Chapter 354: Solar Radiance vs. Demonic Slaughters

Chapter 354: Chapter 354: Solar Radiance vs. Demonic Slaughters

The Royal Solaris Academy stepped onto the arena floor like living statues of gold and white.

Their armor gleamed under the afternoon sun. Their formation moved as one, each disciple radiating controlled light qi that made the air shimmer around them.

Prince Alex Solaris watched from the royal box, his expression calm.

Damon observed from the Azure Dragon dugout, his Incubus Celestial Eyes active.

They’re confident, he thought. Too confident.

The Royal Academy captain raised his hand. Seven golden suns bloomed above the arena, each one the size of a carriage wheel, casting purifying light across the stone floor.

The crowd cheered.

"SOLARIS! SOLARIS! SOLARIS!"

The chant echoed through the colosseum.

Then Kai Reventon stepped onto the stage.

The cheering stopped.

It didn’t fade. It didn’t trail off. It stopped, like someone had severed the sound with a blade.

Kai’s body was wrong.

His robes were gone, replaced by pulsing black flesh that crawled with crimson veins. Four arms sprouted from his torso—two human, two twisted into bone-white claws that dripped with black fluid.

His shoulders wept necrotic fire. Green-black flames that didn’t burn but consumed, eating the light around them like hungry mouths.

His eyes were gone. In their place, two pits of molten red stared out from a face that was barely human anymore.

His King Spirit Realm aura rolled across the arena like a wave of rot.

The golden suns flickered.

The Royal Academy captain’s confidence wavered. Damon saw it in the slight tremor of his hand, the way his jaw tightened.

Grand Marshal Vane’s voice cut through the tension.

"MATCH BEGIN."

The Royal Academy captain reacted first.

"SOLAR PURGE!"

Seven golden suns detonated simultaneously, flooding the arena with blinding light. The purification wave swept across the stone, designed to burn any demonic energy it touched.

Kai stood in the center of the blast.

The light hit him like water hitting a rock.

It parted around his body, unable to touch the necrotic fire weeping from his shoulders. The golden radiance dissolved against his black flesh like snowflakes on hot steel.

Kai smiled.

It was not a human smile.

His jaw unhinged slightly, revealing teeth that had grown jagged and black.

"Pretty lights," he rasped. "Now let me show you what real fire looks like."

He moved.

Not ran. Not charged.

Teleported.

One moment he was fifty meters away. The next, he was inside the Royal Academy formation, his four arms already swinging.

The first disciple raised a solar light shield.

Kai’s claw punched through it like paper.

His hand closed around the disciple’s heart and pulled.

The organ came out still beating, trailing arteries and blood. Kai held it up to the light, watching it pulse in his grip.

The disciple collapsed.

The crowd screamed.

Damon watched.

Four arms, he noted. Regeneration. Necrotic fire. Speed beyond Heavenly Spirit Realm.

He filed the information away.

Kai moved to the second disciple.

The man tried to summon a solar spear. The golden weapon formed in his hand, but Kai’s claw grabbed it by the blade and crushed it.

The light shattered into golden motes that drifted down like dying stars.

Kai’s second claw punched through the disciple’s chest.

Another heart.

Another body.

The Royal Academy captain screamed in rage.

"EVERYONE! MAXIMUM OUTPUT! BURN HIM NOW!"

The remaining five disciples formed a circle. Their golden armor flared with light. Their cultivation channels blazed as they poured everything into a single attack.

A massive golden sun formed above them, larger than the previous seven combined.

It pulsed with enough heat to melt stone.

Kai looked up at it.

He laughed.

The sound was wet, guttural, like something was dying in his throat.

"You think light can hurt me?"

He spread all four arms wide.

"I AM THE ECLIPSE!"

Black flames erupted from his body, shooting upward in a pillar of necrotic fire. The green-black energy met the golden sun midair.

The two forces clashed.

The arena shook.

The barrier cracked.

Grand Marshal Vane stepped forward, his hand raised, ready to intervene.

But the clash lasted only three seconds.

The golden sun turned black.

Then it rotted.

The light decayed into grey ash that rained down on the arena floor. The Royal Academy disciples stared up at the falling ash, their faces blank with horror.

Kai moved again.

Third disciple. Heart ripped out.

Fourth disciple. Heart ripped out.

Fifth disciple. Kai grabbed his head and twisted. The neck snapped with a sound like breaking wood.

Sixth disciple. Kai’s claws punched through his back and came out through his chest.

The captain was the last one standing.

He held a golden sword in shaking hands. His armor was cracked. His face was pale.

Kai walked toward him slowly, deliberately, savoring every step.

"You know what the difference is between us?" Kai asked.

The captain didn’t answer.

"I’m not afraid to become a monster."

Kai’s four arms grabbed the captain simultaneously. Two held his arms. Two held his legs.

Then Kai pulled.

The sound that followed was wet and tearing.

The captain’s body came apart in four pieces, each one held by a different claw. Blood sprayed across the arena floor in a wide arc.

Kai stood in the center of the carnage, knee-deep in royal blood, and laughed.

The laugh was manic. Unhinged. The sound of someone who had lost everything that made them human.

Grand Marshal Vane’s voice cut through the noise.

"CRIMSON ECLIPSE SECT ADVANCES. SEVEN TO ZERO."

In the royal box, King Aurelius Solaris stood.

His chair was gone. It had shattered beneath him, reduced to splinters by the pressure radiating from his body.

His Sovereign aura filled the box, rattling the reinforced glass until it looked ready to shatter. His eyes burned with golden fire, his fists clenched at his sides, his jaw tight enough to crack teeth.

Prince Alex Solaris sat beside him, pale and silent, his hands gripping the armrests of his chair.

Across the box, Alistair Reventon raised his wine glass.

He took a slow, deliberate sip, his eyes fixed on the king.

Then he smiled.

It was a small smile. A knowing smile. The smile of a man who had already won.