CHAPTER 195: RUPTURE

My blade throbbed with dark energy, drinking in the surrounding void like a living thing.

The vibration running up my arm as the weapon grew heavier, denser—each pulse feeding it strength until it felt ready to explode from the pressure building inside.

I tightened my grip and steadied my stance, one foot sliding forward through the dust while I leveled the blade before me. If he didn’t want to talk, that was fine. I’d carve out the conversation—beat the truth out of him if I had to.

Jael seemed to understand. His eyes narrowed, and without a word, he accepted the challenge.

He stepped forward and swung.

The motion was sharp, precise—too refined for brute strength alone. From the arc of his blade, a wave of death energy erupted, slicing through the air with a sound like ripping steel. The world dimmed in its wake, the ground wilting as it neared me.

I didn’t flinch.

The moment before it struck, I activated [Swap].

Reality bent with a metallic hiss, and in an instant, our positions reversed.

Jael appeared exactly where I had stood, while I now stood where he had been—his own attack roaring back toward him.

And to his surprise, instead of watching me take the full brunt of his attack, he was forced to watch it collide with himself.

"Graaah!"

The cry tore from his throat as the wave of death energy slammed into him, driving his armored frame backward across the rocky ground.

The impact kicked up a violent storm of dust and black sparks, his boots carving deep grooves as he fought to stay upright.

The energy clung to him, coiling like smoke, devouring the air around him—but instead of burning him alive, it simply sank into his body, merging back with its origin.

Of course it did. He was the source.

His own power recognized him.

When the haze cleared, Jael lifted his head, eyes glowing with fury as he searched for me—his snarl deep, animalistic, his aura surging again.

Too slow.

I blinked out of existence, [Warp] snapping me into place right behind him. My blade was already in motion before he could even turn.

I swung low and clean, aiming straight for the neck.

But Jael reacted on instinct, jerking his head and leaning backward just in time.

The edge missed flesh by an inch—close enough to shear through strands of his coarse hair.

The air didn’t escape unscathed, though.

A violent burst of void energy erupted from the blade’s arc, detonating in a shockwave that cracked the sky like thunder. The sound rolled through the mountains, deafening, while the force blasted chunks of debris outward, sending Jael staggering forward under the pressure of the blast.

Jael’s eyes widened the moment the shockwave split the air.

He reacted fast—leaping back in a blur of motion, boots grinding against the rock as he created distance between us. His expression shifted from anger to wariness, his gaze locking on the blade in my hand.

That look told me everything.

He’d just realized it—the energy radiating from the weapon wasn’t normal. It was wrong, volatile... otherworldly.

A grin crept across my face, and I swung, from a distance, arcs of compressed rift energy tearing through the air, each swing releasing a visible distortion that shimmered like fractured glass.

The slashes screeched as they cut across the battlefield, warping space in their wake as they streaked straight toward him.

Jael moved with surprising agility for his size. He ducked under one, rolled to the side to dodge another, then jumped high as a third tore through the ground beneath him, carving a deep rift in the mountain’s surface. Dust and debris exploded upward, painting the air with smoke.

But I didn’t let up.

Each step I took forward was followed by another swing, another slash of void tearing free from my blade. The rhythm was relentless—strike, warp, strike again. Every movement carried purpose, every attack pushing him further onto the defensive.

As I advanced, I summoned fire into my limbs, letting heat bloom across my right fist and leg until they burned with furious crimson light. The power from [Hellbrand] merged seamlessly with the void energy, fire and nothingness intertwining in chaotic harmony.

Jael must’ve realized dodging alone wouldn’t save him. His aura flared, thick tendrils of black mist spilling from his body as he finally retaliated. He slashed his own blade outward, unleashing a crescent of death energy that cut through the air like a blade of decay.

And our attacks finally collided—void meeting death in midair.

For a moment, the world went silent, caught between two impossible forces.

Then, instead of one consuming the other as I half-expected, Jael’s death slash fractured apart, splitting cleanly down the middle as if sliced by an invisible blade. Each half of his attack veered off course, still racing toward its target but weakened, unstable.

"Damn it," he snarled, the frustration bleeding through his voice, and his aura exploded outward, black tendrils writhing around him like smoke under pressure.

He surged forward, moving faster now—desperation sharpening his speed.

I tracked his motion, but before I could swing again, he ducked beneath another rift slash and closed the gap.

Big mistake.

I warped mid-step, reappearing at his flank, and drove my foot straight into his face.

The impact landed solid. A crack of bone echoed through the air, followed by an eruption of flame as the [Hellbrand]-charged kick detonated on contact. The blast threw him sideways, scattering dirt and rock in a fiery burst.

I didn’t give him a second to breathe. My blade followed immediately, cutting through the smoke in a downward arc aimed to cleave him in two.

But Jael wasn’t done.

Despite the explosion, he twisted his head and ducked low, the blade slicing just above him, shearing a line of sparks off his armor. In one smooth motion, he pivoted under my swing and thrust his free hand toward me—his entire arm now wreathed in an overwhelming surge of death energy so dense it made the air vibrate.

For a split second, I was caught off guard by how fast he recovered.

But instinct kicked in and I used [Mana Shield], the translucent barrier flickering into existence just as his palm struck—but it didn’t matter.

His hand tore through it like a hot blade through parchment, melting the defense in an instant.

The sound: a hiss and crackle of dissolving mana.

My eyes widened as his death-coated hand broke through the shield entirely, reaching for my face.

His hand...