Chapter 86: The Pinnacle Battle (Conclusion)

“Here you come?”

Facing the storm that swept across the heavens and earth, Su Mu Zhe’s stance lowered slightly as he unexpectedly gathered all the brilliant golden aura around him.
That Sacred Forbidden power, enough to make all creation submit, was no longer ostentatious.
Instead, it was all channeled into the seemingly plain longsword at his waist.

The blade remained sheathed, yet ultimate destruction was brewing within.
The surrounding light seemed to be sucked into it, and the space around it warped.

Sheffield roared, his tornado wings lunging forward with the force to obliterate the ruins!

Just as the storm was about to engulf Su Mu Zhe—

“Shing!”

A clear ring, like a dragon’s cry, resounded throughout the heavens and earth, overpowering all other sounds.

There was no earth-shattering pillar of light, only an extremely fine, extremely sharp golden thread, one that seemed capable of cleaving chaos itself, that flashed from Su Mu Zhe’s waist and vanished!

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

That golden thread stretched between heaven and earth, silently slicing through the roaring tornado like a hot knife through butter, precisely ‘severing’ Sheffield’s wings of calamity at their source!

It wasn’t a physical cut, but a conceptual ‘separation’.

The storm instantly lost all its ferocious power, dissolving into chaotic turbulence that scattered and dissipated.

Sheffield’s forward momentum came to an abrupt halt.
The immense power backlashed, and he let out a muffled grunt.
The seething extermination aura all over his body collapsed suddenly, like a punctured airbag.

“Wha…!”
A faint golden sword mark appeared out of thin air on his chest.
It wasn’t a wound, but a searing sealing rune that locked all his power tightly within his body.

“Guh—!”

Sheffield spat out a mouthful of blood.

He stood frozen on the spot, the crazed blue light in his eyes rapidly fading, leaving only incredulous shock and emptiness.
Behind him, the dust of the ruins slowly settled, as if a clamorous nightmare had been sliced awake by a single stroke.

“Even the raging storm… must bow its head.”

Su Mu Zhe’s eyes were veiled in brilliant light as he whispered, his voice as calm as still water.

Sheffield’s power was being suppressed, making it as difficult for him to move as if he were in a blizzard.

‘How could this be?’

‘Such destructive power from a single stroke!?’

‘I had clearly seized his extermination power, yet his family bloodline can still maintain such an overwhelming oppressive force?’
‘I am so powerful now, why can’t I stop it, why!?’

‘Why is it just like before, where I’m at a disadvantage after a single strike?’

“Damn you… Must you stand in my way, Su Mu Zhe!!!”

Sheffield roared himself hoarse!

He couldn’t understand.
He had already come this far, so why did Su Mu Zhe have to appear?
And he was always like an invincible being, able to instantly close any absurd gap in power.

This should have been a battle he was absolutely certain to win.

But now, the situation had changed in an instant.
Sheffield was completely suppressed by that golden aura.

In an instant, Sheffield suddenly froze.
He could clearly hear his own heartbeat.
A moment ago, his gaze was fixed precisely on Su Mu Zhe’s heart, but now, he was seeing the moon in the sky.

Only this time, it was dyed blood-red, as if time itself had frozen—

Yet Sheffield’s eyes could clearly see the scene of his own limbs being torn apart, flying through the air amidst splattering blood.
He could even hear the sound of his limbs breaking with perfect clarity.

“Am I… going to die?”

Looking at his severed limbs, Sheffield’s vision began to blur.

But in that moment, in his mind, before his eyes, a figure from his memories—the slender silhouette of a young girl in a white, floral-print dress—flickered continuously.

‘Xiao Qian…’

His eyes, which had lost their focus, once again gathered all their light in that instant.

Golden petals had severed his limbs, and the swarm of petals now lingered around him.

But, the next second, Sheffield’s body underwent a massive change.
His severed limbs instantly regenerated, and a pair of azure wings unfurled from his back.

“Don’t think… it’s over just like that!”
“I haven’t fallen yet, Phantom!!!”

Sheffield roared from within the flames, his indomitable soul roaring along with him from the abyss!
He was a sinner, a sinner walking the earth, but this world needed a guilt-ridden executioner.

His time to atone for everything had not yet come.

His conviction, his long-cherished wish, his hatred—none of it had been settled yet…

He had never forgotten, nor did he dare to forget…

He would not admit defeat like this.
Even facing this divine-like radiance, he would burn his life until the very last moment.
How could all his efforts up until now go to waste!!!

[Second Form]!

Following that, the golden petals instantly transformed into a golden tide.
The overwhelming flood surged toward him with the force of an avalanche, and his body began to dissolve and disintegrate the moment it touched the waves.

An incomparable, sharp pain spread throughout his entire body.

However, Sheffield was not annihilated.
His very genes were restructured once again by the immense extermination power.
Two blades appeared in his hands, and the wings on his back transformed into a transparent giant shield that encircled him.

“Your mercy and righteousness can never reach the other shore.”

“Phantom, the path you walk is long and without light.”
“An idealist’s discourse on justice has no place to survive in this world.”
“This world, in its essence, is a congregation of evil!”

“A victory without sacrifice is false and fragile, doomed to be forever mired in fantasy!”
“You cannot protect everyone!”

[Third Form]!

The golden waves also changed at a moment’s notice.

They became a raging sea of fire, the fierce flames burning Sheffield’s entire body to ash.
The renewed, intense pain made Sheffield feel a hellish agony.

Sheffield’s body restructured again.
Several aura swords condensed from extermination power floated behind him, attempting to fight against the Sacred Forbidden with all their might, but they were devoured in an instant.

‘Damn it, what kind of power is this?’
‘Is this the power of the Sacred Forbidden?’

“You’re right. I cannot protect everyone in this world.”
A golden light shone in Phantom’s eyes as he spoke calmly.
“Then I must do everything in my power to protect everything within my reach.”

[Fourth Form]!

The golden sea of fire turned into arctic ice, piercing Sheffield’s body with a thousand holes.
Golden snowflakes falling from the sky, upon touching him, would freeze his body into ice and then shatter it into water.

But Sheffield would not die so easily.

The two streams of extermination power within him were being consumed at the fastest rate ever.

[Fifth Form]!

[Sixth Form]!

[Seventh Form]!

This was Sheffield’s final power, an offering of his entire life.

The transformation through these seven forms, in fact, took place within just half a minute.
During this half-minute, Sheffield endured endless pain, his soul felt as if it were being torn apart, and he had no chance to even let out a cry of agony.

“I… haven’t lost yet… not yet…!”

Sheffield’s trembling pupils revealed an incomparable shock, and he once again spat out a mouthful of blood.

But this battle… ended in just that half-minute.

Only, when Evran looked worriedly toward the battlefield, Sheffield was being burned by flames, with only the last moments of his life remaining, kneeling before Su Mu Zhe.

“No way…”
Evran’s expression was one of astonishment, unable to hold back her awe.

Sheffield was strong, terrifyingly so.

But Phantom, who had condensed his entire life’s worth—and even his future’s worth—of Sacred Breath into a single strike, had even less reason to lose.

Sheffield used his last ounce of strength to plunge his sword into the scorched earth, propping himself up to keep from collapsing completely.
He raised his bloodshot eyes to look at the figure who had remained silent all this time.

Su Mu Zhe looked up at the starry sky and silently left only one sentence behind—

“To stake all one’s power, to fight for one’s ideals until the very last moment…”

“This… is the destiny that you and I were fated to meet.”