The manhunter swiftly crossed his wrists above his head. As the sleeves of his robe flowed back, they revealed a set of glowing, iridescent vambraces. Surprisingly, his initially shocked expression showed no trace of panic—only a sharp, focused gaze. The pulsing light instantly spread all over his body, forming a shimmering barrier, just in time for Cade’s attack to arrive.

  Legion crashed into Darkheart’s crossed forearms with a force that would’ve erased any cultivator below True Core. The resulting shockwave shredded the crimson clouds above, tearing them apart and exposing a patch of blue sky. Cade’s robes whipped around him as Darkheart shot downward like a gleaming meteor, the air burning in his wake.

  The manhunter crashed into the ground with a world-ending boom. A wave of force ripped through the desert, hurling millions of pounds of sand and rock into the air and carving a two-hundred-foot crater. Heated stone shards rained in every direction, as the explosion wiped out a nearby oasis.

  Cade’s arms trembled and his chest heaved as he looked down at the vast pit of collapsed desert stretching hundreds of feet below him. Resting Legion on his shoulder, he focused on siphoning qi from two bloodstones at once. Observing Darkheart's life signature, he knew this fight was far from over. The young Asura had been burning through his blood qi at a ridiculous rate, but he still refused to reveal his Blood Wings. Now that he was confident in surviving a brief infusion of ignited red mist with only a small amount of internal damage, they were a trump card that could save his life.

  “Impudent!” A cracking roar erupted from below as a glowing figure shot into the air.

  Despite the huge effort he had put into the blow, he never expected it would kill Darkheart. If a universally feared True Core manhunter was so easy to dispatch, he wouldn’t have reached his level of cultivation in the first place. Still, a satisfied smile stretched his lips.

  The manhunter looked terrible, but his life signature was still fairly stable, meaning internal damage was likely minimal. His black robes were filthy with blood and dirt, and he bled from all facial orifices. The protective iridescent light from his vambraces had dimmed greatly after successfully intercepting most of the force behind the blow. Spitting out bloody phlegm, Darkheart wiped his enraged face with the sleeve of his robe.

  Cade knew that if he could land just one more clean strike, he could likely take him out, but it was easier said than done. He once again ignited his blood qi, pushing it through all two dozen ribbons wrapped around his body, and shot towards his opponent, leaving behind blurry afterimages.

  “No more fucking around!” Darkheart screamed, releasing his pent-up fury. Streams of dark qi flowed out of his body, wrapping themselves around him in a black, swirling mass. Whatever laws they were carrying, the Asura instinctively knew he could not allow them to touch his body.

  Cade wasn’t sure what the manhunter was preparing, but he wasn’t about to let him finish. However, just as he raised Legion once again, a half-foot-thick black chain ending with a vicious, serrated spike burst out of the twisting blackness, clanging as it hurtled towards him with mind-boggling speed.

  The Asura swore, redirecting his high-powered strike towards the chain and slicing through it with ease. Just as the projection turned into a cloud of glowing dust, a dozen more chains shot out towards him from within the growing mass of darkness. Cade pushed more ignited qi into Legion, borrowing its comprehension of spiritual qi to sever their laws.

  The chains struck at him from all angles, and he quickly found himself pushed to his utmost limits. He didn’t even have time to think and was forced to rely on his instincts, his body flickering mid-air, just barely able to keep up despite having nearly all of his blood qi ignited.

  Attacking Darkheart was now out of the question; all he could do was defend from this relentless onslaught. Faint tears began to appear inside his muscles as his body was being pushed past the breaking point. Just a couple of days ago, the same level of effort would have likely killed him.

  Cade’s eyes were closed as he followed his sixth sense with inhuman focus. Beads of bloody sweat gathered on his forehead while Legion flashed around him, slicing at the incoming chains with blitzing speed. The glowing sword in his grip moved so fast it appeared to create a barrier of blazing crimson light around him, fending off spiked chains snapping at him from all directions like furious black pythons.

  Four Faces of War taught one how to turn each block into an effective strike. While he was still a beginner, he did strike back at the chains more often than not. Yet, whenever one of his attacks turned a chain into a cloud of scintillating dust, it was instantly replaced by another.

  I have to get away from these fucking chains!

  His voracious heart was once again beginning to run low. True Core cultivators had vast reservoirs, but they weren’t limitless, and the manhunter had now resorted to using another one of his trump cards—possibly his best one, judging from the art's complexity. It had to be a sign he was starting to run low on qi. His expenditure was doubtlessly many times higher than Cade’s. The fact that he no longer wasted time on taunts was a sure sign Darkheart had finally accepted the gravity of the situation, and taken off the gloves.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Suddenly, the pressure from the chains lessened just a little, enough for Cade to look around.

  He saw the chains retract one after another as the black energy around the manhunter solidified, taking the shape of a towering black heart. It must have been close to 300 feet tall and glowed with a sinister dark light. Dozens of black chains clinked as they coiled tightly around its form, as if straining to contain the unholy power seething inside. The deep shadow cast by the enormous heart buried close to half a mile of desert in darkness.

  The pressure from his sixth sense surged instantly, and Cade's expression turned grim. He could no longer afford to wait for the perfect moment—whatever obscure laws this massive projection was built on, it posed a deadly threat.

  A billowing red mist burst from his body in all directions, forming a dense, bloody cloud. He hoped the terror it inspired would be enough to briefly break the manhunter’s concentration and scatter the enormous projection. Unfortunately, it didn’t, and his disabling pulse was useless at such a distance.

