CHAPTER 947: KILLING THE CREATURE

Max’s entire body was a living tempest, crimson lightning roaring off him in wild arcs, each crackle like the wrathful roar of a storm god. The sheer power radiating from him made the very air shudder, warping from the intensity.

’Extreme Speed and Heaven’s Wraith... this is what true fusion feels like,’ he thought, eyes locked on the space wraith.

The creature’s twisted, shifting form seemed to sense the change in him; its shape rippled, edges distorting like shattered glass in water, and then—without warning—it vanished.

A soundless tear split reality and the wraith emerged in front of him, its claw-like arm slicing through the air with a streak of blinding spatial collapse.

Max’s Severing Flow Sword Art met it head-on, his blade cutting not at the flesh, but at the intent, flow, and causality of the strike itself. A burst of distorted air and red lightning tore the skies apart, and the two were thrown apart before clashing again in the same breath.

"Impossible... he’s intercepting its space collapse attacks!" a voice cried from the crowd.

The wraith’s next move came like death itself—it raised both arms, space around its claws folding inward, birthing two imploding spheres of compressed void energy before hurling them at Max.

In response, Max invoked Star Flame Art, white flames brighter than any sun flaring from his body, their sheer gravitational pull multiplying the weight of the void spheres until they slammed into the ground far short of him.

The very earth caved inward like glass under a hammer.

Not pausing for a heartbeat, the wraith dissolved into a black ripple and reappeared at Max’s blind spot, its limbs morphing into endless spearpoints that stabbed forward from every angle.

Max’s eyes glinted; his sword flew from his grasp under the Soul Sword Art, becoming an invisible flurry that danced through the air faster than any mortal eye could follow, shattering spear after spear mid-thrust.

The wraith retaliated with its most savage attack yet—its entire body folding inwards before bursting outward in a spiral of space rifts, each one slicing through reality like serrated blades.

Max’s lightning concept surged to its third level in full bloom; he activated Heaven-Piercing Thunderclap Sword, each form flowing seamlessly into the next, bolts of purple-red lightning spearing through rift after rift, sealing them one by one.

But the wraith adapted. With a shiver, it summoned a titanic blade made of compressed dimensions and swung it down, the sheer force threatening to cut the battlefield in half.

Max responded with Invincible Sword Domain of the Sky Shattering Sword Art, locking the creature’s movements in his oppressive field while unleashing Crimson Burial Sword Art – Burial of Nine Suns overhead.

Nine blazing suns descended, each wreathed in annihilating black flames, collapsing space around the wraith in a roaring implosion.

For a heartbeat, silence—then the wraith’s body shattered into a thousand shards of fractured reality. Cheers began to rise—until those shards swirled back together, reforming into its peak state as if nothing had touched it.

The crowd froze, disbelief and dread clawing at their throats.

The tiger-masked leader’s voice was low and grave. "It can reform endlessly... unless he strikes it at the very essence of its existence."

Max’s breathing grew heavy, but his eyes only sharpened. "Fine... essence it is." His body blurred, teleporting alongside the wraith as it teleported, matching its unnatural speed step for step. Red lightning scorched the sky, white star flames warped the battlefield, black flames devoured the edges of reality, and his sword flashed with the cutting power of space itself.

Every swing was a fusion of his four mastered concepts, every strike a declaration of dominance, and the aftermath of their clash was nothing short of apocalyptic.

The very sky trembled with each collision, black lightning and crimson starfire tearing through the heavens in waves of destruction.

Space warped and split open in jagged rends, swallowing chunks of reality before sealing shut with violent snaps.

Mountains crumbled into rubble under the shockwaves, their once-majestic peaks reduced to clouds of dust that were swept away by the raging storm of their battle. Hills were flattened into cracked wastelands, forests burned into seas of ash as black flames and white starfire devoured every tree in sight, leaving nothing but charred stumps and glowing embers.

Rivers boiled dry in an instant, their waters flashing into steam as the ground beneath them split apart.

Wherever they moved, the world itself seemed to collapse under the sheer force of their power, the earth scarred with massive craters and deep ravines. The battlefield became an endless wasteland of ruin—sky, land, and air all shredded by the meeting of ultimate speed, devastating flames, severing space, and world-breaking lightning.

Even the distant horizon seemed to warp, as if the world could no longer bear the weight of the clash between Max and the space wraith.

At last, Max gathered everything into one sword attack ’One Sword – All Conquered’. Time seemed to halt. The blade fell—not just through the wraith, but through its very anchor to existence.

A deafening roar, like the collapse of entire dimensions, rippled through the heavens as the space wraith let out a scream that carried no sound yet shook the souls of all who witnessed it. Its twisted, shifting form began to unravel from the very core of its essence, breaking apart into countless shimmering fragments that scattered like dust caught in an invisible wind.

Max’s eyes sharpened—he knew this was the moment. Without hesitation, black flames erupted from his body in a tidal wave, surging through the sky until they enveloped the entirety of the wraith’s disintegrating essence.

"Devour," he commanded inwardly, his will pressing down like a death sentence. The black flames twisted and coiled, consuming every fragment, pulling in the creature’s core existence and erasing it from the world.

A violent rush of mana exploded inside him, flooding through his meridians like a raging ocean, threatening to tear his body apart from within. Alongside the overwhelming power came a clarity—an intricate understanding of the laws of space itself.

Countless concepts and truths that had eluded him before now aligned in perfect harmony, and for several long minutes, he stood suspended in the air with eyes closed, absorbing it all. When his gaze finally opened, it was like a void had taken root within them.

"My space concept... has reached the 3rd level," he murmured, his voice calm yet carrying the weight of his breakthrough.