Prana cycling.

  Aspect of the Demon God.

  Haste.

  The pillars of Vir’s abilities did more than simply enhance them. They augmented each other, working with such perfect synergy, Vir had to wonder if they’d been designed as such.

  Prana Cycling laid the foundation, enhancing Aspect of the Demon God.

  Growing in height and sprouting horns from his demonic helmet, Vir’s jet-black armor billowed black prana so thick it turned visible. And while the Gargan Ultimate Bloodline Art might have made him invulnerable to conventional attacks, it did more than just that—it also enhanced all of his other magic.

  When it was itself augmented with Prana Cycling, that enhancement became manifold more potent, multiplying Vir’s already fearsome strength, durability and speed to unheard-of levels.

  Haste completed Vir’s enhancement trifecta, and when augmented by the other two, slowed the world around Vir to a mere crawl.

  With all of these arts working in tandem, Vir had just barely been able to keep up with Jagath’s ludicrous speed.

  That, however, was not going to be an issue with Annas, whom he had defeated before. And while the the demon was clearly in possession of an Artifact that allowed him to survive what ought to have killed him many times over, it was not without cost.

  Small wounds opened up on his body every time Cirayus and the others attacked and his face grew paler by the second. Nor did he boast mobility that would have allowed him to escape this trap.

  Vir might've barely beaten the demon in the tournament, but unfortunately for the kothi, Vir had grown by leaps and bounds since then. Moreover, he brought a small army. No Artifact could match that.

  Vir opened his Shield and Foundation Chakras, granting him solid defense against any Life and Warrior Chakra attacks Annas might hurl his way, but he wasn’t done yet.

  Not allowing Annas to make a single move, Vir took the initiative, surging forth with such force that the rock underfoot cracked and exploded.

  That was with Balancer of Scales lightening himself and weighing down his enemy.

  Vir hoped to blindside his foe with sheer speed and aggression by disappearing, only to appear in Annas' shadow—thus ending the fight before Annas could strike back… or bring to bear whatever trump card he had undoubtedly prepared.

  Dozens of katar and chakram prana projections pummeled Annas from behind, along with a veritable torrent of Prana Darts, slamming into the kothi just moments before Vir smashed his fist into the demon, buckling his seric chest armor and driving a raging river of prana into his body.

  Annas offered up only a meager defense. Whether because he’d failed to anticipate Vir’s speed or because Vir’s aggressiveness had caught him off guard as he’d hoped, Vir’s strikes landed true, his Ash Prana traveling unresisted into Annas’ body. But yet again, magic of a potency that ought to have killed him was somehow diluted and weakened. Instead of exploding his body and bursting his blood, the attack simply had the demon coughing blood as his body was flung around from the force of the impact.

  The demon tumbled to a stop, wiping the blood from his mouth, which was curled in a vicious grin.

  Vir didn’t even think of stopping there.

  Prana darts. Blade Projections and Barrages. Life Chakra attacks and surges of Ash prana. Whatever Annas' secret, it mattered not. Their attacks were working. Diluted, perhaps, but still effective. Eventually, Annas would fall.

  Vir deployed every offensive tool in his arsenal one after another, releasing a maelstrom of death, his prana burning at rates that outstripped entire armies of lesser beings.

  When his attacks hurled Annas away, he reduced his weight with Balancer of Scales to quickly move ahead and blast his foe in the opposite direction, sending him back to Cirayus, Ashani, and the Asura.

  A bolt of lightning roasted him from the heavens while Sikandar slammed into the kothi's back.

  Annas’ body was pummeled so hard and so fast that he never even had a chance to hit the ground between each strike.

  To an onlooker, it must have seemed as though Vir's forces were beating up a child—or a toy.

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  Yet Annas did not die. What should have killed him in an instant did not.

  The kothi doggedly held onto his consciousness, even as his limbs snapped and wound after wound opened all over his body.

  And then, with Vir’s katar poised above the kothi’s chest, about to drive into his heart, the demon made his move. The attack Vir had unleashed everything in his arsenal to avoid.

  Vir never saw it coming. Not because of his speed or physical strength—Annas had neither that could threaten Vir—but because Annas’ retaliation came in the form of something no one present could ever have predicted.

  An aura of unbridled power burst from Annas, physically slamming into Vir.

  The power of the Crown.

  By all rights, Annas could not have opened that Chakra, for it was not so trivially mastered. Demons had spent their entire lives failing to reach it. How could he be wielding it now? Had he hidden his power all this time?

  No. Annas was not the sort of demon who could resist the allure of power and the status it brought.

  It mattered not. Vir’s Shield Chakra was fully open, and while the Crown may enhance Annas’ body and magic in the same way that Vir’s Aspect of the Demon God and Prana cycling did, it still could not bridge the monumental gap between them.

  Or so Vir thought, but the might of a Warrior Chakra under the enhancement of the Crown was nothing short of transcendent.

