My attributes are increasing infinitely Chapter 398 - 100 million clones vs 100 million candidates

The silent grey expanse of the trial grounds was no longer tranquil.

It was now overflowing with aspirants.

The decree issued by the Will of the Eternal Domain had functioned like a drop of blood hitting water filled with hungry sharks.

Ethan stood at the epicenter of this brewing tempest, his features unreadable and calm.

Fear was absent from his heart.

Even his initial irritation had faded away.

He had transcended mere anger, entering a state of freezing, crystalline focus.

"So," Ethan muttered, his words nearly drowned out by the sound of space itself fracturing.

"This is how the game is played. When a single piece on the board grows too powerful, you alter the laws to crush it."

He glanced down at the Sword of Infinity gripped in his hand.

The blade felt weightless, as if it had become a natural extension of his own spirit.

The weapon sensed the impending slaughter.

It pulsed with a ravenous, vibrating intent.

In the distance, the vanguard of the candidates materialized.

They didn’t arrive in small groups.

They descended by the thousands.

These individuals were the "protagonists" of their respective realms.

Men and women who had struggled from the dirt of mortal planes to reach the pinnacle of Cultivation.

Under normal circumstances, they would have been bitter rivals.

However, the tempting reward of two wishes from the Will of the Eternal Domain had unified them into a single, feral pack of wolves.

"There he is!" a voice thundered, bolstered by the power of Axiom laws.

"The Anomaly! The one who believes he can stand above us all!"

A youth clad in robes woven from liquid starlight stepped into the foreground.

He brandished a spear that leaked the essence of a collapsing sun.

Behind him, tens of thousands of others hovered in the emptiness, their gazes burning with avarice and the artificial strength bestowed upon them by the Will.

"Ethan Hunt!" the young man cried out, his laughter echoing.

"You are but a single man. We are millions! Every one of us has been elevated to an Axiom Dominion master."

"Do you truly believe you can survive being swallowed by the sea?"

"You are like a pathetic emperor of destiny trying to avoid drowning by clutching at a straw!"

The massive crowd behind him broke into mocking jeers.

The roar was like a physical blow, vibrating the very foundations of the reality they inhabited.

They recognized Ethan’s name.

They knew his face.

The Will had placed such a bright target on his back that it blinded them to the actual threat he posed.

Ethan offered no retort to their insults.

He didn't even acknowledge the young man who had spoken.

Instead, his gaze remained fixed on the ground at his feet.

He was performing a mental count.

One million.

Five million.

Twelve million.

The portals continued to discharge warriors.

The void was becoming congested.

The "ants," as Ethan categorized them, were arriving in unprecedented numbers.

To the onlookers, Ethan appeared paralyzed by terror.

He stood perfectly still, his hands resting easily on the hilt of the Sword of Infinity, which was planted firmly into the "floor" of the void.

Beside him stood a lone clone, silent and motionless.

It was a perfect replica, containing only 1% of his total power.

"Look!" someone shouted with a sneer.

"He’s so desperate he’s already summoning clones! And he can only manage one!"

"Is that the extent of your power, 'Anomaly'?"

More laughter erupted.

More ridicule followed.

"He must be driven mad by fear," a woman with flaming wings mocked.

"He stands there like a statue because he knows his life concludes today."

Ethan finally raised his head.

But he didn't look at them.

He looked through them, treating the millions of experts as if they were made of transparent glass.

"You talk too much," Ethan remarked softly.

With a casual flick of his wrist, a shimmering blue barrier surged from his body, forming a flawless sphere with a ten-meter radius.

It shielded both him and his solitary clone.

"Attack! The bastard is hiding behind a barrier!" the star-robed youth bellowed.

Instantly, the void was consumed by blinding light.

Millions of techniques crashed against the blue sphere.

Rays of pure energy.

Dimensional rifts.

Soul-shattering hammers.

Elemental catastrophes.

The collective might of millions of Axiom-level cultivators should have been sufficient to blink a reality out of existence.

Yet, the barrier did not even tremble.

Inside the sphere, Ethan sat down.

He closed his eyes and resumed his wait.

Time within the trial grounds was a flexible concept.

But for those outside the shield, ten days felt like an eternity.

Their assault never wavered.

They rotated through their ranks, channeling every drop of their newly acquired power into the blue shell.

"Why won’t it shatter?!" a candidate shrieked, his knuckles bloody from striking the barrier for forty-eight hours straight.

"It’s only energy! It has to deplete eventually!"

They failed to grasp the truth.

A standard Origin Paragon might have found it difficult to sustain such a defense against millions.

But Ethan was far from ordinary.

He was the host of a World Tree.

His Qi reserves were not a mere pool.

They were a limitless ocean.

He wasn't actively expending energy to maintain the shield.

He was doing nothing; the energy was being supplied to the barrier passively.

Within the protection of the sphere, Ethan opened his eyes.

"98 million," he whispered.

He waited for several more hours.

The void was now packed with people.

It was a literal sea of bodies, extending as far as the eye could see in every direction.

The final portals flickered before going dark.

The last of the candidates had arrived.

"One hundred million," Ethan stated, standing up.

He observed the faces pressed tightly against his barrier.

They were expressions twisted by greed, fatigue, and malice.

These were the "heroes" of the multiverse, now reduced to common scavengers.

"One last warning," Ethan’s voice projected clearly through the barrier.

"You insects should cherish your lives instead of seeking my death."

"If you retreat now, I might permit you to exist in the corners of my world."

The only reply was a tide of curses and a fresh wave of attacks.

They had lost all reason.

The allure of the wishes had acted like a plague, rotting their sanity.

"Very well," Ethan’s tone turned as cold as the grave.

"You have made your choice."

Ethan snapped his fingers.

The blue barrier did not break.

It simply ceased to be, as if it had never been there.

"Yes! We did it! The shield is gone!" the candidates celebrated, rushing forward like a massive tidal wave.

"Prepare to die, trash!"

But before the first blade could reach him, the space surrounding Ethan began to distort.

Pop.

Pop.

Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!

In a heartbeat, a clone materialized in front of a candidate.

Then ten.

Then a thousand.

Then a million.

The candidates stopped dead in mid-air.

The scene was incomprehensible.

The void, which had been packed with 100 million candidates, was suddenly filled with an identical number of Ethan Hunts.

One hundred million clones.

Each one grasped a mythical sword.

Each one stared back with the same frigid, predatory eyes.

"How is this possible?" the star-robed leader faltered, his spear shaking.

"No one can sustain this many clones."

"It has to be an illusion! They aren’t real! I bet they aren’t even real!"

He lunged at the Ethan clone directly before him, his sun-spear aimed at its chest.

"Die, fake!"

The clone remained motionless until the spear was an inch away.

Then, it caught the tip of the weapon with just two fingers.

The spear, a tool capable of piercing dimensions, snapped like a dry twig.

"Real enough for you?" the clone asked.

Ethan’s voice boomed from every direction simultaneously.

"Ultimate Domain."

The grey void was instantly transformed into a realm of pure white and gold.

The laws of the Eternal Domain were violently overwritten.

Within this space, Ethan was the sole God.

"Release," Ethan commanded.