Immortal Paladin

[POV: Lu Gao]

It had been nearly a year since Lu Gao emerged from his Divine Transformation. When he first awoke from the cocoon of black feathers, the Hell Soul within him had burned with authority, and the first thought in his heart was to seek out Ye Yong. What he discovered filled him with both pride and urgency: Ye Yong had been quietly cultivating a hidden force, building the foundation of a rebellion that would one day strike at the tyrants of Northshire. With his master’s blessing, Lu Gao used the Immortal Art: Divine Appointment of the Faithful, raising men and women of good heart into Paladins. Together, they launched a multi-pronged rebellion across the provinces, striking faster than the rulers could anticipate.

Yet triumph was quickly tempered by dread. Through the Hell Soul, Da Wei spoke to him, warning that Yuen Fu had been driven to the edge of death. By Da Wei’s miracle, the skill of Castling was invoked, swapping Lu Gao’s body with Yuen Fu’s at the critical moment. Now, standing in the sand-swept ruins of the arena, he faced the woman who had slain his sworn brother.

Dark wings burst from his back, the feathers glimmering with a light that was neither divine nor demonic but something forged of both. He brandished his sword, intoning with solemnity, “Blessed Weapon.” Purple and crimson flames wrapped the blade as horns jutted from his forehead, hardening to bone. With a burst of speed, he lunged, stabbing with the thrust of Hollow Point.

Lei Jia dissolved into mist, her laughter echoing like boiling steam. A fiery hand condensed from her qi and seized him in its grasp, hurling him through the wall. Lu Gao righted himself midair, patting the dust from his robes and wings spread wide as he hovered over the blood-soaked arena.

Below, two gladiators fought desperately, their blades clashing without pause. The crowd roared with delight, their shouts and curses feeding the air with a dense, wicked qi that clung to the arena like grease to fire. Lu Gao grimaced as the stench of suffering filled his lungs; he could taste the countless tragedies that had been forced into this place.

From the shattered wall erupted Lei Jia, her figure cloaked in blazing vapors as she swung her grotesque club with titanic force. Lu Gao raised his weapon to meet her, sparks scattering as the impact forced him downward. The sandy ground cracked beneath him, and the two warriors paused in confusion at the sight of the sovereign of Northshire and the winged stranger clashing above them.

“The show is canceled!” Lei Jia’s voice thundered through the arena, remaining aloft in the air. Then she smiled wickedly. “So let’s have a new one!”

The two gladiators bowed hastily and scurried out of the arena, grateful for the reprieve. Dust clung to Lu Gao’s robes as he rose, wings unfurling with a single powerful flap. His voice carried across the silent stands.

“If you wish to make a spectacle of me,” he declared, sword leveled at her, “then descend and face me yourself.”

Lei Jia smirked, her club writhing in her grip before twisting into a scythe with jagged teeth. Her eyes blazed with the fire of boiling hells as she raised it high.

“Be careful what you wish for, little one!”

“Hey, I am not little,” said Lu Gao. “If it’s anyone, it gotta be you, I mean, for someone filled with gas, you sure are compensating.”

Lei Jia descended in a blur of flame and vapor, her scythe carving through the air with absolute precision. The impact was merciless. Lu Gao barely registered the pain before his world split apart. His body was dissected neatly in half from crown to navel, the two halves crashing onto the sand. Blood hissed as it touched the boiling qi she exuded, and the crowd erupted in frenzied cheers.

The crowd howled, stamping their feet, offering their cries of adoration and worship. Lei Jia drank in their belief, and power swelled in her veins. Her aura ballooned, putrid and scarlet, its edge brimming with divinity. Northshire had once been merely a province loaned to her by the Heavenly Temple, but in the centuries since, she had reshaped it into her own kingdom of faith. Here, she had cultivated demons born from human cruelty and manifested a perpetual system that churned out belief like a furnace.

‘This is the true secret,’ she thought, drinking in more of the roaring faith. ‘To ascend beyond mortality, one need not rely solely on stolen immortalities or on the caprice of the Heavenly Dao. Belief itself can carve the soul into eternity. Belief upon belief. Layer upon layer of faith, until the body and soul transcend their limits.’

