The Demon God did not rush forward after forcing Alter away. Abyssal power continued thickening through the ruined stronghold while it settled its weight over both legs, drawing the surrounding pressure closer to its body until the loose rubble around the crater began grinding itself into smaller fragments. Alter remained several dozen feet away and watched the change without reaching for a weapon or gathering any obvious technique of his own, his small hands hanging loosely beside him while the Demon God adjusted its posture around the injuries already covering its shoulder, leg, ribs, and flank.
Haotian could see through the Eyes of the Universe that the Demon God was no longer trying to solve Alter's size by attacking faster. The Abyssal pressure spreading through the battlefield contracted around the space between them instead, making every movement through that region heavier while the Demon God reinforced its own limbs and shortened the paths available around its body. Alter had spent the previous exchanges moving through gaps created by the larger opponent's reach, but the Demon God was now making those gaps increasingly expensive to enter rather than trying to remove them entirely.
Alter shifted one foot across the rubble and felt the resistance change around his ankle. His gaze moved over the Demon God once, then across the darkened ground where the surrounding Dao had begun settling into every fracture. "So you can learn," he said, sounding more annoyed that it had taken this long than impressed by the adjustment.
The Demon God moved before the surrounding pressure finished stabilizing. Its first step drove the compressed ground deeper beneath its foot, but the fist that followed did not extend far enough for Alter to slip beneath the shoulder as easily as before; the arm stopped short and redirected downward halfway through, forcing Alter to change his approach while the other hand closed the space he would normally have used to pass along the ribs. Alter stepped outside the first strike, found the surrounding Dao resisting the acceleration, and allowed the second hand to come closer before placing his palm against the wrist and turning with it.
The force behind the Demon God carried both of them several feet through the broken ground, but Alter did not attempt to halt the limb directly. He kept one hand against the wrist, moved alongside the arm as it passed, and changed its direction a little at a time until the Demon God had to rotate the shoulder farther than intended to keep the attack from crossing its own center. The larger body compensated immediately through the hips, but that movement exposed the outside of the knee for only a moment, and Alter's heel struck the joint while the weight was still transferring onto it.
The Demon God absorbed the kick without collapsing this time. Abyssal reinforcement hardened through the leg before the joint could shift as far as it had during the earlier exchanges, and the creature used the contact itself to locate Alter, sweeping its elbow backward while simultaneously dragging the arm he was touching toward its torso. Alter released the wrist before he could be trapped between the two limbs, but the surrounding pressure slowed his departure enough for the elbow to pass close enough that its displaced air struck him across the side and sent his small body skidding through the rubble.
Alter remained on his feet. His boots carved two shallow lines through the broken stone before he stopped, and he looked down at the dust dragged across one side of his armor before lifting his eyes toward the Demon God. The larger creature had already turned to face him, keeping both arms close while the Abyssal pressure around its body continued narrowing the room Alter had used so freely before.
"That was almost respectable."
The Demon God came forward again without responding, and this time the physical attack arrived behind the pressure rather than ahead of it. Abyssal Dao compressed around Alter's left side as the Demon God approached from the right, forcing him toward the path of an incoming palm while the larger body kept its injured shoulder protected behind the opposite arm. Alter moved into the narrowing space instead of fighting the pressure directly, allowing the palm to come close enough that the fingers began folding around him before dropping beneath the thumb and planting both hands against the base of the Demon God's palm.
The Demon God tried to close its grip, and Alter pushed against the hand from inside it. For several breaths the larger creature continued tightening its fingers while Alter stood against the enormous palm with both arms extended, the pressure around them crushing broken stone into dust as physical strength and surrounding Dao combined against him. Alter's elbows bent slightly before settling and his boots slid several inches through the rubble, but the fingers still could not close far enough to trap him.
The Demon God brought its other fist toward the open hand.
Alter waited until the strike committed, released one arm, and stepped along the Demon God's palm while the fingers were still trying to close. He used the remaining contact to swing around the outside of the hand before the fist arrived, letting the Demon God strike its own palm hard enough to drive the arm downward. Alter followed the recoil along the wrist rather than leaving it, reaching the forearm as the larger creature tried to pull both limbs apart.
