THE VILLAIN'S POV Chapter 757: Fulghor vs Vayne (2)

The collision struck with terrifying ferocity, distorting the moon's surface well past its original form.

Buried under the rubble of destruction lay Vayne, leaving Fulghor isolated in the emptiness of space.

"I heard you were stronger than the previous Rank Three High Demon," Fulghor remarked. His expression held no trace of scorn, yet his tone oozed sarcasm. "But after seeing you up close, I’ve begun to doubt the truth of that claim."

"I killed the previous one myself .. and he caused me quite a lot of trouble at the time. He was truly powerful."

"Compared to him... you’re little more than a child ruled by her anger."

Gradually, Vayne emerged from the debris of that final strike.

Her right arm lay utterly shattered. Her frame twisted in horrific ways. Her wings hung in tatters, ripped clean off.

All that devastation .. from just one clash.

But what captured attention most was the savage wrath etched across her features .. a seething hatred aimed squarely at Fulghor.

He stood completely unmoved, however—and pressed on with his taunts.

"Your pitiful state is proof enough. It seems the higher ranks have grown weak since the last war."

Fulghor's words landed like a merciful final shot, piercing deep into Vayne and making the surrounding void shudder.

"You’re dead."

Vayne spat the phrase through gritted teeth, her face morphing into a hellish demonic mask.

Shadows burst out from her core, swallowing her whole as her shape started shifting—contorting and bending until it resembled a horror dragged from the depths of a bad dream.

She towered much higher now. Darkness devoured her face, giving way to a nightmarish single eye.

Countless tentacles sprouted from her back, her limbs stretching out in unnatural horror.

The aura she radiated turned utterly petrifying .. enough to make the whole moon quake.

Witnessing this, Fulghor unleashed more of his own presence, steeling for the fight.

"So this is the form born from the fusion of the King’s Shadow and its host..."

Even with Vayne's grotesque new look .. almost rivaling Fulghor's stature .. he betrayed no emotion. It all matched his expectations perfectly.

"Then let’s see... what kind of power it is that was once said to have obscured Orested’s light."

Suddenly, Fulghor and the beastly Vayne hurtled toward one another at impossible velocities.

A streak of shadow smashed into a lance of gold, triggering a thunderous blast—then came an intense showdown of forces.

Shadowy dark and radiant gold shoved against each other without mercy, both powers battling to crush the opposing essence.

Vayne morphed her appendages into deadly blades, slashing at furious paces, as Fulghor countered using his twin spear, engaging her in savage combat.

The shadow essence outshone Fulghor's golden might in purity .. yet the Shadow Sect's beast offset this gap by flooding the field with vastly more energy.

To put it simply, he balanced quality through overwhelming amount.

And that's how he held his ground in a fierce duel against something as fearsome as the King’s Shadow.

In the midst of that infernal struggle, Vayne howled without stop:

"You’re dead. You’re dead. You’re dead. You’re dead. You’re dead!!!!!!"

Her cries echoed like summons from the underworld .. a living terror from nightmares.

Pure insanity. Unbridled ruinous strength.

Bit by bit, Vayne started dominating the aura showdown .. her darkness edging ahead gradually.

Fulghor noticed it plainly—so he retreated step by step, intentionally pulling her along.

The Shadow Sect's creature dashed on all limbs, cloaked in fierce golden blaze, with Vayne chasing as a shadowy streak.

"Vayne... the new Rank Three Demoness. You may possess tremendous power, but you have already lost the psychological battle," Fulghor declared in a resonant tone as his golden glow intensified.

"And soon... you will lose the real battle as well."

By the time those words escaped him, they had zipped to the moon's distant edge, thanks to their blistering pace.

There—once they crossed into a particular zone—something incredible happened.

At Fulghor's cue, eight massive golden spires shot upward, extending to the brink of the cosmos.

They enclosed Vayne fully, tricked by Fulghor right into the heart of the array.

"Supreme Art: Uranus Shock."

Reacting to Fulghor's command, Vayne .. still monstrous .. raised her gaze to the heavens.

And doom rained down on her.

From the remote depths of space—from a spot so far off its name escaped knowledge ..

a flood of destructive might slammed in.

A bellowing ray that spanned realms, pulled by the spires that trapped Vayne inside.

The demoness wailed endlessly—but escape eluded her, and shattering the setup proved impossible in time.

"It’s too late, Rank Three," Fulghor stated firmly, his gaze burning fierce.

"Unlike Gehrman and the rest of the Shadow Sect, I never died. I followed my lord Nameless of my own will. My power never diminished over all these years—on the contrary, it only grew."

"At present .. setting aside Alexander Rybak, who preserved his vessel in a near-perfect state .. I am the strongest within the Shadow Sect."

"Defeating the likes of you... is trivial."

As Fulghor wrapped up his speech, the void seemed to hush completely.

A quiet that endured mere moments—

until the cascade of energy poured in, swallowing Vayne whole.

That enormous column of golden force kept surging endlessly, burning the demoness's form while she shrieked in torment.

The onslaught dragged on for endless, painful instants—until the energy ray pierced the moon's deepest heart.

Fissures raced through the lunar body, throbbing with a dread golden shine ..

until an event both wondrous and terrible unfolded.

The moon burst apart under the immense force, sending a shockwave that reverberated even to Earth.

Lunar shards flew across the stars, and the golden ray at last faded.

Though he had sparked such a cataclysm... Fulghor stayed utterly composed.

After all, it had all played out just as he planned.

Inciting Vayne. Pulling her into open fight. Making her drop all restraint.

Then guiding her directly into the snare he set beforehand.

It all happened exactly as the Shadow Sect’s War General had foreseen.

Fulghor's form vented a thicker plume of searing vapor, after burning through huge portions of his energy.

"Uranus Shock is a strike that unleashes my aura reserves without restriction," he explained, regaining his footing. "That makes it extraordinarily powerful .. but it drains me severely. And luring an opponent into it is no easy task."

He collected his thoughts, handling his scant remaining power with caution.

In usual fights, firing Uranus Shock once wouldn't weaken him this much .. but sharing half his strength with Gehrman now bit back hard.

And unluckily... his foe had somehow endured to the last.

On a huge chunk of the broken moon, the Rank Three Demoness rose again.

Her condition horrified .. and it looked like she'd burned most of her shadow essence just to hang on.

"I struck her with half of my full aura... and yet she didn’t fall," Fulghor whispered, doubt entering his tone as he weighed his options.

Vayne looked wretched. Vast parts of her had been obliterated .. only the shadow kept her intact as one form.

But in return, Fulghor had nearly emptied his own energy stores.

He had claimed victory in the fight.

Yet finishing off the enemy... that posed a different challenge.

"Do I continue pressing the attack... or withdraw?"

Fulghor mulled it over shortly—then chose when he detected an odd surge from the distance... from Earth.

"This... the Wheel of Death..."

His eyes flashed briefly ..then he shut them and eased away.

"Gehrman... I hope you know what you’re doing," Fulghor uttered as he rocketed toward Earth, abandoning Vayne to twist in the wreckage and emptiness.

The Shadow Sect's War General withdrew triumphant—having dealt a devastating blow to the Rank Three Demoness.