Ali raised a single finger toward the interface, pressing down even though he didn't need to, more out of habit than necessity.
"Free Attribute Points: 3.3 → 0.3"
Attributes:
Strength: 0
Body: 0
Speed: 0
Spirit: 2 → 5
Intelligence: 0
Luck: 0
The moment the change registered, an unbearable, searing pain erupted within him, unlike anything he had ever felt before, as though molten fire had been injected directly into his veins, tearing through every nerve in his body with an intensity that made even his high pain tolerance struggle to keep him conscious.
"UGH—!"
His hands shot to his skull, fingers tangling in his hair, his breathing sharp and erratic as his vision blurred, the sheer agony making it almost impossible to think, the sensation not just external but something far more invasive—something clawing at the very core of his existence, a force splitting him apart from the inside out.
Through sheer willpower, Ali forced his eyes shut and allowed himself to sink into his Spirit Realm, desperately seeking an answer to what was happening to him before the pain overwhelmed him entirely.
Inside the Spirit Realm…
When his eyes reopened, he found himself standing at the edge of his Spirit Pond, only to discover that the once-stable body of black liquid had swollen far beyond its usual size, now overflowing violently as thick, inky tendrils of Spirit energy surged outwards, consuming the pristine ground beneath him with a relentless hunger.
What had once been contained was now spilling out uncontrollably, an unrestrained storm of power that his body could not handle, the flood growing wilder with each passing second, eroding the edges of his Spirit Realm as if trying to expand itself by force, but it wasn't happening fast enough, leaving him standing at the centre of an imminent collapse.
'It's too much. Too much Spirit, and I can't contain it—it's overflowing faster than my pond can expand.'
Ali's eyes darted across the unstable landscape, taking in the sight of his once-tranquil pond now bubbling violently like a cauldron ready to explode, his mind racing for a solution, knowing that if he didn't act quickly, the sheer magnitude of energy trying to escape would rip him apart from the inside out.
The burning sensation creeping up his legs intensified, his very being struggling against the overload of raw power surging through him, a pressure so immense that his body in the real world would suffer injuries beyond what his regeneration could keep up with.
The pain that would have already killed any other player foolish enough to allocate so many Spirit Points at once, hit tolerance was giving him time to save himself.
Then, as his gaze lifted toward the massive gate standing ominously behind the pond, realisation dawned upon him, a single thought piercing through the agony with absolute clarity.
"POWER."
The word left his lips both in his Spirit Realm and in the physical world.
And then—
Everything froze.
The violently overflowing black waters halted mid-motion, their chaotic surges locked in place as if time itself had stopped.
The desperate expansion of his Spirit Pond ceased instantly, the crumbling edges of his realm stabilising in an eerie, unnatural stillness.
For a fraction of a second, all was quiet—
And then—
The Gate to the Hall of Dragons opened.
Not a mere crack.
Not just an inch.
But ten full inches.
And the moment it did, Ali felt everything change.
The overwhelming flood of Spirit energy that had been threatening to tear him apart was suddenly pulled inward, vanishing in an instant, devoured entirely by the gaping maw of the ancient gateway as if it had been waiting for this moment.
All five points worth of Spirit—
Gone.
His Spirit Pond, which mere moments ago had been on the verge of consuming his entire realm, was now completely dry, leaving behind nothing but an empty void where power once raged.
Ali's eyes snapped open.
Back in Reality…
The first thing he saw was a streak of blue lightning, crackling with raw electrical destruction, hurtling toward him at terrifying speed, fired directly from Storm's outstretched hands, her eyes glowing with divine fury as the storm clouds above thickened, rain now pouring over the battlefield, her instincts screaming at her that she needed to kill him before it was too late.
But to Ali—
Everything felt slow.
The bolt, moving faster than most could even perceive, now seemed to be crawling toward him as if time itself had been stretched thin, his perception heightened to an absurd degree, his mind registering every microscopic detail of the world around him with crystal clarity.
Yet despite the apparent stillness of the outside world, an unbearable fire continued to rage inside him, but there were no flames.
No visible blaze.
Just an intangible inferno, something deep within his core, something crawling beneath his skin, a force he had never felt before, something new, something unnatural.
And then—
The bolt struck.
A blinding flash of blue-white electricity surged across his chest—
And then—
Nothing.
VZZZZZZZZT—
The attack dissipated on impact, vanishing into thin air the moment it met his skin, as though the energy had been instantly nullified, absorbed, or simply rejected by whatever force now resided within him.
Storm's eyes widened in horror.
'My lightning—it didn't even scratch him…'
Her hands crackled violently, more powerful arcs of lightning forming in her palms, but doubt clawed at her thoughts, a sinking feeling wrapping around her chest as she realised something was wrong, something about him felt unfathomably wrong.
Ali's Perspective…
He barely acknowledged the attack.
He simply looked down at his hands.
Opened.
Closed.
Opened again.
There was something there.
