I alone am the Honoured One!

681  The Dusk of the Bloody Invasion - Interlude

The moment Elvoria prepared to counter against Zhao Tian, a blur of crimson streaked through the air.

Velnorah reappeared at Elvoria's flank with her scythe already in motion, slicing toward her mother's ribcage in a precise arc.

The blade carried a powerful vacuum effect, pulling in the surrounding air and twisting it into a sharp vortex of compressed blood energy.

*SWOOSH*

Elvoria raised her arms up, blocking the attack with her forearm, but the force of the strike still sent vibrations rippling through her bones.

Sparks of blood energy crackled where the blade met flesh, the pressure leaving a thin, shallow gash along her arm... the first real wound Velnorah had ever inflicted on her mother.

"You've improved, little one."

Before Velnorah could pull back, Elvoria retaliated instantly.

She shifted her weight, her free hand twisting mid-air as her palm glowed with concentrated blood energy, and with a sharp thrust, she drove her fingers straight toward Velnorah's exposed chest.

*crack* But before the attack could land, a crackling explosion of black lightning cut through the space between them.

Zhao Tian teleported directly behind Elvoria, his sword already coated in a mixture of lightning and space energy.

A single slash aimed at her spine.

Elvoria's crimson gaze flickered, and in a split second, she twisted her body, bending her spine at an impossible angle to dodge the attack.

Zhao Tian's blade whistled through empty air, barely missing her flesh...

But before she could counter, Velnorah capitalized on the opening.

She drove her knee upward, striking Elvoria's abdomen with brutal force, her blood energy flaring around her like a fiery explosion.

"Urghh..." Elvoria grunted, her body jerking slightly from the impact.

But she recovered instantly.

Her hand lashed out, grabbing Velnorah's ankle mid-air, and with inhuman strength, she swung her daughter like a whip, aiming to slam her into the ground...

Only for Zhao Tian to intercept.

He caught Velnorah mid-air, pivoting as he used his momentum to launch her back toward Elvoria like a human projectile.

Velnorah flipped gracefully, and she slashed downward with the scythe.

Elvoria barely dodged in time, but Velnorah had expected that.

The moment her scythe missed, she released the weapon...

And with a flick of her fingers, the blade suddenly extended, bending through the air like liquid, following Elvoria's dodge like a snake.

Elvoria's eyes narrowed and she manifested a shield of blood energy, blocking the attack just in time.

*clank* The force sent her skidding backward in mid-air, her boots scraping against the ground.

For a moment, she looked at her arm.

The blood shield had absorbed most of the force, but a thin cut had formed on her wrist.

Velnorah landed beside Zhao Tian taking heavy breaths but her grip on her scythe was steady.

They both knew this was their chance.

Without hesitation, they charged together.

Zhao Tian vanished, teleporting directly to Elvoria's left.

Velnorah darted forward, her scythe weaving a deadly arc toward Elvoria's neck.

Elvoria parried the first strike with the edge of her palm, but before she could follow up, Zhao Tian's sword materialized from the space, its blade humming with compressed spatial energy.

She twisted, her arms moving fluidly as her crimson claws blocked his sword just before impact.

*clank* The shockwave from their clash cracked the air, sending ripples of distorted energy outward.

Velnorah flipped mid-air, reappearing behind her mother as her scythe's blade detached into a chain and wrapped around Elvoria's arm.

But Elvoria reacted immediately.

With one sharp pull, she yanked Velnorah toward her, using her own weapon against her... @@novelbin@@

Only for Zhao Tian to intercept.

As Velnorah was pulled forward, Zhao Tian grabbed her wrist, pivoting her momentum, and together they spun mid-air, launching her scythe forward in a spiraling slash.

The attack came from both sides at once... Zhao Tian's sword from the right, Velnorah's scythe from the left.

Elvoria grinned.

She parried Zhao Tian's sword with her elbow, while her left palm caught Velnorah's scythe between her fingers.

"Too slow."

She kicked Zhao Tian's knee, forcing him off balance.

At the same time, she pulled on Velnorah's scythe chain, sending her flying over her shoulder... right into Zhao Tian.

Zhao Tian twisted mid-air, stabilizing himself, before teleporting behind Elvoria again.

Elvoria tried to block...

But this time, Zhao Tian anticipated her counter.

He teleported twice in succession, appearing at her blind spot, and drove his blade toward her ribs.

At the same moment, Velnorah reappeared above Elvoria, her scythe descending like a guillotine.

Elvoria clicked her tongue, realizing her disadvantage.

Instead of dodging, she released a sudden explosion of blood mist, blinding both of them for half a second.

But Zhao Tian and Velnorah had already adjusted.

As the mist engulfed them, Zhao Tian extended his Space Domain, sensing every fluctuation in movement.

Velnorah also used her senses to track her mother's pulse through the mist.

The moment Elvoria tried to reposition herself, they both struck at once.

Zhao Tian's sword pierced through her lower back.

Velnorah's scythe cleaved across her chest.

"Grughhhh!" Blood erupted from both wounds.

Elvoria stood there, her fingers tracing the blood trickling from the deep wounds carved into her body.

Zhao Tian's sword had pierced straight through her lower back, the blade humming with spatial distortion, preventing the wound from healing properly.

Velnorah's scythe had sliced across her chest, cutting through flesh and bone, and disrupting her blood essence.

The blood mist dissipated, revealing the ruined battlefield around them.

The sky was still dyed in crimson, the sigils of her shattered domain pulsing erratically.

She lifted her gaze, her lips parting slightly as if she was about to say something...

But Zhao Tian and Velnorah weren't done.

Before she could even attempt to retaliate, they moved together.

The impact sent a violent tremor inside her body as blood and organs gushed out of her body like a paste.

"GRURGHHH!"

Velnorah pivoted mid-air and she raised her scythe high above her head.

"Goodbye, Mother..."

She swung down with all her strength.

*SLEESH*

The blade cleaved through Elvoria's entire torso, slicing her in half.

A moment of silence followed.

"GUHH!" A sharp, choked gasp escaped Elvoria's lips and her eyes widened, the swirling crimson within her eyes flickering as though a part of her had finally begun to understand...

... that this was the end.

No second chances.

Her upper body separated from the lower half, cleaved so cleanly that for a fraction of a second, her consciousness still clung to existence, her mind struggling to comprehend what had just happened.

Blood erupted from the wound like a torrential spray of deep red...

The raw power of Velnorah's scythe and Zhao Tian's spatial distortion had severed not just her flesh but her very essence, unraveling her from the inside out.

Her severed lower half crumbled first, breaking apart into flakes of blackened mist, dispersing into the wind.

Her upper half remained for a moment longer and her fingers twitched as if trying to reach for something...

A weapon?

A counterattack?

No.

She was reaching for something she could never grasp again.

Her crimson lips parted as if she wanted to say something—to curse, to sneer, to laugh...

But the words never came.

Her body disintegrated into a swirling burst of crimson mist, vanishing into the sky, leaving behind nothing...

Elvoria Di Gardia is dead.