Chapter 190: Crimson Transposition

Only sheer willpower remained, and neither combatant was finished yet.

The moment stretched not in silence but in tension so taut it felt like reality itself might shatter. Valeria faced the Crimson Abyssal Lion in a landscape that resembled the aftermath of divine punishment, a raw wound torn across the world.

The air trembled with residual mana; the ground beneath them defied natural laws, cracking and reforming under pressure beyond its limits. Ash drifted like snowflakes, glowing faintly where abyssal heat still lingered. Distant thunder rolled without clouds, born from mana collisions echoing over hundreds of kilometers.

Valeria exhaled slowly, blood dripping from her lips to sizzle against the scorched earth. Her vision wavered for just a moment not from fear but from exhaustion pressing at the edges of her consciousness.

The Exsanguinated Aegis had long since dissipated, her reserves were strained to their limit, yet she never loosened her grip on her sword.

The blade hummed softly, responding to the relentless rhythm of her heartbeat. Across from her, the Crimson Abyssal Lion lowered its massive head.

Though its eyes were gone, its presence sharpened. The abyssal flames enveloping its body tightened, no longer raging outward but coiling inward around dense muscle and blackened bone like armor forged by infernal will.

The five miniature suns orbiting it shifted their rotation until they blurred into rings of incandescent destruction. Each one radiated heat so intense that the ground beneath liquefied in rippling circles while the air bent violently as if space itself were trying to escape.

Valeria felt it immediately: this was no longer a contest of endurance.

The Lion had decided to end it. Without warning, the five suns separated and aligned themselves around its body before rotating in opposite directions. Their hum deepened into a violent resonance that vibrated through Valeria’s bones. The Lion planted its forelegs into the earth as abyssal fire erupted beneath its paws and then the suns fired.

Tiny spheres of condensed black flame shot outward rapidly, each screaming through the air like meteors compressed into fist-sized projectiles. They didn’t explode on impact; they erased everything within a hundred-meter radius into incandescent oblivion with delayed detonations.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The ground vanished amid chained eruptions as shockwaves tore through the landscape and molten stone surged skyward. Entire sections of terrain disappeared in overlapping spheres of destruction, creating a cascading storm of explosions advancing toward Valeria like a tide unleashed by divine wrath.

She moved instinctively. Her feet struck the ground once, twice and then she vanished as her body dissolved into motion. Blood-red mana flared beneath her boots as she activated her movement technique; space distorted around her form as if reality struggled to keep pace.

Level 5 Skill — Crimson Transposition.

Valeria didn’t just dodge; she repositioned herself with surgical precision, weaving between explosions as if choreographed. She slipped through narrow gaps untouched by destruction, her body flickering from one point to another in violent bursts of acceleration that shattered the air with thunderous claps. Each step she took tore apart the ground beneath her, leaving spiraling craters where she had once stood.

Explosions roared behind her and bloomed ahead. She charged straight into annihilation.

A sun detonated less than ten meters to her left, the shockwave hitting her like a mountain. Her armor cracked further, blood spraying from her shoulder as she spun with the force of the impact, using it to propel herself rather than resisting it. She landed hard, rolled once, and launched herself again, crimson mana surging as she adjusted her trajectory mid-flight.

The Lion tracked her effortlessly. The miniature suns shifted their firing patterns. No longer did they saturate the field indiscriminately; they began targeting her movements.

Valeria’s eyes narrowed, so it had learned.

The suns rotated faster now, firing in predictive sequences that overlapped where she would be instead of where she was.

The battlefield transformed into a living calculation designed to crush her through inevitability rather than brute force. Explosions detonated milliseconds before she arrived, forcing her to alter course repeatedly as the Lion guided her through controlled zones of destruction.

Then the Lion lunged. Its form blurred into motion, black flames compressing into a lethal silhouette as it crossed hundreds of meters in an instant. Jaws wide open, abyssal fire condensed between its fangs into a spear aimed directly at her heart.