His foot struck the inside of the elbow first, preventing the arm from fully straightening, while the hand he kept against the wrist guided the recoil across the Demon God's body. The movement was small compared with the creature's size, but its own strength supplied most of what Alter needed; the shoulder turned, the torso followed to protect the joint, and the Demon God's center shifted toward the injured leg as it tried to recover both arms at once.
Alter dropped from the forearm and struck the side of that leg before the weight finished settling. The knee bent, and the Demon God immediately drove the opposite foot into the ground to stop the collapse, but Alter was already beneath the turning torso, where he placed one hand against the lower abdomen and the other against the inside of the descending arm. Rather than attacking either point separately, he pushed through both at once while the Demon God's weight was divided between them, forcing the upper body backward as the weakened leg continued folding underneath.
The Demon God caught itself before reaching the ground and released another burst of Abyssal pressure through the torso, but Alter remained inside the body's reach where the expanding force had less distance to build. His small frame shifted backward several feet, then moved forward again before the Demon God could straighten, a palm striking the ribs while the creature's arms were still spreading from the release. The first blow turned the torso, a second landed lower along the abdomen, and Alter stepped through the rotation to drive his shoulder and both hands into the side of the body just as the Demon God tried to restore its stance.
The enormous creature stumbled, but Alter continued with it. Each time the Demon God tried to place a foot, Alter struck the leg carrying the next transfer of weight rather than attacking the same point repeatedly. A heel turned one ankle before it settled, a palm against the thigh shifted the hip behind it, and a short punch beneath the ribs forced the torso to compensate in the opposite direction. The Demon God remained strong enough to resist every individual strike, but Alter never asked a single blow to overcome the entire body; he kept changing where the body needed to recover until its own attempts to stabilize carried it farther across the ruined ground.
The Demon God finally abandoned the effort to regain a perfect stance and drove both feet down at once. Abyssal power surged through the legs and locked the lower body against the battlefield, stopping the forced retreat while both arms came inward around Alter from opposite sides. The surrounding pressure tightened with them, removing the open routes beneath the elbows and around the wrists until Alter found himself inside a narrowing space bordered by the Demon God's forearms and reinforced from outside by the Dao pressing toward the center.
Haotian watched the enclosure contract and saw why the Demon God had chosen it. The larger creature was no longer trying to strike Alter precisely; it was reducing the entire region around its own torso until there would be nowhere for the smaller body to move without meeting either flesh or Dao pressure. Alter looked from one closing arm to the other, then stepped closer instead of retreating as the space around him became too narrow for another lateral escape.
The Demon God's arms continued closing behind him while Alter planted one foot against the lower torso and drove the other a little higher, climbing two steps along the front of the body as the forearms passed beneath him. When the larger creature immediately changed the direction of its hands and reached upward, Alter caught the edge of one wrist, pulled himself higher, and planted both feet against the upper torso before the fingers could reach him. The Demon God twisted hard to throw him away, but Alter used the movement rather than resisting it, crossing the wrist and dropping along the outside of the arm while the larger body turned beneath him.
The Demon God ripped the limb away and sent a wave of Abyssal force after him. Alter crossed his forearms in front of himself and allowed the pressure to drive him backward this time, landing among the rubble rather than contesting the entire release. The moment his feet touched down, however, he lowered one hand to the ground, stopped the remaining slide, and came forward again through the fading edge of the attack while the Demon God was still drawing power back into its body.
Its fist met him halfway.
Alter caught it with both hands this time, but instead of stopping the strike head-on he turned with the incoming arm and pulled. The Demon God had committed much less weight than during its first punch, yet the sudden assistance changed the movement enough that its shoulder came forward farther than intended. Alter stepped around the outside of the wrist, kept pulling as he crossed beneath the forearm, and drove his heel behind the Demon God's forward ankle at the same moment the larger creature tried to stop itself.
The Demon God's balance broke.
For a moment the difference between them made the movement seem impossible, the tiny figure holding only a small portion of an arm while an enormous Immortal Emperor towered above him. The leverage did not depend on Alter carrying that mass himself, however; the Demon God's own forward motion had already moved its center beyond the planted foot, and Alter simply prevented the arm from returning while taking away the step that should have corrected it.
The Demon God went over.
