Damned Healer-Chapter 637: I Think I’ll Take It

Melva didn't attack right away. She took a deep breath, and a second manifestation appeared behind her.

It was as if a full moon had been born at her back. The feeling was as though all the energies of the world were bowing in her direction.

Countless runes flowed across the lunar surface, emitting a silvery light that wrapped around the skies. Bathed in that glow, Melva looked like a sacred divinity. Unfortunately, her expression was malicious, creating a dark contrast with the divine light.

Darian already knew what that was, after preparing for two years. It was the ultimate power of a Primordial Chosen: the Celestial Destiny Disc.

That was the object of dreams for any cultivator in that universe. With it, Primordial Chosen seemed to have an unfair advantage in life. The laws of the universe, regardless of karma, always favored them.

It worked like the Celestial Beasts from that other universe, where their power multiplied without cost. But in this universe, that power could be implanted into an ordinary person.

The crowd inside the Golden Sky Mountain watched with corrosive envy. Except for the nobles of the Primordial Empire, no one there had ever seen a real Destiny Disc.

Melva looked at Darian with disdain. "See that? This is the Celestial Destiny Disc. Something mere mortals will never lay eyes on."

She lifted her chin, her voice overflowing with arrogance.

"It symbolizes unmatched power. It's proof that I'm invincible. An insignificant ant like you could never understand this power, not even in ten lifetimes of training. Now that you've witnessed it, you can die without regrets!"

Her voice echoed through every corner of that world, imposing authority like a goddess ruling her domain.

Darian remained still. He was remarkably calm under that crushing pressure.

"Is that so?" Darian replied lazily. "What a shame. Turns out I specialize in beating people who think they're invincible."

Darian wasn't in a rush. Since he wasn't going all out right now, he felt that, because of her absurd luck and hidden cards, charging in too greedily might give her a chance to escape.

Melva snarled, her face twisted with contempt. "Frogs at the bottom of a well lack experience. They're always ignorant and blind. You'll pay the price for your stupidity."

Unexpectedly, Darian put his dagger away and clapped his hands.

"Wow," he mocked. "Didn't expect you to say something so accurate. It's rare to see someone with such precise self-awareness."

Melva nearly exploded with rage. In a battle of words, she was no match for Darian.

The Celestial Destiny Disc trembled. Furious flames erupted around it and, in an instant, a massive region of that world turned into a sea of fire.

"What kind of flames are those?!" screams of terror echoed.

Even from a distance, the spectators felt like they were about to melt. If they were at the center, they imagined even their souls would be instantly incinerated.

"It's the Heaven-Incinerating Flame!" one observer explained, pale with shock. "It's a technique from the ancient era that only an Emperor Saint could use! A Primordial Chosen is way too broken! She can use this effortlessly!"

Melva was the Empire's supreme genius, the favorite to become the future Empress.

That technique alone was enough to burn anything in the world to ashes. No one could imagine the destruction if she used her whip and other abilities together.

Darian merely watched her with indifference.

"Don't say I didn't warn you. Don't waste time with pointless probing. Don't think you'll defeat me with a fraction of your power," he said calmly, clasping his hands behind his back.

"Use your strongest move right away, while I'm still in a good mood. It's your only chance."

"Ignorant fool!" Melva was furious. She had expected her flames to crush Darian psychologically, but he treated her like nothing.

The runes on the Destiny Disc shone brightly. Suddenly, something new appeared.

In addition to the ice whip and the supreme flames, a gigantic lightning dragon manifested, coiling around her.

Those watching were stunned. They didn't even know the name of that technique, but the level of that lightning power was just as devastating as the flames.

This woman was like a goddess among mortals. She wielded three elements in their most terrifying forms at the same time.

Melva hovered in the air, looking down at him. "Do you have any last words?"

"If this is your trump card… I don't even feel like talking to you," Darian muttered.

He kept his hands lazily behind his back. His robes fluttered even without wind. His long hair began to float, and a terrifying aura wrapped around him.

Melva swallowed hard. She had never felt so small and mediocre in her life. He did nothing, yet just his gaze and indifference made her feel fear.

Forcing herself to endure it, she roared, "With death right in front of you, you're still acting cocky. Hmph. I won't kill you all at once, I'll let you savor despair."

With a motion, the sea of flames surged, and the lightning dragon charged forward, instantly covering the skies.

Dodging was impossible. The attack was vast, swallowing everything within sight.

The strike passed by Melva and slammed straight toward Darian, leaving him no chance to escape.

"Will it end in a single move?!" the spectators roared.

At that moment, Darian's eyes shone like beacons.

The Stellar Physique was activated.

*BOOOM!!*

The impact of fire and lightning made the world tremble in a violent explosion.

When the dust settled, everyone was stunned.

