I Refused To Be Reincarnated-Chapter 719: Reality Sundered

’Hey, bastard,’ Adam called out in his mind, the words echoing inside his soul sea. ’Time to pay rent. And don’t even try to extort me. You’re in more danger than I am.’

’I...’ A deep whisper began, then choked into silence.

Buried in the scorched earth of an island girded by rivers of fire, Aamon’s cleaver shuddered. Sulfur thickened the air, and the crimson gem embedded above its skull-hilt pulsed, alive with malice.

’I wish I could watch that celestial whore torture you, accursed liar, defiler of eternal relics. But...’ The cleaver’s tremors deepened, then stilled—as if steeling itself. ’Fifty millennia sealed in a coffin like Andras’s puppet isn’t part of my plans. You can use me—only this one time.’

With that, it vanished in an ocean of green flames.

Its weight instantly pressed on Adam’s right palm, the smirking skull facing Yuehua Ji. Demonic energy erupted from the green gem at its base, fueling the engravings until they painted a profane canvas on the nightmarish steel. The unholy heat unleashed from its curved, broad top spread in a five-meter radius, wrestling this territory as its own against Yuehua Ji’s frost.

Amidst the churning vapor, Adam smirked at Yuehua Ji’s constricting pupils. The desire to launch a scathing remark crossed his mind, but he suppressed it by clenching his jaw. This was no game; the cleaver increased his chances of survival, nothing more. Death’s jaws still loomed over his head, ready to tear off his neck.

Instead, his grip tightened around the hilt—right as a shudder jolted Yuehua Ji’s shoulders and her voice cracked. "A demonic artifact!"

Her chest tightened at the mere sight of it. At a glance, she knew it was as dangerous as the hateful puppet that had once ruined the realm. Ocean of fires, eternal rains of ashes, mountains of shared corpses, the stench gripping her throat in a suffocating agony—the memories were fresh as yesterday. If not for the void emperor’s foolish bravery, they’d all be...

A sudden whistle seared through her memories, her shock deepening. In front of her, sky blue hair rustled like the mane of a lunging lion, predatory eyes locked on her throat. The blade sundered a horizontal gash in the frozen space with speed no mage should possess—at least, none outside the high council of the archipelago.

In a fluid motion, she sidestepped, unsheathing the crystalline sword strapped at her belt. The icy hilt connected to her palm, becoming more than a weapon—an extension of herself as the cleaver wrestled for more territory. A burning flood tried to consume her, and rare sweat bedded on her perfect skin. But her posture sharpened. She had seen everything she needed.

Though the cleaver sent her mind reeling in visions of the realm’s last fall, the boy was its weakness. A monster among geniuses, with speed crossing tiers. And yet, he was no more threatening than a cub before a lioness. Once rid of him, the cleaver’s threat would vanish in a sarcophagus of eternal ice before it could threaten the realm... threaten her.

Without hesitation, she raised her blade, swinging it in an elegant sideways arc as she planted her foot forward. The crystalline edges shimmered, freezing the vapor, dust, and reality in its wake.

’Dodge!’ The cleaver’s voice shattered Adam’s skull.

Instinct yanked his head aside before his enhanced vision could process the attack. Too slow. The glacial edge grazed his throat, and where it touched, flesh turned the black of long-dead stars. Necrosis spread in fractal patterns, each tendril whispering of permanent dissolution.

Yet, the blaze of defiance still burned in his eyes. His body flickered outside of the melted space, letting the blade pass through him. Yuehua Ji’s eyes widened as the sensation of ripping flesh vanished, but it was too late.

With timing exquisite enough to match hers, Adam’s body reappeared on the same spot, both hands clutching the cleaver’s hilt overhead. Demonic flames surged from the green gem, sprawling around him. The bulk, however, shot upward. Rocks vaporised as they formed an unholy pillar that pierced the heavens, casting hellish shadows across the land.

