Chapter 267: The Difference Between Power and Supremacy

Chapter 267: Chapter 267: The Difference Between Power and Supremacy

Varkhazan had never experienced such humiliation.

Every attack he had unleashed had ended in failure, every attempt to overwhelm his opponent had been answered with an even more devastating counter, and the human standing before him continued to regard him with the same infuriating composure he had displayed from the very beginning. The Lord of Beasts could scarcely comprehend it; his evolution had multiplied his strength, his mana had reached unprecedented heights, and yet none of those improvements had brought him even a step closer to defeating Ares.

Worse still, his opponent was smiling.

That faint, untroubled smile seemed to mock everything Varkhazan had spent his existence becoming, reducing his authority, his pride, and his newly acquired power to nothing more than an amusing spectacle.

"No..."

Golden mana began to surge violently through Varkhazan’s body, causing the fractured armor covering his limbs to tremble as the energy compressed beneath its surface. His head lowered, and his clenched fists tightened until the stone beneath his feet began to crumble, while the golden radiance surrounding him gradually changed from a brilliant aura into something far more volatile.

"No, I refuse to accept this!"

A deep rumble echoed through the chamber.

Thin streams of golden light appeared beneath his skin, spreading from his chest into his shoulders, arms, and legs like rivers of molten sunlight flowing through his veins. The luminous patterns intensified with every passing second, tracing the contours of his muscles before converging around his heart, where an increasingly violent concentration of mana began to pulse.

His golden hair rose as though caught in an invisible storm, and the pressure pouring from his body forced the surrounding rubble to lift from the ground. The air distorted around him, the remaining pillars shuddered beneath the escalating force, and the cracks in the floor spread outward until the entire throne room seemed to tremble beneath the awakening of something ferocious.

Ares stopped walking.

For the first time in several moments, his expression displayed a trace of interest.

’So, he still has another transformation.’

Varkhazan raised his head, revealing golden eyes that had become almost incandescent, their brilliance accompanied by a feral intensity that stripped away the last remnants of his former composure. The light flowing through his body grew brighter until his entire figure seemed wrapped in a living mantle of golden energy, while the mana surrounding him erupted into turbulent waves that swept through the chamber.

"LOOK AT ME, ARES!"

His roar shook the castle.

"I AM VARKHAZAN, THE LORD OF BEASTS! I HAVE RULED THIS DOMAIN THROUGH STRENGTH, AND I WILL NOT ALLOW A HUMAN TO STAND ABOVE ME!"

The golden radiance around him suddenly compressed.

Then his body disappeared.

BOOOOOOM!

The ground erupted beneath his feet, and a colossal crater formed at the point where he had launched himself forward. His acceleration was so tremendous that the air behind him collapsed into a thunderous shock wave, while the golden light trailing his movement stretched into a brilliant streak that crossed the chamber almost instantaneously.

Varkhazan had surpassed fifteen times the speed of sound.

At that velocity, even the most experienced S-Rank Awakeners would have struggled to perceive his movements, much less react before his attacks landed. His enhanced body moved with terrifying precision, and the golden energy coursing through his muscles reinforced every movement, allowing him to change direction in mid-charge without losing the overwhelming momentum of his advance.

He appeared directly before Ares.

His fist descended toward Ares’s head with enough force to obliterate the ground beneath them, and before the first shock wave had even dissipated, Varkhazan unleashed a second strike from the opposite side, followed by a succession of blows that converged upon his opponent from multiple angles.

To anyone watching from outside the battle, the Lord of Beasts had become little more than a series of golden flashes.

Yet Ares continued to smile.

He tilted his head to evade the first punch, turned his shoulder to let the second pass, and shifted his footing just enough to avoid the third, his movements so economical that he appeared almost stationary beside the blinding streaks of light surrounding him. Whenever Varkhazan accelerated, Ares matched him; whenever the monster changed direction, Ares was already positioned to meet him, his expression suggesting that the extraordinary speed being displayed before him was little more than a minor improvement.

Varkhazan’s eyes widened as he launched another combination.

He accelerated further, forcing more mana through his body until the golden light surrounding him became almost blinding, his fists striking with enough force to produce successive explosions in the air. Ares continued to move between the attacks, sometimes leaning aside by a fraction of an inch, sometimes turning his wrist to guide a strike harmlessly past him, and sometimes stepping directly into Varkhazan’s reach to deliver a precise counter before the monster could complete his next movement.

No matter how fast Varkhazan became, Ares remained beside him.

No matter how fiercely he attacked, Ares continued to smile.

And no matter how much power the Lord of Beasts poured into his transformation, he could not land a single blow.

’What... what is this?’

Varkhazan could scarcely comprehend the situation unfolding before his eyes.

’I’m moving at more than fifteen times the speed of sound! Even the strongest creatures in this domain would struggle to follow my movements, yet he is seeing every attack, avoiding every strike, and matching my speed without showing the slightest sign of exertion!’

His next punch missed Ares’s face by a hair’s breadth.

Ares glanced at the passing fist with mild amusement.

"That’s certainly faster than before," he remarked, his voice carrying effortlessly through the thunderous destruction surrounding them. "Unfortunately, increasing your speed doesn’t accomplish much when your opponent can still follow your movements."

Varkhazan’s expression twisted.

"SHUT UP!"

He gathered the entirety of his remaining momentum into a final assault, drawing his right arm backward before launching a punch powerful enough to shatter the reinforced ground beneath Ares’s feet. Golden light condensed around his fist, forming a dense sphere of energy that distorted the air and caused the surrounding space to tremble beneath the pressure.

This time, Ares did not evade.

He raised one hand and caught Varkhazan’s fist.

The entire chamber seemed to fall silent.

Varkhazan’s eyes widened until their golden radiance became almost indistinguishable from the light flowing through his body. His momentum should have carried his opponent backward, and the force behind the strike should have pulverized anything that attempted to stop it, yet Ares had caught his fist with one hand and brought the entire attack to an abrupt halt.

Not a single step had been forced backward.

Not a single muscle in Ares’s expression had tightened.

He was still smiling.

"W-What...?"

Before Varkhazan could finish the word, Ares tightened his grip.

"Enough."

He pulled the Lord of Beasts forward, turned his body, and drove him into the ground with a single, effortless motion.

KRAAAAAAAAA-BOOOOOOM!

The impact unleashed a catastrophic explosion.

The floor beneath Varkhazan collapsed instantly, forming a massive crater that spread across the throne room as concentric fractures raced outward in every direction. The shock wave blasted rubble toward the walls, sent enormous slabs of stone tumbling through the air, and shook the castle so violently that distant sections of its structure groaned beneath the strain.

Ares remained standing at the center of the destruction, one hand lowered at his side as the golden radiance surrounding Varkhazan flickered violently within the crater.

For several seconds, the Lord of Beasts could do nothing but stare upward in disbelief.

His rage transformation had multiplied his combat speed beyond anything he had previously achieved, allowing him to attack at more than fifteen times the speed of sound, yet Ares had matched every movement, evaded every strike, and finally stopped his strongest punch with a single hand.

The difference between them had become impossible to deny.

Varkhazan had not been fighting an opponent who was struggling to keep pace with him.

He had been fighting someone who could have ended the battle whenever he pleased.

And that realization was far more terrifying than any injury Ares could have inflicted upon him.