435: Fight to the bitter end

The enormous explosion continued for several breaths before slowly fading away.

The center of the energy storm gradually became visible.

That solidified “Dead Silence: Void Scar” ultimately… dissipated!

It failed to completely eradicate the Calamity Ash power contained within Su Han’s desperate strike.

The cost was tragic!

Su Han’s massive Calamity Ash Crystal Claw bore the brunt of the impact.

On its surface, several terrifying, bone-deep, enormous cracks were clearly visible! Countless tiny, dark crystal shards fell like shattered glass.

Even more terrifying, the Law of Dead Silence contained in that “Void Scar” seemed to linger within the cracks, corroding the crystal’s structure like a potent poison, making it difficult to heal!

The immense recoil force transmitted through the crystal arm slammed violently into Su Han’s chest!

Crack!

The clear sound of bones cracking was drowned out by the roaring wind and thunder.

“Pfft—!!!”

Su Han’s body was struck head-on by a battering ram, flying backward like a meteor violently hurled through space!

A mist of blood once again enveloped his tattered form. His Calamity Ash Crystal Armor reached its limit, shattering and peeling off in many places, revealing the skin beneath, which was also covered in charred cracks, bloodied, and even partially crystallized in some areas.

He was like a porcelain doll forcibly glued together, on the verge of complete disintegration at any moment!

However, in his backward trajectory, amidst the swirling energy currents, a point of dark red crystal light, black as ink yet as blazing as a star, burned fiercely like an unyielding Soul lighthouse!

That was the core of his Calamity Ash Battle Arm—Calamity Heart!

Even with cracks covering it, this battle arm core, which condensed all his power, stubbornly emitted an extremely dangerous Aura of destruction!

The twisted runes flowing across it dimmed slightly but did not extinguish!

Su Han slammed hard onto the pockmarked ground on the other side, tumbling dozens of times before barely coming to a stop, plowing a long trail of blood and crystal shards along the way.

He gasped violently, each breath like inhaling a scorching blade, bringing forth more bloody foam mixed with fragments of his internal organs.

Every cell in his body was wailing, burning, struggling on the verge of collapse. The edges of his vision began to blur, darkness like a tide threatening to swallow his consciousness.

But he could not fall! To fall was annihilation!

He bit down hard on his tongue, the sharp pain mixed with the metallic sweetness of blood instantly surging into his brain, forcibly dispelling the overwhelming dizziness.

His blurred vision refocused, and his bloodshot pupils burned with almost solidified flames, locking onto the Silver-haired Man slowly descending before him.

That Incarnation of annihilation remained spotless. His pale light sword pointed diagonally at the ground, its tip slightly lowered, as if the previous strike was merely brushing away non-existent dust from his sleeve.

His indifferent gaze, like an invisible Divine Spear, pierced through the lingering energy storm and rolling smoke, landing on Su Han’s body, which flickered like a candle in the wind.

“Futile resistance.”

The Silver-haired Man’s cold voice was utterly devoid of emotion, “If even ‘Void Scar’ cannot be broken, by what right do you wield that wisp of lingering flame that should not exist?”

His gaze finally settled on Su Han’s damaged but still burning dark red Calamity Ash right arm, looking at the Calamity Ash Crystal Claw covered in deep cracks, its runes still flickering.

“Merely with this struggling Calamity Heart?”

The coldness in his tone seemed to want to freeze that pulsating core of Calamity Flame as well.

“What a pity. It will ultimately… return to dead ash under true annihilation.”

The Silver-haired Man’s figure slowly floated upward, his Aura climbing, becoming more ethereal, and more… deadly.

The shattered, diffused spatial fragments around him seemed to sense a terrifying will, beginning to orbit and twist around him like satellites.

A chill that caused all things to wither and time to freeze began to silently engulf this ravaged battlefield, centered on him.

A new round of judgment was already brewing!

All of Su Han’s muscles tensed like iron bands under the immense pressure; he could feel the biting cold penetrating his Calamity Ash Crystal Armor, attempting to freeze the Calamity Flame burning with his last vestiges of life within him.

Blood flowed heavily like cold lead in his veins, each heartbeat like a heavy hammer striking his already cracked ribcage.

Broken bones rubbed against each other, emitting a grating sound, and intense pain, like a tsunami, repeatedly battered the dam of his will.

The Calamity Ash Crystal Arm, which had just been barely driven by his furious will, now felt like a frozen river of magma.

It was incredibly heavy; every slight movement pulled at severed nerve endings and burned-out Meridians, bringing Soul-tearing agony.

The light of the runes pulsating on the Calamity Heart flickered violently like a candle in the wind under the suppression of the opponent’s cold will, its fiery glow slowly being eroded and cooled by an invisible, gray hue representing “the end.”

“…Ugh…”

A muffled groan, suppressed to the extreme, squeezed out from between Su Han’s clenched teeth, blood uncontrollably trickling from the corner of his mouth.

The five fingers of his left hand, which supported him on the ground, dug deep into the scorching, charred earth, his finger bones protruding from the excessive force, his fingernails peeling back, bringing forth dark red mud. (End of Chapter)