Damned Healer-Chapter 665: The Crawling Shadow

Besides the inscription sealing the galaxy, the void was absolute, taken over by an impenetrable black mass. There, where no light dared to exist, the only visible thing was a pair of red eyes, pulsing with primordial and corrupted energy.

The Celestial Shadow remained silent, and the space around it slowly cracked as it gathered a bit of power for the next attack.

It had managed to recover from all its old wounds, but the process was far from simple. It had needed help from three terrifyingly dangerous figures from another universe, gaining part of their power and speeding things up that way.

Unfortunately, forcing the process caused side effects. It was like having an arm torn off and then simply glued back in place. The bones and connections that once existed were never restored.

As a result, its energy source, its primordial power, was not recovering as it should, weakening it severely.

That shouldn't have been a major problem. In a few dozen years, it could restore everything internally. But it couldn't wait that long, because it needed to wipe out everything that the missionary had built.

The figure took a deep breath. After the first strike, it needed to focus on letting its body recover a bit more power.

After a few minutes, its black and purple scales trembled, giving off a sinister glow.

Without hesitation, its eyes locked onto the massive black stain of the barrier ahead.

Its serpentine body whipped forward, the tip reaching a speed capable of tearing space-time apart and destroying anything in its path.

Just as its attack was about to hit the inscription—

"!"

Suddenly, completely outside its senses, a figure appeared from the Void right in front of it.

She held a dagger in her hand. The blade bore a runic mark, pulsing with cutting power. Fast as lightning, she struck straight at its arrogant face.

**SLASH!**

The attack was so sudden that the Celestial Shadow didn't even see who the attacker was. Its senses only felt the dagger cutting in.

It felt an immense force hit right between its eyes. Its scales cracked and split open, and that cutting power drove even deeper. However, since the Celestial Shadow was already burning energy for its attack, it reacted quickly, shifting everything into defense. It wasn't a perfect defense, but it hadn't lived this long for nothing.

It was thrown far away, its head nearly split in half.

When it barely managed to stabilize—

"!"

A blur appeared behind it, once again completely outside its senses.

This time, Darian held another dagger in his hands, and all of Eleri's power was unleashed at once.

*Blinding Break!*

Darian slashed mercilessly at point-blank range, a second time.

Facing this overwhelming blow, the Celestial Shadow didn't dare hold anything back. Its entire body and scales pulsed.

**BOOM!**

An explosive wave of cosmic proportions erupted through the universe, blasting all the miasma away.

Inside the inscription, Alirio and his entire army were pushed to their limits, watching everything with eyes wide open. Just the shockwave alone made the inscription tremble violently, almost as if it had taken a direct hit from the enemy.

Dozens of seconds later, the space ahead stabilized.

Before their eyes stood a colossal figure, with an elongated, curved body like a naga's. Every scale on its body was shattered, and it was covered in primordial blood.

In front of it floated a small human figure, emitting a multicolored glow, green hair gently waving.

Just looking at that figure made everyone's hearts pound like drums.

The Celestial Shadow was the most shocked of all. How was this possible? That missionary had appeared completely outside its senses, and that hadn't been a movement through space. Not even an immortal could do something like that so perfectly.

Darian was satisfied. Ailik had managed to fuse the power of the Void with space, turning his Chaos Blink into an even more terrifying and impossible technique.

However, the amount of Void power she could generate was very limited. Darian had already used it once to reach the galaxy quickly; now he had used it two more times; everything was exhausted.

He could still use Chaos Blink with just chaos and space power, but against a Primordial Beast, and at his current level, that wasn't very effective.

Darian waved his hand and stored Eleri away. In his hands, Tir appeared.

"Your sneaky moves failed, missionary. If you think you can deal with me with such little skill… today will be your end!"

The Celestial Shadow roared, its body trembling as an aura suddenly exploded outward.

Darian felt that the figure had chosen to sacrifice part of its existence in exchange for power. It wasn't foolish, and, after suffering so much at Darian's hands, it didn't underestimate him at all.

Since Primordial Beasts were born from the universe's power and their bodies weren't fully physical, they had the ability to sacrifice parts of themselves and convert them into primordial power.

But obviously, doing that came with lasting consequences. The Celestial Shadow hadn't done this before while destroying galaxies because it was certain that the three figures who helped it recover were not trustworthy. After it fully dominated its universe, they might attack it. So it didn't want to weaken itself for long.

But now, it sacrificed only a small part, and the damage wouldn't be too serious. Even that was enough… it was sure it could kill this figure, or at least come close.

Without showing anything outwardly, Darian smiled to himself.

**BUZZ!!**

In that instant, the entire universe began to hum.

All ordinary life forms felt as if a hammer had slammed into their chests.

At the same time, purple runes spread across a vast area, creating a domain of corruption with Darian trapped inside it. The Celestial Shadow's aura began to rise rapidly. Its physical form was emitting so much power that space-time started collapsing around it, unable to withstand it.

