Earth's Greatest Magus

Chapter 2842: Astiel Battle 5

”REPENT!”

The words pressed inward, heavy and suffocating, like a divine hand descending upon Emery’s soul. It carried spiritual authority layered with forced serenity that sought to dissolve hostility. It was a demand for submission.

Emery’s spirit reacted before conscious thought could catch up.

Within the depths of his spiritual sea, a five-tier rainbow pagoda erupted into existence. Bands of prismatic light spiraled upward in layered rotations, forming a towering inner citadel of mind and will.

When the holy command struck, it did not pass easily. It crashed against the pagoda in cascading waves of luminous force, each impact splintering into shards of color that dissolved like rain against stained glass.

The Papal Cardinal’s calm expression flickered.

”Who is he?”

He had expected resistance, but not this.

Emery’s grip on Denard did not loosen.

Twilight vines still coiled around the prince’s body, thorns pressed against flesh, ready to pierce deeper with a single thought.

But then—

A sound drifted through his consciousness.

Chime.

It was soft, almost gentle, the kind of tone that might accompany a prayer whispered in a quiet chapel. Yet the vibration carried a purity that bypassed walls and fortresses, slipping between layers of defense like light through a crack in a door.

The sound came from the Cardinal’s chalice.

Unlike the spoken command, this resonance did not batter the outer structure of Emery’s mental defenses. It reached past them, touching the foundation beneath, setting the very waters of his spiritual sea trembling.

Ripples turned into violent surges.

Focus wavered.

For the briefest instant—the Twilight vines loosened.

That was all the opening his enemies needed.

Thunder detonated overhead as the Storm Lord made his move.

His battlefield domain surged outward in a violent expansion. Lightning spiraled along his arm, coiling tighter and brighter until his entire fist became the core of a raging tempest. He struck, moving like chain lightning given human form, a blinding arc that crossed the distance in less than a heartbeat.

But Emery’s soul had been tempered again and again over the past months. He successfully shattered the lingering threads of the Cardinal’s mental pressure in a split second.

It still wasn’t enough to block.

Nor enough to dodge.

Yet in that razor-thin instant between impact and destruction, a perfect solution surfaced in his mind.

The Storm Lord, certain his opponent was helpless, committed fully to the strike.

Space suddenly distorted around him, time dragging like thick syrup as Emery twisted what little control he still had over the battlefield’s flow using temporal spell.

Just enough to shift the prince into the path of the blow.

The Storm Lord was moving too fast to stop.

”!!!!”

And then—

KABOOOM!

The impact detonated like a falling star striking the earth. Flesh, bone, and royal regalia were obliterated under the combined force of a three-cosmos strike and concentrated thunder domain. Blood and fragments burst outward in a crimson shockwave, scattering across the sky.

Every eye widened in horror.

The Astiel crown prince had been blasted apart before them all.

Even Emery was hurled backward by the residual force, ribs cracking, organs rattling, lightning crawling across his nerves.

The outcome had gone far beyond what he intended.

As much as he despised Denard, killing him outright had never been Emery’s first choice. As long as Klea still lived, the prince’s existence was leverage — a bargaining chip, a way out. At most, he had planned to destroy the body and seize his soul.

But that strike...

Even Emery wasn’t sure anything could have survived it.

”Well.. that’s karma for you..”

Then,

Amid the drifting blood mist, something remained suspended in the air: a crimson, diamond-shaped crystal, pulsing with fierce inner light.

The Storm Lord moved instantly, snatching the crystal. He turned toward Darian Astiel, and for the first time since the battle began, regret flickered across the elder’s face.

Inside the gem, a faint silhouette twisted in agony.

VIA’s voice echoed in Emery’s fading consciousness, clinical and precise.

[Artifact Identified: Tier 7 Relic — Heart of the Phoenix]

It was a Soul Preservation artifact. To prevents total annihilation.

So the prince still lived.

Barely.

Trapped inside a life-saving relic befitting a Nephilim heir.

But the same fortune might not belong to Emery.

Chime...

Another sound rang out, soft in tone yet absolute in authority.

The Papal Cardinal moved again, his ancient chalice lifting as pale radiance pooled within its bowl. His voice did not rise, yet it filled the battlefield and sank directly into Emery’s soul.

”You have committed grave sins... REPENT!”

The command struck like an invisible hammer. Emery’s spiritual sea convulsed, the five-tiered rainbow pagoda within him trembling once again as fresh waves of divine pressure crashed against it. Cracks of light spiderwebbed across its surface, but once again Emery resisted.

”Old man!! Are you blind?!!! It wasn’t me who killed him... Get the hell out of my head!!”

At that same moment

More than a dozen grand magus unleashed their fury at once. Spirit weapons streaked through the air like meteors. Seals ignited. Elemental spells converged from every direction—flame, frost, and light weaving into a killing net meant to erase him completely.

The earlier thunderstrike had wounded him, and the backlash from forcing the mountain-painting artifact still burned through his meridians like molten iron. Every breath tasted of blood. Every heartbeat felt stolen.

Yet Emery still reached inward.

This time, he drew on power beyond himself.

The Gates of Khaos groaned open. Killgragah’s Famine Gate and Daurgototh’s Death Gate flared to life, their forces surging down his arms and pouring into the twin blades of frost and fire, reinforcing the weapons with ravenous hunger and grave-cold finality.

Behind him rose the vast shadow of the tentacled dragon, Chututlu. Its silhouette unfolded across the sky like a nightmare given form, countless writhing appendages merging with his Twilight vines.

Spells slammed into the mass of shadow and thorn. Some were swallowed whole, snuffed out in coils of void. Others detonated, but the impact was absorbed and redirected, shockwaves lashing outward and hurling several attackers back with shattered defenses and ruptured domains.

For a heartbeat, the assault stalled.

But the true killing blow was already on its way.

A line of gold split the heavens.

No roar. No wasted motion. Only perfect, absolute intent.

The elder of the Heaven’s Will Sword Sect descended in utter silence, blade raised, its edge wrapped in sword will so refined that space bent away from it. The air screamed without sound as the weapon traced a flawless arc.

[Heavenfall Triad]

The declaration rang like a cosmic verdict.

The first strike fell.

Emery barely registered the motion before instinct forced his broken arms upward. Embernight and Forstviel crossed before him in a desperate guard, their damaged edges catching the descending light.

The second strike followed instantly, faster, heavier, driving the first blow deeper.

The third came like divine judgment made steel.

Light swallowed sound as the collisions stacked upon one another, shockwaves rippling outward in expanding rings that tore clouds apart and shattered lingering spells mid-flight.

Emery’s arms screamed, bones groaning as overwhelming sword intent flooded through his blades, down his wrists, and into his shoulders like liquid lightning.

Against that divine edge, the difference in grade became mercilessly clear.

CRACK—!

Hairline fractures raced along both swords, glowing lines spreading from the point of impact like lightning crawling across glass.