Chapter 529: Victory But At What Cost?

BOOOM!

The collision between Damian’s rainbow beam and Dantalion’s gray judgment continued to tear through Realm Zero, but the balance was rapidly shifting.

Cracks suddenly began spreading across Damian’s hand fan, thin fractures crawling across its surface as the demigod weapon struggled to contain the overwhelming force passing through it.

Damian’s face twisted horribly as he watched the gray beam force his multicoloured attack downward inch by inch until the enormous mass of gray light was dangerously close to the fan itself.

Crack! Crack!

Damian gritted his teeth, still seated cross legged upon Abel’s massive head as the dragon struggled against the pressure radiating from above. Blood poured from Damian’s nostrils, eyes, ears and lips, staining his pale face as he desperately maintained his position.

His entire body shook beneath the tremendous pressure, but he refused to move even an inch. The gray beam continued descending, crushing his rainbow attack until it was almost touching the hand fan.

Bang!

For a brief moment, everything seemed to become silent. Damian’s eyes widened as the hand fan shattered in his grasp, countless fragments of the weapon scattering through the air before being swallowed by the gray light.

It was the only demigod grade weapon he had gained after upgrading his Lust Talent Tree, and it had remained with him from his earliest days on Earth, surviving battles, transformations and countless encounters. Seeing it break after accompanying him for so long caused something inside Damian to snap.

The shock in his eyes slowly disappeared, replaced by an incomprehensible fury that twisted his expression into something almost monstrous. He threw his open palm upward and directly toward the descending gray beam.

"DANTALION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

BOOOOOM!

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Damian’s voice exploded across Realm Zero as his right hand caught the entire gray beam.

The impact sent a violent shockwave through the darkness, but Damian remained beneath it, his arm trembling as he somehow held back the colossal attack with nothing but his own hand.

Rage and pain burned simultaneously within his eyes as the gray light poured around his body. Cracks immediately began spreading across his right hand, running from his fingertips toward his wrist as gray light leaked through them.

His scream continued tearing through the darkness while his black hanfu armament began burning away from the right hand upward. Gray flames consumed the sleeve before spreading across his shoulder and chest, gradually revealing his battered body beneath the destruction.

KRASH!

Something inside Damian suddenly broke. A burst of unbearable pain erupted from his abdomen and spread through his entire body like an explosion.

His muscles tightened violently as his body convulsed beneath the gray beam. He gritted his teeth so hard that blood poured through the gaps, yet even then he refused to cry out.

Damian continued holding the beam, his right hand gradually turning black as the flesh was charred by the overwhelming energy. The damage continued spreading across his arm, crawling toward his shoulder and neck before reaching the right side of his jaw.

Even his hair began changing. Strand by strand, the black colour slowly disappeared, replaced by pale white as the immense power continued destroying his body. His right arm was already becoming useless, but Damian still refused to let go.

"GOOD JOB DAMIAN... NOW CRUSH HIM!"

The Abyss suddenly boomed inside his mind, its voice filled with excitement. Damian barely had time to process the command before darkness appeared within his palm, forming a miniature vortex that immediately began spinning with terrifying speed.

A powerful suction force erupted from it, bending the surrounding gray light toward Damian’s hand.

Abyssal Inheritance: Devour!

Buzz!

The colossal gray beam began funneling into the spiraling darkness in Damian’s palm at an astonishing rate. The attack that had moments earlier been crushing Damian beneath its overwhelming might was now being swallowed piece by piece, its energy compressed into the miniature vortex as the Abyss devoured it.

"WHAT?!" Duke Dantalion’s voice finally lost its confidence.

Genuine alarm and disbelief echoed through the massive gray eye as it watched its ultimate attack disappear into Damian’s palm.

The Abyss hissed with open disdain, its voice carrying through Damian’s mind like the growl of an ancient beast.

"HOW WOULD YOU KNOW WHAT I AM CAPABLE OF WHEN EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER WIELDED ME HAS BEEN TOO MUCH OF A COWARD TO AWAKEN MY TRUE ABILITIES? IT WAS NOTHING LESS THAN STUPIDITY TO BELIEVE YOUR FLAWED INHERITANCE EVER STOOD A CHANCE AGAINST ME!"

