Chapter 19 : The Heaven-Bending vs the Immortal Blood

Inside the Mist Rift, the many-armed giant continued its relentless attempt to force the passage wider.

The gray mist trembled violently beneath the pressure of its enormous body. Layer after layer of the barrier warped as hundreds of muscular arms clawed at the edges of the opening, pouring immense quantities of black energy into the distortion. The creature had already succeeded in widening the Rift far beyond what it had been moments ago. At this point, its enormous head had nearly forced its way through, and Maxwell could clearly see the three eyes embedded in its grotesque face staring out from beyond the barrier.

Saliva hung from its mouth in long, glistening strands before falling into the darkness below.

For an instant, Maxwell thought those eyes were fixed directly on him.

Then he realized something was wrong.

The creature wasn't looking at him.

It was looking downward.

Maxwell's expression changed.

A thin crimson line suddenly tore through the air and shot directly toward his heart.

His body reacted before his mind had finished processing what was happening. Maxwell twisted sideways, allowing the blood-red line to pass within a hair's breadth of his chest. He had barely avoided the attack when the line abruptly changed direction in midair, curving with unnatural precision as though it possessed a will of its own.

"What the—?"

The crimson line pierced straight through his foot.

Pain flashed through Maxwell's body, but before he could react, the blood wrapped tightly around his leg. The next instant, it whistled through the air and violently yanked him downward.

Boom!

Maxwell's body slammed into the ground hard enough to shatter the earth beneath him. Cracks spread outward from the impact point, while dust and fragments of stone erupted into the air.

For several seconds, he remained motionless.

Then he slowly lifted his head.

His expression had become considerably darker.

"Damn that monster."

Maxwell looked toward the Mist Rift, then down at the crimson line wrapped around his foot. The situation was beginning to make sense, and the realization was anything but pleasant.

Had that thing left behind a part of itself earlier?

If so, then Maxwell had to admit something.

For a creature that appeared to possess little more than instinct, its sense for combat was surprisingly sharp. It had attacked at exactly the right moment, using the battle at the Rift as a distraction and striking him from an angle he had not expected.

Maxwell's eyes narrowed.

"Interesting."

The ground beneath him suddenly began to tremble.

At first, the movement was barely noticeable. Then the earth shook violently, and countless cracks spread through the battlefield. From those cracks, crimson trees burst upward one after another, their enormous trunks tearing through the ground with enough force to send rocks flying.

They had no leaves.

Their branches were twisted and bare, stretching toward the sky like countless dead fingers. Within seconds, dozens of them had risen tens of meters into the air, surrounding Maxwell from every direction.

The land had transformed into a forest of crimson.

Maxwell slowly looked around.

The blood-red trees stretched farther than he could immediately see, their roots spreading beneath the earth while the crimson branches formed a grotesque canopy overhead. The entire area had become saturated with the presence of blood, as though the land itself had been transformed into a living extension of something far more dangerous.

"Origin Corruption—Dead Blood Forest."

"So you've turned the entire place into your stage?"

A faint smile appeared on Maxwell's face.

The words had barely left his mouth when one of the crimson trees suddenly split open.

Something emerged from within it.

A humanoid body made entirely of crimson blood slowly stepped out from the trunk, its shape still dripping and shifting as though it had not completely solidified.

The Immortal Blood.

The creature raised its head.

"GYAAAAAA!"

Its scream tore across the forest.

Maxwell pushed himself upright and pulled his injured foot free from the crimson tendril. Blood continued to flow from the wound, but his gaze remained fixed on the figure standing among the trees.

"Are you looking down on me?"

His voice was calm, but there was a dangerous edge beneath it.

Maxwell had lived for an extraordinarily long time. He had experienced more battles than most beings could imagine and had spent centuries standing at the highest point of the magical world. He had been called the greatest mage of the last thousand years, and among the countless beings that inhabited Caldor, only a handful had ever reached the Origin realm.

He had been ridiculed before.

He had been underestimated before.

But being treated as insignificant by a monster was something he had not experienced in a very long time.

