The Dragonslayer Sword met the phantom head-on, gold light slamming into choking black mist.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Sparks cascaded like hissing meteors. Dragon cries and sword howls tangled through the third level, turning shattered columns into spinning shrapnel of light and shadow.
Cyanna watched from the side, heart pounding, able only to force the creeping black energy from her meridians.
The spirit’s might matched at least a Level Three Heavenly Immortal. Its every strike was that of a seasoned butcher, aimed at Jared’s vitals and his soul.
Jared fused sword intent, Five-Element force, and Time Deceleration into a single desperate dance. Yet steel barely harmed a body of pure spirit, while each gust of its breath stabbed at his consciousness.
“Boy, you cannot keep this up,” the Vermilion Demon Lord rumbled inside Jared’s mind. “Its core is the Demon Dragon Core, dead center of its brow. Split it!”
Jared had seen the weakness himself. He dropped his guard, inviting the spirit in; the creature took the bait and drove a hooked claw toward his exposed chest.
“Now!” Jared’s eyes erupted with golden light.
Light bent as Time Law unfurled, and the claw slowed by a heartbeat’s fraction. Deep within his sea of consciousness, the Golden Tome shuddered and released a flood of blistering pure positive brilliance.
“Divine soul strike, cut!” Jared roared, voice splitting the air.
Pure brilliance braided itself into an invisible golden blade. Riding the monster’s talon, it drilled straight into the shimmering core that pulsed between the spirit’s eyes.
“Argh!” The cavern rang with a scream so jagged it felt carved from steel.
The Demon Dragon Soul writhed beneath Jared’s positive aura, holy fire chewing through the creature‘s smoky body like sunrise devouring shadow.
Black energy ripped away from the gem embedded in its brow. The crystal flickered madly, and the once-solid specter thinned to a brittle pane of glass.
Jared growled, “While you’re down, I finish you!”
He thrust the Dragonslayer Sword forward, unleashing its fiercest intent.
The move, Golden Dragon Sunders the Void, flared in blinding gold and cleaved toward the phantom’s neck.
Rip!
Sword light tore straight through soul-flesh. With one final, furious wail, the Demon Dragon Soul burst apart into glittering motes.
The Beast-Subduing Tower swallowed most of that energy, while the draconic essence on Jared’s chest quietly siphoned the rest.
The battle was over. Chest heaving, Jared staggered, every muscle trembling from the effort. He turned toward the stairway leading to the fourth floor.
The barrier of light, once blazing there, now sputtered and faded, weakened by the phantom’s demise.
“Jared, are you all right?!” Cyanna asked, worry sharpening her voice.
“I‘m fine,” he answered, dismissing her concern with a curt breath.
After a brief pause to steady himself, Jared strode to the base of the stairs. “We’re heading up; Coall needs us.”
The moment they set foot on the fourth floor, Jared’s breath stalled.
The chamber sprawled wider than all the levels below, yet it looked like a battlefield ripped from a nightmare.
Coall stood at its heart. There was something terribly wrong with him. Crimson light burned in his eyes, while coils of the same black demonic vapor that had cloaked the Demon Dragon Soul wrapped his battered scales.
Fissures ran along his hide, spilling black blood, and his aura surged in wild, ragged waves.
The treasures that had once floated here were gone. From the torn void jutted chain after chain, each link ablaze with black flame. Like venomous serpents, the chains lashed and coiled around Coall; every strike deepened the corruption in his aura and ripped a roar of agony from him.
“Coall! Wake up!” Cyanna cried, panic cracking her voice. She lurched forward a step, desperation shining in her eyes.
Coall heard nothing. His blood-red gaze snapped toward Jared and Cyanna, locking on them with predator’s intent.
“Argh! I’ll kill you, devour you both!” Coall thundered, his voice crashing through the tower like falling stone.
Coall bellowed, a sound half-man, half-beast, as he hurled himself forward.
The roar rolled across the chamber like a thunderclap, and black vapors swirled around him in a crashing tide. He had always been formidable. Now, intoxicated by that demonic haze, his strength exploded, brushing the threshold of the Heavenly Immortal Realm.
