Chapter 321: An Uninvited Guest

Draxos chuckled, blood and bile bubbling in his ruined throat. His dark red eyes, which had widened in shock moments ago, slowly narrowed into crescents of dark amusement. His massive frame swayed but did not fall.

All three of them stared.

How?

His regeneration kicked in visibly—SQUISH, CRACK—flesh knitting together inside the cavernous wound, bones reforming, organs rebuilding. The purple-black fire that had been preventing regeneration was slowly being pushed out—HISS—by sheer demonic will. His Body Manipulation forced the foreign energy from his tissues, replacing destroyed cells with new, denser, darker flesh. His hands reformed—CRACK, SQUISH—fingers regenerating, joints popping back into place.

It was like watching a wound reverse itself in time. The cavity in his stomach sealed—SQUISH—new muscle layering over new organ tissue, exoskeleton armor spreading across the closed wound like plates of bone.

Draxos straightened to his full five-meter height. He rolled his shoulders, flexed his four arms, and looked down at Kael with a bloody smile.

"Cute," Draxos said, his voice rough but steady. "That actually hurt. It’s been... a long time since anything hurt." He cracked his neck—POP, POP—and his dark red eyes flared brighter. "But pain is just information. And now I know what you can do."

He launched forward.

The fight resumed with even greater intensity. Draxos moved faster, hit harder, reacted quicker—his Wrath Intent fully stoked by the pain he’d just experienced. His four arms became blurs—WHOOSH, WHOOSH—bone weapons materializing from his palms, replacing the greatswords. Bone sabers, bone spears, bone claws—each weapon formed and reformed in his hands with fluid and terrifying speed.

All three of them started sustaining injuries at an alarming rate.

Draxos’s true demon form pushed his combat abilities beyond what the three could handle together. His Body Manipulation had adapted to their combined assault, his movements becoming more efficient with every exchange. He was learning them in real time.

Sage’s scythe clashed with Draxos’s bone weapons repeatedly—CLANG, CLANG, CLANG—each impact sending shockwaves up her arms. Her violet aura flickered—FZZT—as Draxos’s Wrath Intent eroded her Perception Filter. A bone claw caught her across the ribs—SLASH—she cried out—AGH—blood spraying from the wound. She backpedaled—SKRT—fox fire flaring defensively.

Rue strained her Word Magic to its limits. Every syllable cost more mana than the last—PANT, PANT—her voice growing hoarse, her amber eyes dimming. She layered command after command but Draxos’s Wrath Intent swallowed each word like an ocean swallowing raindrops. A backhand caught her—BOOM—she crashed into the ground—CRASH—her fox fire sputtering as she pulled herself up, blood trickling from her lip.

Kael took hit after hit. A bone spear grazed his shoulder—SLASH—a bone claw raked across his back—RIP—a knee strike caught him in the stomach—BOOM—each impact sending him reeling. His Void Body Refinement absorbed the worst of the damage, but the accumulation was relentless. Blood soaked his clothes—DRIP, DRIP—his aura flickering.

Kael backed away from Draxos, creating distance. He looked at Rue and Sage. Both were battered, bleeding, their auras unstable.

"Buy me time," Kael said.

Both women moved without hesitation. Sage launched at Draxos from the left—FWOOM—her scythe trailing violet fox fire. Rue attacked from the right—SING—her Word Magic still forcing Draxos to divert attention.

Kael stood in place. He closed his eyes. Dark mana gathered around his chest—HUMMM—condensing, compressing, spinning into a dense orb. The Void Core. He pushed mana into its formation, accelerating the process.

He opened his eyes, watching Rue and Sage losing ground. Sage was thrown—BOOM—her body skipping across the earth like a stone. Rue screamed a Word Magic command—SING—"BIND!"—but Draxos walked through it, his Wrath Intent crushing the syllables.

Rue coughed blood—SPLAT—the strain of her Word Magic tearing at her spiritual foundation. She dropped to one knee, her nine tails limp behind her, her amber eyes dimming.

Kael’s Void Core was almost complete. The dark orb spun—HUMMM, HUMMM—compressed to its limit, ready to enter his chest. Just a few more seconds—

FWOOM.

A huge dark spear materialized—a weapon of condensed, malevolent energy that screamed through the air with impossible speed. It crossed the distance in a heartbeat, a streak of absolute darkness that cut through the battlefield like a blade through silk.

It struck Rue.

SHLUK.

The spear pierced through her body—CRACK—entering through her back and exiting through her stomach. The tip emerged from her abdomen, coated in crimson blood—DRIP, DRIP. Her amber eyes went wide. Her body stiffened, her nine tails going rigid as she fell to the ground.

THUD.

Rue collapsed face-first into the dirt, the dark spear still impaled through her body. Blood pooled beneath her—SPREAD—soaking into the fractured earth. Her fox fire sputtered—FZZT—and went dark.

"RUE!" Sage screamed—SHRIEK—her voice breaking, her violet eyes wild with terror.

Kael’s eyes widened.

His pupils dilated. His breath stopped. The Void Core hung suspended in his chest. Everything around him seemed to freeze. All of it became irrelevant noise.

His silver-flecked eyes found the source.

A man stood in the distance. Three hundred meters away. Radiating dark devouring energy. His hand was outstretched, fingers still pointed at where the spear had been launched

The black-masked man from the Shadow Vatican. The Devourer.

Something inside Kael broke.

The same dark ring that had appeared during his Spirit Soul breakthrough manifested behind his back—HUMMM—floating, rotating, radiating darkness. But this time it was different. The ring was larger—three meters in diameter—its edges flickering with purple-black fire. It pulsed—PULSE—each pulse sending a shockwave of pure, concentrated dark energy outward.

His Astraeon bloodline ignited.

FWOOM.

The dormant bloodline that had sat at fifteen percent awakening for years erupted. The existing fifteen percent became active, burning, flooding his body with the primordial darkness of an ancient royal house. His blood vessels turned black beneath his skin—SHIFT—visible lines of dark energy spreading across his body like veins of void.

His eyes turned black.

The Void Core entered his chest—HUMMM—the dark orb merging with his mana center.

Instead of the expected Spirit Soul Rank 4 aura, his power erupted—FWOOOM—with the force of a Peak Spirit Soul cultivator. The pressure was immense, physical, crushing. The ground beneath Kael’s feet disintegrated—CRACK—a crater expanding outward in every direction. The air itself seemed to darken, as if light was being consumed in his vicinity.

Draxos’s dark red eyes widened for the first time since the fight began. His true demon form instinctively took a step back—STEP—his Wrath Intent recoiling from the ancient, primordial pressure radiating from Kael’s body.

Sage felt it too. She fell to her knees—THUD—from the sheer weight of Kael’s presence. It felt like standing beneath a collapsing sky.

Claude, three hundred meters away, lowered his hand. His masked face tilted slightly.

The battlefield went silent. Even the wind stopped.

Kael stood there, his body wreathed in darkness, the dark ring rotating behind him, his black eyes fixed on Claude’s distant form.