The battlefield was split into two catastrophic zones of raw, unrestrained violence.
Down on the scorched earth, Zahir stood his ground like an unyielding fortress against the rampaging Kaelthar. The berserk demon swung his jagged bone-cleaver in frantic, earth-shattering arcs, each blow gouging twenty-meter trenches into the bedrock.
CLANG! CLANG! BOOM!
"Die! Human scum! Die!" Kaelthar roared, his six crimson eyes bulging with manic fury as venomous purple rot hissed along his blade.
Zahir moved with cold, calculated mastery. His heavy broadsword was an impenetrable wall of roaring azure flame. He parried a crushing overhead cleave, slid under the demon's reach, and slammed a fortified, aura-infused elbow straight into Kaelthar's lower jaw.
CRACK!
Before the beast could recover, Zahir spun fluidly, his broadsword biting deep into the demon's right shoulder. Violet blood sprayed, but Kaelthar retaliated with a savage backhand that forced Zahir to cross his steel-plated forearms and skid back thirty paces, carving deep trenches through the soil.
"You're fast, little beetle!" Kaelthar snarled, steam hissing from his wounds as dark ether stitched the torn flesh. "Your stamina is mortal! Mine is boundless!"
"Boundless?" Zahir smirked through bloodied teeth, the azure fire around his blade roaring twice as bright. "Let's see how boundless you are when I take your head!"
High Above the Clouds: The Primordial Clash
Above the mortal struggle, the atmosphere had warped into an apocalyptic storm of violet lightning, golden radiance, and emerald death mist.
Lord Ghost Demon hovered at the apex of the tempest. Across his shadowy chest, the seven dormant sin seals pulsed with an ominous, low hum—silent and locked.
The monarch knew full well that the catastrophic power of the Seven Devil Angels and the unsealed sins could only be commanded once he attained the apex of his demonic cultivation—The Scarlet Form. Until that threshold was crossed, the seals were an untouchable vault.
Yet, even without the sins, Lord Ghost Demon was a primordial monarch of the Nether whose sovereign authority had crushed entire civilizations.
"You wield the Death God's edge with remarkable finesse, Rehan," Lord Ghost Demon whispered, his shadowy form flickering like an unstable phantom in the gale. "You think holding a divine relic elevates a mortal to godhood? Let me remind you what true Nether authority looks like!"
The demon monarch raised both hands. The sky behind him tore open into an ocean of pure, suffocating darkness.
"Ghost Monarch Primordial Art: Abyssal Phantom Maelstrom!"
The fabric of space screamed.
Tens of thousands of colossal, pitch-black phantom blades forged from ancient Nether-fire manifested in the upper atmosphere. They swirled into a colossal, apocalyptic drill of condensed gravity and dark lightning, hurtling downward to grind Rehan and the surrounding dimension into atomic dust.
The sheer atmospheric pressure alone caused the ground miles below to cave in.
Rehan's amber-jade eyes remained completely calm, devoid of fear.
He didn't step back. He didn't build a defensive barrier.
In his right physical hand, the first Death Sword blazed with the concentrated brilliance of his Zenith Sovereign Domain. In his left phantom hand, the second Death Sword roared with the primordial emerald necrosis of the Death God.
He lowered his stance in mid-air, drawing both blades back as the dual energies spiraled around his arms like twin dragons.
"Twin Death Sovereign Art: Dual Helix Horizon Severance!"
SHRRRRK—KABOOOOOOOM!
Rehan slashed upward in an absolute 'X' cross.
Two colossal, interlocking crescents of molten gold and sovereign emerald erupted skyward, expanding into a cataclysmic shockwave that cleaved the entire Maelstrom cleanly in two. The phantom blades shattered on contact with Rehan's twin edges, exploding into harmless glittering dust.
Before the detonation could even dissipate, Rehan blurred through the shockwave using Horizon Step, arriving directly before Lord Ghost Demon.
His left phantom blade thrust forward like an executioner's spear toward the demon lord's throat, while his right blade swept horizontally to bisect his demonic core.
CLANGGGGGG!
Lord Ghost Demon's shadow claws hardened into impenetrable void armor, catching both blades by their flats mere centimeters from his flesh. The kinetic collision sent a deafening shockwave rolling across the horizon, blowing away the surrounding clouds for miles.
At point-blank range, their gazes locked.
Rehan's steady, piercing gaze bore into the bottomless crimson void of the demon lord's eyes.
"You're relying only on your primordial base, Ghost Demon," Rehan said coldly, stepping forward as his blades pressed harder against the demon's claws. "Your sins are locked. Your angels are asleep. Without your Scarlet Form... you are merely an overgrown shadow standing in my way."
Lord Ghost Demon's fangs bared in a terrifying, savage grin as dark violet sovereign lightning crackled violently across his horns.
"Then I shall break your bones with my bare hands, mortal!"