In the protection of the god's domain the Gods of the Pantheon watched, their bodies having forgotten to even breathe.

They had just witnessed an act of agonizing self-mutilation.

Their Emperor, God Cosmos, had, before their very eyes, torn his own soul in two. The scream from his torment, a pain that overshadowed what they have seen in their entire life, still lingered in the air, a chilling show of his unshakeable will.

Finally, as the second, ethereal form of Sunny stabilized, the six billion Gods let out a collective sigh of relief.

Sunny, the main soul, looked at his identical twin, his other self, and smiled. "Go," he commanded. "Occupy the body of clone number one."

The second soul, a perfect copy of his will and his power, and his purpose, simply nodded.

It moved as a streak of cosmic light, and phased into the body of the waiting clone.

The clone, which had been standing by like a mindless, robotic sentinel, suddenly twitched.

Its head snapped up. The empty, masked gaze, which had only ever reflected orders, was now filled with a new intelligence. It was no longer a clone. It was him.

"You know what to do," Sunny's main body said.

"I will perform my duty," the newly awakened clone replied, his voice identical, his resolve absolute.

With that, Sunny, the original, turned. And he walked. He strode past Adam, past the sixteen allied Gods, and he stepped directly through the shimmering barrier of his God's Domain.

He was leaving the protection of his God's Domain. He was walking out into the attacking range of Edgar, to stand alone between his enemy and his people.

He was fortunate. He had waited according to his intuition. If he had copied Soul Splitting before the tournament, he would have had no barrier, no God's Domain to protect him during that agonizing process.

Edgar would have killed him a thousand times over.

But now, the gambit was in motion. He stood in the open void, the God's Domain a unbreakable wall behind him.

He had to drain Edgar's power, to force the beast to expend his stolen strength. And the only way to do that was to take the hits himself.

As he walked, he heard it. A scream of agony. It was his scream. Back inside the barrier, his second soul, now in possession of clone number one, had already begun the process anew.

It had activated Soul Splitting again, its own divine form convulsing as it began to tear itself in two.

'One becomes two. Two become three. Three become four,' Sunny thought, his resolve was as hard as a diamond, forged in the fires of that agonizing pain. 'This is the only way.'

"Oh?" Edgar's voice boomed, a sound of mocking delight. "How brave! The little rat is finally brave enough to leave his hole." He looked down at the tiny, robed figure, a speck of dust before his colossal sized form.

Sunny ignored the taunt. He let go of his Charged Explosion talent, his God's Authority reallocating his power.

He focused on a new talent, one of simple, brute-force utility. Size Manipulation. A talent that was needed as the only weakness of Sunny currently was his brute strength.

He poured his mana into it. A torrent of energy, drawn from his own, vast reserves. He began to grow.

The Gods and demigods watched, their minds, which had just been shattered by the soul-splitting, now breaking all over again.

Their Emperor, a being they had only known as a man-sized, was expanding.

He grew past the size of a mountain, past the size of a moon, past the size of Veridia itself.

In a matter of moments, he became slightly larger than Edgar, his gaze looking down on the figure of Edgar.

He had done this for one reason: defense. In this brawl, a greater size meant a greater, more resilient form.

He was ready to take as much hits as possible, to save the lives of those who believe in him.

"Do you think," Edgar's voice was that of a pure amusement, "that by matching my size, you can match my power?"

The demon god lunged. His fist shot forward, aimed at Sunny's gut.

But Sunny, his mind amplified by Combat Master, a talent forged from the experience of millions of fighting styles, was ready.

He didn't try to block, it would be a foolish act against a being of such overwhelming strength. Instead he redirected it.

He caught Edgar's wrist, his own, Giant hand guiding the blow, turning the demon's own momentum against him, and letting the punch slide harmlessly past his form.

As Edgar's punch met only empty void, Sunny felt it. A minuscule, almost imperceptible shift.

Edgar… he had become a few centimeters smaller. The sign he had been waiting for. The monster was spending his power.

The Gods in the stands watched this clash of titans in horrified awe. They had known their Emperor was powerful.

But in just ten short days, he had gone from a new God to this. A being who could stand, fist-to-fist, with an ancient, Legion-Born demon.

The battle raged. It was not a battle of elegant spells or cunning tricks. It was a brawl.

A brutal primal fight. Edgar threw a relentless storm of punches, kicks, and tackles.

Sunny, the master of combat, met every single blow. He blocked. He endured. He redirected. He parried.

This continued for several, agonizing minutes. And then, back within the safety of the God's Domain, the second scream of soul-tearing agony finally stopped. It was done.

Sunny's third soul was born.

He ordered it to possess the body of clone number two. A moment later, a second and the third colossal figures stepped through the barrier, their size inflating to surpass the size of Edgar.

Edgar's furious assault faltered. He stopped, his red, circular eyes widening in confusion. There were… three of them?

And as he hesitated, the original Sunny, the main soul, shrank. His colossal form deflated in an instant, returning to his normal, man-sized shape.

He stepped back behind the barrier, leaving his two identical selves to face the demon.

A pained smile on his face. He sat back down on his manifested throne, his main body trembling from the pain from the still damaged soul, which will take a long while to recover.

Still he was not done. He immediately activated Soul Splitting again, this time on his main soul, which had just been given a few precious minutes to recover.

But before the world ending agony could take hold, he did something new. He let go.

He severed his own consciousness from his main soul, surrendering to the pain, and in that very instant, switched his control to the two clones now standing before the baffled demon god.

'I am not a coward,' he thought, his new, dual consciousness reassuring itself as it felt the distant, main soul beginning to tear itself apart again. 'I just wish to fight this demon personally.'

The two giant clones, now under his direct control, cracked their colossal, cosmic knuckles.

Edgar, facing two identical, colossal, and infuriatingly calm opponents, roared in frustration.

This was no longer a fight. It was a mockery. "I will kill you both!" he shrieked.

He lunged at one. As he decided to deal with them one at a time. He grabbed the body of clone number two, his massive hands a cage of black-and-white energy.

And then, his entire body, his skin, his flesh, opened. Trillions of microscopic pores tore open, and from them, an energy began to exit.

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