The body wrap formed differently this time because one forelimb could not participate equally. Haotian used the healthier claw behind the shoulder, the tail around one thigh, and the middle of his body across the waist, creating a spiral that attempted to turn the Demon God through several points at once. The Demon God resisted the torsion by widening its stance and then drove repeated knees into the section of Haotian's body that had already weakened during the previous bind.
The first impact disturbed the coil without breaking it. Haotian tightened through the healthier side and shifted the tail higher, allowing the damaged ribs to carry less of the compression, but the Demon God adjusted with him and struck the same region from a slightly different angle. The third impact made the lower wrap loosen enough for one of the Demon God's legs to move, and the moment that foot found new ground, the entire balance of the grapple changed.
Haotian felt it before the Demon God tried to separate them. He released the lower coil rather than letting the new footing become leverage against his spine and used the withdrawal to rake the healthier claw across the chest, reopening sections of the Sky Piercer wound as sacrificial essence shifted to support the Demon God's movement. The crimson current flashed again beneath the torn tissue, but the Demon God accepted the damage to the chest and used the opening Haotian had created by releasing the bind to seize the dragon behind the neck and torso.
Haotian's tail struck across its back while the grip tightened, and his jaws closed briefly over the upper arm when the Demon God began to lift. The bite drew blood, the claw against the chest tore another section of reinforcement away, and the tail disrupted one of the legs, but none of those contacts changed the strength already gathering through the Demon God's arms. Haotian released the bite before the rising motion could wrench his neck and tried to turn with the lift, using the long body to reduce the leverage rather than fighting the upward force directly.
The Demon God continued through the adjustment and swung him across the ruined stronghold. Haotian twisted the body before impact so the side and rear coils took the landing instead of the spine, but his enormous length still carved through several collapsed structures before the tail struck the ground and stopped the slide. Pain travelled through the transformed body from the same injuries that had existed before the Avatar appeared, now joined by the punishment the Demon God had learned to concentrate there whenever the grapple became close.
Haotian rose through the healthier forelimb first and saw the Demon God coming before the damaged claw had fully found purchase. Its chest was considerably worse than when the titan fight began, the old wound opened wide enough that sacrificial essence remained concentrated around it even while blood ran through the ribs and shoulder Haotian had torn with claws and teeth. One leg no longer accepted weight without a slight adjustment through the hip after repeated tail strikes, but the cultivation sustaining the body remained higher than Haotian's own and gave the Demon God enough strength to continue pressing before the dragon could completely recover.
Instead of waiting to be reached, Haotian gathered the body beneath himself and surged forward at an angle. The Demon God turned with the head and shoulders, expecting the claws, but Haotian allowed the forelimbs to remain lower and used the curve of his entire body to bring the tail around the rear leg again. The sweep forced the foot to move, and Haotian came into the resulting turn with one claw against the guarding arm while the other tore through the flank, using the two contacts to keep the Demon God rotating instead of allowing it to square itself for another direct grapple.
The Demon God reached over the damaged forelimb and caught it before Haotian could withdraw. The grip settled close to the shoulder where the human injury had translated most clearly into the Avatar, and Haotian felt the problem immediately through the way the joint stopped following the rest of his turn. He shifted the tail away from the leg and brought it toward the Demon God's upper body to force a release, but the Demon God stepped closer before the sweep completed, reducing the space the tail needed to strike with full force.
The trapped forelimb was twisted downward while a fist drove into the base of Haotian's neck. He tried to bite the controlling arm and found his head pulled off line by the same leverage through the shoulder, forcing him to use the healthier claw against the Demon God's chest instead. The talons cut through the protection and drew blood, but the Demon God continued turning the injured limb until Haotian had to let his upper body follow rather than allow the joint to be torn apart.
That movement exposed the damaged side of the torso. The Demon God drove a knee into it while still holding the forelimb, then another when Haotian's long body curled around the first impact. Haotian brought the tail across the Demon God's legs to destabilize the stance, but the strike carried less force from the closer position and the Demon God shortened its footing enough to absorb it without releasing the arm.
