[Endless Technique: Soul Type: Perfect Bypass] 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Anthony’s mana hummed from his core, and the next instant, the force acting on his soul vanished, destabilized as Anthony simply bypassed it.

But the Demon King seemed to have predicted this, as he had instantly closed the distance between himself and Anthony in a blip. Appearing before Anthony, he transitioned into another technique.

[Cursed Technique: Essence Corruption]

His Chaos Energy boomed outward, slamming into Anthony’s body yet again as he tried to corrupt Anthony’s Essence directly. But the effort was destined to be futile; how could the Demon King hope to corrupt the Beginning Of All Things Physique?

Anthony didn’t even need to resist or put up a defence; he simply unleashed an attack of his own.

The Void coiled around his palm as though it were no different from wind, then, without a shred of hesitation, he slammed it into the Demon King’s gut with bone-shattering impact. The Demon King immediately coughed up blood as his body shot backward, his back crashing against Stars and Constellations.

Anthony didn’t chase. He simply extended his palm outward and pulled the Demon King back towards him as though he were a magnet, then unleashed a brutal Void-enhanced knee strike to the Demon King’s sternum.

Anthony immediately snapped his fingers, transitioning into Authority Of Severance. Reality blurred into threads of various hues and colours at this moment. His eyes scanned through thousands of them as they connected to the Demon King, and with that, Anthony severed the thread that established the connection between the Demon King and Chaos Energy.

The Demon King, who had just slammed against a Planet, immediately frowned as he felt his connection with his Chaos Energy vanish. He couldn’t understand what had just happened. His eyes dropped to his body, his face twisting with a hint of horror.

Unlike other beings who needed healers to restore their Essence and could only naturally regenerate physical injuries, the Demon King had long transcended such a limitation by finding a way to convert his Chaos Energy into Essence. It seemed impossible, but with his ridiculous talent, intellect, brain, years of experience, and thousands of trials and errors, he had achieved such a feat.

So at this moment, his Essence was injured, meaning he could no longer shrug off heavy blows that he had once received as though they were nothing.

His eyes shifted towards Anthony’s position. He didn’t need to be told to know Anthony was responsible for his current predicament. The Demon King didn’t need a prophet to know that his chances of survival were now practically abysmal.

Without Chaos Energy, he couldn’t access the trump card within his space ring. He couldn’t access the escape package stored within that same space ring. The seals on his body that were meant to perform various latent functions in the event that he ever faced death, all of them required his Chaos Energy to function.

Now, all that planning, all that hard work, all of it was down the drain because he hadn’t foreseen a situation where he would lose his connection to Chaos Energy one day. It wasn’t as though he needed some great quantity of Chaos Energy to activate these things; just a mote of his own Chaos Energy would have sufficed. Now, even that was gone.

The Demon King’s brain spun through everything he could do to survive, but his thoughts led to a single answer: nothing.

Chaos Energy, Faith Energy, Mana.

All in all, energies were the means by which every ability, skill, and technique was activated and used.

But of course, the Demon King, as a being so ancient, could use things like Star Energy or Blood Energy with ease if he wished, but he understood that none of them could ever substitute for Chaos Energy.

With a sigh, he lowered himself onto the surface of the Planet upon which he stood, his eyes fixed on a sun ahead of him as though he had accepted his fate.

Anthony appeared in midair as he stared at the Demon King. Although the being looked like someone who had given up and accepted his fate, Anthony didn’t let his guard down. After all, no one could be more cunning and shrewd than the Demon King himself.

"You seem to have accepted your fate," Anthony spoke as he landed upon the Planet’s surface with calm ease, staring down at the Demon King with an indifferent expression.

The Demon King chuckled as he spoke. "Did you expect me to struggle to the bitter end?" he asked with a small laugh.

"Maybe," Anthony replied without hiding his thoughts.

Although they had both been fighting for over two days, both of them seemed perfectly fine. They didn’t pant, they weren’t out of breath, nor was their stamina low. Neither of them was out of Chaos Energy or Mana to continue; they could literally keep going for days.

But of course, at this moment, the Demon King’s Essence was already damaged.

"I’ve lived for billions of years, seen stars die out, seen Solar Systems collapse, and even watched ancient beings perish simply because they couldn’t ascend," the Demon King began. "I do not fear death, Null Anthony. It comes for all of us eventually." He paused for a moment. "While I won’t actively commit suicide or throw my life away, the only point of life for me at this stage is Ascension and nothing else," he stated calmly.

"I see," Anthony spoke as they both remained in silence within the Void.

After a moment of silence, the Demon King asked, "I have to ask, how does someone like you even come into existence?" He was genuinely curious.

Yes, he knew of anomalies. He had seen a few. He had seen them rise and seen them die, seen them accomplish the impossible, yet they still perished. But Anthony was different. No anomaly to date seemed to have ever operated on the same scale as him. The boy was merely twenty years of age, no different from an unfertilized egg when compared to the Demon King’s age.

"Through cheating," Anthony replied with a small smile on his face.

There was no way he was going to open his mouth and talk about his reincarnation just because it seemed as though he and the Demon King were sharing a moment.

"Hmmm," the Demon King hummed to himself as he understood that Anthony wasn’t going to elaborate.

"Well, no need to feel pity for me. You can send me to the afterlife now," the Demon King spoke as he rose to his feet, his composure calm despite the looming certainty of death.

When he had said his only purpose for living was Ascension, he had meant it. A man of his mindset wasn’t one who would want to sit around like the Spirit King, acting all high and mighty within a small pond.

"It was a great battle, Azrath Kaelthar Morvanyx Doomrend," Anthony stated as azure-blue Divine Flames immediately lit within his hand while he placed it upon the Demon King’s shoulder.

"And you are a cheater, Null Anthony," the Demon King replied, then closed his eyes as the flames consumed him whole.

And with that, the being who had ruled over the Abyss for eons faced True Death.

____

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Was this anticlimactic?