Crimson lightning and blood-red energy exploded throughout the impact zone, filling the surrounding ocean with chaotic destructive power as enormous currents swept through the depths.
Ash’s body was sent flying through the ocean at terrifying speed, the force behind Kane’s attack carrying him through the water like a cannonball as layers of pressure continuously exploded around him.
What the hell...?
Ash felt a sharp pain spread through the right side of his chest as blood escaped from his mouth and dissolved into the surrounding ocean.
That bloody bastard broke through my defenses that easily?
His expression became slightly complicated as he realized the difference between himself and the Celestials.
He couldn’t believe that even after becoming so powerful, he was still this weak.
Literally no one below God Rank could be his match, and given enough time, he could even defeat God Rank beings, but his opponent was a Celestial-ranked existence.
Ever since the formation of the Immortal Seal and the successful assimilation of the Crimson Heavenly Lightning, every single one of his attributes had increased from 1250 points to 1500 points.
That kind of increase was ridiculous.
Even Ash himself had been a little taken aback when he first saw the changes.
Although he had no idea where the limits of God Rank truly began, one thing he was certain about was that it definitely wasn’t as low as 2000 points, yet despite such a massive increase in strength, Kane’s attack had still smashed through his defenses and injured him the moment it connected.
Celestials are really monsters...
At the same time, Ash quickly noticed another problem.
A strange blood-red energy remained within his wounds, spreading through the damaged flesh and actively interfering with his regeneration, preventing his healing abilities from operating at full efficiency.
Fortunately, Ash had no shortage of ways to deal with foreign energies.
[Energy Devour]
The blood-red energy was immediately dragged out of his wounds and absorbed into his body before being broken down and converted into pure energy, causing the obstruction to disappear almost instantly.
The moment it vanished, his regeneration surged back to normal and the injuries throughout his body rapidly healed, restoring him to perfect condition within a second.
By the time Ash stabilized his body and came to a stop, he was fully healed again, but he also noticed something strange.
A long crimson trail stretched through the ocean in front of him.
His eyes narrowed slightly as his gaze followed the trail into the distance, only to realize that it wasn’t created by his own blood.
It was made from corpses.
The force that had launched him away had also sent him crashing through countless Ocean Species that failed to move aside in time, causing many of them to explode instantly due to the Crimson Heavenly Lightning while others were torn apart by the violent shockwaves surrounding his body.
Blood drifted through the surrounding waters.
Broken bodies floated everywhere.
Entire sections of the ocean had been stained green, as the blood of many Ocean Species carried a naturally green coloration.
Seeing that scene, Ash’s eyes gradually began to gleam.
Because there was now blood everywhere.
A ridiculous amount of blood.
And while vampires were naturally famous for their ability to manipulate blood, he also possessed more than enough blood-related abilities of his own.
I need to get serious.
Ash thought as he assumed a fighting stance once again.
Meanwhile, Perseus stared at the destruction left behind by Kane’s attack and couldn’t help releasing a sigh.
"That idiot really couldn’t control himself."
His expression darkened slightly as he looked at the countless dead Ocean Species floating through the surrounding waters.
Kai Reed’s face was equally unpleasant.
"I ordered everyone below God Rank to remain on standby, not become casualties."
His eyes shifted toward Kane, who appeared completely unconcerned by the destruction he had caused and was already rushing toward the Anomaly once again.
Thousands of Ocean Species had died from the aftermath of a single attack, becoming nothing more than collateral damage in Kane’s reckless assault.
Even Sera could not help shaking her head after witnessing the destruction.
"I knew vampires became irrational around certain bloodlines, but this is excessive even by their standards."
Despite the irritation in her voice, her attention quickly shifted elsewhere, because something far more important than the dead Ocean Species had captured the attention of all three Celestials.
Ash was standing there as though nothing had happened.
The expressions of Perseus, Kai, and Sera gradually became more serious as they watched him.
A being far weaker than them had just taken a direct attack from a Celestial and was still standing perfectly fine.
No matter how they looked at it, that was not normal.
A Transcendent surviving an attack from a Celestial was already absurd enough.
When combined with everything else they had witnessed today, from the Crimson Heavenly Lightning to the Rivers of Destiny and Universal Fortune, the feeling became even more unsettling.
