Demon Blood Armor

Boom! A brilliant yellow radiance erupted from Tsar Peter, offering Edward not a split second to react before the Tsar's body detonated violently. Yet this detonation was exceptionally peculiar. The first shockwave pulled everything in the vicinity inward toward him, while the second shockwave violently repelled everything outward. In an instant, Edward was caught like the filling in a sandwich between the two explosive forces. "Aaaargh!" Crushed bit by bit, Edward could not help but let out a shrill, agonizing shriek. He had originally assumed he only needed to endure until the blast subsided. Little did he expect that at the very epicenter of the detonation, Tsar Peter, who had supposedly blown apart, reconstituted himself—and blew up again the very next second. *How is that possible?!* Catching sight of this out of the corner of his eye, Edward screamed in terror within his mind. With the second detonation, the pressure bearing down upon Edward instantly doubled. His ribs were the first to give way beneath the crushing strain; even with vast amounts of energy shielding him, crisp, snapping sounds rang out one after another. Right then, Tsar Peter reconstituted once more, and before Edward’s horrified gaze, his body exploded again. Pinned within the collapsing pocket, Edward screamed in sheer agony. His limbs were flattened in an instant, and blood spewed ceaselessly from his mouth. He looked downward in horror—Tsar Peter had appeared yet again. Luosha, Siberia. In a shelter buried deep beneath the permafrost, countless people sat cross-legged on the ground. Every few seconds, someone abruptly drew their last breath. Far from descending into panic, the rest wore resolute expressions, quietly waiting for their turn to come. Their lives were linked directly to Tsar Peter. Every fatal attack Tsar Peter suffered was redirected onto their bodies, and his own death would not come until every last one of them had perished. This was Luosha’s ultimate trump card, a suicidal measure meant to drag their enemy down into the grave with them. In mere minutes, the crushing force Edward bore had multiplied tens of times over. His head and torso were compressed flat, and blood squeezed out into thin sheets, trickling slowly toward the ground. "Peter!" Never had Edward hated anyone so intensely. Spurred by overwhelming hatred, he gritted his teeth and mustered one final, desperate struggle. The Demon Cross plastered tight against his back blasted clean through his own abdomen, using the tremendous recoil to fling itself into the distance. Coughing up a mouthful of blood, he confirmed that the distance was sufficient and immediately swapped positions with the Demon Cross. In an instant, he materialized high in the sky. With the suffocating pressure gone, his body rapidly reconstituted, while the Demon Cross appeared in the spot he had just occupied. "Hahahahaha! Peter, you still lost!" Having narrowly escaped death, Edward broke into a bout of wild, arrogant laughter. Yet the very next second, Tsar Peter abruptly manifested right in front of him, locked his arms around Edward's body, and, beneath Edward’s terrified gaze, detonated violently once more. Tsar Peter’s ability had always been shrouded in mystery. In the past, he had only made five public appearances: the first time he manipulated sand; the second time he controlled fire; the third time he commanded wind; the fourth time he governed water; and the fifth time he manifested magma out of thin air. Because his abilities were so comprehensive, Tsar Peter had once been hailed as the man without weaknesses. Yet his true ability was actually spatial displacement. He could distort two sets of spatial coordinates, twisting point A to point B, and point B to point A. This granted him immense versatility. His supposed sand control was merely manipulating individual grains of sand through rapid spatial coordinate swaps to generate a sandstorm, and his other abilities functioned under similar principles. However, this power had one limitation. Apart from himself, he could not displace the coordinates of other individuals. Otherwise, Edward would never have had any hope of escaping his fate as the filling in that crushing sandwich. After the blast, only half of Edward’s body remained, immediately pinned once more between the two opposing forces. A wave of dizziness washed over him, and he realized that if this continued, he would truly die. Gritting his teeth, he summoned the Demon Cross. As it flew toward him from the ground, he closed his eyes. The eyes of the demon etched onto the cross snapped open, and it unhinged its maw, instantly swallowing the battered Edward whole. "No!" This time, it was Tsar Peter’s