Infinite Regeneration In The Apocalypse-Chapter 89: Stealing The Three Fruits!

"BANG!"

James’s Sword Intent slash collided with the phoenix’s flaming wings. The impact created a massive explosion that sent shockwaves rippling outward in all directions. The ground beneath them cracked and split. Nearby cars were pushed backward by the force. Windows shattered for an entire block.

Silver sword energy and crimson flames warred against each other, neither able to completely overwhelm the other. The two S-Rank talents were evenly matched in raw power.

James was pushed backward through the air, flipping once before landing in a crouch twenty meters away. His boots skidded across the asphalt, leaving long marks.

Elena remained standing where she had been, protected by her phoenix, but the strain of blocking that attack showed on her face. Sweat dripped down her forehead, and she was breathing hard.

"Impressive," James admitted with a slight smile. "The rumors about the Hellsgrain family’s Phoenix Bloodline talent were accurate. But this just makes things more interesting."

He raised his sword again and attacked

Combat erupted across the entire intersection. Techniques flashed, weapons clashed, abilities activated. The street became a battlefield as ten powerful individuals fought for control of the Evolution Fruits.

Fire met ice. Sword Intent cut through barriers. Enhanced strength shattered concrete. Speed techniques created afterimages. Energy projectiles streaked through the air like missiles.

And through it all, the massive dead tree stood in the center, unmoved and untouched, its three glowing fruits hanging tantalizingly out of reach.

Vogue watched from his hidden position, analyzing the combat carefully. Both groups were powerful, far more powerful than the average player. These were elites, people who had received the best training and resources their families could provide before entering the trial.

He could probably take any one of them in a fair fight, but fighting all ten at once would be suicide, especially after he’d already exhausted so much energy fighting Captain John.

But those Evolution Fruits were too valuable to pass up. A 10% chance at a second awakening? That was worth taking risks for.

Vogue’s mind raced as he calculated angles and probabilities, looking for an opening he could exploit.

The battle continued to rage, neither side able to gain a decisive advantage. Elena’s phoenix clashed with James’s Sword Intent again and again, their attacks creating explosions that shook the entire neighborhood.

And Vogue waited patiently for the perfect moment to make his move.

Vogue watched intently as they fought, silver sword light and blazing phoenix flames surging through the entire street in devastating waves. Each clash created massive shockwaves that destroyed multiple cars, shattered windows, and caused entire building facades to crack and crumble.

The raw destructive energy on display was incredible, far beyond what Vogue had expected from other players. His face immediately changed when the full implications hit him.

These two had already undergone their evolution!

"So fast!?" he muttered under his breath, genuinely shocked.

They were already Lower Moon Rank 1 Stellar Knights! They had completed their Osympic Trial evolution within just a day and a half of the trial beginning. That should have been impossible for normal circumstances.

Vogue didn’t know which evolution method they had used, but he could make an educated guess. They had either achieved Super Evolution by killing a thousand radiants, or possibly even used the Ultimate Evolution method by eliminating ten thousand radiants. Their families had probably provided them with resources and strategies to accelerate the process.

With their evolved bodies granting them significantly enhanced physical capabilities, combined with their S-Rank talents and what appeared to be Earth-Grade combat techniques, they would actually be able to kill him if he fought them directly!

Even with all his trump cards, Vogue estimated his chances of winning a straight fight against either one of them at maybe forty percent. Against both of them working together? Maybe ten percent at best.

Vogue gritted his teeth in frustration. He didn’t particularly need all three fruits for himself—he was already well on his way to Super Evolution through his radiant kill count. But he certainly wouldn’t let others have such valuable treasures, especially when he could sell them for precious materials, rare techniques, or artifact weapons.

The question was how to actually steal the fruits without getting killed in the process.

He squinted his eyes and analyzed the situation tactically. He could use Time Stop to freeze everyone and grab the fruits, but with their evolved bodies and powerful energy reserves, both Elena and James would likely be able to break through the temporal barrier within a second or two, just like the drill-tipped tank shell had.

