Thunder still rolled through the air.
Joren stood atop the crystal clear prison of ice, the Shadow Fiend sealed beneath his feet. Ahead of him, the Abyssal Blackscale Python coiled across the ruins like a mountain of black scales.
"Next."
He spoke softly.
To the three beast kings, the word cut deeper than any blade.
The Abyssal Blackscale Python’s violet pupils contracted to narrow slits.
Even Kyo had never made its heart pound like this.
What pressed down on it now was not merely strength. It was killing intent stripped of everything else, mixed with a hunger that wanted to tear them apart, split their bones, and drain every last drop of value from their corpses.
"Hiss!"
A shrill cry tore from its jaws.
The beast king was afraid.
For the first time in its long life, a peak Rank Five ruler trembled before a human who had only just broken through.
It could not flee.
Joren’s presence had locked onto it completely.
Then there was only one choice left.
Fight with everything it had.
Boom!
The Abyssal Blackscale Python’s vast body contracted, every coil tightening until it resembled an enormous spring compressed to the limit.
Then it launched.
No poison mist.
No probing attack.
Every ounce of strength went into this single charge.
Tens of thousands of black scales rose along its body. Dark green ghost fire ignited across each one.
It no longer looked like a serpent.
It had become a battering ram forged from flesh, a train wreathed in the fires of hell.
"You want to bet your life?"
A cruel curve touched Joren’s lips.
A direct contest of strength was the one thing he would never avoid.
Buzz.
[Heaven’s Sin] trembled in his hands as though answering its master’s intent.
Joren did not retreat.
He drew in a breath, and the protective force inside him surged into the blade like a river breaking through a dam.
[Divine Mammoth Might].
[Primordial Bladebody].
Both hands closed around the hilt.
He raised the heavy blade overhead.
Behind him, the image of a primordial divine mammoth emerged from the void and lifted its trunk toward the sky. The trunk lengthened, transformed, and became a colossal blade that seemed capable of dividing heaven and earth.
Blade Intent.
Joren’s Blade Intent.
Sever all things.
Suppress hell itself.
"Get down!"
His roar shook the battlefield.
[Heaven’s Sin] came crashing down, wrapped in thunder and immeasurable force.
At the same moment, the Abyssal Blackscale Python screamed for help.
"Move! Save me!"
It knew.
If that blade was allowed to fall, it would die.
Among the distant ruins, the Golden Dragon Falcon had only just dragged itself free from a mound of rubble when it heard the desperate cry.
It ignored the wound carved deep into its chest.
If the python died, it would be next.
"Screech!"
The Golden Dragon Falcon threw back its head.
Its golden feathers began to burn and fall from its body.
It was sacrificing the core feathers tied to its life.
Three arrows of golden blood burst from its mouth. In midair, they stretched into three spears of light, each a hundred meters long.
Their speed passed three times the speed of sound.
One targeted Joren’s brow.
One his throat.
One his heart.
[Dawnpiercer Divine Spears].
The Golden Dragon Falcon’s final measure for preserving its life.
Even the protective force of a Rank Five expert would tear like paper before those three spears.
Inside the ice prison, the Shadow Fiend began struggling with everything it had.
Crack.
Crack.
Fractures spread across the supposedly unbreakable glacial coffin.
A mental shriek invisible to the naked eye pierced through the ice and struck directly toward Joren’s mind.
Two beast kings threw their lives into saving the third.
The white bone armor covering Joren flared with blinding cold light.
[Glacial Boneplate].
[Glacial Bone Spikes].
Defense increased by 500 percent.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
The three golden spears struck the armor.
Sparks scattered across the night.
Joren’s body shifted by less than an inch.
Three pale marks appeared on the boneplate.
Then the spears shattered piece by piece.
As for the Shadow Fiend’s mental attack, breaking it apart was hardly difficult for a Rank Three Psionic Master.
"What?"
The light in the Golden Dragon Falcon’s eyes dimmed.
He had blocked both killing moves head on.
Without a wound.
That moment of disbelief was all it took.
