Cain's eyes sharpened the instant he heard those words since the countdown had begun. All the questions, all the doubts in his heart could wait until they defeated the Overseer.
At once, the power of Imperium exploded from within him. Every muscle, every drop of blood pulsed with divine strength. Dominion and Gluttony surged forth, allowing him to seize fragnts of the laws and cosmic rules around him, bending them, consuming them, and making them part of his strength.
He shifted into a battle stance, Sky Devourer poised at his side as the Crimson Light flared and coiled around the weapon. Its radiance grew stronger and denser, until it seed ready to split the sky itself. Then, Cain closed his eyes.
Unlike the explosive, violent bursts of power that his predecessors had unleashed, Cain's aura grew quieter and quieter. All his energy was being condensed, refined, every ounce of power forged into intent. The stillness itself radiated dread. It was the mark of absolute mastery, the ferocity of a being who commanded his body and soul to perfection.
The Crimson Exarch watched in silence, then gave a subtle nod. He, too, did not hesitate. His twin guns materialized at his sides, fusing into a single long-barreled rifle. A strange force, unseen in his previous battles, rippled through it. Its essence was impossible to define, but the mont it appeared, the Overseer turned sharply toward him.
The Overseer's eyes glowed brighter, his expression tightening with focused intent. Of the two, it was clear that the Crimson Exarch represented the greater danger.
Though his cultivation did not rise beyond the Middle Archdeity Rank
desíte facing two opponents, the light in the Overseer's gaze grew keener, colder. A clear exhibit that in this battle, he would reach a level of precision and skill unseen in any previous clash.
The final second ticked away.
Then the Overseer moved, transforming into a streak of gold and light, cutting through the air like a cot, his cold gaze fixed entirely on the Crimson Exarch's weapon. It didn't matter how dangerous that gun was, as long as he could focus on the energy and the frequency it unleashed, he could divert, redirect, or at least block it.
But halfway to his target, a crimson blur appeared before him.
Cain.
Their eyes locked, two predators poised to strike, yet neither of them drew their weapons.
The Neo-Demon and the Overseer knew that the first to attack would create a frequency through the Flow, a rhythm the other could sense and manipulate. To act first was to give the enemy an opening for Divergence, or worse, Redirection. Yet hesitation was just as deadly. The closer they drew, the less ti there would be to react once a strike began.
Each heartbeat closed the gap between them.
Each breath heightened the danger.
By the ti only half a ter separated them, both finally moved, at the exact sa instant.
Sky Devourer and the double-edged polearm collided. The impact unleashed a cataclysmic explosion of crimson and golden light, generating massive shockwaves that spread in all directions and shook the arena to its core.
The Overseer's strength was monstrous, his strikes heavy enough to shatter dinsions, but the Neo-Demon had been charging his power for a full minute. The instant their weapons t, the balance broke.
The Overseer was blasted backward, his armored body tearing across the tallic floor. Sparks and molten fragnts scattered with every roll. He slamd his weapon into the ground, using it like an anchor to slow himself, regaining partial control before impact.
But not fast enough.
Cain was already upon him. His aura burned like a star collapsing in on itself, condensed and lethal. The power behind the sword was sothing the Overseer would not be able to defend against in his current state, and he knew it.
The Overseer barely managed to drive his polearm into the floor, summoning once more the radiant Golden Lotus, the impenetrable shield that had turned aside even the Enlightened One's might.
Cain's eyes narrowed. His crimson wings twisted violently, shattering his forward montum. Instead of crashing into the shield, he dropped toward the ground, striking it hard enough to rebound.
The instant he landed, he launched himself forward again, faster, sharper, a blur of scarlet light, his weapon ready to cut. The Neo-Demon knew the Golden Lotus could last only a fraction of a second. And as predicted, it shattered, scattering golden dust into the air, giving him a clear path toward the Overseer.
But that fleeting delay had been enough.
The Overseer regained his footing, weapon at the ready. As Sky Devourer flashed toward him, his eyes glead. He t the blade with a fluid motion of his polearm. There was little physical strength behind it, only perfect command of the Flow. The angle, the timing, the frequency, everything aligned.
The sword's path bent.
A flawless Divergence.
Or so it should have been.
The Overseer's eyes widened.
Sky Devourer hadn't been diverted; it had flown from Cain's hands entirely. Cain had let it go at the last possible instant, neutralizing the very principle of Divergence itself.
And now the Scarlet King stood directly before him, unard, but radiating a power so intense it warped the air.
His crimson eyes glowed with golden light, their depths swallowing the world. Everything faded from Cain's perception except the Overseer and the delicate golden nodes scattered across his body, his
Flow Points.
The Neo-Demon moved.
His hand struck with perfect precision, hitting one point after another, each motion exact, each movent honed by instinct and
mastery.
Before his Crimson Bloodline, he would have needed decades to reach the second level of the Thirty-Three Stars Art. But now, infused with divine resonance, his body and soul acted as one.
He struck four Flow Points in flawless succession.
Each point pulsed with a brief, golden shimr, then erupted.
The four detonations overlapped perfectly, rging into a single cataclysmic surge that rippled through the Overseer's body.
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