The impact split the darkness.
Light and shadow spiraled together, twisting like twin serpents across the obsidian crystal plains. For a heartbeat, silence reigned-and then a cataclysmic explosion erupted. Waves of blinding energy rolled outward, fracturing the ground and shaking the do of stars above.
ylin and the Valkyrie were hurled backward by the blast, yet both landed on their feet. Their forms trembled, but they held their stances with unbroken resolve. Eyes sharp as blades, aura blazing, they looked like twin pillars of defiance amid a storm of falling suns.
Bradly's expression shifted. Disbelief flickered across the Neo-Angel's features. His attack-condensed with the force to pulverize a Peak ArchDeity-had been t, endured, and turned aside.
It was unthinkable.
His fury deepened. The humiliation cut sharper than pain. He rembered Cain-the Neo-Demon who had survived his long-range onslaught in the desert. And now the won were withstanding his might as well.
His eyes narrowed, killing intent boiling to the surface.
"Fine then!" he roared.
He dove forward, compressing all his power into close-range combat. The obsidian plain cracked under his arrival, energy radiating outward like shockwaves through water. He landed only a few ters from his opponents-too close for escape.
But before he could even swing, ylin and the Valkyrie acted in perfect synchrony.
Both raised their hands, index and middle fingers extended, channeling their mastery of Redirection. Two falling stars bent from the firmant at their command, their trajectories curving toward
Bradly like divine spears.
The twin impacts struck true. "BOOM!"
The explosion swallowed the Neo-Angel, a conflagration of celestial fire and fractured light. For a mont, ylin and the Valkyrie dared to hope-but the hope died almost instantly.
A figure burst from the flas, unscathed save for the burn marks that marred his armor. Bradly's eyes glowed with killing rage. His fist shot forward, gleaming with condensed power.
Though it was only the size of a man's hand, the pressure behind it felt like death itself bearing down. The Valkyrie didn't hesitate, and she t the strike with her sword.
Steel t flesh-if such a word could describe the body of a being like a Neo-Angel.
The clash detonated between them, the ground splintering beneath their feet. The Valkyrie's arms quivered; a trickle of blood slid from the corner of her mouth as she was blasted backward, armor cracking under the strain.
Bradly, however, did not even bleed. His flesh was unmarred, his expression colder than ever.
Before he could continue his assault, two blades flashed toward his neck.
ylin had moved. Her strike was silent, fueled by precision rather than fury. The blades howled through the air, aid cleanly for the artery beneath his jaw.
Bradly didn't flinch. The turquoise veins spread across his neck like living runes. The swords struck-
-and stopped.
The vibration nearly broke ylin's wrists. It was like striking an
unbreakable wall. The True Depravita's eyes widened as she realized her blade hadn't even nicked his skin.
There was no ti for shock.
Bradly's palm blurred forward. ylin leapt back, but not fast enough. The strike grazed her arm, and that slight touch was enough to twist bone and send her flying. Pain tore through her body as she slamd into the ground, rolling across the fractured obsidian crystal.
The Neo-Angel clenched his fists, ready to finish her, when a shadow dropped in front of him-the Valkyrie again, wounded but unbroken.
He sneered. "So eager to die?"
The words had barely left his lips when the Valkyrie's horn blazed crimson.
A blast of red energy erupted from it, so massive that the very air scread. Thunder rolled across the Fourth Ring, the beam consuming everything in its path. The Neo-Angel vanished within the torrent of light, his silhouette swallowed by brilliance.
Bradly's boots skidded across the ground, sparks flying as he fought for footing. The energy burned his skin, the scent of scorched divine flesh filling the air. Yet he refused to yield. Gritting his teeth, he dug his heels into the crystal and forced himself forward.
Each step cracked the floor beneath him.
Step by step, he pushed through the beam, the burning wind tearing at his flesh, until the Valkyrie's face twisted in disbelief.
"ARGHHHHHH!"
Her scream split the firmant as she poured every drop of power
into the blast. The energy was enough to vaporize an ArchDeity
whole. But Bradly was beyond it.
Through the glare ca a hand, wrapped in fla and fury.
It burst from the red beam, seized the Valkyrie's head, and slamd
her into the ground with devastating force. The earth cracked like
glass, shockwaves rippling outward.
Bradly's hand smoked, the skin charred and blackened, but he ignored the pain. His anger, his pride, demanded blood. He raised his other hand, intent on crushing her skull beneath his palm-
-and then felt weight on his back.
ylin had landed atop him, her golden right eye and green left eye
burning like twin stars. The twin lights flared as she drove her swords
down.
"Hmph. You and your little toy-" Bradly began.
He never finished.
A hundred sword slashes tore into the back of his neck, so fast they
blurred into continuous motion. Each cut was shallow, almost aningless alone-but they fell in perfect rhythm, each strike landing in the exact sa spot, again and again.
Bradly's divine flesh began to split. Blood - gold mingled with light –
spilled across his back.
"How!?"
The thought scread inside his mind as pain flared. Each cut struck where skull t spine, surpassing the defense of the turquoise
energy.
And the power behind those blows - it was growing. ylin's aura surged as two petals of the Sinful Lotus burned. Pride
and Envy.
Pride sharpened the twin blades Hell and Abyss beyond asure,
each edge vibrating with infinite precision. Envy mirrored the strength of her enemy, copying fragnts of Bradly's own power and
making it hers.
Together, the two sins wove an impossible miracle - edge eting divinity on equal terms.
Bradly staggered forward, the golden blood at his nape flowing freely
now.
Neo-Angels were terrifyingly powerful, but unlike the Depravitas, they did not have immortal bodies. Their bodies were miracles of
divine order, not eternal psychic power. And a wound to the cervical spine was crippling.
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