Chapter 167: Striking Back (1)
Ever since Bella’s death—her soul wasn’t taken and brought to the gate of the underworld by Hermes. Instead, her soul seeped into him. Became one with his. And now, his soul—and life weren’t only his anymore.
It was also Bella’s.
And her wrath before death bled to him like a river to the ocean.
Kai knew that he also embodied her hope for his future, and strength is what it demanded.
"Night... heed my call." He looked skyward and called out to his servant. "Come to me."
As soon as the words left Kai’s lips, the night came down like a lightning strike of darkness—a bolt of pure black that fell from the night sky and speared Kai through his chest. The impact was smooth and absolute.
Darkness coiled around his body before a shockwave of mana detonated from his body.
Dorian was closest; the pulse of force caught him square in the chest and shoved him back in two stumbling steps. His arm wheeled—and his mind was blank with surprise. Once he came to his senses and looked ahead again, his eyes went wide enough to ache.
To his surprise, Kai was already on his knee.
Just moments ago, Dorian had checked and was sure that Kai was paralyzed.
His cracked skull rendered the synapses of his brain activity useless.
But now he was on his knee, and his broken face was regenerating visibly.
Swoosh—!
Dark aura flared from Kai in writhing, crackling sheets that sizzled off his shoulders like steam from a furnace. The air around him distorted, snapping with a pressure that made Dorian’s ears pop.
The amount of mana bleeding out of him was obscene.
Close to impossible for an Awakened Supernal; impossible even with absurd enhancements.
His eyes were abyssal black; twin pits that swallowed the starling, and on his forehead a black symbol pulsed with power unlike anything that they had ever seen. A power that felt ancient, even in comparison to the stroke of power from the Supernals of Olympian Gods.
Inside, Kai’s Primordial Locks sparked—the dark aura swelled again and detonated outward.
But unlike the one earlier, this one was stronger.
Violent enough to make Dorian retreat another step in utter shock.
"I’ve heard about this before..." Dorian shielded his face with his arm as his eyes stared at Kai with shock and awe. "I heard some Supernals, if pushed past their limits—the latent power in their divine bloodlines might be released in a violent burst like this.
"Overload... Or some call it the Pyre Overload." He whispered inwardly.
He only heard it in passing; random banter from the students as they talked about the Blood Rite. The Pyre Overload is a unique state that could be triggered by a Supernal, and in this state, the Supernal’s strength would be boosted significantly.
Past the limit.
Some of the victors tapped into this state, and won the Blood Rite because of it.
But it was a gift reserved for those with a high-rated Patron God.
Supernals of the Olympian Gods are known to easily tap into this state.
For Kai to achieve this Prye Overload State was unbelievable.
And frankly, Dorian was afraid that this might escalate into something even worse.
’This is bad... I need to stop him before it goes any further.’ Dorian’s throat tightened from the worry—realizing that Kai might attempt to kill Barbara. He needed to stop Kai before it was too late, but Kai’s name barely reached his tongue before the air was charged.
Kai pressed a hand against the ground in front of him and drew back his right arm, dragging the Blood-phantom Scimitar’s tip across the stone ground. He closed his eyes—and inhaled a deep breath.
Once his eyes opened again, the kindness behind them disappeared completely.
Replaced by a cold, calculating murderous intent.
"Only the strong will survive..." Kai whispered with a shuddering breath.
And in the next second, he moved.
Not run in a charge, but vanish. One blink, he was there, and the next, he was already close to Barbara with the Blood-phantom Scimitar already drawn, his arm cocked back—and the blade hummed with a darkness so thick it seemed to drink the coming moonlight.
Smelling the attack, the oversized wolf got in the way; fangs bared.
A blur of dark fur and killing intent aimed to intercept Kai mid-charge—but it never reached Kai.
From the stone ground below, two massive hands of darkness erupted; fingers the size of broadswords seized the oversized wolf by its torso and lifted it by its belly. The Awakened Monster’s momentum died instantly.
It thrashed, snarled, claw raked uselessly, but it couldn’t break free.
The hands that lifted it skyward as if offering a sacrifice to the uncaring stars were too strong.
Kai didn’t slow down.
He leapt, spun mid-air, and swung his scimitar in a vertical arc through the oversized wolf’s exposed throat. Gracefully, he landed on the fair side—and kept moving; the kill was already left behind him, forgotten.
Behind, Perion’s grip tightened; the golem of living shadow wrenched the oversized wolf’s head with a sickening, wet crack—and then pulled. He pulled out its skull and spine from the body in a single, brutal yank.
Blood arced across the clearing in a hot, black spray.
Like trash, Perion threw the headless carcass aside and loomed silently like a nightmare.