Something shifting beneath his skin, something he could control.
Then—
A notification caught his eye.
"Return to Paradise: 00:40"
Ali exhaled sharply, the countdown reminding him that he was running out of time, his gaze lifting once more to the heroes surrounding him, all of them watching, waiting, some uncertain, others ready to strike, the tension in the air thick enough to suffocate.
His focus was entirely on the burning sensation crawling under his skin, an unbearable intensity that wasn't visible to the naked eye yet felt as though his very soul was being set ablaze from within.
He exhaled, flexing his fingers, watching his hand open and close—feeling the raw, unrestrained force coursing through his veins, something utterly unfamiliar yet completely under his control, as if it had always been there, just waiting for him to unlock it.
The heroes around him remained on high alert, their muscles tense, watching his every move with suspicion, hesitation, and in some cases, outright fear.
Ali raised his right hand.
He didn't chant.
He didn't prepare an incantation.
He simply commanded the power inside him—and it answered.
In an instant, his entire right arm ignited, but not with fire.
This was something far greater.
Something that didn't belong to this world.
A thick, viscous silver light erupted from his fingertips, swirling up his arm in a slow, deliberate motion, moving like a living entity, not flickering chaotically like flames but shifting like a celestial storm, an ethereal substance that was neither solid nor liquid, yet carried an incomprehensible density, as though entire fragments of a collapsing galaxy had been compacted into its form.
At its core, the power wasn't just silver—there were streaks of deep cosmic blues, radiant purples, and swirling blacks, nebula-like currents twisting within the silver mass, each tendril of energy moving with an eerie, unearthly smoothness, resembling a rift in reality itself.
Doctor Strange felt the shift in energy immediately.
His breath hitched.
His pupils dilated.
His entire body tensed.
"WATCH OUT!"
The warning tore from his throat before his mind could even process the words, his instincts screaming louder than ever before, his magical senses overwhelmed by the sheer foreign nature of the force radiating from Ali's hand.
Ali's fingers curled inward.
The swirling storm of silver and cosmic essence condensed into a single, shifting sphere floating just above his palm—small at first, no larger than an apple, yet impossibly dense, like a dying star compressed into its final, lethal form.
Then, in the blink of an eye—
It expanded.
The sphere grew, its thick silver mass churning violently, devouring the space around it, twisting the air into a vortex as the sheer gravitational pull of its presence distorted reality itself. The streaks of nebula-like colour intensified, painting the space around Ali in otherworldly hues, the energy crackling with a soundless force, bending the very fabric of existence.
The pressure alone sent tremors through the battlefield.
Wind roared outward in violent gusts, pushing back debris, rattling buildings, and forcing even the strongest of heroes to instinctively brace themselves.
The ground cracked beneath Ali's feet.
Thunder rumbled in the sky—not from Storm's lightning, but in response to him.
Doctor Strange's eyes darted frantically as he flicked his wrists, golden mandalas forming in an instant, his mind racing for a spell strong enough to counter what he was witnessing, but deep inside, a terrifying realisation sank into his gut—
"This isn't magic."
It wasn't anything he had ever encountered before.
Ali exhaled slowly, his face illuminated by the churning silver sphere, its surface thick like molten metal yet flowing like liquid space itself, the deep hues of cosmic destruction swirling violently within.
Then—
He closed his fist.
And the sphere collapsed inward.
For a moment—absolute silence.
Then—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The world ruptured.
A pillar of pure silver devastation erupted forward, expanding into a cataclysmic torrent that engulfed everything in its path, a beam of celestial obliteration that burned through the very concept of resistance, swallowing the battlefield in a wave of cosmic destruction.
Everything caught in its trajectory—matter, air, energy, light itself—was instantly consumed, the beam cutting through buildings as if they were made of mist, the sheer pressure of its existence erasing everything before it.
The shockwave followed a second later.
A deep, earth-shaking BOOM thundered across the city, sending cracks racing through the ground, rupturing streets, and toppling everything within hundreds of meters from the point of impact.
An entire skyscraper opposite Ali crumbled, its base vaporised in an instant, its top half collapsing under its own weight before smashing into the ruins below.
Yet—
They survived.
Because of one single defence.
Ali's gaze focused through the silver destruction, his sight piercing past the veil of ruin to land on a glowing barrier—a shimmering gold and red dome, standing defiantly in the heart of the devastation.
Doctor Strange stood at its centre, his hands outstretched, veins bulging from the sheer effort of holding the protective field in place, his face pale with exertion.
Beside him, Sue Storm had both arms extended, her body trembling, sweat pouring down her forehead, her Invisible Force Shield layered over Strange's magic, reinforcing it with everything she had.
But at the heart of the barrier was Wanda who's power helped stand against Ali's destructive beam of silver.
And behind them—
All of the remaining heroes, crammed together to hide from the destruction.
Ali let out a small chuckle.
He smiled.
And in the quiet aftermath of destruction, he spoke—
"I actually did that."
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