"The Demon Cup brims. Blessings descend here. O Dark God, grant the end of the gods. Dzus qara!"
Within the Persian army, solemn divine words echoed. The air split apart as a red-black stream of Ether followed the dark sword's edge, slashing downward straight toward the Demon God wreathed in flame.
This was a Divine Construct that granted all things a pitch-black death. It had slain gods, repelled angels, cut down giants, and fought countless fierce battles against Phantasmal Species that threatened human survival. The endless blood poured over its blade, and the souls severed by its edge, had formed a powerful Curse against specific forms of life.
Faintly, a dangerous throb surged into Samael's heart. His brow stung, and a deep disgust rose in his chest.
A Divinity-specific attack!
Courting death!
Veins pulsed at Samael's forehead. Red-black flame patterns crawled from his chest up his neck and one side of his face, making him look savage and sinister. Within his cross-shaped star pupils, raging flames seemed to burn.
"The hour of twilight has come. Sound the song of despair. Burn here, be destroyed here. Scathe of Branches!"
The Ancient Serpent roared ferociously and poured Ether madly into the flaming Demon Sword in his hand. Half the sky was filled with eerie blood-red light, and Samael, standing beneath that blaze, looked like a giant raising a torch to burn the world.
Then, as Samael leaned forward, Laevatein erupted with an overwhelmingly powerful dark-red beam of light, crushing forward with thunderous force. The two sword lights intertwined and collided in midair.
Hum!
Under the impact, the space at the point of contact visibly twisted and collapsed.
As the Ether tide surged, intense wind pressure sliced to both sides, pulverizing rocks and earth along the way and tearing open the curtain of sand.
Among the Persian army, a Knight clad in full-body pitch-black armor, with metal spikes at the joints and a dark greatsword in hand, stomped forward and swung with all his might, trying to offset that fiercely blazing sword light.
However, under Laevatein's terrifying power, the sword pillar released by the black-armored Knight was suppressed and devoured inch by inch. His once-straight back gradually bent into a hunched posture.
At the same time, his feet, sunk a foot deep into the mud, forcibly plowed trenches dozens of meters long behind him. His armor gave off piercing scrapes as its plates ground together, and his bones groaned under the unbearable strain. Under that violent pressure, the capillaries across his body burst one after another, exploding into clouds of blood mist.
Uncrowned Art! Source of Steel!
Seeing himself about to be smashed into the ground and burned to nothing by the demonic flames, the black-armored Knight bit the tip of his tongue, sprayed blood over his blade, and let out a hysterical roar.
"O God, rise up and scatter Your enemies! May Your kingdom come!"
In an instant, accompanied by the sound of arm bones snapping, the pitch-black sword light that had been at a disadvantage suddenly surged, forcing the blood-red flames back several meters.
"A mere… human!"
Samael's body swayed. His eyes turned scarlet as blood, and a violent sense of humiliation rushed into his head. He frantically poured Mana into the flaming Demon Sword, his divine core pulsing in resonance with the sword's cry.
Boom!
In an instant, a blazing current of flame slashed down with unstoppable force. The black-armored Knight at the front had his armor shattered inch by inch and was blasted dozens of miles away like a comet, falling toward the sea.
But immediately after clearing the obstacle, the sword light fully unleashed its remaining power.
Hiss!
With one strike, the earth shook and the mountains trembled. A bottomless ravine stretched for dozens of miles, and a scorching Ether stream blasted into the distance, forcibly splitting the vast Sea of Chaos open and forming a long, narrow gulf a hundred miles in length that lasted for dozens of breaths. Huge amounts of seawater vaporized and rose, turning into dense fog.
The ferocious sea beasts caught at close range had their blood boil and exploded one after another. Even the marine creatures farther away, struck only by the residual force, could not escape. They were cooked in the scalding seawater, their bodies curling as they floated over the surface in great patches.
Hiss…
The Persian army stared at the ravine stretching from Thermopylae all the way to the sea. They drew in sharp breaths, their faces full of fear and lingering terror.
If the black-armored Knight's counterattack had not forced the flaming sword light to narrowly miss the main body of the army, that single strike would probably have reduced them all to ash.
Monster! Devil!
As the figure in the flames raised Laevatein once more, the nearby Persians, ruled by fear, immediately turned deathly pale. Their bodies trembled like sieves, and they screamed wildly as they turned and fled.
