Endless Evolution: Last Star Chapter 1687 1687: Wings and Flame (Part 1)

Loargh struck the Dark Knight first, not Adam, yet it was Adam who revealed the warrior wasn't invincible.

A fearsome beast, the Dark Knight likely outmatched any one of them alone, though the chasm in their powers proved bridgeable.

Adam's ethereal blades had sliced the Dark Knight in three spots simultaneously. He could brush off the gashes with his vast reserves of energy and might for the time being, yet inevitably, exhaustion would claim him.

In any case, Adam had deployed one of his mightiest techniques—its success against the Dark Knight made that obvious—leaving him in need of a brief respite.

"Are you ready?" Loargh glanced at Vyora.

She typically brimmed with assurance in triumph, yet her habit of gauging her prowess realistically filled her with doubt about overcoming the Dark Knight.

Excluding her Hollow Mark, the meteorite fall stood as one of her top powers, but the Dark Knight had trivialized it into mere harmless gravel.

Vyora bit her lip.

"Yes! Even if we two can't take down that bastard, we must carve far deeper wounds into him!"

"Glad to hear it."

Right then, Loargh cast off his robe, baring his back etched with an enormous tattoo—his Hollow Mark.

Adam eyed it, mentally contrasting it with the prior Hollow Mark he'd witnessed, Loargh's being that very one.

"Wow, why is it so big?" Adam wondered.

Shaped like vast outstretched wings with sinuous borders and elaborate patterns, Loargh's Hollow Mark—like others—hinted at his ability's essence without mirroring it precisely.

Vyora mimicked him, seizing her robe's hems to expose the Hollow Mark across her chest.

Hers differed sharply: petite like Larth's shoulder mark, its emblem far less defined than Loargh's.

Adam strained to discern two features: a staff and a flame.

"Hmm," Adam hummed to himself, shifting his stare to Sarka. "I wonder where your mark is?"

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Potent auras erupted from Loargh and Vyora, their Hollow Marks blazing vividly to infuse them with surging power.

The Dark Knight wheeled to confront them. He yearned to press his duel with Adam, now his prime foe, though far from his lone worry.

"Tsk." The Dark Knight growled irritably. "Two monsters from the dome pillar think your Hollow Marks will make me afraid?"

Loargh shrugged.

"Who knows? In our last skirmish, you outpaced me. I hope you realize I can't let that happen again?"

Precisely then, their eyes ignited with brilliance, heralding the onset of transformation.

Adam scrutinized every phase, finding them eerily akin to Larth's ordeal.

Light saturated their hair: Loargh's ebony strands bleached to white, Vyora's scarlet locks intensified to fiery brilliance. Their left eyes bore the circular grid, identical to Larth's.

Broad white wings of pure energy then unfurled from Loargh's back, while Vyora donned a crown of raging flames.

Adam nodded thoughtfully. Larth's Hollow Mark had likewise conjured energy-only constructs: gloves, boots, and five orbs drifting rearward.

"So now it's time for something more serious, isn't it?"

Next instant, hefty white-metal boots encased Loargh's legs to the knees, razor-edged. Unlike the wings, they materialized as tangible gear, much like Larth's prior spear.

Vyora stretched her arm forth assuredly, materializing a ponderous staff crowned by a huge crystal orb.

Adam grew certain: all Hollow Marks operated alike.

'First, marks flood bodies with energy, then it manifests shapes, weapons emerge, grids etch the eyes…'

He frowned.

'So does that mean I was right the very first time? Is this a combination of several different enhancements possessed by other races?'

Yet for all the dramatic surge in Loargh and Vyora's auras mere moments prior, the Dark Knight harbored no qualms about victory.

His bearing radiated the same unshakable poise.

"Vyora, it seems our opponent still underestimates us. I can't see his eyes, but I sense arrogance emanating from him. We must correct that."

Vyora nodded gravely.

"It shall be done."

Her staff leveled at the Dark Knight; the orb's inner flame churned in a frenzied spiral, then extinguished.

'Hmm?' Adam cocked his head in puzzlement. 'Did she do something wrong?'

The notion barely formed when ambient heat spiked, drawing his instinctive gaze skyward.

Squinting his eyes, he discerned blazing sparks within the dense gloom summoned by the Dark Knight. Before long, the flames pierced the obscurity as the blazing ring ascended over the battlefield.

Vyora made a clever move, directing her attack not toward the Dark Knight but straight at the Frenzied Shard instead. Unlike the Dark Knight, the Frenzied Shard was stuck on the battlefield and stood as his sole vulnerability up to now.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

The fiery ring quivered intensely until one spark ignited precisely at its core. In an instant, it morphed into a radiant sphere, brimming with the force of a miniature star set to release its full fury.

Vyora aimed her staff right at the Frenzied Shard.

"Now."

Following her order, the sphere detonated into a massive energy beam—a thick torrent of fire—that smashed directly into the Frenzied Shard.

The Dark Knight's darkness and shadow swords proved utterly powerless against this force.

The Dark Knight struggled to keep his composure, yet everyone could tell his nerves were fraying.

Adam spotted it in his aura. For the second time during their clash, it wavered unstably.

'So the straightforward route to triumph is by targeting the Frenzied Shard?' he pondered.

'But…'

Adam's gaze turned even darker.

'Is this victory truly worthwhile? Would Queen Elisa's blood accept such a result?'