Haotian abandoned the attempt to pull free and wrapped around the Demon God again. The lower body crossed the hips and thighs while the tail climbed behind one leg, transforming the trapped forelimb from a disadvantage into another point of contact inside the bind. His jaws came toward the shoulder as the healthier claw searched for the chest, and the Demon God had to release part of its control over the injured limb to keep the bite from settling.
The wrap closed, but not evenly. Haotian could feel the damaged side lagging behind the healthier coils as they tightened, and he compensated by moving the tail higher around the leg while shifting more of the upper pressure through the neck and healthier claw. The Demon God stopped attacking the strongest portions of the bind and hammered the weaker side again, striking where Haotian's ribs had been injured before the transformation and where the earlier knees had already reduced the coil's ability to contract.
Haotian tightened after the first blow and moved the pressure elsewhere after the second, but the Demon God no longer needed to break the entire wrap at once. It forced one knee through the small opening created by the delayed contraction, widened the gap with its thigh, and established enough footing that the next strike travelled through the same damaged region while the body was unable to redistribute the force cleanly. The lower coil loosened several inches, and the Demon God used those inches to turn its hips farther.
Haotian responded by releasing before the bind could be torn apart completely. His tail stayed around the leg long enough to pull the Demon God off line during the separation, while the healthier claw raked across the shoulder and chest as he withdrew. The injuries deepened, yet the Demon God came through them rather than stopping, stepping inside the dragon's retreat before Haotian had enough room to use his length freely again.
A fist struck the side of his head and made the next movement of the neck arrive late. The Demon God followed with another blow beneath the jaw, preventing Haotian from bringing the teeth down, and then caught the dragon behind the neck while the front claws were still trying to regain their position beneath him. Haotian wrapped the tail around the Demon God's waist and pulled, using the lower body to deny a completely stable stance, but the grip around his neck remained and the free fist began striking the same damaged portion of the torso.
Haotian tightened the tail and dragged the Demon God half a step toward him while the healthier claw tore down the ribs. The Demon God answered by striking deeper into the weakened side, and the recoil travelled through the Avatar with enough force that the tail's next contraction came later than Haotian intended. He changed the wrap before the Demon God could exploit the same point again, but the Immortal Emperor had already begun anticipating where the pressure would move.
The next blow landed slightly above the previous one, and the one after that landed lower. Rather than attacking a single wound mechanically, the Demon God was preventing Haotian from distributing the strain across the long body, forcing each adjustment to carry pain into another compromised section. Haotian still held the Demon God close enough that the claws could reach it, but maintaining that contact now cost him more with every exchange than the damage he was inflicting in return.
He changed the nature of the struggle before the Demon God could settle into that advantage completely. Haotian released the waist with the tail, struck the leg from behind while simultaneously pushing through the healthier foreclaw, and used the sudden change in pressure to create enough space for his head to turn. The jaws came down across the upper shoulder and held, giving Haotian a new point of leverage while the tail crossed behind the knees.
The Demon God's balance shifted, and Haotian drove forward through the bite rather than trying to tear backward. Both colossal bodies moved through the ruins together, crushing what remained beneath them while Haotian's claws found the torso and the lower body curved around the legs. For several strides he forced the Demon God backward, the jaws keeping the shoulder from turning freely while the tail prevented the feet from recovering their preferred spacing.
The Demon God began striking Haotian's side again as they moved. The first blow compressed the injured ribs; the second reached deeper because the forward pressure prevented Haotian from rolling with it; and by the third the body wrap around the legs had loosened enough for the Demon God to regain one full step. That single piece of footing changed the grapple, allowing the Demon God to turn into the bite rather than being driven by it.
Haotian released before the rotation could damage his neck, but the Demon God caught him during the separation and drove its shoulder into the dragon's chest. Haotian's front half rose from the ground, the damaged forelimb failing to establish enough purchase to prevent it, and the Demon God used the opening to seize the neck and force him downward across the ruins.
