Chapter 1007
Chapter 1007
“G-Grandfather?”
Raon stared in utter disbelief at the broad, upright back of Glenn standing firmly ahead of him.
“How could you possibly be here…”
Just moments before, Raon had been steeling his resolve to gamble his very life on the Demon King’s Authority because Larian was on the brink of death. Yet, entirely against expectations, Glenn had materialized out of nowhere to intercept the Heavenly Demon’s strike. The shock left him breathless and dumbfounded.
“We couldn’t allow a repeat of the past, could we?”
Glenn gave an unhurried nod, explaining that he and Larian had already set preparations in place for every foreseeable crisis.
“It seems you have endured a great deal.”
A gentle, reassuring warmth touched his face as he looked toward Raon and Evelyn.
“I… I…”
Raon pressed his quivering lips together.
‘Where do I even begin?’
He wanted to lay bare everything that had transpired during this confrontation, but seeing that warm expression on Glenn’s face choked back his words.
“We can listen to your explanation afterward.”
Glenn softly patted Raon on the shoulder as though it were all a trivial matter, then turned his gaze back toward the Heavenly Demon.
“Glenn Zieghart.”
A deep, low rumble resonated from the Heavenly Demon. The void-like flames that had previously consumed his gaze were now ignited by sharp intrigue and genuine amusement.
“I never anticipated you making an appearance here.”
Rather than facing an adversary, he reacted with the exhilaration of meeting a long-lost peer. Up until now, no one had ever withstood the weight of Glenn’s presence head-on without flinching. True to his reputation, the Heavenly Demon wielded an unfathomable, peerless martial might.
“Is ‘Heavenly Demon’ the title I should address you by now?”
Glenn tilted his chin slightly, scrutinizing the figure before him.
“It appears your conduct has warped right alongside your name.”
A scowl of profound displeasure crossed his brow.
“The man you once were would never have stooped to targeting green fledglings, would he?”
Glenn clicked his tongue in clear disdain, remarking on how hollow and crude the man had become during their years apart.
“Since my blow has already been thrown, I have no intention of making excuses.”
The Heavenly Demon conceded with a nod, openly welcoming the scorn.
“Even so, referring to those two as mere ‘fledglings’ hardly fits the reality.”
His gaze sharpened as his eyes drifted toward Raon behind Glenn.
“After all, those very children under your wing were the ones who reduced The Fallen to this state.”
Opening his palm, the Heavenly Demon allowed a fragmented shard of The Fallen’s mask to hover in the air.
“…”
Glenn clearly registered the lingering essence of The Fallen’s soul drifting from that broken piece, yet he did not relent or soften the crushing density of his aura.
“Even taking that into account, such an act could hardly be worthy of your notice, could it?”
Glenn’s scowl deepened, his irritation growing sharper.
“There is a justification, though I have no desire to waste breath explaining it.”
The Heavenly Demon raised both arms, signaling that he had no interest in settling the matter through dialogue. Both he and Glenn unleashed their immense pressure, locking eyes as two unstoppable forces refusing to give an inch.
A pitch-black deluge cascaded from the Heavenly Demon’s shoulders, pulverizing the bedrock beneath and forcing scalding magma to erupt from the torn crust.
The unrestrained presence of two absolute Transcendents was bending reality itself into a waking nightmare.
“We need to fall back.”
Larian grabbed Raon by the arm and yanked him backward without delay.
“That brainless brute. That actually stung quite a bit.”
Wincing, she shook her flushed, throbbing hand once they were clear of the Heavenly Demon’s immediate reach.
“Did the Master of the Magic Tower arrange for the Lord of the House to come?”
Raon let out a tense breath, his gaze fixed on Larian.
“Truthfully, I anticipated Derus might show his face, but this outcome works out just as well.”
Larian offered a light chuckle, explaining that the failsafe had been designed with Derus in mind rather than the Heavenly Demon.
“Just how did you…”
“I place zero faith in the machinations of destiny. My choices come strictly from practical experience.”
She offered a mocking scoff as she eyed the shattered remains of The Fallen’s mask.
“Explanations can wait until later. We must retreat even farther.”
