Damned Healer-Chapter 574: Grotesque Scene

**KBOOOOM!**

A violent, terrifying boom echoed as a blood meteor shot down from the skies toward the ground. The impact made the entire crater tremble, as if everything were about to collapse.

At the same time, in the skies.

Vanh had a completely stunned expression.

That was because... Niara had perfectly absorbed his entire attack.

But she did not withstand that level of power the way she usually did with her blessing. Her whole body nearly exploded, and she suffered injuries so severe that anyone else would have been declared dead. But... she made it.

"Hold this!"

At the exact moment Niara blocked the attack, Darian moved in retaliation, in perfect sync.

*Blinding Break*

A black slash surged toward Vanh, leaving him even more dazed.

He could not believe it. It was as if she and Darian had already been prepared for that attack, setting up both the defense and the counterattack. That should have been impossible.

Darian did not hold back his black power. He used his technique with everything he had, even knowing it consumed 100% of his reserves. That was because this was a battlefield, and he still had half of the remaining enemies to devour and recover from.

Vanh roared, moving the little power he had into defense as fast as he could.

Darian still had the same seven rings as when they fought before. But that strike from Darian was nothing like what he had seen back then... it was much, much stronger, maybe ten times stronger than before.

**CRASH!!**

Vanh took the blow head-on and was hurled toward the ground even more violently than Niara. His impact landed in the middle of the enemy army, creating a wave of destruction and power in every direction.

As a result, countless died without any chance to run. At that point, almost 70% of the original enemy army had already vanished.

When the world began to stabilize, Niara slowly stood up, coughing up a lot of blood.

Still, she managed to absorb a massive amount of energy with her blessing. This time, she did not even need to enter Berserker mode; everything was converted into vital energy so she could survive. There was still some left, and she used it all to heal herself.

From afar, Darian simply watched in relief as she stood up on her own and recovered. Niara no longer needed him to heal her.

Everyone in both the allied and enemy armies could see the scene before them... all of them swallowed hard in shock.

Two craters had formed, one much deeper than the other. From within them, two figures slowly floated out, and on top of that, both were completely uninjured.

The entire battle came to a halt. Meanwhile, Vanh landed on the ground and turned to look up at Darian.

To everyone’s eyes, Vanh possessed a serene beauty, with noble features that contrasted with the sheer weight of his presence. There was a magnetic calm in his posture, radiating that natural heroic aura of someone who inspires trust without needing to say a word.

He wore a light shirt beneath a fitted leather vest, which matched the green of his hair. The large, ornate sword rested in his hand with surprising lightness, seeming not like a tool of war, but an elegant extension of his own body.

But to Darian’s eyes and senses, and to those who were more perceptive...

Before them stood a moving corpse.

Darian snorted, feeling a Yin of death circulating inside him, together with the three energies of life.

Awel told him what they had done in secret. Basically, the Three-Eyed Ravens, specialists in life energies, had used all the power stored in their cores to fill Vanh’s body.

His presence in this universe should have been impossible, since the Rank S mission had a clear restriction of up to nine rings. But... Vanh was an immortal, and even if his soul became a tiny fragment, without a body, or in many other situations where a mortal would be finished, he could still live without issue.

Darian listened to Awel’s explanation. The Wube Family had taken Vanh’s dead corpse out from within a Supreme Artifact. The body had no life at all and exuded a dense Yin of death. Because of that, it could be brought along like a treasure by those people.

If the Three-Eyed Ravens used everything on any other dead body, nothing would happen. But inside that one was sealed a minimal remnant of an immortal soul. So Vanh awakened and forced those energies to anchor to the body, in a near resurrection.

Near, because that was like making a zombie move. Once the Yin of death appeared, the body could no longer return to normal or become truly alive again. Of course, this only happened because the Spiritual Guardians did not become immortals along with their bodies. If the body were at the immortal level, the Yin of death would never even appear.

In short, Vanh sacrificed his body and almost all of his soul, killing himself, just to enter this universe and kill Darian. After consuming all the energy of that body, he would likely have to find another.

But his surprise attack had completely failed.

"You really are surprising," Vanh murmured softly, staring at Darian, while still taking a good look at Niara. The two of them were a terrifying duo that could never be underestimated.

"But... nothing has changed."

He finished, sighing. At that same moment, thousands of Spiritual Guardians appeared around him. They were all from the Wube Family.