Its shoulder struck first, followed by the side of its torso as the enormous body rolled through the ruins and crushed another section of the stronghold beneath it. Alter released the wrist before being carried into the fall and landed beside the Demon God's upper body, where he immediately stepped inside the arm that tried to push against the ground.
A short kick struck the elbow and folded the support before the Demon God could rise. Alter moved along the collapsing limb toward the shoulder while the larger creature tried to roll away from him, and his fist drove into the side of the jaw as soon as the head turned into range. The strike forced the face back toward the rubble, but the Demon God had already learned from the previous humiliation and released Abyssal power through the neck and shoulders before Alter could climb onto its head again.
The expanding pressure pushed him several feet away, and Alter landed without losing balance while the Demon God rose immediately, refusing to remain on the ground long enough for him to repeat what had happened before. Its breathing had become heavier, dark blood had spread farther across the wounds covering its body, and the surrounding Dao no longer held the same smooth density it possessed when this exchange began, but its eyes remained fixed on Alter with a focus that had replaced every trace of uncertainty.
Alter looked it over and smiled. "You're trying very hard."
The Demon God's hands tightened as Abyssal power gathered through both arms and spread across the ruined battlefield again, but Alter stood exactly where he had landed and rolled his shoulders once beneath the small white-and-gold armor. He had still drawn no weapon, invoked no named martial technique, and revealed none of the deeper systems Haotian knew belonged to him, while the Immortal Emperor across from him had already changed its approach several times simply to keep the tiny figure from climbing onto its body and beating it back into the ground.
The heavier concentration of Abyssal power did not remain around the Demon God's body for long. It spread through the broken ground beneath its feet and into the air above the stronghold, thickening the pressure around Alter until the space between them no longer behaved like an empty battlefield. Haotian could see the Dao moving through those layers with the Eyes of the Universe, not forming another prison this time but filling the available space with enough resistance that every direction Alter might use would demand more force than before. The Demon God had stopped trying to predict where the smaller opponent would move and had begun making the entire battlefield hostile to movement instead.
Alter tested the pressure by shifting one foot, felt the resistance gather around the change, and smiled rather than withdrawing. "You really don't want me getting close again." His tone carried more amusement than concern, and the Demon God answered by driving forward behind the pressure it had already established, keeping both arms near the body while the surrounding Dao narrowed Alter's options before the first strike arrived.
The first fist came from above while Abyssal pressure pushed Alter toward the ground, and the second arm remained close enough to intercept the route he had repeatedly used beneath the shoulder. Alter allowed the downward force to settle over him for only a moment before stepping diagonally instead of directly away, turning his body through the heavier space and placing one palm against the descending wrist as it entered reach. He could not remove the surrounding Dao by redirecting the arm, but he did not need to; he used the fist's own descent to pull himself through the resistance faster than the Demon God expected, slipping beside the forearm while the strike crushed the ground where he had been standing.
The Demon God had anticipated that possibility and drove its knee upward as Alter crossed the arm, forcing him to abandon the direct path toward the torso. Alter placed one foot against the rising leg and let the knee carry him upward, shifting his weight across the enormous limb rather than fighting the motion before pushing off toward the outside of the Demon God's body. One hand followed him immediately, fingers closing around the space he entered, but Alter caught the edge of the thumb with both hands and used the closing grip as another point of movement, swinging around the hand before the fingers could trap him.
He landed against the wrist, ran only far enough to reach the forearm, and drove a heel into the tendon line beneath the elbow as the Demon God tried to retract the limb. The arm did not fail, but the movement shortened enough for Alter to drop inside its reach and strike the ribs with a compact palm before the larger creature could bring the other hand across. The Demon God absorbed the blow by rotating with it, and Alter found the torso already moving away when he followed with a second strike, forcing him to change from attacking the body to striking the hip that had begun carrying the turn.
The heel against the hip disturbed the rotation without stopping it, and the Demon God converted the imbalance into a sweep of its lower leg rather than attempting to restore the original stance. Alter dropped beneath the first portion of the movement, but the surrounding Dao prevented him from clearing the entire path before the enormous shin crossed his position. He placed both hands against the leg, allowing the contact to carry him along the sweep rather than meeting its full force directly, and the pressure behind the movement launched him across the battlefield despite the redirection.
