"Who dares covet my blood?!"
The voice did not echo through the chamber.
It exploded directly inside Ray's mind, in his very soul.
His consciousness trembled violently.
Suddenly—
The world around him vanished.
The cave.
The corpse.
The trembling chamber—
All dissolved into darkness.
Ray found himself standing within a vast void of greenish-crimson mist.
Opposite him—
A towering silhouette slowly formed.
Massive horns.
A body like a mountain of shadow.
Eyes like burning suns.
Although a fragmented soul.
It was suffocating.
For it was the lingering soul of a demigod.
"You," the entity growled, its voice shaking the void itself. "A mortal ant of at 3rd Rank dare to refine my divine essence?"
"My… the great Demon Emperor Bavilor's divine essence."
It looked at Ray with disdain, as if staring at a foolish insect daring to steal from an elephant.
Ray's spiritual body flickered under the pressure.
So this was it.
His face grew grim.
The lingering soul had not yet dissipated.
In his previous life, he had arrived thousands of years later. By then, the will had already dispersed. The blood had been nothing more than pure energy.
But now—
He had come too early.
And had also miscalculated.
A fragment of the soul still remained.
The demigod's blazing gaze locked onto him.
"You seek to consume my blood essence, don't you?"
The crimson mist surged violently.
"But now, it'll will be I who consumes your soul… and takes your body instead."
In the real world, the fragment of blood inside Ray's body pulsed violently.
The demigod's will was trying to use it to claim his body.
To overwrite him.
Ray gritted his teeth, forcing himself to calm down.
Panic was useless.
He had expected problems while assimilating divine blood—
Just not this big of a problem but it didn't matter.
"If the drop is being controlled by your fragmented soul…"
His voice remained steady despite the crushing pressure.
"Then I'll fight your soul with mine."
In the real world, his body trembled violently.
Inside the void—
Ray closed his eyes.
A complex spiritual formation ignited beneath his feet.
The true function of the Heavenfall God-Eater Blood Refinement Technique was not merely to refine flesh.
It refined the blood—and whatever it contained.
Mind.
Soul.
Consciousness.
Scarlet chains erupted from the formation, shooting toward the demigod's towering figure.
The entity roared.
The void cracked.
"How dare you, insolent insect?!"
Spiritual pressure descended like a collapsing heaven.
Ray's soul shook violently, fractures spreading across his translucent form.
Pain.
Pain unlike anything physical.
Pain that tore directly at his existence.
For it was pain directed at his soul.
But he did not retreat.
He advanced.
The chains tightened.
The formation spun faster.
He was not trying to destroy Bavilor.
That was impossible.
He only needed one thing—
To break his authority over the blood fragment.
"You're already dead," Ray said coldly. "Your era is gone. There is no need for you to remain."
The demigod's eyes flared.
The crimson mist condensed into a massive claw that descended toward Ray's soul.
It struck.
The void exploded.
Ray's spiritual body nearly shattered.
But at the final moment—
"Now!"
The refinement formation shifted.
Instead of resisting—
It consumed.
The scarlet chains did not bind.
They drilled.
Piercing into the lingering imprint attached to the 1% fragment.
Grinding it.
Severing it.
"T-This… What is this technique?!"
"You are no mere 3rd Rank being!"
"Who are you?!"
Bavilor's voice carried disbelief as he felt his control over the blood weakening—his soul being erased layer by layer.
"No—!"
Cracks spread across his massive silhouette.
His destruction drew closer.
The blood fragment inside Ray trembled violently.
The hostile will began to weaken.
Ray seized the opportunity.
His soul surged forward with everything he had left.
The refinement art rotated at full capacity, stripping away layer after layer of foreign authority.
Bavilor's roar grew distorted.
Fading.
"You… insignificant—"
His towering form began dissolving into crimson particles.
But just before fully dispersing—
His burning eyes locked onto Ray.
"You wretched ant!"
The mist convulsed violently.
The Pressure exploded outward.
And then—
Bavilor appeared again.
But this time,More majestic.
More divine.
Ray's cracked soul stared at him grimly.
"Using your last bit of divinity…"
Bavilor froze for a fraction of a second, his gaze turning sharp.
"For you to know this much about divinity… you are certainly no ordinary 3rd Rank."
"I will uncover your secrets after I consume your soul."
He lunged.
Fast.
Overwhelming.
Ray had nothing left.
The chains tried to bind him—
But with a slight shake—
They shattered.
The final spark of divinity surged violently.
Ray's soul was riddled with cracks.
He could not stop it.
The claw headed towards him.
He tried to move—
"Damn it"
But was too slow.
The attack struck him.
Everything went dark.
His spiritual body started shattering into fragments.
"No… it cannot end like this…"
His last thought was unwillingness.
But even that began to fade.
Darkness swallowed him.
He was about to cease.
Then—
BOOM.
An ancient silhouette appeared behind him.
Majestic.
Divine.
A towering figure seated upon a throne so vast that even Bavilor was not half the size of its leg.
Bavilor froze.
"…What… is that?"
Behind Ray's fragmented soul stood the throne-seated existence.
Its presence alone suppressed the void.
It radiated sovereignty.
The authority of a God.
It was nothing more than a remnant.
Less than one percent of its original strength.
But it was enough.
Bavilor trembled.
"No… this aura— impossible…"
The silhouette moved.
It extended one of its palm to reach for Bavilor.
Slowly.
Calmly.
As if picking up dust.
But that calmness—
Was terror for Bavilor.
He tried to flee but was horrified to discover that he couldn't move.
Under that gaze, even his divinity was locked in place.
The hand closed around him.
CRACK.
BANG.
His soul shattered into countless particles.
No resistance.
No struggle.
Before that throne, he was nothing.
The fragments of his soul flowed toward Ray and merged into him.
Ray's fading consciousness slowly returned.
The throne-seated silhouette looked at him briefly.
Then—
It shattered.
Faded.
As if it had never existed.
And Ray's soul began to recover.
And evolve.