Solomon twisted his hips and brought the silver longsword crashing down in a flawless execution of the first form. The Paladin raised his massive executioner’s sword with a single hand.

A sharp ring of steel echoed across the blank canvas as the ancient knight completely stopped the downward momentum.

Before Solomon could pivot into the second form, the Paladin flicked his wrist. The parry violently threw Solomon completely off balance and sent him tumbling across the invisible floor.

The ancient warrior rested the flat of his blade against his shoulder. "How dare you use my own imperial arts against me."

Solomon scrambled to his feet and brushed imaginary dust from his bare knees. "You literally spent years teaching them to me so I could defeat you. I am obviously going to use them in a fight."

He launched himself forward again. They clashed violently across the white void, exchanging rapid blows. However, the duels remained entirely one-sided. Solomon utilized perfect technique alongside his enhanced physical stats, while the Paladin barely shifted his boots.

The towering monster deflected every single strike with minimal effort and constantly knocked the boy to the ground.

After a brief pause to catch his breath, Solomon charged once more. The spar ended exactly like the dozens before it. The Paladin delivered a brutal pommel strike to Solomon’s ribs, sending the boy skidding across the canvas. Blood spilled from Solomon’s mouth.

A fraction of a second later, the golden light of the domain washed over his skin and instantly sealed his wounds.

Solomon pushed himself up to his knees and gripped his silver hilt tightly. His chest heaved as he glared at the pristine white armor. The ancient knight completely refused to take the match seriously.

"I am going to take out every single piece of frustration I have endured in this cursed labyrinth directly on your skull," Solomon promised, pushing himself back to his feet. "I will completely dismantle you."

The Paladin planted his massive sword into the unseen ground and crossed his gauntlets over the pommel. "If you manage to put a single scratch on my armor, I will completely surrender and send you back to the physical world."

Solomon spat a glob of blood onto the void and raised his weapon. "I absolutely do not believe a single word coming out of your helmet."

He sprinted across the gap and unleashed a blinding flurry of diagonal slashes. The third form carved a web of kinetic energy through the environment. The Paladin easily sidestepped the primary arc, bringing his own weapon up to cleanly deflect the remaining strikes.

"You chain the forms without any pauses," the Paladin instructed mid-spar, sliding his blade along Solomon’s guard to force the boy back. "You spam the imperial arts like a mindless brawler. These techniques demand a massive toll on your physical endurance. Constantly chaining them will completely drain your stamina and drastically reduce your speed for the subsequent attacks."

Solomon lunged forward to execute the fourth form. He compressed his momentum into the tip of his longsword. The Paladin effortlessly batted the thrust aside and delivered a swift kick to Solomon’s midsection.

"You must learn to control the output of your strikes," the Paladin continued while watching the boy hit the floor. "You have to calculate exactly how much strength you put into every single attack. A fighter who exhausts his entire energy reserve on a missed swing will immediately lose the battle."

Solomon grabbed his bruised stomach and glared upward.

"You get tired inside this mental void," the Paladin explained, gesturing to the endless white expanse. "Nonetheless, you do not feel the true, crippling lack of stamina like you would in the real world. This domain artificially sustains your body."

The ancient warrior took a step closer. "I can instantly heal your broken bones and mend your bleeding flesh. I cannot, however, manage or limit your physical output. Your consciousness belongs entirely to you. Once you return to the labyrinth and start using the imperial arts with your actual physical body, you will instantly understand my warning. The immediate physical drain will teach you how to properly manage your output."

Solomon wiped his chin and tightened his grip on the silver longsword, fully preparing to test the limits of his stamina once again.

Solomon swung the silver longsword in a wide arc. The Paladin deflected the strike with the flat of his executioner’s sword. The resulting kinetic shockwave forced Solomon to slide backward across the unseen floor.

"Once you finally awaken your aura, you will fuse it directly with your blade," the Paladin instructed, easily maintaining his guard. "That fusion will exponentially amplify the overall power of your strikes. The exact output depends entirely on the sheer strength of your inner aura."

Solomon caught his breath and lunged forward again. The Paladin batted the incoming thrust aside with a casual flick of his wrist.

"The exact same principle applies when you eventually awaken a mana core and cast magic," the ancient warrior added while parrying a follow-up slash. "You hold the freedom to evolve the Imperial Sword Arts however you see fit. Modifying the foundations to match your own physical traits will make the strikes infinitely stronger."

Days bled into weeks inside the endless white void. They clashed continuously across the blank canvas. Solomon threw his entire arsenal at the towering warrior, swinging the silver blade with absolute fury. Yet he completely failed to leave a single mark on the pristine white armor.

