Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Iron, mountain, lean.

A fifth canyon appeared in Antarctica, which had already been split into four parts. Alice, struck by the attack, was almost powerless and pinned to the earth's crust, acting as a pair of scissors tearing the land apart. She traveled over a thousand kilometers before stopping. The black giant scythe she had summoned again, along with the net woven from puppet strings, hindered Zheng Zha's relentless pursuit. By the time Zheng Zha finally caught up with her, she had already escaped from the canyon. Then, she continued her battle with Zheng Zha in mid-air.

No, it wasn't a battle; it was a one-sided beating. Her carefully constructed protective shield and puppet-like net were torn apart layer by layer. And she was almost powerless to inflict any real damage on Zheng Zha in his primordial state.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

At the fourth second, Zheng Zha finally broke through the last defensive barrier around Alice and pierced her heart with the crimson Destruction Blade!

“It’s over, Margot Lloyd.” Zheng Zha breathed softly, the surging energy around him gradually returning to order from its chaotic state. “I have won, and you, the loser, should admit defeat.”

However, Alice simply shook her head.

"I've really protected you too well, Zheng Zha. Don't you know I'm a mage?"

The next moment, her body suddenly exploded into tens of thousands of chains woven from blood, which bound Zheng Zha tightly as he looked up at the sky in shock and anger!

....................................

Go write about the Witch Wars... Double Kaioken is actually a bit of a challenge... _(:з」∠)_

Chapter Thirty-Five: My son, your mother is very disappointed in you.

Above the Great Hole in Antarctica, trillions upon trillions of tons of dark matter are drawn from outer space and washed down onto the surface, which has been ravaged by battles between supernatural beings.

Dark matter—what is dark matter? It is the aggregation of mass, the medium of stellar space, and darkness invisible to the ordinary world. When it gathers into rivers and pours down from the vast void of the heavens, it acquires a new meaning in this world.

They are the River Styx, the River Styx without form or shape. When they bombard the ground, the polar regions, no longer covered by snowfields, crumble and disintegrate like cheese melting under the scorching sun, with Zheng Zha, located at the core, bearing the brunt of the impact.

The 'Primordial Chaos' couldn't save him, because its essence is actually a destructive energy flow generated by the collision of positive and negative energies. It harms both the user and others, and although its power is immense, its defensive capabilities become relatively weak once external pressure exceeds a critical threshold. It's like a circulating fluid structure, a giant wave rushing through a riverbed. When the riverbed is intact, the giant wave can easily push the sluice gates and make the pumps run. However, once a landslide occurs, the damaged riverbed will also bear the impact of the out-of-control giant wave.

He could have controlled it; after all, the fourth-tier microscopic manipulation was a prerequisite for unlocking destruction and advancing to the primordial state. As a melee fighter, he wasn't a glass cannon; he naturally possessed the ability and skill to adjust his energy operation mode when faced with external interference, maintaining full combat power even after being severely injured in the impact—however, unfortunately, his enemy this time was Alice. Alice knew all his combat techniques inside and out, and was familiar with all his countermeasures.

All his methods and techniques for escaping his current predicament were exposed, and all the minute operations he used to maintain the energy cycle of the 'primordial' state were disrupted. Alice's flesh and blood formed a chain of needles that unhesitatingly locked every energy point on his body, hindering every attempt he made.

And so he melted away, washed away by energy and cleansed by dark matter. Just as the gods in mythology who crossed the River Styx shed their divine bodies, his flesh and blood gradually disintegrated and crumbled, leaving only a pale skeleton. And the skeleton, under the wash, seemed to have endured millions of years of wind and frost, rapidly dissolving and decaying, turning into ash containing only small molecules of inorganic matter.

He died, but not completely. A pure, clear light still enveloped the ring on his right hand, and a small portion of his broken finger bone remained, protected by this light. The next moment, this light crumbled under the onslaught of the River Styx, but immediately another ray of light burst forth from the ring!

The Lord of the Rings contained over a dozen theoretically inexhaustible pure spiritual lights, and now one of them had been consumed here. At the very moment the second light was born and the net formed from Alice's blood evaporated in the River Styx, Zheng Zha's damaged body and flesh were instantly and completely restored.

He appeared in this world once more, but unlike before, Zheng Zha's body was at least three times larger—his entire body was covered in sturdy armor like dragon scales, and his joints were adorned with sharp, solid bone spikes. A pair of broad, enormous wings spread behind him, and tangible light and fire surrounded him, blocking the Styx River that was still falling from the sky!