Larian warned that lingering anywhere near Glenn would guarantee they wouldn’t leave behind so much as a splinter of bone, urging him toward where Evelyn and Mark Goetun were resting.
“We should let those freaks tear each other apart.”
Even though she herself was an extraordinary anomaly, she clearly recognized a distinct chasm separating her from the Heavenly Demon and Glenn.
“Can you hold on?”
Raon hurried over to Evelyn, who had collapsed onto the dirt, and Mark Goetun, who was struggling on one knee.
“I can manage…”
Evelyn offered a strained, faint smile, trying to convince him she could bear the pain.
“I… I am still standing.”
Mark Goetun nodded in agreement, even as fresh blood spilled past his lips from severe internal trauma. Knowing how little either of them could be believed when claiming they were fine, Raon resolved to keep a vigilant watch over both.
“Every scrap of my healing sorcery is spent. Swallowing these restorative pills is your only option for now.”
Reaching into empty space, Larian manifested several spherical medicinal spheres and urged Evelyn and Mark Goetun to ingest them.
“Take yours as well, Raon.”
She tossed a restorative pill to him next, offering the medicine with the casual ease of distributing everyday snacks.
“…”
Raon crushed and swallowed the pill between his teeth, his attention never wavering from the confrontation between Glenn and the Heavenly Demon.
‘Will Grandfather truly be all right?’
For the very first time in his life, a seed of genuine anxiety sprouted within Raon regarding Glenn. The Heavenly Demon commanded not just godlike martial superiority, but also the terrifying Demon King’s Authority.
“There is zero cause for distress.”
Larian nudged his arm lightly, easily deciphering the dread written across his features.
“A warrior like him simply does not fall. Particularly…”
Her lips stretched into a knowing, broad smirk.
“Not while your eyes are watching.”
-She speaks the truth.
Wrath chimed in with a solemn nod.
-Rather than fretting over that stubborn elder, concentrate entirely on mending your own damaged vessels.
The little demon smacked his lips, echoing that worrying about Glenn was utterly pointless. Hearing both of their reassurances eased a fraction of the tension knotting Raon’s chest. Circulating the Ring of Fire and channeling the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation, Raon observed the looming posture of the Heavenly Demon across from Glenn. The terrifying monstrosity appeared to have completely dismissed both Raon and Evelyn, not casting a single glance their way.
“Do you intend to rally Eden into the open at this very moment?”
Glenn lowered a single brow, questioning the Heavenly Demon with calm authority.
“Hardly. For now, my presence here exists solely to honor an arrangement with The Fallen.”
The Heavenly Demon shook his head dismissively, idly gesturing toward the remnants of the Heavenly Demon Spirit.
“Is it not utterly pathetic?”
A sneer twisted his mouth as he gestured from the Heavenly Demon Spirit toward the shard of the mask.
“He carried himself as though he comprehended the entirety of existence by deciphering the flow of heaven, yet this is the miserable end he arrived at.”
The Heavenly Demon tapped against the fragmented mask mockingly, then shoved the souvenir away into the depths of his mantle.
‘It is just as I suspected…’
Raon narrowed his eyes as he absorbed the blatant ridicule.
‘The relationship between The Fallen and the Heavenly Demon is deeply fractured.’
Listening to his tone, it was almost impossible to believe that both entities operated under the banner of the very same organization.
“Be that as it may…”
The Heavenly Demon swung his crimson gaze directly back onto Raon, curling his fingers tight.
“Never once have I witnessed The Fallen’s foresight miss its mark. It would seem that grandson of yours carries something truly extraordinary within him.”
He slowly moistened his lips, plainly revealing that his desire to consume or possess Raon remained unquenched.
“Indeed, the boy is extraordinary.”
Glenn conceded without the slightest hesitation.
“Yet he is a vessel far too immense for you to ever contain.”
A sharp, mocking edge touched Glenn’s lips, asserting that Raon’s potential far exceeded anything the Heavenly Demon could hope to govern.
“The truth of that will reveal itself in time.”
The Heavenly Demon offered a cold, paper-thin smirk, loosening his stance.