"NOW!"

The roar of the Wube Family’s Spiritual Guardian leader tore through the air.

Without hesitation, those thousands activated the family’s supreme Spiritual Technique. The curse exploded from their bodies not like mist, but like a violent torrent of malevolent energy.

However, the target was not the enemies.

In the skies, Darian narrowed his eyes. He watched in disbelief as Vanh received that ocean of curses head-on.

Vanh took a deep breath. The power invaded his dead flesh violently.

*Thump!*

Black and violet veins bulged beneath his pale skin, pulsing like living worms. His eyes trembled, his teeth clenched. Clearly, he was feeling indescribable pain.

But it only lasted five seconds.

Then he straightened up, and the pain vanished. What remained was a terrifying aura, heavy enough to warp the air around him.

A chill ran down Darian’s spine. He understood immediately.

This was only possible ’cause he’s dead. That curse would be impossible to control on a living body. But a corpse full of death Yin? It was just a nearly empty vessel with nothing left to destroy, so the curse lost its purpose.

Vanh turned the pure curse into fuel. He absorbed it and used it to ignite and control his own immortal power. And like that... he reached a grotesque level of strength.

With the curse still flowing into Vanh, the members of the Wube Family smiled, exhausted but euphoric, seeing their leader stabilized and stronger than ever.

That was when Vanh lightly waved his hand.

"!"

The smiles on those Spiritual Guardians froze. The air vanished from their lungs.

"MY LORD! NO!"

"GAAAAH!"

Screams of agony shattered the silence. Vanh did not even look at them. He simply snorted and absorbed harder.

Those thousands of humans dropped to their knees, clawing at their own throats. They were not just donating energy; they were being consumed. Flesh withered, eyes sank in, vitality was forcibly drained away.

It took ten seconds.

The Wube Family’s elite army fell silent. Where proud warriors once stood, only dried husks and mummified corpses remained... all by the hands of their own leader.

Vanh raised his gaze to Darian. His aura was now a pillar of suffocating darkness.

Darian did not even try to act; he could feel it would be useless. Vanh’s current power far surpassed the strength he had when he had just become an immortal.

"Sir Darian," Vanh’s voice was calm, sharply contrasting with the massacre at his feet. "I’m glad you defended yourself earlier. At least now, my family died with a purpose. If you had died early, their sacrifice by my own hands would not have had the same impact. I can say they died to pay for your crimes."

Darian took a deep breath. There was no humanity in those red eyes. Only cold logic. That figure had abandoned all dignity, kindness, and even the will to live.

Vanh shifted his gaze to the rest of the army, which was technically his ally. About 30% were still alive, watching in horror the fate of the Wube.

The Three-Eyed Ravens had already joined them all, now wearing expressions of duty fulfilled. They had been completely bought by the Wube Family shortly after the Spiritual Guardians arrived in the universe.

While Darian was "dealing" with the Twilight Owls, that family was negotiating and reaching an agreement with the Three-Eyed Ravens. Because of that, they obtained countless artifacts and things that should not exist in this universe.

Darian understood a bit more. The Rank S mission description he had read was the same one everyone else had read. And it clearly detailed what existed in this universe, talking about the three Heavenly Beasts and a bit about their powers. Knowing this, Vanh must have created this entire plan.

At that moment, the entire area suddenly became silent and cold. It was as if the world itself was anticipating something.

Vanh’s body shone with a distorted spatial light.

"You can stop now," Vanh said, his voice echoing unnaturally. "It’s useless to resist or flee. So... I will be merciful."

He was speaking to his own army, leaving everyone confused.

Then he clenched his fist.

"I will give you all a dignified and quick end."

**WOOOOSH!**

Space did not just slice; it collapsed.

In the blink of an eye, a wave of spatial pressure swept across the allied ranks.

There was no time to scream. There was no time to defend.

*SPLAT!*

A rain of blood exploded all at once. The remaining army was instantly crushed, turned into a red mist that painted the ground crimson.

Darian’s army instinctively retreated, faces pale. Vanh had massacred his own allies as if they were livestock.

At the center of the bloodbath, Vanh slowly turned to Darian. His face was clean, his expression serene, almost holy, if not for the grotesque scene around him.

He smiled, a twisted and empty smile.

"Now, it’s just between you and me."