A blinding golden flash splits the palace of death energy, revealing the Demonblade. His lips tremble, pale with shock at Raon's sword strike that erases the death energy.
"Urgh!"
The Demonblade hastily raises his sword to defend, but it's too late. The radiant blade that cut through the purple death energy is already at his nose. With a final brilliant flash, the golden light shatters the Demonblade's sword and carves a deep gash across his chest.
"Gah..."
The Demonblade clutches the wound on his chest, spitting black blood. Despite the severity of the injury, his groan is surprisingly quiet. He seems to have used death energy to dull his pain receptors.
"Ugh..."
Raon spits black blood as well, hunching over.
'Looks like I overdid it.'
Even with Askara's Fighting Spirit, the death energy invades his body and mind the moment he lets his guard down. He needs to maintain his focus, as the battle isn't over yet.
"Huff."
Catching his breath and regaining control of his body and mind, he approaches the Demonblade, who has fallen to his knees. Having expended a massive amount of death energy at once, the enemy can barely keep his balance, his hands and feet trembling uncontrollably.
"This... this is impossible..."
The Demonblade mutters, shaking his head vigorously in disbelief.
"This power was obtained by sacrificing over a hundred humans! It's beyond even my prime, yet how could someone like you...!"
He screams in shock, unable to believe his death energy has been shattered.
"The answer is simple."
Raon tilts his chin, looking down at the Demonblade.
"You're weaker now than you were before."
"You insolent brat! If you hadn't used such strange tricks, I would have won!"
"That's not what I meant."
Pointing the Heavenly Drive at the Demonblade's neck, Raon tells him not to misunderstand.
"W-what do you..."
The Demonblade lowers his trembling eyes to look at the blade of the Heavenly Drive, dripping with his own blood.
"I mean you're weaker now than when I saw you at the Five Divine Orders' festival."
"Nonsense!"
He grits his teeth, raising his distorted eyes.
"The amount of death energy I possess now is completely different from then. How can that make any sense? If you're going to mock me, at least do it properly!"
The Demonblade clenches his fist, saying such provocation won't work on him.
-It seems he doesn't even realize it. He's already been consumed by power.
Wrath clicks his tongue in disdain.
-When I first saw him, he at least had the audacity to defy me. Now he's completely broken.
He shakes his head, saying the guy isn't worth fighting anymore.
'Indeed.'
Raon nods calmly.
'But he didn't break down like this on his own.'
There must be someone else who extended a hand of dark temptation to the Demonblade in his despair.
"The amount of aura has increased. But..."
Raon lowers his hand, looking into the Demonblade's eyes, which are shimmering with a purple hue.
"Your martial arts are dead."
"What?"
The Demonblade furrows his brow, as if not understanding what Raon means.
"W-what are you talking about..."
"You've focused so much on the overflowing death energy that your swordsmanship has lost its sharpness and complexity. It's not even at the level of a beginner Transcendent."
Raon continues in a firm tone, as if lecturing a lower-ranking martial artist.
"Your last sword strike was indeed powerful. A technique that shapes death energy into a palace-like form to pressure the opponent. Probably even hundreds of Grandmasters couldn't have blocked it. But to a Transcendent who has reached the same realm, it was nothing more than a lump of power."
The palace of death energy created by the Demonblade was certainly sharp and solid. Even if Raon had used all his aura, he couldn't have blocked the sheer amount of death energy emitted. However, the most important pillar of martial arts wasn't properly set.
Even if one concentrates massive death energy, a sword strike without a martial artist's will is nothing more than food for the Ten Thousand Swords he has built up.
"You were twice as strong when you faced the Leader of the Holy Sword Alliance. Although your death energy was weaker then, your swordsmanship was imbued with your beliefs and efforts. Even that sword-obsessed man was impressed."
Raon shakes his head, saying that strong death energy alone doesn't make a strong sword.
"The Leader of the Holy Sword Alliance plucked out his own eyes to reach a higher realm. He's probably standing in yet another domain now."
