Their combined strike—Buddha's blazing sutras and Calystria's collapsing mirrored planes—should've atomized continents.
Instead, it stopped.
Against a single hand.
Lucien's clone held their attack between his fingers like someone pinching out a candle flame.
A shockwave rippled out, but it folded inward, annihilated cleanly by his will. His coat didn't even move.
He sighed.
"Come on," he said, completely unbothered.
"Aren't you supposed to be the good guys? Why are you starting a fight here?"
He gestured downwards with his chin.
"The mortals can't handle this. Look—Azure Blue is practically crying."
Buddha's face twisted; Calystria's mirrored wings flared.
Lucien snapped his fingers.
Space inverted.
Sound vanished.
Pressure dropped.
Suddenly—
Guru, Lucien's clone, Buddha, and Calystria stood in the cold abyss of space, far above Azure Blue's sapphire sphere.
Vaelion remained behind on the mountain, flicking his wrist dismissively as he stabilized the collapsing qi currents.
"Tch," he grunted. "For old folks, they sure love too intense."
He looked at the mortal world trembling below and sighed.
"Kids these days…"
The Azure Celestial Sect felt the pressure vanish instantly.
Disciples collapsed to their knees, gasping.
Elders wiped sweat from their brows with trembling hands.
Ryugan slumped against a railing, dizzy with relief.
"…It stopped," he whispered.
"The heavens… pulled back?"
Aelira stared at the now-still sky, clutching Umbra against her chest.
Her lips curved into a tiny relieved smile.
"Papa moved the fight," she whispered.
The world exhaled.
Above the World — In the Void Sea
The stars were silent witnesses.
Lucien's clone stretched lazily, rolling his shoulders as though warming up before a light spar.
He flashed Buddha and Calystria a playful smirk.
"Oi, Buddha… Calystria…" he said, lifting his hand.
"I'll have to pay you back for that hit, you know?"
Calystria summoned her mirrored planes again.
Buddha ignited in golden radiance.
Guru stepped back, scratching his head.
"Ah… this is gonna get messy…"
Lucien raised one finger.
Then bent his knee.
The void around his foot shattered like glass.
Tian Quan — Third Form
「Heaven-Disrupting Annihilation Kick」
He vanished.
Not teleported—he simply stopped existing at one coordinate and appeared at another, instantly, as though the concept of distance was beneath him.
His heel dropped through space itself.
The kick didn't carry force.
It carried intent—the pure distilled desire to rearrange the cosmos.
A sun in the distance flickered.
A comet disintegrated.
A piece of nebula curled away like smoke afraid to be near him.
The kick struck Buddha's palm and Calystria's mirrored dome simultaneously—
—and the entire starfield blinked.
Silence.
Then:
FWOOOOOM—
A ripple tore outward: not a shockwave, but a lawwave—fracturing karmic strings, severing mirrored harmonics, and bending celestial qi in a spiral.
Buddha skidded backward across nothingness, his golden aura flickering.
Calystria was forced to fold her arms, the mirrors behind her shattering like brittle glass.
Guru whistled.
"Oho. That wasn't even full strength, was it?"
Lucien's clone cracked his neck.
"Nope," he said. "Just a greeting."
Buddha stepped forward, eyes blazing.
"That technique… what did you call it?"
Lucien grinned.
"Tian Quan. Third Form."
Buddha pressed his palms together and the sutras burned brighter than nova-light.
"This realm is not yours to alter. Not your playground. Not your canvas!"
Lucien chuckled softly.
"Everything is my canvas if I feel like painting on it."
Calystria's wings expanded in a fractal display.
"You truly intend to oppose heaven?"
Lucien's clone shrugged, tilting his head.
"Oppose? No."
He stepped forward.
"I just don't feel like obeying."
The star behind him collapsed into a spiral the moment he finished speaking.
Guru floated away from the trio, lifting both hands.
"Yikes… I'm staying out of this one. I'm strong, but that? That's above my pay grade."
He pulled a peach out of nowhere and bit into it.
"They're about to break several cosmological rules… again."
Back on Azure Blue-
The seas calmed.
The mountains steadied.
The sect barriers stopped trembling.
Everyone looked up, terrified and breathless.
Ryugan whispered:
"Whoever that man… that being… is… Azure Blue should never offend him."
Aelira whispered to Umbra:
"Papa's just teaching them manners."
Umbra nodded wisely.
"Skree."
In Space-
Lucien lifted his hand again.
"Well then," he said calmly.
"Round two?"
Buddha roared.
Calystria unfolded a mirrored cosmos behind her.
And Lucien's foot touched the void again—
Tian Quan igniting for a second strike.