The Heavenly Demon of Terror-Chapter 318: The Null Spine: Final Confrontation

Samuel's POV

Ezra stood before us like a wound in the world.

The cavern twisted around his presence — veins of obsidian cracking with voidfire, gravity warping with every breath he took. His body was a shadow-wrapped vessel of chaos: tendrils sprouting from his back, his arms pulsing with dark glyphs. And those eyes... bottomless pits, wide open to eternity.

"This is your final chance," I said, stepping forward, sword drawn, flame licking along its blade. "Surrender, or die."

Ezra laughed. Not cruelly. Not madly. Just... like a man who knew he was already beyond consequence.

"I am already dead, Samuel," he said. "You're just here to join me."

Then he moved.

The world snapped.

Ezra blurred across the cavern, shadows peeling like skin behind him. His fist struck Henry first — a wave of compressed void slamming into him, sending him spiraling into a column of shattered bone.

"Owen!" I shouted.

Already in motion, Owen transformed mid-leap — fur bursting, claws glowing with primal energy. The Beast roared as he tackled Ezra, slamming him into the ground with an earthquake punch. But Ezra melted under him like smoke — rising behind with a blade formed of despair itself and slicing deep across Owen's back.

Owen bellowed in rage, spun, and slammed his claws into Ezra's face, tearing off half of it. It regrew instantly — wet and wrong.

"Disgusting," Owen growled, blood dripping.

Roselle's voice echoed through the chamber. "NOW!"

Darkness exploded.

Roselle descended from the shadows above — a goddess wreathed in writhing serpents of night, her hair like living black fire. She threw her hands forward and reality bent — tendrils of void-laced darkness latching onto Ezra and ripping at him, trying to separate his form from the core of power within.

Ezra screamed.

His flesh tore, his bones cracked backward — and still, he fought.

He turned toward Roselle, eyes blazing. "You betrayed me once, Witch of Night. Do it again, and I'll unravel your spine strand by strand."

Roselle just smiled coldly. "Try me."

Then Nocturne arrived.

She walked into the fray like despair itself. The Goddess of Despair didn't move fast. She didn't need to. Her presence dropped the temperature to frostbite and silence. The moment her feet touched the cavern floor, the very stone began to weep.

Ezra staggered.

Nocturne raised a single finger — and pointed.

Ezra screamed again, this time in agony, as a thousand shattered memories burst from his back like wings and burned. His regrets, his pain, the children he murdered, the gods he betrayed — all of it manifested and turned on him.

Henry appeared beside me, bruised and bloodied, but alive. "Got a plan, boss?"

I grinned.

"Oh yeah. I'm done holding back."

I unleashed the power.

The flames roared from within me — true fire, forged in the death of suns. My sword ignited like a comet in my hands. I sprinted at Ezra while Nocturne and Roselle bound him down with fear and shadow.

Ezra roared, broke free, and met me head-on.

We clashed.

Metal screamed. Sparks and void exploded. His blade met mine, and the cavern shattered behind us. He caught my face with a tendril — I spit blood and slammed a knee into his chest, then slashed through it with a scream of rage.

"I'm not just here to kill you," I shouted. "I'm here to erase you!"

Henry joined in, lightning crackling around him, hurling bolts that exploded like warheads. Owen charged in from the side, fully beast now, tearing through Ezra's limbs one by one. Roselle summoned blades of twilight that rained down from above like a divine execution. Nocturne whispered words that broke time — slowing Ezra's movements, paralyzing his mind.

Ezra fell to one knee.

Bleeding, burning, broken.

He looked up, mouth curled into a defiant smile.

"You think this ends with me?"

"No," I said, stepping forward, sword raised.

"It ends because of you."

And I drove the blade through his chest.

Light burst from the wound — no, not light. Release. The corrupted energy inside him began to unravel, scream, and implode. Everyone shielded themselves as Ezra's body twisted, cracked, and finally shattered into dust and ash.

Silence.

Just... silence.

Then Roselle walked up beside me.

"It's done."

Owen collapsed to one knee, panting.

Henry groaned and fell flat on the ground. "I'm never chasing a psychopath into a death realm again. Next time, send a letter."

I stood there, blade still glowing, and whispered:

"Game over."

But deep in my heart, something stirred — a faint echo left behind.

Ezra was dead.

But his whisper wasn't.