Chapter 185
Twin Heavens (1)
Boom―!
The wall of the spire crumbled as a gray figure shot into the sky.
“Return to the Abyss.”
“Fivefold Scatter.”
With that, four figures burst forth from the shattered spire. Each one was a mirror image of Daelon, muscular mercenaries clad in simple celestial garb, sprinting between the gray spires.
“Interesting.”
The dragonkin bared his teeth in a sly grin, his eyes still twinkling with amusement.
“You’ve honed your spatial manipulation to the extreme, haven’t you? Quite the clever trick.”
Thud―
Daelon’s form launched into the air, his fist aimed at the dragonkin’s relaxed expression.
Boom!
As their fists collided, a shockwave erupted, reducing the roof beneath them to rubble.
“An amusing trick! But if your illusions are far weaker than your true self, what’s the point?”
Amidst the flurry of fists and the ensuing shockwaves, the dragonkin effortlessly blocked all of Daelon’s attacks, shouting with glee.
And he wasn’t wrong.
The insights and domain left by the Ashen Warrior were vast, even for Daelon to fully comprehend.
Thus, the illusions created by exploiting spatial gaps couldn’t match the original’s full capabilities.
The awkward sensations, the slightly lacking strength, the sealed spells due to imperfect mana control—all these factors meant that despite Daelon’s relentless assault, he was being pushed back rather than gaining ground.
“What are you trying to pull with these illusions? Show me something more entertaining! Is this all the warrior under Suum’s watch can muster?”
The dragonkin taunted with a roar, but Daelon remained silent.
For now, this was enough.
After all, the demon before him was merely an avatar, not the true form.
As long as he could buy time to devise a decisive move, that would suffice.
Thud, thud, thud!
With each fierce exchange of fists and feet, the spire was being whittled down from the top, growing shorter and shorter.
When the spire’s height was reduced to less than half, the three other figures, who had been lying in wait, suddenly appeared and charged in.
Crackle―!
The air tore apart as the spatial rend targeted the demon from all sides.
A swift punch aimed at the right shoulder.
A sweeping kick arced towards the ribs.
An elbow strike targeted the collarbone, while a kick from behind sought to unbalance him.
“Hmm…!”
For the first time, the dragonkin’s vertically slit eyes showed a flicker of surprise.
His form blurred for a moment.
And then.
Crack!
The four-pronged attack, perfectly timed to be unavoidable, was all blocked by the demon’s limbs.
[This is insane…!]
The demon of the void was stunned. It was indeed a mad display.
Not only did the dragonkin deflect the attacks, but his counterattacks pushed back the four figures.
When the Ashen Warrior had pressed him with similar moves, Daelon had used spell-enhanced abilities to counter an eight-pronged assault.
The archdemon Taalmad, however, used no spells, not even a hint of mana.
He simply showcased that insane skill with pure physical prowess.
Thud, thud, thud―!
The four Daelons and the dragonkin clashed.
The spire, already crumbling, collapsed entirely, and the ground began to cave in, forming deep craters.
With every misaligned limb and clashing blow, compressed air exploded, and the winds of mana twisted and raged.
The waves of electricity coursing through the sky fortress were naturally swept up in the aftermath, spreading in all directions.
Crackle―!!
The shockwaves and lightning storms generated by their barehanded combat began to tear apart the surrounding area, shaking the very foundation of the fortress.
“Hahaha!”
At the center of this destruction, the dragonkin, who was absorbing all the attacks, laughed heartily, as if he was finally enjoying himself.
“Yes, this is more like it! Now your punches have some bite!”
As Daelon gradually adapted to the insights left by the Ashen Warrior, his attacks grew stronger and faster with each passing moment.
Yet, the dragonkin’s momentum showed not a hint of faltering.
With his eyes narrowed to slits, he read every attack coming from all directions.
His scaled, rugged limbs deflected every blow, dozens of times per second.
[This… this is an archdemon…]
What was even more astonishing was the lack of any discernible technique or refined skill in his movements.
Martial arts, by nature, are honed and refined over time.
In contrast, the archdemon’s movements seemed devoid of any structured flow, as if he relied entirely on instinct in each moment.
It was more akin to a beast that couldn’t wield tools than a martial artist.
The attacks based on decades of accumulated martial prowess were rendered futile against those beast-like movements.
Crash!!
The attacks aimed simultaneously at the collarbone and the back of the head were easily blocked.
The shockwave that followed blew away the dust, revealing the desolation created by the two combatants.
There wasn’t a single intact structure left in the vicinity.
Even the ground beneath them had gone beyond forming craters, with massive cracks spreading dangerously.
Considering the sky fortress was collapsing, it wouldn’t be surprising if the ground gave way at any moment.
“Step.”
Thud―
Ignoring the state of the ground, Daelon advanced, aiming a knee strike at the dragonkin’s side.
Smack!
The dragonkin caught the knee with his hand.
As if catching a lightly tossed ball, he held the knee firmly.
Crunch.
The sound of joints breaking echoed from the grip of his monstrous hand. The dragonkin bared his teeth and muttered.
“Amusing, but if this is all, there’s nothing more to see.”
Swish───
With a casual swipe of his sharp claws, Daelon’s form dissolved into ashen shadows.
Slash━━━━━
The claw’s trajectory lingered in the air.
In the distance, a spire that had barely held on was sliced cleanly in half by that trajectory.
Rumble…
The mere gesture created a massive radial crater.
The surreal sight of obliterating everything within a hundred meters with bare hands.
It was a force that rivaled the strike of the Azure Scales from long ago.