Alter turned within the displacement and landed on the side of a fractured pillar before the Demon God could follow. The stone cracked around his feet, but instead of dropping to the ground he pushed directly from the ruined structure and returned through the same heavy Dao that had carried him away. The Demon God had already started toward him and met the approach with a short punch that kept the shoulder protected, forcing Alter to catch the knuckles with both hands rather than slipping immediately inside.
The impact carried him backward several feet through the air, yet Alter maintained contact with the fist and used the recoil to turn his body around the outside of the Demon God's wrist. One hand released while the other remained planted against the knuckles, and Alter brought both feet down against the forearm as he rotated, forcing the limb lower while the Demon God's own forward movement continued through the shoulder. The larger creature tried to pull the arm back before Alter could use the opening, but he had already stepped from the forearm to the upper arm and driven a knee into the side of the shoulder.
The Demon God changed its posture immediately, lowering the shoulder and turning the torso so Alter could not remain there long enough to attack the same point again. Alter moved with the turn and dropped toward the chest, but a burst of Abyssal pressure met him before his feet reached the body and pushed him away from the contact. The Demon God followed the release with both hands moving from opposite directions, using the Dao behind Alter to slow his retreat while the palms closed around the narrowing space.
Alter did not try to outrun them. He dropped toward the ground between the closing hands, planted one foot against a rising piece of rubble, and changed direction upward at the last moment. The Demon God's palms passed beneath him and struck one another hard enough to produce another shockwave through the ruins, while Alter came down on the back of one hand and immediately ran toward the wrist before the creature could separate its arms.
The Demon God twisted both hands apart and rotated the forearm beneath him, but Alter adjusted his steps with the movement and remained on the limb until he reached the elbow. One kick struck the joint as the arm straightened, not hard enough to break it but precisely enough to force the Demon God to bend the limb again, and Alter used that return to reach the upper arm before dropping toward the ribs. The larger body turned away before he could settle there, but Alter's fist still reached the side of the torso and drove into it with enough force to make the Demon God's entire frame shift several feet across the ground.
The Demon God answered by spreading its Dao pressure more violently instead of trying to catch him immediately. The force surged from the ground and air together, dragging at Alter's body from several directions while the Demon God stepped forward through the region it controlled more comfortably than he could. Haotian watched Alter's movements shorten beneath that pressure for the first time, not because the smaller fighter had lost control but because every step now required him to overcome something the Demon God did not have to resist.
The Demon God took advantage immediately. It drove one fist downward and another across the escape path, forcing Alter to block the first with both forearms rather than redirect it cleanly. The impact hammered him into the ground, breaking the stone beneath his boots and sinking his small body several inches into the fractured surface before the second arm arrived.
Alter pushed against the first fist and slipped beneath it as the second came across, but the Demon God changed the sweep into a downward elbow before he cleared the shoulder. The altered strike clipped him across the side and drove him through a broken section of wall, stone collapsing around his small body as the force continued beyond the impact. The Demon God did not pause to see whether the attack had worked; it followed through the ruins and brought one foot down over the collapsed structure while Abyssal pressure concentrated beneath the sole.
The ground shook under Haotian.
Broken walls folded into the crater beneath the stomp while dust and shattered stone rolled outward from the point of impact, but the Demon God's leg stopped before it completed the descent. Its posture changed almost immediately, the knee bending slightly as though something beneath the foot had begun pushing upward against the weight.
Alter emerged from under the sole.
Both of his hands were pressed against the underside of the Demon God's foot, his small body almost completely hidden beneath the enormous limb while the surrounding ground continued collapsing under the combined force. The Demon God drove more weight downward, pushing through the hip and locking the supporting leg, but Alter's arms straightened gradually beneath the pressure until the descending foot began rising instead.
Dust rolled away from him as more of his body came into view.
Alter looked upward. "You're heavy."
The Demon God's expression tightened, and the leg pressed down harder.
Alter's grin widened. "Still weak."
He shifted one hand closer to the heel and pushed sideways instead of continuing directly upward. The change caught the Demon God while most of its weight remained committed through the raised leg, forcing the foot away from Alter's position and transferring the body onto the supporting side faster than the creature intended. Alter stepped out from beneath it at the same moment, struck the ankle with his heel, then followed the collapsing leg inward until he reached the knee.
