Pride Precedes a Fall (Part 1)

“I...cannot accept this!” The wretched Blood King bellowed, but without strength to back them, the words felt hollow.

“Oh, are you angry, sweetheart? My bad, let me give you a push.” But as the clone despaired, an ensnaring voice echoed in his mind, and his scorched lips let out a shrill cry.

His icy-blue irises vanished, leaving empty white eyes behind. Purple light surged from the Blood King’s blackened form, the crowned skull on his neck shone in that same hue, halting his fall and keeping his body suspended mid-air.

Before Kilian, the cowering fehls, or the approaching sura councilors could process the scene, the Blood King’s crowned skull vanished, and a bright-gold crown appeared above his head.

Stirred by the crown, the Blood King’s prime mahana gene kicked in, and the two forces overlapped to push his regeneration abilities to the limit. In the blink of an eye, all the Blood King’s wounds, from the torn face to the burned body, healed—returning him to pristine shape.

Raising his right hand, the Blood King donned his heavy armor, this time without a helmet. Like a frenzied zealot singing glorias to his lord, the Blood King’s face overflowed with joy. And with his arms outstretched, he burst into laughter.

“It’s the Crown of Vanity. With it, as long as a speck of dra remains in his body, he can heal from all wounds, no matter how severe—and is utterly unkillable.

Worse, although he inherited your pre-death memories, previously the Blood King lacked experience with your prime gene. After all, back then, even you didn’t have a full understanding of your abilities. But now, with the Crown pushing all his skills to the limit, the might of his physical attributes, Dra Reserves, and transformation abilities will also shoot up. Yet, this might be the least of our worries,” Eleonora said in a mental message, and Kilian’s eyes narrowed.

In raw abilities, the Mark of Pride was undeniably the strongest of all Marks of Sin. The same destructive power as Wrath, the same regeneration skills as Sloth, and unique defense skills that made dealing with it a chore. Granted the owner could master it, endless possibilities awaited them.

The Blood King didn’t. Otherwise, his Crown of Vanity would be purple and not golden. The golden crown meant that a true master seized control of his mark and turned him into a Sin Slave. “Ashera’s trick?”

“Most likely. But even Ashera cannot create a Sin Slave from all the way back to the Fehl Plane. If this is truly her work, she must have an avatar hidden in the Sura Plane. It could be one of those daemons, a fehl sura, a common sura, or perhaps even a member of the human groups. In any case, if only by proxy, she’s here,” Eleonora replied.

When driven against a wall, when their hearts swelled with hatred they couldn’t avenge, when they despaired to save someone they held dear, many humans could trade their soul to the “devil.” Preying on those miserable souls, Ashera created countless avatars across the various mortal worlds—using them to foster cults and use some abilities by proxy. Thus, from the comfort of her fehl throne, she could weave the destinies of all her targeted worlds.

Knowing that things were about to take a turn for the worse, Kilian hid the Sura Queen in the Hellforge. The Blood King stretched out his arms toward him. But his gaze looked beyond, so far beyond that it seemed nothing could truly exist in his sight. Nothing besides himself.

“Do you see, sweetheart? Witness your glory. You are your own king and your own subject—the rightful center of all thoughts. Those that refuse to acknowledge your sovereignty over them err. How can anyone claim being your equal, superior, or worse, your creator?” Before the Blood King’s empty eyes, a projection of himself bathing in a blinding golden light appeared and took him in its embrace.

“Yes, yes! I didn’t lose, I cannot lose. All failures are illusions. My perfection is unbreakable. I have no debt or obligation, and all I desire is rightfully mine!” The Blood King proclaimed and broke into a peal of demented laughter, “Kilian, I, This King, demand that you surrender all you have and vanish from my existence!”

The Blood King said and turned into a streak of purple light as he shot toward Kilian. His arms morphed into two large, multi-barreled and rotary cannons, each able to fire countless dra beams in one strike.

The Blood King’s cannon arms split from his shoulders, moving at lightning speed to flank Kilian. And this time, even if the Eye of Revelation could anticipate the Blood King’s moves, Kilian’s body didn’t have the speed to avoid the incoming blows.

“Aversion Field.” Hundreds of dra beams slammed into Kilian from left and right. His third eye switched to a crimson shade, and the Eye of Distortion kicked in, twisting the space around its master so that all beams narrowly avoided him.

But if Kilian could escape their wrath, others weren’t as fortunate. Before the councilors’ astounded eyes, the beams rained on the suras’ royal tribe, slamming into unprepared men and constructions alike.

Explosions succeeded one another, with billowing smoke clouds and weeping souls. While Kilian could redirect attacks with space vortexes, they possessed a load-bearing limit. The Blood King’s salvo would have shattered them all, triggering an even more disastrous result.

Self-satisfied, the Blood King closed on Kilian and kicked at his neck. And as it neared its target, his armored leg became a sharp sword.

Snap!

Instead of the expected surge of blood, Kilian’s body burst into dozens of crystal shards that surrounded and smashed the Blood King. Disdaining to block, the Blood King let the shards strike. But the invisible sin aura surrounding him rejected their presence and sent all the shards flying back to reform into Kilian.

In that instant, Kilian realized that with his current strength, the Blood King was a match for most mid-level Exarchs. Even if Kilian could take ten low-level Exarchs, a sizable gap remained.

That being the case, it was time to play chess.

“Daemonic Wolf Form!” Emerald flames surged from Kilian’s fehl heart, black fur grew around his skin, and his size increased to nearly three meters while his ears, face and shape changed to become that of a werewolf-like creature. With glowing green eyes, jagged fangs and elongated claws, Kilian faced the Blood King’s relentless strikes.

Below, seeing the destruction wrought by the two opponents, and the absence of their queen, the councilors burned with rage aimed at both Kilian and the Blood King. However, better than anyone, they knew that once they unleashed their spells, the situation would only get worse.

Moreover, the Blood King came by Ashera’s will. How could they assault him?

“Let’s set up protective charms.”

The councilors came to an agreement, and raised barriers to protect their own.

…

Meanwhile, a certain individual spread news that the Sura Plane hid an invincible fortress, that Kilian had already gotten the key, but might soon lose it in the royal tribe.

The von Skolls, the hunted students, Klaus’ Crystal Lords and the unaware technocrats, all received the intel and assembled teams to scout the truth. Bolder than the others, the strongest contenders directly headed toward the royal tribe, arriving soon enough to witness the culminating point of the clash between Kilian and his clone.