  The black heart didn’t even flicker, and a mad cackle echoed from within.

  “Some kind of mind attack from a second-tier dreg?” Darkheart chortled. “There are indeed many secrets on your body! But while you're unusually strong, your cultivation is pathetic.”

  The Asura ignored him, unfurling his Blood Wings. Two dozen translucent ribbons stretched to their full length of over a hundred feet, forming a set of tattered, undulating wings. At least the mist still worked to conceal him.

  "Red fog? Oh no, somebody save me!" the manhunter cackled. "Have a taste of my Dark Heart, the forbidden cultivation art of the dark elves!" He laughed like a madman, completely unhinged.

  The light around the heart dimmed to nothing, the chains tightening with a series of clinks, and the massive projection contracted, releasing a pulse that echoed like a low, earth-shaking rumble from the depths of the underworld.

  An invisible wave of force smashed into Cade, forcing his blood to run in reverse. A massive amount of energy tore through his flesh, filling every inch with searing pain. If not for his fight with Castien and subsequent recovery, he would have been surely blown into pieces. Glowing blood poured from his eyes and ears as all of his muscles and organs ruptured, causing severe internal bleeding. His voracious heart immediately started releasing rapid pulses of ignited qi, knitting tears and rebuilding damaged tissues.

  But it wasn’t working fast enough. He is right. The difference between us is far too great. I’m not sure if I can take another one of those beats.

  Cade discarded a brief thought about utilizing the unknown reversed diagram. The risk in his current circumstances was far too high, and he gritted his teeth. There was only one way forward.

  Taking a deep, painful breath, he absorbed all the mist around him into his Blood Wings, then ignited it all at once. A sense of immense power filled every part of his body. The freshly healed ruptures broke, and his bones creaked from the terrible pressure pushing on every inch of his flesh as his scarlet ribbons turned fully corporeal.

  Contrary to his boisterous posing, Darkheart observed the situation warily. Despite being wrapped in fleshy tendrils deep inside the heart, he didn’t feel very safe at all. This powerful youngster had far too many secrets. His eyes widened when he saw the mist converge on his opponent’s figure, carried on tattered wings. Cade began to spin, instantly shooting towards the massive heart.

  His form was a blur, a red whirlpool of death. Two dozen razor-sharp ribbons sliced the air within a hundred feet around him, each crimson appendage filled with ignited red mist brimming with anti-spiritual laws, imbued through his own meager comprehension. However, the powerful severance laws within the ribbons more than made up for it.

  A sword is just a crutch.

  Darkheart screamed in alarm, instinctively sensing great danger, and forced the heart to contract, releasing a premature beat. The transparent wave slammed into Cade, and blood erupted from dozens of fissures covering his body. The unrelenting force pushed him back but failed to stop him.

  Precious red liquid poured from all of Cade’s orifices. Internally, he was barely holding on. He could no longer breathe, as his lungs were full of blood. His muscles were a raw mass of torn fibers, and his bones bore numerous, deep fractures. His failing body was only held together by his unrelenting will.

  “How the fuck is he still alive?!” Darkheart raged in terror, seeing as his enemy was in a disastrous condition but still refused to die. His instinct was screaming at him to stop the incoming bloody whirlpool at all costs. He poured all of his spiritual qi into the heart, and burned through his lifeblood without hesitation. The manhunter knew his cultivation path was likely over, but nothing mattered more than surviving this calamity.

  Cade watched the massive heart rapidly gaining radiance and knew that just one more beat would spell his end. So he did the stupidest thing possible: he ignited all the qi remaining in his body.

  His skin started to peel, and glowing blood leaked from his pores. His lungs were instantly shredded into strips, his voracious heart the only organ remaining in one piece. Fractured bones, devoid of all blood qi, turned brittle, so much that a light touch was enough to break them. Blood poured from his mouth like an endless fountain, splashing on the hot sand hundreds of feet below.

  The whirlpool around Cade only turned more fierce, warping into a bloody cyclone of howling, razor-sharp ribbon blades. All 2,000 spherules spun, shedding prismatic dust to reinforce his structure, binding his collapsing body together.

  The Asura knew it was now or never. Ignoring the mind-shattering pain, he gathered every last grain of strength and hurled his twisting body toward the massive heart. The speed he unleashed was so extreme that the friction vaporized his eyes, and the remaining skin peeled from his weakened frame, air-drag roasting every nerve on the glistening map of raw flesh he’d become. Fully corporeal ribbons spun around him in a crimson blur, screaming through the air with a terrifying, whizzing pitch.

  Darkheart screamed, pushing his qi expenditure to its utmost limits despite his foundations beginning to crack. With a triumphant roar, he ordered another beat.

  However, many things can happen in the space between two heartbeats.

  Just as the manhunter released the mental command and the enormous heart began to contract, an eyeless mask of muscle and bone appeared right in front of him, its fanged teeth bared in a skeletal grin.

  “Fuck your Dark Heart,” Cade spat out with the last of his air, releasing his disabling pulse.

  A sound of a thousand glass panels shattering filled the air, and a crimson meteor struck the ground, collapsing the desert and shaking the world.

  Then blood rained from the sky.

  Next chapter (64) is the last from Book One. It's probably my favorite chapter in the book. I'll see you on Friday!