“In truth, trading blows with you right now runs counter to our broader timeline. That pretentious interpreter of destiny had other designs laid out. However…”
His knuckles cracked as the aura behind his visor ignited with searing crimson fury.
“There can be no harm in taking a modest taste, can there?”
As the Heavenly Demon planted his heavy stride forward, an abyssal, pitch-black combat drive burst like roaring flame across his shoulders. It was a suffocating void so overwhelmingly dense that even incoming illumination was obliterated.
“Excellent.”
Glenn elevated his chin with absolute majesty.
“I had no design on permitting your departure either.”
Voicing his intention to unleash his simmering wrath, explosive cascades of crimson thunder ripped across the perimeter, tearing through the murky twilight.
“Let us see whether this grand moniker of the ‘Demon Who Ascended to Heaven’ holds any true substance.”
Declaring that he would stand as the very heavens before him, Glenn pulled the Heavenly Tremor smoothly from his waist.
“Can you truly endure this?”
The Heavenly Demon sneered back, throwing Glenn’s own provocation back in his face.
“I wonder just how much of the law of causality that crumbling, decaying shell of yours can bear before shattering.”
He drove his balled fist forward, serving as the opening salvo. Even without pouring supreme momentum into the motion, the sheer vortex of his combat intent warped and collapsed the surrounding spatial fabric. It was a manifestation of raw power approaching divinity.
Rather than giving ground, Glenn lifted his empty left palm with absolute composure as the space-shattering strike hurtled toward him.
Without even relying on his blade, Glenn intercepted the Heavenly Demon’s apocalyptic fist using nothing but his bare left hand.
“You spun grand declarations, yet this is the extent of your might?”
Glenn shook his head calmly, subduing the abyssal combat spirit beneath the crushing weight of his scarlet aura.
“Splendid. This guarantees the engagement will not be dull.”
The Heavenly Demon’s lips curled upward, delighted by Glenn’s unyielding response. Notably, his movement lacked any rigid, codified discipline; he operated with the fluid, unrestrained savagery of an arena gladiator. Pivoting his arm into a sharp, piercing angle, a sequence of sonic detonations pulverized the air, sending a surging tsunami of black battle energy hurtling straight toward Glenn’s eyes. It was a voracious, monstrous wave designed to devour light and life alike.
Glenn brought the Heavenly Tremor down in a natural, effortless arc, resembling an instructor demonstrating basic forms. The surging blast unleashed by the Heavenly Demon split clean down the center and collapsed uselessly into the dirt.
“People claim you are revered as the Sword God these days rather than the Lightning God, and the reason is painfully clear.”
The Heavenly Demon grinned with venomous delight. Flicking a highly concentrated sphere of energy from his fingertip, he surged forward with his colossal frame. Just as Glenn obliterated the detonating orb with a swift slash, the Heavenly Demon materialized violently on his left flank.
The Heavenly Demon targeted Glenn’s flank with a devastating blow, seeking to exploit any microscopic lapse in guard. The speed was so blinding that the impact seemed to land at the very instant the movement began.
“That moniker is hardly yours to critique.”
Glenn retorted with frosty detachment, inverting the Heavenly Tremor that had just absorbed the blast and positioning the flat of the silver steel precisely into the path of the incoming fist. Under the monstrous impact of the direct collision, the Heavenly Tremor did not yield by a fraction of an inch. It was the purest manifestation of sword will, capable of eradicating even the conceptual intent of Transcendence.
“Precisely. A warrior of your stature ought to offer at least this much.”
Driving off the ground with the balls of his feet, the Heavenly Demon vanished and rematerialized directly to Glenn’s right, as though space itself had folded through the mystical art of ground contraction. The natural energy of the cosmos converged violently atop his gathered fist. Within a reality that seemed to warp and twist like mirrors in a kaleidoscope, his knuckles lashed out like blinding brilliance.
Glenn thrust the tip of the Heavenly Tremor directly against the approaching strike that was crushing the sky and the earth beneath its advance. Crimson lightning dancing across the silver steel seared through the black miasma. The absolute essence of thunder—the foundational root of Glenn’s path—pushed the monstrous combat aura back.
“Hah!”