"Stop!"
Just as Samael was about to bring down that world-ending blow, a cold, sharp shout came from the cliff. Piercing sounds tore through the air as several scarlet demon spears were hurled down, stabbing into the ground at Samael's feet and weaving together into a cage that trapped the Ancient Serpent's limbs.
Scáthach rushed in and grabbed Samael's right arm with both hands, pinning it beneath her armpit as she shouted urgently.
"Let go of Laevatein! That thing is eroding you!"
The light in the Ancient Serpent's blood-red eyes wavered. His dormant consciousness gradually regained a few traces of clarity, and he instinctively loosened his fingers, letting the flaming Demon Sword fall from his palm.
Good. We made it in time…
Scáthach let out a breath of relief. The horrifying scars of destruction across the battlefield had badly shaken even the Queen of the Land of Shadows.
Puff, puff, puff, puff!
Suddenly, dull sounds of flesh tearing came from beneath her arm.
Scáthach instinctively looked down and saw Laevatein trembling violently, unwilling to be abandoned like this. Branches sprouted from the hilt one after another and pierced into its host's arm. Crimson divine blood flowed through them, and the flaming Demon Sword that should have fallen was pulled back into Samael's palm.
At the same time, more branches grew from the hilt and burrowed into the Ancient Serpent's flesh, fusing with him. A brutal aura surged through Samael once more, and the searing demonic flames rose again.
Ugh…
The heat that scorched flesh and corroded the soul made Scáthach groan as she restrained Samael's movements.
"You bastard! Wake up!"
Seeing Samael raise his arm, trying to break free from the spear cage's control, the Queen of the Land of Shadows immediately locked down her close friend's limbs and shouted coldly, repeatedly reminding the Ancient Serpent to suppress Laevatein's demonic nature.
"Ancient Runes, power sustained in my name, answer my call and reveal supreme wisdom and majesty. Great God's Cage!"
Just as both sides fell into a stalemate, Skadi arrived riding wind and snow with her wand in hand, causing the temperature to plunge. Under her solemn chant, ice pillars rose from the ground, using the spear cage as a foundation to build an ice-crystal prison that froze that arm and the flaming Demon Sword completely outside.
But the ice prison that the Goddess of Winter maintained with all her strength melted rapidly beneath Laevatein's demonic flames.
For a time, even the combined strength of Skadi and Scáthach could hardly suppress Samael's power.
"Move aside!"
A suppressed growl came from within the Great God's Cage engraved with Runes. Scáthach and Skadi were startled to realize that, after being stimulated by the ice and snow, Samael had regained some clarity.
Out of trust, the two instinctively withdrew.
Crack!
The instant they pulled back, a crisp snap rang out. Scáthach and Skadi looked up in shock and stared blankly at the severed arm in Samael's hand, frozen together with the flaming Demon Sword.
"I said, could you seal this thing first? Also, I think I'm still salvageable…"
Samael grimaced and sucked in cold air, reminding them resentfully. Only then did Scáthach and Skadi snap back to themselves. They immediately constructed the sealing curse of [Great God's Cage], sealed the flaming Demon Sword, now cut off from its Mana source, inside an ice casket, and tossed it into the Land of Shadows for storage.
"No wonder, ever since I came to Greece and started using Laevatein, I've gotten more and more used to it. Normally, I barely even let go of it. I didn't expect this thing's demonic nature to lure me step by step into unleashing its power. It truly lives up to being the Demon Sword that severed the World Tree and destroyed the Scandinavian world."
Under the effect of his immortality, flesh and bone regenerated over his severed arm.
Thinking back on all those subtle, almost imperceptible influences, the Ancient Serpent fell into thought. Then, considering the thing's origin, the corner of his mouth twitched, and he cursed inwardly.
Loki, you damn fraud…
Seasonal cold, rhinitis, and a headache. I went to bed early.
Sorry. The weather changed and cooled down these past couple of days, and I stayed up too much. Before I knew it, my old rhinitis flared up, and the headache was awful. I got an injection, took some medicine, and thought I would just close my eyes for a bit. In the end, I slept through the whole night.
Forget it, I'll take a day off and update at a different time. Before 10 p.m. tonight, there will be three chapters today. If I break my word, same as last time, I'll send a 100-yuan red packet in the full-subscription group.
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