Chapter 717: Struggle and Assassination
Kai Xiusu and Zaril faced off across the battlefield, two overwhelming forces of Law clashing in a titanic collision. Golden radiance and crimson glow wove through the sky, entwining like fate itself. The heavens were choked by thick sulfur smoke, the earth scorched and cracked like a spiderweb, molten magma surging through fissures like veins beneath the surface.
At the half-Divine Power threshold, even the most potent Nine-Ring Spells—let alone Arcane Banishment Spells—could hardly tip the balance. When power reaches such a level, battles often descend into the rawest form of existence: a brutal, flesh-and-blood duel.
Yet every clash between them was laced with hidden death. A mere mortal who dared to approach the battlefield would be reduced to ash in an instant.
Zaril’s expression was unnerving—her eyelids lowered, yet her lips curled into an exaggerated smile. On her still-perfect face, sorrow and delight warred in equal measure.
"Why?" she whispered, voice trembling with a strange, haunting beauty. "Why are you all so selfish? Heaven is like this. Mortals are like this. You are like this. If we sacrificed every soul in the Material Plane... wouldn't the eternal Blood War finally end? Everyone would find eternal peace."
"Madwoman," Kai Xiusu growled, teeth clenched, breath ragged. Golden light rained down from above, stitching together the wounds across his shoulder. Even as he fought, his eyes never left Zaril in the distance.
Angels. Demons. Devils. These beings from other realms only reached their full strength in their native planes. But here, under the gaze of Fallen Day, August was slowly being dragged into Hell. Now, this place was half-Avernus—Zaril, standing within it, wielded authority akin to a deity.
To confront her directly in this state... victory would be impossible to achieve. But I still have my plan.
Kai Xiusu flared his Dragon Wing, silently summoning a pact across the void, reaching out to the Great Demon in Avernus.
"Bair," he called, voice echoing through the abyss, "when will you finally assassinate Zaril’s true form?"
"Not yet, King Kai Xiusu." The reply came through the bond—tense, layered with excitement, anxiety, and a storm of suppressed emotion.
"Not yet?"
"Of course not. King Kai Xiusu, this is my only chance. As you said: we’re on the same rope. Right now, Zaril is empowered by the Will of Avernus—unstoppable. We must wait for the moment... when August hovers between the Material Plane and Baator’s Hell, when the Will of Avernus is distracted. That will be her weakest point."
"What will that moment look like?"
"The sky will tear open. The Black Sun will open one eye. Then—that is when we strike."
"I understand."
Kai Xiusu nodded, then refocused on the battle.
Red hellfire descended. The blazing Sky Wings—visible to the naked eye—reformed in mere breaths, whole once more.
"Then let me finish this for you!" Zaril’s voice cracked with manic glee, her face twisted into a rictus of ecstasy. "Let me be the one to end it!"
All eyes turned to her as her aura exploded. The blood-red light turned the sky crimson. The Sky Wings expanded, stretching like wings of a dying god, growing to thousands of meters in length—towering, devouring the horizon.
Flames ripped open the heavens, splitting the sky into jagged crimson wounds. Zaril hovered above the churning clouds, her fingers wrapped in chains that poured from Hell itself.
“Shush—shush—shush—”
From fissures in the earth, hundreds of hellforged chains erupted through the soil, surging skyward like serpents, piercing both heaven and earth—binding the world in an unbreakable chain.
A haunting, melodic voice echoed across the crimson sky. The hellborn creatures below trembled with delight, their faces wild with frenzy.
The Will of Avernus descended—like a mountain pressing down—settling on Kai Xiusu’s shoulders, making it hard to breathe.
“Spines!” The wind howled, a stench of blood and brimstone tearing through the air. Even the Dragon Wing’s movements grew sluggish.
Her strength keeps rising. She’s achieving ontological supremacy over me! Kai Xiusu’s face darkened. His muscles tensed, fighting to maintain balance. I can’t keep this up. I must intervene—now. If August falls completely into Avernus, it’ll be too late!
With a mighty beat of his wings, he unleashed a gale of searing heat. His massive body became a crimson afterimage, streaking across the sky like a falling star.