Buzz!

The last remnants of the gray beam disappeared into the spiraling darkness. Damian’s arm dropped slightly from the sudden absence of pressure, but the miniature vortex within his palm was trembling violently.

It contained an amount of energy so immense that even Damian could feel it struggling to remain contained. The darkness around his hand distorted repeatedly, and Damian immediately understood that allowing the energy to remain there would be disastrous.

Without hesitation, Damian thrust his hand toward the heavens.

The spiraling darkness erupted.

The entirety of Dantalion’s gray beam exploded from Damian’s palm and shot toward the colossal gray eye with the same overwhelming magnitude it had possessed before being devoured.

The darkness of Realm Zero was instantly illuminated by gray light as the enormous beam raced upward. The massive gray eye reacted immediately, all one hundred tendrils moving simultaneously as they attempted to intercept the attack.

The tendrils collided with the beam one after another, but the moment they touched the gray energy they were incinerated. One after another they disappeared, unable to slow the attack even for a moment as the beam continued racing toward its creator.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The explosion that followed shook Realm Zero violently.

Beyond the territory, the entire world seemed to tremble as though Velmora itself was on the verge of collapsing. The fierce fighting that had erupted throughout the capital suddenly slowed, soldiers on both sides instinctively looking toward the sky as a strange pressure swept across the battlefield.

Above a distant mountain, a portion of space that had appeared completely normal for some time suddenly developed a thin crack. Nobody immediately understood what they were seeing.

The crack slowly widened, spreading across the air like a fracture in glass, and the surrounding soldiers gradually stopped fighting as their attention became fixed upon it.

Even those who could not see the battlefield clearly felt the unnatural pressure coming from that direction. A gut wrenching silence settled over Velmora as thousands of eyes turned toward the fractured space, anticipation and dread filling their hearts.

BOOOOOOM!

The cracked space suddenly shattered.

A massive body of smoke burst through the opening and shot toward the capital at incredible speed. It crossed the distance in seconds before crashing directly into the same city centre where the chaos had begun.

The impact sent debris flying in every direction and created a crater nearly two metres deep in the ground, while a thick cloud of dust and smoke swallowed the surrounding streets. Soldiers who had been fighting nearby instinctively retreated from the impact zone, unsure whether another attack had just descended upon them.

Huff!

Across the battlefield, people held their breaths as they stared toward the crater. Those too far away to see clearly could only rely on the floating water bubbles scattered throughout Velmora to witness what had happened.

The smoke slowly began to fade.

As the figure within finally became visible, there was no celebration. No cheer erupted from the soldiers. Instead, several people instinctively covered their mouths with their palms, their expressions turning pale.

Even Astaroth, standing upon the clouds above the battlefield, frowned deeply as he watched the scene through one of the floating projections.

Damian stood at the centre of the crater, but the man who had entered the battle was almost unrecognizable. His black hair had become dishevelled white, strands blowing weakly in the wind.

His right hand hung beside him, completely charred and covered in deep cracks, the flesh shrivelled around the exposed bones. It was immediately obvious to anyone looking that the hand was dead and would never function normally again.

His body had become noticeably thinner, his breathing laboured enough that it could be heard several metres away. Most of his black hanfu had been burned away, leaving his torso exposed and revealing countless burns covering his body.

Blood and soot covered his skin while his remaining left hand trembled slightly from exhaustion.

Yet Damian remained standing. Slowly, he raised his left hand.

His fingers closed around something lying among the debris, and he dragged it upward from the crater. It was what remained of Duke Dantalion, or at least one of the manifestations Damian had managed to salvage from the destroyed colossal eye.

The body was lifeless and horribly damaged, its gray flesh slowly disintegrating into dust between Damian’s fingers. There was no longer any resistance within it, no aura of overwhelming power, no terrifying laughter from countless faces. For the first time since Dantalion had appeared, the Duke was completely silent.

Damian lifted the dying remains higher so everyone watching through the water bubbles could see them. His exhausted eyes swept across the battlefield, and despite the pain ravaging his body, his voice remained strong enough to reach every corner of the capital.

"THE ORDER OF DEMONS IS FINISHED.... DUKE DANTALION IS DEAD!"