"H-he..." Dohans could only clench his fists in disbelief.

How the hell did he pull that off?

Suddenly, everything went silent. Not the calm of peace, but the oppressive stillness of a predator before its final strike.

Darian lifted his gaze. His eyes now radiated a scarlet and purple glow — the color of his soul's essence being burned.

*Wooosh!*

The energy around him didn't just rupture; it exploded like flames igniting. Darian shot forward like a dark-red bolt of lightning, tearing through space, his two daggers bathed in black light.

Looking at him, Dohans felt the cruelty, the bloodlust, the pain, the hate, the resentment, and despair pouring off him. With every step Darian took, the coldness and terror of death bloomed deeper in his heart.

Dohans's pupils shrank violently. He reacted on instinct before his mind could even process anything.

Fight? If he'd felt weaker before, doing that now would be the dumbest decision of his life.

He turned and bolted backward with everything he had.

But...

"!"

Before he could even get away a little, two bloody eyes — more terrifying than a demon's — appeared right in front of him.

*BANG!!*

Everyone in the sect saw space fracture, and a dull, heavy sound made a chill run down their spines. The whole place trembled, Remira and the others absurdly tense, unable to make sense of what was happening.

"UWAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!"

A scream, sharp beyond compare and utterly miserable, the sound of a soul being ripped apart, echoed in everyone's ears, deafening them.

The vision of everyone in the sect was drowned in a domain of death, black and scarlet. Remira and the rest clenched their trembling fists. They couldn't see anything, but they could feel the terrifying omen of the end.

In just a few seconds, everything became clearer.

Everyone lifted their eyes to the skies... and there they saw Darian. He had both daggers buried in Dohans's chest. On Dohans's forehead shone a dark, pulsing rune.

"AHHH... AAAAAAHHHHH... AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!"

Dohans's eyes were so wide it looked like they'd burst out of his skull. He roared louder and louder, like he was being burned alive from the inside out. The people couldn't see it, but his own karma was now the fuel — the fire purifying and refining his soul.

"One life... for... one life..." Darian said, smiling coldly. He was bathed in bloody light, and his hoarse voice made each word sound like it came from a deep abyss.

Just burning the soul wasn't enough. Darian moved his hand, and inside the ring on his wrist, it was like a dam had burst.

A nearly endless dam of black power.

How many battlefields, how many blood-soaked lands had he crossed since he'd entered this world?

He'd never even cared about karma, because it flowed and had been devoured by him passively all this time. All of it had been saved to be used at the perfect moment... precisely against this hateful enemy.

This was his guarantee of victory. Darian had calculated that, by advancing to the Devil King realm, using his body and everything he'd stored, he'd at least be able to fight Dohans. With the smallest opening, by unleashing all the black power, he really could kill him.

But everything changed when a power Dohans shouldn't even have appeared. This figure had been around way too long in this world and had sat at the peak of power for ages, creating countless layers of secret forces.

Variables were inevitable; nothing was guaranteed in this world. There was no way Darian could've known. Worse, he hadn't had the time to grow stronger or prepare even more.

Now...

In the middle of that death-filled space, Darian sheathed his daggers. In his hand, all the black power gathered and turned into a two-meter black flame. It was extremely, terrifyingly dense, compressing everything into its most dreadful form.

Without hesitation, he moved it, swallowing Dohans whole.

It was an absolute execution — of body, soul, and existence. Dohans's own karma would burn his soul, and the black flames would devour his body and his life. An indescribable, unique process for him. Dohans wouldn't feel anything ever again... he'd be completely reduced to nothing.

"Ah... Aaaahhhhh... Save... Save me... Uwaaaahhhhh..."

Each of Dohans's screams was sharper, more desperate, and sadder than the last. They dragged on for long, agonizing minutes.

"Save him?" Everyone in the sect heard it, like it was the most ridiculous thing in the world. He was paying in the worst way possible for his own actions.

Until, suddenly, the sound stopped.

The death domain scattered, dissolving into the air like smoke in the wind.

Then...

Everyone in the sect saw a figure crash down to the ground.

Darian was on his knees, eyes wide open, and his expression empty.

No one in the sect could move or even breathe. Every gaze was completely captured by the sight of that blood-soaked figure. That's when they noticed: the bloody aura around him was fading away.

A very light breeze swept through the area, carrying away much of the stench of blood and the death energy that lingered in the air.

Another gentle breeze passed, making everything feel even more ethereal. Darian, however, didn't move a single muscle. His whole body was covered in wounds, but there wasn't any blood pooling beneath him... Maybe all of it had already dried up long ago.

His very existence had become so faint that it was almost impossible to sense.

By now, Darian's world was completely dark gray. In that world, there was no light, no sound. He couldn't feel pain, couldn't feel his own existence, and even his location was a mystery to himself.

For him, everything was drowned in absolute silence, like time itself had completely stopped.

Then, on his physical body, a faint red and blue glow appeared.

In the next instant...

'Forgive me...' — his last thoughts echoed in his mind, with the images of Niara, Lucy, and Lucius flashing through him.

And just like that, his consciousness vanished.

All of a sudden, his body seemed to ignite in flames of two different colors, which quickly merged, creating a small pyre.

Within it, Darian's entire existence met the same fate as his enemy. He burned quickly, vanishing until he was reduced to ashes and...

...returned to nothing.

He knew the cost of using that technique. He had seen Dohans use it and train with it in the past. And that was the only way he found.

Overtaken by hatred, he instinctively felt he had to burn his entire existence, so he didn't care. Now... he paid the price.

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