NOVEL WEB Chapter 628: Buying Time
"Emperor's Domination!" Max roared, his voice thunderous, filled with wrath and will. And as if answering the command of a king, a massive black flaming sword tore through the air from nothingness—an embodiment of imperial fury. The moment it appeared, it cleaved straight down onto the demonic being.
Bang!
The impact was deafening, shaking the ocean below and the skies above. The demon's body was sent hurtling downward once more, crashing into the sea like a meteor. Water exploded upward in a geyser, reaching the heavens, while waves surged outward in every direction.
Max exhaled slowly, just a moment of precious relief washing over him—but it wasn't comfort. It was calculated space. 'Alright… I've got one more chance to end this. I need time. Just a few more seconds. I have to keep it occupied until then.'
But the moment his thoughts ended, a tremor in the air warned him—too late. The demon surged out from the ocean again, its form now even darker, more chaotic. Its speed had increased again—like a blur of shadowy death streaking through the sky.
Max didn't wait.
Teleport.
In an instant, he vanished and reappeared far away from the creature's path, just out of reach.
And then—
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Hundreds of weapons forged from black imperial flames erupted into existence above the demon. Swords, spears, halberds, glaives—each radiating a suffocating presence, as if carrying the weight of divine decrees. They rained down like a storm of vengeance.
One after another.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
The demonic being didn't dodge—it couldn't. Every single flaming weapon struck it dead-on, hammering it back, over and over, shoving it deeper into the sea again. Yet Max didn't stop. The weapons kept forming, flaming and crashing like the rage of an emperor scorned. But even as the relentless barrage continued, Max knew—this wouldn't kill it. It was only a temporary suppression.
'It's actually getting injured.' Max's eyes locked onto the demonic being's frame as curls of thick, black smoke began to rise from its body—right where the black flaming weapons had struck. The sight gave him hope, a flicker of light in an otherwise bleak battle. 'Good,' he thought. 'So it can bleed.'
Without wasting a second, he began preparing his final attack. Purple lightning crackled to life across his body like a storm given flesh. Behind him, three rings of crackling violet lightning rotated at blinding speed, buzzing with a sharp, divine edge. They spun faster with each passing second, gathering power, resonating with the raw fury of the storm within him.
But even as Max focused, the demonic being was changing. Again.
It began dodging. Not wildly—but intelligently. At first, it avoided a few weapons. Then a few more. And then, almost all of them. It bent at impossible angles, shifted its trajectory in midair, even timed the gaps between flaming swords with disturbing precision. Max was using his Three Dimensional Body to aim each weapon with surgical accuracy, but the creature—it was evolving even past that.
Max's gaze sharpened into a deadly slit. 'No… it's adapting faster than I can analyze. If this keeps going, I won't even have the time to charge the three rings completely.'
Then, an idea struck.
'What if there's an attack you can't dodge at all?'
His lips moved before the thought could fade. "Emperor's Judgment."
The skies responded at once. The rain of black flaming weapons vanished in a heartbeat, sucked away like they never existed. The enormous flaming crown hovering above shuddered, trembling as if birthing a calamity. And then it came—an earth-splitting roar of divine power.
A colossal flaming sword, easily the size of the flaming crown itself, materialized in the heavens. Its blade screamed with vengeance, like an emperor personally handing down divine punishment. It dropped with terrifying weight, smashing the demonic being out of the air and sending it crashing down into the ocean like a divine hammer of war.
'That should buy me some time.' Max exhaled, sweat sizzling off his body as the lightning intensified. The three rings of violet lightning behind him pulsed wildly now, trembling with condensed power. All of his energy was flowing into them.
According to the teachings of the Ten Hands of the Lightning God, one needed to fully comprehend the concept of lightning to 1st level just to control three rings. Reaching the fourth ring required mastery of the third level of lightning concept. And only by touching the fifth level—when lightning becomes not just energy, but will—could one command all five rings.
'But three… three will have to be enough.' Max's body became a storm incarnate. Every beat of his heart sent shockwaves through the air as the rings spun like celestial engines of destruction.
He was nearly ready.
Max adjusted his stance midair, stabilizing himself like a divine warrior preparing to pass judgment. He raised his right hand forward, two fingers bent, but the index held straight in a flicking position. Violet lightning—furious and wild—began crackling around the tip of his finger like a storm contained in a needlepoint. It wasn't just any lightning.
This was the Violet Lightning—one of the Seven Lightnings of Judgment, a force so terrifying it could erase existence itself when fully unleashed.
He had spent what felt like lifetimes inside the Dimension of Time, struggling to tame it. Years had passed in that suspended realm, and though he had yet to master it entirely, Max had finally managed to harness ten percent of its devastating power. That small portion alone was enough to kill gods.
Now, he combined that ten percent with the overwhelming strength of his current state—600 Draconic Essences, the Dragon Scales Transformation that turned his body into a fortress of golden might, and the full support of the Lightning Manifestation Armor that glowed and pulsed around his body like a second skin made of thunder.
With everything stacked, Max believed he could wield this much Violet Lightning without being torn apart.
The sheer power focused at the tip of his index finger hummed with such intensity that even space around it shimmered. Behind him, the three charged lightning rings rotated like halos of divine fury—primed and ready to be unleashed.
Max exhaled slowly. Calm. Focused.
Then he dispersed the Black Flaming Crown in the sky. The gigantic sword it had summoned, still stabbed deep into the ocean, disappeared with it in a burst of embers. It was time to transition from domination... to execution.
Suddenly, as expected, the demonic being shot upward from the ocean, faster than ever. Its form blurred with speed that surpassed the sound barrier, red lines glowing hot across its black body, eyes locked onto Max like a predator sensing weakness.
But Max was ready.
Just as it was about to reach him, he activated another inheritance—Black Reaper's inheritance. A black flaming sphere materialized from nowhere and instantly engulfed the demonic creature, locking it in a prison of deathly fire.
"Explode." Max's voice was low. Cold.
The sphere imploded inward with a deafening blast.
Bang!
The explosion twisted the air and sent ripples across the sky. For a moment, silence followed... then movement. The demonic being emerged from the smoking aftermath, not unscathed—but heavily injured.