The creature with scaly body, spines, and two wings is called Yinglong. It controls all the water and rain in the world.

With one hand he made a grasping motion, and the Destruction Greatsword that had been knocked down in the previous battle returned to his hand. The tangible light and fire then converged into his body. When they were completely hidden under the scales and claws of this dragon-human body, the incredibly intense life fire, which even the sun paled in comparison to, suddenly surged!

"This is the true form of the 'Primordial Chaos' I developed, incorporating the simulated light of the mind into the chaos born from the collision of positive and negative energies, thereby extracting a more powerful and stable pure force." Zheng Zha stood silently in the air, countless overlapping sound lines converging into words as deep and majestic as a dragon's roar. "I have fine-tuned my body in this state many times, finally achieving this most stable dragon-human form. I call it the Yinglong Transformation. Be careful, I might not be able to hold back anymore—"

He didn't see Alice, but he knew she was nearby. Looking around, the surrounding area, for hundreds of miles, was filled with the formless and shapeless River Styx. The tides of matter falling from the Abyss washed over everything he could see, and he was certain that Alice's true form lay hidden within this endless River Styx.

Since he couldn't find it, he decided to destroy all hiding places. He breathed softly, and the winds and clouds that hadn't existed within a hundred miles were suddenly stirred up and churned like boiling water. A chaotic, swirling light appeared on his blood-red greatsword, and then, the blade pointed to the sky—Slash!

'drink--!'

With a single slash, the river falling from the sky reversed. A visible boundary line rose from the earth, pressing towards the heavens. The endless waters of the Styx, defying Earth's gravity, surged into the sky, manifesting the colors of tangible objects above the highly concentrated matter of the heavens.

It was pitch black, a pure black that absorbed light and devoured all colors. It began to appear from the very center of the Great Hole in Antarctica, and then spread wildly outwards like ink dripping into a glass of water.

The blade's light continued its upward trajectory, compressing space, scorching the atmosphere, and creating an unparalleled, vast sea of ​​burning flames beneath the pure blackness. Then—

Alice's finger emerged from the black River Styx, piercing through the sea of ​​fire and gently touching the crimson blade light unleashed by Zheng Zha—the blade light shattered instantly, and the materialized black River Styx crashed down to the ground once more!

“Logically speaking, it’s commendable that you’ve developed some abilities on your own. But I still have to put you down a little, Zheng Zha,” Alice said softly. Her voice, though light, resonated throughout the Antarctic continent, which had been ravaged by bombardment. “What you’ve developed… the Yinglong Transformation, actually has a more accurate description. It’s essentially the correct application of the fourth-tier mid-stage Mind Light. In other words, you’ve simply made fuller use of the power I helped you gain.”

The black River Styx split into nine tributaries, like nine black serpents descending from the sky to hunt and prey. The first tributary was shattered by Zheng Zha, who flew upwards; the second was torn apart by the light of his blade; the third was shaken away; and the fourth was deflected. But the fifth tributary accurately struck its target.

The fifth arrow struck Zheng Zha's body, the sixth arrow disrupted his stance, the seventh arrow dispersed the flames around him, the eighth arrow knocked him down from the sky, and the final ninth arrow blasted Zheng Zha into the ground, tearing open a huge crater.

"If the physical body of the fourth tier is the immortal body of a god, the subtle power of the fourth tier is the power of a god, and the spiritual light of the fourth tier is the soul fire of a god, then what you now possess is what you should use to overcome your inner demons. Body, strength, soul, and mind are all mastered and integrated into a real power that can be exerted. A stable and flawless divine form, or true body."

Alice floated down from the sky, and the nine Styx Rivers transformed into the heads of nine ferocious black dragons, viciously attacking Zheng Zha as he tried to climb out of the sinkhole. Every attempt he made was interrupted, and every struggle was met with being thrown deeper into the abyss. He might be able to break a few of the Styx Rivers, but trying to cut water with a sword was futile.

"This is the true power that can be unleashed at the fourth tier. I helped you acquire the Light of the Mind ahead of time, and naturally I had already calculated that you should be able to master this level of power. However, you regard it as a trump card, as an ace that I cannot resist... Your slight growth is still within the scope of my research, yet you actually think you are powerful."

