Chapter 54
Vorian could hardly stand by while it ran wild, with one sweep of his arm he hurled a vicious punch to swat it from the sky, the blow birthing tyrannical thunder, its light flooding the highest heavens and tearing the void as it went.
Nothing flashy about it, simply Vorian at full power.
Had it landed, Orathis and its Middle-Tier Spirit Emperor strength would have been knocked out of the fight on the spot.
But in that instant, Soren intercepted the fist force with lightning speed, his timing was seamless.
The two forces zigzagged into each other and shattered as one.
The two old servants and five Matriarchs screamed, throwing up formation barriers against the shockwave, the wind blades born of the collision tore straight through, their defenses collapsing into webs of cracks.
All seven felt their scalps crawl, minds ringing.
The Demon Venerables and Guards inside the Palace had no such luck, countless numbers were shaken apart where they stood, one glance showed the ground strewn with severed limbs and corpses.
Bloody intent boiled skyward, a mist of blood rolled out like an ocean wave and drowned the whole area in the space of a blink.
From that single exchange, Vorian confirmed what Soren was, shock didn’t cover it.
A mere Middle-Tier Demon Emperor, and he can intercept a full-strength blow from an Upper-Tier Demon Emperor on demand? What kind of destiny is riding this boy?
He had no choice but to treat this seriously, and though he hated to admit it, in a plain contest of fists and feet, he had no path to suppressing Soren.
He drew a sword, the Solitary Heaven, with this blade in hand, his overall strength rose at least one or two times over.
The sword was shaped like a door leaf, pitch-black from tip to guard, carved with rings of demonic patterning, breathing out an aura that was cold, bloodthirsty, and heavy as a tomb door.
It was an Emperor-tier weapon that Soren’s mother had paid a brutal price to help Vorian claim from an ancient demon ruin.
The ancient demonic resentment in that ruin had damaged her foundation and left her with a chronic ailment ever since.
On the strength of the Solitary Heaven, Vorian had climbed into the front rank of Great Demon Emperors, without the sword, he was never so fearsome.
The moment Soren saw it, the body’s memories flared, and with them thoughts of that unvalued mother, his gaze turned murderous. "You still have the face to bring that out!?"
He drew the Heavenly Resentment Demonic Sword and charged.
The two became streaks of light, demonic arrows, thunderbolts, too fast for the naked eye to track.
Of everyone present, only Orathis could actually see the fight, the rest caught a flash of racing light, then a second flash in pursuit.
Sometimes they chased, sometimes they wound around each other in a tight braid, every meeting of blades scattered a skyful of sparks and caved in the surrounding space, cross-shaped sword marks scarring the heavens and refusing to heal.
Enraged, Soren’s eyes burned with a glow like red lightning, and every stroke went hunting for bone and blood.
No flashy techniques, the speed alone made them look endlessly varied.
Vorian was dazzled and drowning, however thick and heavy his blade, it couldn’t answer Soren’s sharpness and cruelty.
The Heavenly Resentment Demonic Sword left blood-drinking marks up his wrists and forearms.
He wrenched himself backward, gasping cold air, he had dueled many Upper-Tier Demon Emperors, and none had ever held him off this long without being suppressed.
And the core of it, this boy was a Middle-Tier Demon Emperor.
The blow to his mind cut deeper than the loss of momentum, he even began to suspect someone had drugged him.
An Upper-Tier Demon Emperor, unable to open a gap against Soren.
The longer he fought, the thinner his confidence wore.
In one such flicker of doubt, Soren thrust, Violent demonic energy burst loose like a thunderstorm rolling out of a ravine and slammed into the Solitary Heaven.
The web of Vorian’s hand tore, his arms went dead, and a hideous wound ripped across the back of his hand.
The Solitary Heaven flew out of his grip.
Soren yanked it to himself on a thread of suction.
Sizzle! The sword spat lightning, rejecting him, Vorian’s blood contract still bound it, Soren was not its master, so it refused him.
Seeing it act up, Soren hacked the Heavenly Resentment Demonic Sword down across its thick blade.
The blood contract shattered on the spot, the lightning died, and Soren cut his finger, forced out a drop of blood essence, and struck it into the Solitary Heaven, a new contract was found.
Vorian, the Grand Matriarch, all of them stood slack-jawed, too fast, a high-grade Emperor-tier weapon, and just like that it belonged to Soren?
"A waste of a fine weapon."
"That mother of mine truly threw her life away for nothing."
"She sacrificed everything, and in the end, for speaking one single word on my behalf, she was locked in the Black Water Dungeon to rot." Soren shook his head, and his gaze went colder still.
Heavenly Resentment in one hand, Solitary Heaven in the other, he crossed the twin swords and charged the stunned Vorian.
Vorian’s scalp prickled, his whole body felt nailed in place by something he couldn’t name.
In his panic, the words tumbled out. "Soren, my blood flows in your veins!"
"Hehe, hypocrite. Ties severed, life and death be damned, never to meet again, these were your words." He shared not half a coin’s worth of blood with Vorian anyway, this body was his own, its demonic fluctuations came only from devouring the other Soren’s blood essence.
"Soren, perhaps we truly can sit down and talk!" Regret and helplessness bled into Vorian’s voice, he had assumed that as a Great Demon Emperor he could shrug off any risk and smother any trouble.
Soren was vicious, yes, but surely no threat in the short term.
He had overestimated himself, and underestimated Soren.
If he hadn’t severed the father-son bond back then, if he hadn’t swallowed the Grand Matriarch’s poison... A son this powerful, this decisive, he’d have laughed himself awake at night, Althea couldn’t hold a candle to him.
The gap was simply too vast.