Haotian rolled the body as he fell so the impact spread along the side rather than through the spine. The tail struck the Demon God's leg during the landing and the healthier claw tore across the abdomen as he twisted, preventing the Demon God from remaining completely above him, but the movement required the injured ribs to contract through a range they had been resisting throughout the fight. Pain interrupted the final portion of the roll and left Haotian lower than he intended when the Demon God recovered its stance.
The Demon God reached the neck again.
Haotian drew the head back and gathered elemental force in his throat while the distance still existed. He did not have time to build the same sustained dragon breath he had used earlier, so he compressed the gathering into a shorter release directed at the upper chest, forcing the Demon God to protect the Sky Piercer wound rather than continue reaching without defense.
The torrent struck across the guarding arms and damaged chest, elemental currents tearing through sacrificial reinforcement while crimson lightning answered beneath the scar. The Demon God moved into the breath anyway, using both arms to shield the deepest portion of the wound while crossing the distance, and Haotian saw that maintaining the attack would leave his jaws open when the Demon God reached him.
He ended the breath and turned the head aside before the fist arrived. The blow still caught the lower jaw and drove the dragon's head sideways, giving the Demon God enough access to seize the horn and the side of his neck. Haotian hooked one claw into the abdomen and pulled the tail around a leg, attempting to turn the grip into another imbalance, but the damaged forelimb could no longer join the motion with equal force.
The Demon God used the unequal support against him. It pulled the head toward the weak side while stepping into the trapped leg rather than away from it, forcing Haotian's body to follow the leverage through the same shoulder and ribs that had already been failing. The tail tightened and dragged the foot several inches, but the Demon God accepted the compromised stance long enough to strike beneath the front of the dragon's torso.
Haotian's enormous body recoiled through the impact.
The rainbow light moving along the scales became uneven for the first time, not disappearing but losing the smooth continuity it had maintained since the transformation. Haotian felt the instability from within and immediately forced the damaged forelimb into the ground, using the healthier side and tail to redistribute the Avatar's weight before the weakness could spread farther.
The Demon God did not allow that redistribution to finish. It struck the weakened region again while maintaining control of the neck, and Haotian responded by wrapping the lower body around the Demon God's hips so the attack could not continue without bringing both of them back into a grapple. The coils closed through the healthier side first, the tail caught one thigh, and the stronger claw hooked behind the shoulder while the damaged forelimb remained closer to the body rather than reaching as far as before.
Haotian tightened the wrap and brought his jaws toward the Demon God's neck, but the Demon God had learned where the bind no longer closed evenly. It allowed the stronger portion of the coil to settle and drove both fists into the lagging side before Haotian could compensate through the tail. The first impact opened several inches between the coils, and the second widened that space enough for the Demon God to turn one leg through it.
Haotian shifted the tail to close the opening, but the new footing gave the Demon God the leverage required to force the hips outward. The bind began separating from below while the upper portion remained tight, and Haotian had to release rather than allow the difference between the two halves of his body to twist through the injured spine and ribs. His healthier claw crossed the chest during the withdrawal and reached the Sky Piercer wound once more, tearing reinforcement and damaged flesh apart even as the Demon God stepped out of the coils.
Crimson lightning flashed through the opened chest and dark blood ran heavily down the Demon God's torso, yet the Demon God continued forward. Its hand closed behind Haotian's neck while the dragon was still recovering from the released bind, and the free arm struck the weakened side before Haotian could curve the long body far enough away.
The impact travelled through him and made the damaged forelimb fold.
Haotian shifted his weight toward the healthier claw and tried to bring the tail across the Demon God's legs, but the Demon God remained too close for the sweep to gain enough force. Instead of avoiding it, the Demon God stepped through the tail's path and struck Haotian again at the base of the neck, keeping the head high enough that the jaws could not find a clean target.
Haotian tried to turn the struggle into another wrap because remaining extended beneath the Demon God's grip gave the larger cultivation too much leverage. The tail came around one leg while the middle of his body curved toward the waist, but the damaged side no longer followed the command with the same timing as the rest of the Avatar. The coil formed too slowly, and the Demon God struck into the opening before it could close.
