[Chapter 307: The Demon's True Form]
"Boom--!"
When Daniel's foot struck the ground, it felt as if the entire house jumped. Countless violet lightning bolts radiated from the center of his foot, wildly crackling across the floor, walls, and ceiling. The lightning intertwined with the golden light enveloping his body, merging into a torrent of ultimate rigidity and pure yang energy that pushed outward in every direction.
Sizzle--sizzle--
The thick, ink-like darkness around them hissed explosively, like raw meat hitting a scorching hot skillet, under the onslaught of this torrent. The suffocatingly cold aura instantly evaporated by more than half.
"Ah--!"
From the depths of the darkness came a shrill scream -- sharp, filled with pain and fury.
Daniel's eyes burned with violet-gold flames as they narrowed sharply, instantly locking onto the source of the sound. To his front left, near the corner of the ceiling.
"Found you."
Daniel snorted coldly. His massive form left a lingering afterimage where he had stood.
Spatial Stride!
In the next instant, he crossed the distance with a blur and appeared directly before the still-distorting shadow.
Without any flourish, Daniel swung a fist larger than a millstone (3 feet diameter), wrapped in dazzling lightning and golden light, and slammed it heavily down onto the pale nun's face.
"Die!"
Thump--!
The punch landed with the dull thud of a steel plate, even causing the surrounding space to ripple with visible waves.
Valak's distorted face instantly warped and shattered under the blow. Immediately after, its entire body exploded with a loud bang, scattering like dust on the wind. It broke into countless tiny wisps of black energy, quickly merging back into the surrounding darkness that had yet to dissipate.
Daniel retracted his fist, brow slightly furrowed.
But the darkness held fast; it didn't dissipate from the strike. If anything, it churned more violently, like an enraged sea.
Inside his mind, the System was utterly silent. No notification beep.
"As expected, it's not dead."
Daniel regarded the re-aggregating shadow with calm detachment. If one of the majestic seventy-two pillars of Solomon could be felled so easily, then the title of Demon would be far too cheap.
"Hiding?" Daniel took a deep breath, his massive chest rising and falling.
He suddenly opened his mouth and roared toward the swirling darkness.
"Roar--!"
Edict of Soul Suppression!
The roar -- no longer human -- resounded like the cry of an Primordial Thunder Dragon. Terrifying sound waves fused with magical power, transforming into a fan-shaped shockwave that slammed violently into the darkness.
"Hum--"
The once smooth darkness churned violently like boiling water under the assault.
"Ugh..."
From a corner came an extremely suppressed groan. Faint, yet in Daniel's Spiritual Sense, as clear as a lighthouse piercing a dark night.
"Got you."
A sharp gleam burst from Daniel's eyes. He stepped forward. His figure vanished again.
Daniel materialized inside the darkness itself.
The black mist in front of him was no longer moving like fluid but rapidly collapsing and condensing toward its center.
Gone was the black-and-white nun's habit. In its place was an even stranger, more unsettling silhouette: the form of a child with a pair of black, seemingly burned angel wings spread behind its back.
Beneath the child, a two-headed Dragon made entirely of black smoke stretched its massive form.
No facial features marked the silhouette, nor distinct limbs.
Despite being a mere shadow, the pressure radiating from it was far stronger than when Valak had taken the nun shape.
This was Valak's true form -- an angelic child astride a two-headed Dragon.
"Exorcist!" The child-like shadow spoke. The voice had transformed from the cold shriek to a deep, resounding bass, as though a chorus of voices spoke in unison: "I admit, I underestimated you. You are the first to force me to show my true form. But today, you will still die!"
Before the sentence finished, the two-headed black smoke Dragon suddenly opened its massive jaws.
"Whoosh--!"
Two streams of pitch-black flames shot forth like high-pressure water cannons aimed at Daniel.
This was no ordinary fire. It was Hell Underworld Fire -- flames that could burn directly into souls.
"Playing with fire?"
Daniel advanced without hesitation.
His nine-feet-tall giant body crashed directly into the black flames.
"You're not worthy!"
The golden light shielding him collided with the dark fire, sizzling and crackling loudly. The flames could not penetrate the thick protective layer of golden radiance.
Stepping through the fire, Daniel's giant hand flickering with lightning shot forward to grab one of the Dragon's heads.
"Break!"
"Puff!"
There was no sensation of flesh or blood -- his palm sank into a sticky glue-like substance.
But the lightning power erupted instantly from his palm.
"Boom!"
The Dragon's head shattered, blown apart into scattered black floccules.
"Roar--!"
The remaining Dragon head let out an angry bellow, flapping its massive black wings violently. Countless black feathers transformed into sharp blades, raining down like a hailstorm toward Daniel's vital points.
"Clang, clang, clang!"
The keen blades struck Daniel's glass-like skin, sparks flying. Not a single scratch nor mark was left behind.
"Too weak!"
Daniel's massive hand shot out again, this time grabbing the child riding the Dragon's back.
"Five Thunder Doctrine Seal, Go!"
In Daniel's palm, the phantom of the thunder seal flashed and disappeared.
"Crack!"
A violet bolt of wild lightning exploded without warning above the child's head.
Valak's true form didn't even have time to dodge before the bolt struck directly.
"Bang!"
The child and the remaining half of the Dragon's body instantly disintegrated, exploding into a chaotic black mist.
But the next moment, like iron filings to a magnet, the black mist rapidly converged back toward the center.
In the blink of an eye, the image of the child riding the two-headed Dragon reformed -- fully intact -- back where it had been.
"I told you -- here, I am immortal."
Valak's voice carried a faint note of triumph. Though its aura had weakened, its recovery speed was staggering.
"Immortal?"
Daniel sneered, vanishing into the air again.
"Bang!"
Valak's new form was crushed by a fist descending from the sky.
This time, Daniel didn't pause.
His massive body darted through the tight dark space like a streak of golden lightning.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Each time Valak reformed, it was met with a thunderous punch wrapped in crackling lightning or a shower of blades formed by the Sovereign Yearblade.
Within just over ten seconds, Valak was torn apart eight times.
The two-headed Dragon was reduced first to one head, then to a headless serpent. The child's form was broken to pieces, limbs severed, sometimes only a vague torso remaining.
The gloomy space echoed with the roar of exploding lightning and the dull thuds of dissolving dark energy.
"Ah--!"
After being shredded for the ninth time, the reformed Valak finally let out a frustrated shriek.
Its figure was noticeably fainter than at the start, and the oppressive aura had thinned considerably.
It no longer launched a counterattack.
Instead, it commanded the two-headed Dragon to fly backward, trying to create distance.
"You can't kill me! As long as the darkness remains, I can be reborn infinitely!"
*****
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