Yet her triumph faltered when she saw movement in the sand. Slowly, impossibly, Lu Gao’s two halves twitched. Flesh knit itself together in grotesque stitching, bones snapping back into place with audible cracks, organs pulsing as they reattached. With a final shudder, his body closed, whole once more, though faint crimson flames seeped from the seam where he had been bisected.

Lei Jia stiffened. Something clawed at the back of her mind, a whisper of unease she could not dispel. She narrowed her eyes. “Why does this feel… familiar? Why does it feel as though—”

Her thoughts froze. The unease deepened. Unbeknownst to her, every doubt, every calculation, and every shard of knowledge in her mind was being siphoned. Her very perception of reality, her source of strength from the wicked qi, the belief of her people, to the boiling aura bled away like water into unseen cracks. Lu Gao was feeding on her the way she fed upon the crowd. A parasite cloaked in the guise of prey.

“What did you do?” Lei Jia’s voice dropped, the scythe trembling in her grip.

Lu Gao opened his eyes fully, and for the first time, the brimstone glow of Hell surged within them. He extended his sword, and it warped, steel transfiguring into a blade of brimstone, blazing with crimson fire. His wings flared outward, shadows of countless punished souls coiling about him like shackles.

“All that is evil is exposed to me,” Lu Gao intoned, his voice layered with another. It was the echo of the Hell Soul, grim and resonant. “For it is my duty to punish them.”

He leveled the brimstone blade at her and sneered. “And you… You’re not even a tyrant worth fearing. You’re just a parasite dressed in bronze skin, drunk on the worship of fools, less a demon king, and more a whorehouse goddess feeding on scraps.”

Lei Jia frowned. The boy’s eyes were wrong. They didn’t hold defiance, nor hatred, but something that unsettled her far more… It was a pity. She lunged, her vast form dissolving into haze, flesh turning to vapor as she split the air with speed that would shame an immortal dragon. Yet the boy simply tilted his body aside, letting her scythe whistle past as if the effort cost him nothing.

Strike followed strike, but Lu Gao read her every intention before she moved. A simple sway of the shoulder evaded her arc. A single step set him beyond her reach. When her left arm burst into flames and stretched into a claw to seize him, he drew his blade in a flicker of Hollow Line, severing the fiery limb. The hand dissolved into noxious smoke, forcing its way into his pores and lungs, yet the boy burst apart in a storm of feathers, his form reappearing in front of her, sword raised without an ounce of killing intent.

Steel rang against steel. Lei Jia parried once, twice, thrice, her scythe holding against his brimstone blade. His horn met her edge in a Flash Parry, sparks cascading as he turned the deflection into a low sweep. The War Smite exploded from his leg into her shin, toppling her balance despite her monstrous frame. His sword followed, burning with searing wrath, cleaving her head clean from her shoulders.

Smoke reformed, and with a sneer, she returned whole, swatting him across the arena. His body burst apart again into a thousand feathers, only to reform at her blindside, his blade shimmering with karmic flame. The strike bit deep, feeding on the evil qi around them, and for the first time, Lei Jia faltered.

Anger boiled. She sacrificed a layer of her immortality, her scythe stabbing down to pin him through the chest, boiling qi erupting into the Ninefold Boiling Hell. The ground cracked, heat surging, his body bound beneath her weapon. Yet his lips curved in a smile.

“Not bad,” he rasped, his sword embedded in her chest. “I stripped you of a layer of immortality.”

Lei Jia narrowed her eyes. “Why are you smiling?”

“I can hear your thoughts, feel your inclinations, and know everything you can and will do.”

Something shifted. His gaze no longer looked at her. Instead, it looked through her. The vantage slipped from the third person, folding inward. The Hell Soul stirred, and the boundaries of self dissolved. Her attacks, her thoughts, even her fury were no longer external things… They were ‘mine’ to feel. I rose, no longer Lu Gao alone.

My wings tore outward, six of them unfurling in a blaze of dark feathers. The brimstone sword in my hand cracked, splintering apart under the pressure of my own essence, until only my bare fists clenched her scythe. I pushed down the scythe, letting the jagged weapon tear me from chest to groin. Pain bloomed, but I drank it in, a feast for the Hell Soul.