Haotian tightened anyway, but another blow entered the same region and the wrap loosened before it had fully settled. His healthier claw still reached the Demon God's chest and tore across the old wound, forcing more sacrificial essence into the damaged pathways, but maintaining the claw there left the front of his body exposed. The Demon God struck beneath the chest and lifted the dragon's upper body enough to break the remaining contact.
Haotian's long form came partly off the ground, and the Demon God turned with the motion rather than simply throwing him away. Haotian whipped the tail across its back and dug the healthier claw into the shoulder, trying to create enough opposing leverage to stop the rotation, but the Immortal Emperor continued through both contacts and drove the dragon down across the ruins.
The ground collapsed beneath the impact.
Haotian's body spread across broken stone, and before he could gather the coils beneath himself, the Demon God maintained the grip around the upper torso and struck the damaged side again. Haotian reached the healthier claw toward the chest and opened the Sky Piercer wound farther, his talons entering damaged tissue while crimson lightning ran beneath them, but the retaliation arrived before he could deepen the attack.
The Demon God struck the side of his head and forced the claw away. Haotian tried to rise through the healthier forelimb, but the damaged one folded when he attempted to distribute his weight through both sides, leaving the front of the Avatar lower than the movement required. His tail wrapped the Demon God's leg and pulled, shifting the stance enough to prevent another clean blow for a moment, yet the Demon God tore the foot free and stepped down across part of the coil.
Pain travelled through the dragon's long body and disturbed the transformation again. The rainbow light along the scales remained present, but several regions dimmed before Haotian forced cultivation back through them, and the effort required to maintain the Avatar now joined the effort of simply moving it. He could still see every weakness on the Demon God through the Eyes of the Universe, including how heavily the sacrificial essence had become concentrated around the chest and how poorly the damaged leg accepted its weight after the repeated tail strikes.
Haotian dragged the healthier claw through the ruins and brought the head toward that leg, trying to use the teeth where the weakened forelimb could no longer reach quickly enough. The Demon God stepped away from the bite and caught the back of the dragon's neck as Haotian tried to rise, pulling the front of the Avatar upward while striking the compromised forequarter with the other hand. Haotian's claw opened another wound along the Demon God's side during the movement, but the grip remained and the next blow reached the same damaged structure again.
His forelimb folded beneath him when he came down.
Haotian shifted immediately onto the healthier side and brought the tail around the Demon God's legs, but the strike lacked the earlier force because the body could no longer contract evenly through its entire length. The Demon God shortened one step, absorbed the sweep, and drove Haotian's head back toward the ground while maintaining control near the neck.
The dragon twisted before the skull struck squarely, allowing one side of the head and shoulder to absorb more of the collision. Broken stone erupted around him, and Haotian used the movement of the fall to pull the tail toward the Demon God's ankle again, refusing to let the enormous body become completely passive beneath the attack. The Demon God shifted the foot out of the tightening loop and pulled Haotian from the crater before the tail could establish another bind.
Elemental force gathered weakly in Haotian's throat as he rose, but the Demon God recognized the change and struck beneath the jaw before the breath could form. The gathered current dispersed through the mouth and along the scales rather than becoming an attack, and the resulting instability spread farther through the Avatar than the previous flickers. Haotian forced the dragon's head back into line and reached with the healthier claw, catching the Demon God across the chest even as another fist entered the damaged side.
The talons tore through sacrificial reinforcement and exposed the Sky Piercer wound again. The Demon God's strike landed, and Haotian's claw remained there for another moment, dragging through the damaged pathways while crimson lightning flashed beneath it, but the next blow forced the forelimb away before he could reach deeper.
Haotian tried to gather the lower body around the Demon God once more. The tail reached one leg and the middle coil moved toward the waist, but the damaged side lagged enough that the wrap could not close before the Demon God stepped through. One hand seized Haotian behind the neck while the other drove into the weakened torso, preventing the body from contracting enough to recover the bind.
The Avatar's light became visibly unstable across its length.
Haotian did not lose control of the transformation, nor did his connection to the Undying Rainbow Dragon Dao Avatar weaken because of fear or hesitation. The physical foundation beneath it had simply been struck too many times in the same compromised regions, and each attempt to make the colossal body fight as though those injuries did not exist demanded more cultivation merely to hold its shape together.