The Leader of the Holy Sword Alliance is a madman who plucked out his own eyes with the sole intention of surpassing Glenn. It's no exaggeration to say he's the greatest lunatic Raon has met so far, but in some ways, he's also an admirable swordsman.
On the other hand, when the Demonblade found himself in a slightly difficult situation, instead of trying to overcome it himself, he sacrificed his subordinates to obtain death energy he couldn't even handle.
Seeing a human who had reached Transcendence fall into such a miserable state was pathetic beyond words.
"The death energy you obtained by sacrificing your loyal subordinates is now just a pitiful power that can't even reach me, who has just reached Transcendence. And now, you don't even have that anymore."
Raon twists his lips and swings the Heavenly Drive down decisively. With a sound like water splitting, the Demonblade's purple arm is severed at the shoulder. His arm falls to the ground, spilling sticky blood like sewage.
"Urgh..."
Despite losing an arm, the Demonblade only clutches his shoulder without screaming. As expected earlier, he seems to have deadened his sense of pain with death energy.
"W-what do you know to be talking like that."
The Demonblade bares his teeth, stained with black blood, and rolls his eyes.
"A pampered brat who grew up in Zieghart's greenhouse without experiencing any hardship!"
-That's not true.
Wrath shakes his head, saying the Demonblade is getting uglier by the minute.
-Even if this guy had consumed all of my power, he lived through hellishly difficult times. I thought he might have received the blessing of the Angels, given how unlucky he was.
'What's gotten into you?'
-Facts are facts, after all.
He snorts, saying one should acknowledge what needs to be acknowledged.
'Hmm.'
Come to think of it, even without bringing up his past life, Raon seems to have had quite a difficult time in this life as well. While it might not be the most painful life in the world, it probably wouldn't lose to most people's hardships.
"Enough with the useless talk."
Raon shakes the blood off the Heavenly Drive and points its blade at the Demonblade's neck.
"Who helped you commit this atrocity?"
Although the Dark Black Lotus, led by the Demonblade, uses various spells and tricks, it's ultimately a group of martial artists. Given the scale of the magic used, there must be others behind him.
"Grrr..."
Instead of answering about his backers, the Demonblade just glares at Raon with eyes full of anger.
"If you won't speak..."
Raon clicks his tongue briefly and uses the Heavenly Drive to shatter the Demonblade's collarbone. With the sound of bones crushing, the Demonblade falls forward.
"Urgh..."
Even now, the Demonblade doesn't seem to feel pain, immediately raising his face and grinding his teeth.
"This is your last chance. If you keep your mouth shut this time, I'll torture you until all your death energy is gone."
Raon tilts his jaw sideways, saying he's serious.
'I'd like to kill him right away, but I need to know who's behind him.'
Although Wrath said he couldn't smell the scent of Angels on the Demonblade, Derus Robert could still be behind this, so Raon wanted to make him talk.
"Kuhehe..."
The Demonblade lets out a twisted laugh as he slowly raises his head.
"You're quite perceptive. You're right. I had help from others for this magic. But..."
With a trembling hand, he picks up the purple arm that had fallen to the ground.
"The only one who can stand behind me is myself!"
The Demonblade screams, biting into the purple arm and swallowing it.
"What are you..."
As Raon's eyes widen in disbelief, purple veins begin to bulge all over the Demonblade's skin. The change isn't limited to the veins. Like the purple arm, his entire body begins to turn purple.
"Hmm."
Raon quickly swings the Heavenly Drive down to stop the Demonblade's transformation. The silver blade falls on the Demonblade's neck, but instead of cutting through flesh, it bounces off as if striking a piece of metal.
The Demonblade rises, his entire body covered in purple death energy as if he had been dipped in purple paint.
The sword wound on his chest disappears, and a new arm sprouts from his severed shoulder. He no longer looks human.
"Even if I become like this..."
The Demonblade raises both hands, now rippling with death energy, and bares his fierce teeth.
"I will kill you, Raon Zieghart!"
He lets out a bestial roar, saying he'll sacrifice everything to kill Raon. The sky howls violently, and the ground splits open, spewing out passionate purple lava as the Demonblade's overwhelming death energy surges.
