Shadow Over the Heavenly Throne-Chapter 60: Crimson Lotus

Kaen sat in silence, hands resting on the armrests of his throne, his eyes fixed on the battlefield as if staring into the surface of a still lake. When the air trembled and Calista’s aura erupted, the corner of his mouth lifted — just barely.

"So she actually did it..." he thought. "Girl... you’re playing with death."

The Lotus Chamber... a masterpiece born of pursuit for perfection. One lotus. One structure. Nine paths, woven into a flawless sequence no mortal dared to touch.

Until that day, in the hidden chamber of the Order of the Hollow Leaf, when Calista knelt above the searing formation circle. Her body trembled from the strain, skin tearing under the overload of Qi. Blood dripped onto scorched sigils — and then, she did it. She tore the core.

Her scream was quiet, but reality itself shuddered.

A second lotus was born — in a place where none should exist.

That was the first time the world saw what it meant to defy the laws of technique.

She wasn’t supposed to do it. And yet — she did. Not out of ignorance, but with calculated madness. Calista didn’t just unlock the Lotus Chamber. She split it open. And placed inside it...

A second lotus.

Kaen narrowed his eyes. He saw Calista’s veins swelling, glowing like burning threads beneath her skin.

"Crimson Lotus," he thought grimly. "There’s no doubt. She really opened it..."

He looked again, seeking confirmation in the unnatural way her body pulsed with force. Veins that shouldn’t swell like that.

Kaen closed his eyes for a fraction of a second.

"Looks like I’ll have to visit the Order of the Hollow Leaf," he sighed inwardly. "And speak with old Revnor... There’s no way this girl came up with something this reckless on her own."

Kaen watched in silence.

Two lotuses.

The first — precise, refined, composed of nine techniques. None overwhelming on their own, but together... together they formed a symphony of destruction.

And the second?

At that moment, Calista looked as if her body was burning from within. Her skin glowed, her veins bulged to the brink, and every step left behind an echo of a force not born from Qi.

Her fist shattered the air like a blacksmith’s hammer, and the ground beneath her cracked — not from a technique, but from pure, brutal physical force.

Crimson Lotus.

There was no elegance. No balance. Only primal fury locked in muscles that should never have existed in such form.

It turned the user’s body into a weapon. Into muscles forged beyond human limits. Into strength you only understood once it was already crushing you.

Kaen exhaled slowly.

"Only a fool believes strength comes without a price..."

She may have achieved power equal to those who’d spent decades training beneath waterfalls or tempering their bodies in spiritual flame. But Calista’s strength... it was borrowed through technique.

Like pouring fire into a clay vessel. Brilliant, powerful flame — perhaps even beautiful — but it only takes a moment before the shell cracks from the heat. Smoke comes first, then the explosion.

That’s what her body looked like — as if it could collapse under its own weight at any second.

An unprepared body couldn’t handle such strain without consequence. Every movement, every burst of force tore her from within — muscles shredded, joints strained. Like a torch — the brighter it burned, the faster it died.

***

Kaelis saw her at the last possible moment. A single blink. A single line — not of light, not of Qi. Just a shadow that had no right to move.

He reacted on instinct. Focused his Qi. Tried to sever the space between them — like before.

But this time... nothing happened.

There was no technique. No Qi.

And then he understood. This wasn’t a spiritual strike. Not a martial art born of essence.

This was pure, unrelenting physical force.

Before he could react, her fist slammed into his gut with a force that detonated the air in his lungs. Kaelis’s body lifted off the ground, flung backward like a ragdoll hurled by a storm. He folded midair, eyes wide in raw shock.

But he didn’t even reach the wall.

Her legs tensed like drawn bowstrings, pulsing with such intense energy that her skin began to split along her veins. Those veins — dark red lines of light — throbbed like rivers of lava beneath the surface. Every contraction was an explosion beneath the muscle — wild and unstoppable.

The ground beneath her cracked, splintered like coal burning too long, sending shards of stone into the air. With each step, she left not footprints — but fractures that looked like lightning had struck.

Before Kaelis’s body could hit the barrier, she was already there — spinning in midair like a blade made of fury.

Impact.

The bone in his shoulder snapped like dry wood beneath a boot. The sound of the break echoed through the arena as his body was launched like a catapulted corpse.

He spiraled through the air, physics be damned, twisting as if the world itself had turned upside down. He felt muscle fibers tearing, spine straining to hold him together.

Blood streaked behind him like a comet’s tail. His eyes held pure shock — not just from pain, but from something far worse.