The Demon God continued pressing into that limitation. It kept close enough that Haotian could not use the full momentum of the tail, controlled the neck whenever the jaws approached, and attacked the damaged forequarter and ribs whenever Haotian attempted another body wrap. Haotian still answered with claws, teeth, and short coils whenever the openings appeared, tearing the Demon God's chest and flank badly enough that dark blood covered much of its body, but the exchanges had changed from Haotian determining the geometry of the grapple to Haotian fighting to keep the damaged Avatar functional inside it.
He gathered the healthier side beneath himself and forced the dragon upward one more time, using the tail around the Demon God's leg to pull the stance outward while the healthier claw struck toward the chest. The Demon God resisted the pull, caught the claw before it fully entered the Sky Piercer wound, and drove its other arm beneath Haotian's upper torso where the damaged forelimb could no longer provide equal support.
Haotian understood the leverage before the Demon God finished establishing it.
There was no clean way to remove it with the body he still possessed.
He brought the jaws toward the shoulder and tightened the tail, trying to force enough damage during the lift that the Demon God would have to release him. His teeth entered flesh and the tail shifted the trapped leg, but the Demon God continued rising through both attacks, turning the dragon's enormous body through the compromised side while the injured forelimb failed to create the counterpressure Haotian needed.
Haotian's healthier claw tore across the chest as he was lifted, reopening the Sky Piercer wound and sending crimson lightning through the blood running over the Demon God's torso. The Demon God did not stop. It continued the turn until Haotian's long body had lost contact with the ground, then drove him down through the ruined foundations with enough force that the remaining structures beneath them collapsed under the Avatar's weight.
Haotian felt the transformation shudder from head to tail. He tried to move the healthier claw first and found enough response to drag it through the rubble, while the tail shifted next without enough strength to create another full coil. The damaged forelimb failed when he attempted to push the upper body from the crater, and the Demon God remained upright nearby with its chest torn open, shoulder bitten through, flank shredded, and one leg damaged while sacrificial essence continued bracing the old wound.
Haotian raised the dragon's head despite the forelimb folding beneath him. The Eyes of the Universe still showed the scar, the residual lightning, the stressed pathways around the demon core, and the reinforcement being consumed to keep all of it together, but the transformed body could no longer turn those observations into another complete attack. He tried to gather the tail beneath himself and felt the contraction fail halfway through the damaged side.
The Demon God crossed the remaining distance and caught him behind the neck before he could force the front of the body upright. Haotian brought the healthier claw toward the chest and curved the tail toward the nearest leg, attempting one last bind from the ground, but the Demon God stepped inside the weakened claw and drove its other arm beneath the dragon's chest. The lift came through the same damaged side it had been exploiting throughout the latter half of the battle, and Haotian's final tail wrap passed behind the leg without closing.
Even while being raised, Haotian's claw reached the Demon God's chest and tore through the Sky Piercer wound again. Dark blood poured over the talons and crimson lightning flashed beneath the opened tissue, but the Demon God continued through the damage and turned with the dragon held against its strength. Haotian tried to twist his long body through the grip so the spine would not receive the full impact, though the injured side no longer contracted quickly enough to complete the adjustment.
The Demon God drove him into the ground.
The ruins collapsed beneath the Undying Rainbow Dragon Dao Avatar, and the impact sent instability through the transformation faster than Haotian could gather cultivation to correct it. Rainbow light withdrew unevenly from the tail and claws while the colossal body remained spread across shattered foundations, not exploding or disappearing abruptly but losing the physical cohesion required to keep Haotian at that scale.
He attempted to raise the head again. The healthier claw moved several inches and the tail shifted against the rubble, but neither movement could gather enough of the dragon's body behind it for another attack. The light continued drawing inward across the scales, and the enormous form contracted with it until ruined walls and broken stone that had been buried beneath the dragon gradually appeared around a human body once again.