She swung again, her left hand surging outward into a giant palm of fire and vapor. I welcomed it. Sacred Bulwark encased me, Armor of the Indomitable feeding on every blow, multiplying her own violence back upon her. My skin boiled and fell away in sheets, exposing bone that glowed white-hot.

“Divine Word: Life.”

Regeneration surged, my veins blazing as I amplified every healing art layered within me. I continued casting more spells, starting with “Sanctified Resurgence.” It magnified each recovery into strength. “Blessed Regeneration,” accelerated the cycle, flesh stitching together faster than it could burn. Buffs stacked upon buffs, my body erupting in hellish light against her hellfire.

The robes burned away until I stood naked, body wreathed in gore and flames. For a fleeting moment, I reached down, squeezing my balls with a grimace to ensure my manhood remained intact after the scythe’s bite. Relief washed over me.

My gaze lifted to her. I stretched out my hand and declared casually, “Designate Holy Enemy, you, my dear fucking bitch.”

A reversed red cross hovered above her head, seething with heat until it boiled and peeled away, slewing off like molten wax. The power of her Ninefold Boiling Hell shattered my Designate Holy Enemy, nullifying it in an instant. My lips curled, but I didn’t hesitate. I wove my will into the next spell and cast Divine Mandate of Proximity. The mandate bound her to me and no matter how she tried to flee, her fate was shackled to mine.

Black quintessence coiled around me, stitching itself into a robe that cloaked my bare form. Lei Jia swung her scythe with murderous force. I let it strike, the jagged teeth cleaving deep into my shoulder, slicing through muscle and severing my heart. Blood sprayed from my lips, painting the air crimson. She blinked in confusion with astonishment etched into her face as I made no effort to evade.

And then she understood too late. The same wound carved itself into her body, her shoulder pierced, the blow reaching her heart. I seized her scythe with both hands, boils rising across my flesh as the weapon’s curse seared me. Those same boils spread across her skin as well. I layered Blessed Regeneration once more, forcing my body to keep up with the ceaseless rot gnawing at me. She tried to wrench her weapon free, but my Monkey Grip held it firmly, unshakable.

“In terms of strength,” I muttered, coughing blood yet grinning, “every Ascended Soul is about the same. Layers of immortality? That’s just extra lives. Like hearts in Mario. Other than that, maybe extra batteries to fuel more spells.” My eyes locked on hers, full of grim delight. “I don’t need extra lives. I have plenty already. Let’s see if you can outlast me.”

Her voice dripped with both anger and unease. “What are you doing? Do you want to die so badly?”

“Yes,” I whispered, then raised my voice in invocation. “Exalted Renewal!”

For a fleeting heartbeat, I imbued Divine Word: Raise on Spell Resonance. Finally, my body exploded into chunks of bone, flesh, and feathers.

I died.

And in the same breath, I resurrected, whole, stronger, and burning with divine authority. Her scream echoed as her body ruptured with mine, her immortality stripped yet again. One more life gone. She staggered back, her essence falling to [Level 6].

I cancelled Exalted Renewal.

Desperation twisted her face. She retreated in a blur, haze and fire weaving around her, launching spears of vapor meant to consume me whole. But my wings beat behind me, six black banners of judgment. Each one cast Zealot’s Stride, layering speed atop speed, my form darting through her projectiles. And since I could feel every thought churning in her mind, I already knew where each strike would go.

Dark chains erupted from the arena crowd, the sea of corrupted souls feeding her as she invoked her ultimate. “Summon: Hell’s Gate—”

I cut her off. One wing tore itself from my back in a spray of feathers and blood, sacrificed to fuel an ultimate art beyond reckoning. My voice thundered, “Final Adjudication!”

A colossal scale manifested in the heavens, blotting out the sky. Chains cascaded from its plates like rivers of iron, each link infused with holy fire. They lanced downward, piercing through every spectator whose heart was tainted with evil. Screams filled the arena as the wicked burned, bursting into ash or collapsing in golden fire. The few with sparks of redemption were spared, judged, and released.

