Chapter 82: SSS-Rank (Demigod)
Was it possible that it wasn’t at its peak at all, but beyond it?
The mere thought of that possibility made the blood run cold in everyone present. Because if that were true, then the moment that being managed to force its way fully through the rift, this kingdom would fall.
This was because beyond SS-Rank, beyond Paragon, a person acquired an initial comprehension of a divine law, becoming an SSS-Rank, more commonly known as a Demigod.
A being that stood closer to a true divinity than anything else in existence.
If a being of that caliber were to truly appear, then there was no longer any hope that this kingdom would hold.
In the past, several Demigods had existed across all the kingdoms, but every one of them had vanished after the Age of Gods came to its end.
In the current era, the highest rank ever achieved was that of Paragon.
There was simply no way anyone on this continent could withstand the power of such a being, should one appear.
"This is bad. She’s being overpowered." murmured one of the others, watching as the woman of flames, despite attacking with everything she had, was being repelled, and worse, she was beginning to lose ground in the exchanges.
As if to confirm those words, another clash unfolded.
The woman of flames conjured a phoenix of fire, vast enough to dwarf BranLeaf itself, its body saturated with an overwhelming concentration of fire elemental energy, so intense it could reduce an Overlord to ash merely by proximity.
It streaked toward the colossal hand at blinding speed, closing the distance in an instant.
And then it stopped.
Not deflected. Not destroyed. Simply stopped, suspended in midair, as though an invisible force had seized it by the throat.
For a moment it almost seemed alive, the phoenix thrashing, writhing, its wings beating frantically as though trying to break free from a grip it couldn’t see. Like something in agony.
And then it changed.
The flames began dying from the inside out, replaced by something else entirely. They darkened, shifting toward a violet so deep it was nearly black, and within seconds the phoenix the woman of flames had created with everything she had was no longer hers.
It had become a weapon against her.
The violet creature turned slowly, and the woman’s eyes narrowed.
"Impossible..."
She instinctively reached to reclaim control of the phoenix, but the bond that should have been there was gone. It had been severed.
No.
Worse.
Something had replaced it.
The phoenix opened its beak and let out a piercing shriek that tore through the sky. The sound alone carried enough force to distort the air around it, rippling through the battlefield like a physical impact.
Then it moved.
Then it charged, no longer a simple attack, but a violent rush straight toward her at unimaginable speed.
The woman of flames’ eyes went wide.
’shit’
Crimson flames exploded around her body, condensing into a blazing barrier dozens of meters thick. In the same instant she channeled every remaining scrap of energy into stopping the creature that only seconds ago had been hers.
It was useless.
The violet phoenix slammed into the barrier and it collapsed instantly, like glass struck by a hammer. The crimson flames were devoured by the dark ones without managing to offer the slightest resistance.
The explosion was devastating.
A column of violet and black tore open the sky. The woman was struck head-on and hurled backward dozens of miles in a fraction of a second, her body carving a luminous trail across the horizon before slamming into a mountain.
For one instant the summit held.
Then the entire mountain collapsed in on itself, reduced to a sea of rubble and dust.
Silence.
The five remaining sovereigns stared at the point where the mountain had been, their expressions turned to stone. No one spoke. No one moved.
A cold sensation crept along every inch of their bodies, as though death itself had brushed past their throats.
’It’s over,’ thought the King of Solren. ’If that thing crosses the rift, we’re all dead.’
Just as that thought settled, the senses of all five snapped to alert.
A sound.
At first it was almost nothing, a thin whistle, the sound of something fast cutting through the air at a great distance. But it grew louder. Closer.
And in that moment every survival instinct present ignited at once, like a flame catching without warning.
Their instincts fired in unison, bombarding them with signals of danger without pause.
They turned almost simultaneously, their gazes falling on a specific point in the distance.
There they could see a narrow point appearing, growing larger by the second.
The moment they saw it, their eyes went wide as the full realization of what it was washed over them completely.
There was no need for words. There was no need for orders.
All five vanished from their positions without hesitation, breaking away at maximum speed in the same instant, putting dozens of miles between themselves and where they had stood in mere seconds, and the moment they did-
A beam of dark, violet light appeared in the air.
It was so fast it existed for only a single instant, a thin, absolute line that cut the sky from one horizon to the other before vanishing and reaching the colossal hand.
Even the hand seemed to have sensed it, appearing to tremble as it scrambled to prepare a defense, mobilizing an enormous quantity of void energy, but it didn’t manage in time.
The sky went dark.
Night fell in an instant, as though someone had extinguished the sun with a single gesture, and the earth shook, not the tremor of an earthquake, but something deeper, more visceral, as if the ground itself had felt something pass through it.
In every kingdom, everyone at that moment heard the blast.
A single dark pillar of energy rose from the earth into the sky, visible from all six kingdoms, no matter how far apart they were. Radiant in its darkness, it shook the souls of every witness to their very core.