Haotian lay where the head of the Undying Rainbow Dragon Dao Avatar had fallen, one arm trapped beneath him and blood covering the front of his robes. The injuries that had existed before the transformation now carried everything the titan battle had added to them, and when he placed the healthier hand against the ground and tried to push himself up, the elbow straightened only partway before the ribs and shoulder failed to support the movement together.
The Demon God remained several paces away.
Its chest was more severely damaged than at any point since the sacrifice, one shoulder bore the deep marks of Haotian's teeth, the flank had been torn repeatedly by claws, and its injured leg shifted slightly whenever it accepted full weight. None of those wounds had brought it down.
Haotian tried once more to rise as the Demon God began walking toward him, but the hand beneath him trembled before the rest of his body left the ground.
The transformation had returned him to a human body already carrying everything that had been damaged before the Undying Rainbow Dragon Dao Avatar appeared, and the titan battle had added enough punishment that even drawing his knees beneath him required several breaths. The Eyes of the Universe were still open, their golden spirals dimmer than before but clear enough to show the Demon God approaching through the ruins with sacrificial essence moving heavily around the wounds Haotian had left across its enlarged body.
The Demon God no longer walked with the same perfect balance it had possessed when the sacrifice first enlarged it. One leg accepted its weight through a slightly altered angle after repeated tail strikes and bindings, the shoulder Haotian had bitten remained lower when the arm swung, and the torn flank continued bleeding through sections where the sacrificial reinforcement could no longer spare enough essence to seal every wound at once. Most of what remained had gathered around the chest, where the old Sky Piercer scar had been ripped open so many times that reconstructed pathways were visible beneath torn flesh whenever the dark reinforcement shifted.
Haotian could see all of it, and he could also see that none of it mattered enough. The Demon God remained on its feet because the difference between their cultivations had never disappeared simply because Haotian found better ways to hurt it. The sacrificial reinforcement had been consumed heavily, Alter's residual crimson lightning continued disturbing the structures around the old wound, and the titan battle had damaged the body far beyond what the Demon God could casually ignore, yet the strength moving through its remaining pathways was still that of an initial Immortal Emperor supported by a body that had once stood within the True God Realm.
Haotian pressed his palm harder against the rubble and straightened the elbow. The shoulder trembled immediately, and pain spread through the ribs before his chest had risen more than several inches. He shifted the effort toward the healthier side and managed to bring one knee beneath himself, but the compromised hip failed when he tried to transfer weight onto it, dropping him back onto one hand before he could establish a stable stance.
The Demon God continued approaching without rushing.
Haotian looked down briefly at the hand supporting him and watched blood run between his fingers from somewhere beneath the sleeve. The medicine he had taken earlier was still circulating, but its effect had become scattered across too many injuries, stabilizing damage that would otherwise have worsened faster without restoring enough function for him to fight. He drew cultivation through the arm anyway and forced the elbow straight again.
This time he reached one knee.
The effort left his breathing rougher than the movement deserved, and the left arm remained close to his body because the shoulder no longer responded cleanly enough to bring it into a proper guard. Haotian lifted his head and followed the Demon God through the Eyes of the Universe, watching the slight delay through the damaged leg and the heavier gathering of sacrificial essence around the chest as though another exchange were still possible if he could only get his body under him.
The Demon God stopped several paces away.
Haotian could see the damage he had created more clearly at that distance. Claw wounds crossed the ribs and abdomen, the upper shoulder carried deep punctures from his bite, one forearm had been torn beneath the dragon's jaws, and the chest wound remained open enough that thin traces of crimson lightning still moved through the dark blood gathering inside it. The Undying Rainbow Dragon Dao Avatar had not failed to hurt the Demon God; Haotian had simply reached the end of what his own body could sustain before those wounds became enough to decide the battle.
The Demon God looked over him without lowering its guard.
"You are still trying to stand."
Haotian shifted his foot beneath himself.
The hip tightened.
He waited for the pain to settle enough to continue.
"I noticed."
The Demon God's gaze moved briefly toward the ruins around them, where the titan battle had flattened entire sections of what remained of the stronghold. "Your people are gone."
"They're alive."
"For now."