He needed perfect timing. He needed them both to be maximally distracted and at the furthest possible distance from the tree.

Vogue waited patiently, his muscles coiled and ready to explode into action. He watched their combat patterns, learning the rhythm of their exchanges.

Elena would summon her phoenix for a major attack. James would counter with a Sword Intent slash. They would clash in mid-air, creating an explosion. The shockwave would push them both backward to opposite sides of the street.

There. That was his window.

Vogue watched three more exchanges, confirming the pattern. Then, when the two combatants prepared for their next major clash, he readied himself.

Elena’s phoenix gathered power, flames intensifying until the construct was almost too bright to look at directly. James channeled maximum energy into his blade, the Sword Intent growing so dense that the air around his sword began to crack like breaking glass.

They launched their attacks simultaneously.

The phoenix dove forward trailing fire. The Sword Intent slash carved through the air in a brilliant arc of silver light.

They collided in the center of the street with a massive explosion that sent both fighters flying backward, exactly as Vogue had predicted.

In that instant, while everyone was blinded by the flash and deafened by the explosion, while Elena and James were still in mid-air and unable to change direction, Vogue acted.

He immediately activated Dragon Might and Dragon Form simultaneously. His right side erupted with silver scales, his wing burst from his back, his muscles expanded with enhanced power.

"Time Stop!"

The world froze. The explosion became a static sphere of light and fire. The debris hanging in mid-air stopped moving. Elena and James froze in their backward trajectories.

Then Vogue activated Time Step on top of the already-frozen world.

The combination was devastating. With time stopped and his perception accelerated even beyond that, Vogue moved through a world that seemed carved from solid crystal. Each step took tremendous effort, like pushing through thick mud, but he was moving while everything else was completely motionless.

He immediately turned into a silver and crimson stream of light, his dragon-enhanced body leaving a trail of displaced air that hung frozen in twisted patterns. He surged directly between the two fighting groups, ignoring everyone else entirely.

His target was singular: the three Evolution Fruits hanging from the dead tree’s branches.

Vogue reached the tree in what felt like ten seconds of subjective time but was actually less than a tenth of a second in real-world duration. He leaped upward, his wing providing extra lift, and grabbed all three fruits in quick succession.

The moment his fingers closed around them, he immediately placed all three fruits into his system inventory. They vanished from physical space instantly, stored in a dimension that no one could access except him.

Time Stop shattered as Vogue’s energy reserves hit their limit. The technique couldn’t be maintained any longer.

Reality snapped back into normal flow.

Barely a single millisecond had passed in real time. From the perspective of everyone watching, Vogue had simply appeared from nowhere, teleported to the tree, and stolen all three fruits in an instant that was too fast for even their enhanced perceptions to fully track.

Two roars of absolute fury echoed from behind Vogue simultaneously.

"YOU DARE?!" Elena’s scream was filled with rage and disbelief. Her phoenix shrieked in harmony with her voice.

"Hehe! DIE!" James’s laugh was cold and murderous, his Sword Intent flaring to maximum intensity.

Both of them had been thrown backward by their own collision, but the moment they saw what Vogue had done, they canceled their backward momentum through pure force of technique. They twisted in mid-air and redirected all their attack power toward this thief who had stolen their prize.

Elena’s phoenix, which had been dispersing after the clash, reconstituted itself and dove toward Vogue with renewed fury. The flames burned hotter than before, turning from crimson to white-hot as her rage fueled the technique.

James’s Sword Intent, which had been fading, intensified into a massive crescent blade of pure cutting force that was easily five meters long. The silver energy howled through the air like a living thing.

Both attacks converged on Vogue’s position simultaneously.

Vogue’s eyes widened as he realized he had absolutely no time to dodge. His Time Stop was depleted. His energy reserves were running low. He was still in mid-air with no way to change direction.

The attacks landed on him without him being able to react at all.

The phoenix struck first, its white-hot flames consuming Vogue’s entire body. His skin began to char immediately, his blood boiling inside his veins. The heat was so intense that his dragon scales started to crack and peel away.