"This is impossible..." the thought raced through his mind. "She... she never trained her body. Never spent years like the body cultivators. And now... she’s fighting like one of them. How is this even possible...?"

Before his body hit the second wall, he already knew — he didn’t understand this battle. And if he kept trying to... he would die.

Kaelis tried to defend.

He crossed his arms, hoping to absorb the impact. But when Calista’s fist struck his block, his forearm snapped with a sound like splitting green wood. The bone shifted under his skin, and pain lanced through his shoulder.

He screamed. Reflexively recoiled, tried to dodge — but he was too slow.

The kick slammed into his thigh. Something inside ruptured — as if the muscle had been shredded from within. His knee bent at an unnatural angle, the joint popping with a sick, gurgling sound.

Before he could register what happened — her fist hit his ribs. One after another, they broke like matchsticks. Air hissed from his lungs, blood rising up his throat.

His world became pain. Each blow a hammer. A burning shard that tore him apart piece by piece.

Finally, his legs gave out, and his body hit the stone floor with a crack. Kaelis collapsed like something hollowed out — as if someone had pulled the marrow from his bones and the will from his soul. He lay in a pool of blood, chest heaving with labored breath — every inhale heavier than his entire frame.

He had no strength left. Not in body, not in spirit. Only his eyes flickered, scanning for escape — but there was none.

He lay on his back. His body refused to move. The air trembled. Dust still hung in the aftermath. But he saw only her.

Calista.

Floating above the ground, feet barely grazing the stone, as if gravity had long since given up on her. Her body was laced with dark, throbbing veins — as though every inch of skin had become a map of wrath. Her eyes glowed — not with rage, but with the absence of feeling. As if this destruction, this collapse... meant nothing.

Her face didn’t twitch. Not a single muscle moved. No grimace. No sneer. In her gaze — no fury. Not even coldness. Only a silence so complete it became terrifying.

Like a mask of death, carved in stone.

She looked more executioner than human — no hesitation, no doubt, no mercy.

Her body tensed midair. Knees bent. Legs coiled like springs ready to explode. Dust swirled around her, but at the center — she was stillness itself. As if gravity obeyed her.

Her gaze never left him.

She moved.

CRACK.

Her knees slammed into his face with a force like a warhammer. His skin split like parchment, his nose crushed, teeth scattered like bone shrapnel. His skull fractured with a dull snap, and his vision faded — not from pain, but from the body’s refusal to process more.

His head slammed into the ground, shattering stone and leaving a crater half a meter deep. Dust rose.

But she wasn’t finished.

She grabbed what remained of his robes. Fingers clenched fabric soaked in blood, lifting him effortlessly — as if he weighed less than a feather. His head lolled back. His face now a ruined mask — nose broken, one eye swollen shut, the other dulled.

Then he saw it.

Her leg turned. The air around it warped.

Time slowed.

He saw the heel coming — slow, unstoppable. His body screamed to move — but it couldn’t. Not even to blink.

And the heel struck.

The sound of bone cracking sliced through silence like a blade. Everything turned white — not light, but a burst of pain that eclipsed thought. His cheekbone shattered into his eye socket. Teeth flew like pebbles. His jaw twisted sideways with a sickening crunch.

Kaelis’s body flew like a broken doll. Slammed into the arena wall.

He lay still. Trembling. Barely able to lift his head. His neck creaked in protest. One eye swollen shut, the other fluttered open weakly. His chin quivered. Vision blurred with blood. But he saw one thing clearly — Calista’s approaching gaze. Cold. Unyielding.

"I-I surrender..." he croaked, voice barely a whisper. Warped by blood, by a shattered jaw. His head trembled, chin barely lifted. His eyes — one fogged, the other closed — begged for mercy more than his words. Fingers twitched, as if trying to lift a hand in surrender — but even that was beyond him.

She didn’t react to his words.

Her fist clenched.

She raised it.

And then —

Time stopped.

A shadow tore through the air like lightning — then materialized in full. Fabric snapped in the wind, long hair frozen in midair like flame stilled in time. Veynessa appeared between them without warning, arms outstretched, hands braced like steel gates.

A shockwave split the air. Stone cracked beneath their feet with a thunderclap that echoed across the arena. Veynessa was pushed back two steps — each step carving fractures into the floor. Her sandals scraped across stone with a grinding hiss. But she didn’t fall. She stabilized instantly — as if the very earth bowed to her will. Her gaze never wavered.

She looked Calista in the eye — calm. Unyielding.

"Enough."

Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m