"Strike him down! Kill that scheming bastard!"
"Is this the legendary heavenly tribulation? Am I watching a cultivation livestream?"
"Nice one! Heaven's putting in work! Extra chicken leg for you tonight!"
The global audience assumed this was "the Heavenly Dao's karmic wheel" in action—evil finally meeting justice—and erupted in celebration.
But only Cloud, Chin Gentsai, and a handful of others who truly stood at the peak recognized the truth.
"Something's wrong..." Chin Gentsai's expression had never been more grave. "This isn't the signature of divine punishment—it's pure destruction and judgment. Yet within this lightning... though full of annihilating force... there's also a hint of rebirth."
"He's not being punished..." A thrilled smile spread across Cloud's face. "He's ascending through tribulation!"
[SYSTEM WARNING! Target "Emperor" is using devoured souls as fuel to forcibly invoke the Laws of Heaven and Earth for body refinement! High-risk suicidal upgrade in progress! Host, prepare accordingly!]
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Bolt after bolt of lightning descended like unlimited cruise missiles, pounding the Emperor relentlessly.
He was struck until his flesh split open, blood flowing freely. At one point, he was even forced to his knees.
But after each lightning strike, his aura didn't weaken—it surged at a mind-bending rate.
He was using this heavenly tribulation to forcibly refine, merge, and unify all that chaotic, impure power stolen from dozens of masters.
When the final bolt—a pillar of divine lightning thick enough to illuminate the entire night sky—came crashing down, the whole mountain shook as if the volcano was about to erupt.
The light faded.
Where the Emperor stood, only a massive, human-shaped piece of charcoal remained, motionless, giving off the smell of burnt meat.
"Is he... dead?" Everyone held their breath.
Then, the next second—
Crack...
A fissure appeared on that charred husk.
More cracks spread like a spider's web.
Finally, with a crunch, the blackened shell shattered completely, revealing a completely renewed Emperor within.
He looked the same, but all his injuries had healed. His skin even shimmered with a faint obsidian luster. And his aura was now completely contained—not a single wisp escaped.
He had returned to his origin.
He slowly opened his eyes. Within them, all trace of madness had vanished—replaced by cold, absolute indifference that viewed all life as insects.
He had succeeded.
[SYSTEM ALERT! Target "Emperor" has completed evolution! Absolute Domain has broken through the critical threshold!]
[Current Absolute Domain: 100%!]
[New realm unlocked! As power originates from devouring and darkness, merged with subject's divine bloodline, this realm is designated: Dark Power!]
100% Absolute Domain!
A completely new realm—"Dark Power"!
In this moment, the Emperor standing there seemed to have merged with heaven and earth itself.
He was no longer "human." He was an embodiment of natural law, a walking god-demon.
The pressure he radiated was no longer the explosive, external kind from before. It was more restrained, yet infinitely more despair-inducing—an absolute suppression stemming from the very hierarchy of existence.
The spectators below couldn't even look directly at his eyes through their screens.
A single glance made them feel their souls being drawn in, frozen in endless darkness.
"How... how can anyone fight this?" Despair painted Kyo Kusanagi's face. "This is... a completely different dimension of battle now."
"Is this... the end of the Absolute Domain?" Ryo Sakazaki's body trembled instinctively.
And at the summit, facing this opponent who had evolved into a "god-demon," Cloud finally spat out what remained of his lollipop—just a bare stick.
His face broke into a brilliant smile—filled with excitement, anticipation, and the wild joy of finally being able to fight without holding back.
"Good. Very good."
"I thought I'd have to wait until the fight with Orochi to see this realm."
"Looks like... I get to graduate early."
He rolled his wrists, producing a series of pops and cracks.
A golden aura—equally unfathomable, yet radiating "life" and "light"—began to slowly awaken within him.
"Emperor, thank you for providing such an excellent stage."
Facing the Emperor—now a demigod radiating "I am a natural disaster" energy—Cloud finally discarded every trace of playfulness.
He could feel it: an unprecedented, potentially lethal pressure crushing in from all directions like billions of tons of seawater.
Before this power, space seemed to solidify. Time itself appeared to slow.
"So this is... the realm infinitely close to godhood?" Cloud's breathing grew heavy, but in those dark eyes of his, not a trace of fear could be found. Instead, battle-spirit blazed like a supernova about to explode.
He thought of Kyo and Ryo, breaking through together during their showdown.
He thought of Iori Yagami, forced to burn his very life to break past his limits while being ground into the dirt by An'un.
"Why do all you protagonist-types get to power up mid-battle while I, the Final Boss, can't?"
He mentally raged, "Having cheats isn't YOUR exclusive right!"
"Bring it! Let me feel it too—the thrill of dancing on death's edge!"
Under the dual stimulation of this ultimate pressure and his fierce desire to win, the Absolute Domain within Cloud—already at 96%—began roaring and climbing like a racing engine injected with nitrous oxide.
...
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