Song Yau stepped back hurriedly as the glaive rose towards her chin, the single moment where her attention lapsed due to her arm was more than enough time for Yao Jun to arrive within range. She had no choice but to ignore her twisting arm, ignore the crunching of bone and the tearing of flesh as her entire arm spun around against her will.

She stepped out of the glaive's range, but she could feel the Qi in the air move violently so she knew that just leaving the weapon's range wasn't good enough. The earth beneath her was also shifting quietly, the roots of the Origin Beast were already spreading throughout the entire planet so she guessed that they would reach her again in less than a second.

"Really... I should have just stayed home."

She was bitter, extremely bitter. She and her associates had only come to this minor universe to make sure that their plans proceeded without too many complications now that their allied organizations had been weakened. That was it, she was basically an overseer and a deterrent, nothing more. But then Yao Jun had returned, worse than ever before, and thrown the situation into chaos again. At this point whether or not she could protect her cultivation base, or even her life, was uncertain.

She stomped the ground heavily when she finished her step back, torrents of violent vibrations erupting from her feet and piercing into the ground. The earth trembled and cracked as a result, a horrifying earthquake rocking the entire planet. Mountains crumbled and fell, large swathes of earth tossing about like rafts in a storm as she changed the landscape of the entire planet.

The roots burrowing towards her were halted as a result and the rising earth blocked the sharp crystal spears that shot forward after the glaive missed its mark. She slid forward the hand that held her spear and turned it on herself, the spearhead cleaving through her right shoulder. The twisting arm fell to the ground and writhed like a snake, a black snake actually slithering out from within the flesh, seemingly emerging from the darkness within her own veins. The serpent faded away like black smoke after it left her arm, her pupils quivering softly.

"Another one... I hate that you live up to your name."

She grumbled quietly, her voice filled with all the poisons of the world. King of Demonic Deities, that was the name Yao Jun had gotten in the past when he first revealed his beast companions. Truthfully, she felt like scoffing at that name when she first read about it in the files. Divine Beasts were terrifying indeed, but they were not Origin beasts, they did not deserve to be termed as deities while still so weak and young.

But now, here he stood, commanding not just one, but two infant Origin Beasts. Why did he have to live up to that name, why couldn't he have just stayed as he was? He even had that accursed weapon that flayed some of the flesh and skin from her arm, a wound that was still refusing to heal properly. He was dangerous, more so than anyone else in this little universe, she just wished that she had realized that before she came here.

KIIIII

A sharp sound cut through the air, what little glass that still remained after the earthquake immediately rupturing. The closer soldiers who had managed to make their way through the earthquake all fell over while bleeding from their ears, their eardrums ruptured and their brains practically liquefied.

Sound was just vibrations moving through the air, having the law of vibrations was the same as having the law of sound, if you knew how to use it. She stomped the ground once more, this time moving forward as she shook the planet once more. The sound she produced was loud enough to kill weaker people like the soldiers here, but she figured that it would at best only be able to make Yao Jun flinch for half a second. So that was half a second she needed to take advantage of.

And indeed, she saw Yao Jun's eyebrows twitch and his eyelids flutter, his entire body tensing as the sound cut through the air, her connection with the law of space allowing her to see him even though there was a jagged chunk of earth between them. She twisted her foot a little, lowered her body, and lunged forward, space around her fracturing and gathering around the stump that remained of her right arm.

She fashioned a makeshift arm out of shattered space and grasped the spear with both hands, a single opening was all it took to finish a fight like theirs. The earthquake that rocked the entire planet was drawn towards her thanks to the slight twist of her foot, its full force concentrated on Yao Jun. The earth beneath him would vibrate so violently that his feet would feel like they had become part of the ground, he could forget about dodging. It also had the added benefit that she could unleash the force if he survived the initial attack, it should ensure that the next exchange resulted in death.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The earthen chunk that blocked Yao Jun's previous attack exploded as Song Yau charged forward, the fragments flying straight at Yao Jun, each one vibrating so violently that they would be able to cut through even metal. And just as she expected, or perhaps hoped, he couldn't dodge any of them, holes appearing in his body as they tore through him and opened the path for her.

She pushed her arms forward and unleashed her attack with all her might, the speartip gathering the surrounding space, compressing it at the very tip in a manner similar to a black hole. Everything she had at her disposal was pushed into the spear, she had to end that thing in front of her now while she still could.

