Chapter Fifteen – A Broken Sky and the Birth of the Devil
The scream was like a dagger to the very heart of the heavens, so deafening that even the spirits themselves trembled. And yet… silence reigned after that wave pierced the horizon of the world. There were no more sounds, no wind, no birds, no echo of life, as if the universe itself held its breath, waiting.
Ethan Crown slowly raised his head to the sky. He wasn't looking at his adversary, he wasn't paying attention to the earth or the blood or the abyss that had opened itself beneath everyone's feet… but he was gazing upwards, as if something mysterious, something beyond meaning, had just been revealed to him.
The auras around his body suddenly swelled, like a demonic vortex of glory and ruin, roaring violently and twisting like black dragons, then they exploded mercilessly, shattering the silence and breaking the sky itself! His veins blackened like conduits of poison overflowing within him, then they shrank and vanished into his body, pouring into his eye… his eye that had transformed into an eternal black hole, within whose depths a white star flickered, quickly burning into a blue flame that devoured all who dared to look.
And from that hole sprang wings! Wings belonging neither to man nor demon, but to a being standing between the abyss and the sky, wings that wrapped around him like a veil of sin, yet he remained standing there… serene, unmoved, his eyes alone gazing upwards with a coldness beyond comprehension.
Calphos roared, the face of hell itself, restless and unyielding. Rage filled his chest, and he surged forth with a frenzied fury like a storm, but with a single, indifferent gesture, Ethan propelled him away as if he were smoke in the wind.
Calphos's rage intensified, and his body exploded with thousands of blows, no, millions! Fists, swords, and arrows of energy tore through space itself, all collapsing in utter futility. Ethan didn't turn, didn't move his head, didn't even bother to look!
Madness consumed Calvus's heart, and he cried out from its depths:
"Ruler of the Dark Heavens!"
A dark aura formed, a demonic embodiment larger than any illusion or imagination. Calvus was no longer human, but a walking hell.
But then… Ethan slowly lowered his head, looked at Calvus, and with a single exhalation… thousands of celestial formations formed, countless galaxies, as if the universe had shattered and sprung forth.
Those galaxies surged forth like apocalyptic torrents, obliterating everything, and Calvus was crushed beneath their weight like a worthless insect.
And in a moment of despair… Calvus didn't attack Ethan, but turned on his sister!
Astonishment froze hearts. Everyone thought Ethan had given up. He didn't move, didn't cry out, didn't raise a hand!
But before Calvus could touch his target, an entire dimension sprang up, a sealed nebula, swallowing all energy, every attack, every trace of Calvus's existence.
And then… Ethan changed.
He was no longer the calm one, no longer the silent one. From within the new dimension, a pure demon was born, merciless, unwavering, with no remnants of humanity.
He charged at Calvus not like a warrior, but like an executioner crushing his prey. He sliced him slowly, tore him apart with unimaginable agony, an agony that made even space itself scream. Every second was an eternity of hell, every drop of blood a river of pain.
Fifteen minutes… fifteen minutes of pure hell, and then the dimension closed.
Ethan emerged alone, holding Calvus's essence, polished and refined, swallowing it like one swallows another star to amplify its own darkness.
He turned to his companions with heart-scorching eyes and ordered them in a voice heavy as a law:
"Run… now!"
But despite his stoicism, there was a hint of tension in his voice. He knew.
He slammed his fist against the mountain before him. It shattered, but… it rebuilt itself, as if the universe refused to let it die.
Ethan's heart sank. This wasn't a coincidence. No… that person had appeared.
The person who shouldn't exist.