EVIL SYSTEM

After resting for a bit, everyone continued moving forward, but this time it was Dante who carried the injured man, and Ben went completely unburdened.

This gave Ben a hint about what was about to happen, so he stayed fully alert.

Upon reaching the 28th floor, Ben encountered two armed men. With great ease, Ben subdued and killed them with his bare hands, trying not to make too much noise.

"Everything's clear, follow me," Ben said, but he received no response.

He turned to look behind him but found no one.

Where had they gone?

Ben didn't even have time to ask himself more questions when his heart began pounding wildly. The hairs on his body stood on end, and instinctively, almost as if he sensed it was the only way to survive, he used his most powerful magic.

[Shadow Leap]

As his body dissolved into the shadows, a strange figure shot through the spot where he had been, destroying everything in its path.

Half of the staircase was obliterated, and Ben had no choice but to reappear on the 28th floor.

Ben hadn't fully materialized when he felt a punch coming swiftly toward his side. He only had time to raise his guard and take the blow.

His body was sent flying through walls and pillars, barely losing momentum in the process. Again, his attacker appeared behind him and, with another punch, sent him soaring.

Ben's eyes began to glow with a red shimmer, and he started trying to track his attacker's movements.

On the third blow, with his mouth full of blood, Ben caught a glimpse of his attacker's silhouette and struck with all his strength.

Bammmm!!

Ben's fist connected with his attacker's arms, making him slide a meter before stopping.

The punch gave him a moment to catch his breath and observe his attacker closely.

The man was tall and burly, with a sack over his head and a red robe on his body.

Ben recognized him immediately—it was the man who had attacked them on the highway.

He raised his strong, burly arm in a gesture of demanding something, palm open.

"The key."

Ben instinctively touched his pocket, and the man attacked at that moment. The floor shattered with each of his steps and made the entire level tremble.

Ben took a deep breath and raised his left arm in a fighting stance.

In the blink of an eye, the man appeared in front of Ben and connected his fist with Ben's arm, which broke easily, sending him flying.

Ben gritted his teeth and endured the pain. With his feet, he slowed his speed and kept his eyes on the man's figure.

His eyes glowed with a red shimmer, tracking every one of his movements. When the man appeared again, Ben managed to dodge the blow and even land his own punch on the man's face.

Ben's arm healed quickly, and when they faced each other again, they were back to square one.

The man with the sack over his head began cracking the bones in his neck, his posture completely relaxed.

Slowly, a purple aura began pulsing from his body, and a chill ran through Ben's body.

All his limbs and fingers began trembling uncontrollably. His body seemed to know it was in danger and entered a hyper-reactive mode.

For brief moments, Ben entered the third level of his martial art.

Level 1: Hearing.

Level 2: Sight.

Level 3: Touch.

In a blur of purple light, the man appeared before Ben, but Ben deflected his punch with an unnatural smoothness.

The man's stance faltered, and Ben struck his chest with his palm, sending him flying.

Ben didn't know what was happening; he was moving without even thinking.

*His body was moving on its own!*

Without his consent, his body was acting on pure instinct, moving with such fluidity that it seemed unreal.

The man spun in the air, braced himself against a pillar, and launched back at Ben, shattering the pillar in the process.

Ben's body moved on its own and met the man with a knee to the chin, slamming him into the ceiling.

As if that were nothing, the man charged at Ben again.

Blow after blow, they engaged in a physical fight at a level never seen before. With each strike, they destroyed walls and pillars.

Slowly, their battle was weakening the building's very foundation and made it begin to tremble, threatening to collapse.

Even with his senses heightened to such a level, Ben was still slower and weaker than the man, so every so often, he took a hit that sent him flying and disrupted his rhythm.

Rolling on the ground, Ben collided with a fallen pillar, grabbed it like a baseball bat, and swung it, sending the man flying to the other side of the building.

[Reinforcement]

The man whispered as his figure vanished again and reappeared right beneath Ben.

His punch, filled with that purple energy, struck Ben square in the chin, sending him crashing through the ceiling.

The power of the punch was so great that Ben began breaking through ceiling after ceiling until he reached the grand hall where Michael was finishing his speech, stirring the masses.

The floor suddenly began to tremble when, out of nowhere, Ben's figure burst through the floor and became firmly embedded in the ceiling of the grand hall.

Several of the people who had been in the spot where Ben was hurled out were sent flying through the air, wounded with varying degrees of severity.

Some had only scratches, but others bore the brunt of it, even suffering broken limbs.

Ben was unaware of all this; the blow was so powerful that it knocked him unconscious throughout the entire process.

Michael looked up at the unconscious Ben and let out a small smile. Kael and many others watched this sudden turn of events with bewilderment.

Out of nowhere, the floor trembled again as a large portion of it collapsed, and from it emerged a man bathed in a purple aura.

He tore through the hall, heedless of the people in it or their lives. His frenzied charge ended the lives of several unfortunate souls who had the bad luck to be in his path.

The man ignored the crowd, Michael, Kael, and everyone else in the grand hall.

His eyes were fixed solely on Ben, who had just opened his eyes and looked at the monstrous figure approaching him.

Arrrrggggg!!!

Ben was furious. He freed himself from the ceiling and began channeling his lightning magic into his fist.

The fist filled with lightning crashed against the punch infused with the purple aura.

The lightning and the shockwave spread throughout the grand hall, causing more chaos among the people present.

Flesh and bone flew from those people who weren't strong enough to withstand the clash of these two beings.

Even those who could endure the consequences stood watching with wide eyes, like Michael and Kael, who still couldn't understand who these two people were or why they were fighting.

Ben vanished into a shadow and appeared behind the man. He grabbed his head from behind and slammed it into the ground repeatedly with great fury.

The man seized one of Ben's legs in the process, swung him with ease, and hurled him into the crowd of people.

Ben's body flew through the air, crashing this time not into pillars, but into human bodies.

Bodies that weren't strong enough to withstand the force with which Ben was thrown.

His body was covered in the blood and flesh of innocents, but neither of them stopped their battle.

Moving through the shadows, Ben appeared in the man's shadow and connected a powerful uppercut to his chin.

He unleashed all his magics at once.

[Cursed Space]

[Lightning Field]

[Shadow Leap]

Two different energy fields enveloped the entire grand hall as Ben leaped between shadows around the burly man, delivering either a punch or a kick with each disappearance.

Ben seemed like a fleeting shadow that vanished and reappeared, leaving disaster and destruction in his wake.

The man tried to hit him, but every time he threw a punch, Ben disappeared.

The more blows Ben landed, the more he began to see the effects. The man, who hadn't bled until now, began to gush blood from everywhere, and Ben moved with greater speed and cruelty until he had no more magic left.

Gasping for air, he stood looking at the man, who was still standing.

He was covered in blood from head to toe, but he was still standing.

---

+++++++++++

A little chaos never hurts. I told you this arc would be pure chaos. Even I don't know what's going to happen. I'm writing as things come to me.

### Notes

Finalmente This excerpt continues the fight between Ben and the man with the purple aura, now crashing into Michael's speech in the grand hall. The key remains a fo.

### Corrections and Improvements (Per Your Earlier Request)

S.

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