The small point of light hovered several feet in front of Haotian while the ruined stronghold continued settling around them, broken stone slipping from half-collapsed walls and dust spreading through the space where the Demon God had been hurled away. Haotian could still feel the medicine working slowly through his body, but there was too much accumulated damage for it to do more than keep the worst injuries from worsening; his shoulders remained nearly useless, every breath pulled against battered ribs, and the leg beneath his damaged hip refused to bear enough weight for another attempt at standing. Even so, the Eyes of the Universe remained fixed on the light, following the strange little presence that had intercepted an Immortal Emperor's killing blow and answered it with enough force to send the enlarged Demon God crashing through the ruins.
The light gradually descended until it hovered just above the broken ground, drawing inward around the shape contained inside it instead of releasing any further pressure. Haotian followed the contraction through the Eyes of the Universe, but the more tightly the light gathered, the less its internal structure resembled anything that could be explained through ordinary cultivation, elemental circulation, Dao manifestation, or even the unusual spiritual formations he had encountered across the different worlds. Before he could examine it any further, the glow compressed around the figure within and broke apart with a small, almost ridiculous pop, scattering into fading motes that left a tiny armored person standing among the rubble.
Recognition came quickly despite the proportions being completely wrong. The black hair, bright blue eyes, white-and-gold armor trimmed with blue, and familiar face all belonged to Alter, yet the figure before Haotian was so small that the surrounding chunks of broken masonry looked enormous beside him. What had not changed was the expression; Alter looked over his tiny hands, flexed his fingers once, then inspected the rest of himself with the same irritated scrutiny he might have given a damaged weapon that had failed to perform according to specification.
His brows drew together as he turned one palm over and examined it before looking down at his shortened legs. "What the hell happened to me?" he muttered, the annoyance in his voice entirely unchanged by the much smaller body producing it.
Haotian felt the corner of his mouth rise despite the pain waiting beneath his ribs. Seeing Alter standing there after everything that had happened should have produced relief first, but the sight of him compressed into such an absurdly small form made that difficult to manage with a straight face. "You finally woke up."
Alter turned toward him, and whatever irritation he had been directing at his own body disappeared beneath open contempt when his eyes travelled over Haotian's condition. Blood had dried across much of Haotian's ruined robes, one shoulder sat lower than the other, his breathing remained shallow from the accumulated damage along his ribs, and the leg stretched before him had already failed several times when he tried to stand. Alter looked him over from head to toe before lifting his gaze back to Haotian's face. "You weakling. How in the world did you manage to get yourself this injured?"
Haotian let more of his weight settle against the broken stone behind him rather than wasting what little strength remained trying to sit straighter. "It was stronger than I was."
"That much is painfully obvious." Alter walked closer across the rubble, the tiny armored boots stepping between stones that would have been insignificant beneath his normal body, while his eyes continued examining the injuries without requiring Haotian to describe each one. His gaze paused over the damaged shoulders and ribs, followed the imbalance through Haotian's hip and leg, then moved briefly across the remnants of medicinal energy still circulating through his meridians before he looked toward the devastated battlefield. "Where are the others?"
"Inside the Dao Palace of Creation." Haotian drew a careful breath before continuing, keeping it shallow enough that the ribs did not seize again. "Lianhua, Yinxue, Yueru, Ziyue, Xiangyin, Yanfei, Liora, and Xuanyin. They're all alive."
Alter gave a short nod, and that was the end of his concern over their immediate condition. He did not ask Haotian to recount the battle, nor did he waste time demanding an explanation for every wound covering the ruined battlefield around them; knowing the family was alive and somewhere the enemy could not immediately reach was enough for him to shift his attention elsewhere. His blue eyes settled instead on the long path of shattered masonry where the Demon God had disappeared, and the corner of his mouth lifted as the Abyssal pressure beneath the ruins began gathering again.