Every spar brought Solomon closer to matching the ancient knight.

One hundred days vanished into the white horizon. Solomon chained the first four forms together with blistering speed. The ferocious onslaught finally forced the Paladin to actively move his boots and shift his stance to evade the attacks.

Two hundred days faded away. Solomon refined his footwork and eliminated every wasted motion. His strikes grew incredibly precise, forcing the ancient knight to raise his massive executioner’s sword to physically block and parry the incoming assaults.

Four hundred days merged into the brutal routine. Solomon incorporated his thirty-four combat techniques into the formal arts to attack from entirely unpredictable angles. The Paladin tightened his grip on his hilt and abandoned his relaxed posture.

By the seven hundredth day, Solomon planted his boots and unleashed a flawless sequence of diagonal strikes. The resulting kinetic force pushed against the ancient knight’s guard. The Paladin had to take an actual step backward to absorb the impact.

Exactly one thousand two hundred days passed since the endless dueling began. Solomon launched himself forward and feinted a downward chop before instantly snapping his hips into a brutal horizontal sweep. The silver blade bypassed the Paladin’s guard entirely.

A screech of metal echoed across the void as the tip of Solomon’s sword gouged a thin line directly across the white steel breastplate.

Solomon hit the unseen ground and rolled to his feet. He looked at the scratch on the pristine armor and lowered his weapon while a deep scowl twisted his features. His chest heaved violently as he fully processed the nature of their endless duels.

He was the only person initiating the offense during the entire sparring period. The ancient warrior had spent all one thousand two hundred days playing pure defense without launching a single counterattack.

"Are you mocking me?" Solomon demanded, tightening his grip on his hilt until his knuckles popped. "You acted like a training dummy for years. Start fighting back right now and get serious."

The Paladin gripped the hilt of his massive executioner’s sword with both gauntlets and slightly shifted his boots across the invisible floor. He brought the massive steel blade down in a vertical chop to answer the boy’s demand.

Solomon raised his silver longsword to catch the incoming attack. The immense force completely shattered his guard and sheared straight through his torso, separating the upper half of his body from his legs.

He collapsed onto the white canvas while a blinding agony scorched his severed nerve endings.

Golden light instantly flashed across the separated pieces of his body. His torso and legs violently snapped back together, knitting the flesh flawlessly within a fraction of a second.

Solomon pushed himself off the unseen ground while the phantom pain still burned his internal organs. A wide grin stretched across his face, and he immediately gripped his restored weapon to lunge straight back at the ancient knight.

The Paladin deflected the incoming thrust with a casual flick of his wrist. He watched the boy launch another furious assault with absolute fascination.

Any ordinary person would completely lose their mind after experiencing the literal sensation of being cut in half. Even highly decorated adventurers often broke down mentally when trapped in endless death loops.

Solomon merely laughed while swinging his blade again, proving to the ancient warrior that his instincts were completely accurate when he chose to pull this specific consciousness into the void.

Solomon had spent three years breaking his own body and enduring the burden of a completely useless SSS-rank talent. People constantly ridiculed him and called him the Strongest Loser.

He developed an entirely unbreakable mind through years of endless humiliation and physical torture, rendering him virtually undefeatable in spirit.

The sparring continued relentlessly for hundreds of days without a single moment of rest.

"I will strictly use the first four physical forms against you from this point forward," the Paladin announced mid-spar. He sidestepped a horizontal sweep and delivered a brutal pommel strike to Solomon’s ribs. "I will absolutely refrain from using the advanced magic arts during our duels."

Solomon stumbled backward and coughed up a splatter of blood onto the void. "What happens if your undead corpse decides to cast another spell outside?"

"I will hold the magical core back with my remaining consciousness," the ancient knight promised, raising his massive sword to block a diagonal slash.

Solomon pushed his silver blade against the pristine armor. "Your corpse literally just vaporized half the arena with a mana blast before you pulled me in."

"My concentration momentarily slipped while I focused on dragging your mind into this domain," the Paladin replied. He easily shoved the boy backward with the flat of his blade. "That will absolutely not happen again."

The cycle of combat repeated endlessly across the white canvas. On the exactly four hundred and seventy-seventh day of this serious sparring phase, Solomon planted his boots firmly on the unseen floor. He feinted a downward chop and instantly snapped his hips into a devastating forward lunge.

The silver longsword bypassed the massive executioner’s blade completely.

The steel tip plunged straight into the Paladin’s shoulder joint, tearing deeply into the pristine white armor and drawing a crimson line of blood.