"I've lived long enough to be looked down upon by a monster, have I?"

Maxwell wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and stared directly at the Immortal Blood.

"Even if you are a monster, you're still nothing more than a fragment of the Great Ruler of the Abyss."

The Immortal Blood did not answer.

Instead, it raised both of its arms.

Its fingers began to move.

Slowly at first.

Then faster.

Its hands twisted and shifted through the air with strange precision, almost like the movements of a conductor directing an enormous symphony. Every motion seemed meaningless until Maxwell suddenly felt something inside his own body move.

His expression changed.

"Origin Corruption—Blood Control."

Pain exploded throughout his body.

Maxwell's spine bent violently backward as though an invisible hand had seized it. His arms twisted in directions no human body should have been capable of reaching, while the muscles beneath his skin contracted and tore apart.

His body jerked again.

And again.

The movements were so violent that he looked less like a living man and more like a broken puppet being pulled apart by invisible strings.

"Damn it..."

Maxwell gritted his teeth as another wave of pain tore through him.

"That stab..."

He suddenly understood.

"The bastard put his blood inside my body."

The realization came with another violent convulsion.

"GAAAAAAAH!"

His scream echoed throughout the crimson forest.

The Immortal Blood tightened its fingers.

Maxwell's body immediately slammed into the ground.

The pressure had suddenly increased to an absurd degree.

His entire body was pinned beneath his own weight, and the earth beneath him cracked as his bones struggled against the force. Even moving a finger had become difficult.

Maxwell's teeth clenched.

"You..."

His eyes became cold.

"Don't underestimate me."

Mana erupted from his body.

"Origin Magic—Partial Repulsion."

The technique was not directed at the Immortal Blood.

It was directed at himself.

Maxwell's entire body suddenly began to vibrate.

Not slightly.

Violently.

His flesh shook so rapidly that his silhouette became blurred. Every muscle in his body was being subjected to a repulsive force, tearing against itself as the technique attempted to force everything inside him apart.

To any sane mage, the sight would have been horrifying.

A mage using repulsion magic against his own body was practically equivalent to deliberately throwing himself into a grinder. Unless he wanted his own flesh torn apart, there was absolutely no reason to use such a technique.

But Maxwell continued.

He had no intention of allowing the Immortal Blood's blood to remain inside him.

The vibration intensified.

His muscles trembled.

His bones shook.

The crimson blood flowing through his veins was forced toward the wound in his foot, pushed outward by the repulsive force that Maxwell had created within his own body.

Then, finally, something emerged.

A small mass of crimson blood crawled out from the wound in his foot.

It twisted on the ground like a worm.

Maxwell's breathing was heavy.

The Immortal Blood stared at the blood.

Its eyes narrowed.

Maxwell slowly raised his head.

Then he laughed.

"Hahaha..."

He coughed violently, and blood spilled from his mouth.

"You bastard..."

Another cough shook his shoulders.

"...third round."

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked toward the Immortal Blood.

No.

Not the monster.

His enemy.

The thing that had pushed him far enough to make him bleed, struggle, and use methods that would have been considered insane by almost any other mage.

Maxwell's expression changed.

The amusement disappeared.

He took a fighting stance.

Then he shot into the sky.

The crimson forest spread beneath him like an enormous sea of blood-red trees.

Maxwell looked down at it.

"If this forest is part of your body..."

He slowly raised both hands.

"...then I'll spill it all."

His eyes sharpened.

"And make everything disappear."

"Origin Magic—Light Heavy."

Maxwell stepped on empty air.

The sky shook.

The earth beneath him trembled as though an invisible mountain had suddenly descended upon it.

The Immortal Blood reacted immediately.

Its body stiffened.

For the first time since appearing, something resembling fear appeared within its movements.

"GYAAAAAA!"

It screamed.

But it was already too late.

The weight surrounding the Immortal Blood increased violently.

The ground beneath its body cracked.

Then the earth itself began to rise.

At first, only a small section lifted from the ground. Then the movement accelerated, and hundreds of meters of earth began to rise into the sky, carrying everything within the area touched by the Immortal Blood with it.

