Rise of the Lustful Evil Monarch (Re)

Third Person's POV

It was the gulf between the realms of the divine ascension path.

His mana was overwhelmingly pure, fierce, and mutated as it was, but it still trembled before the overwhelming purity and weight of power from a being two realms his superior.

Suddenly, the cloud churned violently, and pressure and dread twisted in the air as the demon knight pierced through the mist, finally.

Sensing his entry, Ethan's lips curled into a vicious grin as he had been waiting for this exact moment.

He hadn't just been running, but he was baiting, circling, and luring the other prey hidden inside this deep poison cloud.

Now, as the poison raged and the charging aura barreled toward him like an incoming warhead, Ethan's eyes blazed.

He bolted toward the very center of the cloud and dragged his would-be hunter straight into the trap.

But then a sudden but sharp danger hit his senses like a blade against his spine.

Following and trusting his instincts, Ethan threw his body backward mid-flight and arched his upper body like a bowstring as something massive roared past him.

A colossal black snake tail that had been hidden within the purplish black poison clouds missed him by mere inches, but it didn't miss the Dark Lightning blade that was pursuing his aura signature doggedly.

In a flash of divine irony, the blade collided with the tangible flesh of the beast.

What followed was heart-wrenching and blood-curdling, though not for Ethan but the poor snake.

The blade erupted with deafening force, and arcs of sizzling dark lightning bolts tore through the snake's tail with primal fury.

The snake's flesh sizzled and blackened, its bone cracked with wet snaps, and its purplish black blood burned while the serpent's hiss of agony shattered the stillness.

It writhed violently and thrashed through the sky, and the cloud itself dispersed in panic as it was ripped apart by the flailing beast.

Ethan's grin widened at such an unexpected surprise.

With a powerful beat of his wings, he surged forward and rode the trail of carnage like a predator chasing wounded prey.

In the corner of his awareness, his soul sense flared, and of course, the demon knight pursued him, but he assumed that the fool most likely believed that it was he who had been struck down.

But it would soon turn out to be a fatal assumption.

He had read the knight perfectly.

He was a melee-born and a war-forged berserker of blade and fury, but not a mage of the arcane who was an expert in longrange lethal spell attacks.

That lightning blade? Yes, it was powerful but it required too much energy and was crude in its application and usage of magic power.

To state it simply, it was capable of raw violence and brutal destruction, but still lacked lethal precision.

It lacked the finesse and the elemental complexity that was a true caster's killing stroke.

And that gave Ethan his opening.

He poured his energy into his wings.

They gleamed and looked almost feathered now.

Flapping them, he blurred with speed and swirling with concentrated vortices of air and mana following in his wake.

Wind screamed around him as he cut through the open sky, and his eyes locked on his prey.

He finally spotted the huge head of the snake. Seeing his goal, he flapped his wings even faster as the moment of truth had arrived.

In a sweeping arc, Ethan twisted his path and spiraled like a diving falcon along the snake's long body.

In the way, a black ice pike formed in his hand with its edges razor-sharp and its body crackling with frost and malice.

With every shred of strength and momentum his body carried, he hurled it like a god's spear.

It tore through the air and shrieked toward the leathery wing of the wounded serpent.

Then, a satisfying and wet crunch was heard.

The pike rammed into the beast's flesh and exploded through sinew and bone with violent force.

Shattered scales and splashes of purplish-black blood exploded into the air like grotesque fireworks as the ice pike burrowed deeper into the snake's wing.

The beast shrieked in pain with a keening and earsplitting hiss that cracked through the skies.

Its massive body convulsed and started losing rhythm, balance, and coordination mid-flight as one of its wings was almost shredded.

Ethan's eyes flickered with a razorn sharp focus as he scanned the snake's head.

And he spotted them, the Demon Prince Aram and the group of demons clustered near the serpent's spine.

His gaze met theirs, and for a heartbeat, the world stilled.

Their reaction was instant, and they responded with a fearful expression that gripped them.

With his face partially charred, lips split and oozing blood, and one eye swollen shut, he looked like a devil risen from hell.

And the savage grin splitting his burned face froze the lackey demons in place.

Their instincts screamed to flee.

Only Aram and Declan held their ground, with their expressions remaining unreadable,e but Declan's fists clenched involuntarily.

A tremor of doubt flickered in Declan's heart, and he almost turned and ran.

But then, he felt hope as he spotted the Sky Realm demon knight closing in.

The knight's aura was a tidal wave of oppressive might that barrelled toward Ethan like a death sentence.

Declan's courage surged back, and bolstered by the approaching behemoth behind his enemy, his crimson eyes started gleaming with bloodlust.

Roaring like a mad beast, he hoisted his massive red axe and slammed it into the air while letting out a guttural bellow that shook the snake's trembling body.

His weapon shimmered and started heating up and glowing with a red-hot flaming light.

Flames licked its edges, and the very air distorted and warped with the searing heat it radiated.

With a war cry that cracked like thunder, he leapt off the black snake's head, and his boots slammed into open air before he dived down towards Ethan.