"Impossible!" Disbelief filled the Emperor's eyes. "Your realm is clearly lower than mine! Why... why is your power so condensed?!"
"Why?" Cloud laughed, his smile dripping with merciless mockery. "Because my power was earned through blood, sweat, and countless fights—trained through my own hard work." He paused, his grin sharpening. "Well, and a golden finger or two. But your power? You pieced it together from others using your Star-Absorbing knockoff!"
"Your 98% Domain is like pork pumped full of water—looks big and heavy, but poke it once and it falls apart! It's all hollow!"
"You call that the Imperial Ultimate Scripture? I'd call it 'Help Me Cut My Pinduoduo Link Divine Art!'"
Cloud's tongue cut deeper than his fists.
He kept talking even as he launched his attack.
"Let me show you what real flames look like!"
"Ura Style 108: Divine Myriad Gods Orochinagi!"
Cloud brought his hands together, and between his palms, a sphere of reddish-gold fire brighter than the sun itself began to condense with violent intensity.
This was no longer merely the Kusanagi flames—it was "Divine Flame," merged with his own godly bloodline, capable of burning through gods and demons alike.
A tsunami of fire swept toward the Emperor with unstoppable majesty.
The Emperor's expression shifted dramatically. He could feel it—this single attack carried enough power to end his life.
He frantically pushed the chaotic energy within him to its absolute limit, erecting a barrier of pure resentment before him.
But before the ultimate yang, ultimate purity of that Divine Flame, those yin-attributed, resentment-forged defenses might as well have met their natural nemesis. They were purified in an instant.
BOOM—!!!
His defenses crumbled like dry leaves. The Emperor took the full brunt of the Orochinagi's wave, sent flying like a struck bowling pin, smashing deep into the distant mountainside. Rock shattered, dust billowed, leaving behind a massive human-shaped crater.
"Cough... cough cough..."
When the dust cleared, the Emperor emerged from the crater—blackened, clothes in tatters, struggling to move.
One of his arms hung at an unnatural angle, clearly fractured.
He had lost.
Despite having the higher realm, he'd been utterly humiliated by a single technique.
Cloud's mocking words about being "full of water" echoed in his mind like a curse.
"AAAAAHHHHH—!!!"
Absolute fury and humiliation stripped away the last of his sanity. He threw back his head and howled, his voice thick with defiance and madness.
"I... am the EMPEROR! How could I possibly lose to a mere commoner like you?!"
"Power... I need MORE POWER!!!"
The force within him—that unstable amalgamation of dozens of masters' cultivation—went completely berserk under his frenzied prodding.
An aura more terrifying, more evil than anything before exploded from his body.
[SYSTEM EMERGENCY ALERT! Target "Emperor" is initiating emergency life-force overdraft! Energy levels rising abnormally!]
[Absolute Domain climbing... 98.5%... 99%... 99.9%!!!]
At 99.9%—that threshold infinitely close to "godhood"—the Emperor's body finally reached its breaking point.
Pfft...
Blood sprayed from every pore like crimson arrows.
His eyes, nose, ears—all bled freely. In seconds, he became a blood-soaked figure of nightmare.
Yet his aura reached an unprecedented, despairing peak.
Now he stood upon black clouds, wreathed in blood-mist. Those eyes held nothing human anymore—only pure, cold, absolute indifference that regarded all living things as nothing more than grass to be trampled.
99.9% Absolute Domain!
This was no longer human power. This was... a demigod.
The entire mountain groaned beneath the weight of this force.
The crater began belching thick smoke. The volcano that had slumbered for centuries seemed ready to erupt at any moment, awakened by this overwhelming power.
The spectators below had lost the ability to speak.
Through their screens, they could only watch that figure—like a demon lord risen from hell—and feel despair threatening to spill through the very pixels.
"It's over... it's all over..."
"How... how can anyone fight this? This is an actual god, isn't it?"
"Cloud! Run!!!"
Facing this Emperor—transformed into a god-demon with power that defied comprehension—Cloud finally set aside his carefree demeanor.
His expression grew deadly serious, focused like never before.
He looked at his opponent, standing there bathed in blood-mist, and spoke slowly, deliberately.
"I was planning to leave you with an intact corpse."
"Now I see... that won't be necessary."
"Before you die, let me show you something."
"The gulf between mortals and gods... the chasm that can never be crossed."
...
Atop Mount Fuji, snow gleamed white, and all was silent.
Were it not for the sea of journalists and spectators swarming below like migrating ants, this would have been a realm of isolated purity.
But now, it had become an arena—one watched by billions, where the fate of the world would be decided.
The main course had only just been served.
"Die!" The Emperor roared, transforming into a black streak too fast for mortal eyes to track, bringing mountain-shattering power down in a single punch.
"Imperial Dragon Mountain-Crusher!"
This punch contained the full might of his 99.9% Absolute Domain, along with the lifetime cultivation of dozens of hidden masters.
Before the fist even landed, the sheer wind pressure carved deep furrows into the volcanic rock beneath them.
Even someone as powerful as Cloud felt unprecedented pressure facing this blow.
This pressure even exceeded what he'd felt against Goenitz.
Goenitz had been strong, certainly—but ultimately constrained by the Three Sacred Treasures, limited by the rules.
The Emperor before him felt more like a "GM's favorite son" running resource-modification hacks. His total power reserves were simply unreasonable.
...
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