The battlefield stilled for a heartbeat. The Godslayer stood, his wife's blood soaking into his armor, the infant wailing in his arm. His head bowed, shadow veiling his eyes.
Then the world broke.
The black sword erupted in lightless brilliance. No flame, no lightning only a void that devoured all light. The aura of countless slain gods poured from it, drowning the battlefield in suffocating killing intent.
The golden-eyed brother clutched his severed arm, his face twisted in disbelief.
"Impossible… even now… he still has strength—"
The Godslayer's head snapped up. His eyes were no longer human. They burned with abyssal light, twin suns of destruction. His voice rolled across the battlefield, shaking the marrow of all who heard:
"You will know why the heavens called me Godslayer."
He moved.
The first strike cleaved through the jade-flute woman's sound barrier. The vibrations shattered like fragile glass, exploding into shards of silence that cut her own lips. She screamed as blood sprayed from her mouth, flute cracking in half.
The second strike fell upon the void cultivator, the man cloaked in shadows. He tried to slip into nothingness but the black blade severed the void itself. His scream echoed from both reality and nothingness as his body was ripped apart, half in this world, half in the void.
The third strike met his golden-eyed brother again. Spear against sword. This time, the heavens themselves split. A mountain range crumbled to dust from the clash, rivers boiled into steam. The brother's knees buckled, his golden aura cracking like porcelain beneath the weight of abyssal qi.
"You can't hold him!" another shouted, panic cracking the calm they once wore like armor.
The Godslayer's laughter roared across the battlefield, wild, bloody, unbroken.
"You thought eight could chain me? You thought betrayal would break me? Look upon me, traitors! Even bleeding, even dying.I am still the end of your heavens!"
He swung again, every stroke a cataclysm. With each movement, the sky fractured deeper, the ground beneath collapsing into abyssal pits. The very laws of the realm groaned under his defiance.
And yet, even as he struck, the infant never fell from his arm. Every movement shielded the child, blade carving death while one arm cradled fragile life.
The divine patriarch his father finally raised a hand. A vast palm of heavenly law descended, pressing even the air into ash. His voice was thunder without mercy:
"Enough. This ends now."
Chains of light erupted from the heavens themselves, coiling like dragons around the Godslayer's limbs. His sword screeched as it tore against them, sparks of law shattering in every direction. For the first time, his berserk fury slowed.
The eight pressed their chance, rallying beneath the patriarch's suppression. Blades, flames, spears, and domains crashed upon him from all sides.
The Godslayer roared, veins bulging, aura erupting anew yet blood poured freely now, his body fraying under the storm.
Still, his voice cut through the chaos:
"If heaven itself must fall for him to live… then heaven will fall!"