Jared answered with nothing but a cold snort, sword aura seeping from his pores like starlight through cracked stone. “Even caged in your little world, I can kill you both,” he said, voice low and flat as drawn steel.
He summoned the ultimate secret Maxwell had hammered into him beneath a sky of dying suns. A titanic sword phantom bloomed in his palm, its edge forged from raw intent, vast enough to cleave worlds.
“Myriad Swords Integration!” He brought the phantom down in a single impeccable arc toward the two overlords. Shock blasted across their faces; never had they imagined the prisoner could launch such force while shackled.
“Sacred Guard!” Twin golden shields erupted before them, each the size of a fortress wall, runes pulsating like terrified hearts.
Boom! Thunder louder than the birth of a star shook the canyon. Sword phantom slammed into the shields, the collision birthing a roar that tore at eardrums and sanity alike.
All Death Gorge quivered, cliffs crumbled, rock spray turning the air to gray snow. Fissures spider-webbed across the golden barrier, each crack screaming a warning of imminent collapse.
Pallor drained what remained of the overlords’ arrogance; they felt their grand defense buckling grain by grain.
“Impossible, utterly impossible! You’re only Human Immortal Realm Level Three! How can you wield such devastating power?!”
“Nothing in this world is impossible,” Jared replied, eyes like frozen lightning. “Today is the day you die…”
He drove the phantom harder, pouring every shred of celestial essence into its burning edge. The blade’s glow intensified, a newborn sun threatening to ignite the very concept of shade.
For a breathless stretch, they locked in stalemate, light against light, will against will, neither side advancing, neither willing to yield.
Minutes bled away, and strain began carving trenches across Jared’s features. Veins bulged at his temples, each motion felt submerged in tar as the merged Sacred Domain pressed harder, seeking to still him forever.
The phantom blade, pregnant with enough power to sunder heaven and earth, crashed against the golden shield.
Bit by stubborn bit, the shadow’s radiance drained away until only black motes drifted in the air, then nothing at all.
“Gah!” Agony detonated in Jared’s chest. Blood surged up his throat and sprayed out in a vivid arc, and his body flew backward like a cut kite, slamming into the rocks.
Stone caved under him, scooping out a fresh crater while dust boiled skyward in a choking cloud.
Across the ruined ground, Jaehaerys and Brennan shared a beast-like grin, their faces twisting with cruel delight.
“Well, whelp, do you believe in our might now? This gorge will be your grave,” Jaehaerys snarled. He snapped his fingers into a new seal, threads of harsh light gathering for the next, lethal strike.
Sylvia’s face blanched. A single shimmer of motion and she was ready to lunge toward the crater.
“Sylvia, stay back!” Jared’s hand shot up, voice hoarse yet thunderous. “This fight is mine. I’m still standing!”
“Jared, you’re bleeding everywhere, stop pretending you’re made of iron!”
Jared forced himself upright. His knees shook, but his eyes burned with an iron steadiness that refused to yield.
“Every brush with death rips another chain off my power,” he said, voice low yet ringing. “I’ll use this edge of the abyss to draw every last spark out of my body, right now!”
Breathing deep, he crushed the turmoil in his veins, set his cultivation roaring, and a frail yet unbreakable glow kindled around him once more.
Clutching his longsword, he staggered toward the two hall masters, each footfall wrung from whatever strength remained. Jaehaerys and Brennan traded a mocking glance. “You insist on dying… Very well, allow us the honor!”
They unleashed their art again; countless golden beams streaked out like arrows aimed straight at Jared’s heart.
He swung his sword, but pain slowed him. Shafts of light punched through his guard, carving fresh gashes and painting his body with crimson ribbons.
