Chapter 135: Sneaky Duke

Duke Haborym was not an opponent that could be taken lightly.

Even with the overwhelming support of the Cathedral, even with divine arts and an archangel fighting at his side, Corbin had struggled to keep up with the Duke’s sheer power. Every exchange had pushed him to his limits, every clash threatening to crush him outright.

And yet Damian had done it.

He had stood against that same monster and forced it back.

From where she stood, Linda could not comprehend what she had just witnessed. Her understanding of the very laws that governed strength felt insufficient in the face of what Damian had just displayed.

The world follows a rule Damian had come to understand and accept over the past few months.

To gain, one must give.

There was no such thing as absolute advantage. Every benefit came with a cost, every miracle demanded a sacrifice. Even in the human world, the wealthy gave up their time, their health and peace in exchange for power and success.

Nothing was free and the same law governed his power.

Dark Miracles is a transaction. For every wound it healed, for every problem it resolved, it demanded an equal price in return. Balance had to be maintained. The world would not allow anything less.

But Damian had found a loophole.

As the caster of the skill, he was not bound to bear that cost himself. He could shift it and force someone else to pay the price in his stead.

That was what had just happened. It was the same way he healed Twenty’s would have taken it on himself but this time he was the one dishing out the injuries.

The only downside to this skill is that Dark Miracles consumed a massive amount of demonic force with each use. A full hundred units vanished instantly, barely seven hundred remained.

The moment Duke Haborym’s body slammed into the ground, it did not stay there.

Boom!

He rebounded off the shattered earth like a coiled spring unleashed, landing firmly on his feet as his massive frame skidded backward, carving deep trenches into the ruined battlefield before finally stabilizing.

There was no pause.

Two of his intact arms shot upward instantly, his movements sharp and decisive. At that same moment…

BAM!

Damian’s feet struck the ground with crushing force, the impact causing the earth beneath him to sink several inches as his body anchored itself in place.

But that was not the real threat. Behind Damain a monstrous tsunami of azure flames had already formed, towering high above like a collapsing wall of destruction, surging forward with unstoppable momentum.

Duke Haborym’s eyes flared.

“ROOOOAR!!!”

With a violent shove, he drove his remaining strength forward, blasting Damian off balance and launching him backward into the air.

Before the prince could regain control, the Duke’s three heads snapped forward and opened wider than what should have been possible.

Their jaws stretched unnaturally, splitting far beyond their limits as their throats expanded, glowing with a deep, rolling emerald light that churned violently within..

From all three mouths, an overwhelming torrent of emerald flames erupted, flooding outward in an instant. It was not a stream. It was not a blast.

It was an ocean.

A massive body of hellfire poured into existence within seconds, expanding rapidly until it rivaled the scale of Damian’s own inferno.

The sheer speed of it made his eyes widen.

Even now…

Even after everything he had seen…

This ability still shocked him.

The ease with which this demon could unleash such a terrifying volume of fire was absurd.

Without hesitation, Damian reacted.

His body shot backward, retreating sharply through the air, creating distance between himself and the incoming sea of emerald destruction.

As he moved, his azure flames surged past him, overtaking his position and charging forward to meet the hellfire head on.

And then—

They collided again.

BOOOOOOM!!!

The impact unleashed a deafening explosion, the clash of blue and green tearing through the battlefield as shockwaves erupted outward, shaking the very air and sending violent tremors across the land.

But this time something felt wrong. Damian’s eyes narrowed as a strange sensation crawled across his skin. He glanced down and saw goosebumps. His entire body reacted instinctively!

His brows furrowed and slowly, his gaze shifted, tracing the source of this unsettling feeling to his own shadow stretched far behind him by the overwhelming glow of the flames.

And within that darkness six burning emerald eyes stared back at him filled with pure, malicious intent.

Duke Haborym moved.

From within the shadow, his massive form burst forth without warning, tearing through the darkness like a predator lunging from beneath the surface. All six arms surged forward at once, their claws reaching straight for Damian’s neck with lethal precision.

It was too sudden!

FWOOSH!!!

A geyser of white flames exploded outward from Damian’s body.

The Ninefold Samsara Firefox erupted violently, its pure white inferno surging in all directions like a divine eruption. The flames twisted and coiled with a will of their own, roaring as they forced the Duke back before his claws could make contact.

Duke Haborym’s body was thrown off balance.

He skidded across the air, his feet dragging against nothing as he forced himself to halt, his eyes narrowing sharply as he assessed the sudden backlash.

Then he noticed it. One of his hands was burning.

The arm he had extended toward Damian was engulfed in white flames. The fire clung to his flesh unnaturally, crawling across his skin with terrifying persistence

The Duke’s expression darkened instantly. Without even a moment of hesitation he tore it off.

Rip!

With brute force, Duke Haborym ripped the entire arm from his own body, tearing it free at the shoulder as blackened blood burst outward, splattering across the battlefield in thick streams.

The severed limb fell, still burning. He did not spare it a glance and simply tossed it aside. This was because he knew that fire was not something to be taken lightly.

The Ninefold Samsara Firefox was not ordinary flame. It was not hellfire, nor divine fire. It was annihilation. Once it latched onto a sinful being, it would not stop. It would burn endlessly until nothing remained.

Not flesh, not bone, not even the soul. Everything would be erased unless the one who summoned it chose to withdraw it!

He dared not take chances

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