Chapter 927: Battle Against the Heavens
The red carpet stretched beneath my feet like a wound that had been carved through the world.
The chamber was exactly as it had been the last time I was dragged here. Grand, silent, and annoying in that special way only heavenly things could be. The walls still bore the carvings of warriors that looked like they had fought wars before stars had names. The throne still stood at the far end, massive and oppressive, not because it was large, but because everything around it seemed to agree that it should be obeyed.
And in front of it stood the Enforcer.
He no longer bothered with the form that could make mountains look like pebbles. He had shrunk himself down to my height, almost human, almost approachable, if not for the fact that every instinct inside me was screaming that the thing in front of me could crush my soul with the same effort one would use to blink.
He looked at me calmly, hands behind his back, posture relaxed.
How irritating.
“Sup,” I said, rolling my neck once as Qi began to wake inside my body. “I suppose this is where you beat the arrogance out of me?”
The Enforcer didn’t smile. “That would imply there is enough arrogance in you to warrant effort.”
“Wow,” I muttered, “heavenly constructs have jokes.”
“I am not a construct,” he replied, though his mouth didn’t move.
“Right, right, an Enforcer. Different title, same absurdity.”
His eyes, if they were eyes, settled on me. “Begin.”
I exhaled.
There was no point in delaying. This wasn’t the sort of opponent one could measure slowly. The Enforcer had already shown me before how strong he was, and he had done it in that disgustingly casual manner of his, the kind where he used my own techniques better than I could and then had the audacity to look disappointed.
So this time, I wasn’t here to be impressed.
I was here to apply what I learned.
“Creeping Demise,” I called.
The sword answered before my fingers even fully reached it.
A hiss like metal scraping over bone echoed through the chamber as Creeping Demise tore itself out of its sheath. The blade split apart, not breaking, not unraveling, but blooming in that vile beautiful way only a murderous sentient weapon could. Nine metallic heads burst out from the sword’s spine, each one long and serpentine, each one crowned with fangs that could bite through ascendant flesh like wet paper.
The hydra rose behind me, casting nine twisting shadows over the red carpet. Its heads opened their jaws, and the air filled with poison so thick that even space itself began to stain green and black.
“Go,” I said.
The first three heads shot forward, aiming for the Enforcer’s throat, ribs, and legs. Another three arched high, spewing poison in wide streams that curved like living rivers. The remaining heads inhaled, their metal throats glowing with sickly heat before they breathed out fire laced with venom, flames that burned not only flesh but Qi circulation itself.
It was a simple assault, yes.
Simple in the same way a collapsing mountain was simple.
The Enforcer raised one hand.
He flicked his fingers.
That was all.
The entire chamber groaned.
Creeping Demise screamed.
Not a normal scream, not a sound made by steel, but something far deeper. It was the sound of a weapon that suddenly realized there was a law above it pressing down. The nine heads froze inches away from the Enforcer, their jaws open, their poison suspended in the air as if time itself had forgotten what movement was.
Then cracks appeared across the metallic skulls.
My heart tightened.
“Back!” I shouted.
The poison vanished first, dissipated by nothing more than the pressure of the Enforcer’s will. The fire died next, snuffed out without smoke, without heat, without even the dignity of resistance. Creeping Demise’s heads collapsed downward, forced to the red carpet with enough pressure that their necks bent and twisted like soft wire.
The cracks spread further.
I felt the sword’s anger. More than that, I felt its fear.
That, I’ll admit, was new.
I pulled it back with a thought, and Creeping Demise retreated into its original form, shaking in my grip like a starving beast forced into a cage.
The Enforcer lowered his hand and looked at me as though I had just presented a child’s drawing to a master painter.
“You think this is enough to prove yourself? I would be disappointed.”
I smiled and flexed my fingers around the hilt. “I’m just warming up!”
I stepped forward.
Then I vanished.
The red carpet ruptured beneath my feet as I flew toward him, my Qi surging through every vein and meridian. My muscles tightened, my bones hummed, and the Golden Titan inside my body roared awake like a beast that had been waiting far too long to be let loose.
“Fist of Roaring KI! Fist of Eternal Gold!”
The techniques layered together, one over the other. Roaring Ki surged out in a violent spiral, wrapping my arm in force that shook the chamber. My fist became a falling sun.
The Enforcer finally moved.
He took a single step forward and mirrored my stance perfectly.
“Fist of Roaring Ki. Fist of Eternal Gold.”
Same words.
Same form.
Different world.
His fist met mine in the middle of the red carpet.
For an instant, nothing happened.
Then the impact arrived.
A soundless explosion swallowed the space between us, and my arm bent backward in a way arms were not meant to bend. Golden Qi shattered around my knuckles like glass, and Roaring Ki was crushed back into my meridians, turning from power into pain.
I was hurled back, my feet carving trenches through the red carpet. I slammed one heel down, then the other, digging into something that was not really floor, not really space, and certainly not kind enough to obey normal logic.
My shoulder popped back into place with an ugly crack.
The Enforcer stood where he had been, his robe barely disturbed.
“You didn’t bring anything new.”
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