And then she saw Yao Jun's gaze sink down, the two pairs of eyes meeting. There wasn't a shred of panic in his gaze, not a hint of pain in his pupils. They were just quiet and calm, like a placid lake that couldn't support any life. And her heart shook. Fear. It was an emotion that had become quite foreign to her after her long years of life, even in her race there were only three beings that could make her feel this. But now she was afraid. Looking at those eyes scared her. What they told her, scared her.

When you win, that is when you are at your weakest.

Pain suddenly assaulted Song Yau's head. It felt like something was scraping against her skull, cracking it slowly as it tried to get at her head. A serpent had appeared amidst her hair, intertwined with the shadows each strand cast. The snake had opened its maw wide, its lower jaw splitting in two down the middle, and all three segments of its mouth had bitten down on her head. The entire jaw had unhinged to an unnatural degree, it looked as if the small snake was trying to swallow her whole.

All her power was focused on the tip of her spear, everything she had to offer was already given to her weapon. So she had no defences in place to deal with the snake, resulting in a single flinch from her, a single twitch as its teeth hacked at her skull. And as she flinched, she heard the sound of the air getting violently pushed aside.

The glaive was above her, directly above her even. But Yao Jun had flinched so he shouldn't have been able to lower it in time, that was why she charged ahead. But there it was, a tainted scarlet blade descending toward her without mercy.

"Ahh... a feint..."

She understood it too late. He had tricked her, he had used the oldest trick in the book to prey on the sliver of fear and urgency she felt. And she had swallowed it hook line and sinker, played straight into his hand. But she refused to just let it end like this, she refused to go down that easily.

She grit her teeth and tilted her torso to the side as quickly as she could, pushing her spear forward. He could have her leg, maybe even her left arm, but she would get his life. But just as her spear was about to reach Yao Jun's abdomen, it vanished. Not her spear, no, his abdomen did. Everything below his shoulders vanished, reducing him to just being a head, neck, and two arms floating in the air.

Her attack had nothing to hit, nothing to stop it, so it just continued on forward without pause, her shock rendering her incapable of even detonating her creation.

"Wha...?"

She couldn't understand it, what he did, what he was. She looked up at the base of the neck where the torso should have been, but all she saw was a starry expanse, a spinning galaxy filled with planets. Was this really a human?

There was no answer to her unspoken question, the glaive finishing its descent. It cut through her shoulder without issue and continued downwards, flaying a layer of skin and flesh from the side of her torso before it cut through her thigh and stole her leg.

It was a debilitating wound, made all the more serious because of the ability of the glaive. She didn't know exactly how old the weapon was for it to gather so much of it, but the bloodlust gathered around its blade was so immense, so condensed, that it interfered with the healing powers she was so used to. This was a weapon for slaughter, a weapon that had honed itself for the sole purpose of seeing more blood.

This alone was enough to put her in a state where her life would be hard to guarantee, but the still gaze that still looked at her told her that it wasn't enough. The other arm shot forward, space around the two cracking open as black flames spilt forth again to stain the world. Was he afraid that she'd flee by teleporting?

She immediately got the answer to that question, his fist smashing into her chest and unleashing the law of space. It swarmed over her and her spear, pushing both of them through space. Normally this would just teleport them away, but space itself was currently burning so he had instead plunged her directly into that fire, the serpent that had bitten into her skull fading away like smoke.

And at the tip of her spear was still that glob of condensed space, that mimicry of a black hole that was still drawing in the surrounding space. So, the black flames that ate away at space were drawn in as she was pushed through space, the balance she meticulously maintained to keep her attack in check shattered by the foreign force.

The attack, originally aimed at Yao Jun, erupted as she moved through space. It exploded without a sound, condensed space forced out as it expanded to return to its normal size, shattering the newly formed space that was supposed to replace what she had taken. And coming along with it were the black flames, clinging to space and darkness alike as they were pushed outward to cover a good half of the planet, that was how much space she had gathered for her attack.

Being the one holding the spear, Song Yau had to bear the brunt of the exploding attack, expanding space and black flames washing over her. The flames ate away at her and the shattering space swallowed her up, made her become part of it since she was moving through it. So she burned, and she cracked, and she fell apart. She was closer to space than ever before, she felt enlightened when she experienced how space truly shattered. If she took this understanding and used it in her attack then she would be able to easily double its power.

"Ahhh... What a shame... Forgive me, Lord Rahu..."

Her final words were washed away by the black flames, her consciousness and body fading away as the shattering space was burned away. She had been enlightened, but it was during the moment of her death, as her neurons were firing one last time. It was enlightenment she would never be able to share, never be able to put to use. So she took her enlightenment and vanished, leaving only Yao Jun and the black flames that burned the world.