had fought Eleanora, not all of her runic tattoos were retracted inside of her–this time, there were still about a fifth remaining on her body's surface. This was mainly because she had created many more of them since then. The stronger that she grew, the more of them there would be–yet most of the time, the majority of them would already be hidden within her physical vessel, strengthening her from the inside.
Proceeding with her transformation to become 'divine', occult symbols began to appear on her irises, more terrifying than ever before. Her detached demeanour was akin to that of a goddess of destruction, and that image only got further enhanced when her vast Energy reserves got activated.
Her body and meridians reinforced by countless Arrays, she could access a significant portion of the seemingly endless Energy that she had been blessed with by Theodore. Combining that with the considerable number of Energy Veins that she had incorporated into her body, the Standard Attribute strengthening that she achieved by converting all of this via her Arrays was astonishing. She could also turn Energy into Divine Energy, albeit not with perfect efficiency.
Even Sarasvain raised an eyebrow as he witnessed her temporary ascension towards what was effectively the Celestial Stage. Anybody with such an experience under their belt would find it laughably simple to retrace their steps and break through when the time came–that was but another benefit of this method.
This was not where Vigdis stopped, however. Gathering even more of her heavy, metal-reinforced now Divine Energy, she activated the metallic essence that had accumulated inside of her as a result of her Growth-type Talent. Her body took on a silvery sheen, as if it was no longer made of organic tissue, yet her movements were not impacted in the slightest.
Simultaneously, inordinate amounts of metal-reinforced Divine Energy began to surround her, shaping itself into spinning vortexes akin to drills, which continually compressed inwards, reducing in size. From as big as entire star systems, they gradually became as 'small' as countries, but their increase in mass also led to escalated temperatures. They had begun to glow brightly, and if it wasn't for the fact that they were currently in the Lesser True Void, then they would have certainly led to the formation of black holes.
As a huge quantity of these projectiles accumulated, soon numbering in the millions, Vigdis' body also underwent another change. Her remaining runic tattoos reassembled into different shapes, then burning red lines similar in appearance to those atop of circuit boards began to emerge everywhere on her skin–even her hair was soon suffused with them.
Lastly, utilizing her metallic essence, she increased the mass and temperature of her body, leading to her erupting with fiery, heavy might. Her skin had become white-hot and blinding, her runic tattoos having started to glow in a red light identical to the red lines everywhere across her body. If her black combat uniform hadn't been especially designed to withstand something like this, then it would have long since combusted, leaving her exposed to the elements–and to the eyes of onlookers, which she would much rather avoid.
Although putting her numerous transformations into words was a lengthy process, it only took about a second or two for all of these events to take place. Even in a battle to the death, if she got any breathing room at all, or wasn't instantly killed, then she could pull them off step by step without a sweat.
Not bothering with wasting any more words, Vigdis grabbed one of the spinning drills and further compressed it to about the size of a lance, then charged towards Sarasvain, the rest of her projectiles cutting off all of his potential escape routes.
Before she even arrived, they rained down upon him like hailstones in a storm, their sheer might causing all observers to pale in fear. Even Jules and the other guards had never known that she was capable of such feats!
Yet instead of panicking, Sarasvain simply waved his hand, the Divine Energy that he exuded casually swatting aside Vigdis' attack and shattering all of her accumulated spinning vortexes instantly.
Of course, she didn't let that stop her and continually created more of them, keeping up the constant bombardment–it was meant to be nothing but a distraction anyway. Still, they didn't even manage to get anywhere close to Sarasvain, regardless of how many there were, or how much she reinforced them.
'This is tricky...'
She didn't know how, but her sparring partner had somehow vastly surpassed the limit of a peak Celestial Stage cultivator, that much she could tell from the Divine Energy that he was utilizing. Likely, even when compared to Pillar descendants, his Talents could allow him to put up a fight–and that was just a conservative estimate.
Banishing her distracting thoughts, she found herself directly in front of him, her spinning lance stabbing straight towards his abdomen. She had put all of her strength behind this blow, eagerly anticipating how he would react to it.
But his response left her flabbergasted and stunned–even a tiny bit terrified. With movements that appeared slow yet surpassed her own speed greatly, he raised his right hand... and grabbed her weapon.
Instantly, it stopped spinning and dissipated into nothingness, the Divine Energy and metallic essence that it had been created from losing their intended shape. Vigdis' entire momentum was ground to a halt, as if she had thrown a large boulder into the ocean, yet not even a singular ripple had appeared on the surface as a result.
To make matters worse, the Undying President's hand remained unblemished, not even having become the slightest bit reddened in a response to the force, temperature, et cetera, that had just impacted it.
