The argument between Varna and a drunken Vikraal finally came to an end. Vikraal took a sip of liquor from his golden goblet. Standing at the court gates with his two comrades, Vikraal clenched his left fist, raised it towards the sky, and said, "Now just watch what our organization does to that sect within these 1.5 weeks."
A few days later, on a similarly dark night, Varna was enjoying his drink. He finished the liquor in his golden goblet and asked the servant standing nearby with a jug to refill it. The servant immediately filled Varna's goblet to the brim. Drunk out of his mind, Varna said to the servant, "You can leave now."
Following Varna's order, the servant took the liquor jug and left the court. After a while, Varna started feeling something weird around him, as if someone's shadow was roaming inside the palace. But he was so drunk that he ignored the feeling.
Just then, a shadow stepped into the court and moved towards Varna. Varna also sensed the shadow approaching him. He thought that the servant with the liquor had entered his court again. He looked at the shadow with his heavy eyes and slurred, "Hey servant...? You came back? I ordered you to leave, didn't I? So why did you come back?"
Ignoring Varna's words, the shadow kept moving forward. Seeing this, Varna said in an angry, heavy voice, "Can't you hear me? Hey...?"
As soon as that shadow stepped into the white moonlight coming through the window, Varna's eyes widened in shock. A breathtakingly beautiful woman stood in front of him, looking like a piece of the moon itself. Anyone who saw her would desire such a beautiful woman, but looking at her, Varna felt absolutely no lust. He felt no love, no greed, but an intense surge of anger, as if he had just seen an enemy he wanted to strangle with his own bare hands. Gritting his teeth, he directed his fury at the goblet in his hand. Slowly, he crushed the metal goblet, stood up from his throne, and threw it away.
Pointing his finger at that beautiful woman, Varna roared in absolute fury, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY PALACE? MAYAAAAA....?"
In the blue moonlight, Maya didn't flinch. She didn't speak, nor did she make a move. She simply stared at Varna standing in front of her, who was radiating so much hatred that he looked ready to erase her from existence right then and there.
Tensing up, Varna clenched his fists and said, "You bitch. You ran away from the Kavla Forest back to your sect, didn't you? So what are you doing here...? Do you want to die?" Opening his palm towards Maya and slowly clenching it into a tight fist, he added, "Do you want me to grant you salvation with these very hands?"
These threats didn't affect Maya in the slightest. Instead, looking at her, it felt as if she was enjoying Varna's hatred. A terrifyingly satisfied smile rested on her lips, one that looked downright scary.
Seeing this, Varna grew even more furious. He pulled out a golden mace from the ring on his left hand. It was massive and covered in huge, sharp spikes everywhere, looking like a heavy weapon meant to tear through flesh and crush bones into powder. He threw the mace straight at Maya's head, but Maya stood her ground. Just before the mace could hit her head, a faint golden layer appeared in front of her, absorbing the blow of the mace. Sparks flew as the mace was deflected; it brushed past Maya's defense art and crashed behind her. The mace scraped against the floor, digging a deep, straight trench into the expensive marble.
Varna knew that Maya wouldn't come here alone without any defenses. He slowly walked down the stairs and summoned the mace back to his palm. Varna's mace trembled, lifted from behind Maya's defense art, and flew straight back into Varna's hand.
Walking forward with a tone full of hatred, anger on his face, and arrogant mockery, Varna said, "So tell me, why did a bitch like you, who always hides in a hole, come here to fight alone with her chest puffed out like an idiot?" Resting the mace on his shoulder, he let out a bitter laugh, pouring venom into his voice, "Let's see how I tear your fragile-looking body into pieces today. The pain you caused by treacherously killing my friend, my people, and the biggest sin—killing my master... TODAY I WILL EXACT REVENGE FOR EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM....!"
"That's it?" Maya mocked with a laugh. "I thought you could go to any lengths to kill me?" Looking down at him with annoyance, she said, "Hah... what a disappointment. This is exactly why you are so weak. You couldn't even save your loved ones, so how are you going to kill me?"
Her taunt infuriated Varna so much that he wanted to rip her tongue out with his bare hands. "I will fucking..." Varna roared in anger and charged at her again.
Varna attacked Maya directly with his mace. He aimed his heavy mace at every weak spot on her body, but because of Maya's defense array, every single heavy blow of Varna failed. The golden light of the defense array and the massive mace clashed against each other, creating heavy shockwaves and a tremendously powerful impact. Every strike felt like a collision between heavy vehicles.
Varna then struck directly at the lower section with his mace, putting every ounce of strength from his arms into the blow. The defense art and the mace clashed once again, but this time, the results were different. Maya's yellow defense art cracked under the massive attack, and fissures began to spread across it. Maya immediately backed away from Varna to protect herself.
"Is that it?" Varna mocked. "How long will this fake defense art keep you alive? Let's see how many pieces I shatter it into next time, and then I'll see how you dodge my attacks."
Maya stayed silent for a moment. After a brief quietness, she said, "There is no need to get too happy. I was just testing your strength." Slowly regenerating her defense art with her origin essence, she extended her empty hand forward and softly challenged him, "Keep talking. Before you can shatter my defense, I will cut you to pieces."