The more they saw, the more difficult it became to treat him according to common sense.
Sera continued watching Ash for several moments before finally speaking.
"We need to lock him down."
Kai immediately turned toward her, while Perseus remained silent and listened.
Sera nodded before continuing, "Gather everyone and establish a large-scale sealing barrier around this entire region. Have them continuously pour energy into it and maintain it at all costs. We have already locked the surrounding space using our Will Powers so that he doesn’t escape, but I don’t want to leave anything to chance. If he somehow escapes this place, finding him again will become infinitely more troublesome, and I don’t think any of us wants to explain that failure to the organizations standing behind us."
Perseus immediately understood what she was trying to do.
"It only needs to hold temporarily."
"Exactly," Sera replied. "Even ten minutes would be enough. If we trap him inside while the four of us move together, capturing him before the barrier collapses shouldn’t be difficult, and ten minutes is more than enough time for Celestials to decide the outcome of a battle. Let’s use Kane to keep that Anomaly busy for now and we can create the barrier. That way, there won’t be too many casualties either."
She said the last part while looking at Kai.
Kai remained silent for a few moments before finally nodding in agreement.
At this point, none of them were willing to take unnecessary risks anymore.
Nobody was looking at Ash as a mere Transcendent anymore.
In the eyes of everyone present, he had become exactly what the Universal System had designated him to be.
An Absolute Anomaly.
****
The Vampire Prince, Kane, had absolutely no intention of allowing Ash even a moment to recover.
The instant Ash stabilized himself in the distance, the Vampire Prince moved again, causing the surrounding ocean to collapse inward as his figure vanished from sight and reappeared directly before Ash with a speed that made the distance between them seem meaningless.
Ash’s pupils contracted.
Even with Hyper Intuition, Omnidirectional Vision, and the countless perception-related abilities enhancing his awareness, tracking Kane’s movements was unbelievably difficult because the difference in power between them was simply too large.
The moment Kane appeared before him, a clawed hand was already descending toward his chest.
Ash immediately reacted.
Crimson lightning erupted around his body as he twisted sideways and narrowly avoided the attack, but before he could create any distance, Kane’s other hand had already reached him.
The strike landed directly against his shoulder.
A violent force exploded through his body.
Ash felt several bones crack apart as the impact launched him through the surrounding waters, yet before he had even traveled a hundred meters, he forcefully stabilized himself and redirected his momentum.
The ocean beneath him exploded.
Ash shot forward again.
Damn it!!!!!!
The distance separating them vanished almost instantly.
Ash’s fist became covered in Crimson Heavenly Lightning before crashing toward Kane’s face, causing the surrounding ocean to tremble from the sheer force contained within the strike.
Kane didn’t evade.
He simply raised a hand and caught the punch.
The collision sent a powerful shockwave through the surrounding waters, yet Kane’s body barely moved.
Ash’s expression immediately darkened as even the Crimson Heavenly Lightning was not affecting Kane too much, other than causing a few burns across his hand.
Ash had already expected a difference in power.
What he hadn’t expected was a difference this ridiculous, even after receiving such an enormous increase in strength.
He could finally understand why it was said that after Demi God Rank, bridging the gap between ranks became unbelievably difficult.
The attack that could seriously injure God Rank beings had been stopped with a single hand by a Celestial-ranked being.
The Vampire Prince looked toward Ash, and a smile gradually appeared on his face.
"You truly are someone who cannot be understood through common sense. No, perhaps anomaly is the more appropriate word. Remaining perfectly fine even after all those attacks... ridiculous."
Before Ash could respond, Kane tightened his grip around Ash’s hand.
The surrounding ocean suddenly distorted.
Ash immediately felt an overwhelming force attempting to crush his hand apart.
Without hesitation, he activated [Body Control] to its limits, strengthening every muscle, bone, tendon, and drop of blood within his arm while simultaneously flooding the entire limb with energy.
A hint of surprise appeared in Kane’s eyes, but it quickly disappeared.
The person standing before him was an Anomaly.
At this point, being surprised by him was becoming pointless.
Clenching his other hand, Kane drove a punch directly into Ash’s stomach.
-BAAM!!!!!!
