CHAPTER 439: ABYSSAL LEADER VS APOLLO AND COMMANDER

The leader’s flesh writhed, horns extending into bone spires. Wings of black corrupted mist tore from his back.

He pointed a claw toward Apollo.

"You should never have appeared here, sword whelp. You carry a rule that threatens the Abyss itself. You must die."

His voice reverberated with the weight of a powerful abyssal rule.

And in the midst of this world-crushing pressure, Apollo remained standing.

The land beneath him cracked—because of the terrifying pressure.

He felt the abyssal leader’s power that fully reached the peak of the half-step transcendent realm. It even felt like it could break the last barrier and reach the dream realm of true transcendence at any moment.

’So this is the half-step transcendent level... And a powerful one at that.’

His gaze sharpened, calm and icy.

The Eternal Sword Rule inside him stirred—slowly, like a sleeping giant turning in its slumber.

A faint hum brushed the air.

Commander, also seeing this, immediately burst out with terrifying and pure sword rule that seemed to have reached the fourth layer.

A level of refinement and purity that only those who had touched the borders of Transcendence could manifest.

Sword light spiralled behind him, forming a colossal phantom—

A sword forged of pure intent, towering like a mountain, steady enough to hold back the sky.

Every swordsman in the outpost felt their knees weaken.

Tamora’s breath caught. "C-Commander... he’s going all out..."

"Hmm, you puny life forms come then; let’s see if you two can survive." The leader of the abyssal monsters saw this and knew that the two of them were going to fight him to death.

But he was confident he wouldn’t let these two leave this place.

"Come." With that, he roared, and the battle began.

The heavens split the moment their auras collided.

It wasn’t the roar of sword energy nor the shriek of abyssal corruption but the raw distortion of powers clashing, two different rules forcing reality to choose a side.

The battlefield froze.

Even the abyssal monsters fell silent, instinctively backing away. Even the sword formations stopped humming, as if afraid to interrupt.

Commander made his move and slashed as the fourth layer sword rule surged along with cutting through the sky.

The phantom sword behind him—towering, solemn, forged of pure will—followed his movement like a god lowering its judgement.

SHIIIIIIIIING—

The cut was so sharp that sound itself lagged. Only when the stroke finished did the world remember to scream.

BOOOOOOM—!

A rift dozens of miles wide tore open, not from abyssal power... but because of the sheer sharpness of the commander’s sword.

Commander Sword’s rule was different from Apollo’s mysterious eternal sword rule. It was in fact one of the simplest kinds of sword rule. It was sharp and fast, but it didn’t mean it was weak; it was the exact opposite.

He had perfect control, and it was a very pure sword rule that killed millions of his enemies, making it sharper and faster by repeated process throughout his life.

The abyssal lord didn’t dodge but laughed.

"Hahahaha—!!"

A black mist-like aura formed around him and turned into weird tentacle armour that collided with the incoming slash.

Boom!

The commander’s strike slammed into the writhing, tentacled armour. The impact sent a shockwave ripping across the sky, and the battlefield beneath their feet split open with jagged fissures.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

Hairline fractures began to spread across the grotesque armour of intertwined tentacles, each split oozing a murky abyssal aura as the creature staggered back a half-step.

Even so, the armour writhed as if alive, the broken pieces twitching and stitching themselves in eerie, unnatural ways—proof that even damaged, the creature’s defence was a nightmare to bring down.

"Not bad; you were actually able to crack it, which even half-step transcendent cannot do."

"You look like you are more than troublesome, I thought." The abyssal leader said, looking at the commander with his voice carrying a hint of surprise.

But just as he was about to attack, another sword energy slash came from below, which was equally fast but was more ethereal. He didn’t get much time to dodge so he can naturally take it head on.

"What!"

Boom!

The powerful impact forced him dozens of steps and increased the number of cracks on his hideous armour.

"You—!" The abyssal leader’s voice warped with fury as he glared downward. That strike, impossibly sharp and ethereal, could only belong to one person—Apollo.

Apollo didn’t care about the Abyssal leader; he quickly came up next to the commander and nodded.

Two sword wielders—one forged through countless battles, the other carrying a rule that stirred like an ancient titan—now stood shoulder to shoulder.

What had been a fearsome battle for the abyssal leader had just become a two-on-one execution.

"You two are just ready to die."

The abyssal leader’s voice warped the air, dripping with murderous certainty. The moment he saw the two stand together, his fury ignited—no hesitation, no probing attacks. He lunged first.

"Black Devourer!"

His roar tore through the sky. Darkness surged from his body like an erupting abyss—thick, corrosive, hungry. It spread outward in a massive vortex, a spiralling maw of black tentacles and devouring mist that swallowed all light in its path.

The battlefield dimmed in an instant.

Both Commander and Apollo, seeing this instantly, also attacked at the same time.

"World Severing Sword."

"Sky Sword."

Two brilliant sword beams tore upward—one vast and domineering, one ethereal and boundless. Their radiance cut through the darkness like twin suns rising over a dying world.

The moment they struck the black vortex, light and shadow collided with catastrophic force.

BOOOOOOM—!!

The sky convulsed. The battlefield heaved. A ring of shockwaves exploded outward, ripping trenches through the earth and flinging lesser abyssal monsters away like scraps of paper.

Where the swords met the swirling abyss, the devouring darkness shuddered violently, its rotation stuttering as if two divine blades were prying it open from the inside.

Cracks of pure light began to appear along the vortex’s surface—bright, thin fissures like the sky itself was struggling to breathe again.

Bang!