The gap in strength was painfully clear. Realizing this, Jared’s heart sank. Moments earlier, he had poured most of his power into that strike, braiding chaotic celestial energy, Chaotic True Flame, and the annihilation edge of his sword intent.
Such a blow would have sliced Mordain in two, yet against Soul Devourer, it barely survived the answering swipe and even left him reeling.
The old fiend was every bit as fearsome as the legends claimed, his strength already far beyond Heavenly Immortal Realm Level Seven, and he had not yet fully healed.
Soul Devourer’s cold voice rang out, laced with mockery, like a cat toying with a mouse. “Hmph! Pathetic! So that was your trump card? I expected better. Now, try this! Ten-Thousand-Soul Heart Devourer!”
He flashed a hand seal, and waves of demonic aura and soul energy boiled from him.
The claw detonated, dissolving into countless thread-thin soul chains as black as ink. They hissed like a nest of vipers, shooting from every angle toward Jared, each strand sharp enough to pierce steel and venomous to the spirit.
A single touch would gouge the mind from its vessel, leaving nothing but an empty shell.
Jared’s pupils contracted. The Dragonslayer Sword swept in a silver gale, chaotic sword aura weaving an airtight mesh while the Chaotic Fire Lotus bloomed behind him, scattering petals of white-gold fire to shield his body.
Metal shrieked against energy—staccato clangs, sizzling burns, a deafening storm of impacts.
Most of the soul chains shattered beneath the blade or vanished within Chaotic True Flame, yet several speared through the defenses and hammered against Jared’s celestial light shield.
The barrier shuddered violently. Needles of agony stabbed his consciousness; a choir of wailing phantoms seemed to rip at his ears.
He grunted, steadied his mind, and pushed chaotic celestial energy outward, scattering the invading soul energy, but the brief struggle slowed him by a heartbeat.
“Perfect timing!” Red light flared in Soul Devourer’s eyes, and his figure vanished like a guttered flame.
An instant later, he reappeared beside Jared. A hand, scaled in onyx and wreathed in ghostfire, drifted toward Jared’s back without a single sound. Cold power bored into his spine before the palm even touched him.
Jared whirled, the Dragonslayer Sword sweeping in a broad horizontal arc.
Clang!
Steel screamed against demon scale, the collision rattling the cavern like thunder.
Steel met sorcery. Jared raised his Dragonslayer Sword, and the naked palm of Soul Devourer smashed into the blade, spitting white-blue sparks that hissed like live comets in the dark.
The collision lit the ruined forecourt as though lightning had chosen that single slab of stone to die upon.
Force like a flood-swollen river hammered up Jared’s arm. At the same instant, a colder, cannier tide of demonic essence slipped beneath his guard, gnawing at his celestial energy and needling the tender rim of his soul.
Numbness crawled from fingertips to shoulder, his chest clamping beneath an invisible weight. He staggered back, one, two, then a dozen paces, each heel chiseling a crater into ancient stone.
Blood rose up his throat. A thin ribbon of blood slipped from the corner of his mouth before he could swallow pride and iron together.
Soul Devourer merely rocked on his heels, then lunged again with the ruthless momentum of a hurricane finally finding land.
“Nether Ghost Finger!”
“Soul-Capturing Demonic Melody!”
“Bloodbane Nether Thunder!”
“Bone-Rot Poison Miasma!”
Venomous, arcane arts spilled from the demon’s sleeves as casually as coins from a gambler’s fist. Each attack partnered with footwork so ghost-swift and attacks on the soul so treacherous that they crashed against Jared from every direction, never allowing a breath of safety.
Jared answered with the chaotic celestial energy pushed to its farthest edge. The Dragonslayer Sword split into a cyclone of mirrored blades while Chaotic True Flame roared around him, knitting a seamless shield of flame that struck even as it guarded.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Crack! Crack! Crack! Sizzle!
Steam and sparks whipped outward in suffocating waves.
The duel raced beyond mortal sight and lapped at the shores of disaster with every exchange. Each clash birthed a fresh storm of force that chewed stone into dust and hurled debris toward the distant mountains.
Where a broad plaza once welcomed pilgrims, a yawning crater now smoked—an open wound on the face of the land.
