A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6723

Three deaths became five.

Five became seven.

Again and again, steel crashed through Black Abyss Valley.

Golden blood flowed, dried, and flowed again until the clearing was stained dark gold and reflected an eerie sheen beneath the lingering light.

The spectators changed with the battlefield. At first, each death had drawn gasps and disbelief. After enough repetitions, even that reaction disappeared. The impossible had become a pattern no one wanted to keep watching.

Shock became numbness.

Numbness became fear.

Fear finally became a bewilderment close to collapse.

Some people began crying under their breath. Some clutched their heads. Others simply dropped where they sat and lost consciousness.

The proud celestial elites and the stubborn Demonic Cultivators alike looked like hollow puppets now.

They could do nothing but watch Aureon die over and over, then return over and over.

And they watched Violet keep fighting as exhaustion slowly claimed her.

Her aura was draining fast.

The first signs appeared in her movements. Each sword strike carried a fraction more delay than the last.

Then her breathing changed. Her chest rose and fell faster.

Even the deep violet light in her eyes began to dim behind a haze of fatigue.

Every death demanded more power from her. Every resurrection returned Aureon at full strength.

By the twelfth kill, the imbalance had become impossible to ignore. Aureon fell again, golden blood staining the ground already marked by the previous deaths, and the now-familiar resurrection light began gathering almost immediately.

Violet pulled her sword from Aureon's chest, and her arm trembled.

Fine beads of sweat had formed along her forehead, catching the light among strands of purple hair.

Her breathing was heavy now. White mist accompanied every exhale.

More than eighty percent of her spiritual power had been consumed. The law resonance inside her felt like a spring approaching drought. The pressure she had carried so effortlessly at the beginning of the battle had thinned, and even holding the sword level now required visible effort.

Golden light descended again.

Aureon returned without a wound.

His power was full. His aura was stable. That nearly deranged smile was still on his face.

"How does it feel?" he asked, savoring every word. "Still think you can keep this up? How many kills do you have left in you? Three? Five? Ten?

"I have all the time in existence. I can play this game until the end of the world."

Violet said nothing.

She raised her sword once more, but the light along the blade was visibly weaker. The soft, profound violet glow had thinned toward a nearly transparent pallor.

She knew exactly what that meant.

Her reserves were at the breaking point.

Two or three more kills at most, and she would lose the ability to fight.

Aureon saw it too.

Are we really going to die here?

Jared ground his teeth.

His purple gaze swept over the Demonic Cultivators curled on the ground, the celestial survivors standing empty-eyed, and the battlefield where golden blood mixed with dark red.

At last, his attention returned to Aureon.

More specifically, to the golden sword in his hand.

The Celestial Emperor's Sovereign Blade.

It was the supreme artifact inherited by the Celestial High Temple for tens of thousands of years and the clearest symbol of Aureon's authority.

What happens if I destroy it? Or take it away?

Would Aureon's combat power fall?

The problem was obvious. Grand Zenith Immortal power covered the sword. Jared could not simply reach out and touch it.

He turned toward Gwendolyn.

"Can your Ice Goddess power freeze that sword? Even for about five seconds?"

Gwendolyn looked from the burning golden blade to Jared's face.

She bit her lip.

"I don't know... but I can try."

Jared took her hand.

"Then we try together."