"You have really disappointed me."

"Very, very disappointed."

Section Thirty-Six: I too should accomplish something...

"Margot... Lloyd!" A roar, suppressing a myriad of complex emotions, echoed from the bottom of the sinkhole, followed by the Styx River surging back. "Don't underestimate me! Primordial Era - Creation!"

The ground cracked open, and the surging tide of destruction easily shattered the Styx's suppression and rushed viciously towards Alice. However, the waters of the Styx, though shattered, were still the Styx. They could be thwarted, but they would not perish. When the destructive energy surged to within ten meters of Alice, the black water transformed into a protective shield in front of her. Countless vortexes appeared on the shield's surface, using various targeted methods to dissipate the force of the blade's strike.

At five meters, the tide of destruction transformed into tangible blades of light.

At the three-meter mark, the blade's light, which had been several meters long and wide, weakened to less than half a meter.

When the attack reached Alice, it had dwindled to a mere trace of energy, failing even to pierce the protective shield around her body before dissipating completely.

"You still intend to use the power I developed to fight me? Is this the price you pay for your anger? Or is your capacity as small as a water glass, and your so-called protection of everyone is just empty talk?" Alice shook her head slightly, her body shifting slightly, and the third black scythe that reappeared in her hand blocked a slash that Zheng Zha was about to strike through the passage cleaved open by 'Creation'. The giant scythe in her hand shattered in the battle, but she took advantage of the momentum of her broken weapon to swing backward, merging with the Styx water that came from behind her.

She watched Zheng Zha, who was being attacked repeatedly by the nine-headed water dragon outside the River Styx, and saw his ferocious and angry face with eyes wide open. She reached out and, while subtly disrupting some of the magnetic fields, gently hooked her finger.

"How about I give you one hand? That way you might be able to inflict a minor injury on me?"

"Aaaaaahh ...

He struck! He actually struck, even he couldn't believe it! Alice actually took the blow without dodging or avoiding it, giving him a hand! And in that brief, microsecond-long moment of his slight surprise, Alice's arm, which had disintegrated in the flash of the blade, dissolved into the dark River Styx, and then a fourth black giant scythe appeared between the fingers of her other hand!

The momentary shock passed quickly, and when Alice raised the massive black scythe, he instinctively raised his destructive greatsword. However, the greatsword, which had been moving with ease under the 'Yinglong Transformation,' now seemed unexpectedly sluggish. The Styx River waters, forced back by the flames, seemed to transform into a terrifying cage comparable to the outer edge of a neutron star, binding all his extraordinary strength and speed within!

The sword and scythe clashed once more, but this time the giant scythe did not crumble into dust. This mere imaginary weapon, hastily conjured by Alice, actually clashed to a standstill with the Destruction Greatsword, inherited from the Knight of the Apocalypse, wielded by Zheng Zha, in a pure contest of strength. However, this draw in strength effectively shifted the balance of power!

"You know what? Zheng Zha, the so-called skills and positions... are specifically designed to deal with people like you who only have strength and speed. I told you I'd give you a handicap, and you actually dared to chop. Even a gorilla isn't as stupid as you."

Alice's words were merciless, and so were her scythe strikes. Since the contest of strength was evenly matched, she could easily gain the upper hand through skill and tactics. In just a few exchanges, Zheng Zha's dragon scale armor was torn open with several terrible wounds. One cut through his heart, another nearly severed his neck, and the remaining cuts caused varying degrees of armor-piercing wounds on his body, each imbued with a specially modified cursed magical energy that hindered their healing.

Her speed wasn't fast, and her strength wasn't great, but every strike had unimaginable accuracy and penetrating power. She could always see the flaws in Zheng Zha's moves and glimpse the weaknesses in his defenses—even if there were no weaknesses, when she struck, those non-existent weaknesses became weaknesses.

“Margot… Lloyd!”

Zheng Zha's pupils contracted. He could clearly see fine blood vessels wriggling in the dark Styx River, and these blood vessels even extended to his blade, remaining unchanged despite the flames burning on the blade.

This is a curse, a bondage based on a pact between gods. When Alice proposed the deal and Zheng Zha agreed through his actions, these two extraordinary beings, Alice and Zheng Zha, who possessed divine bodies, powers, and authority and were not much different from true gods, forged a pact in the River Styx. Alice lost an arm, and Zheng Zha's combat power here was forcibly suppressed to the point that he could only 'cause a minor injury' to her at most.

