The thought of the strongest invaders and how he would be helpless against them if he used up his trump card now made him hesitate about self-detonating many times. But as things got worse, his hesitation disappeared, and he made up his mind to go out with a bang.
With a cratered body full of holes from which his blood was pouring out like water from a fountain, the Sun King roared and said, "Go to hell with me."
Then he detonated.
His body inflated instantly as his plasma shell expanded in size into a large cocoon made of fire and heat. Then that cocoon deflated as if it had been punctured. Its swift deflation caused a large amount of energy and fire to erupt from him like lava erupting from a volcano.
Arthur was already running away when the Sun King expanded in size. He recognized that his current position was worse than the previous one, so he was already running away before the explosion happened.
In the previous explosion, he was already some distance from the Sun King before the explosion happened. Yet he was caught by the explosion and nearly killed.
This time, things are worse because he is right in front of the Sun King and is primed to take the explosion head-on. This explosion should have killed him. But his preemptive evacuation of the deadly situation, combined with the enhancement of heavenly lightning, saved his life.
Thanks to the enhancement of heavenly lightning, he became so fast that he was able to outrun the explosion. His own lightning was nowhere powerful enough to achieve something like this, even with the enhancement of Overclock mode.
To him, it felt as if he was running from an ocean of fire and heat that wanted to submerge him. He could feel the heat scorching his back as he ran for his life. Many times, the ocean of fire nearly submerged him, but he still managed to escape through the tiny gap between his teeth.
But as soon as he escaped from the explosion of fire, he rushed back into the devastated area to look for the source of the explosion. He did this because he was determined to prevent the Sun King from escaping this time around.
As he rushed forward with all of his might, cracks spread all over his body. The cracks were deep enough for the golden light of his core to leak through them. It looked as if the energy of his core was leaking out of his body.
The cracks were caused by the strain of the enhancement of heavenly lightning on his body. He is not even clashing with the Sun King anymore, yet his body is slowly giving out.
In fact, he should have died already because his true cultivation is too small to withstand the power of heavenly lightning for so long. Someone else at the third transformation of the fourth mortal coil should have died a long time ago due to the strain.
If not for the empowerment of Mountain Karma, he would only be able to withstand this much stress and abuse to his body for less than five seconds before his body and golden core collapse.
His body hasn't collapsed yet, but it is nearing that point. The worst part is that he has run out of life force from the Wood Vessel Sigil technique. After all, he only mastered it up to 1%, so its capacity is very small.
Right now, he can only rely on the natural healing properties of the special energy of his core, created by the fusion of the wood element and the lightning element. Unfortunately, the healing power of his energy isn't enough to keep up with the stress and strain of using heavenly lightning to enhance his power.
He had at most 30 seconds more before he would sustain irreparable and maybe lethal injuries. But he still didn't give up on pursuing the Sun King. His determination to catch the Sun King only became stronger once he laid his eyes on the fleeing figure of the Sun King.
The Sun King has reduced in size now. His self-detonation has made him lose most of his power and majesty. Even the weaker beings below, who can't assess power output at sight, were able to tell them the Sun King had become weak because the light he was producing had reduced to a pittance.
The weakening of the Sun King caused the bright day to turn into dusk. It was as if night was about to return to Aries. That fell when something flashed ahead of the Sun King and struck him head-on.
What caught the Sun King was the small sword belonging to Void Flash. The small sword had become a large object to the Sun King now that his size had reduced.
The small sword that used to be a nail to the Sun King had finally regained the glory of being called a sword by the Sun King. It impaled the Sun King in the chest and stopped him from escaping.
The sword didn't kill the Sun King just yet. This gave the Sun King the chance to talk.
The Sun King cried out, "I did nothing wrong. I didn't do anything wrong. I just wanted power. I deserved to get the power."
As he was lamenting his situation, his eyes spotted the Sun King and the Snow King. The two of them were looking at him with shock or unconcealed joy and mockery.
Taka was the one who was looking at him with joy and mockery in her eyes. She was happy that he had fallen to this state because he had put her mother, the previous Snow Queen, in a similar position.
On the other hand, the new Sun King was surprised that someone whom he used to look up to and fear had fallen to such a lowly state. To him, it felt as if an icon and hero had fallen.