"Good." Alter rolled one shoulder, apparently still testing how his reduced body responded, before spreading his small hands and closing them into fists. "Then stay there and try not to fall apart. Now that I'm here, this is over."
Haotian looked down at him. "You're very small."
Alter slowly turned his head.
Haotian managed to keep his expression neutral.
For several seconds Alter said nothing, though the look he gave Haotian made his opinion clear enough. "Keep talking and I'll leave you here after I'm done."
The faint amusement Haotian had managed to hold onto disappeared when the ground beneath the distant ruins shifted hard enough for both of them to feel it. A broad section of broken wall lifted as something beneath it forced its way upward, sending slabs sliding down the pile while Abyssal energy thickened through the surrounding air. Alter turned toward the disturbance before the first pieces finished falling, his posture remaining relaxed even as the pressure grew heavier and the Demon God began pulling its enlarged body out of the wreckage.
The Demon God rose slowly at first, one enormous hand driving through stone as it pushed itself upright, but the force behind the movement increased once its feet found solid ground beneath the debris. The damage from the battle remained visible everywhere across its body: one leg carried the consequences of Haotian's repeated attacks, the shoulder and flank bore deep wounds left by the Undying Rainbow Dragon Dao Avatar, and dark blood still marked several places where the titan struggle had broken through its defenses. None of that prevented the Immortal Emperor pressure from returning with it, and shattered stones began trembling around its feet as it straightened above the ruined stronghold.
Its attention went first toward the place where Haotian had fallen, but the enormous eyes did not remain on him for long. The Demon God had already defeated Haotian badly enough that he could barely sit upright, and there was no reason to reassess an opponent whose body had already failed him; what mattered now was the tiny armored figure standing several paces in front of him. Confusion entered the Demon God's expression as it studied Alter, not because of where he had appeared from or what relationship he might have to Haotian, but because the new opponent was absurdly small compared with the force that had struck it only moments before.
Alter looked back without recognition. His gaze moved over the Demon God's enlarged frame, the Abyssal energy circulating through it, and the numerous injuries across its body before his expression settled into the same mocking confidence Haotian knew too well.
The Demon God shifted one foot free of the remaining rubble and turned its full body toward him, allowing the last broken slabs to fall from its shoulders while it gauged the tiny newcomer standing between itself and Haotian. The pressure around its body increased by degrees, testing the battlefield before any physical strike had been thrown, yet Alter remained where he was with his hands hanging loosely at his sides and showed no reaction beyond a slight upward tilt of his chin. The difference in scale between them was so extreme that one of the Demon God's hands could have enclosed Alter completely, but neither Haotian nor the Demon God could dismiss the evidence left across the ruins behind it.
The Demon God did not waste time asking questions. Its enormous body leaned forward as one leg drove into the shattered ground, transferring its weight through the hip and torso while the right arm drew back. Abyssal power gathered through the shoulder and down into the fist, the pressure around the knuckles becoming dense enough to fracture loose stone before the punch had even begun moving, and Alter watched the preparation without shifting his feet.
Haotian saw the fist start forward and understood immediately that the Demon God was not treating the attack as a casual swat. It had already felt Alter's power once, even if it did not understand the source, and the force being gathered into the strike carried enough Immortal Emperor strength to turn the ground around its target into rubble whether the fist connected or not. Alter merely lifted one small hand in front of himself, opened his fingers, and waited for the enormous fist coming toward him.
The Demon God's fist crossed the remaining distance before the pressure preceding it had finished tearing through the ground, its enlarged knuckles descending toward Alter with enough force packed behind them that the rubble around his feet lifted and scattered before contact. Alter did not step aside or lower his center to brace against the impact; he simply kept the small hand he had raised in front of him and let the enormous fist drive straight into his open palm. The collision struck the ruined stronghold like a detonation, splitting the stone beneath Alter in every direction while broken walls farther out collapsed beneath the pressure wave, slabs of masonry lifting from the ground and tumbling through a cloud of dust that expanded across the battlefield until Haotian had to turn his face and raise his healthier arm against the debris.