’Don’t use it!’ The cleaver gasped, and Adam smirked as demonic energies filled his muscles and marrow.

Thoughts not his own overwhelmed his mind in an ocean of violent blood lust. It was the first time he felt demonic corruption, and he understood why the cleaver, who had always wanted him to embrace it, panicked. He wanted nothing more than to eviscerate Yuehua Ji, keeping a breath of life in her as he pulled her organs out one by one, then her bones. And when there’d be bones no more, he’d strip her of her cells in a loop of unimaginable agony until nothing remained of her.

But it was also the last time he felt it.

The old protection imbued in his bones flared a soothing light that purged the corrupting influences of demonic energy, returning the sharp glint to his eyes as he swung down.

The pillar sundered not the sky, but reality, vaporising concepts, laws, and matters without distinctions. Forests vanished and rivers evaporated in oceans of flames.

Yuehua Ji shuddered, her free hand shooting before her. Qi erupted into dozens of frozen gates thicker than the hill itself. Yet, they melted faster than they had appeared.

Horrified, she ripped treasures from her spatial ring. First came the Golden Aegis of Xan Zhou, its swirling rims screeching as they did when they endured the strikes of a mythical beast she never wanted to see again.

More shields erupted around her in a desperate constellation—artifacts that had taken lifetimes to collect.

Yet, the sizzling didn’t slow even as metals melted, and shields vaporised. The air only grew more suffocating, and sweat now marred her back.

Her final hope flared to life: the Celestial Annulus Formation, its pre-etched runes burning through the jade disk that had cost her three of Master Yun’s favors.

The formation surged from its jade prison into an impenetrable barrier of crystallised time around her. She reinforced it instantly, layering meters of ice until her teeth ached from the cold.

CRACK

Adam’s flames shattered her defenses into a million glittering fragments—yet the temporal barrier held for one impossible heartbeat.

That was enough.

With a glare filled with hate toward Adam, she spun on her heels and scrambled out of the cave—a heartbeat before the flames cleaved her in half.

Instead, they sundered the ground, digging a smoldering canyon that sprawled dozens of kilometers into the distance.

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AN: Reminder of the cleaver’s enchantments// She didn’t use her full strength yet (dharma idole.)

Name: Aamon’s Cleaver

Rank: T9 enigmatic Cursed weapon

Description: Forged in the scalding depth of the demon realm’s fiercest mountain, this cleaver is the embodiment of fire. Ancient demonic engravings, hundreds of thousands of years old, run through the blade in an awe-inspiring network speaking of craftsmanship beyond conventional tiers.

Abilities:

Burning Cleave: Aamon’s Cleaver carves burning wounds. The fire cannot be extinguished by mundane means and will burn until only ashes remain.

Unholy Heat: Any creature within a five-meter radius enters the blade’s territory. Scalding heat will assault them in a burning, continuous flood if they are deemed enemies.

Searing Sundering: Once per day, the wielder can channel demonic flame through the cleaver to deliver a world-ending strike. Magical protections and fortifications are as brittle as paper before Aamon’s wrath, taking double the damage. However, the wielder will suffer from demonic contamination after using this ability. In a gradual process, he’ll become more prone to violence and cruelty until he transforms into a vile being.

Demonic Consumption: Aamon’s Cleaver hungers for life force. Upon slaying a creature, its soul is trapped within the weapon’s gem, fueling its power. These souls can be released later to conduct dark rituals and increase the wielder’s demonic energy permanently.

Unending Fury: The wielder can channel demonic energies through the cleaver, entering a state of Unending Fury for one minute. Consumed by rage, his strength increases by five hundred points. In this state, anything entering his vision is an enemy that must be cleaved in burning halves.

Cursed Weapon: A fragment of Aamon’s soul is sealed within the red gem, making the weapon a living being and an avid enjoyer of violence and misery. Its abyssal whisper, promising strength and riches, will resound in the wielder’s mind, slowly reshaping its moral values to turn it into an image of its creator.