  Vir could only watch in horror as Annas unleashed his Warrior Chakra at point-blank range. As Cirayus screamed for Vir to get away, but there was no time.

  Annas had planned it this way. Had allowed himself to be tossed and beaten to an inch of death. All for this moment.

  Vir's Shield Chakra held for but an instant before sputtering closed, leaving his soul exposed and vulnerable.

  For against the power of the Crown, there was no defense without a Crown of one’s own.

  Annas’ enhanced Warrior Chakra passed through Vir’s prana and his armor, striking deep. Striking the very core of Vir’s existence.

  Something precious.

  Rending.

  Searing.

  Shattering.

  Not his body, but his soul.

  Vir clutched his heart, screaming in pain, for it was a pain unlike any other. As though the core Vir’s very existence was being erased away—unmade.

  In the span of a second, Vir was crippled. Torn.

  Yet despite the crushing agony, something deep within him stirred. A whisper of a warning. Danger, and the certain death it would bring if he succumbed.

  Drawing on the willpower he’d forged through a thousand battles, Vir forced himself to roll aside—narrowly dodging a barrage of Warrior Chakra attacks.

  Thoughts came slowly, and so, acting purely on reflex, Vir sank into the shadows. Into the Shadow Realm, where no Chakra could reach.

  The blackness enveloped him and his bodily functions halted, though it was no respite from the pain. From the damage.

  Vir could feel it—the core of his existence, shattered like broken glass. And once broken, glass could never be made whole again. Not even if all the shards were reassembled.

  The very concept of time broke as Vir lived a lifetime in an instant. As causality broke within his body and his entire existence was unwritten.

  As for what would become of him, Vir did not know.

  What he did know, however, was that his ten seconds were quickly running out, and his capacity for conscious thought with it. If he did not destroy Annas right now, he would surely die.

  Maybe that’s not so bad, Vir thought. Anything to end the pain.

  Pain that made thinking feel like an impossible dream.

  And then he imagined Maiya’s grief—her world as shattered as his soul.

  He imagined Greesha and Janani put back under the thumb of Draconian Chitran rule, their efforts for naught.

  He remembered every demon who had sacrificed their life for him—for his promise of a brighter future. A unified realm in which no demon suffered prejudice or the tragedies of war.

  To fail now would mean the end of not just his life. It would mean killing the hopes and dreams of thousands upon thousands.

  Yet each moment that passed robbed him of consciousness, robbed him of thought.

  Soon, he would be nothing more than a mindless husk, unable to resist as Annas extinguished his life.

  So, upon being ejected from the Shadow Realm, Vir soared to the one place Annas could not reach. He grasped for the one tactic that might end this blight of a Chitran.

  Decreasing his weight, Vir launched himself into the sky—soaring higher and higher, leaving Annas in the dust below.

  “You are done!” he heard Annas scream from the earth, lost in the rush of victory. “You are ended!”

  Vir paid his words no mind. Staying conscious was all he could manage.

  As he reached the apex of his jump and began to fall, Vir did the only thing he could.

  He enhanced his weight to its absolute maximum.

  Diving headfirst, his katar extended in front of him, Vir did everything he could to gain speed.

  Seeing Vir’s descent, the Kothi deftly stepped aside, easily missing his katar by several feet.

  But it mattered not. Vir wasn’t aiming for Annas.

  For here, in the Demon Realm, where sunset reigned eternal, the shadows ran long and deep.

  And with timing that would have ruined him had he been even a fraction of a second early or late, Vir sank into one.

  It was an old move. One he had mastered long ago, though no less deadly than anything else in Vir’s arsenal.

  After all, there were few beings in any realm that could resist the incredible force of a prana-bladed katar…

  …driving through the shadows, through the rectum, and out the skull.

  Not when accompanied by the force of a hundred Virs in weight.

  Annas would never know what hit him.

  He was already dead the moment Vir left his shadow, and it was only now that Vir saw why Annas had ever stood a chance. Why his attacks hadn't killed the kothi outright.

  There was only one defense that could have given him such might. The same defense Andros had used, but this was no mere Artifact. Not something Annas wore or wielded.

  No, this Artifact was embedded within his body itself. Fused to him.

  Vir didn't know which was more horrific. That Annas had somehow melded his very soul to an object, or that he'd willingly doomed himself to an eternity of suffering, where not even death would grant him peace.

  A thousand cheers and howls erupted as Annas’ body was cleaved in two, but Vir never heard them.

  His vision swam. No longer able to feel his legs, Vir stumbled, crashing to the ground.

  So this was his plan all along…

  It was only now, at the very end, that Vir realized his mistake.

  These were not the actions of someone who planned to restore his clan and rule over them. No, Annas had not waged this war—had not sacrificed thousands—to win.

  He’d done it all just to take Vir down... even at the cost of his own life.

  And he had succeeded.

  The world turned dark, and it was all Vir could do to utter one, final word.

  “…Maiya.”