When the dust thinned enough for him to see again, Alter was standing in the same place. The ground beneath his boots had collapsed several feet lower than before and cracks continued spreading outward through the broken stone, but his small body had not been driven backward with it, nor had the arm holding the Demon God's fist been forced against his chest. His elbow had bent only slightly beneath the impact, the open palm pressed against a section of the Demon God's knuckles that dwarfed his entire hand, while the Demon God leaned into the strike from above and stared down at a result that made no sense beside the difference in their size.
The Demon God pushed harder rather than immediately withdrawing, driving its shoulder forward and forcing more Immortal Emperor strength down through the arm as Abyssal power thickened around the fist. The pressure reached the ground through Alter and deepened the fractures beneath him, pulverizing loose stone around his boots and sending another wave of debris outward, yet the resistance at the end of the Demon God's arm did not change. Alter looked upward along the enormous forearm toward the creature looming over him, his expression shifting from amusement into open disappointment as the Demon God continued pouring strength into an attack that had already failed.
"That's it?"
The Demon God's face tightened, and the weight behind the fist increased sharply enough that the ground dropped again beneath Alter, but the tiny hand remained exactly where it had been. Alter let the pressure build for another moment before his fingers curled against the massive knuckles, and the Demon God's arm stopped advancing altogether as something far greater than its expectation answered from the other side of the contact. The smile returned to Alter's face as he pushed forward with one arm, not explosively but steadily, forcing the fist back toward the Demon God until the enormous shoulder began moving with it.
Haotian could see the Demon God trying to recover its structure before Alter had even finished turning the arm aside. Its other hand came across from the opposite direction, the palm sweeping low enough to catch Alter between both attacks, but Alter released the first fist and stepped beneath the changing angle rather than retreating from the reach. The small body disappeared inside the Demon God's guard while the sweeping hand passed over him, and Alter closed the remaining distance until he stood almost directly beneath the lower edge of the Demon God's ribs.
His first punch carried no visible technique, and the fist travelled only a short distance before striking. The Demon God's torso folded around the impact as a dense shock rolled through the enormous body and burst from the opposite side in a compressed wave that tore dust from the ruins behind it. Its feet shifted several inches despite both legs already being planted to support its weight, but Alter remained close enough that the difference in their size made the strike look almost meaningless until the Demon God twisted away and brought an elbow down toward him.
Alter moved with the rotation instead of against it. He stepped around the descending elbow, placed one hand against the Demon God's forearm to guide the heavier limb past his shoulder, and drove a palm into the side of the abdomen as the torso opened with the missed attack. The Demon God lurched sideways, and Alter followed before its foot could recover the lost position, turning his hips into a short kick against the outside of the knee that broke the leg's alignment without requiring some elaborate technique.
The Demon God dropped several feet before catching itself, but Alter had already stepped onto the lowered thigh and used the collapsing leg as a path upward. Another compact punch landed beneath the ribs, forcing the larger body to recoil, and when one hand snapped down to seize him Alter pushed off the torso and passed over the closing fingers by less than the width of his body. He landed on the forearm instead of dropping back to the ground, forcing the Demon God to change its response again.
The Demon God swung the arm toward the ruins, trying to crush him against the ground, but Alter ran several steps along the limb before impact and crossed the elbow as the arm descended. Stone exploded upward beneath the strike, and Alter used the motion beneath his feet rather than resisting it, moving across the upper arm and reaching the shoulder before the Demon God could reverse direction. When the head turned to follow him, Alter planted a heel against the side of the neck and drove through the contact with enough force to snap the enormous head sideways and pull the upper body with it.