"That was pretty good. A regular Abiogenesis Realm Celestial Stage expert would have difficulty handling that blow. I'm impressed!"
With an intrigued sparkle in his eyes, Sarasvain grew more curious about the woman in front of him. Although he knew that this couldn't possibly be her limit, to be capable of casually wielding such power at the Deiform Soma Stage was far beyond what he would have imagined being feasible.
"... thank you. I'll give it one more shot, and if I don't succeed that time, then it'll be your win."
Not yet breathing heavily, Vigdis accepted the compliment with a slight smile, her fighting spirit burning ever hotter. Just like she had anticipated, without going above and beyond, there would be no chance of success whatsoever.
Obviously, she wouldn't be using her true killer moves, as their consequences were far beyond a reasonable price to pay for winning a mere sparring match. But regardless, she definitely wouldn't be coming away from this completely unscathed after what she was about to do.
Distancing herself again, she combined her runic tattoo-formed Arrays with those of her combat uniform, then consciously deactivated all of the limits and guard rails that her body had subconsciously formed to protect her from accidental self-destruction.
Her mass and temperature climbed to even further heights, her flesh splitting open at many points. Burning blood far hotter than any star's core flowed out from within, then fashioned itself into a drill-like lance almost identical to the previous one.
This time, though, even Sarasvain's expression changed to a more grim one. If what she had used before was–to him–like a harmless gust of wind, then she was now akin to a child trying to punch an adult. She was not yet a real threat, but he couldn't fully disregard her either.
The occult symbols in her eyes glowing white-hot as well, Vigdis began to bleed from all orifices, her body destroying itself in a bid for greater power. Her metallic essence, combined with her blood, and her Divine Energy, as well as her further reinforced Standard Attributes, formed a weapon unlike any that she had wielded before during the Heavenly Succession.
Charging towards Sarasvain once again, she was akin to an impossibly hot sun bearing down on a singular entity, ready to pierce straight through it with her weapon and then burn it to cinders.
Taking up a defensive posture, Sarasvain shrouded his hands in a thin film of Divine Energy, then combined it with a kind of power that she couldn't recognize. All that she was certain of was that it also belonged to a higher order, just like Eleanora's inherent Silver Dragon power.
This time, her limit-obliterating blow had to be caught by him with both hands, and it forced him a few thousand kilometres backwards before he finally came to a stop, her lance fizzling out into powerless molten blood-streaked metal.
Barely capable of staying on her feet, she pulled her weapon away and reabsorbed its remaining remnants, her pale face regaining a smidgen of colour. Although she was almost out of breath and her wounds seemed terrifying, she was recovering rapidly. Yet in comparison to her, Sarasvain still looked like he hadn't suffered much at all.
In fact, she hadn't even managed to scratch him–but at least his hands had grown a little red and warm.
"... if every Heaven's Chosen is like you, then it won't be long before I die."
Sighing to himself, the Undying President was not too enthused about his victory. If even the second rung of power amongst this contest's participants could force him to take them seriously whilst they were at such a low cultivation stage, then once they broke through to the Celestial Stage, would he still be capable of fending them off?
Likely, even Vigdis here would have a chance to kill him at that point...
"There is no need to worry too much, most of us are far less impressive than me. And a huge portion of my strength, I have only obtained because of my Leader. He's the truly abnormal one."
Having mostly caught her breath again, she gave the man some reassurance, then focused on Kiran's network, where she had just informed Theodore about what had happened.
"Well, that's a relief..."
Smirking a little helplessly, Sarasvain shook his head and waited patiently for Vigdis' communications to finish. He expected a lengthy back and forth, but to his surprise, it took only about a minute for the lady to hear from her boss.
"I'm proud to announce that he has accepted your request. He still has one matter to take care of, however, and can not yet join us at this time. Until he returns from the Tetrachroma Palace, I shall be stationed here to await his arrival."
Hearing her words, Sarasvain inclined his head in approval, but internally, he was a bit confused.
'What's the Tetrachroma Palace? Is it a force that has risen to power in recent ages? Oh well, no matter what, I'll simply have to wait for a bit, it's not a big deal.'
Glancing at his defeated opponent, he took note of her substantially dishevelled state and chose to be a virtuous host. If that Theodore Winter fellow was genuinely as impressive as she had made him out to be, then it wouldn't be a bad thing if she could put in a good word for him.
"Alright, I understand. In the meantime, though, would you and your people do me the honour of becoming guests of my federation?"
Evidently amused by his gentlemanly behaviour, Vigdis' business smile turned genuine for a moment as she nodded and acknowledged the gesture of goodwill that had been extended to her.
"What a kind offer–I would be delighted to accept it."