The scar in the heavens remained unmoving—an open wound, bleeding silent flame across the sky. From it, Ravahn descended slowly, his ten corrupted wings unfurling with a majesty that once inspired legends but now evoked dread. Each wing bore a different hue of ruin: ash-gray, abyss-black, blood-crimson, and pale gold twisted with divine rot.
Liu Shen stood upon the highest ridge of the Phoenix's Perch, the Third Abyssal Beacon humming beneath his feet. Around him, phoenixes old and young gathered in formation, their flames united in a synchrony not seen since the first rebellion.
But against Ravahn's presence, the air itself felt thinner—as though the world hesitated to breathe in his presence.
"Demon Sovereign," Ravahn called, his voice calm, melodic, but wrong. "I heard your name spoken in whispers… yet I see the same fire in your eyes. Still trying to climb back from the pit you fell into?"
Liu Shen's gaze did not waver. "I didn't fall. I was pushed."
A faint smirk twisted Ravahn's lips. "Still playing the victim. Even after all these centuries."
The assembled phoenixes flinched—not at Ravahn's words, but at the raw force in his aura. He was no longer just phoenix. His power now bore traces of divine decree and abyssal corruption. A hybrid of celestial treachery and abyssal transmutation.
Yu Meixing stepped forward, eyes narrowing. "You weren't corrupted. You chose this path."
Ravahn turned his gaze to her. "Ninth Shadow… or rather, the one who holds her soul now. I remember the day your sect begged for light. And you—were the only one who spat at the heavens."
"Because I saw what they truly were," Meixing hissed.
Ravahn's smirk widened. "And yet here you are—still clinging to a Sovereign who led us all to ruin."
Without warning, Ravahn spread his wings.
And the heavens responded.
From the scar above, beams of corrupted flame surged down, striking the defensive barriers Liu Shen had activated earlier. The Phoenix Perch trembled under the weight of celestial pressure.
In the same moment, Ravahn vanished.
Liu Shen's instincts flared—and he ducked, raising his arm to block a talon strike from behind. Sparks erupted as Ravahn's claws met Liu Shen's reinforced armguard.
"You're slower," Ravahn noted, fading away again. "Rebirth has its price."
Liu Shen's blood stirred, demonic qi exploding outward. "So does betrayal."
The two clashed mid-air—flame against flame, power against power. Each exchange was more than martial; it was the shattering of philosophies. Ravahn fought with divine techniques interwoven with abyssal flame—an unnatural union. Liu Shen responded with a fusion of his demonic arts and phoenix-style movements passed to him by the Ashen Oath long ago.
The skies turned into a battlefield of color and silence.
Below, the phoenixes engaged the corrupted ones. Fire met fire, but the corrupted flames devoured, twisted, and turned their victims hollow. Still, the Ashen Oath held strong, for they were no longer flames of pride—but of purpose.
On the ridge, Huoyan Xue took command, leading phoenix squadrons with terrifying precision. Meixing unleashed her shadow techniques, weaving illusions that forced the corrupted to turn on each other.
Liu Shen and Ravahn crashed back to the ground.
Blood splattered. Both were wounded.
"You've grown," Ravahn admitted, wiping his chin. "But not enough."
He raised a hand, summoning a vortex of corrupted essence—a flamestorm laced with celestial decree. "This… is the Heavenbrand Cataclysm. Granted to me by the Sky Lords themselves."
Liu Shen didn't flinch.
Instead, he called upon the Abyssal Beacon.
The mountain trembled. A crimson pillar erupted from the depths, colliding with the Heavenbrand Cataclysm mid-air. The resulting shockwave shattered clouds and burned a thousand trees to cinder.
Ravahn faltered—just for a breath.
Liu Shen appeared before him in that breath.
And drove a fist into his chest.
The sound was dull, but the impact echoed like a gong of judgment.
Ravahn staggered back, coughing dark flame.
"You've lost the right to call yourself phoenix," Liu Shen said coldly.
But Ravahn's grin only widened.
"Good," he rasped. "Then let me show you what I've become…"
From his back, a twelfth wing began to form—one not of flame or shadow, but pure celestial light, malformed and leaking.
The fusion was not complete.
But Ravahn was evolving.
And Liu Shen knew: if he didn't end it soon, Ravahn would become something that even the heavens feared.