Supreme Bloodline Evolution System
Chapter 180: Piercing the Arbiter’s Throat
For a short time, neither of them could control their bodies. They were tossed through the sky like broken weapons, crashing through dust, stone, and dying light until both of them forced themselves to stop.
Max’s breathing was ragged. Blood ran down his chin and dripped from the tips of his claws. His left wing hung strangely behind him, broken enough that every movement sent pain flashing through his spine. The shining darkness around his body flickered, but it did not vanish.
Aurelian hovered across from him, his condition finally looking no better. The angelic avatar was shattered, barely holding together around his body, one wing gone and the faceless head cracked open. His ruined skin had been burned black along one side of his face, and golden blood flowed from his mouth, chest, and the deep claw wound Max had left earlier.
The book floated beside him, its pages turning slowly now as if even that ancient power had been damaged.
Aurelian was still stronger in ways Max did not fully understand, still older, still carrying the authority of something far beyond this world, but that single overwhelming difference from before had cracked.
Max knew he could hurt him now.
Aurelian moved first, gathering the remains of his golden avatar around his body as its broken wings turned into blades of light.
Max rushed to meet him, no longer relying on one massive attack, his void stretching into a blade in his hand while his claws remained ready.
They collided in the air again, but this time, Max did not feel like he was striking a mountain. He felt resistance, terrible resistance, but something he could push against. He smirked.
Aurelian’s light cut across his shoulder and opened his scales, while Max’s void blade tore through the edge of the avatar and carved into the gray flesh beneath.
The Arbiter struck him with a palm covered in golden symbols, and the impact cracked several of Max’s ribs, but Max answered with his own fist, driving shining darkness into Aurelian’s chest hard enough to make the golden blood burst from his mouth.
They kept moving, each exchange tearing more from both of them. Light burned holes through Max’s armor. Void carved wounds into Aurelian’s body. Their powers slammed against each other again and again, not as one overwhelming spell, but as a brutal fight between two beings who could no longer afford to hold anything back.
Aurelian tried to rise higher and open the damaged book again, but Max saw the movement and refused to give him even that single breath.
He shot forward, ignoring the pain screaming through his broken wing, grabbed one of the remaining wings of the avatar, and pulled with all the strength left in his body. The golden wing tore apart in his hand, scattering feathers of light across the sky, and Aurelian roared for the first time with something that sounded close to hatred.
He slammed his knee into Max’s stomach, making blood burst from his mouth, then drove a blade of light through Max’s side. Max’s eyes shook from the pain, but his hand closed around Aurelian’s wrist before the Arbiter could pull away.
The void crawled over the golden arm, eating the light gathered there, and Max headbutted him with enough force to break more pieces from the remaining mask.
"Die, you old freak!" Max roared, his voice filled with desperation as he tried to end this battle with everything he had.
Both of them began to fall.
They crashed down through the dust and broken golden feathers, striking the ruined mountain hard enough to split the ground beneath them.
Aurelian tried to roll away, tried to drag the broken book toward himself, but Max landed over him before he could rise. His knee slammed into Aurelian’s chest, pinning him down for one second, and in that second Max formed the void blade again, longer and heavier than before, its edge shaking from the amount of power forced into it.
Aurelian’s golden eyes widened as he gathered light in his mouth, trying to chant, trying to call the book, trying to summon another decree from whatever gods stood behind him.
Max did not let him. "It’s over, old bastard," Max growled, his voice low and filled with killing intent.
He grabbed the Arbiter by the throat with one hand and drove the void blade down with the other.
The Arbiter laughed.
But that laughter was not normal.
It was cracked, rotten, and deep, scraping through the air in a way that made Max’s blood run cold. It did not sound like amusement. It sounded like something ancient finding joy in a disaster that had not yet arrived.
"Useless creature," Aurelian spat, golden blood bubbling at the corner of his broken lips. "Do you even understand what killing me will bring upon you? Do you understand what it will bring upon this washed-away region of yours?"
Max’s eyes narrowed, disgust crawling across his face as he stared down at the Arbiter beneath him. Even now, pinned to the mountain, even now with the void blade pressed against his throat, this thing still spoke as if everyone around him was already dead and only too stupid to know it.
"I don’t care anymore," Max said, his voice low and rough from exhaustion. "Either way, I will die if I let you capture me. So why not struggle for a little longer and give myself a chance at life?"
The Arbiter laughed again, even more crazily this time, his ruined throat trembling against the edge of the void blade.
"Chance at life?" Aurelian pressed his own neck harder against Max’s blade, as if daring him to finish it. "You puny mortal have no right to wish for such a luxury."
Max’s grip tightened.
The void blade sank deeper.
Aurelian’s laughter broke into a wet, choking sound as the blade pierced through his neck and pinned him to the shattered mountain beneath them. Black mist exploded from the wound, swallowing the golden light spilling out of him, while golden blood sprayed across Max’s arm and steamed against his scales.
"Go to hell," he said in a low voice.
The whole battlefield fell silent for a single breath as Max leaned over him, wounded, bleeding, shaking from exhaustion, but still holding the Arbiter down by the throat while the void blade trembled inside the ground.
And beneath him, Aurelian’s cracked golden eyes slowly turned toward the broken book lying just beyond Max’s reach.