Chapter 378: Echoes of the Abyss

Chapter 378: Chapter 378: Echoes of the Abyss

Damon landed on the ruined stone.

The arena around him was gone. Only a crater remained.

Kael stood on the opposite side.

His eyes were changing.

The ash-grey irises turned pitch black. Not the black of a pupil. The black of a void.

Damon felt it.

’He’s not human.’

Kael’s body began to shift.

Shadows detached themselves from his form. They writhed and twisted in the air around him.

They had teeth.

Damon watched as the shadows formed snapping jaws that bit at the empty space around Kael.

Kael raised his hand.

The shadows lunged.

Damon moved.

He activated Astral Steps and vanished from his position. The jaws bit through where he had stood a moment before.

The stone crumbled into dust.

Damon reappeared ten meters to the left.

Another shadow jaw lunged at him.

He dodged again.

The shadows were relentless. They came from every angle. Above. Below. The sides.

Damon weaved through them like a dancer.

He smiled.

’Finally.’

Kael watched from the center of the storm.

"Stop running."

Damon appeared on a chunk of raised stone, his boots finding solid purchase on the uneven surface. The crater stretched around them, a testament to the destruction they had already wrought.

"I’m not running. I’m testing you."

Kael’s eyes narrowed, the void-black irises glinting with something unreadable.

"Testing me?"

Damon nodded, a confident smirk playing at the corners of his lips. "You’ve been holding back. I want to see what you really have."

Kael’s expression shifted. Something dark passed through his eyes—a flicker of ancient recognition, of power barely leashed.

"Fine."

The shadows around him stirred, responding to his will.

He raised his hand.

The shadows around him stopped moving.

They went still.

Then they began to pulse.

Damon felt the shift in the air. The temperature dropped. The light around Kael began to dim.

Kael’s voice dropped to a low, resonant growl that echoed with ancient power, the words seeming to vibrate through the very air around them.

"I am the heir of the Void Abyss. My bloodline is older than your world, older than the stars themselves."

The shadows around him exploded outward in a silent, violent wave. They didn’t attack Damon directly. Instead, they targeted the space around him, twisting and distorting reality with malicious intent.

The air screamed as it tore apart, rent by invisible claws of pure darkness.

Reality cracked like fragile glass, fissures of abyssal energy spreading through the fabric of existence.

Damon found himself surrounded by a cage of abyssal energy, a prison of living shadow that pulsed with the hunger of the void.

Kael closed his fist, and the cage began to contract, the walls closing in on Damon from all sides.

Damon raised the Chaos Devourer, its blade humming with anticipation.

The blade hummed with a dark, eager hunger, its edge whispering promises of oblivion.

But Damon didn’t strike.

Instead, he let the Chaos Devourer vanish from his grip, dismissing it with a casual thought. His lips curved into a faint, curious smile.

’Let’s see what this body can do.’

Kael’s eyes widened in disbelief, his voice sharp with confusion.

"What are you doing? Do you have a death wish?"

Damon stood still, his posture relaxed, his golden eyes gleaming with quiet confidence.

The cage of abyssal energy closed around him, its walls writhing with living shadows that hissed and snarled.

It touched his skin, the cold void pressing against his scales.

And stopped.

Damon looked down at his arm. The abyssal energy was trying to decay his flesh.

But his scales held.

The Body of the Incubus Dragon Lord was dense enough to resist localized entropy.

Damon looked up at Kael.

"Is that all?"

Kael’s expression shifted to anger.

He poured more power into the cage.

The abyssal energy intensified.

Damon’s skin began to glow with a faint golden light.

The dragon scales beneath his surface activated.

He felt the pressure increase. But he didn’t move. He stood still and let the energy wash over him.

It couldn’t break through.

Kael’s face twisted with frustration.

"Impossible. No mortal body can withstand the Void Abyss’s touch."

Damon smiled.

"I’m not a mortal."

He stepped forward.

The cage shattered.

Kael stumbled backward.

Damon appeared in front of him in a blur of motion. He grabbed Kael’s throat, his fingers digging into the flesh with an iron grip.

"You have potential," Damon said, his voice calm but carrying an edge of amusement.

He threw Kael across the arena with a casual flick of his arm. Kael crashed into the remaining stone wall with a thunderous crack.

The wall collapsed, burying him in a heap of rubble and dust. Damon waited, his golden eyes fixed on the pile.

Kael rose from the debris, his robes torn and his face covered in dust. His eyes were still black, burning with hatred.

But now they held something else.

Kael spoke.

"You’re not a cultivator. You’re a monster."

Damon smiled.

"Takes one to know one."

Kael’s expression shifted.

He stopped holding back.

The shadows around him began to multiply. They formed into a massive shape. A dragon made of void.

Kael raised his hand.

The shadow dragon lunged.

Damon activated Astral Steps.

He appeared on the dragon’s head.

He drove his fist down.

The dragon shattered into a thousand pieces.

But each piece reformed into a smaller dragon.

They surrounded him.

Damon looked at the swarm of shadow dragons.

A deep, resonant laugh escaped his lips.

"Finally."

He unshackled the full might of his Incubus Dragon Lord Bloodline, and it erupted from him like a primordial beast awakening.

A tidal wave of golden-black energy swept across the arena, cracking the stone floor and warping the air itself.

The shadow dragons screeched as they dissolved into nothingness, leaving Kael standing alone in the center of the desolate battleground.

Damon walked toward him with measured, deliberate steps, his golden eyes gleaming with predatory intent.

Kael raised his sword, the black blade trembling with residual shadow energy.

Damon didn’t stop.

Kael swung in a desperate arc.

Damon caught the blade with his bare hand, the edge biting into his palm.

The edge cut into his palm. But the wound closed instantly.

Damon looked at Kael.

"You’re strong. But you’re not strong enough."

Kael’s eyes widened.