Alter dropped back to the battlefield while the Demon God staggered through the ruins, one foot crushing through a collapsed wall as it fought to regain balance. Haotian watched the exchange through the Eyes of the Universe and found no hidden complexity beneath what Alter was doing; there was no Dao manifestation shaping the strikes and no recognizable named technique carrying the force through them. Alter was simply reading the body in front of him, moving before each failed action could be recovered, and striking wherever the shifting structure made the next blow most useful.
The Demon God found its footing and turned back toward him with much less confusion than before. Whatever it had initially thought about the tiny newcomer had already been discarded, and its next movement came without the broad commitment of the first punch; it shortened the distance with a smaller step, kept both arms closer to the body, and sent one hand forward as a feint before the other came from below to trap Alter between the rising palm and the descending forearm. Alter shifted outside the first line, but the Demon God changed the second attack halfway through and drove its elbow toward the space he entered rather than completing the original capture.
Alter leaned back just enough for the elbow to pass in front of his face, but the Demon God had already brought its knee up beneath the failed strike. Alter placed both feet against the approaching thigh and pushed away before the knee reached him, catching the wrist as he passed and using the arm to redirect himself around the outside of the larger body. His small hands could not close around more than a fraction of the wrist, yet the contact held long enough for him to swing beneath the arm, plant both feet against the Demon God's side, and drive forward with a double kick that knocked the enormous torso away from him.
The Demon God answered with a backhand as Alter dropped, and the edge of the hand passed close enough to rip the air above his head before smashing into the ground beyond him and carving a trench through the ruined stone. Alter landed inside the arm again, struck the inside of the elbow, then the upper arm, and shifted toward the same rib line he had already tested. Before the third blow could land cleanly, the Demon God changed its balance and drove its hip into him with enough force to break the sequence.
For the first time since the exchange began, Alter was pushed away. His small body crossed several dozen feet through the air, but he turned before reaching the ground and landed on one foot against the side of a broken wall. The stone fractured beneath him, and Alter pushed away immediately, returning before the Demon God could convert the displacement into breathing room.
The Demon God met him with both hands. Alter passed between them as one palm closed behind him and the other swept across his path, dropping beneath the crossing arms and landing on the wrist just as the hands collided. The impact shook the limb beneath his feet, but he used that movement to carry himself upward, leaving the arm when the Demon God jerked it back and rotating through the air before driving his heel against the side of its head.
The blow snapped the Demon God's face aside again and forced one foot through the broken ground. Alter landed near the shoulder, struck the side of the neck with an open palm, then pushed away before the Demon God could catch him, descending to the rubble while the larger opponent turned with enough force to send loose fragments spinning around its feet.
"You're slow."
The Demon God did not answer. It stopped trying to follow Alter with another immediate strike and widened its stance instead, allowing the tiny opponent to remain beyond its reach while Abyssal energy spread through the surrounding battlefield rather than gathering into another fist. The change reached Alter before the full technique appeared, and he watched the pressure thicken around the ruins while rolling one wrist as though the previous exchange had done little more than warm the joints.
When the Demon God continued shaping the space instead of attacking him directly, Alter's mouth curved again. "You finally gave up trying to hit me?"
The Demon God's expression hardened, but it did not take the bait. Abyssal pressure gathered from several directions at once, layering through the air around Alter until the surrounding space began to close upon itself. The ground beneath him darkened as the first structures connected, additional layers forming above and around the enclosed region until every path outward intersected another section of the prison.
Haotian's Eyes of the Universe followed the technique as it formed and immediately understood why the Demon God had changed approaches. Alter's size had made direct attacks difficult, while his movement kept carrying him into angles the larger body could not comfortably defend; sealing the space itself removed both advantages without forcing the Demon God to chase him. The structure continued condensing until Abyssal Dao pressed inward from every direction, isolating Alter within an enclosed region whose layers reinforced one another as quickly as they formed.
The Demon God straightened above the completed prison and looked down at the tiny figure trapped inside it. "Let's see you escape this."
Alter turned his head slowly, taking in the compressed walls of Dao around him before looking back up through the darkened structure. He showed no concern over the pressure closing from every side, and the grin returning to his face carried more ridicule than caution.
