"That is… the Seven Lightnings of Divine Punishment," Freya uttered in disbelief as she stared at Max standing beneath the seven colossal lightning dragons. Her voice trembled despite herself, not from fear, but from sheer shock.

She had lived long enough and seen enough to know what those lightnings represented, yet seeing them obey a human was something that shattered everything she believed about the laws of the world.

She could not understand how Max had obtained them, nor what he had done in the past to draw their attention. The Seven Lightnings of Divine Punishment did not descend for trivial sins. They did not care about slaughter, conquest, or genocide. A million deaths meant nothing to the will of the world.

These lightnings descended only when something fundamentally violated the balance of existence itself, when a being threatened the very structure that allowed the world to function. To survive them was impossible. To control them was unthinkable.

Even cultivators advancing to Divine Rank only faced the ordinary Wraith of the World, and even that carried a terrifying mortality rate. The Seven Lightnings were different. They were absolute judgment. Once they descended, death was guaranteed. No exception had ever existed. At least, none that Freya had ever heard of.

Lucien's gaze never left Max. His expression was grave, layered with memory and unease. "I have heard of this," he said slowly, his tone heavy. "Max attracted the Seven Lightnings of Divine Punishment back in the Mourning Depths. That event shook many powers, though the truth was buried quickly. The only reason he survived was because his fate manifested itself and intervened."

Freya's brows furrowed as she turned to him. "Fate manifestation?" she repeated softly, as if testing the words.

Lucien nodded. "Yes. His fate did not merely shield him. It stored the lightning inside him, sealed it away until his body, his concepts, and his existence were strong enough to endure it. I have walked many lands and seen countless geniuses, but I have never seen or even heard of someone whose fate manifested so clearly and so directly to protect them."

Freya inhaled deeply, her eyes once again returning to Max, who stood unmoving as divine punishment coiled around him like obedient beasts. "His fate was always greater than ours," she said quietly. "I sensed it long ago. A fate like that does not bow to death easily. It is not surprising that it would awaken when faced with something that guaranteed annihilation."

Above them, the sky roared as the seven lightning dragons twisted through the heavens, their presence bending light, space, and law itself. Below them, the world of Acaris trembled, not from Mark's divine authority, but from the judgment Max was about to unleash.

"Take this!" Max shouted as his will surged outward.

The seven colored lightning dragons roared as one, their voices overlapping into a sound that did not merely echo but tore through existence itself. They plunged from the heavens toward Mark, each dragon carrying a different aspect of divine punishment.

Violet lightning split space as it moved. Indigo lightning crushed laws beneath its weight. Blue lightning refined everything it touched into pure order. Green lightning devoured vitality while birthing destruction. Yellow lightning radiated supreme authority.

Orange lightning burned with relentless resolve. Red lightning carried absolute annihilation. Together they formed a judgment that was never meant to be resisted.

Mark snorted, his expression twisting into disdain as he raised both hands. "Humph."

Dark red lightning erupted from his palms, thick and viscous like blood turned into thunder. It did not scatter chaotically but condensed violently, swelling and twisting until it took form.

In a heartbeat, a colossal demonic beast of lightning manifested before him, its body forged from corrupted divine power and infernal essence fused together. Horns of crackling crimson energy curved from its skull, and its roar shook the world as it charged forward.

The collision was instantaneous.

The moment the demonic lightning beast met the seven dragons, the sky shattered.

A blinding explosion of colors and darkness erupted, swallowing the horizon in a violent storm of clashing laws. Space folded inward and then tore apart, only to be forcefully stitched back together by Max's spatial authority.

Mountains far beyond the battlefield were erased into nothingness by shockwaves that arrived seconds later. Oceans split as towering walls of water were blasted apart, revealing the seabed before crashing back down in catastrophic waves.

The lightning dragons did not simply strike the demonic beast. They tore into it from every direction, ripping chunks of its body apart with divine judgment.

In response, the beast lashed out wildly, its claws and fangs colliding with the dragons in explosions of red and violet light. Each clash erased entire sections of the sky, leaving behind void scars that screamed as they struggled to close.

Mark's eyes burned as he poured more power into his creation, drawing deeper from the essence of the world itself. The ground beneath him cracked and sank as rivers of energy surged upward into his body. The demonic beast grew larger, more ferocious, its roar drowning out even the thunder of the lightning dragons.

Max did not retreat. His body glowed with seven colors as he pushed his control to the limit, veins of lightning crawling across his skin. The dragons responded, their forms sharpening, their power intensifying as they began to tear the demonic beast apart piece by piece.

Each severed fragment exploded into storms of red lightning that rained down like meteors, carving craters across the land.

For several terrifying seconds, neither side gained ground.

Attacks collided, annihilated each other, and detonated in chain reactions that shook the entire world of Acaris. The sky burned, the land screamed, and reality itself seemed on the verge of collapse as godlike power clashed without restraint.

Even from afar, Freya and Lucien felt their souls tremble as they watched forces capable of ending civilizations cancel each other out again and again.

At the heart of the chaos, Max and Mark locked eyes across the storm, both standing unyielding amid the destruction. This was no longer a battle of technique or strategy. This was a confrontation between judgment and domination, between a will that sought to sever everything and a god who refused to fall.

And neither of them intended to yield.

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