Daemon Azure had always believed the strength of the five heirs was similar. There were small differences, of course.
Kaelen was a maniac, Aiden a brute, Anya too clever, and Lysander annoyingly righteous. But at their core, he believed they were all on the sa level.
His confidence had only grown after he bonded with Shade, his netherworld spirit.
Now, looking at the two monsters engaged in a fierce battle, he was not sure anymore.
No, he was sure.
Before them, he was nothing but ordinary trash. He doubted they would even consider him trash. They were on a completely different plane of existence.
The most terrifying fact was that both of them were from the Ashton clan, a family he had always looked down on as being in decline.
’At least they are hostile to each other.’ That was the only comforting thought Daemon could cling to. If these two ever decided to work together, the Azure family’s rule would be over.
The fight continued tirelessly. The starlit void of the Sanctum was filled with the sounds of explosions, the hiss of vaporising blood, and the grating crunch of regenerating bone.
It was a battle that defied all logic.
If not for the summoned monster, the Ashen Behemoth, they would all be dead. The massive creature stood like an unmoving mountain, its primary focus on protecting the little child, who was sulking while clinging to its teeth.
But its passive gravitational field acted as an inadvertent shield, deflecting the worst of the shockwaves and stray attacks that would have otherwise vaporised the watching disciples.
They were surviving only because they were caught in the protective shadow of Rhys’s puppet.
Daemon felt his blood turn cold every ti the two cousins exchanged blows.
They would lose entire limbs, get blasted into pieces, and then casually reform, their voices never losing their mocking tone as they insulted each other.
"Is that all you have, cousin?" Kaelen’s manic laugh echoed as his lower body, which had been turned to ash by the Voidheart Fla, reford from a puddle of blood.
"I’ve had worse tickles from a house cat."
"You fight like a child throwing a tantrum," Rhys’s voice shot back, calm and cold, as his own arm, which had been turned into a bloody whip by Kaelen, snapped back into place.
They were monsters. And they were enjoying it.
Daemon watched, his princely pride shattering into a million pieces. He also understood that the monster protecting them was the only reason these islands were still floating.
He learned this the hard way.
In a fit of manic excitent, Kaelen grew tired of the Behemoth’s passive interference. With a guttural roar, he unleashed a torrent of pure, condensed blood energy.
The beam was impossibly fast, striking the Ashen Behemoth in the chest.
The boss-grade puppet, a creature that had seed invincible, was killed in a single strike, its massive body crumbling into a shower of glittering stardust.
The mont it died, the world began to end. The stabilising gravitational field vanished. The floating island they were on groaned, a massive fissure cracking across its surface.
The other islands in the distance began to tilt and fall into the endless void below.
Daemon cursed Kaelen in his mind. This lunatic! If he wanted to die, he should do it alone. Why was he trying to take them all with him?
But before the collapse could beco irreversible, Rhys acted. He slamd his hand on the ground.
"Arise!"
The stardust of the fallen Behemoth swirled together, and in less than a second, the massive creature was reborn, its silver eyes glowing with the sa cold light.
It stomped its feet, and the gravitational field returned, pulling the crumbling islands back into a fragile stability.
Daemon let out a breath he did not realise he had been holding. He glared at Kaelen with pure hatred.
The fight between the two cousins resud, their taunts and blows as relentless as ever.
’Kaelen...’
’Kaelen...’
’Kaelen...’
Daemon shivered as Rhys once again crushed Kaelen’s body into a paste, only for the blood and gore to rejoin and reform the demon.
Kaelen still had that maniacal smile on his face, but Daemon could see it was becoming strained. The genuineness in it was gone. It seed the demon was finally becoming serious.
’It would be good if one of them dies now,’ Daemon thought, his mind working through the political implications. ’Better if both died.’
The mont the thought crossed his mind, he felt it. An overwhelming killing intent, cold and absolute, focused directly on him. It was not from Rhys or Kaelen.
He glanced to the side. The little girl was staring at him. Her swirling, galactic eyes were not innocent or cute. They were a bottomless pit of cold, ancient hunger.
He felt like a mouse being watched by an apex predator. He stumbled back a step, his heart hamring in his chest.
The little girl moved her gaze away from him, turning her attention back to the fight, but Daemon was already sweating.
’Crap,’ he thought, his mind reeling. ’Who is that little girl? No, what is that monster?’
He had been so focused on the two cousins that he had forgotten about the third, and perhaps most terrifying, entity on the battlefield.
*
* *
The fight continued, with both sides growing more focused. Rhys understood the gravity of the situation he was in as he saw Kaelen suddenly take a step back.
Obviously, he did not give him a chance to do anything, as the dagger tore through the air, embedding itself in the demon’s forehead.
Kaelen pulled the dagger from his forehead. The next second, the dagger reached Rhys, penetrating straight into his heart.
"You are truly wonderful, cousin! So wonderful, in fact, that I think I’ll show you a real secret."
The blood tendril on his shoulder pulsed violently, and from its tip, a single, perfect, black feather erged.
Rhys froze. He knew that energy. It was the sa energy that ford the core of his own constitution.
[WARNING! Divine Skill detected: [Void Plu]!]
’Divine skill?’ Rhys’s mind reeled. How could a demon in the mortal world possess a skill of divine quality?
Kaelen saw the shock on his face and his grin widened.
"Surprised? It seems my demonic ancestor was quite the collector. This little trinket allows to dip my fingers into the abyss itself. Let give you a taste."
He flicked the feather. A thin, black line shot through the air. It was not an attack of energy or matter.
It was a cut in reality itself. A sliver of pure void. It moved with a speed that defied logic.
Rhys had no ti to dodge. He could only raise his arms in a desperate attempt to block. The black line touched him. His arms, from the elbow down, simply ceased to exist.
They were not cut or burned; they were erased. The pain was absolute.
His flawless regeneration tried to kick in, but it struggled, burning through millions of years of lifespan in a desperate attempt to recreate what had been erased from existence.
Kaelen cackled with glee. Rather than speaking in the air, his voice sounded directly in Rhys’s mind.
’Do you see the difference between us, cousin? You have heaven grade skills of your own, but can they compare to mine? Haha. You were given yours by your father, a gift you never earned.
But mine? I clawed my way to power, I endured endless pain, I made pacts with beings you can’t even imagine! Everything you have is a fluke of birth! Everything I have, I have earned!’
Rhys curled his lips. Good thing this fool thinks he got his divine skills from his father.
’The rits of having a father who is not a cuck.’
Boom.
Half of Rhys’s body ceased to exist.
’Angry when hearing the truth. Tsk.’
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