Damian looked up, and his sword rose to meet it.
"Sword Sovereign Heaven, Third Edict, Blade Meets The Sun."
Sword and spear collided.
Boom!
The impact rocked the entire arena. Golden-white light exploded downward while pure sword force erupted upward. Damian’s feet sank into the stage, and Aurelian’s arm shook faintly from the force traveling back through his spear. The two remained locked together for a breath, their eyes meeting through the blaze of light.
Aurelian’s voice was cold. "Your sword is sharp."
Damian replied calmly, "Your light is heavy."
Then both of them attacked at once. Aurelian’s spear fell like a descending sun while Damian’s sword moved like a silent line drawn through the world, and they clashed at the center of the stage again and again. Divine light scorched the air, and sword light carved through that radiance in turn.
Aurelian’s attacks were majestic, forceful, and domineering, while Damian’s sword remained clean, precise, and terrifyingly decisive. Every time Aurelian sought to suppress him with divine authority, Damian’s sword severed the mand hidden within the light, and every time Damian tried to pierce Aurelian’s defense, the Heavenly Luminance Divine Dominion wove another layer of sacred protection around its master.
The participants watched with grave faces.
Rakan Thorne’s grin had disappeared. "That Divine Son is stronger than I thought."
Orion Starfall, still pale and recovering, smiled weakly. "And Damian has still not lost his rhythm."
Kaiden Voidmere’s eyes narrowed. "Damian’s sword is not merely cutting attacks. He is cutting the structure inside Aurelian’s authority."
Ervin nodded faintly. "But Aurelian’s divine light keeps rebuilding it."
Revona watched in silence, her eyes dim yet focused.
Max’s gaze stayed locked on Aurelian. He could feel it more distinctly now. The light within Aurelian’s dominion carried the echo of the Heavenly Luminance Divine Bloodline, but that echo rang impure.
It held power, it held majesty, and it held oppressive divine authority, yet beneath all of it, Max could still sense the unnatural mismatch between Aurelian and the bloodline dwelling inside him. That bloodline had not been born with him. It had been taken.
On the stage, Aurelian’s eyes grew colder as he realized Damian was not being overwhelmed. He raised one hand toward the divine throne behind him.
"Heavenly Luminance Divine Dominion, Royal Mandate of the Endless Sun."
The endless sun above the divine kingdom released a vast pillar of golden-white power, and that pillar did not fall toward Damian. It descended upon Aurelian himself, sending his aura surging upward. His crown grew more solid, his spear burned brighter, and his entire body seemed to take on the judgment of a divine ruler.
Aurelian stepped forward, and the stage beneath him melted into radiant lines.
"Divine Dominion, Sun King’s Execution."
The spear in his hand swelled into a massive blade of golden-white light, and he swung it toward Damian with the full authority of the endless sun at his back. The attack blanketed half the stage and left almost nowhere to evade.
Damian finally drew a deeper breath, and the Sword Sovereign Heaven behind him changed. The empty throne within the sword palace released a faint glow, and the single sword hanging before that throne descended by a fraction.
Damian raised his sword with both hands.
"Sword Sovereign Heaven, Fourth Edict, Palace Sword Descends."
The sword before the throne cast out a projection, and that projection sank into Damian’s blade. In an instant, his aura turned terrifyingly sharp. His entire body seemed to merge with the sword world at his back, and the blade in his grip no longer looked like a weapon held by a man. It looked like the judgment of the Sword Sovereign Heaven made manifest.
He slashed. The sword met the Sun King’s Execution, and for one moment the entire stage split into halves, one of golden-white light and one of pure silver sword radiance.
Then the golden-white blade broke apart.
Aurelian’s pupils contracted. The sword light did not stop after cleaving through the Sun King’s Execution. It swept onward, struck Aurelian’s sacred armor, and drove him backward for the first time since both Pseudo Cosmic Paths had fully opened. A thin line opened across his chest, and golden-white blood seeped from the wound.
The arena erupted.
"Aurelian was injured!"
"Damian cut through the Sun King’s Execution!"
"That Sword Sovereign Heaven is too strong!"
"The Divine Son is being pushed!"
Inside the viewing halls of the second elven faction, the atmosphere turned frigid. Many elders stared at the screen with dark faces. Aurelian’s injury was not severe, but the meaning behind it could not be ignored. His Heavenly Luminance Divine Dominion had been cut open by Damian’s sword.
At the Sword God Palace, countless disciples roared.
"Senior Brother Damian!"
"Sword Sovereign Heaven!"
"Cut down the divine light!"
Aurelian looked down at the wound across his chest, and his face emptied of expression. Then the golden-white light around him began to change. It grew purer, hotter, and far more dangerous.
Max’s eyes narrowed.
’He is drawing deeper from the stolen bloodline.’
Aurelian slowly raised his head. "You are strong enough to make me use this," he said.
Damian’s expression remained calm. "Then use it."
Aurelian’s crown flared, and the golden-white throne behind him shattered. The divine kingdom did not collapse. Instead, the fragments of the throne streamed into Aurelian’s body, fusing with his bloodline and driving his aura up to a level that was less stable but far more terrifying. Sacred runes surfaced across his skin, and the Heavenly Luminance Divine Dominion condensed around him into a smaller and denser form.
"Heavenly Luminance Divine Dominion, Crownless Divine King."
Boom!
The pressure of Aurelian’s path transformed pletely. If his earlier dominion had been the authority of a ruler seated upon a divine throne, then this state was the ruler abandoning that throne and turning himself into the instrument of judgment.
The sacred halls vanished, the radiant pillars vanished, and even the endless sun dimmed, for all the authority of the dominion had gathered into Aurelian’s body and spear. His speed increased, his strength increased, and his divine light condensed to a far greater density.
Aurelian moved and appeared in front of Damian in an instant.
"Crownless Divine King, Light That Judges All Blades."
His spear thrust forward, and the golden-white light around it wove countless judgment runes aimed directly at Damian’s sword. The attack did not target Damian’s body first. It targeted his blade, his sword intent, and the very connection between him and the Sword Sovereign Heaven.
Damian’s eyes sharpened.
"Sword Sovereign Heaven, Fifth Edict, Sword Heart Cannot Be Judged."
His sword met the spear. The judgment runes coiled around the blade and strained to suppress it, but Damian’s sword heart released a single pure vibration, and the runes cracked apart one by one. Aurelian, however, had already flowed into his next attack.
"Crownless Divine King, Radiant Execution Step."
Aurelian’s body flickered around Damian, trailing several golden-white afterimages, and each afterimage stabbed out with a spear of light carrying divine judgment authority. Damian’s sword answered with terrifying precision, blocking, cutting, and redirecting each strike in turn, but this time Aurelian’s speed and pressure clearly outstripped everything that had e before.
Damian was forced back one step, then a second, and then a third. At last Aurelian’s spear broke through Damian’s net of sword light and pierced his shoulder. Blood splashed across the stage, and for one breath the disciples of the Sword God Palace fell silent.
Aurelian’s eyes were cold. "Even the sword bleeds."
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