The Last Paragon in the Apocalypse

BOOM.

The palm strike unleashed by the colossal silhouette Klaus had summoned slammed into Blood Shadow, sending her flying back.

Klaus wasted no time and moved—more like teleported—appearing overhead, a large spear in one of the twelve hands, stabbing forward, aimed at Blood Shadow’s heart.

She twisted, letting the spear pass by her side, grazing only her armour. But before she could recover, another palm strike came slamming into her. She was sent flying again, her expression turning ugly.

Among the many stories she had read, not even a true immortal could be this strong. However, Klaus, who is only at the Peak of the Empyrean stage, is proving to be much more deadly.

At the moment, Klaus had the upper hand, even if he was paying for it with his life force. The [Undying Immortal Art] is a gradeless technique—one of the few he found inside the Pagoda back on earth.

It is one of these techniques that can be used by burning one’s life force. No energy in existence can power it aside from life force. So, in a way, it can be considered a suicide technique.

...There are many techniques like that out there. They grant overwhelming strength for a limited time at the expense of one’s life force.

However, this particular technique is something else. At Klaus’s current level, it takes 360 million years’ worth of life force every minute in exchange for power... It has nine lines of scripture that, when spoken, activate a special enchantment.

Of course, the more lines spoken, the more life force it consumes.

Klaus only spoke two lines—the first line activating the technique and the second activating the combat mode. This was already enough to take 360 million years’ worth of life force from him every minute.

Naturally, if he were an ordinary warrior, he could only last a minute with this technique. However, Klaus is different. His Nine Reincarnation Divine Body allows him nine times the life force of the average warrior.

This means that while an Empyrean-stage warrior can live for 400 million years, he can live nine times that, putting him at around 3.6 billion years.

That is ten years’ worth of power-up using the Undying Immortal Art, something Klaus can use to his advantage.

Of course, Klaus knew the more life force he burned, the closer he got to weakening his foundation, so he only set five minutes aside for this power-up, making sure to at least drain Blood Shadow or injure her to some extent.

His gamble worked.

Blood Shadow had no idea what Klaus had done, but at the moment, she had no plan on finding out. Surviving the beatdown she was receiving from the twelve-handed colossal silhouette of the battle deity was her mission.

Klaus was not giving her an opening, and that could be seen from how she was being trashed from one corner of the space battlefield to the other.

The three Immortal Lords watching this, as well as those being streamed to, were all in awe, their expressions conveying respect, fear, greed, and all other forms of emotion.

”He is burning his life force,” Immortal Lord Banabas said with a slight, focused gaze. ”However, what kind of technique could be so powerful that a mere mortal could use it to match the strength of an Immortal Lord?”

”Isn’t that the mystery?” Immortal Lord Phobas, unlike the rest, was having fun seeing Blood Shadow being trashed. ”Regardless of what technique he is using, the fact that he was able to control it this well, allowing him to suppress an Immortal Lord, is good enough for me.”

He turned and looked at Immortal Lord Banabas, considering that he was in the middle of the three.

”You are only stunned because you haven’t been to the Ancient Battlefields before. If you were to witness half of what I have seen, this display wouldn’t be too shocking. The kid is good. He has great potential, but he isn’t the only freak of nature in the vast universe.”

Klaus appeared behind Blood Shadow, and a large sword moved at his command, landing a deadly swing on her back. However, instead of getting cut in half, she was sent flying a couple of km away instead.

”If this kid lives past today, then the number of greedy people who will go after him for his technique will be in the millions,” Immortal Lord Phobas added before taking a sip of his wine.

As for Immortal Lord James, his gaze was locked on Klaus, the look of green painted on his face. However, while he would love to have his hands on this technique, he knew better than to interfere.

It is public knowledge that Klaus had saved the daughter of Star Lord Victor. Naturally, that was enough of a reason for someone like him to back down.

Crossing such a person is akin to bringing disaster upon himself and his family.

So he could only watch as Klaus used the precious five minutes he had to trash the mighty Blood Shadow. By the end of the five minutes, Klaus had done a number on her.

She was bleeding from her nose, mouth, and from some bloody cuts on her body, and most importantly, her half mask cracked and fell off, showing her true face.

Klaus burned her image into his mind, not because he was charmed by her looks, but because he wouldn’t want to forget the face of the one he planned on killing soon.

Klaus holds grudges, and as such, he would never stop until the promise he made her was fulfilled.

Her left hand was broken. However, despite having all her immortal rings sealed and half her energy also sealed away, the broken hand started healing at an alarming rate.

Even so, she had tasted pain, and now, gazing back at Klaus, who had deactivated the Undying Immortal Art, she truly wanted him dead.

So she tapped into the remaining 50% of her Shadow Law and created three copies of herself, each identical and possessing the same energy signature.

[They are one and the same person, master. Be careful.]

Before Icon could end her transmission, a dagger appeared through Klaus’s chest. But that wasn’t all; another dagger went through his chest and appeared on his back.

Klaus defended against one of her copies, but the other two attacked, and he was powerless to do anything against them.

His body fell, blood coming out of his mouth as the clones dispersed, revealing Blood Shadow’s cold look. Without saying anything, she moved to put a slave collar around Klaus’s neck.

But before she could accomplish that, something strange happened.

Klaus summoned a spear and drove it through his own forehead, killing himself. Blood Shadow came to a halt, a shocked look appearing on her face.

Before she could make any move, however, to confirm if Klaus was indeed dead, another strange thing happened.

Klaus stepped out from the void, alive and well. He looked at his wrist, and a smile appeared on his face.

”You have to kill me to actually kill me.” He spoke casually and pointed his scythe at Blood Shadow and said, ”Let’s loop this shit.”