"No!"

A desperate roar tore through the sky, only to be drowned out by the whistle of a giant sword cleaving the air.

The Golden Dragon Sun in the sky remained motionless from start to finish.

Its golden eyes merely flickered over Sela, who was being besieged by the two powerhouses, before looking away without further interest.

Its mission was below.

BOOM!!!

The hundred-meter-long body of the Golden Dragon plummeted from the sky like a meteor, crashing heavily onto the ferry crossing of the Black Water River!

The ground trembled violently. The sturdy pier was instantly covered in a web of cracks, and countless stone fragments were swept up in the furious blast of air, only to CLATTER back down.

Amidst the swirling dust, an immense figure blocked all paths forward.

The Golden Dragon Sun lowered its mountain-like head, its golden eyes staring coldly at the rapidly approaching ferry.

Graves, piloting the ferry with all his might, suddenly went rigid.

He had sensed the sudden weakening of Sela’s presence in the sky, as well as the abrupt appearance of two terrifying auras that made even his heart pound with dread.

A trap!

A deathtrap, laid specifically for them!

Who?

’Who leaked the news of our arrival?’

The ferry, accelerated by Domain Power, was moving at an astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, its bow rammed into the shallows, embedding itself deep in the mud and sand.

Graves leaped off the boat, landing steadily on the ground.

He didn’t look up at the battle in the sky, his gaze fixed solely on the Golden Giant Dragon before him.

His voice was hoarse and dry.

"The Thunder Dragon Duchy... Quite the move."

A sickening, heavy slicing sound echoed high in the sky.

Aided by Herast’s Slow Technique, Gaius’s outlandishly large Giant Sword—proportional to his own massive frame—violently and precisely struck the body of Sela, the Angel of Death.

SCHLICK!

Two pristine wings were severed cleanly at the roots. A storm of white feathers was instantly stained by a shower of golden blood.

The golden blood sprayed across the sky like a fountain.

"Aaargh!"

An inhuman shriek ripped through the heavens.

Sela lost her balance in mid-air, tumbling downward like a kite with its string snapped in a gale.

However, even after suffering such a grievous wound, the Angel of Death displayed astonishing combat instincts.

As she fell, she gritted her teeth against the excruciating pain radiating from her severed wings.

Her once-seraphic face was now twisted with pain and venom, her eyes locked on the Demon Deity-like figure in the air.

She did not flee; she knew she couldn’t escape.

Sela reached out, her fingers interlocking as she began to chant ancient, obscure syllables.

Her Divine Energy flared to life, burning at an unprecedented rate, but its light was no longer one of pure sanctity. Instead, it was tinged with ashen decay and a deathly stillness.

"In my name, Divine Skill: Withering!"

Following her hoarse cry, an enormous, ethereal flower bud silently materialized above her head.

The bud was a bizarre, grayish-white, as if it had absorbed all the vitality in the world.

The next moment, the bud slowly began to bloom.

There was no sweet fragrance, only the suffocatingly dense stench of death.

The petals unfurled, layer by layer. Each one looked as though it were carved from the bones of the dead, etched with arcane runes that symbolized finality.

This Flower of Withering went from bud to full bloom, then to decay, all in what seemed like a single breath.

As the last petal turned to ash and dispersed, dozens of grayish-white streams of energy erupted from the flower’s withered core.

They had no fixed form, at times twisting into venomous snakes, at others morphing into wailing ghoulish faces. Leaving long trails in their wake, they radiated a terrifying aura that devoured all Life Force as they swarmed toward Gaius from every direction.

This was Sela’s most powerful Divine Technique, a manifestation of her authority as the Angel of Death.

Any living thing touched by this Withering energy would have its Life Force drained in an instant, leaving behind nothing but a desiccated corpse.

Faced with this desperate counterattack, Gaius’s expression remained unchanged.

He didn’t even swing the Giant Sword still dripping golden blood in his hand. Instead, with a cold snort, he slid the massive blade back into the sheath on his back.

"Iron Wall."

His deep voice rumbled.

An invisible wave of Domain Power erupted from him!

This was no simple energy barrier, but a separate space brimming with a heavy, solid, and unshakeable will.

The Domain instantly expanded to a radius of nearly a thousand meters, enveloping all of the attacking grayish-white serpents.

However, that was only the beginning.

"Contract."

Gaius uttered another word.

The Iron Wall Domain, vast enough to cover a small hill, began to contract and compress inward at a speed visible to the naked eye!

As the thousand-meter Domain was forcibly compressed, the density of the energy that constituted it skyrocketed exponentially.

The air groaned under the strain, and space itself seemed to warp slightly under this absolute Power.

Under the extreme compression, the once-formless Domain actually manifested a physical form.

It became a Barrier as thick and heavy as if forged from steel, emitting a suffocating metallic sheen.

Soon, the thousand-meter Domain had been compressed to a mere hundred meters across.

The grayish-white energy serpents thrashing about within the Domain were like prisoners in a shrinking steel cage. Their movements grew sluggish, and their silent hisses became filled with despair.

"Shatter."

Gaius slowly raised his right hand, spread his fingers, and then violently clenched his fist.

BOOM!

As if obeying a king’s command, the hundred-meter Domain, compressed to its absolute limit, instantly transformed into a merciless iron fist, smashing inward from all directions!

There was no explosion of conflicting energies, only the pure, crushing application of physical Law.

Before they could even utter a final cry, the dozens of grayish-white energy serpents were utterly crushed by that world-shattering blow, annihilated into primordial energy particles that dissipated into nothing.

The Divine Skill, Withering, was broken.

Only after doing all this did Gaius’s gaze return to the falling figure.

His gaze was icy, devoid of pity.

After annihilating all of the Withering energy, the iron fist forged from Domain Power continued its descent with undiminished might, hurtling toward Sela below like a thunderbolt!

Sela’s pupils contracted. She summoned the last of her strength, trying to dodge with her remaining wings.

But Herast had already appeared in her path of escape. The Gemstone atop his Magic Staff glowed faintly, and an invisible restraint fell upon her once more.

Her every movement was a beat too slow.

And that single beat was the difference between life and death.

BOOM!

The Iron Fist struck Sela squarely, enveloping her small frame as it slammed both of them into the sandy beach below.

The earth shook violently once again. A crater over fifty meters in diameter was blasted into the beach.

Sand and stone were blasted a hundred meters into the air by the terrifying impact, only to rain back down and instantly fill more than half of the massive crater.

When the dust settled, only a huge depression remained on the beach.

In the center of the depression, Sela, the Angel of Death, lay covered in blood. Her limbs were twisted at grotesque angles, and her body was half-buried in the sand, still twitching unconsciously. Her golden blood stained the surrounding sand a dark, metallic gold.

Her life force had faded to almost nothing.