That's how it is with mages; at the same level, a muscular barbarian's sheer strength and speed aren't enough to dominate in one move. Especially when the barbarian has no defenses and the mage knows everything about his power and methods—Zheng Zha was already using almost all his strength, and how much of his strength Alice had actually used… no one but herself knew. She wouldn't say, she just continued to relentlessly slice Zheng Zha like an apple, while the disappointment in her eyes grew increasingly intense.

An idea only has value when supported by power; without power, mere grand pronouncements are nothing more than the lamentations of a defeated dog. Alice admitted that Zheng Zha's words had some merit, and his principles and ideals were not without their merits. If Zheng Zha could truly exert the power to persuade her, she wouldn't mind taking a step back; however, now…

A delayed slash interrupted Alice's thoughts. She saw Zheng Zha's hand gripping the blade of the scythe, his deep red blood, brimming with high energy, burning and boiling in the River Styx, while a tangible, eerie fire burned in his eyes.

“I too should accomplish something, Margot Lloyd.” A power belonging to the Five Elements transformation within the cultivation system, which Alice knew very little about, erupted from his body. It then rapidly purified the fine blood threads entwined in the surrounding River Styx. Even the fine lines on the blade were gradually eliminated, and his power returned to him once more.

"Open your eyes and take a good look." He suddenly jerked away Alice and her scythe, and the surrounding River Styx was also severed by the energy mixed with the changes of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements, allowing his power and body to be completely restored to purity. With a flap of his wings, the wounds on his body that had been severed by the giant scythe instantly disappeared, and even the many hidden traps that Alice had planted in his body during the battle were also eliminated.

This is the third round.

"Very good, you've finally learned something beyond my knowledge base." Alice clapped her hands lightly and retreated into the deeper Styx River. The nine-headed black water dragon, now reassembled, was less lethal than before when facing Zheng Zha, who was displaying more skills—because the targeted attack had been eliminated, and now it was time for a head-on confrontation.

However, this head-on confrontation is only temporary. Although Alice knows very little about those cultivation techniques, she is not completely ignorant of them. She only needs to spend a little time to analyze the powers that Zheng Zha has mastered, and at that time, Zheng Zha will have no way to counter them.

She was well aware of this, and Zheng Zha was equally aware of the truth.

Therefore, after Zheng Zha escaped the River Styx, he quickly rose into the air, using absolute mobility to escape the attack of the River Styx dragon, and stood high in the sky on the other side of the great void. Then... at this moment, power and will completely converged into one.

“I must admit, you are stronger than I imagined, and I have always underestimated you. Margot Lloyd. I almost used my full strength, but in reality, it was just my own perception that I did… So!”

"What follows is a battle of both victory and death. I will not fight you with any illusions, but with all my might. Let us see whose path and reason are more correct, more 'just'!"

After saying this, he fell like a shooting star.

........................

It should be 9/16, if you include those two-in-one deals...

And the Witch Wars have returned to their previous laid-back state... The pressure of the Double Kaioken is really too much... and the writing isn't very good either _(:з」∠)_

Section Thirty-Seven: No Punishment for Reversed Punishment

"Very good, very good. Only by giving it our all, by exhausting all our strength, will our battle have any meaning." Witnessing the meteor falling from the sky, a satisfied smile finally appeared on Alice's face. She calmly mobilized the surging waters of the River Styx, and the nine water dragons that had been reborn launched a fierce counterattack against the meteor.

They couldn't stop that meteor, but that didn't matter. Because even after the Nine Dragons collapsed, there were still Nine Dragons; even after the water flow was broken, the water still existed. If someone could observe from the outer edge of Antarctica at this moment, they would see a dark column of gas covering tens of thousands of square kilometers continuously descending from the great void—the column of gas transforming into black water, which converged into the River Styx, and this River Styx, which already covered tens of thousands of square kilometers, was constantly expanding rapidly outward.

The River Styx is not water; it does not evaporate, vaporize, freeze, or condense. While the power of the Five Elements transformation can have some effect on it, the effect is not fatal. And when that meteor completely pierced through the River Styx and slammed into the earth's veins, triggering the volcanic clusters that had already shown numerous eruptions during the previous battle, Alice's expression showed little surprise.

