Both were at a standstill; none were willing to move first.
Va Lingyun Tua, the Blade of Which Hold the Heaven, she who combats the mandated prince and proves the might of the south.
Wu Hailang Raijoo, the Unstill Wave of Death, the Black Annihilator, the Black Storm, The Demon King.
Both a living legend, a symbol of might and power. Yet each knows the true extent of each other's power.
And for that, the Demon King regards this fight seriously. He unsheathed the Blood Demon Cleaver, revealing it darkens red glint. But he is not done.
"Black Storm, rolls…" he chants, immediately the skies above darken even more.
It was like a cloudy sky during the night, absolutely no lights pierced the dark for its envelopes all, the sky begins to pour down rain.
Hatred made manifest, a Thunder rolls will not cease, Hear the elegy of Envy.
"Hei-Ren"
A roar, a shriek, a scream of hate permeates the landscape. Above the Demon King, dark clouds swirl into a vortex. Gusts of black wind roar tumbling down all that it could.
Before a Pure Black Saber manifest into the hand of the Demon King. The true form of one of the Colored Blade, Hei-Ren the Black Tempest-blade.
"…Don't you think it's a bit much for someone like me?"
Va Tua, who has been blanketing herself with her own violet aura remarks, the fight has yet to start and she is already quite beaten up from the summoning of a True Colored Blade.
Her own Lan-Tian is strong yes, but it is incomplete. In front of a fully manifested Hei-Ren it is but a mere rusted blade.
"Against a Xiantian, maybe. But against you… This much is not enough I'm afraid"
Wu Raijoo said as he assumed a stance unique to him. Both blade swirl like a vortex of water, before he points Hei-Ren towards Va Tua.
She had known that a confrontation with the Demon King would be tough, but she didn't expect him to go all out this much.
She must match his commitment.
"…Fair enough"
Va Tua said as she too, pointing her sword towards him.
"You know me too much Raijoo, it makes me flustered…"
She teased, but in between her sweet words, her aura became thicker before it manifests into a skeletal figure of towering proportions.
"Reprisal of Earth, a Thousand greeting of the Dead: Open" she said, completing the skeleton figure with its own weapon. A sword and a scythe.
"GRAAAHHHH!!!" it screams, and it's enough to send trees tumbling down. Yet the Demon King feet remain planted into the tree.
However, he hesitates to move, not because of the Skeleton but because of Va Tua herself.
He knows her very well, Va Tua is a master at deception. If she reveals this much then it must mean that more of her pieces were hidden.
"Not coming?"
She said, before her form disappears completely.
"Fine then, let me come to you…"
'Seal 1, Belonging of the Dead: Open'
And before the Demon King knew it, his hands deflected all sorts of projectile coming his way. From bones to spoon. From knives to axes and even swords.
Such volume he must deflect that some of those clutters managed to scrape and even hit him.
"How does it feel Raijoo?"
She said with venom hidden in her honey-like voice.
"Is it painful? Of course not, after all, your own child suffers worst"
"Enough..."
'Great Wave: Crash'
The Demon King slams his right foot into the red mist he created; the previously fog-like quality has suddenly become a liquid as it ripples outward and destroys whatever is summoning this projectile.
"Fufu, how forceful, as expected from a child murderer"
Va Tua tease, yet her form was nowhere to be seen. The Demon King suddenly found himself pinned down by a multitude of chains held up by a thousand ghosts that circle him.
Va Tua herself appears just beyond the encirclement, her skeletons holding a string in each of its fingers as it controls the Ghosts army like a puppet.
'Seal 2, weight of the dead: Open'
The chains that hold the Demon King then tighten their hold, so much so his Black Armor creaks under pressure. Blood actually pours down from each of the chain slips, dripping down as it forms a puddle beneath the Demon King feat.
"…" yet not even a groan of pain escapes his lips.
"Whats wrong? Don't tell me that this is enough to actually hurt you, after all, your child suffers worst, isn't it?"
"The one who burns at the garden at your will"
"The one who drank poison willingly to escape the pain"
"The one who hang himself from a banyan tree"
"Poor children, mere young all lie lifeless before your door and yet you perpetuate your own Hate"
Her relentless tease should've drawn anyone mad at this point, but not the Demon King.
"Foolish, and I thought you know me well…"
He said, Va Tua was confused by his remark before her attention drawn into the pool of blood.
A grave mistake.
"Shit…"
"Unstill Tarnished Wave…"
The pool of blood expands to cover the whole plain, occupying the place where the thick red mist used to be. This pool of blood is the effect of the Demon King Tarnished River Body, the Unstill Tarnished Wave.
