Chapter 445: The Unbridgeable Gap

The red-haired woman smirked as she watched the tide of gloom try to coat the surrounding area.

"Looks like you want to get serious... let’s see," said the Pillar of Flame, raising a hand. "[Flame Domain Stage 2: Sapphire Fire]."

The crimson flames shifted to cobalt blue. The temperature spiked so that Alexander’s shadow domain shrank under the thermal radiation.

"Well, well... looks like you’re tougher than I thought. See if you can take this," said the Pillar of Flame, clenching her fist. "[Abyssal Flame]."

The blue fire mutated into purple. The heat devoured the gloom, reducing Alexander’s shadow field to meters around his feet. His cuirass glowed, melting away under the radiation; the energy of the purple flames was destroying him down to a molecular level.

"So this is the power of a Pillar? Shit... am I this far behind?" whispered Alexander, his tone heavy with frustration.

Alexander could feel his [Lord of the Night] armor deteriorating with every second. If this clash dragged on, there would be no way to escape alive. The woman hadn’t fought—she was playing around where she stood—yet that display was enough to make him feel the gap between their strengths.

Refusing to let despair consume him, Alexander rocketed forward and brought down a slash with his dark scythe.

However, before the blade could get close to the woman’s face, the purple heat disintegrated the shadow scythe, turning it into ash.

"Looks like I overestimated you, kid," said the Pillar of Flame, letting out a giggle as she glanced at the dissolving remnants of the blade. "A stick that fragile is never going to handle the heat of a burning cave... you melted it on me before you could even slide it in properly."

Alexander gritted his teeth and lunged forward once more to strike with his armored fist.

The Pillar of Flame didn’t flinch. She extended her palm and unleashed a blast of purple fire that slammed into Alexander’s chest, throwing him backward across the glowing stone.

Alexander skidded across the stone, leaving a trail of smoke in his wake as he fought to keep his footing.

"Shit... if I keep playing her game, she’s going to eat me alive," whispered Alexander, feeling the purple heat threatening to dissolve what remained of his defenses.

Without hesitating, Alexander halted the flow of his energy and detonated the power of blood and darkness built up inside his body. The vital reserve in his veins and the gloom of his soul went into a combustion, triggering an explosion of mana that threatened to tear his muscles apart.

The mist around his silhouette flushed blood-red laced with abyssal shadows. His muscles coiled, and the friction of his speed shattered the air around him.

Alexander vanished from the Pillar of Flame’s field of vision, leaving behind a sonic boom that pulverized the scorched ground.

"Huh?" asked the Pillar of Flame, narrowing her eyes as she lost the kid’s heat signature for a fraction of a second.

Reappearing in midair directly above the woman’s blind shoulder, Alexander condensed that blood and shadow mass into the palm of his right hand, shaping it into a claw.

"Let’s see you melt this!" shouted Alexander, driving a swipe toward the woman’s neck.

The strike forced its way through the thermal barrier using the pressure of densified blood and shadow mana, managing to graze the Pillar’s shoulder and draw a droplet of golden blood before the purple flames detonated between them.

The detonation of the purple fire slamming into the mass of blood and darkness generated a shockwave in the air.

Leveraging the force of the explosion, Alexander shifted his stance, using the impact’s pressure as a thruster to rocket backward like a dark comet.

"Damn kid!" shouted the Pillar of Flame, touching her wounded shoulder with a furious expression as the droplet of golden blood stained her dress.

The Pillar extended both hands to unleash a tide of fire to incinerate the chamber, but it was too late. Alexander shot through the breach of the dome’s outer vault door before the flames could reach him, leaving the Seventh Filter’s containment zone behind.

The momentum of the blast catapulted him out of the underground complex, shattering the final containment barrier and sending him tumbling across the surface ground before springing to his feet.

Alexander exhaled a plume of hot vapor, feeling his muscles ache from the internal detonation as he took in the landscape stretching before him: the surface city of the Federation.

"At last... the surface," whispered Alexander, steadying his breathing as he took in the glowing lights of the metropolis.

The moment Alexander set foot on the surface, the structure behind him collapsed. The Pillar of Flame erupted from the crater, her body enveloped in a surge of purple fire as she rocketed after him like a meteor.

Alexander didn’t waste a second, fleeing toward the metropolis’s skyscrapers.

Accelerating her pace, the Pillar caught up to him in moments, extending her hand to unleash a burst of purple flames at his back; however, Alexander cut to the side and dodged the blast with ease, noticing that the thermal pressure of the explosion was weaker than it had been moments ago.

Alexander slacked his pace slightly without stopping, casting a glance at the trajectory of the fire he had evaded.

"What the hell...?" whispered Alexander, intrigued by the shift. "Why does she seem weaker now?"

Despite doubting for a second upon noticing the drop in her power, Alexander didn’t fall into the temptation of turning back, choosing not to risk engaging in an unnecessary fight. Knowing that city reinforcements could arrive at any moment, he drove his feet violently against the pavement and rocketed away at full speed into the shadows of the first skyscrapers.

Seeing her prey slip through her fingers, the woman clenched her fists in rage.

"Come back here, you coward!" the Pillar of Flame screamed, her voice dripping with fury.

The purple fire erupted violently behind her once more, propelling her into a relentless pursuit right on Alexander’s dark trail.