The Demon God tried to recover its stance by bringing the displaced foot down farther away, but Alter's palm struck the inside of the knee before the transfer completed and turned the joint just enough to force another correction. The larger body leaned across the recovering leg, and Alter moved beneath the hip while the Demon God's arms came down to stop him from reaching the torso again. He caught one wrist with both hands, pulled himself past the incoming palm, and drove his shoulder into the side of the thigh as the Demon God tried to step around him.
The contact did not throw the Demon God by itself, but it interrupted the exact moment the planted foot needed to carry the new weight. The knee bent, the hip followed, and Alter immediately changed from pushing the thigh to striking the lower ribs with both palms while the torso descended toward him. The Demon God tried to brace through the opposite arm, but Alter kicked the wrist away before it reached the ground and allowed the creature's own weight to continue the fall.
The Demon God dropped onto one knee.
Alter stood in front of it.
Even kneeling, the enormous creature towered over him, yet the change in height finally brought the lower part of its face within a range Alter no longer needed to climb to reach. The Demon God recognized the danger and brought both hands inward, but Alter stepped between them before they closed, drove a short punch into the abdomen, and used the resulting fold through the torso to bring the head lower.
His next strike landed against the jaw.
The Demon God's head snapped sideways.
Alter turned with it and struck again from the opposite direction before the neck recovered, keeping the larger body caught between the need to protect its face and the need to restore its footing. A palm against the cheek turned the head back, an elbow beneath the jaw stopped the return, and a short kick against the supporting knee prevented the Demon God from standing while the upper body tried to move away.
The Demon God roared and released another burst of Abyssal power through the entire body.
Alter crossed his arms and took the expanding force directly this time.
The blast pushed him away from the kneeling creature and tore another layer of stone from the ground between them, but Alter landed upright several dozen feet away and remained there as the Demon God forced itself back to both feet. Its breathing had become visibly heavier, and the effort of maintaining the surrounding Dao while continually reinforcing its body had begun disturbing the smooth circulation Haotian had observed at the beginning of the exchange.
The Demon God did not reduce the pressure.
Instead, it increased it.
Abyssal energy rose from the stronghold around them and gathered above its shoulders, condensing until the darkness around its body became thick enough to distort the ruins behind it. The pressure extended well beyond Alter now and reached Haotian strongly enough that the stone supporting his back began cracking again, though the Demon God's attention never left the tiny figure who had forced it onto one knee using nothing more elaborate than punches, kicks, redirections, and leverage.
Alter straightened after the blast and dusted one forearm with the opposite hand. He looked at the gathering Abyssal power, then at the Demon God beneath it, and whatever he saw only made his expression more openly mocking. "There it is. You finally decided to stop embarrassing yourself."
The Demon God's voice came low through the growing pressure. "You will die here."
Alter laughed once, short and dismissive, before settling his feet among the fractured stone. "You couldn't crush me with your fist, couldn't hold me with your Dao Prison, couldn't keep me under your foot, and I've already put you on the ground twice." His smile sharpened as the Demon God gathered still more power around itself. "But go ahead. Try again."
The surrounding ruins trembled as the Demon God drew the Abyssal energy closer, and Haotian could see that whatever came next would carry considerably more power than the techniques it had used throughout the chapter. Alter did not summon Starsever, did not form a rune beneath his feet, and did not reach for any of the martial systems Haotian knew could turn the battle into something entirely different. He merely raised his hands into a loose fighting position and waited while the Demon God prepared to bring its Immortal Emperor strength against him.
The difference between the two figures remained almost absurd. One towered over the broken stronghold beneath a gathering mass of Abyssal Dao, its enlarged body carrying enough pressure to grind stone apart without touching it, while the other stood among the rubble small enough that the Demon God's fist could hide him completely. Yet after everything that had happened since Alter appeared, the Demon God was the one gathering more power before daring to approach again.
Alter looked up at it.
"Is that all?"
The Demon God's Abyssal power surged.
Alter's grin remained.
And when the Demon God moved again, Alter was still standing there without a weapon in his hands.