Whoosh!
Unyielding, Daelon’s form darted from behind, seeking an opening.
Boom!
The archdemon erased it from existence with a mere flick of his tail. Another crater, several meters in diameter, appeared.
Snap!
Using the ground’s cracks to launch a surprise attack, Daelon was caught and had his neck twisted with ease.
Thud.
A light step unleashed a shockwave, causing Daelon’s form, which had been aiming for his back, to stagger.
Crunch!
A foot crushed a head like a watermelon, the remains scattering into ashen shadows.
The dragonkin, clutching the remnants, shouted in frustration.
“Stop with these tricks and face me with your true self! I’ll crush you just the same!”
[I’ve waited long enough.]
A voice echoed through the ruined fortress. The dragonkin turned his head sharply.
The voice came from the roof of one of the few remaining spires.
[It took some time to prepare, unlike usual.]
“Wind Shadow Barrier.”
A vortex swirled atop the spire, revealing Daelon’s form as if drawing back a curtain.
“So you never intended to fight from the start! You’re a spellcaster, not a warrior, with these cowardly tactics!”
“Coming with an army of monsters to conquer a human kingdom isn’t exactly noble, is it?”
Despite clicking his tongue, Daelon remained focused.
He hadn’t stayed out of the fray just to fall for such a low-level taunt.
Using the Wind Shadow Barrier, an adaptation of Filz’s wind barrier, in actual combat was a first for him.
Normally, he preferred to charge in head-on and destroy everything.
But this time, he held back because it was a battle that couldn’t be approached in the usual way.
“I’m almost embarrassed to have engaged this much! I had high hopes since Suum is watching, but I won’t hold back any longer!”
“Ridiculous.”
Rumble…
Daelon’s voice, accompanied by a chuckle, made the sky tremble.
“If you were alone, you’d be dead by now. Coming here as an avatar.”
The Ashen Warrior’s final strike had warped Suum’s armor.
No matter how powerful the archdemon, with an avatar and a disadvantageous match-up, Daelon, who had absorbed that legacy, was more than capable of handling him.
But that was only when facing Taalmad, who always led Suum’s first invasions.
On the battlefield now stood not one, but two archdemons. One of them, aside from Taalmad, was lurking somewhere, hidden from sight.
“It wouldn’t be surprising if it intervened at any moment. I should just assume I’m fighting two archdemons and prepare accordingly.”
The domain absorbed from the Ashen Warrior, “The Ashen Sky of the End,” was a strategic move set aside for Taalmad.
Thus, it was only right to prepare another strategy for the other archdemon.
Dalen had been biding his time, hidden among his clones, to ready this other move.
Despite having opened his domain several times, he was about to attempt something he had never tried before.
Rumble!
The sky’s roar grew more intense. Taalmad growled like a beast, planting his hands into the ground.
Crack!
His sturdy claws dug into the earth, lifting the very framework of a collapsed building and hurling it.
Whoosh—
A massive stone, weighing several tons, soared toward the spire’s roof.
It was a sight that defied gravity, like a colossal meteor shooting upward from below.
Even a superhuman capable of catching bullets with bare hands couldn’t withstand such a massive bombardment.
Yet, instead of dodging, Dalen tilted his head back, closing his eyes slightly as he faced the sky.
Rumble…
As he reopened his eyes, a flash of light descended from the sky he was gazing at.
━━━━━!!
A pillar of light pierced through the dark clouds, striking the ground.
The flying boulder was shattered into fragments by the lightning bolt.
Dalen kept his gaze upward. Taalmad, sensing a sudden warning, looked to the sky.
Rumble. Crackle…
The sky, divided between frozen blue and pitch-black storm clouds, was being invaded by something else.
A searing heat. A distant, resonating thunder.
A crimson-black storm cloud emerged, slicing through the gap, unleashing bolts of lightning and pillars of fire.
It was like a monstrous creature, peering through a massive crack, flicking its red and blue tongues.
“Domain Unleashed: The Sky of the Sealed Snow Mountain.”
The crimson-black clouds cast a shadow over the crumbling sky fortress.
Above the fortress, already tainted gray, the two domains resonated with a strange magic.
“…!”
Sensing an instinctive alarm, Taalmad quickly rolled away. In a single fluid motion, befitting an archdemon, he covered nearly a hundred meters.
Boom—!!
Just after he evaded, a pillar of fire erupted.
The immense heat from the massive column, spanning several meters in diameter, reached even Taalmad’s scales, despite his distance.
And that was just the beginning.
Crack—!!
“Thunderstorm”
The crimson-black sky unleashed a rain of lightning bolts upon the earth.
“Great Pillars of Flame”
The ashen ground spewed forth a spectacle of red fire pillars toward the sky.
The sky fortress, unable to withstand the waves of power from both sky and earth, finally began to collapse.
As the ground of the fortress started to fall, Taalmad, with a look of disbelief, spoke.
“This is impossible. It’s one thing to approach the threshold of the sixth rank… but how can two such distinct domains exist within a single human?”
“Who knows.”
Dalen lowered his head from the sky. The tower he stood on was also crumbling.
He stepped off the roof, treading on air, and looked down at the fortress breaking into hundreds of pieces.
In his eyes, red and blue energies swirled with ashen hues. He spoke.
“If you’re jealous, maybe you should pay to win too.”
“Domain Resonance”
“The Sky of the Sealed Snow Mountain”
“The Ashen Sky of the End”
The storm clouds above and the ashen shadows on the ground.
“Dual Heavens”
Between the sky fortress, the fangs of two skies clashed.