"Smack."
Time seemed to freeze.
Everyone's movements locked in place in an instant—Varka's body suspended mid-leap, the sword-light Jingliu had cut out, the moonlight Leilier had gathered, the elements the Seven Archons were about to release... everything went still, as if someone had pressed pause.
Dottore slowly walked past those frozen figures, an utterly satisfied smile on his face.
He raised a hand and pointed at the bright moon in the sky.
"The True Essence of the Third Moon is all in my grasp."
The bright moon trembled. Then a radiance brilliant to the extreme descended from the heavens!
That pillar of light was over a hundred meters across, condensed purely from the power of moonlight. Wherever it passed, even space collapsed. It came crashing down toward the earth, swallowing everything around Dottore—including those frozen figures!
Boom—!
The violent explosion kicked up dust and smoke that blotted out the sky. The earth trembled, the heavens wailed, and the entire camp was reduced to ruins beneath that single strike.
Amid the dust, Dottore stood with his hands clasped behind his back, looking at the crowd before him as they were devoured by his power. Thinking that he could now so easily defeat opponents on the level of the Seven Archons, he could not help but let out a soft chuckle.
"Hmph, hmph hahaha!"
His laughter grew louder and louder, wilder and wilder.
"So what if you are the Seven Archons? Before the ancient three moons, the so-called Seven Archons are nothing but a joke! Haha, hahahaha!"
He threw back his head and laughed, his voice filled with triumph and madness.
And yet—
"Hahahahaha!"
Before his laughter had even faded, an identical laugh suddenly came from within the dust!
That laugh was exactly the same as his, filled with mockery and amusement,