"You went through all that trouble for this?"
The Dao Prison continued tightening around Alter after his mocking question, its layered Abyssal structures pressing against one another until the space inside them felt increasingly disconnected from the ruined stronghold beyond. Haotian could see through the Eyes of the Universe that the Demon God had built the technique specifically to deny the kind of movement Alter had been using, with each section of the prison reinforcing the others whenever pressure shifted toward one direction. Alter spent only a moment looking over those connections before lifting one hand and sweeping it sideways through the air, his palm cutting across nothing visible while the first distortion passed through the nearest layer and continued directly into the structures behind it. The prison resisted for less than a breath before the relationships holding it together began separating along the same line, and the pressure the Demon God had packed into the formation tore the damaged layers farther apart until the entire enclosure ruptured around Alter.
Abyssal force rolled outward through the opening and carried broken pieces of the technique with it, but the Demon God had already started forward before the prison finished collapsing. It drove through its own dissipating Dao with one arm close to the body and the other coming down toward Alter, avoiding the broad overextension that had allowed the smaller fighter to enter so easily during their first exchanges. Alter stepped toward the attack rather than away from it, letting the descending arm pass behind his shoulder while he moved so close beneath the Demon God's torso that the difference in their height forced the larger body to bend if it wanted to keep him within sight. The Demon God immediately tried to withdraw its weight from that position, but Alter had already settled beneath its center and turned through his hips.
His fist travelled only the short distance required for an ordinary uppercut, rising from below the chest until the small knuckles struck directly beneath the Demon God's chin. The head snapped upward first, but Alter did not remain beneath it waiting for the rest of the body to respond; his other hand had already found the inside of the Demon God's forearm, and he used the arm's backward movement to keep the larger torso from turning away while the force of the punch continued through the neck and shoulders. The Demon God's planted feet tore loose from the fractured ground as its balance shifted behind them, and the enormous body lifted several feet before the legs could recover enough weight to stop the movement. Alter stayed beneath the changing structure, moving with the Demon God instead of separating from it, and drove a palm into the lower ribs as the body began tipping backward.
That second contact changed the fall more than it added raw force. The Demon God twisted one shoulder in an attempt to land through the side rather than flat across its back, but Alter had already stepped across the descending arm and struck the inside of the elbow when it reached for the ground, folding the support before it could carry the creature's weight. The enormous body came down through the remains of several collapsed structures, shoulder and hip striking first before the rest of the torso followed and drove the surrounding rubble outward beneath its mass. Alter landed beside the upper body while the Demon God was still using the impact to roll, and instead of allowing it to complete the turn he kicked the wrist of the supporting arm inward and forced the elbow beneath the chest.
The Demon God responded with the opposite hand, dragging it through the crater toward Alter while it tried to push itself upright with the trapped arm. Alter moved only far enough to let the fingers pass him, then stepped onto the back of the hand as it crossed the ground and followed the limb toward the shoulder while the Demon God continued rising. Its movement carried him upward without requiring him to jump, and when the Demon God twisted its torso to shake him loose, Alter shifted his weight across the shoulder and drove his heel into the side of the neck at the same moment the larger body committed to the rotation. The head was forced in the direction the torso was already turning, taking the upper body farther than the Demon God intended and making the arm supporting its weight buckle beneath the sudden imbalance.
Alter did not give it enough room to reset. He crossed the shoulder as the Demon God dropped, stepped onto the side of the jaw when the head came beneath him, and used the movement of the neck itself to remain above the face while the larger creature tried to wrench him away. The Demon God's hand came back toward its own head, but Alter changed position with each movement rather than abandoning the contact, walking from the jaw toward the cheek as the fingers swept through the space he had just left. By the time the hand reached the other side, Alter was already standing above the eye while the Demon God was forced to divide its attention between rising from the crater and keeping track of a target small enough to disappear against its own face.
