Awakening of the Mind Sovereign
Chapter 54: The Sovereign’s Paradox - 3

Chapter 54: The Sovereign’s Paradox - 3

The realization spread through the fighters.

This was no ordinary power.

It wasn’t raw strength.

It wasn’t speed.

It wasn’t even energy manipulation.

Echo had done something else entirely.

The warriors who had been ready to fight suddenly felt their hands shake.

Even the most battle-hardened among them had never seen something like this.

The Mighty Ones beings who had ruled this battlefield for decades were staring at Echo with a mixture of caution and dread.

For the first time in their reign

They weren’t sure they could win.

The Inevitable Battle

The silver-haired warrior took a step back, gripping his hand where the spear had once been. His expression was calm, but his body was tense.

"So... this is the power that broke the Third World."

Echo finally spoke.

His voice was quiet. Unshaken.

"No."

The warriors stiffened.

Echo’s next words sent a chill through them all.

"This isn’t power."

He lifted his hand slightly.

And in that moment

The sky split open.

A deep, deafening sound tore through the air as if space itself was being unraveled.

The battlefield quaked, massive cracks forming beneath their feet.

And above them

A fracture in reality itself had appeared.

The silver-haired warrior’s eyes widened in shock.

The other Mighty Ones moved instantly, preparing to launch their attacks.

But Echo remained completely still.

And then

He lowered his hand.

The fracture sealed itself.

As if nothing had ever happened.

The Mighty Ones hesitated.

It had only lasted a fraction of a second.

But every warrior in the battlefield had felt it.

The terrifying sensation that, for a brief moment, they had all been standing on the edge of oblivion.

The silver-haired warrior exhaled slowly.

Then, for the first time, he grinned.

"Good."

He rolled his shoulders, energy crackling around him.

"Then there’s no reason to hold back anymore."

The other Mighty Ones nodded.

And in that instant

The true battle finally began.

---

The battlefield was silent.

It wasn’t the silence of anticipation, nor the stillness before an explosion of battle.

It was the kind of silence that came after death.

Echo stood alone.

All around him, the remains of the elite fighters lay scattered. Some had been torn apart, their bodies unrecognizable. Others had simply vanished wiped out as if they had never existed.

And then there were those still alive but barely.

Their bodies twitched. Their faces twisted in pure terror. Their hands clutched at their chests, their throats, their heads as if they were trying to hold themselves together.

But they weren’t bleeding.

They weren’t wounded.

And yet, something inside them had been broken beyond repair.

It had only taken five minutes.

No.

It had taken one step.

The Fourth World’s Mightiest

The Celestial Energy Fighters had been unstoppable before this.

They were warriors who had ascended past the Unified Energy of the Third World. Their bodies had been strengthened by celestial forces, their minds expanded beyond mortal limitations.

Each of them could destroy an army alone.

Each of them could crush entire kingdoms.

Against them, Echo should have been nothing.

But reality had proved otherwise.

They weren’t just defeated.

They were erased.

And the worst part?

No one had even seen how it happened.

From the stands, the judges and elite warriors stared in disbelief.

One of the veteran fighters, a man whose arms were marked with celestial runes, clenched his fists.

"This is... this is wrong." His voice was low, but filled with something that sounded like fear.

Beside him, an elderly warrior, one of the great Battle Masters, exhaled sharply. His face, which had remained cold and indifferent through countless battles, was now pale.

"This isn’t just strength.

"This is something else."

The arena walls cracked under the weight of what had just transpired. Even the air itself felt unstable.

It was as if reality itself had been forced to accept something unnatural.

The Judge’s Verdict

The lead judge, the same old man who had recognized Eiko’s impossible power in the previous round, rose from his seat.

His hands, usually steady, were shaking.

He had seen thousands of battles. He had witnessed generations of warriors rise and fall.

But he had never seen anything like this.

Eiko hadn’t just won.

He had changed the nature of combat itself.

The judge opened his mouth, his voice meant to declare the victor.

But before he could speak

BOOM.

A massive shockwave erupted through the arena.

A figure descended from the sky.

No not one.

Four.

They weren’t ordinary fighters.

They weren’t even like the Celestial Energy elites.

These were the Lords of the Fourth World.

They were beings who had long abandoned the mortal struggle for power—because they had already claimed the peak.

They weren’t here as challengers.

They weren’t here as spectators.

They were here because Echo had forced their hand.

Because what had just happened couldn’t be ignored.

The first to land was a massive warrior, his body covered in golden armor, his face hidden behind a mask.

He landed so hard that the entire arena sank beneath his feet.

"This tournament is over." His voice rumbled like thunder.

The second was a woman wrapped in black robes, her eyes glowing like twin stars. She hovered in the air, looking down at Echo with a gaze filled with something dangerous.

"This is beyond the laws of the world."

The third, an elderly scholar draped in ceremonial robes, simply sighed.

"You were supposed to stop at the Third World." His voice was calm, almost sad. "And yet, here you stand."

The last to arrive was a man in blood-red armor.

Unlike the others, he wasn’t speaking.

He was smiling.

A slow, dangerous grin.

His eyes locked onto Echo’s.

"I was getting bored."

And then

He attacked.

The man in red armor moved faster than sound.

One moment, he was standing miles away.

The next, his fist was less than an inch from Echo’s skull.

BOOM.

The shockwave from his punch obliterated everything behind Echo. The stands, the stone walls, the massive pillars of the arena all of it disintegrated.

But Echo?

He didn’t move.

The punch that should have annihilated him

Stopped.

The red-armored man’s grin faltered.

His fist was still there.

But it had stopped just short of touching Echo’s skin.

Not because Echo had blocked it.

Not because he had dodged.

It was as if the attack had simply failed to happen.

The other three Lords of the Fourth World tensed.

The golden-armored warrior’s voice was quiet.

"What are you?"

Echo tilted his head.

And then, he took his second step forward.

The moment his foot touched the ground

The sky changed.

The massive floating temples in the distance shook.

The colossal mountains at the edge of the world trembled.

The energy of the Fourth World the very foundation of power that had governed warriors for thousands of years

Cracked.

The Lords of the Fourth World beings who had ruled over all others staggered backward.

For the first time in their existence

They felt fear.

Echo exhaled.

And then, he finally spoke.

His voice was calm. Quiet.

But it carried across the battlefield like a storm.

"Let’s begin."