?The settlement below, having survived the strange debris and witnessed the temporary clearing of the sky, remained paralyzed with fear. Locals exchanged confused murmurs about the unnatural events, wondering what kind of divine or demonic battle raged above.

  ?Meanwhile, Stone Solid watched the sky, noting that nothing more was immediately crashing toward the settlement. He instructed the lower ranks to remain and protect the area in case the fighting resumed.

  ?Silence. Still no communication from Cosmo announcing Agent X's death. The monster couldn't have won, or they're locked in some impossible, mutual stalemate, both inches from destruction. His curiosity quickly surpassed his caution.

  ?Wrapping the sand around his legs, he pulled at the sand and stone to lift himself. Using this method, he ascended. Rapidly rising into the sky, making his way to the rim of the massive crater. As Stone Solid reached the edge, he saw the aftermath. The sight confirmed his worst fears about the fight's intensity. Two immense dragon heads lay unnaturally severed on the churned earth. Further back, two immense bodies, clearly belonging to the two heads missing their bodies. Stone Solid noticed they were pinned to the crater floor by the greatswords made of obsidian. He noted the intricate, crown-like horns on another severed head and the tell-tale polished obsidian replacing the exposed parts of the neck where the head was cleanly removed. Gods above, the Sovereign was decapitated. That creature Agent X is using, it's beyond a commander class. Otherwise this couldn't be possible.

  ?Stone Solid's attention snapped to the center of the crater. The air was visibly shattering from a fixed point, hundreds of feet up, contained within the silent bowl of the crater. Confused, he watched as thousands of waves would travel all the way to the crater's floor, causing savage cuts far below from where they originated. The series of waves kept shifting violently as their source moved.

  ?As the strange phenomenon moved closer to the ground, Stone Solid watched, completely baffled by what this strange, invisible force could be.

  ?Just then, his vision cracked and faded away.

  ?The two forces of immense power, Agent X and the transformed Sovereign, had been locked in a hyper-speed, invisible power struggle. Now visible, the Sovereign could be seen locked in combat. His massive hands holding back the scythe, stopping it from moving. With the instantaneous, violent stop of momentum, the impact that followed was devastating, yet unnaturally quiet. Instead of a loud bang, a silent, omnidirectional shockwave of raw, concentrated energy erupted.

  ?The energy was faster than sound, manifesting only as pure force. The air warped, the crater walls around Stone Solid were instantly flash-baked to glass and then shattered into dust, and the entire earth trembled violently. Stone Solid's world didn't explode; it simply turned to glass, fractured, and disintegrated into a cloud of colorless dust, his consciousness vanishing before his body could even register pain. The Rank A Earth Master was erased by the ultimate, focused kinetic force.

  ?Inside Agent X's head, the calm, detached voice of Cosmo announced: "Legend Stone Solid: Terminated. Stone Solid will now be spectating." Agent X thinks coldly to himself. I told him he'd just get in the way.

  ?The Sovereign’s dense shell held firm against the kinetic blast, and the Obsidian Terror armor didn't crack, though the joints groaned audibly from the stress. For a moment, they were locked in a stalemate, the air screaming around the immovable forces.

  ?Then, the scythe slipped momentarily from the Sovereign’s iron grip. Agent X exploited the millisecond of space, keeping the momentum and initiating a brutal, rotating assault. He became a tornado of obsidian and purple fire, the massive blade trying to cleave the draconic humanoid in half with each rotation.

  ?The Sovereign, with raging fire shaping itself into razor-sharp blades around each of its hands, parried each attack as they came. Each deflected blow sent off the very same silent, invisible waves that Stone Solid saw before.

  ?Agent X abruptly interrupted this rhythm with a savage change-up, shifting the rotation into a vertical, sweeping uppercut-like slash. The massive blade hooked the Sovereign’s right arm, and in the same instant, Agent X curled inward, planting his left foot on the Sovereign’s chest. He drove his foot forward with a burst of force, launching the Sovereign away and simultaneously amputating the arm in one swift, crushing motion.

  ?The Sovereign, howling in pain and fury, pulled himself out of the new crater formed within the larger crater. Crimson flames immediately raised up and danced violently off of him. His fury had reached its breaking point. Fire overflowed from his eyes, and he yelled to Agent X.

  ?"I'm done playing around. To surpass the Commander Stage, you need more than just one style. I'll show you no mercy!"

  ?Agent X, now holding the Sovereign's massive severed arm with one hand, let out a slow, doubtful chuckle as he dropped the useless limb. The Sovereign stretched out his remaining massive arm and began pouring its energy outward. The entire area was instantly filled with massive lances made of dense, crimson fire, visually similar to those used to make the Inferno Wyverns but denser and far more numerous.

  ?Agent X, seeing the predictable attack, shook his head in disappointment and began his taunt. "This is just a rip-off of your partner's skill. Pathetic."

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  ?Enraged, the Sovereign thrust his hand toward his opponent. The fire lances screamed across the sky as they sizzled and superheated the area.

  ?Agent X started to speak, an unnatural calm creeping into his voice as if the fight was already over. "To surpass Commander Stage, you need to master both," his scythe shattered into his trusty Guillotine Regiment. The regiment, without a spoken command, started mincing anything that came even close to Agent X, creating a spherical defense. Agent X continued without pausing, "The close quarters combat and long-range combat. You seem to have ignored your ranged combat."

  ?The regiment finished destroying all the lances, returned to their trained triangle formation, and hovered. Agent X continued, "Let me show you true power." His face warped as he laughed maniacally, and fire exploded out of him.