The chains reached Lei Jia. She shrieked as the fire wrapped her limbs, her flesh searing, her essence unraveling. Two more layers of immortality were ripped away, leaving her soul raw, reducing her to a mere [Level 4].

Her eyes widened in horror. “You—!”

I smiled, lifting my hand to the sky. “Yes. Yes, I will punish them all!”

The heavens groaned. Darkness swallowed the horizon. Then, with a deafening roar, a golden sword larger than mountains pierced through the black clouds, descending like the judgment of heaven itself.

And it struck her.

Heavenly Punishment burst from above in a blazing pillar of gold, and the entire arena quaked beneath its judgment. I plucked another wing from my back, the pain searing through every bone, and the sacrifice amplified the Ultimate Skill’s damage. Lei Jia screamed as three layers of her immortality burned away, her form cracking, her essence collapsing, until she stood trembling as nothing more than a [Level 1] Ascended Soul.

But I didn’t relent.

I reached back and tore free yet another wing, the feathers scattering like embers into the void. With the hollow space left behind, I invoked a forbidden command: Divine Possession. The moment I cast it, I forced my Being into her, bestowing myself upon her soul.

Her life flooded into me.

I saw the realm she once called home: Hell. I saw it trounced, broken apart, destroyed, and reshaped again and again. The Seven Princes of Hell took turns consuming it, remaking it, toying with it like a carcass on a butcher’s block. And still, she endured.

Then further, beyond that time, I reached her last mortal life. I lived her memories as if they were my own. I felt the silks of the palace chamber where she was pampered as a favored concubine, only to be chained and sold, body stripped of dignity, made into a slave for another’s pleasure. I felt the sharp sting of blades as she was remade into a battle slave, thrown onto the field like a tool of war. I felt the moment her humanity withered and the descent into wickedness consumed her, step by step, until she embraced the ways of a demon.

I lived all of it.

When I returned from those visions, Lei Jia was crying within me. Her soul was bare, her voice cracking with a strange mixture of desperation and relief. “At last… someone understands me…” she whispered, begging for salvation as though my judgment was the only mercy left in existence.

And yes… I felt sympathy. I always did. But unlike the person I once was, my heart had grown callous. I had learned to stay true to myself and my goals, even when my enemies wept. Sympathy was not salvation.

I opened my eyes, my breath heavy, and realized I was her now. I wore her body as if it were my own. I spoke in Qi Speech, letting the Hell Soul guide me forward. “There’s more where that came from. That’s what I told you, remember?”

She wailed in the back of my mind, hammering against me. “Spare me! Let me serve you! I can be of use, I know things you don’t!”

I sneered inwardly. “I already know everything you know. Did you forget? I lived your life. And your life is not one worth sparing! Feel my vengeance!”

With that, I turned my will into a blade and cast Exalted Renewal, not on myself, but through her soul. Normally, the spell was suicide, a technique that devoured the caster’s own Divine Soul to empower them for one final blaze of glory. But with the right twist, with the Hell Soul’s aid, I could force someone else’s soul to self-destruct.

Her essence screamed as I refined it, consuming every scrap of her qi, every memory, every sin. That power funneled outward into Lu Gao, feeding him, refining his body, and elevating his realm even further.

Lei Jia begged until the last breath of her soul. I asked her one simple question: “Tell me, have you ever spared a single life that begged before you?”

Her only answer was more tears. And yes, those tears became mine. They streamed from my eyes, burning hot, because I carried all of her pain, her misery, and her wickedness.

In the end, I gave her the only mercy I could. My voice softened. “Let me devour your sins.”

And she let go, her every sin she committed reflected to her thousandfold in the flames of my flames.

”AAAAAAAAH~!” cried the demon as vengeance took her. ”SPAAAARE MEEE~!”

My flesh boiled. My skin sloughed off in strips, melting like wax. Underneath, Lu Gao’s body emerged once more, reborn from within me. The chains of her existence fell silent.

Lei Jia, the Demon King of Fiery Vapor, was no more.

“You did well, Lu Gao. There’s more work ahead, but I trust you know what to do.”

And with that, I let go.