*Content Warning: This chapter contains mature themes, violence, blood, and morally dark actions. Reader discretion advised.*
***
Kevin rolled under the blaze cascade, shoulder-check dispersing a fireball into harmless sparks—Flame homing competent; predicts vectors well. Rowan/Julian cross-blade Mandate storm low-high.
Rowan and Julian swarmed like feral wolves, curved blades and daggers singing Blood Mandate curses—slashes birthing writhing blood-worms that burrowed illusory flesh, Mandate forcing clotted hemorrhages. "Ancestor's Mandate hungers for imposters—fester from inside out!" Rowan snarled, Julian echoing: "Bleed till dry, Father's shadow-thief!"
Kevin spun, elbows batting blades aside in ringing clashes, blood-worms dissipating on contact—Mandate harassment effective in packs; bleed stacks minor. Cycle resets: Damien pulse cluster.
Damien hammered a triple-pulse barrage, calamities manifesting as shrieking specters that clawed spiritual essence, space folding into kill-boxes. "Pulse rends your soul—endless torment for mockery!" Victor overlapped with spinning axe volleys, Mandate gashes layering till Kevin's silhouette bled phantom rivers. "Choke on your arrogance—blood denies you breath!"
Pulse-specters erode spirit 8%; Victor stacks bleed pressure. Twins weave disruption.
Pulse-specters erode spirit 8%; Victor stacks bleed pressure. Twins weave disruption.
Evelyn/Lucien darted through, Will-threads lassoing limbs, destabilizing balance into vertigo spirals. "Will unmakes you atom by atom—true heirs crush vermin!" Cassian rained meteoric flames from above, Scripture pyres blooming mushroom clouds. "Burn to cinders, evader—purge complete!"
Will-lasso tugs 15% mobility; Cassian denies air space. Youngers probe gaps.
Rowan/Julian exploited flanks, Mandate blades flashing micro-cuts that festered chain-reactions. "Every nick Mandate's feast—collapse internally!" Sons rotated seamlessly—pulses shattering footing, bleeds sapping vigor, Will gnawing foundations, flames zoning retreats, blades nipping endurance.
Kevin flowed ceaselessly: sidestep-pulse, parry-axe, shatter-Will lasso, disperse-flame, deflect-blades. Silent, blue hair barely tousled, white eyes micro-analyzing: Rotation tight; Damien pulses every 3.7 heartbeats now, Victor bleeds on graze, twins disrupt post-pulse, Cassian counters evasion, youngers punish openings. Stamina bleed 22% cumulative—strong coordination. Quite strong brats; fatigue telegraph building in breaths.
Taunts intensified amid metallic hurricanes: "Endless dancing, rat? Pulse awaits slip!" Damien thundered, shockwaves pulverizing spires. "Bleed oceans—your heart yields!" Victor roared, axe whirls birthing gore-tornadoes. "Will erases your name—forgotten ghost!" Evelyn hissed, threads coiling serpents. "Flames claim the timid—roast!" Cassian cackled, pyres eclipsing sun. "Mandate from a thousand cuts—surrender flesh!" Rowan/Julian chanted, blades blurring.
Damien escalated to pulse-overload, calamities solidifying into clawing behemoths; Victor's axe glowed Mandate-overcharged, gashes spawning mini-wounds. Twins tripled Will-threads into nets; Cassian summoned flame-walls boxing Kevin; youngers feinted Mandate poisons.
Kevin vaulted a net, palm-thrust shattering behemoth, heel-kick diverting axe, finger-flick snapping threads, shoulder-roll evading walls, backhand scattering poisons—Overload strains control; pulse-behemoths durable but slow. Quite strong escalation; next: full rotation convergence.
Sons converged cataclysmically—Damien's mega-pulse birthing arena-wide rift-storm, Victor's axe-Mandate cleaving reality, twins' Will-net ensnaring, Cassian's Scripture-nova exploding, Rowan/Julian's blade-Mandate vortex spiraling. "Combined might pulverizes—just die already you bastard!"
Kevin spun at epicenter, arms blurring barriers absorbing/redirecting onslaught—rifts collapsed inward, axe rebounded on Victor, net recoiled on twins, nova imploded on Cassian, vortex flung youngers tumbling. Sands vaporized to glass-lakes, spires toppled like felled titans.
Full synergy peaks 41% threat; convergence predictable via breath-sync. Endurance cracking—sweat betrays openings. Quite strong; wearing now.
Sons regrouped panting, robes shredded, minor wounds Mandate-festering on themselves from backlash, eyes manic with hate. "One more—end him!" Taunts hoarse but venomous. Assault renewed: pulses chaining endlessly, bleeds cascading, Will suffocating, flames unrelenting, blades merciless.
Kevin endured the symphony of annihilation, blocks a blur of perfection, mind razor: Cycle fracturing; Damien pulse-lag 0.9 seconds, Victor overextends recovery. Quite strong persistence... but finite.
The trial raged eternal, arena a hellscape of crimson cataclysm—fight far from over.
Kevin endured the symphony of annihilation, blocks blurring into an impenetrable veil of precision, mind a scalpel dissecting the maelstrom: Cycle fracturing; Damien's pulse-lag hits 0.9 seconds, Victor overextends on recovery 14%— exploitable. Quite strong persistence... but finite. Time to end this farce.