turn to fall into despair. The Demon Cross was unfathomably durable; it did not fear Tsar Peter’s detonations in the slightest. Amid Tsar Peter’s agonized wails, explosion followed explosion, but every single one proved futile—every one of them a meaningless sacrifice. With each detonation, the radius of destruction expanded. The earth caved in completely, carving out a bottomless abyss, while the skies were blasted open, unveiling a vast expanse of clear blue. Yet it accomplished nothing. A day and a night flashed by, and the explosions finally ceased. Tsar Peter was obliterated into ash. No one knew how much agony he had endured before dying, but had a corpse remained, his eyes surely would have been wide open in bitter regret. During the Transcendent Era, Luosha had boasted a population of nearly sixty million. Now, barely ten million remained—and aside from pregnant women, the vast majority were infants and young children. The entire nation had poured everything into this battle, yet they had failed to kill Edward, leaving behind only tragic sorrow. *** Half an hour later. The land lay thoroughly devastated, with only the Demon Cross hovering unscathed in midair. Suddenly, billows of black smoke surged across the cloudless sky, blotting out the heavens and completely shutting out the sunlight. The Demon Cross swiftly descended to the rim of the massive crater. The demon on the cross opened its maw and spat out the badly deformed Edward. Only his upper torso remained. Lying naked upon the barren earth and surveying the desolate wasteland around him, he suddenly burst into mad laughter. He had survived! He had survived such a terrifying onslaught! As expected, he truly was the chosen one, destined to become the sole ruler of Earth. With a thought, Edward channeled vast amounts of energy to repair his body, simultaneously casting blood magic to accelerate his recovery. Before long, his missing lower half grew back. He sat up from the ground, glanced down at his fingers, and then furrowed his brows. His storage ring had completely shattered during the recent attacks. *Looks like I'll have to find some clothes later,* Edward thought, immediately wrapping crimson energy around his frame to avoid running around naked. Just as he prepared to leave, the black smoke overhead abruptly dispersed, and sunlight spilled downward. He hastily blocked the cascading light with his crimson energy. Squinting upward, he saw a silver-haired youth hovering in the sky, gazing down at him with frigid red eyes. "You're... that wild vampire, Yu Xian!" "Huaxia has a good saying: 'You wear out iron shoes hunting high and low, only to find it without lifting a finger.' To think you'd dare show your face before me!" Edward shifted from surprise to delight, ultimately fixing his gaze on Yu Xian and laughing maniacally. As long as he absorbed Yu Xian's blood, even if he couldn't become completely immune to sunlight, he would at least be able to operate under it for far longer. Had he not been wary of Huaxia back then, he would have dragged Yu Xian and Nora back to Rome Huchen long ago and drained them dry. Yet the moment his words fell, the sole of a foot crushed ruthlessly into his face. Following a thunderous boom, the earth shattered, and his head burst like a watermelon on the spot. Only then did the Demon Cross react, sweeping across in an instant to knock the attacking Yu Xian away. "Edward, I am going to... butcher you!" Yu Xian was hurled thousands of meters away, but the next second he reappeared beside Edward, stomping directly onto Edward's chest and rupturing his heart on the spot. His physical capabilities far outstripped Edward's; before him, Edward was no different from a helpless chicken. However, the Demon Cross was swift to defend its master. It immediately swept Yu Xian back once more, rapidly interposing itself in front of Edward while erupting with massive crimson energy that enveloped Edward in a red bubble. Sitting inside the red bubble, Edward's head rapidly regenerated. By now, every trace of his earlier delight had vanished, replaced solely by shock and fury. He was shocked that Yu Xian had also attained the Star Rank, and infuriated that a second person had reached it. *Kill him. Kill him. Kill him...* Edward glared fixedly at Yu Xian, murderous intent consuming his mind. Leaning on the Demon Cross, he slowly rose to his feet. Then, with a crisp *clack*, he drew a longsword from within the Demon Cross. Simultaneously, the portion of the Demon Cross serving as the scabbard morphed rapidly, transforming into a suit of armor that enveloped his entire body. This was the true combat form of the Demon Cross—the Demon Blood Armor. The real battle had only just begun.