“Come, Red Dragon! I’ll cut off your head and inlay your skull upon my iron throne!” Zaril’s voice trembled—but not with fear. With ecstasy.
“Shush—shush—shush—”
The hellchains twisted through the air like furious serpents, lashing toward him in a deadly dance.
But the Red Dragon danced through them—dodging, spiraling, executing impossible aerial maneuvers. He wove through the storm of chains, closing the distance until he was less than five hundred meters from Zaril.
“ROOOOAR!” His roar shattered mountains beneath him. Lava geysers erupted like rivers of blood.
“Zaril! Die!”
Kai Xiusu spread his vast wings wide. Deep in his throat, a swirling storm of dark red dragonfire gathered. The air around him warped from the intense heat.
His molten-golden eyes flared with a sudden, blinding light. From his maw poured a torrent of chaotic fire—like a waterfall of primordial fury—rushing toward Zaril.
The fire burned so hot that even the molten rivers below boiled, hissing and roaring like dying beasts.
“Chaos Flame?” Zaril’s voice faltered. She recognized it instantly—this was the cursed fire of her ancient enemy, the abyssal power from the endless void.
“Your fire is but the echo of Hell’s dying embers!”
With a roar, she swung her flaming greatsword. The blade stretched—hundreds of meters long—as if the very fabric of reality was being torn apart.
At the instant the sword split the sky and severed the firestorm, Kai Xiusu’s golden pupils snapped into thin slits. He twisted his body mid-air, wings folded, limbs taut—dodging the fatal strike with a split-second grace.
Dragon scales scraped against steel, sparks flying like dying stars.
Kai Xiusu dove forward, closing the gap with terrifying speed—his form a blur, a phantom of fire and fury.
Then—a new weapon appeared.
In Zaril’s hand, a crude, ancient war hammer. The moment it emerged, Kai Xiusu felt a piercing chill—bone-deep, soul-freezing. It was as if the very core of his being was being frozen.
That feeling…
His eyes locked onto the cyan ice runes glowing on the hammer’s head.
His breath caught.
No… it can’t be…
It was Solem’s runes.
The weapon was Matalotok—the “Father of Frost,” forged by the God of the Frost Giants. The most cherished weapon of the Abyssal Lord Koscherci, the Frost Giant.
Decades ago, in the Blood War, Zaril had defeated Koscherci and claimed this hammer as her own.
“Boom!”
Zaril grinned, swinging the hammer with monstrous force. A wave of frigid wind erupted—so cold it threatened to freeze the air solid.
Even an Ancient Red Dragon, whose blood was molten fire, would be instantly encased in ice.
The cold spread. Kai Xiusu’s movements slowed—like wading through tar. His scales thickened with frost. He was sinking.
“Hah… Hell Lord’s power,” Zaril purred, stepping forward, her gaze wild with madness and greed. “You mortals don’t understand. You’ll never comprehend the true might of Hell.”
Then—a sudden shift.
Crack. Crack.
The runes on Kai Xiusu’s body flared with cold light. The layer of ice shattered. His body surged forward—with terrifying speed—launching toward Zaril like a meteor.
It was a disguise. A lie. He had absorbed the Eternal Frost Runes. He had plundered Solem’s divine power. He was immune.
“Damned Crawler!” Zaril snarled, wings flaring. A hurricane of molten lava fragments tore through the air, swirling around her as she brought down her greatsword in a devastating arc.
But Kai Xiusu unleashed his Ninth-Ring Spell—Dragon’s Absorption. A vortex of power formed before his head, sucking in the storm’s fury.
Then—a lateral sweep of his wing—he dodged the blade, soaring upward in a swift, elegant arc. His chest brushed the edge of the weapon, the air screaming.
In that instant, the Red Dragon became a spear—a living, breathing projectile—barreling toward Zaril with unstoppable force.
“Shush—shush—shush—”
Hundreds of red-hot hellchains erupted from behind Zaril, lashing out like serpents.
Kai Xiusu twisted mid-air, rising higher. The chains missed—whipping through empty air.
Then—he soared above her, unleashing his full power. His tail, thick as a mountain range, lashed down like a battering ram.
Boom!