It was as though someone had taken an enormous shovel and scooped the battlefield out of the continent.

The crimson forest rose with it.

The Immortal Blood was trapped within the floating mass of earth, unable to escape as the weight continued to increase.

Maxwell looked down from above.

The entire battlefield had become a massive floating chunk of land.

He slowly brought his hands together.

"Crush."

His palms met.

The earth split down the middle.

A tremendous crack raced through the floating mass, dividing it into two enormous sections. Then the edges began folding inward, one after another, as though the entire piece of land were being crushed by an invisible pair of hands.

The trees bent.

The ground shattered.

Rocks and soil were thrown inward.

The Immortal Blood struggled desperately to escape.

But it refused to surrender.

Its crimson body twisted as one arm reached outward through the collapsing earth.

"Origin Corruption—Blood Piercing!"

A concentrated crimson beam erupted from its hand.

It shot directly toward Maxwell.

Maxwell saw it coming.

But his expression did not change.

"Too late."

His hands remained together.

"Collapse."

The floating earth began collapsing toward its center.

The Immortal Blood's crimson beam was swallowed by the enormous mass of earth closing around it. Mountains of soil and shattered rock crashed together, crushing everything trapped between them.

The crimson forest disappeared beneath the pressure.

The trees snapped.

The ground fractured.

The entire floating mass contracted inward until it became an enormous sphere of compressed earth.

Then even that began to collapse.

Maxwell immediately formed a repulsion field around himself.

The crimson beam finally reached him.

But the moment it touched the field, its trajectory changed.

The attack bent sharply in the opposite direction.

Maxwell's eyes widened.

"Huh?!"

He stared at the redirected attack.

Then his expression changed.

"This bastard..."

The realization struck him.

"Don't tell me..."

He immediately looked toward the collapsing battlefield.

The Immortal Blood was nowhere to be seen.

Maxwell's eyes widened.

"He separated a part of himself and escaped."

He followed the direction of the escaping presence.

His expression became grim.

"The Crimson Fortress..."

The realization sent a chill through him.

"Damn it!"

Maxwell immediately turned.

But behind him, the technique he had already unleashed continued to operate.

He could not simply stop it.

The hundreds of meters of earth continued collapsing, crushing everything within them. The enormous mass contracted further and further until the land itself was reduced to fragments.

Then those fragments became dust.

And even the dust did not survive.

The mana surrounding the battlefield continued to grind through everything that remained, destroying the smallest particles until there was nothing left.

Maxwell had created a battlefield where almost nothing could possibly survive.

Almost.

He didn't waste another second.

The moment he confirmed the direction of the fleeing fragment, Maxwell accelerated after it.

His body became a streak across the sky.

The distance between him and the Immortal Blood was already widening.

He increased his speed further.

The weight surrounding his body was reduced, allowing him to accelerate even more. His figure tore through the sky as he chased the fleeing fragment, but the Immortal Blood had already gained a considerable lead.

Maxwell clenched his teeth.

He could still catch it.

He knew he could.

Even if the Immortal Blood had been weakened after everything it had endured, even if its remaining fragment was far smaller than its original body, Maxwell's speed was enough to close the distance eventually.

But eventually was not good enough.

He needed to reach it immediately.

And he wouldn't.

A few seconds.

That was all the Immortal Blood needed.

Only a few seconds of freedom.

But those few seconds would be enough to reach the Crimson Fortress.

Enough to kill everyone there.

Enough to consume the blood it needed.

Enough to restore the strength it had possessed before encountering the many-armed giant beyond the Mist Rift.

Maxwell's expression hardened as he accelerated again.

The distance continued to shrink.

But not quickly enough.

He could already imagine what would happen if that fragment reached the fortress before he did.

The lives of everyone inside would be placed directly in the path of a creature that had already reached the Origin.

And Maxwell had no way to arrive in time.

His eyes turned cold.

"Boy Marilz..."

His voice carried through the wind as he pushed himself even harder.

"Everything is on you now."