CHAPTER 383: STRONG ENEMY

Space shuddered.

The very Rion’s runic seal seemed to resist his transformation, but it failed. Veins of darkness streaked across the heavens.

The air turned thick and toxic, saturated with a corruption that didn’t belong to Rion or even this universe. The mountaintop sank under his growing weight as if the land itself was bending under something it could not hold.

His figure stretched and contorted. His humanoid form twisted until it was something else entirely — neither beast nor god. A tall, wraith-like creature with a torso carved from living shadows and a halo of screaming souls flickering behind its head like dying stars.

Two eyes remained — pitch-black, abyssal — but now they bled dark light, seeping with hatred.

Apollo’s expression remained calm, but his pupils narrowed.

As this transformation was kind of similar to the guy he met in the sanctum, it seemed more controlled, and he could see that this guy didn’t lose his mind completely, meaning he had achieved some sort of level of control over the weird power.

That made it far more dangerous.

Apollo exhaled softly.

"A half-step into madness... and still lucid. That’s not possession. That’s synchronisation."

His aura didn’t rise, not yet. But it condensed — drawing inward like a blade being slowly unsheathed.

The monster’s voice came, layered and distorted, as if spoken from many mouths.

"Haha, did you see and feel the difference in our strength? Do you think you can stop me?"

He roared like a maniac, but his laugh seemed to contain terrifying power, shaking the land every moment; even the spiritual energy within the air seemed to have disappeared.

Apollo stepped forward, his eyes steady, voice calm yet carrying an undeniable authority. "Stand down. This one’s mine." He didn’t look back as he spoke — he didn’t need to. His guardian halted immediately, wordless but ready.

The ground beneath Apollo’s feet cracked faintly as he walked ahead, each step carrying the sharp intent of a blade drawn in silence.

"I’ll handle him alone."

Apollo slowly reached behind his back.

Shing—

A piercing sound echoed as a long, radiant blade emerged from its sheath — not with fury, but with terrifying serenity. The air froze. Space warped faintly around the sword’s edge, as though the very world rejected its presence.

The aura of the Eternal Sword Rule ignited.

From calm silence came an overwhelming sharpness. Mountains in the distance quivered. The corrupted sky above cracked with thin, hairline fissures of light.

The towering creature paused.

Its soul-born instincts screamed. It felt like danger from the Eternal Sword Rule.

Apollo held the sword loosely at his side, his gaze never leaving the abomination before him. "This blade doesn’t cut flesh..." he said, voice soft, deadly.

Then, without any grand motion or roar—

He moved.

He knew if it was like the previous time he met in the sanctum, he needed a powerful attack, and a half-baked attack wouldn’t do much. So he directly used the Eternal Sword Rule, which is the most effective.

He didn’t waste a breath.

A single step forward.

The air screamed.

Apollo raised his sword — and in that instant, the blade shone with a brilliance that seemed to split the heavens themselves. The Eternal Sword Rule erupted in full force, no longer restrained.

The world fell silent.

The world fell silent.

No chants. No buildup. Just clarity.

A single slash.

From horizon to horizon, a brilliant arc of sword light carved through the sky. It wasn’t just an attack—it was judgement.

The corrupted leader’s expression twisted in horror. Every screaming soul around him wailed in unison as the sword light approached. As even in his current state he felt extreme danger that he might lose his life.

"Impossible!" the abomination howled. He raised both arms, layers of darkness, sigils, and soul-burning barriers appearing in an instant to stop the strike.

But it didn’t matter.

The sword slash cut through all of it.

Apollo didn’t want to give it any chance, as he remembered it had the ability to devour, and most attacks didn’t work on it. So from the first attack, he meant to kill.

But just as it seemed he was about to be killed by the brilliant sword, a mysterious figure appeared between them.

"What!"

Boom!

He stretched his hand and collided with his sword attack.

A thunderous collision tore through the heavens.

BOOM!!

Light and darkness clashed in the skies above Rion.

The shockwave from the impact flattened entire mountain ranges, evaporated clouds, and even shattered the runic formations hovering faintly in the sky above the continent.

Apollo’s eyes narrowed as he took a half-step back.

He... blocked it?

The sword light dissipated slowly, like fading starlight, revealing the newcomer’s figure. The transformed guy behind him had collapsed, barely holding together, saved in the final moment.

But the one who stood before Apollo now—

He was... calm. Silent. Drifting slightly above the fractured earth, clad in robes that didn’t flutter despite the storm around them. His face was handsome, not like the guy behind him.

And the aura he gave was completely different, like he wasn’t bound to any world and transcended it.

Just from the aura, he guessed that this person might have surpassed eternal gods and become the overlord master who rules the universe.

Even though he stood calmly, his very existence distorted the natural flow of the world. But the power of rule seemed to envelop him, deterring everything.

His handsome face, serene and youthful, held no arrogance. But the way the land around him bent, how even Apollo’s divine perception was slightly blurred when trying to lock onto him.

He knew, as he had seen, transcended being in action in the war in the Black Flame Sovereign realm. Transcended beings strength truly transcended the realm where eternal gods are nothing but ants.

There have been several cases in the universe where a void god defeats a true god or a true god defeats eternal gods, but there haven’t been any cases where an eternal god defeats a transcendent being.

The strongest genius at the peak of an eternal god barely survived three attacks from a transcendent being, and that already became legend.