Anything caught inside will have their strength sapped, before their form weakened and they become sluggish while the Demon King replenished his own energy and healed his own body with the same pool of blood.
Such is the horror of fighting a member of the Wu Clan who had manifested their Inheritance Foundation Technique.
It's no longer just a fight, it's an attritional warfare and they would win every time.
Va Tua forgot this crucial detail of fighting him amidst her arrogance of finally having the Demon King under her thumb.
"All life were meaningless in front of a purpose…"
The Demon King managed to escape from the chain, and the first thing he did was to dash at the nearest Ghost, his forms look like he is sliding in the pool of blood.
"…Even when it cost others…"
Once he reaches the ghost, he placed Blood Demon Cleaver around its neck and severs it cleanly.
"…Even when it killed the joy and dream…"
Not stopping there his body spins as Hei-Ren decapitates the next ghost, and the next one with Blood Demon Cleaver and so-on.
"…For the End justifies the Means."
His attack seems like a wave crashing at the ghost's army, not stopping even once as he spins across the landscape. Countless decapitated head falls like torrential rain while their Plasmatic Spirit Blood nourished the Demon King Unstilled Tarnished Wave even more.
The sting of the rotten liquid permeates through the air as rain falls. Between this maddening landscape of strewn ghastly apparition is a man in a stance as if he had finished dancing.
"Blade Arts: Vanquish!" Va Tua launched herself, her violet Aura has fully concentrated, turning into a purple wheel behind her back. Her blades crashed against the Demon King, and with her singular strike, her skeletons do three more.
"Anguish!" Va Tua twists her sword, and the Skeletons strike at the other angle.
"Decimate!" Va Tua did the same strike once more, this time with more weight behind her attack.
Each time she attacks, the skeleton attempts to strike at an odd angle, complicating the defender and overwhelming them. But the Demon King is swift and flexible, and he can block and even deflect all her attack.
"Final: Devastate!" Va Tua purple wheel turns and then she unloads all her energy into a singular strike, the force of which is enough to push the Demon King back. This time, the skeleton didn't follow up and instead raised its sword high.
The Demon King then felt massive pressure weighing down his neck, a string attached to it in purple coloring. Va Tua manifested her Weapon Souls, Sword Intent and locked his form; the Demon King switched his stance to defend from any attack she might unleash.
"Sword Impact: Fallen Down!"
As she said that, from above her, a massive sword like the one she wields manifested into form and came crashing down towards the Demon King.
"Saber Mind: Destruction…" not wanting to lose, the Demon King manifested his own Weapon Souls.
From behind him, a dark red wheel manifested and from within, two clawed hands appeared each carrying the perfect copy of both Blood Demon Cleaver and Hei-Ren.
"Great Wave: Destroy all that inhibits the flow!"
The Demon King channeled his Demonic Energy, deliberately pressurizing each of his Saber and strike the massive sword head on.
The impact is enough to create a crater around the Demon King's form, the force so large it blows everything away. For a second, the Demon King seems like he was about to lose his footing, but then he activates Hei-Ren ability.
"Hei-Ren: Charge"
The Black Saber suddenly screams, its form rippled outwards as a strange black vortex opens from within and physically consumes the massive sword of pure energy.
"Lan-Tian: Split the Sky!"
Va Tua delivered her own attack as her blade screams before she performs a slashing move, following the movement, a wave of energy rushed outward towards the Demon King. He shouldn't be able to move let alone defend given he was busy trying to block her Sword Impact.
But she underestimates Hei-Ren ability, she watched her attack, Lan-Tian: Split the Sky that is enough to split the sky in twain was taken by Hei-Ren: Charge ability.
Rather than weakening it, Hei-Ren seems to be strengthened by the additional energy, and it finally lets out another scream that destroyed her Sword Impact.
The Demon King is visibly exhausted even when he failed to get hit, so Va Tua decided to capitalize on his opening and charging forward, delivering an attack.
The Demon King managed to intercept her attack using the Blood Demon Cleaver, but he is weaken, and the Saber that is supposed to block the attack ended up being pushed into his waist, even though the part that strikes him is the blunt part of the Saber it is enough to caused him to tumble.
"8 petaled Lotus slash!"
Va Tua utters as if she performs a swordplay inspired by a Nippon sword master to follow on her attack. Her blade moves so fast it splits into 8 different attacks that each target the same point that is the Demon King torso.