"What?!"

Darian was still standing in the exact same spot, hands behind his back. Unscathed.

He snorted, moved his hand, and pointed his dagger at the shocked Melva.

"Let's see how much power a so-called 'Chosen' really has."

In a blur of speed, Darian lunged forward without using any technique, going straight for Melva's neck.

Awel trembled in his hand, and he slashed.

That attack had none of the shocking, overwhelming power of hers, nor was it some complex, impossible technique.

It was a simple strike. Raw. Devastating.

The dagger seemed to tear through the fabric of reality.

Space split apart. Void power, fire, lightning, or anything else was ripped open.

A shockwave washed over Melva. She hadn't expected such a brutal counterattack.

Her bone whip vibrated and, in a reflexive move, wrapped around her own arms. To those watching, it looked like a gesture of surrender, a desperate attempt to protect herself.

How was that possible? From afar, Darian looked like a simple mortal attacking, while Melva seemed like an invincible goddess. Yet she was immediately forced on the defensive.

However, the Celestial Destiny Disc shone.

A sacred glow flowed into Melva's back, traveled down her arms, and infused the bone whip with ancient power.

"Celestial Shield!"

She shouted, and millions of runes lit up on the whip, condensing into the shape of a giant, pulsing shield that surged toward Darian.

Darian looked at her with indifference. On the blade of his dagger, the sharpening seal activated.

"Is that all? You're overestimating your own power."

*BOOM!*

Awel slammed into the shield.

Despite the shield's imposing appearance, it collapsed instantly, turning into nothing more than scattered points of light, while Darian's dagger continued its path, relentless.

"What?!"

The spectators were petrified.

The bone whip was a supreme weapon, refined with incalculable resources. Seeing its ultimate technique erased by a basic dagger strike made the faces of everyone from the Primordial Empire sink.

Awel was already at Melva's neck.

Surprisingly, she didn't retreat. Melva simply raised her arms, protected by the whip.

*BOOM!*

A shockwave imploded at the spot. The two were thrown back several meters.

When the dust settled, Darian stared at that panting figure from afar.

Melva was unharmed. Her outer clothes had been vaporized, flying through the air like butterflies made of ash, but she was still standing.

Beneath the rags, she revealed a dress made of a thousand long, ash-colored feathers, bristling like steel scales. They vibrated, releasing an incredible aura of wind.

The crowd gasped. Melva had another supreme trump card.

"That's a dress made from a Thousand Feathers of the Gale-Enduring Heron..." Darian recognized it immediately.

In his hand, the dagger trembled, and Awel's shocked, excited voice echoed.

Just like the whip, that dress had been made using the body of the last of the three races of primitive beasts that once existed in this universe, the Gale-Enduring Heron.

They were beasts that controlled the winds, known for their absurd durability and speed.

That dress was an insane defensive treasure. Only one like it existed in the universe, and there probably weren't many other things on that level. Yet Melva was flaunting two of them.

The feathers of the dress vibrated violently. A repulsive force of wind twisted space-time and the Void around her.

"You filthy, cheating man! You've got some kind of trick!" Melva shouted, tightening her grip on the whip. "But you don't have the pedigree to compete with me. No matter your brute force or tricks, you won't escape my hands."

She noticed Darian's fixed gaze on her outfit and let out a mocking laugh.

"Take a good look. This is the Thousand Feathers Gale-Enduring Dress. Forged from the real feathers of an ancestral Heron that was one step away from becoming a Divinity. An ant like you will never see something like this again."

Silence fell over the battlefield. Melva's confidence now had a solid, shining foundation.

With that dress, she now wielded the power of wind. Four elements in total, all used stably and under her control. She truly had the right to be arrogant.

Darian, however, didn't look intimidated.

His eyes slowly began to glow with an even heavier shade of greed. He gave a crooked smile, appraising the outfit like a hunter sizing up valuable prey.

"You know," Darian murmured. "That dress isn't bad at all. I think I'll take it."

Melva let out a furious laugh.

"You really are a frog! Do you think someone like you can stain, or even touch, my Thousand Feathers Dress?"

Darian shook his head, smiling faintly.

"Meh, it really is amazing, but it doesn't suit you. You look way too average to wear something that pretty. Your whip is nice too, I'll take both. Leaving those things with you would be blasphemy," he narrowed his eyes, provoking her. "I know two little girls, pretty as fairies, who'd be much more suited to use them."

Awel and Eleri smiled inwardly. From the moment the whip and the dress appeared, they had been excited. The beauty of those items was irresistible to them.

"Average… looking?" Melva spat, trembling.

The spectators looked at Darian as if he were insane. That woman was anything but average. Maybe Darian's standards were just too high; after all, in his eyes, Melva couldn't even be put in the same league as Niara.

