Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 722: Fury

The rock underfoot cracked into a crater from the sheer power of his takeoff, propelling him over the sixty-meter span in one mighty leap, soaring skyward with mana trailing like a comet's wake of deep crimson and ebony hues.

Even in mid-air, his form kept morphing. Horns stretched longer, sweeping backward across his cranium. Eyes glowed fiercely within his own enveloping shadow, while a guttural roar erupted from his throat—wordless, brimming with the primal, intertwined wrath of man and inner beast aligned on one savage intent.

The twins shattered under the pressure. Cassian seized Calix via their tether, and they blinked out of position in frantic evasion, distancing themselves from Kaiden's impending crash site. Their mana flickered weakly. Faces drained pale.

Selena held her ground. Palms lifted high, her mana erupted into a barrier of pure white force shielding her from the oncoming horror.

The sun vanished.

Afternoon glow bathed the mountains one instant, gone the next. Overhead skies bruised purple then plunged deeper, azure devoured by an expanding void stretching edge to edge, like a shroud draped over existence. Chill descended sharply, as if heat itself had been banished from reality.

Shadows stirred to life.

They surged from all surfaces—cracks in stone, gaps in cliffs—rising and expanding against every natural rule of obscurity.

Like inky tides, they flooded the peaks, devouring landscape and light alike, turning rugged stone and brush into utter blackness.

Monsters sensed it earliest.

Beasts battering Nyx’s shield halted rigid. Mana flares sputtered like candles in gales, then shrieks pierced the air.

Stampeding horrors, predators, prey—every beast in range wailed in primal dread, instincts predating reason screaming of an arrival that unraveled them merely by sharing space.

Assailants on the girls crumpled. Limbs gave way, slamming stone; they convulsed, mana cores collapsing under immense pressure that proximity alone shattered.

Nyx’s shield fractured; the trio pounding it recoiled, yowling, raking flesh as encroaching shadows seemed to invade their hides. Nyx dropped her arms, gaze fixed in awe.

Bleeding and one-armed, Luna felt shadows lap her shoulder. Darkness gathered at the jagged stump, staunching flow; edges blackened, sealed like cauterized burns. She spat out her severed limb, noting the raw end similarly staunched, shadows mending it tenderly, like a parent's gentle compress on a wound.

Up on the ridge, twins reeled under tangible oppression.

Calix’s legs buckled to stone. Cassian steadied on his brother’s frame, their link sputtering extinct—their pooled might nullified by the descending force. Mana didn’t merely shrink; it fled inward, burrowing so profoundly that briefly, neither sensed their essence, survival deeming obscurity preferable to notice.

Selena’s white barrier disintegrated unaided, eroding from borders like frost in scalding broth, shards melting into void ere touching earth.

Then darkness engulfed the ridge behind her.

Darker than surroundings, defying conceivable blackness amid enduring reality. Shadows coalesced into solid form, birthing a woman who emerged seamlessly from the abyss.

Vespera Ashborn materialized atop the ridge near her offspring.

Her locks swayed in a breeze sparing all else. Eyes like twin abysses adorned an impassive visage. Shadows seeped from her form, oozed at boundaries, cascaded from steps, blanketing peaks omnidirectionally—silencing wherever they spread.

This marked the Shadow Monarch.

The figure whose mere mention routed S-tier warriors.

She had manifested.

Vespera eyed Selena’s rear. The kneeling twins. Then beyond.

Her gaze locked on Kaiden.

Mid-leap, mid-shift, mid-charge, he hurtled ridgeward—a horned fury of scarlet glow and tearing flesh, radiating lethal aura. Scarce trace of Kaiden lingered; Wrath devoured most, remnant humanity submerged, demon craving slaughter.

Vespera regarded her son.

For a fleeting instant, composure cracked. Brow furrowed faintly. Lips parted. Abyss depths swirled, flashing something minuscule, recognizable solely to him.

A devoted mother’s profound worry for her child’s well-being.

Wrath faltered abruptly.

It receded from extremities like ebbing waves, as the lingering boy’s maternal faith pierced the demon, overriding fury. Crimson wavered. Horns halted extension. Rents in forearm skin mended jerkily, reversal grinding painfully.

He slammed onto the ridge.

Feet met rock, knees folding instantly; forward plunge devolved to sprawl on all fours. Wisps of dark mana still evaporated from him, frame quaking from reining colossal entity into mortal shell.

Kaiden lifted eyes to his mother and uttered,

"What took you so long?"

Voice reclaimed as his—gravelly, tremulous, laced with fatigue and solace.

Vespera gazed downward.

Then she acted.

Shadows engulfed her; she reemerged before Kaiden, interposing between him and the siblings, collapsing vast separation to nil. From behind her progeny to shielding her boy in a blink, leaving twins and Selena gawking at vacated spot with dawning irrelevance.

"Mother." Calix’s plea rose from rear. Kneeling still, he forbore rising. "Mother, please. We didn’t... Please."

Vespera descended to one knee.

Amid shattered stone, shadows encircled them; she inclined, lips brushing his crown. Fingers cupped chin, angling face skyward, thumb on jawline—as Shadow Monarch cradled son’s features, scrutinizing intently.

"Please," Calix implored softer. Words lost to gloom.

Kaiden met her stare.

Features unaltered, ocular voids unchanged. Yet as her child, he pierced facade, beholding the chooser who favored him.

Then transition struck.

Gentleness submerged under chill peril, surfacing the masked entity's raw power—voiding halls, halting discourse, spurring elites to fabricated urgencies.

Kaiden witnessed it nearest ever. Never aimed at others with touch lingering. Immense. Timeless. Rage distilled to inexorable law, peering via maternal orbs, vowing agonies unimagined by those at her back.

Thumb grazed cheek once. Hand retreated.

Vespera rose.

Shadows detonated.