Color drained from the Soul Devourer's cheeks. Almost no one alive still held proof of his betrayal. Across level nine, people remembered only that Heaven Gate vanished overnight; none had discovered how the sect had fallen.
"Master Hawksley spared your life, and you repaid him with blood—slaughtering the entire sect before dawn. I am here today because I swore to Master Hawksley that I would cut you down and carry Heaven Gate's vengeance."
Jared's expression hardened to black ice as his stare locked on Soul Devourer.
"Yes, I erased Heaven Gate—every last disciple. So what? Strength rules here in the celestial realm. Sentiment is for the weak. I butchered them, stole their resources, and rose stronger."
His manic laughter clanged through the audience hall, brazen, metallic, and utterly devoid of mercy.
"Then steel yourself for death." Jared said, rage filling him.
Dragonslayer quivered in his grasp, loosing a chain of dragon cries that rattled the pillars.
The Soul Devourer's mirth rebounded off the stone, swollen with arrogance. Even Jared's swift ruin of the Five Shade Demons looked, in that contemptuous gaze, like children tussling in sand.
"Revenge? For Heaven Gate Sect? Brat, you think you can boast before me just because you have a scrap of their legacy? Killing a few worthless minions does not earn the right to challenge me, the Soul Devourer."
He rose from the throne. Light itself recoiled, and a tide of thick, living darkness rolled from his pores, crushing every chest. The disciples whose spirits Jared had rekindled found their knees trembling once more beneath that hammering malice.
Neville and Sylvia exchanged grim looks; the Soul Devourer's depth defied even their bleakest guesses. Jared was formidable, yet this ancient fiend had ravaged the heavens since forgotten ages—outcome uncertain.
"Try me."
Sensing Jared's resolve, the Dragonslayer Sword sang louder, its corona of sword light shredding the encroaching miasma into glittering dust.

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