"I'll kill you!"

Melva exploded with rage. She swung the bone whip with murderous fury.

The dress rippled, releasing the cries of ancestral herons mixed with the roar of the whip. She attacked using the maximum power of the two Primordial Beasts, combined with fire and lightning.

She was a cataclysm in the shape of a woman.

Darian charged forward with Awel. This time, he let Awel use a bit of its internal power.

*BOOM!*

The clash of powers caused a multicolored light to engulf the battlefield.

Darian's dagger struck Melva's shoulder. He was surprised to see that the attack didn't split her in half — the dress's defenses were unreal.

Still, the impact was brutal. Her shoulder gave way, and the sound of bones breaking echoed.

Melva spat blood but didn't retreat. She condensed her own blood into a scarlet arrow and fired it point-blank at Darian's head.

*BOOM!*

Darian blocked the arrow by drawing Eleri with his other hand, creating a crimson mist around him.

Her whip snaked out again, but Darian, in a bold move, let go of Awel and grabbed the whip with his bare hand.

Melva roared, pulling the weapon back. But her pupils shrank with a deadly premonition.

Awel appeared behind her without her sensing it approach, aiming straight at her neck.

Terrified, Melva reinforced her defense. She didn't know that, against someone like Darian, focusing only on defense was the first step toward defeat.

"Celestial Destiny Cycle: Heaven–Earth Blockade!" Melva shouted desperately.

She moved the Destiny Disc in front of her, turning it into a massive shield.

The bone whip became a diagram over the disc, while the Thousand Feathers Dress emitted a thousand rays of light to reinforce the barrier.

Facing real death, Melva stopped holding back.

**KBOOM!**

The impact of Awel against the Destiny Disc created a black stain at the point of contact.

The darkness spread rapidly, as if it had turned into a black hole devouring all the colors of the world.

The explosion shook the skies. The shockwave struck the barrier of the Golden Sky Mountain, subtly warping it.

Everyone watching inside trembled from head to toe.

When the darkness dissipated, two figures were thrown backward: Darian, completely calm and uninjured, and Melva, coughing up blood, gravely wounded.

"The Destiny Disc… is damaged!" someone shouted in shock from afar.

That manifestation of Melva in the form of an artifact not only lost its glow, but it was visibly cracked. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

When everything finally settled, Melva looked at Darian and saw the multicolored shine in his eyes fade away. Even though he didn't seem injured, she felt victory was now in her hands.

"Now you're out of energy!" she said, wiping the blood away and walking toward him with the whip. "I won."

Darian almost laughed, but kept a relaxed posture. "That plate of yours is tough. But I can tell it'll break with one more hit. If it breaks, will you still be a Primordial Chosen?"

Darian honestly hadn't expected that manifestation to have such absurd defensive power. Even with the sharpening runic seal active on Awel, he hadn't been able to destroy it completely. It was the first time the runic seal hadn't been one hundred percent effective.

"I don't think you have the strength for that," she mocked, speeding up her steps. "The whip and the dress still have more than enough energy to kill you."

*Pow!*

She attacked. The whip pierced the air like a lightning bolt.

Suddenly, a hand wrapped in multicolored light firmly grabbed the whip.

"What?!" Melva froze.

Darian gave her a cold smile. "You're exhausted, but you're trying to scare me into running away. Saving your other cards for later? How naive."

Darian was sure she was hiding a few things. He had also sensed that three other terrifying people from the Empire had entered the area. That meant he had to be careful.

He yanked the whip hard and brought Awel down in a descending strike. The same move as before, but this time aimed at her neck.

With no time to dodge, Melva raised her arm to block, betting everything on the dress's defenses.

*CRACK!*

The dress held, but Melva's arm was severed by the crushing impact.

Screaming in pain, Melva tried to flee while channeling what little energy she had left to push Darian back.

'Grab her hair!' Eleri shouted mentally.

Darian hadn't thought of that, but instinctively grabbed Melva's hair as she turned to run.

'I want the feathers from the dress!' Awel said excitedly.

Melva felt the touch, and her dress flared with light. Her hair turned into molten metal, burning Darian's hand so she could escape.

Darian stretched out his other hand. He caught her from behind and pulled with all his strength.

*TRIP!*

Three feathers were violently ripped from the luxurious dress.

In pure panic and fury, Melva didn't dare look back. She shot into the skies and fled.

In Darian's hands, the three feathers, once small, grew to nearly a meter long and began to burn, struggling to escape.

'Master, throw them over here!' Awel cried, trembling with joy.

When Darian put them into his inventory, seeing Awel's wide grin and mischievous expression, he knew his little partner had an interesting plan in mind.

Even Eleri was calm, certain that the whip would eventually be hers. Darian had said he would give it to her, so it was only a matter of time.