Valeria didn’t retreat. Her feet slammed into the ground as crimson mana erupted outward; she twisted her grip on the sword while blood surged along its runes, sharpening her presence to an intense focus.

Level 5 Skill — Scarlet Sovereign: Thousandfold Severance.

In that moment, time seemed to slow, not because it obeyed her but because her mind transcended it. In that frozen instant, Valeria moved. Her sword blurred and then vanished before multiplying into hundreds of crimson afterimages erupting outward from her position, each one a projected blade formed from compressed blood-mana and absolute intent.

They didn’t scatter randomly; they formed a rotating execution field converging upon the Lion from every conceivable angle, a complex lattice of death sealing escape routes before the beast could react.

The Lion roared in defiance.

The projected swords struck with ferocity.

CLANG! CRACK! BOOM!

Blades collided with abyssal flame and hardened hide in violent flashes of crimson and black as Valeria surged forward at the center of this storm. Her real blade carved a path through chaos; each swing landed with devastating precision while flowing seamlessly into one another in an unyielding sequence that left no room for retaliation.

She wasn’t attacking at random; she was methodically dismantling her opponent. Each strike was aimed precisely at the joints, muscle groups, and mana circulation points, those critical areas where the Lion’s tremendous power concentrated before being unleashed.

She targeted tendons, disrupted its mana flow, and forced the beast to compensate for its injuries. Every time it adjusted, she punished those compensations immediately, never allowing it a moment to stabilize.

The Lion retaliated fiercely. Flames erupted from its body in jagged forms, spears, blades, whips, each one striking with deadly precision as it fought back like a seasoned warrior rather than just a beast.

Valeria took hit after hit, flames tearing through her armor and cutting deep into her flesh as she was thrown across collapsing terrain and slammed into molten earth.

Yet each time she rose again. Blood flowed freely now; her armor was shattered at the abdomen, a deep gash splitting her stomach where abyssal fire had seared her skin. Pain flared sharply and consumed her thoughts, but she pushed it down hard, channeling mana directly through the wound to stabilize herself mid-battle.

The Lion faltered ever so slightly; it hadn’t expected her resilience.

Seizing that moment of hesitation, Valeria activated Crimson Transposition once more. In an instant, she vanished from sight and reappeared directly beneath the Lion’s raised foreleg. Her blade flashed upward in a devastating arc as blood-mana surged through her veins; she poured everything into one decisive cut.

The sword bit deep, too deep.

ROARRRR!

The Lion roared in fury as its foreleg was severed cleanly at the joint. Abyssal blood erupted outward in a superheated torrent that scorched the land for miles around. The massive limb crashed to the ground like a falling tower, sending shockwaves rippling across the battlefield.

Valeria staggered under the backlash of energy that hit her instantly. The Lion retaliated without pause, a condensed sun detonating at point-blank range while she was caught mid-motion.

The explosion slammed into her like a collapsing star, hurling her through the air and completely tearing open the fracture in her armor.

She hit the ground hard, hard enough to create a crater. Her body skidded across molten stone before finally coming to rest, blood pooling beneath her as breathing became ragged and shallow. The gash on her stomach burned fiercely; mana leaked uncontrollably as her reserves dipped dangerously low.

Now standing on three legs, wounded but enraged, the Lion remained unbroken. Its aura intensified violently; abyssal flames surged higher while remaining suns spun faster above it, their glow shifting into an ominous black-red brilliance. Despite its injury, it stood taller than before, radiating dominance as if losing a limb had only sharpened its murderous intent.

Valeria pushed herself upright, sword trembling slightly in hand as she met its gaze or whatever passed for one in this monstrous creature. Blood flowed down her body, her armor in ruins, and her strength waning, but she stood tall, unyielding. Her presence sliced through the heavy atmosphere like a sharpened blade.

Neither of them spoke.

Neither took a step back. The battlefield groaned beneath their feet, reality itself straining under the weight of their impending clash, one wounded monarch of flame and one woman poised on the brink of something greater.

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