The Demon King isn't fast enough to deflect the attack, so he was hit by the full force of her technique.
Utilizing the fact, she activates Sword Resonance. An ability that can cause a sword with a manifested Weapon Souls to expel Energy and is often used to strengthen the sword, she instead utilizes this to scorch the Demon King flesh through the sword that embedded inside his torso, sort of like a Corrosion.
And since the 8 petaled Lotus slash allows her to move her blade so fast that it's like the blade just split into 8, she can deceive even the Sword to think that there are 8 instances of itself, enhancing the effect by 8 times.
All of this needed to be activated in such a short window of time it's downright impossible for a human to do it, but a Xiantian is not a normal human, especially Va Tua who has an extreme concentration even before her ascension, this much is a simple child play for her
Thus, the Demon King spurted blood at last.
Va Tua withdrawn her sword, from where it used to rest, a gaping hole in the Demon King torso, blood spurted out like a waterfall and its flesh is visibly scorched.
"No way you can regenerate through that…"
Va Tua said triumphantly, but the Demon King didn't do so much as to groan.
"…Did you know, what kind of power I wield?"
The Demon King instead asks.
Va Tua, who believes that she had won the fight decided to humor his attempt at a dialogue, after all, he is still her friend.
"Let's see, if I traced your ancestry of Fiend, you are a Shura for the Asura of Contempt"
Va Tua said.
"Wrong…"
"Then what is it?"
Va Tua certainly didn't expect him to deny her answers, given it was the correct one.
"Ever since the day of Wu Huanghou our ancestry of Fiend was forcibly changed…"
The Demon King stated as he forced himself to stand upright, despite the grievous wound he has, the dark red wheel that manifested behind him is still spinning, still having that clawed arms that each hold the copy of his Saber.
"How can you change your ancestry, for as far as I know a Karma of one is deeply ingrained into the Universe constant, unless you can sever the Karma there is no escaping the entire Demonic Sect fate as an Incarnation and Shura of Contempt"
Va Tua argues, she recognizes the name Wu Huanghou, the Blood Red Annihilator that is among the strongest martial artist of all time. But even she cannot fundamentally alter the law of the Universe at whim no matter how powerful she is.
"Did you know of the concept, Trisahasra-mahasahasra?"
The Demon King asked, still not making any attempt at recovering himself.
"The concept of Trichiliocosm, or a concept of the Three Greatness?"
Va Tua demands elaboration. She is completely absorbed in the dialogue now even though her skeletons and aura still manifested itself.
"Both actually, it implies that this Universe has its limit in beyond of its billion-fold self… Hence, my ancestors search beyond the Universe to rid us of our Curse"
The Demon King then presented to her Hei-Ren, its steel still emits a silent scream.
"This Black Tempest-blade is something my ancestor got from beyond alongside a shard of the greatest weapon who bore great karma"
The Demon King explained.
Va Tua was surprised, not by the mention of the Demon King ancestor managing to venture out into the Universe, but by the mention of the Greatest Weapon.
Among the legendary weapons that exist within Hazhui, the Soulless Tortured Sword, the Thousand Letter and many more. Stood the pinnacle of it all that is the Seven Colored Blade.
But even among those Blade there is one that transcends everything…
"Crimson Shatter-blade, Hong-Yi"
Va Tua mutters, the weapon that once killed the very Buddha himself.
"Correct, with that, my ancestors managed to Sever the Karma of all the Wu Clan. But in the process, a new curse replaced the one we had just severed…"
Suddenly, the Demon King body that is supposed to be rendered impossible to heal started to reconstruct itself, not out of blood but out of nothing.
"What? Impossible!?"
Va Tua exclaimed in surprise, she wanted to attack but she was just too bewildered to even move. To defy Corrosion, the very law of this world, not even a Shura should be able to have these many powers.
"Now we are cursed to Hate, on everything, for Hate itself causes us to be stronger. And I hate myself so very greatly alongside this World that has kept me alive for so many years!"
The Demon King entire form that is envelopes in Black started to turn into Violet, every bit of himself is replaced in the repulsive purple of the Hateful one.
His form melted, turning into a form befitting of a 'Demon King'. Horn appears from his head, piercing through his mask as the mask itself melted into his skin, turning into the Demon King face.
Before he screams, a scream of Hate, cursing this world and himself. The force of the scream is great enough to even throw Va Tua away.
"…Raijoo"
Va Tua muttered, seeing the body of her friends so disheveled, so tainted and corrupt.
Where did the cheerful young boy go?
Right now, all she sees is his Inhuman self.