"Let's see how you cut me," Varna said with immense arrogance. He tightened his grip on his mace and started pouring his origin essence into it.
Maya put her sword back into her ring and pointed two fingers of her left hand toward Varna. She slowly began gathering her origin essence into her fingers, charging her attack. She increased the output from those two fingers, causing a deep red aura to emit from them. While Maya's attack was still charging, Varna rushed forward at full speed and power, aiming for a direct headshot with his origin essence-filled mace. His attack slammed right into Maya's defense art.
BOOM!
The collision between the two created a massive explosion in the court. Dust and debris scattered everywhere. The explosion was so terrifying that the entire court was devastated. The palace cracked terribly, and the upper floor was completely blown away by the heavy blast. The upper debris flew off, and some of it crashed down into the court. The open sky was now visible from inside the court, revealing an invisible array spread all around the palace from above.
Varna had succeeded in his attack, but his strike had stopped midway. Blood was flowing down to the handle of his mace, staining his hands. Feeling that warm blood on his hands, Varna rejoiced and gave a terrifying smile, thinking he had succeeded in killing his enemy. He had finally finished Maya. Then, he tried to pull his mace back, but he couldn't pull it out. He put all the strength in his arms, desperately trying to yank his weapon free.
The dust and dirt in the court slowly began to settle, and everything gradually became visible. Through the fog of dust, Varna could see Maya's body standing right in front of him. As the dust cleared, the joy on Varna's face turned into absolute shock. Maya stood before him without a single scratch.
"But... but how?? I crushed your head to pieces....?" Roaring in anger, Varna screamed, "HOW....?"
In the fading dust cloud, a bare hand was gripping the mace tightly in its palm. The sharp spike of the mace had pierced straight through the middle of her palm. It was her blood that was sliding down the mace and onto Varna's hands.
"Any last wishes?" Maya asked, charging the origin essence into the two fingers of her left hand.
Varna was stunned and tried to back away, but before he could step back, Maya said in a soft voice, "सञ्चितविदारी (Sanchita Vidari) ."
The moment Maya unleashed the deep red slashes onto Varna's chest, the attack was so terrifying that Varna's chest was sliced open in a cross. The cut was 5 to 6 cm wide and 9 cm deep. That strike wasn't meant to cut him completely in half; it was specifically designed to keep him alive for a while.
Blood started pouring from Varna's mouth like a river. His eyes were completely bloodshot, and his grip on his weapon loosened. Only despair and agony could be seen on his face. With a heavy thud, he collapsed backward onto the debris and started vomiting blood.
Coughing up blood, Varna looked at the sky with his red eyes, finding it strange. When he looked closely, he saw the array that was surrounding the entire palace. He finally realized why, even after such a terrifying battle, not a single cultivator from his sect had managed to come here. Because this array was stopping them from entering.
Maya slowly walked towards Varna and looked down at his half-dead body. He was coughing and spewing blood. He couldn't even breathe properly.
"Are you still alive?" she asked softly. "I didn't use that attack to kill you completely."
"An array.....? What kind of array did you lay that isn't letting my sect's people come inside?"
"Alright fine, I'll tell you this one last time," Maya said in a slow tone. "This is an illusion array. For the people outside the array, it shows the surrounded area as completely safe and normal at all times. And for everyone living inside the array, it shows them the everyday normal life they want to see, never letting a single target get even a hint of what is actually happening around them."
"That attack...? You should have been weakened because of the poison. So how did you use power more than 2 realms above yours....?" Varna said while coughing.
"It's a charged attack. I created this art myself, designed to kill a cultivator 1 realm above me in a single strike. And as for the poison," Maya said, removing the layer of illusion from her left arm to reveal those terrifying black veins, "I have suppressed it for a while, and I will soon find a cure for it too."
"This is no ordinary poison. Its cure hasn't been made yet, and it never will be. You only have 2 weeks. You will slowly lose your power, and in the end, you will become half-dead and die a painful, agonizing death." Coughing and placing his hand over his wound, Varna said, "What could be happier than that."
Pointing the two fingers of her left hand at Varna once again, Maya said arrogantly, "Anyway, I will find a cure for it. Now, it is just time for you to die."
Varna started laughing while coughing, spitting blood from his mouth. "Even if you kill me, how will you save your sect?" After a deep breath, he said in a fading voice, "Even if you want to, you won't be able to save your sect."
Striking straight at Varna's chest with her origin essence-filled fingers, she said, "Don't worry so much, I am more than enough alone."
With that terrifying strike, Varna's voice fell silent forever. The deep red aura from Maya's fingers slowly began to fade.
In her final moments there, Maya opened a portal behind her, tearing the surrounding space to form a black whirlpool. The portal looked like a vortex of dark water with faint lightning crackling through it. As she was leaving, she said, "Your last attack was truly lethal. Even though you put your own life force into increasing your and your weapon's power, you still couldn't harm a single hair on my head." She turned, looked at Varna's corpse, and added, "Anyway, let's see how your secret organization attacks my sect."
Then, Maya stepped into her portal and vanished.
After Maya left, her illusion array slowly began to shatter.