Ashborn Primordial-Chapter 464: To The Death

Prana cycling.

Aspect of the Demon God.

Haste.

The pillars of Vir’s abilities did more than simply enhance them. They augmented each other, working with such perfect synergy, Vir had wondered if they’d been designed as such.

Prana Cycling laid the foundation, enhancing Aspect of the Demon God.

Growing in height and sprouting horns from his demonic helmet, Vir’s jet-black armor billowed black prana so thick it turned visible. And while the Gargan Ultimate Bloodline Art might have made him invulnerable to conventional attacks, it did more than just that—it also enhanced all of his other magic.

When it was itself augmented with Prana Cycling, that enhancement became manifold more potent, multiplying Vir’s already fearsome strength, durability and speed to unheard-of levels.

Haste completed Vir’s enhancement trifecta, and when augmented by the other two, slowed the world around Vir to a mere crawl.

With all of these arts working in tandem, Vir had just barely been able to keep up with Jagath’s ludicrous speed.

That, however, was not going to be an issue with Annas, whom he had defeated before. And while the Bairan tournament restricted Chakra and therefore several tactics, Vir doubted Annas had suddenly learned to quintuple his speed—for that was the only hope Annas had of keeping up with him.

And unlike Annas, Vir had grown by leaps and bounds since then.

Vir opened his Shield and Foundation Chakras, granting him solid defense against any Life and Warrior Chakra attacks Annas might hurl his way, but he wasn’t done yet.

Not allowing Annas to make the opening move, Vir took the initiative, surging forth with such force that the rock underfoot cracked and exploded.

That was with Balancer of Scales lightening himself and weighing down his enemy.

Vir hoped to blindside his foe with sheer speed and aggression—ending the fight before Annas could strike back… or bring to bear whatever trump card he had undoubtedly prepared.

Dozens of katar and chakram prana projections pummeled Annas along with a veritable torrent of Prana Darts, slamming into the kothi just moments before Vir smashed his fist into the demon, buckling his seric chest armor and driving a raging river of prana into his body.

Annas offered up no defense. Whether because he’d failed to anticipate Vir’s speed or because Vir’s aggressiveness had caught him off guard as he’d hoped, Vir’s strikes landed true, his Ash Prana traveling unresisted into Annas’ body, overloading and bursting his blood, sending him flying from the sheer impact alone.

The demon tumbled to a stop, coughing blood.

Vir didn’t even think of stopping there.

Prana darts. Blade Projections and Barrages. Life Chakra attacks and Ash Prana surges.

Vir deployed every offensive tool in his arsenal one after another, releasing a maelstrom of death, his prana burning at rates that outstripped entire armies of lesser beings.

When his attacks hurled Annas away, he reduced his weight with Balancer of Scales to quickly move ahead and blast his foe in the opposite direction.

Annas’ body was pummeled so hard and so fast that he never even had a chance to hit the ground between each strike.

To an onlooker, it must have seemed as though Vir was beating up a child—or a toy.

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Yet the kothi doggedly held onto his consciousness, even as his limbs snapped and wound after wound opened all over his body.

And then, with Vir’s katar poised above the kothi’s chest, about to drive into his heart, his foe grinned.

Vir never saw it coming. Not because of his speed or cunning, but because Annas’ retaliation came in the form of something none could ever have predicted. 𝖗аΝＯΒΕŠ

An aura of unbridled power burst from Annas, physically slamming into Vir.

The power of the Crown.

By all rights, Annas could not have opened that Chakra, for it was not so trivially mastered. Demons had spent their entire lives failing to reach it. How could he be wielding it now? Had he hidden his power all this time?

No. Annas was not the sort of demon who could resist the allure of power and the status it brought.

It mattered not. Vir’s Shield Chakra was fully open, and while the Crown may enhance Annas’ body and magic in the same way that Vir’s Aspect of the Demon God and Prana cycling did, it still could not bridge the monumental gap between them.

Or so Vir thought.

For when it came to Chakras, monumental gaps could be closed in an instant.

Vir could only watch in horror as Annas unleashed his Warrior Chakra at point-blank range.