At that moment, the Celestial Shadow managed to recover forty percent of its original power, becoming almost like a world-devouring black hole. All energies, light, and anything that existed bent and became corrupted before it.

If before the Celestial Shadow had been an invincible king, now it was a supreme ruler, practically like a god. A powerful will poured out of it, a will that forced others to submit.

"Die!"

Without wasting time, its body lashed forward, striking with brutal force.

At that same instant, two figures appeared around Darian.

There were two little girls wearing shining clothes. They held each other's hands and then vanished as suddenly as they had appeared.

**KBOOM!**

The entire universe shook. The battles happening in the other two galaxies came to a halt. Everyone turned their gaze in the same direction, feeling that terrifying impact.

Despite the overwhelming power, which made even them feel pressured, neither Alear nor Niara cared at all. Darian could communicate if he needed to; if he hadn't, it meant he was enough on his own.

Back at the main battlefield, Alirio watched the chaotic world ahead, wondering if the inscription could really withstand much more of this. Then, suddenly, it was as if two suns had ignited.

One glowed green, the other blue.

But they didn't emit heat, only the pure elemental power of wind and water.

The Celestial Shadow, which had just attacked and been blocked, didn't even have time to be shocked.

Two small figures appeared on opposite sides of it.

Both roared in unison, "Elemental Calamity!"

**RUMBLE!**

The Celestial Shadow's world flipped upside down and twisted. It was hurled across the universe like a meteor of blood.

But abruptly, it sensed deadly danger, forcing it to spit blood and twist around by sheer force.

There, it saw a pair of eyes staring at it, a dagger in hand. "Fuck!"

**BOOM!!**

The impact was so violent that even Darian spat blood and was thrown far away after the collision. He felt all his bones shatter and his body nearly explode.

The sensation was literally like using a colossal hammer to smash into a mountain of steel.

He had used Blinding Break with Tir. His earth power was growing and becoming more terrifying by the moment. Even so, the enemy was insanely resilient.

'Good job,' Darian stabilized himself and spoke mentally, checking on Eleri and Awel, who were pale inside the inventory.

The spirits of his equipment could be fed daily by them, stacking more and more power, like infinite batteries. It had been years with both of them feeding the gear, and even then, none of it seemed anywhere near its limit.

Because of that, they could attack on their own and release all that energy at once.

With perfect control over their elements, their offensive power wasn't far below Darian's Blinding Break. And with both attacking together, the destructive power definitely became equivalent.

Darian took a deep breath. Now he had burned one hundred percent of the energy of all three. Even so, he was sure he wouldn't kill that figure right now.

Darian was already an experienced fighter, and with just a glance, he could tell whether the enemy still had many hidden cards and whether it could really be killed. Besides sacrificing its own body to gain more power, the Celestial Shadow had many other ways to grow stronger by sacrificing things.

One of them, Darian, knew because of Howlyn. She had told him that, as a Risen Lord, she could instantly convert all Risen connected to her into energy to use in emergencies.

The Celestial Shadow could obviously do the same, being a thousand times faster and more efficient. So if Darian attacked it at full power using the Ninth Zenith, at best, he would force the enemy to sacrifice all of its Risen Lords and Risen across the universe just to survive.

The enemy was a Primordial Beast, and its body was technically recovered. It wasn't like the Spiritual Sovereigns, who had semi-immortal bodies. Darian, on the other hand, even though very strong, was still a mortal with a power limit.

As a result, it wouldn't suffer damage that severe and could still keep fighting.

If Darian used the power of the Origin, that figure wouldn't hesitate for even a second to sacrifice a large part of its own body and then flee far away. It was a Primordial Beast and would certainly understand a bit of the power of the Origin the moment it saw it, so it wouldn't stay to face him.

That way, Darian would end up in a critical situation without dealing that much damage to the enemy.

Because of that, he chose a more "gentle" approach. He used the power of his three allies in a non-sequential way, making the enemy believe it could kill him by sacrificing only a little. As a result…

The Celestial Shadow stabilized in the middle of space. Darian could see it perfectly, even from a great distance.

Its entire figure was distorted and broken, covered in blood and deep wounds torn across its body. That was definitely not light damage, but it wasn't fatal either. Still, for someone already struggling with energy issues, it would take time to heal, giving Darian some breathing room to plan his next moves.

That was the best possible outcome, since at his current level, Darian knew he wouldn't be able to kill it that easily.

The Celestial Shadow met Darian's gaze but didn't dare say a single word.

Suddenly, its body pulsed, sacrificing even more of itself to gain power. Then it turned and vanished at an absurd speed.

Inside the galaxy, silence was absolute; Alirio and the others barely dared to breathe.

The Celestial Shadow, once an absolute god, didn't just retreat—it diminished itself. It fled like a worm slithering into the deepest crack, crawling back into the void without the dignity of a single sound, leaving behind nothing but the bitter trace of its own mediocrity.