Sons hammered the assault with desperate ferocity, rotations tightening to lethal clockwork. Damien's pulse-chains linked into writhing calamity serpents, shrieking voids coiling to crush; "Endure no more—calamities consume!" Victor's axe birthed Mandate tempests, gore-whirls spawning self-replicating gashes; "Drown in your own arrogance-blood!" Twins' Will-nets evolved to thorny labyrinths, destabilizing reality's weave; "Unmade entirely—ghost unremembered!" Cassian's Scripture-pyres formed flaming cages, oxygen starvation imminent; "Roast in judgment-flame!" Rowan/Julian's Mandate-blades flashed micro-tempests, cuts chaining exponential bleeds; "Thousand feasts devour whole!"
Kevin's white eyes flashed—blue hair haloed in gathering void-aura. He surged forward for the first time, right palm slicing air, unleashing a barehanded shock-rip that bisected Damien's serpent-chain, feedback-pulse slamming the eldest backward into a spire-crack, ribs audibly fracturing. Initiate counters—hand only. Left forearm intercepted Victor's axe mid-whirl, grip twisting the haft 180 degrees, Mandate backlash erupting on Victor himself as his own illusory wounds tripled, blood vomiting. Victor staggered, howling: "Impossible—!"
Twins' net descended—Kevin's fingers danced, severing Will-threads at nexus-points, recoiling filaments lashing Evelyn/Lucien into convulsing heaps, laws rebounding to destabilize *their* footing. Cassian's pyre-cage closed—Kevin's open-palm thrust dispersed the nova-core, flame-tsunami reversing to engulf Cassian, robes igniting as he screamed mid-air crash. Rowan/Julian vortex spun—Kevin stepped into it, elbows carving twin arcs that shattered the spiral, youngers flung tumbling like ragdolls, Mandate curses self-inflicting hemorrhages.
Sons recovered raggedly, robes tatters, flesh lacerated by backlash-Mandates, breaths wheezing. Damien spat blood-foam: "Monster... how?" Renewed charge—Damien's overload-pulse birthing behemoth-claws; Kevin's index-finger flicked, severing the construct at core, claw-fragments impaling Damien's shoulders. Victor's overcharged axe cleaved down—Kevin's palm caught the edge barehanded, aura shattering the blade, shards embedding Victor's chest. Twins' labyrinth ensnared—Kevin's casual spin unraveled it thread-by-thread, whips flaying their arms raw. Cassian's meteor-shower—Kevin's upward palm-wave inverted trajectories, meteors raining on Cassian. Youngers' poison-feints—Kevin's backhand palms clapped air-pressure waves, poisons aerosolized back into their faces, convulsing coughs.
Rotation collapsed under counter-rhythm. Damien gasped a final mega-pulse—Kevin's fist tapped the epicenter, pulse imploding into Damien's torso, launching him crater-first into sands. Victor's desperation-axe swing—palm-block sent shockwave crumpling him. Twins' net-reform—finger-snap sundered it, slamming them prone. Cassian's nova-wall—palm-thrust vaporized it onto him. Youngers' last vortex—step-through dispersed, hurling them unconscious.
Arena: glass-molten lakes, spires halved, skies rift-scarred, sands hurricane-furrowed. Sons sprawled defeated, heaving, eyes wide with dawning horror.
Heavenly Demon's jaw slackened on throne, sweat rivers carving his face, voice a stunned rasp as fists unclenched.
"Am I imagining things... or was Kevin not using his full power against me? Or am I just imagining?"
Kevin straightened, blue hair pristine, white eyes serene, lips curving that infuriating smile as he dusted sleeves.
"Well, well, well—it seems I've won. Your performance was quite good, Young Masters. I hope you work on your footwork... and Heavenly Demon Arts too. You're not using them properly—proper mastery might've caused me real trouble. But all of you were astounding."
Silence shattered into reluctant bows. Damien struggled up first, scars ashen, kneeling bloodied: "You... surpass us.
My apologies, Lord Kevin." Victor grunted obeisance, axe discarded.
Lucien/Evelyn bowed rigidly; Cassian extinguished self-flames; Rowan/Julian murmured regrets. Wives/guards/daughters echoed acceptance.
Kevin nodded graciously, smile softening.
"Well then, now that I've proved myself, let's return and focus on our work, shall we?"
The procession dispersed—sons limping, whispers spreading: Void reigns supreme post-Father. Hierarchy rewritten. Acceptance cemented; Kevin's rank unchallenged second.
Heavenly Demon beckoned privately. In incense-veiled chambers, low table gleamed—ancient blackwood, etched runes faded by millennia, steam rising from porcelain cups shaped like coiled dragons, emerald-glazed, holding jasmine nectar whose fragrance wove golden threads in air, aroma rich with celestial pollen and midnight dew.
He slid a cup across polished surface to Kevin, own fingers curling around matching vessel, sipping delicately.
"Kevin, what you did in the training ground was quite reckless, you know that, right?"
Kevin stared silently at the rune-veined flooring, shadows playing across his serene features—then a subtle smile ghosted his lips, white eyes lifting unreadable.