Haotian brought the healthier arm across his body and used the forearm against his raised knee for support. "That was the point."
The Demon God's expression did not change, though the sacrificial essence around its chest thickened when another line of crimson lightning moved beneath the scar. Haotian saw the automatic response and recognized how much of the remaining reinforcement had become committed to protecting that region, but his fingers could barely close properly and the distance between them now felt greater than it had when he was moving through the Demon God's attacks in human form.
He tried standing anyway.
The healthier leg pushed first, carrying enough of his weight that the injured hip only had to stabilize rather than lift him completely. His body rose slowly from the rubble, one hand dragging across the knee for support while the other remained close to his side, and for several breaths it appeared that the accumulated injuries might allow him one more upright stance if he was willing to accept how little movement would remain afterward.
The ribs stopped him near the end.
Pain tightened across the chest and side, interrupting the breath that should have supported the final rise. Haotian swayed and tried to shift the weight forward before the leg lost its position, but the damaged hip answered at the same time and forced him back down onto one knee.
The Demon God watched the attempt from beginning to end.
Haotian remained there rather than lowering himself completely. The Eyes of the Universe still traced the Demon God's circulation, and the part of him trained through years of combat continued arranging information automatically even though there was almost nothing his body could do with it. The injured leg would be slower on a turn toward the right; the shoulder Haotian had bitten could not raise as cleanly as the other; the Sky Piercer wound still drew reinforcement away from the flank whenever crimson lightning stirred; and the Demon God's remaining sacrificial essence was no longer abundant enough to reinforce every region at the same density.
Any one of those details would have mattered several exchanges ago.
Now Haotian could barely stand.
The Demon God moved closer.
Haotian shifted his healthier foot beneath him again, not because he expected the body to recover simply because he refused to remain down, but because doing nothing while an enemy approached had never been part of his instincts. He gathered what strength remained through the leg and pushed, managing to rise far enough that the knee left the ground before his hip began trembling violently beneath the weight.
The Demon God reached him before the attempt finished.
Haotian saw the hand coming toward his chest and turned enough that it caught the front of his robes rather than the throat. The Demon God lifted him with one arm, and the sudden absence of ground beneath his feet made the full state of his body obvious; neither leg found enough strength to create leverage, the damaged shoulder could not raise the arm properly, and the healthier hand closed around the Demon God's wrist without enough force to change it.
Haotian still looked toward the chest.
The Sky Piercer wound remained within reach.
He tried to bring his left hand toward it.
The arm moved several inches before the shoulder failed.
The Demon God noticed the attempt and shifted him farther from the wound.
"You have already lost."
Haotian's fingers tightened weakly around the wrist holding him. "I know."
The Demon God studied him for a moment, perhaps expecting something else to follow.
Nothing did.
Haotian had no reason to pretend the battle remained undecided.
He had lost.
The Demon God had survived everything the family had done together, survived the repeated reopening of Alter's old wound, survived Yueru disturbing the residual crimson lightning, survived Haotian fighting alone after the others could no longer continue, and finally survived being torn apart beneath the claws, jaws, breath, tail, and coils of the Undying Rainbow Dragon Dao Avatar. Haotian had used every advantage he could create from the battlefield and the weakness already buried inside the Demon God's body, yet the realm difference had remained greater than what those advantages could overcome.
The Demon God threw him aside.
Haotian crossed several paces before hitting the ground and rolling through loose stone. His body stopped near the remains of a collapsed wall, one leg bent beneath him and the healthier arm stretched across the rubble where he had tried to catch the fall. Blood reached his mouth again, and when he coughed it onto the stone, even the movement through his ribs made his vision dim briefly.
The Eyes of the Universe remained open when the darkness cleared.
The Demon God was approaching again.
Haotian drew the trapped leg out from beneath himself and shifted onto his back long enough to breathe without putting the same pressure through the ribs. The ruined stronghold above him was little more than broken silhouettes against the sky, much of what had once enclosed the battlefield destroyed by the titan struggle, and beyond the Demon God there was no longer any sign of the opening into the Dao Palace of Creation.
