Santino blurred into a storm of molten fists and slicing wings of light. From the gaps between his fingers lanced threads of consecrated brilliance. Every strike pressed the full fury and speed of an Eighth-level Earthly Immortal Realm, denying Jared even a heartbeat of calm.
Jared reeled beneath that gale, his movements ragged. Wounds kept appearing on his body. Each golden beam clung like living fire. It gnawed at flesh, seared blood. Only the marked aura within Jared dulled the burn enough to keep on his feet. Yet in the depths of his eyes resolve ignited brighter.
Santino’s tyranny of holy power offered Insight Instead of despair. Jared began to taste the rhythm behind that radiance, and the Dragonslayer Sword in his grip answered with lines of ever-sharper retaliation.
A hiss split the air, quick and vicious. Jared caught a single flaw. The Dragonslayer Sword darted like a viper, slipped between the golden armor, and instilled a marked aura deep into Santino’s sacred flesh.
Santino grunted. His breath hitched. The golden armor’s glow dimmed, blotched by shadow.
“Courting death!” Rage and astonishment collided in Santino’s face. He did not expect his holy body would be contaminated by the marked aura.
He smashed his palm against Jared’s chest. The impact hurled Jared across the hall. At the same instant, Santino drove his spiritual energy to scour the invading marked aura, but the effort left his face darkened. They drifted apart, both dragging ragged breaths through the charged silence.
Jared’s left arm hung twisted, clearly broken. Blood spread across his shirt, trickling from the corner of his mouth in steady threads.
Santino fared better, yet new sword marks scarred the armor, one luminous wing behind hung in tatters, and his aura wavered.
Outside the Holy Light Palace, every disciple of the Holy Light Sect stood frozen, wide-eyed. Santino, their sect leader, was bled beneath the blades of a mere cultivator at the Wandering Immortal Realm.
Flaxseed’s fingers tightened around the marble rail. He lunged, heart clawing at ribs, but Corin locked an iron grip on his sleeve. “Don’t rush! Charge in now and you become a deadweight to Jared!”
“If this drags on,” Flaxseed cried, “The fight will kill Jared!”
Corin said nothing. His gaze never left the blood-streaked silhouette within the hall, but a hard, final vow flickered behind his eyes. Should Jared fall, Corin would stake every breath of his own life to carve open one last path of escape.
Inside the Holy Light Palace, Santino tasted havoc of the spiritual energy in his body. He could sense the marked aura eating up his meridian. Fear appeared in his gaze.
He leveled his stare at Jared, then split his face with a savage grin. “Excellent! It’s been ages since a foe thrilled me so. As a reward, I’ll let you witness what real power looks like!”
The moment the boast left his tongue, Santino’s aura surged sky-high, a storm tide breaking its banks.
Dulled gold flared anew. It was brighter and more powerful. The charm etched across his six radiant wings spun like molten gears awakening from sleep.
Air rippled around him. A pressure far harsher than before rolled out, and every whiff of spiritual energy across the Holy Light Plains funneled toward the palace like wind sucked into a storm’s eye.
Corin’s face turned pale.
“He… He’s about to break through!” Disbelief trembled on his lips.
Santino, trapped at the top level of the eighth-level Earthly Immortal Realm for decades, was now brushing the very threshold of ninth-level in the heat of battle.
Jared’s pupils tightened. He felt Santino’s strength multiplying by the heartbeat. The holy power grew purer and infinitely more terrifying.
Gritting his teeth, Jared swallowed the pain and poured every remaining drop of spiritual energy and marked aura into the Dragonslayer Sword, bracing for the storm to come.
Buzz! Santino’s golden light crested. Six pairs of wings unfurled, eclipsing half the vaulted ceiling of the Holy Light Palace. He opened his eyes, now stripped of all humanity, leaving only glacial majesty.
“I’m finally at the ninth level of Earthly Immortal Realm!” A triumphant howl tore from his throat. “Jared, witnessing my ascension is glory enough for you to die satisfied!”
He stepped once. The figure dissolved into a streak of gold and vanished. Jared was alert. He whipped the Dragonslayer Sword behind on sheer instinct.
