Intu ran.
He crushed space behind him with every step, folding distance and compressing the void so that each stride carried him thousands of kiloters. Blood still leaked from his mouth, his ribs were fractured, one lung frozen solid, and his Ancestor Eye destroyed-but none of that mattered.
Survival did.
He accelerated again and again, burning his remaining strength recklessly until, at last, he broke free from the cloaking field forged by the Power of Karma.
The distortion vanished.
The sky cleared.
Connection returned.
His consciousness reached outward toward the Eternal Soul Kingdom.
"The Red King-"
Those were the only words he managed to transmit.
A roar split the heavens behind him.
"Asura Form: Fourth Realm Gear!"
By the ti Intu processed the words, it was already too late.
A palm landed squarely against his back.
There was no dramatic buildup. No drawn-out clash.
Just contact.
His spine shattered instantly.
White flas flooded his body, invading flesh, marrow, mind, and
soul in the sa instant. Thought ceased. Consciousness ruptured under overwhelming force.
Cain's eyes were cold.
His entire body vibrated at an impossible frequency. The Fourth Realm Gear forced every cell into accelerated resonance, drawing in universal force and cycling it violently through his heart before blasting it through his ridians.
The power was intoxicating.
And catastrophic.
Not even a second later, Cain deactivated it.
The vibrations stopped abruptly. The surging cosmic force vanished.
His breathing grew heavy, but his gaze remained sharp.
He caught the now-comatose Limit Alpha Oga Overgod before the body could fall and disappear into the horizon.
Less than a minute later, the sea trembled once more.
A figure manifested above the ruined battlefield.
His presence alone stilled the waters.
Soul force erupted from him in a single pulse, spreading across the entire ocean in an instant-reaching the highest skies and the deepest trenches simultaneously. Nothing could hide from such perception.
Nothing living.
Nothing dead.
Nothing lingering.
But he had arrived too late.
There was nothing to discover.
Shakra, the Eternal Soul King, clenched his teeth as he examined the battlefield. His gaze analyzed every fracture in space, every residual
fluctuation of power, every drop of blood staining the currents.
He pieced together the truth quickly.
"Intu has been defeated."
There was no personal attachnt between him and the Soul Crushing King.
But losing a King-Level powerhouse in the middle of a war against the
Seventh Realm-
That was catastrophic.
"Red King."
Shakra spoke the na softly, but the ocean trembled at the sound.
He could not sense Intu's presence.
He could not trace him.
There was no residual soul thread to follow.
Remaining here was pointless.
Shakra turned and vanished.
But in his heart, a silent vow ford.
When he found the Red King-
He would make him pay.
A few minutes after Shakra's departure, another figure erged.
Phoenix wings of blazing crimson extended from his back, illuminating the shattered sea with warm radiance.
The Nirvana Crown Prince hovered silently, observing the devastation below. A faint smile appeared on his face as he asured the scale of
destruction.
This was no minor clash.
This was a declaration.
It was only after the battle concluded that Sanzon revealed the existence of the Red King to the Immortal Nirvana Kingdom's
stronghold.
The pillar of fla that had once pierced the firmant and dyed the
sky had been re foreplay.
This-
This was the true presentation.
The Red King had not rely defeated a King-Level Overgod.
He had captured one alive.
That feat alone elevated him to a tier approaching the Nirvana Crown
Prince himself-or even the Eternal Soul King-provided neither
employed their Ancestor Domains.
The implications spread rapidly.
It did not take long for the na "Red King" to sweep across the Eight
Realms like wildfire.
Among the forces of the Immortal Nirvana Kingdom, it was spoken
with reverence. A powerful new ally had erged.
Within the Eternal Soul Kingdom, it was whispered with dread. A
dangerous new enemy had risen.
And the most troubling part- They knew nothing about him.
No origin.
No faction.
No clear objective.
Why was he targeting the Eternal Soul Kingdom?
Why was he aiding the Immortal Nirvana Kingdom?
The mystery only amplified his legend.
While rumors ignited the realms above, Cain lay unconscious at the
bottom of the Ti Lake.
His body was ravaged.
Intu's desperate explosion had inflicted severe internal damage-but
that was not the worst of it.
The true devastation ca from the backlash of the Fourth Realm
Gear. Cain had triggered it at a level far beyond Aerion-the being from whom he had stolen the insight necessary to evolve Asura Form. The difference lay in his foundation.
From the very beginning of his path, Cain had used Asura Form. It
predated even The Flow. He had adapted it to the bodies of multiple
supre races, refining it again and again.
What he unleashed was not a crude imitation.
It was a complete Fourth Realm Gear.
One that allowed him to cross vast distances in a blink and deliver a
strike powerful enough to break the spine of a Limit Alpha Oga Overgod in a single blow.
But the more complete the transformation-
The more devastating the backlash.
The strain had begun tearing his internal systems apart the mont
he activated it.
The only reason he had not collapsed above the ocean was Null Eternum, which temporarily halted cause and effect-postponing the
damage until he reached safety within the Ti Lake.
Even so, the toll was brutal.
Seven days passed before Cain finally opened his eyes.
Pain assaulted him imdiately.
Every nerve scread.
A complicated smile ford on his face.
His Royal Blutlinie Body was arguably the strongest of his three bodies
-but it possessed the weakest regenerative capacity.
"You have to give up sothing to gain sothing," he muttered.
Then his smile widened.
"But if I fuse all three bodies..."
His scarlet eyes burned with ambition.
"I will gain everything."
The Scarlet King clenched his fists as he calculated the potential.
The result would be transcendent.
Yet ambition alone would not carry him there.
He forced his thoughts to settle.
He was still far from that goal.
For now, he needed to focus on what lay before him.
Cain turned his gaze toward Intu's frozen form. The Soul Crushing King remained suspended in stasis, his body and
soul sealed by the Quietus Force. Cain reached out and grabbed him. The Hollow Star in his brain ignited.
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