Chapter 2078: Final Clash — Rage of the Past (2)

Seconds ago, victory was creeping to High Lord Ursa’s side.

Many fell throughout the Purgation Duel, but victory was going to be theirs.

Pride, triumph, excitement—many emotions flooded into their bodies as, after being pitted against many powerhouses, enemies that weren’t any lesser than them, they came out on top. For those threading the path of power, nothing could beat the feeling of winning against a powerful opponent.

It was a testament to their existence.

After growing stronger and stronger throughout the years, their efforts were once tested again.

And they prevailed.

But as the years passed in a blur, Diamantona and High Lord Ursa had forgotten something crucial.

Both had forgotten the strongest wills of all.

Emperors and kings grew stronger for their throne. Geniuses grew stronger because it was their destiny to be a cut above the rest. People who came from the very bottom, however, grew stronger because that was the only way for the universe to listen to them.

Every single one of them has the capability to reach the top.

However—emperors could grow complacent. Geniuses could lose their cutting edge. And small people could lose their fire to comfort. One type of person would not lose the fire inside them no matter what. And that person was someone who lived for greater than themselves.

Lived for others. Love others. Protect others.

Seeing the two torrential columns of energy, they now remembered the willpower of the broken souls.

KABOOM—!

The tormented screams of Vadyn and Davina pierced the deep water and crystal—that had imprisoned both Rex and High Lord Rashal. And like a key turning in a rusted lock, they awakened a hidden power buried deep inside both of them.

It was the terrible wonder of the body.

Unlocked only when it abandoned its own well-being, shattering its limits to save another.

Memories flashed behind their eyes; a violent slideshow of past failures. They remembered the crushing weight of their own weakness. They remembered the cold—suffocating reality of witnessing those they loved slip through their fingers.

Their deaths became the bloody foundation upon which Rex and High Lord Rashal had built their paths to power.

They had sworn to themselves, in the quiet, bleeding aftermath of those tragedies, that they would never let something like this happen again. No more losing someone important. No more being too weak to do something when it really mattered.

Ever since, they had struggled brutally.

Clawed their way through life and death to grow stronger, fuelled only by rage and love.

Now, their loved ones were in danger again. Exactly like in the past.

But they were no longer the same men.

It was not only their minds that understood the situation clearly; their bodies and their souls were also on the same page. Every part of them moved in perfect, terrifying synchrony. This moment was another test to see whether they had grown or not.

And instinctively, they poured everything to show that they were not the same as back then.

Every drop of blood, every ounce of energy, and every fiber of their existence.

Rex and High Lord Rashal would pour it all into one final attack.

One last attempt to succeed where they had failed before.

High Lord Rashal glanced at the falling Vadyn through the blinding whiteness that had already devoured his vision. The pained expression on her face was engraved into his mind like a brand, burning his blood to the boiling point.

Miles away, Rex glanced over his shoulder.

He saw Davina coughing out blood and bleeding everywhere.

Around her, there was a crimson pool that seeped into the red shore.

His overwhelming red eyes glowed even brighter, and the throb of his blank organ became violent.

Time, which had stretched into an agonizing crawl, snapped back to normal.

A cataclysmic explosion resounded.

KABOOM—!

High Lord Rashal bellowed at the top of his lungs—as he opened the portals to the Pure Black Realm on his eyes, his palms, and even his chest. He tore them wide, wider than he ever had before. His body was screaming as the dimensional fabric strained against the massive tears.

From the depths of the white void, he unleashed a white extinction ray.

A blinding, searing pillar of absolute annihilation that was far stronger than anything he had ever done.

It was a death beam aimed straight at High Lord Ursa.

"You’re already a walking corpse! DIE!"

High Lord Ursa roared and hurled the massive water sphere down, straight at the white ray.

Both titanic forces clashed head-on; the water hissed and vaporized rapidly while the white ray wavered.

On the other side—the full might of the Greater Lycan Race was flared open to the absolute limit. Every single elemental prowess and his werewolf prowess exploded outward in a kaleidoscope of destructive colour.

Around Rex, the ground turned black as he activated the Black Field Orko.

And then different hues mixed into it, a canvas of apocalyptic fury.

Rex infused every single element that he possessed an affinity for into the Black Field Orko, along with his Laws, Inevitable Death, Brutal Impulse, and the Ravenous of Magna. It was a combination of all his most powerful skills and abilities.

In the next second, the ground cracked open.

A twisted, titanic wolf-head exploded from the crystal floor—its maw opened to swallow the world.

Rex poured every single ounce of primordium energy and immortal energy into the attack, ignoring the burn that charred his body from the inside out. If he could only take down Diamantona by wracking his body, then he would do it without hesitation.

From above, Diamantona watched as the wolf-head combined with the elemental tentacles rose.

Even though they were still a distance away, the sheer might from it was impossibly destructive.

If Diamantona dodged this attack, then it would be over for Rex.

But he couldn’t dodge.

He was fixed in place by the crystal tree, so there was no other choice but to attack it head-on.

