The Heavenly Demon floated above a certain clearing, gazing down at the demons below.

They were oblivious to her presence. Laughing. Talking. Going about their meaningless existence.

She looked at them coldly.

Now she could save Cipher and also take revenge for him.

She extended her hand. Dark energy coalesced in her palm, solidifying into a blade that seemed to devour the very light around it.

Her void sword.

Although it hadn't completely recovered from before, it should do for these lowlifes.

She looked at them as if looking at dead people.

"You should be grateful that I'm letting you witness my swordsmanship."

With that, she descended.

In an instant, she landed in the middle of the crowd.

Dust exploded outward from the impact, obscuring everything.

The demons barely had time to react. Some turned toward the disturbance. Others reached for their weapons.

It didn't matter.

Once the dust settled, a woman stood in the center.

Around her, within a hundred-meter radius, every demon was headless.

Blood spurted from severed necks like fountains. Bodies collapsed one after another, crumpling to the ground.

She sheathed her sword.

System notifications filled her vision, one after another.

"How does Cipher fight with all this noise?" she wondered, dismissing them with irritation.

But suddenly, she noticed something.

A red line. Aimed directly at her throat.

She didn't waste time. Her sword was before her in an instant.

A red qi projectile slammed into the blade, the impact pushing her back several meters. Her feet carved furrows into the ground before she finally stopped.

She looked up.

Before her stood the same demon from before.

Crimson hair. A single horn protruding from his forehead. Those same blood-red eyes, now lazily fixed upon her.

"Another one?" He sighed dramatically. "God, can't a demon rest?"

He tilted his head, examining her more closely.

"It looks like an actual human expert this time, though."

The Heavenly Demon stared at him.

She readied her sword.

Although she was slightly outmatched based on pure physical stats, it wasn't her style to run away.

She smiled.

Besides, she wanted to test the limits of this body.

Her grin widened.

"Come then."

…

She moved first.

Her void sword carved through the air, trailing darkness in its wake. The demon raised his arm to block, and the blade met his skin with a thunderous crack.

He slid back a few inches.

His eyebrows rose slightly. "Not bad."

He countered with a casual swipe. The Heavenly Demon twisted aside, the attack passing within a hair's breadth of her face. She spun and slashed at his exposed side.

He blocked again, but this time she was already moving, flowing into her next strike before the first had even completed.

Sword met claw. Sparks flew. Shockwaves rippled outward.

She pressed the attack relentlessly, her blade dancing through patterns that had been perfected over centuries. Each strike flowed into the next - high, low, thrust, slash, feint, true strike.

The demon defended lazily at first, treating her assault like a mild annoyance.

Then she nearly took his eye.

Her blade whispered past his face, close enough to sever several strands of crimson hair.

His expression shifted.

"Oh?"

He began fighting seriously.

His movements sharpened. His strikes came faster, harder. Each blow carried enough force to shatter mountains.

The Heavenly Demon met him head-on.

She couldn't match his strength - every block sent painful vibrations through her arms. Every deflection cost her more energy than it cost him.

But her technique was flawless.

Her battle instinct - honed over millions of battles - allowed her to easily see through his attacks.

She read his attacks before they came, positioning herself perfectly to redirect force rather than absorb it.

They clashed again and again, their battle tearing apart the terrain around them. Trees splintered. The ground cracked. The air itself seemed to scream from the violence of their exchange.

The demon threw a punch that could have leveled a building. She sidestepped by millimeters and countered with a slash across his arm.

Black blood sprayed.

He looked at the wound with genuine surprise.

"You actually cut me."

She didn't respond. She was already attacking again.

Their battle continued, escalating in intensity with each passing moment. The demon's lazy demeanor had completely vanished and he had locked in.

Finally, he leaped back, creating distance between them.

"I acknowledge you," he said, rolling his injured shoulder. "You're a tough opponent. Even stronger than those old fossils who call themselves Sect Masters."

The Heavenly Demon remained in her stance, breathing heavily but refusing to show weakness.

The demon smiled.

"So I'll show you the true power of our kind."

His body began to change.

Muscles swelled beneath his skin. His frame grew bulkier, denser. The single horn on his forehead lengthened and darkened. His aura intensified dramatically, pressing down on the surrounding area.

The Heavenly Demon didn't wait for him to finish.

She attacked.

Her sword moved toward his throat, but he caught the blade between two fingers, made eye contact with her for a second before flicking his wrist and sending her flying.

She crashed through a few trees before she managed to catch herself.

She charged in immediately.

They clashed once more, but the dynamic had shifted. Where before she had been able to contend with him through superior technique, now even that advantage was being overwhelmed by sheer power.

His fist grazed her ribs. She felt bones crack.

His kick caught her shoulder. Her arm went numb.

She landed a clean slash across his chest, but it barely broke the skin.

The battle continued, but it was increasingly clear who would win.

The Heavenly Demon was running out of steam. Her inferior stats made it impossible to sustain damage, while the demon could tank everything she threw at him.

Her gaze dashed around the battlefield as she blocked and evaded heavy blows.

She just needed a chance. One opening. One moment.

Suddenly, she noticed someone from the corner of her eye.

A figure at the edge of the clearing.

"Maya?" she wondered in confusion.

But there was no time to think about it.

Maya's hands moved, and golden light erupted from her palms.

The demon froze mid-air, his body locked in place by an invisible force.

No time to waste.

This was the chance she was looking for.

The Heavenly Demon raised her sword above her head.

When she was recreating the pseudo-physique, she had gained great insights in techniques and how they worked. With this understanding…

She remembered that feeling…

Her expression became serious.

Her hair began to turn white, bleeding from black to silver to pure snow.

Cracks appeared on her skin, spreading like spiderwebs across her arms and face. Light leaked through them - not golden, but absolute darkness.

She gathered everything she had into this single strike.

Her sword began its descent.

"First Sword," she intoned softly.

…

The demon had just managed to break free from the immobilization, only to find himself face to face with the descending blade.

Just looking at it, he felt something he had never felt before.

Helplessness.

The sword seemed to stretch endlessly in his vision. So long. So wide. There was no place to run. No space to dodge. No technique to counter.

It was as if he was coming face to face with the world itself.

No - not the world.

The end of it.

He opened his mouth to scream.

But before he could let out a single sound, the sword passed through him.

There was no resistance. No impact. His body simply... ceased to exist where the blade touched. Flesh and bone and demonic essence all converted to nothingness in an instant.

He didn't even have time to feel pain.

One moment he was there.

The next, he was gone.

But the sword didn't stop.

It continued its descent, crashing into the earth below with force.

The ground split apart.

A chasm tore through the landscape, stretching for miles in either direction. Trees, rocks, hills - everything in the blade's path was cleaved cleanly in two.

When the dust finally settled, a scar remained upon the world.

A blade mark stretching several miles long.

And a couple miles deep.

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