“Oh, so you know you can’t eradicate the River Styx by force, so you’re using the power of nature to destroy my position? Using the fire of the earth’s veins to fight against the water falling from the sky—logically speaking, that makes sense… So how about I add some spice to this confrontation?” Alice said calmly and quietly. Beneath her feet, the unstable earth raged and boiled, with billions of tons of scorching magma and murky sulfurous fumes gushing from the asthenosphere of the shattered Antarctic subsurface. And they immediately began to violently collide with the pure black River Styx under Zheng Zha’s guidance!

An effective approach, but effectiveness does not equate to victory—Alice pointed downwards, and an equal amount of Styx water crashed down. The interval between black and red unfolded in the air, then expanded rapidly outwards upon impact. The collision of energies, deliberately guided by her, became exceptionally intense, and the conceptual entanglement gave this collision a unique significance.

The entanglement of light and shadow is nothing, but the conflict between light and darkness, justice and evil, is a matter of utmost importance, enough to overturn an entire world. Under Alice's deliberate guidance, she has accepted the immeasurable curse this world has placed upon her, transforming and controlling it as fuel and resources, becoming the root of darkness within this world. And Zheng Zha, who battles her, naturally becomes the light!

The already unstable space became even more fragile than before. Countless tiny spatial cracks and collapses arose and disappeared endlessly due to the high concentration of energy. Matter collided with matter, energy merged with energy, and spacetime distortions were created. The four dimensions of this world, which was only the size of the solar system, then began to disintegrate from this point of contact.

If this stalemate continues, the outcome may remain uncertain, but the world itself will gradually suffer irreparable damage. In a daze, it seemed as if countless cries of agony and pleas for mercy echoed from the void. They sounded like entreaties, like urging. But neither Alice nor Zheng Zha paid them any heed at this moment.

In the central region of Antarctica, millions of square kilometers of land turned crimson at a visible speed. At the very center of this crimson inferno, Zheng Zha, transformed into a dragon, stood amidst the flames, sword in hand. His outer dragon form shifted slightly in the intense heat, his ability to control fire forcibly altered to the maximum extent he could comprehend through genetic modulation.

He raised his sword to meet the attack, and Long Huo immediately followed.

Alice, empowered by the River Styx, then retaliated by slaying him with her scythe.

The battle quickly shifted from contact to a stalemate. Alice couldn't repel Zheng Zha, and Zheng Zha couldn't defeat Alice. However, time was on Alice's side, because she would soon master the power of the Five Elements—a fact Zheng Zha was well aware of, but he was powerless to change it. Overcoming Alice's defensive pressure was already a hard-won victory. Anything more than that was currently beyond his capabilities.

Temporarily, not completely. The stalemate lasted only a few dozen seconds, and the clash between sword and scythe occurred only tens of thousands of times. But beyond that, the collision of water and fire, light and darkness, covering the entire world, repeated rapidly trillions of times. On the outer land, the aftershocks of this battle alone would have been enough to turn everything around into dust. But here—here, after ten seconds, there wasn't even dust left.

The ground beneath their feet had turned into a void; the Antarctic continent had been dismantled to a degree that was difficult to describe. Even if they still existed, this battle was actually irrelevant to them, because all the energy that dissipated from this battlefield was absorbed by the Styx River after twenty seconds. Apart from the two extraordinary beings, the only other entity existing in this airspace was the Styx River.

Only the River Styx, the black River Styx. Surrounded by this pure black water, Zheng Zha couldn't help but fall into thought.

Why am I fighting Margot Lloyd? Is it really for the sake of the innocent people of this world?

Ah... perhaps so, but that's probably only part of the reason. Because according to the logic of my own path, my comrades come first, while the importance of the innocent is secondary. And the reason I would fight against my important comrades on this basis is actually for the sake of justice.

One's own sense of justice.

So, what is justice?

There are too many solutions and too many interpretations to this question. From the beginning of the world to the present, countless people, both human and non-human, inanimate and living, have risked their lives, paid enormous prices, and endured cruel trials for this justice, whose true meaning can never be fully discerned. Even if their bodies and minds are reduced to dust and completely dissipated in the end, they will still feel that they have lived a life without regrets and are content before the final moment arrives.

Everyone has their own sense of justice, which is the principles and reasoning that each person must abide by. The more determined a person is, the more firmly they believe in their own sense of justice, and the more they will scoff at other ideas that are incompatible with their own sense of justice.