Dancing on the golden ashes

"You're good, but not good enough!" the man shouted, his voice filled with fury as he swung his massive sword at me once again. The sheer force behind his strike pushed me back, and I was forced to take a few steps back in the air to regain my stance. But that small retreat gave him the opening he needed.

Suddenly, small rifts opened in the sky, and icy needles began to rain down on me with terrifying speed and precision. The air shimmered with the cold as the deadly projectiles descended like a hailstorm. I danced through the air, dodging each needle with grace, my body moving fluidly. If anyone had seen me now, they would've thought I was merely performing a bizarre dance, twirling in the air with my scythe. But this wasn't a dance—it was a fight for my life. A battle between fire and ice.

As I neared him, my fire scythe expanded, growing to the size of twenty meters. The flames burned brighter, roaring with intensity. With all my might, I swung the scythe at the beast. The flames erupted in a violent explosion, melting the ice needles midair, turning them into water that rained down around me. My scythe, now blazing with immense heat, connected with the Ice Emperor. He tried to block the attack, but it was futile. My scythe cleaved through his weapon like it was made of paper, cutting through his body with ease.

But even as his body split in two, I knew it wouldn't be that simple. He was no ordinary beast. His body began to regenerate quickly, the two halves reconnecting in mere moments. I had to be faster, much faster.

I focused, drawing on the knowledge I had gained during my travels. One thing I had learned was that I could create not just one weapon with my soul, but multiple, even an army of weapons. The system had limited me at first, but I had surpassed that. On my command, the fire surged, infused with lightning. I hid the weapons in my spatial pocket, calling upon them at will.

With a thought, I launched every single weapon. A barrage of fiery blades, crackling with lightning, shot out of the spatial pocket like bolts of pure energy, each moving at a speed so fast it was almost undetectable. The swords struck before the man even had time to react. Over a hundred fire swords pierced his body, leaving deep, gaping holes and scattering his form into countless pieces.

"Just die already!" I shouted in fury, my frustration boiling over. This was getting infuriating. How in the world could this thing still be alive? How dare it refuse me and keep clinging to life? This was unacceptable.

I shot high into the air, my body vibrating with pure anger. I focused all of my chaos energy into one small orb, a concentrated, destructive force that would end this.

"Today, I, Lee Gaon, the Demon Empress, will end your life!" I declared, my voice cold and filled with authority. "I don't care what you were in this world before. This world now belongs to its new inhabitants, and your time as a senior has ended. Thank you for your service."

Before the beast could regenerate, I sent the small black hole hurtling toward him. Even before it reached its target, the pull of the black hole began to devour everything in its path. I could feel the power surging through me, the connection between us pulsing as I watched him struggle. The man was finally dying—there was no escape now. He had no choice but to accept his fate.

At least, that's what I thought.

Suddenly, the world around us began to tremble. The earth cracked and shuddered as everything rushed into the man, as if the world itself was being pulled into him. Only a small layer of ground remained beneath our feet. The beast was fighting with everything he had left, his power resisting my black hole as the world crumbled beneath him. This shattered world was as good as dead now.

I felt his defiance, his desire to resist until the very end.

Fine, I thought. I will accept your struggle.

I watched as the beast fought against the black hole with everything he had, his energy crackling through the air like a storm. But it wasn't enough. My resolve hardened, and I formed another black hole in my hand, drawing on the last of my soul power. This was it. If this failed, there would be no coming back for me. I would be left too weak to continue, and the consequences would be beyond what I could even imagine.

The second black hole connected with the first, its insatiable hunger devouring everything in its wake. The man was quickly pulled inside, but something happened that I didn't expect. The black holes, powerful and uncontrollable, began to spiral wildly. I couldn't rein them in—they were not listening to me anymore. They continued to consume everything, pulling in more of the space around us, threatening to swallow this entire reality.

I realized with a cold shock that if I didn't stop them soon, I'd be dragged down with this world as it collapsed. This was no longer a fight for control, it was a battle against my own power, one that had spiraled out of my reach.

Suddenly, a system message rushed to my mind.

[Congratulations][You have reached level 250][Achievement updated: Slayer of the Demigods][Reward: Demigod Aura]

I felt the transformation happening to me. My body pulsed with new strength, power surging through me like a wildfire. But it didn't matter. I had no choice now. The black holes, fueled by my uncontrolled power, would devour whatever was left of this world. And I had to escape before I was consumed along with it.

In desperation, I used Space Shatter, tearing open a rift in reality. The rift formed quickly, a jagged crack in the air that pulled me away, whisking me to a place I thought of first.

When I stumbled through the rift, I found myself in the ruins of my broken empire. The place where it all began, my home... But it was no longer the land I remembered. The once grand structures were now nothing more than rubble, overrun by the encroaching greenery. Nature had reclaimed this place, and in its silence, I could feel the weight of my past mistakes pressing down on me.