Joren’s blade fell.
The collision shook the heavens.
The black heavy blade struck the python’s head, still blazing with ghost fire.
Its black scales had endured high explosive missiles without breaking.
Before Joren, they might as well have been glass.
The scales at the point of impact burst first.
Then the skull collapsed.
Then the blade passed all the way through.
Slice!
A fountain of dark green blood erupted dozens of meters into the air and came down as a poisonous rain.
The enormous head spun through the ruins before crashing into a collapsed building a hundred meters away.
Terror and disbelief still lingered in its violet eyes.
The headless body thrashed across the ground, smashing nearby wreckage into fragments.
Nothing remained inside it except dying nerves.
One strike.
Peak Rank Five beast king, Abyssal Blackscale Python.
Beheaded.
The battlefield went silent.
Only the hiss of poisonous blood eating into the ground remained.
The Golden Dragon Falcon hovered in the sky, its entire body trembling.
The Shadow Fiend stopped struggling inside the ice. Beyond the frozen surface, despair filled its eyes.
This strength made no sense.
There was no answer to it.
Joren stood beneath the falling blood.
[Heaven’s Sin] pointed toward the ground at an angle. Not a single drop of poison clung to its black blade, and its cold gleam had not faded.
He slowly turned toward the two remaining targets.
For one terrible instant, the Golden Dragon Falcon felt as though some ancient predator had chosen it as prey.
[Ding!]
A clear notification sounded in Joren’s mind.
[Peak Rank Five Voidbeast Abyssal Blackscale Python killed. Bloodstars obtained: 7000.]
[Spend 10000 Bloodstars to forcibly plunder purple Talent Netherbane?]
Heat flared in Joren’s eyes.
The three purple Talents carried by these beast kings were the reason he had come.
"Plunder."
There was no hesitation.
[Ding! 10000 Bloodstars deducted.]
[Plunder successful.]
[Congratulations. Purple Talent acquired: Netherbane.]
Boom!
An energy of extreme coldness flooded through Joren’s limbs and bones.
It was not the violence of thunder.
Nor was it the piercing chill of ice.
This was the stillness of the deepest underworld, where all life had already ended.
A dark green ghost flame appeared faintly within Joren’s left pupil.
The system panel opened.
[Talent: Netherbane]
[Grade: Purple]
[Description: You have returned from hell bearing authority over decay and malediction. This is no mere poison. It erases life at its source. All that you touch will rot. You walk through the living world like a sovereign of death. Every creature that approaches you will feel its end drawing near, as though its name has already been written into the ledger of the dead.]
[Nether Touch, Passive: You are immune to all poisons. Every physical and energy based attack you make carries Nether Venom. Wounds caused by this poison cannot heal, while the target permanently loses one percent of its life source every second. Conventional methods of detoxification have no effect. The condition persists until death.]
[Feast of the Dead, Active: When you personally execute an enemy, detonate the remaining life energy and soul within the corpse. Instantly restore 30 percent of your condition and reset all skill cooldowns.]
[Authority of Life and Death: Against an enemy below 10 percent life, ignore all shields and invoke Immediate Execution, killing the target outright.]
Joren nearly laughed aloud.
Wounds that could not heal.
Percentage based life loss.
A full cooldown reset after every kill.
As long as there were enemies left to slaughter, did that not mean [Void Walk], [Winter’s Burial], and [Ruinous Radiant Thunder] could be unleashed again and again without end?
An endless engine built for killing.
And [Authority of Life and Death] was even worse.
Why did this feel like he had just claimed an Elder Dragon buff?
Joren drew in a slow breath and felt the new power settle into his body.
Then he looked up at the Golden Dragon Falcon and the Shadow Fiend still struggling to break free of the ice.
"You had fun hitting me just now, did you?"
He raised his left hand.
Dark green nether fire ignited at his fingertips.
"Now it is your turn."
Joren disappeared.
[Void Walk].
Refreshed.
When he appeared again, he was already standing on the Golden Dragon Falcon’s enormous back.