"I don't care what form you take."
Raon calmly shakes his chin, unfazed by the Demonblade who is distorting space with just the manifestation of his death energy.
"You can't defeat me as you are now."
"Shut up!"
The Demonblade charges with a scream. He's so fast that only a purple afterimage is visible, but Raon can tell where he's coming from. He swings the Crimson Slash towards the Demonblade's chest as he rushes in from the right. The blade bounces off the Demonblade's chest, unable to penetrate the armor of black death energy that burns like flames.
"A body reinforced with death energy! Your puny needle won't pierce it!"
The Demonblade, confident in his body wrapped in death energy, charges in relentlessly and swings a sword made of death energy.
'It'll be difficult to use Heaven's Rift.'
Using Heaven's Rift would completely kill the Demonblade, but Raon would also pass out immediately. With things left to do, it was better to choose a different method for now.
"Die!"
The Demonblade thrusts his sword wrapped in death energy. The purple death energy sprouting from the blade tip begins to erase the very space Raon is standing in with a tremendous explosion.
"I told you."
Raon advances into the purple radiance, raising the Heavenly Drive.
"You can't build a tall tower without a foundation."
Shaking his head slightly, he draws the Azure Sky Drive, imbued with flames. The blade of the Heavenly Drive, reaching the end of the sky, slowly falls, pressing down on the wave of death energy that was trying to devour the world. The Demonblade, standing behind the wave of death energy, also falls to his knees, unable to withstand the weight of the sky built by the Azure Sky Drive.
"H-how can you have such power without even using a Sword Domain..."
The Demonblade trembles his jaw, unable to believe it.
"This is true swordsmanship. A sword doesn't become stronger just because your aura is powerful or your body is tough."
Raon gives an answer the Demonblade could never understand as he fires the Blade of Requiem. The small, thin blade of the Blade of Requiem pierces through the purple armor and lodges in the Demonblade's chest, making the reinforcement with death energy seem meaningless. The Blade of Requiem emits a chillingly red aura as it devours the death energy residing in the Demonblade's body.
"Argh!"
The Demonblade lets out a scream he didn't utter even when his arm was cut off or his chest was torn open, rolling on the ground. Judging by his wildly rolling eyes, it seems he's finally starting to feel pain.
"Looks like your senses have opened up."
Raon nods and strikes the Demonblade's thigh with the Heavenly Drive.
"Aaaaargh!"
A tearing scream erupts from the Demonblade's mouth. As expected, he wasn't enduring the pain; he simply couldn't feel it.
"I-impossible. How could my death energy..."
"That sword is surprisingly the best at destroying negative energy, despite its appearance."
The Blade of Requiem may be a cursed sword, but it despises negative energies like demonic energy or bloody energy. This time too, it seems to have absorbed the Demonblade's death energy and shattered his magic.
"Since you're such a great Transcendent. Let's see how much you can endure?"
Raon pushes heat and cold into the wound he opened on the Demonblade with the Heavenly Drive.
"Aaaaargh!"
The Demonblade twists his entire body, letting out a scream that even a third-rate martial artist wouldn't make. He tries to forcibly pull out the Blade of Requiem, but of course, it doesn't budge.
"Urgh..."
"The people you killed must have suffered much more."
Living sacrifices are killed after being subjected to extreme pain to utilize even the resentment of the dead. The fact that this guy can't even endure this level of pain after using living sacrifices makes Raon feel nauseous.
"S-stop. Please stop..."
"I'll do as you wish."
Raon raises the blood-dripping Heavenly Drive.
"Die right there."
Seeing the Demonblade's transformed appearance, Raon thought he might escape using a special spell, or his backers might intervene. Even if he couldn't uncover what's behind this, it was better to kill him now.
"W-wait!"
As Raon is about to bring down the Heavenly Drive on the Demonblade's neck, he urgently raises his hand.
"I'll talk! About who's behind me!"
"I don't need it."
"The Black Tower!"
As Raon is about to ignore the Demonblade's words and behead him, he screams as if in desperation.
"I know the location of the Black Tower!"