The obsidian mountain range groaned under the weight of an escalating cosmic war.
Where Lord Ghost Demon had crashed, the jagged black stone had liquefied into boiling pools of violet slag. Deep within the smoking chasm, the demon monarch rose to his feet. His severed shoulder and torn torso hissed with dark regenerative miasma, but his crimson eyes burned with a vicious, predatory hatred that warped the gravity around him.
"You dare draw the blood of a monarch, boy?" Lord Ghost Demon's voice was a low, seismic rumble that shook the foundations of the plane.
SHING—!
Before the sound could finish traveling, Rehan arrived.
The Twin Death Swords cleaved downward in an overwhelming 'V' formation. Golden sovereign light blended seamlessly with emerald necrotic fire, threatening to bisect the demon and the entire mountain ridge beneath him.
BOOOOOOOM!
Lord Ghost Demon raised both shadow arms, catching the twin blades between dense, diamond-hard void gauntlets. The shockwave blew the surrounding peaks into powder, sending boulders tumbling into the abyss below.
"You rely too heavily on the borrowed authority of a dead god!" Lord Ghost Demon roared.
"Nether Sovereign Art: Abyssal Gravity Crush!"
The space directly above Rehan intensified by a thousand atmospheres.
The invisible gravitational hammer slammed into Rehan's shoulders, driving his boots deep into the volcanic stone. The pressure cracked Rehan's spiritual armor, forcing a sharp breath of air from his lungs. Taking advantage of the momentary suppression, Lord Ghost Demon thrust a knee into Rehan's midsection, followed by a sweeping backhand cloaked in violet lightning.
CRACK!
The impact sent Rehan skidding across the burning ridge, leaving deep gouges in the obsidian ground as blood trickled from his lip.
Before Lord Ghost Demon could pursue, a brilliant, warm luminescence flooded the dark sky.
"Sacred Radiant Art: Pillar of the Morning Star!"
A colossal pillar of pure, blinding golden-white celestial light descended from the heavens, slamming directly onto Lord Ghost Demon's crown. The sacred magic hissed aggressively against the demon's shadow mantle, forcing the monarch to slide backward as smoke poured from his blackened skin.
Hovering down onto the ridge with glowing ivory glyphs encircling her wrists was Ishita.
Her eyes were red from weeping for Zahir, but the hesitation and fear in her expression had vanished completely. In their place was an ironclad resolve.
"Ishita! Get back!" Rehan called out, wiping the blood from his chin as he pushed himself up. "He isn't an opponent you can face head-on!"
Ishita landed beside Rehan, her hands glowing with soothing, restorative energy that immediately washed over his bruised ribs and meridians.
"Zahir gave his life so we could stand here, Rehan," Ishita said, her voice steady despite the tremor in her hands. "I am not going to hide behind your back while you bleed alone. If we fall today... we fall fighting side by side."
Rehan looked at her determined gaze and nodded silently. He adjusted his grip on the Twin Death Swords, his sovereign aura flaring alongside her sacred golden light.
Across the crater, Lord Ghost Demon tore through the celestial smoke, his lips curling into a cruel, sadistic sneer.
"A broken vanguard, a dying healer, and a sovereign boy playing with corpse-blades," the demon lord chuckled darkly, the seven dormant sin seals on his chest pulsing with an ominous red light. "Come... let me bury you both in the same grave."