The Heavenly Demon recoiled a step, violently shaking his hand to scatter the lingering scarlet lightning that threatened to scorch through his knuckles. He wore a savage, euphoric grin as he observed the line of blood tracing down the back of his hand.
“You truly stand apart. You are nothing like the rest.”
With pupils blazing in raw frenzy, the Heavenly Demon aimed a brutal thrust straight toward Glenn’s heart.
Refusing to yield an inch, Glenn surged forward to meet him, swinging the Heavenly Tremor as it roared with arcs of red lightning. The collision of their wills no longer generated crude, outward ripples of aura.
Within an isolated plane of Transcendence stripped entirely of sound and illumination, the two masters traded lethal thrusts directly targeting each other’s mortal points.
A single sweep of the blade severed the horizon; a single snap of the fist flattened a mountain range. It was a clash between two avatars of nothingness that felt more like a waking illusion than physical reality.
“Haaa…”
Raon drew in a trembling, ragged breath as he bore witness to the pinnacle of absolute Transcendence.
‘Could I ever reach a summit like that?’
He had taken pride in stabilizing his foothold within the realm of Transcendence, but watching the true zenith rendered him deeply humbled and ashamed of his complacency.
‘When I look back honestly, neither the Black Tower Master nor The Fallen were brought down by my hands alone.’
Chamber had thoroughly drained the Black Tower Master’s reserves, while The Fallen’s vulnerabilities had been laid bare only because Evelyn had meticulously dismantled his magical framework. Had he faced either threat in an isolated duel, total defeat would have been inevitable.
‘What is more…’
Raon’s brows knitted tightly as he watched the temporal and spatial distortions caused by Glenn and the Heavenly Demon.
‘Neither of them has committed their full power yet.’
Glenn had not even manifested his Soul Sword, and the Heavenly Demon was clearly withholding his deepest reserves as well.
‘I must absorb this. I need to glean everything I can from this spectacle right now.’
A clash between supreme figures who had surpassed the boundaries of Transcendence was an opportunity that might never present itself again. He had to etch at least one core principle into his mind before it ended.
Just as Raon sought to immerse his awareness into the cadence of their battle while aligning the Ring of Fire, a muffled, heartbreaking weeping reached his ears from behind.
Glancing over, he found Evelyn digging her bloodied fingernails into the dirt.
“Evelyn?”
Raon reached down, gently grabbing her forearms to halt her self-destructive grip on the earth.
“What is the matter?”
“The agony of it… it’s tearing me apart…”
Evelyn ground her teeth, her head hanging low.
“I told myself I could accept it, but it burns so deeply…”
Despite having agreed earlier to let The Fallen’s soul drift away, the rage within her had been violently festering beneath the surface.
“Five hundred years… five centuries of chasing him, only for this to be the end!”
Tears tinted with scarlet spilled down her cheeks as she wept, terrified that allowing the shard to vanish now meant she would never have another chance to avenge her past.
-That wretched woman…
Wrath appeared genuinely moved by her sorrow, his lips trembling as he reached out a small hand to pat her trembling shoulder. Having peered into her past, he could not help but share in her grief.
“…”
Raon pressed his teeth into his lower lip as he watched Evelyn weeping through a mixture of blood and sorrow.
‘How utterly shameful of me.’
While his mind had been selfishly preoccupied with stealing insights from a grand duel, Evelyn had been drowning in the memories of those slaughtered by The Fallen and the torment of her long suffering. A hot flush of humiliation burned across his skin for having promised to resolve her agony, only to stand by as an idle spectator.
“Do you recall what I promised you earlier?”
Raon rose to his feet, firming his resolve.
“I stated that should The Fallen ever crawl back, I would slaughter him once more. That vow…”
A fierce, sharp grin broke across his face as he began advancing toward the abyssal rupture where Glenn and the Heavenly Demon traded apocalyptic blows.
“I intend to fulfill it right now.”
“R-Raon?”
Evelyn jerked her head up in panic, her eyes wide with terror.
“Stop! You will be obliterated into nothingness!”
Larian caught his sleeve, desperate to drag him back.
“Have no fear. I am not losing my head.”
Raon placed both the Heavenly Drive and the Wooden Ring Sword onto the ground, reaching behind his back to draw the Blade of Requiem.