’I acknowledged this power of yours, Scion Rex.’ Diamantona thought inside as he raised both his arms, commanding the crystal tree to use every bit of its strength against this approaching cataclysm that was threatening to rip him apart. ’Compared to the Scion of the Anger Stratum I killed centuries ago, you were much stronger. But compared to back then, I also had gotten much stronger, too!’

SHING—!

The final crystal slit on Diamantona’s forehead tore open.

A surge of energy, absolute and terrifying, erupted from the core of his being.

It seethed across his skin like a wild, unseen fire, bleeding into the massive crystal tree behind him.

Every single branch shimmered with a blinding, violent light.

Diamantona threw his arms downward, a furious god commanding his creation to unmake the world.

Instantly, like the extension of his limbs, the crystal tree obeyed and unleashed everything.

SWOOSH—!

A massive crystal lance, the size of a skyscraper, surrounded by a cataclysmic hail of red crystals that glistened like shattered stars, screamed through the air. It shot straight at the incoming titanic wolf-head and the thousand elemental tentacles.

Both forces collided at the exact same microsecond as the white extinction ray and the water sphere.

In the next second, the world suddenly turned silent.

It was a profound, suffocating vacuum of sound. The spectators, sitting on the edge of their seats, miles away, could hear nothing but the frantic, heavy drumming of their own hearts. The air refused to move. The light refused to bleed. The realm itself seemed to hold its breath, waiting for the verdict.

And then, the explosive shockwave detonated.

It was a messy, chaotic splash of energy, like the death throes of a supernova that bloomed into a rapidly expanding circular detonation. The silence stretched for one more agonizing second, and then the world-shattering crack resounded.

KABOOM—!

A sound that physically tore through the realm, cracking the eardrums of the weaker spectators.

It then unleashed a shockwave that swallowed the entire realm.

One wave encompassed the sky, peeling back the clouds—and the very fabric of the heavens. The other spread across the ground and the dark ocean, erasing the crystal floor and boiling the sea without mercy. Dimensional tears ripped open faster than the Cluster Custodian could stitch them back together.

Just the sheer, unbridled discharge of energy alone was so violent that everything around was blasted.

Davina and the High Millinar were included.

Both were plucked from the ground and launched to the far side of the main island.

Realizing that this was her opportunity, she twisted in the air, ignoring the screaming agony in her body, and limped desperately to take cover behind a massive boulder. She breathed and poked her head out to see what was happening, and saw only a sight beyond her comprehension.

A blossoming energy scar that rippled outward, tearing the realm open and exposing the void.

Even then, the clash of four absolute forces remained locked in a dead heat.

High Lord Rashal hissed in pain as his sight was failing. As he poured more and more energy from the portals in his eyes, his vision dissolved into a blinding, absolute white, bordering on—nothingness. He was going blind.

The fingertips holding more open portals were charred black, disintegrating slowly as they were wholly consumed by the enormous energy that the clash was spitting out. His chest was tearing open, too, due to another big portal—the skin, muscle, and bone burned away into ash under the sheer pressure of his own power.

Across the battlefield, Rex was enduring the same hellish recoil.

The hostile energy of the crystal attacks surged past his defenses, tearing into his body—and obliterating his internal organs. His fingers evaporated from how much energy he was pouring. His fur, his skin, his very bones were being stripped away.

Even his monstrous regeneration could not keep up; the evaporation was simply faster.

Both of them were dying.

Both of them were being erased from existence by their own desperate power.

However, in this moment, the pain and the fear of being disintegrated didn’t exist in their minds.

Only the heightened senses remained, and the anger that surfaced from deep inside them.

High Lord Rashal thought of Vadyn. Rex thought of Davina. Both knew the cold, bitter taste of loss—the hollow that came from losing someone vital, a wound that had haunted them for years upon years. In this life, they would not let it happen again.

Rex and High Lord Rashal both threw their heads back and roared.

"AAARHHH!"

"RAARGGH!!"

It was a roar of pure, unyielding defiance against the universe.

A roar fueled by a lifetime of pain, of rage—and of love. It tore from their throats, echoing through the dimensional tears and the howling splash of energies. They pushed. They forced the world-shattering force back, pouring the last, dying embers of their souls into their attacks.

The white extinction ray and the Ravenous Maw of Magna surged forward.

They pierced through the water sphere. They shattered the crystal lance.

’I... I refused to believe this.’ High Lord Ursa stared at the white extinction ray that was already piercing through his water sphere. He had put everything, but it was not enough. ’I’m being overpowered? I refused to believe this!’

On the other side, Diamantona gritted his teeth—eyes bulging in a struggle.

He was trying to reinforce the crystal lance and using the small crystals around it to resist even more.

But the elemental tentacles had already coiled around the crystal lance, and the wolf’s head had clamped down on half of it. ’His immortal energy... it surpassed mine! His blank organ shouldn’t be able to boost immortal energy at all. Where did he—’ A pause, the thought turning cold. ’No... You’re telling me he grew this strong in mere days?’

And then, with one final, destructive, reality-bending blast, the overpowered attacks slammed into High Lord Ursa and Diamantona, consuming them in a light that promised the end of all things.

KABOOM—!