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"{Heavenly Yinyang Spear Arts}: {Crescent Rainbow Heaven}"
"...?!"
The Archduchess barely registered the handso young man stepping inside before he unleashed his technique.
In the next instant, vibrant colors pierced her body, riddling it with countless holes.
"A-ah? What... happened?"
Her vision blurred, darkness swallowed her, and her body burst apart, scattering across the floor.
She died without ever understanding what had struck her.
"Arthur!" Kim Hua exhaled in deep relief.
"owww!" Little Black cheered triumphantly.
"Your three friends fought well, but they nearly perished. These vampires are formidable," Arthur said. "Now that we have the crystal ball, let’s leave!"
Arthur swiftly enveloped everyone in his Martial Soul Aura and fled the crumbling Crimson Manor as it plumted from the skies.
Only to witness an even more astonishing sight amid the vast cloud seas of High Heaven.
RUMBLE!
A colossal golden dragon erged, its monstrous roar shaking the heavens. Its body stretched hundreds of ters, scales gleaming with radiant gold.
Its eyes burned with brilliant white light, and its majestic horns sparkled with countless jewels.
An overwhelming presence radiated from it—a true monster among monsters.
A Calamity.
The greatest Calamity of Murim.
And...
"The Heavenly Emperor?!" Maria gasped. "So... hahaha! I should have known! It was you all along!"
"I cannot say I hadn’t suspected it myself," the Heavenly Demon sighed, his aura gently cradling his weakened son. "Wu Lieng, are you all right?"
"F-Father...! The Heavenly Emperor was the Golden Dragon Emperor this whole ti?!" Wu Lieng stamred, voice trembling with shock. "So he...! Those disasters, the hundreds of villages destroyed, entire empires reduced to ruins—it was all him?! And he pretended to champion righteousness?!"
"Yes..." the Heavenly Demon replied heavily. "This is the Heavenly Emperor, a true monster and the greatest Calamity our world has ever known."
"FUAHAHAHAHA! I NO LONGER NEED TO HIDE! NOTHING MATTERS NOW! I WILL DEVOUR THIS WORLD, AND COUNTLESS OTHERS WILL FOLLOW! HEAVENLY DEMON! I WILL KILL YOU AND YOUR SON, AND THIS ENTIRE WORLD WILL PERISH WITH US!"
"To think you were once my friend..." The Heavenly Demon clenched his fist, sorrow etching his features. "In the end, it was all a lie. You have caused too much suffering—to everyone, to my family. I cannot allow you to live."
"YOU SPEAK AS IF YOU STAND A CHANCE AGAINST ?! TURN TO GOLD AND VANISH!"
The Golden Dragon Emperor roared, jaws widening as he unleashed glistening golden flas toward the Heavenly Demon and Wu Lieng.
FLUOOOSH!
This was the dreaded power of the Golden Dragon Emperor: flas that transford anything they touched into eternal gold—an irreversible, indestructible curse.
Yet Maria halted it.
And reversed it.
"..."
She drifted protectively in front of father and son. They watched her body briefly turn to gold, only to swiftly revert, the cycle repeating faster each ti.
Gradually, the effect weakened until she stood completely immune.
"Maria, isn’t it?" the Heavenly Demon asked with a faint smile.
"Yes," Maria nodded. "It’s an honor to finally et the legendary Heavenly Demon in person."
"You flatter ," he chuckled softly. "Though your aid wasn’t necessary. I had already mastered a counter."
"Mastered it?" Maria echoed, intrigued.
"Yes, a way to neutralize the curse," he explained. "When your bead nearly dispelled it, I finally deciphered the secret after all these years."
"You were conscious the entire ti, struggling to unravel it?!" Wu Lieng cried.
"Yes..." The Heavenly Demon’s smile turned bittersweet, a single tear tracing his cheek. "It was the only thing that preserved my sanity..."
"DIEEEEEE!"
Golden flas surged again, but the Heavenly Demon’s hands ignited with dark red and black fire, morphing into draconic claws.
"{Heavenly Demon Arts}: {Golden Ruler}"
FLAAASH!
His fists absorbed the onslaught, compressing the flas into radiant spheres within his palms.
"His power isn’t truly a curse as we understand it," he continued calmly. "It is a manifestation of Fate and the Heavens—a thod to ’record’ everything as an eternal golden statue."
"What?!" Maria exclaid.
"It is power bestowed directly by this world’s Heavenly Fate... or as so na it, the Heavenly Will!" The Heavenly Demon laughed bitterly. "A force no re human should wield..."
"Y-YOU...?!" The Heavenly Emperor faltered, realizing his flas had lost their bite. "HOW?! MY GOLDEN FLAS... THEY NO LONGER AFFECT YOU!"
"That power was never truly yours, was it?" the Heavenly Demon countered. "You stole it from the Heavenly Yellow Dragon King—the original benevolent guardian of Murim, a wise dragon god who protected our world. With aid from Umbralheim and Olympus, you slew him, claid his throne, and beca this abomination."
"AND WHAT IF I DID?! YOUR FATE REMAINS UNCHANGED!"
The Golden Dragon Emperor charged, jaws snapping. The Heavenly Demon’s hands blazed brighter with draconic fire.
"That is where you are mistaken," he said quietly. "I was once a disciple of that true dragon. After so long, I have finally learned to counter your stolen curse."
"DIE!"
Facing the golden inferno once more, the Heavenly Demon’s fists glowed with mysterious power, weaving an unseen force through reality itself.
Maria’s eyes widened in realization.
"He’s wielding Fate itself as a weapon!"
"{Heavenly Demon Arts}: {Grasping Fate With My Own Hands}"
TRUUUM!
His palms pierced the golden blaze as the Heavenly Demon plunged fearlessly into the heart of the flas.
Wu Lieng scread in terror.
Only to watch his father reach the dragon’s gaping jaws.
"Goodbye."
"NGH?!"
In a single devastating strike, the Heavenly Demon unleashed all the seized Fate.
FLASH!
Space and ti warped. Reality twisted. Maria’s vision flooded with fleeting images—countless colors, smiles, laughter, lives long lost.
"GUUAAAAAHHHHH!"
The Golden Dragon Emperor writhed in agony as his massive body swelled uncontrollably, overwheld by the sheer weight of returned Fate.
"NO...! NOOOOOO!!!"
BOOOMMM!!!
He exploded into innurable particles of light.
Each glimring speck was a soul.
"Souls?" Maria whispered, eyes widening in horror. "That monster... he devoured so many?!"
She was stunned. Even she, who had consud souls of the wicked, had never taken anywhere near this many.
This beast had feasted mostly on innocents.
Not hundreds. Not thousands. Not even hundreds of thousands.
Tens of millions ascended now, bathed in heavenly light as they finally found peace.
And among them...
"Dear? Wu Lieng...?"
"Ahhh...!"
Tears stread down the old man’s face as a beautiful woman with flowing white hair and gentle blue eyes smiled at him.
Father and son drifted toward her, enveloped in a warm, ethereal embrace.
"M-mo... Mother?!" Wu Lieng sobbed. "Mother!!!"
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