That mattered more than whether Haotian could still stand.
The others were inside.
The Demon God had not reached them.
Whatever happened next would happen outside.
Haotian rolled toward the healthier arm and pushed himself back onto one elbow before the Demon God arrived. The movement was slow enough that the Demon God could have interrupted it at any point, but it continued walking until Haotian had dragged himself into a sitting position against the collapsed stone behind him.
The Demon God stopped within striking distance.
Haotian looked up while the Demon God looked down, neither needing to ask what remained. The arm that had been injured by Haotian's bite lifted more slowly than the other, but it still carried enough strength to kill an initial Lesser Immortal Lord who could no longer defend himself. Abyssal power gathered around the hand in a dense layer rather than being released outward, keeping the finishing attack contained and preventing unnecessary expenditure from the sacrificial reinforcement still supporting the rest of the body.
Haotian followed the gathering power through the Eyes of the Universe. He could see where it condensed along the fingers, the shoulder tightening before the arm moved, how the injured leg shifted to support the coming strike, and even the narrow route beneath the elbow that would have carried him outside the attack if his body still possessed enough strength to take it.
Haotian placed his healthier hand against the ground.
The elbow straightened slightly.
His hip did not lift.
He tried again as the Demon God began raising the arm.
The shoulder supporting him trembled.
His body remained against the broken wall.
Haotian exhaled slowly and stopped wasting the little strength left on the attempt. The Eyes of the Universe continued following the Demon God's movement because he could no more stop reading an enemy than he could stop breathing while consciousness remained, but for the first time in the battle he had no answer to what they showed him.
The Demon God's hand rose above him.
Haotian remained conscious.
He did not close his eyes.
The Abyssal power compressed around the descending arm, distorting the air close to the hand and sending pressure through the broken ground beneath Haotian before the strike itself began. The difference between their cultivations was obvious even now, when the Demon God had been damaged more severely than at any other point in the battle and much of its sacrificial reinforcement had already been spent.
Haotian watched the shoulder move.
The finishing strike started downward.
Something warm touched the center of his chest.
It was so small that Haotian initially mistook it for another change inside the damaged meridians. The sensation did not follow any of his cultivation pathways, however, nor did it come from the healing medicine still circulating through him, and the Eyes of the Universe found no relationship between the tiny warmth and the battered systems struggling to keep his body functional.
A point of light appeared against his robes.
Haotian's gaze dropped toward it.
The light passed outward through the center of his chest without tearing cloth or flesh, no larger than a small pearl when it first emerged. It floated several inches above him while the Demon God's arm continued descending, carrying no obvious Dao pressure, elemental current, or cultivation that Haotian could immediately identify.
The Demon God saw it.
Its hand slowed, not enough to stop the attack but enough for the Eyes of the Universe to catch the unexpected change through the shoulder and wrist.
The tiny light rose.
Haotian stared at it.
He had not summoned it, had not formed it, and nothing within his own cultivation responded as though the light belonged to any technique he was using. The orb moved between Haotian and the descending hand while the Demon God continued the finishing strike.
For an instant the difference in scale was almost absurd. The Demon God's enlarged arm carried enough force to crush Haotian and the collapsed wall behind him, while the thing floating in its path was barely larger than a fist and emitted no pressure comparable to the Abyssal power gathered above it.
The Demon God brought the hand down.
The orb vanished from directly in front of Haotian.
It appeared at the Demon God's face.
Light erupted across the distance between them.
The blast struck the Demon God squarely in the face before its finishing blow reached Haotian, snapping the enlarged head backward and tearing the entire body away from the ground. The injured leg left the stone first, the other followed, and the Demon God was launched backward through the ruined stronghold with enough force to break through the remains of one wall and continue into the rubble beyond it.
Haotian remained against the collapsed stone.
The fist that had been about to kill him never landed.
Dust and broken masonry rolled through the place where the Demon God had disappeared, while the small orb of light drifted back through the disturbed air and stopped several feet above Haotian.
The Eyes of the Universe turned toward it.
For the first time since the Demon God descended into Blue Sphere, Haotian had no idea what he was looking at.