The Demon God shoved against the ground with both arms, forcing its torso upward through the broken stone despite the disrupted position of its shoulders. Alter let the movement lift him with it until the neck straightened, then struck downward with the heel of one foot near the temple, using the Demon God's own attempt to rise against the force descending through its head. The enormous body stopped halfway up, its arms still braced beneath it while the face was driven back toward the crater, and Alter followed the collapse instead of springing away. He placed the same foot against the side of the face and simply kept the pressure there as the Demon God's head struck the fractured ground again.
The Demon God tried to rise once more, this time shifting its weight through the arms before bringing the neck upward, but Alter adjusted his footing with the change and pressed down as the larger body transferred force toward the head. Haotian watched the muscles along the Demon God's shoulders and back tighten while its hands dug deeper into the ruins, yet the small boot planted against its face continued preventing the final movement needed to lift the head. The sight was absurd only until the stone beneath the Demon God began cracking under the pressure between the strength driving upward through its body and the strength Alter was returning through a single leg. Alter looked down at the exposed eye beneath him, his expression carrying none of the effort visible throughout the Demon God's frame.
"You're the one who beat Haotian this badly?" he asked, keeping his foot where it was while the Demon God's jaw tightened beneath the pressure. The creature attempted to turn its head and create enough room to slip the face sideways, but Alter shifted closer to the temple and forced it back into the stone before the movement could finish. He glanced toward Haotian only briefly, taking in the bloodied robes and ruined posture against the distant wall before returning his attention to the struggling Immortal Emperor beneath him. "You should be embarrassed."
Haotian's brow lifted slightly at that, but Alter continued before he could misunderstand who the insult was meant for. "He's weaker than you, half-dead, and you still ended up looking like this." The Demon God's eye narrowed as its arms drove harder into the crater, and Alter's small body rose only a fraction before the pressure beneath his foot increased again and forced the head back down. "Pathetic."
The Demon God stopped trying to overcome him through the neck and shoulders. Haotian saw the change before Alter moved from its face. Abyssal energy that had been gathering through the arms withdrew from the attempt to rise and spread instead through the Demon God's torso, legs, and damaged channels, filling the entire enlarged body rather than concentrating into another physical action. Alter remained where he was while the pressure accumulated beneath his foot, apparently willing to see what the Demon God intended, but the ruins around the crater began trembling before the release came and loose fragments lifted from the ground as the power pushed outward against everything nearby.
The Demon God released it all at once.
Abyssal force expanded from the entire body and tore through the crater in every direction, breaking apart what remained of the walls around it and throwing stone outward as the pressure transformed the immediate battlefield into a storm of debris. Alter finally stepped away from the face as the eruption reached him, allowing the expanding force to carry his small body outward rather than trying to remain planted against an attack that had no single direction to redirect. He turned within the blast, let the pressure move him beyond the strongest portion of the release, and came down several dozen feet away with both feet beneath him while the Demon God used the separation to force itself upright.
Its rise was no longer interrupted by Alter working through its limbs, but the effort still carried the damage accumulated from the previous battle and the punishment it had taken since Alter appeared. One leg straightened more slowly than the other, the shoulder Haotian had damaged during the Avatar battle remained visibly compromised, and dark blood had started running again from several wounds reopened by the recent impacts. None of that reduced the pressure spreading from it now, however, because the Demon God had abandoned any attempt to treat the tiny opponent as something that could be overwhelmed through casual physical superiority.
Alter slid only a short distance after landing and stopped among the rubble while dust from the eruption moved past him. His armor carried a thin layer of gray across one shoulder and the side of his face, and he brushed the debris away with one hand while watching the Demon God gather itself above the crater. The larger creature's attention remained fixed on him now, no longer shifting toward Haotian or the place where the Dao Palace of Creation had closed, and Alter seemed entirely satisfied with that change.
"You finally got me off your face."