‘Sword Control is the only feasible method.’
Just as Larian warned, throwing his physical body into the epicenter of two Transcendents would reduce him to vaporized dust in an instant. His only viable option was to target the shard of The Fallen’s mask across the distance using Sword Control.
‘Furthermore, it can only be achieved with this specific blade.’
No conventional weapon would suffice. At this very moment, only the Blade of Requiem possessed the authority to sever The Fallen’s ethereal soul.
“Don’t do it! Please, stay where you are!”
Evelyn pleaded desperately, violently shaking her head to pull him back.
“Place your faith in me.”
Raon gave Evelyn a reassuring, gentle smile, urging her to find peace, before taking deliberate steps toward the threshold of the storm.
‘Not just yet.’
Glenn and the Heavenly Demon were merely feeling out each other’s boundaries, treating the exchanges like a preliminary warm-up. He needed to bide his time while their vital energy remained high.
‘Patience and waiting…’
Raon drew in a slow, deep breath, his fingers lightly tracing the crimson edge of the Blade of Requiem.
‘Are the skills I have mastered above all else.’
“It is just as I envisioned.”
A dark smile spread beneath the Heavenly Demon’s helm.
“You stand alone as the only soul across this entire continent capable of quenching my thirst.”
He nodded in appreciation, clearly relishing the exchange against Glenn.
“That status may hold true for the moment.”
Glenn dismissed the sentiment with an icy shake of his head, cleaving the Heavenly Demon’s incoming punch with the sharp edge of the Heavenly Tremor.
“Now that our bodies are accustomed, shall we commence in earnest?”
The Heavenly Demon pulled his clenched fist back against his ribs. As an overwhelming, tyrannical aura detonated from his frame, the sheer pressure of his mana caused the ground to undulate like an ocean tempest.
“Step forward.”
Settling the Heavenly Tremor horizontally before his center, a towering column of crimson radiance erupted from the silver blade, climbing toward the firmament. The vast, absolute presences of the two Transcendents cascaded across the world, bifurcating reality into pure illumination and suffocating shadow. It was an epic struggle between living gods of war standing at the pinnacle beyond Transcendence.
The Heavenly Demon charged forward, his eyes burning with ecumenical fury as his stride crushed the foundation of the earth. His fist descended with apocalyptic mass, feeling as heavy as the vault of heaven itself falling downward.
The Heavenly Tremor erupted upward like a crimson thunderbolt. The jagged red lightning ripped skyward, cleaving through the stormy ceiling above. As the ultimate expressions of the two Transcendents clashed, reality itself turned inside out. Countless fractured fissures ripped apart the space separating fist and steel, unleashing a tempest of catastrophic aura.
Just as the two monsters prepared to pit their void-like truths against one another, a crimson dagger glided into the rift without making a single sound. It was the Blade of Requiem, guided by the profound intricacies of Sword Control.
“That whelp of yours…”
The Heavenly Demon’s brow twisted in sudden, furious outrage.
“You have raised him with utterly wretched discipline! Glenn Zieghart!”
He whipped the back of his left hand around, intending to swat the Blade of Requiem out of the air. Yet before his strike could make contact, the Blade of Requiem warped through the fabric of space itself, hurtling straight for his chest.
“Hmph!”
Even amid the razor-thin margin of error, the Heavenly Demon managed to clamp his fingers around the flying dagger. However, the weapon was charged with far more than the simple finesse of the Spatial Sword. Fueled by Raon’s unwavering, peak will and entwined with the wrath of vengeful spirits, a brilliant blade of spiritual light erupted forth.
That slender, concentrated ray of sword intent bursting from the Blade of Requiem sliced cleanly through the fragment of The Fallen’s mask that the Heavenly Demon sought to shield.
Trapped within the severed shard, the remnants of The Fallen’s spirit let out an unearthly, agonizing wail before dissolving entirely into the wind. For the first time since the duel had begun, the Heavenly Demon ripped his attention away from Glenn and locked his gaze squarely upon Raon, his teeth clenched tight as absolute wrath and sheer shock burned within his eyes.
“You…”
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