His Shield Chakra held for but an instant before sputtering closed, leaving his soul exposed and vulnerable.

For against the power of the Crown, there was no defense without a Crown of one’s own.

Annas’ enhanced Warrior Chakra passed through Vir’s prana and his armor, striking deep. Striking the very core of Vir’s existence.

Something precious. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Rending.

Searing.

Shattering.

Not his body, but his soul.

Vir clutched his heart, screaming in pain, for it was a pain unlike any other. As though the core Vir’s very existence was being erased away—unmade.

In the span of a second, Vir was crippled. Torn.

Yet despite the crushing agony, something deep within him stirred. A whisper of a warning. Danger, and the certain death it would bring if he succumbed.

Drawing on the willpower he’d forged through a thousand battles, Vir forced himself to roll aside—narrowly dodging a barrage of Warrior Chakra attacks.

Thoughts came slowly, and so, acting purely on reflex, Vir sank into the shadows. Into the Shadow Realm, where no Chakra could reach.

The blackness enveloped him and his bodily functions halted, though it was no respite from the pain. From the damage.

Vir could feel it—the core of his existence, shattered like broken glass. And once broken, glass could never be made whole again. Not even if all the shards were reassembled.

Maiya and Cirayus had been right.

He’d been an utter fool. A fool to try and save a few dozen children when the fate of the realm rested on his shoulders.

As for what would become of him, Vir did not know.

What he did know, however, was that his ten seconds were quickly running out, and his capacity for conscious thought with it. If he did not destroy Annas right now, he would surely die.

Maybe that’s not so bad, Vir thought. Anything to end the pain.

Pain that made thinking feel like an impossible dream.

And then he imagined Maiya’s grief—her world as shattered as his soul.

He imagined Greesha and Janani put back under the thumb of Draconian Chitran rule, their efforts for naught.

He remembered every demon who had sacrificed their life for him—for his promise of a brighter future. A unified realm in which no demon suffered prejudice or the tragedies of war.

To fail now would mean the end of not just his life. It would mean killing the hopes and dreams of thousands upon thousands.

Yet each moment that passed robbed him of consciousness, robbed him of thought.

Soon, he would be nothing more than a mindless husk, unable to resist as Annas extinguished his life.

So, upon being ejected from the Shadow Realm, Vir soared to the one place Annas could not reach. He grasped for the one tactic that might end this blight of a Chitran.

Decreasing his weight, Vir launched himself into the sky—soaring higher and higher, leaving Annas in the dust below.

“You are done!” he heard Annas scream from the earth, lost in the rush of victory. “You are ended!”

Vir paid his words no mind. Staying conscious was all he could manage.

As he reached the apex of his jump and began to fall, Vir did the only thing he could.

He enhanced his weight to its absolute maximum.

Diving headfirst, his katar extended in front of him, Vir did everything he could to gain speed.

Seeing Vir’s descent, the Kothi deftly stepped aside, easily missing his katar by several feet.

But it mattered not. Vir wasn’t aiming for Annas.

For here, in the Demon Realm, where sunset reigned eternal, the shadows ran long and deep.

And with timing that would have ruined him had he been even a fraction of a second early or late, Vir sank into one.

It was an old move. One he had mastered long ago, though no less deadly than anything else in Vir’s arsenal.

After all, there were few beings in any realm that could resist the incredible force of a prana-bladed katar…

…driving through the shadows, through the rectum, and out the skull.

Not when accompanied by the force of a hundred Virs in weight.

Annas would never know what hit him.

He was already dead the moment Vir left his shadow.

A thousand cheers and howls erupted as Annas’ body was cleaved in two, but Vir never heard them.

His vision swam. No longer able to feel his legs, Vir stumbled, crashing to the ground.

So this was his plan all along…

It was only now, at the very end, that Vir realized his mistake.

Annas had not waged this war—had not sacrificed thousands—to win.

He’d done it to take Vir down even if it cost him his life.

And he had succeeded.

The world turned dark, and it was all Vir could do to utter one, final word.

“…Maiya.”