Jared’s aura flipped inside out. The cool edge of sword intent vanished, replaced by world-scorching demonic flame. Ebony demonic aura threaded with eerie scarlet wrapped around him, dyeing into a devil god bathed in fire.
Color rushed into his once-pale cheeks, scarlet flames swallowed the pupils of his eyes, and a crazed smile curved across his mouth with bone-deep madness.
“What… What is that presence?” Granny Deadclaw’s pupils constricted. The crushing demonic might forced to retreat half a step, and even the glow of the soul orbs in hands dimmed.
Lord Drowned Souls’ grip on his chain trembled, compared to the black-red flames now wreathed around Jared, his netherfire looked as fragile as a candle in a hurricane.
“Hehehe… You insignificant beings dare flaunt yourselves before me?” Jared’s voice no longer sounded human. It carried a choir of wailing spirits that made the air itself buzz.
He raised one hand. A pitch-black sphere blazing with vermilion flame sprang to life in his palm, warping the very space around it.
“Die!” Lord Drowned Souls roared. He wrapped his chain scythe in netherfire ten times fiercer than before, then hacked at Jared with everything had.
Jared could not even be bothered to lift a sword. He merely pointed a single finger.
Boom!
The sphere expanded into a pillar of red-black fire. The instant it met the scythe, the netherfire melted like frost beneath midday sun.
Power irresistible surged along the chain, Lord Drowned Souls’ arm snapped with a sickening crack, and the blow hurled through half a mountainside. He smashed into stone, spitting black blood, disbelief frozen on his face.
“Your turn, old hag…” Jared licked a fleck of blood from his lips and appeared before Granny Deadclaw like a specter.
Fury and terror twisted features. She fused ten soul orbs into a blood-red spear and thrust, only for Jared to seize it in his bare hand.
A guttural shriek tore from throat. The power of a thousand restless spirits gnawed at Jared’s palm, yet failed even to redden his skin, the demon flames burning from his flesh roasted them alive.
Their screams filled the air as the spear dissolved bit by bit. Shocked and panicked, tried to escape, but Jared’s free hand clamped around throat.
“No! Let me go, I-I am…”
“Enough!” Murderous intent flared in Jared’s eyes.
Crunch! Her skull burst like a melon, spraying dark green brain matter and black blood. The leftover soul orbs, stripped of control, detonated into a mist of gore. Her corpse dangled, limp, terror frozen in wide, lifeless eyes.
Dispatching Granny Deadclaw had taken a single heartbeat. Jared turned toward Lord Drowned Souls, who was only now dragging himself from the rubble.
Jared’s grin spread wider. “A moment ago, you offered me a painless death, didn’t you?”
All courage fled Lord Drowned Souls. He shook like a leaf and dared not answer. Desperation drove to erect the strongest Nether Shield of his life, sealing himself inside a pitch-black cocoon while spun to dive into a Nether fissure.
“Trying to run? Dream on!” Jared snorted.
With a flick of his wrist, the Dragonslayer Sword flew obediently into his grasp. The demonic fire enveloped it, crimson-black veins crawling over the blade, exuding a suffocating killing aura.
His arm twitched, and a ribbon of sword flame carved through the air.
Swish! The vaunted indestructible Nether Shield tore like rotted paper, and the lingering edge of the slash bisected Lord Drowned Souls from shoulder to hip.
Before the two halves hit the ground, trailing demon fire consumed them utterly. A soul remnant tried to flee, only to be swallowed in a final, despairing hiss.