  ?The Sovereign, unwilling to wait for another attack, pushed off the ground, the force of his launch destroying the ground even further. Sonic booms could be heard as the Sovereign propelled himself straight at Agent X high above.

  ?The regiment moved to intercept. The blades moved to plunge into the dragon's remaining limbs and torso like before, but this time, the Sovereign's dense, concentrated armor resisted them, causing them to struggle to dig in. Still, they slowed the dragon down just enough.

  ?As the dragon reached Agent X, he caught the charging Sovereign with his bare demonoid hands. But instead of stopping the momentum, he redirected the Sovereign’s force back toward the ground. The dragon struggled but managed to stop right before he hit the ground again.

  ?As he looked back up at Agent X, he could see him with both arms spread wide and pulled back, one foot stretched forward, his whole body coiled and tensed like a whip about to snap. The air and ground began to tremor. The energy was so heavy the dragon felt as if gravity was suddenly doubled. Dark royal fire poured out of Agent X's hands, creating a massive scythe blade that blocked out the sky itself.

  ?In a distorted, deep voice, Agent X roared: "Overlord's Crescent!" and launched his attack at the Sovereign.

  ?The Sovereign roared, a sound now twisted by pure terror, and launched its remaining massive fist forward. It was an act of pure desperation—the last, dying instinct of a ruler protecting its history.

  ?The massive, sky-blocking blade of purple fire—the Overlord's Crescent—slammed into the Sovereign’s single outstretched arm.

  ?I cannot die here!

  ?The Sovereign’s thoughts became a frantic, chaotic torrent. Its life, its millennia of rule, flashed before it: The Sovereign thought his crimson rule to be endless over its realm, its mate with majestic fire and the countless legions of crimson dragons stretching as far as the eye could see. He recalled the intricate command structure, the loyalty, the sheer, beautiful power of their civilization. Now, that entire history was reduced to a few pathetic dead bodies scattered around the crater—the commanders of their great pack, killed by the arrogant intruder.

  ?We ruled for centuries! We built empires! And yet, they call themselves heroes! They hunt us for glory, slaughtering our kind simply because we exist and are strong!

  ?The immense energy from Agent X’s attack, a force designed to rip apart everything it touches. The attack began to consume the Sovereign’s remaining limb. The concentrated density of his arm, once its greatest defense, became its worst enemy. Making its final moments turn into a what felt like an eternity of torture. The Crimson-dense scales began to turn ash-gray as the crescent vaporized the material into nothingness. The Sovereign screamed, a sound that finally broke the silence, but the cry was immediately muffled and consumed by the purple void.

  ?My partner. My pack. Everything is gone.

  ?The resistance was momentary. The Overlord's Crescent ripped through the final defenses, not stopping for the body, but tearing a path straight through the ground.

  ?In a blinding flash, the Sovereign was gone.

  ?The force of the attack dug a massive V-shaped chasm through the landscape, splitting the entire mountain range and extending miles into the horizon. The purple light faded, leaving behind only the deep scar of annihilated earth.

  ?Agent X stood where he had launched the attack, the pose finally relaxing. The dark royal fire, which had been pouring out of his joints, slowly receded, and the massive scythe blade created by his fire evaporated into the air. He stood motionless for a beat, letting the immense exhaustion hit him.

  ?He looked down at the massive gouge left by the strike, then back at the destruction within the crater. He took a long, heavy breath—a sound like grinding stone—as his form began to self-repair.

  ?Agent X thinks to himself, I'll need to make sure this profile grows stronger. He paused, his gaze tracing the path of the Overlord's Crescent. That Sovereign had some crazy dense defense, though. That attack would have normally split the planet.? He let the silence settle over the destroyed landscape, the ultimate victor in a brutal war of power.

  ?Back at the settlement, the silence following the earth rumbling blade of fire. The earthquake it caused was almost as terrifying as the attack itself. The locals were paralyzed, staring at the impossible scar ripped through the mountain range. The two lower-rank Incarnates were just starting to regain control, trying to settle the terrified populace and assure them the fight was over.

  ?Just as a sliver of calm returned to the main settlement area was taking hold. The two incarnates started seeing the familiar, unsettling bright white light began consuming the realm.

  ?One of the Incarnates yelled out in confusion: "Wait! What about the locals—!"

  ?The question died on his lips. One moment they were in the smoky, hot settlement; the next, they were sent back from where they came.

  Xander now standing in the lobby, his posture completely relaxed. "A disappointing performance," Agent X stated, his voice having a hint of annoyance. "One of your strongest variants did not live up to the rumors. The resistance was, temporary."

  ?The flat, calm voice of Cosmo instantly resonated through the void of the Lobby. "Agent X, your victory was achieved at ninety percent of the variants total potential. It functioned as intended."

  ?A dry, chilling chuckle escaped Agent X. He smirked, his eyes narrowing. "Then you need to raise the ceiling on the intended function, Cosmo. I need better challenges. If I wasn't on this profile I'm not sure it would have lasted more than a couple hits. You need variants that can consistently become Zeniths. This is the only way i can further my strength."

  ?He pauses for a minute as he thinks. "Make the new variant stronger, faster, and more durable. Make the new model crave power more than any before. Self-driven to grow stronger, or they will continue to fall short."

  ?The voice of Cosmo replied, entirely devoid of emotion. "Noted. Look forward to your future challenges, Agent X."

  ?With that, Agent X was sent back to Earth. The destruction of an entire mountain range and the death of a sovereign being a closed file in his mind.