The force behind the attack knocked the air out of Ash’s body as he was once again sent flying thousands of meters through the ocean before finally managing to stop himself.
And as always, he left behind a trail of corpses drifting through the water alongside streams of greenish blood.
Pain spread throughout his body.
Yet Ash’s expression remained calm.
The absurd vitality granted by his countless evolutions, the Immortal Seal, his bloodline, and the runes immediately began repairing the damage faster than it could accumulate.
Ash could practically feel the energy flowing from his heart continuously surging through his body, and there seemed to be no end to it.
For the first time in his life, he genuinely felt like a machine that would never run out of fuel.
And that realization caused a grin to slowly appear on his blood-covered face.
Because if Kane couldn’t kill him quickly, then this battle was going to become a lot more troublesome than the Vampire Prince probably expected.
Kane exploded with a surge of blood energy and appeared beside Ash once again, throwing another punch, but this time Ash was ready.
Combining Will Power, Void Energy, Blood Energy, and the Crimson Heavenly Lightning through the power of the Rune of Harmony, Ash fused them together, causing the lightning surrounding his body to darken into an even deeper crimson shade.
-BOOOOM!!!!!!!!
Ash managed to block the first attack aimed at his face, but before he could even stabilize himself, the second had already arrived, and before he could respond to that one, the third was rushing toward him from an entirely different angle.
Kane’s offensive was relentless, each movement flowing into the next so naturally that it felt less like a series of attacks and more like a rabid beast tearing into its prey without pause.
The surrounding ocean continuously exploded around them as fists, claws, elbows, knees, and kicks collided over and over again, generating shockwaves powerful enough to tear apart the water itself.
Every time Ash blocked a strike, another immediately followed, and every time he retaliated, Kane responded with equal aggression, causing the battle to escalate further with each passing second.
And each time, Ash was pushed back.
He was literally losing, yet somehow he continued holding on.
Crimson lightning surged wildly across Ash’s body as he threw punch after punch toward the Vampire Prince, while Kane’s blood-red aura expanded throughout the surrounding waters, turning the region around them into a chaotic mixture of crimson lightning and blood energy.
Their figures vanished and reappeared repeatedly throughout the ocean.
One moment they were exchanging hundreds of blows near the surface, and the next they were already thousands of meters deeper before appearing somewhere else entirely.
The speed of the battle had already reached a point where most of the spectators could no longer properly follow it.
All they could see were flashes of crimson lightning, bursts of blood-red energy, and the constant explosions spreading throughout the ocean as the two figures continuously collided.
Ash drove his fist toward Kane’s face, but the Vampire Prince tilted his head just enough to avoid it before slamming his elbow directly into Ash’s ribs.
Several bones cracked.
Ash immediately answered with a knee strike, forcing Kane to shift backward before another punch covered in Crimson Heavenly Lightning crashed toward his chest, causing the surrounding waters to explode from the impact.
The exchange continued without pause.
Neither side showed the slightest intention of retreating as fists, elbows, knees, claws, and kicks continuously collided throughout the ocean, generating violent shockwaves that tore through the surrounding waters.
Despite everything, Ash quickly realized a frustrating truth.
He could push Kane back.
He could force the Vampire Prince to defend.
He could even occasionally land clean hits.
But that was where the results ended.
The damage he was dealing simply wasn’t enough.
His attacks could injure Kane, leaving behind burns, cuts, and bruises, yet none of them were serious enough to truly threaten a Celestial Rank existence, making the difference between their power painfully obvious no matter how fiercely he fought.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Kane.
Every successful strike from the Vampire Prince left behind visible injuries as deep wounds continuously opened across Ash’s body and blood spilled into the surrounding waters.
Yet none of it mattered.
The moment an injury appeared, it immediately began healing, while every drop of blood lost was rapidly replaced by new blood, and even the blood that had already escaped into the ocean seemed to possess a will of its own as it rushed back toward him under the influence of [Body Control].
Ash felt like an inexhaustible machine.
A machine that simply refused to stop functioning no matter how much punishment it received.
Even Kane gradually noticed it.
Because after exchanging countless blows, tearing through Ash’s defenses again and again, and opening wound after wound across his body, the annoying Anomaly standing before him still looked just as capable of fighting as he had at the beginning.
And that was beginning to irritate him.
***