The impact cracked space itself—spiderweb fractures spreading through the air. A shockwave rippled outward, shaking the earth.
With a sonic roar, Zaril was smashed back—thousands of meters—crashing into a rock wall, debris raining down like a storm.
Kai Xiusu didn’t hesitate. The Red Dragon transformed into a crimson meteor, streaking toward Zaril.
His chest blazed with radiant light. From his throat poured a column of blue-white flame—primordial, ancient, unholy.
Primordial Breath.
But the Will of Avernus surged. Zaril’s form swelled—rapidly—growing to a hundred meters in height in mere seconds.
She raised her infernal greatsword, blocking the torrent of flame.
Light exploded—so bright it turned sand to glass. The heat was beyond comprehension.
Yet Zaril stood firm. With a thunderous beat of her blazing wings, she unleashed a ring of flame shockwaves. The world trembled.
Mountains collapsed. Rivers evaporated. Lava flowed like rivers of blood across the land—Hell on Earth.
“HAHAHAHA!” Zaril laughed, her grin splitting her face to the ear roots. “Last Hope—make this fun! Don’t die too boring!”
She swung a massive chain mace, spinning it in the air before hurling it skyward.
Kai Xiusu’s eyes widened.
That weapon… it’s not just hellfire. It’s Law Force.
One hit—and my soul would be ripped from my body. The chains would then bind it, dragging it into Avernus. A dragon would become a slave for eternity—like the few ancient fire dragons already bound in chains.
“Clang!”
The chain mace missed—but grazed his tail. Dragon scales shattered. Blood, molten and red, sprayed into the air.
Then—it struck the ground.
“BOOM!”
The earth trembled. A crater a hundred meters wide opened, magma gushing like a wound. Even August, thousands of meters away, felt the quake.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
The mace struck again and again—mountains crumbled, rock walls collapsed.
Zaril, wings flaring, pursued Kai Xiusu with unhinged fury, smashing everything in her path.
“Boom!”
The chain mace shattered a section of the Red Dragon’s wing membrane.
Kai Xiusu had no breath to scream. He kept dodging, heart pounding.
Her strength is still growing… If this continues, I’ll have no choice but to flee.
He could feel his power fading. The world seemed to reject him. Hellfire clung to him like a parasite.
He knew this feeling.
It was Imperial Domain: Sealing—the exclusive authority of a domain’s master.
August is still falling into Avernus.
He looked up. The Black Sun still hung high—unchanged, silent.
Did Bair betray me?
Impossible. Bair and Zaril had been enemies for millennia. Bair had once imprisoned her in a fortress, slowly cutting off her flesh. More importantly—they were fundamentally opposed in essence.
Just as there could be only one sun in the sky, there could be only one master of Avernus.
The moment Bair spoke of… it must be near.
Kai Xiusu steeled himself. With preternatural instinct, he dodged Zaril’s next full-power strike—earth splitting, stone flying.
Suddenly—a shift.
The entire Material Plane shook. The world screamed. The sky blurred. The Black Sun flickered.
Now.
The Red Dragon clenched his jaw. He folded his wings, reversed course, and plunged headfirst toward Zaril, roaring with a fury that shook the heavens.
All his spells, all his strength—unleashed.
He had waited for this moment. He had prepared for this.
“ROOOOOOOOOOAR!”
Chains wrapped around him—binding his limbs, his wings—but he didn’t care. He fought.
With a snarl, he lunged, biting down on Zaril’s left arm, fangs piercing her armor. She pulled him down—into the lava river.
“BOOM!”
The impact sent a hundred-meter wave of molten lava skyward.
“Red Dragon! You’re dead! You’ll never defeat a Lord of Hell!”
Zaril’s wings, heavy in the viscous magma, flailed. Kai Xiusu bit down on her shoulder, tearing through flesh. Blood—dark, hellish—spurted everywhere. Her armor cracked and shattered.
But Kai Xiusu wasn’t spared.
Her greatsword had pierced his abdomen—ripping through flesh, the infernal runes blazing along the blade. Dragon blood, molten and red, poured like molten gold.
Their battle turned the ash wasteland into a scorched, screaming wasteland. Magma rained down like fire.
(End of Chapter)
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