Dorian’s breath was caught in his throat. Bryan’s fists unclenched in pure shock. And Bree’s hand flew to her mouth. Each one of them was surprised—not because the oversized wolf had been dispatched easily, but because of Perion.
All of them had fought beside Kai before.
Some had even fought alongside him from the very start, and they thought they knew Kai’s limits already. His tricks. His arsenal. Everything. A golem of shadow that massive and lethal; none of them had ever glimpsed it before.
Such a sight shattered the familiarity like glass.
Barbara’s pupils blew wide.
Instinctively, she released Bree’s wrist and snapped into a defensive stance; ready to protect herself against Kai. Before his blade could reach her—she already swung her muscular arm horizontally with brutal speed.
She was aiming to strike Kai’s skull with her vambrace that wrapped around her forearm.
A punch from her already knocked Kai down.
Getting struck by her steel vambrace that was even harder would certainly end this farce.
Kai would not get up again without a doubt.
Swoosh—!
Smoothly, Kai ducked the swinging arm. His body flowed around her strike with a speed that caught Barbara off guard. He circled to her back before she could finish blinking. By the time her eyes caught up, Kai was already behind her.
Mana flooded the Blood-phantom Scimitar; sheathing it in absolute darkness.
Its blade turned jet-black.
Along the way—Kai also had charged the Dark Discharge Imprint into it. And coupled with the Perfect Slash Ending Fragment that helped him stabilize the scimitar despite the trembling energy in it, refining the arc into something extremely lethal.
Kai swung with a violent grunt—every muscle in his body was committed to the strike.
Reacting to this, Barbara raised her arm to block.
’The Vambraces of Linka are a grade one equipment with steel affinity,’ She thought inside as a smile crept to her lips; she aligned the steel vambrace on her forearm with her face to block Kai’s blade. ’It doesn’t have an origin, but it’s sturdy enough that no Awakened Supernal could leave a dent on it. Even a Star Beast’s attack could be blocked soundly by this. I didn’t bother to hide the mana emanated from this, so he must have known that my vambraces are not normal.
’And yet, despite all that, this Lesser Angel dares to think he could go against me, a High Angel, in direct combat just because he tapped into Pyre Overload?’ A condescending snort escaped Barbara’s nose. ’He’s overestimating himself, and I’ll teach him a lesson. And for the lesson fee... his life would suffice.’
Confidence anchored her stance.
Her core strength was immense, and her vambraces were unbreakable for anything in Kai’s weight class. Even before the blade collided with the vambrace, Barbara’s mind already raced a few steps ahead.
Two counters, two follow-ups, and one decisive finish.
Kai would drop in five moves.
But when the scimitar met her guard, the impact erased her thoughts instantly.
CLANG—!
Barbara’s left arm went numb instantly; the vambrace screamed as a deep dent cratered its steel surface. The inner part curved inward and stabbed into her skin. But it didn’t stop there; the force travelled through her guard and into her body like a battering ram.
Despite the fact that she was ready, already braced for impact, she was hurled sideways.
’What happened...?’ She thought inside, eyes widening in shock.
As the wind whistled against her eardrums, she soon realized that she was hurled away. It was a realization that struck her like a lightning strike to her core. ’I-I was thrown away? Me? A Lesser Angel won in a clash of raw strength against me?’
Before her mind could wrap around what happened properly, her warrior instincts screamed.
Barbara looked down and saw an energy arc.
It was thick and deadly, chasing her with incredible speed.
Understanding now that she couldn’t take Kai’s attack lightly, she twisted and contorted her body, slipping past the cutting wave before it could bisect her. Her boots hit stone and skidded further, carving twin furrows across the ground.
She looked up, and shock was a cold mask on her face.
Even with her mask on, everyone could tell that she was completely stunned.
Naturally, her eyes lowered to her vambrace, and the crack in it stared back at her like a mockery of her battle prowess. Kai, a Lesser Angel who should be at the bottom of the barrel, had just overpowered her guard and nearly taken her head.
If the Vambraces of Linka had no steel affinity that made it more durable, she would’ve most certainly lost her head.
But once again, she was given no time to process it.
The phantom was already upon her, and the scimitar in its hand was already charged with the same amount of mana as before. Out of sheer instinct, Barbara ducked the slash, and she could hear the sharp hiss passing above her head.
She straightened her posture, but the scimitar came again.
Kai was wasting mana by charging every attack even though it wasn’t fixed.
But it didn’t seem to matter for him.
Like having a bottomless reserve of mana, every single attack he threw was charged with the same ridiculous amount of mana. And there was so much Barbara could dodge against a flurry of darkness that left no room to breathe.
CLANG—!
Once again, she was forced to block the slash with her vambrace.
But this time, the vambrace shattered into dozens of shards, and she was pushed back again.
’His strength is abnormal!’
