Meanwhile, Frey immediately reabsorbed the aura he had just unleashed back into his body.
"Deadly strikes... and the ability to preserve his aura reserves without wasting them..."
Thanatos’ face slowly twisted into a thrilled smile.
"Amazing!"
"You will make a magnificent addition to my undead army!"
Thanatos raised his hand.
The blue flames gathered together ...
Forming a massive scythe of aura, its blade extending well beyond three meters.
Gripping the weapon, he lunged forward and cleaved down toward Frey.
Frey countered with a swift slash of his sword—
But Thanatos’ aura overwhelmed him instantly.
In the blink of an eye—
Frey’s upper body was severed cleanly from his lower half.
"...What?"
Frey stared in disbelief at what had just happened.
Thanatos burst into laughter.
"Submit!"
He swung the scythe again.
But threads of aura erupted from Frey’s severed torso, forcibly pulling his body back together and regenerating the damage.
This time, Frey did not attempt to block the attack.
He dodged.
’Luckily... that last strike wasn’t something I haven’t experienced before... otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to regenerate the damage...’
Frey thought, still shaken by the terrifying power of that scythe.
"I see you possess quite a remarkable regeneration ability," Thanatos remarked.
He pressed forward relentlessly, launching a storm of scythe strikes that cornered Frey.
Below them, the ground remained a sea of raging blue fire, its waves crashing upward as if trying to reach them.
Defending against the scythe consumed nearly all of Frey’s strength.
He relied on the Eyes of the Void, the Black Hole Aura, and the Power of Souls just to survive.
SLASH!!
The scythe bypassed Frey’s sword again and again, cutting into him repeatedly.
"How long do you plan to keep defending?"
SLASH!!
With every passing second, Frey’s body accumulated a terrifying number of wounds.
His regeneration worked rapidly, allowing him to continue fighting ...
But the battle was clearly not in his favor.
Thanatos saw this clearly.
With another motion of his hand—
The blue flames surged upward once more from below, threatening to swallow Frey whole.
Frey shot toward the sky at incredible speed, escaping the rising pillar of fire.
The higher he rose ..
The more he realized the true horror of what Thanatos had unleashed.
Those blue flames were not merely covering Belgrade.
They resembled an entire ocean of fire that had engulfed the whole Empire.
"So this is what warriors at the peak are capable of...?"
Frey murmured quietly.
His eyes remained calm despite the catastrophic situation.
Below him, Thanatos ascended as well ... riding a towering pillar of blue fire that threatened to devour the sky itself.
But Frey had no intention of allowing him to do as he pleased.
He raised his free right hand ...
And a shocking phenomenon unfolded before Thanatos’ eyes.
From nothingness—
A violent storm of lightning erupted across the sky.
Black lightning roared thunderously, shaking the heavens.
And in Frey’s hand—
A strange spear had appeared.
A pitch-black spear.
"Shadowbolt Spear."
Frey raised the spear toward the sky.
Lightning began striking from every direction, gathering into the weapon.
The heavens transformed into an ocean of thunder ...
Answering the flames of Thanatos.
Frey gathered every ounce of strength he could muster, merging it with his abilities .. then hurled the spear with everything he had, like an unstoppable missile.
The Shadowbolt Spear struck Thanatos, detonating directly before him.
Roaring black lightning collided with raging blue fire, revealing a breathtaking spectacle—the violent clash of the elements themselves.
Seconds later ...
Thanatos was overwhelmed.
Unable to halt the spear’s momentum, he was driven downward, collapsing amid the blue inferno spiraling around him.
The Shadowbolt Spear returned to Frey’s hand.
Alone beneath the raging storm, Frey hovered in the sky, breathing heavily as he struggled to steady his breath.
The hand that had thrown the spear was completely charred.
It trembled violently.
Staring at it, Frey’s sharp eyes realized something important.
"I can’t regenerate the damage caused by the lightning of the Shadowbolt..."
The black lightning was a double-edged weapon.
It harmed its wielder as well.
The power of the Shadowbolt was something Frey had never experienced before.
Which meant the burns it inflicted would take a long time to regenerate.
But Frey paid it little mind.
"It’s fine... I can endure this much."
He forced himself to ignore the pain.
Because Thanatos was already preparing to attack again.
The monster’s body transformed before Frey’s eyes, igniting with ever more volcanic blue flames.
"You possess a remarkable number of world-breaking abilities," Thanatos said slowly as he ascended into the sky.
"And strange weapons that carry an overwhelming destructive power within them."
"I cannot recall ever facing someone like you."
He stared at Frey with clear curiosity.
"Who are you?"
Frey answered with cold intensity.
"The one who will kill you today."
"Ha... HAHAHA!"
Thanatos burst into laughter as his aura surged even more violently.
"Let’s see how long you can last, then!"
He shot toward Frey again.
Frey responded immediately, launching the Shadowbolt Spear once more.
But Thanatos was not a foe who fell for the same trick twice.
Volcanic blue magma surged forward, forming dense defensive layers before him.
The spear crashed against them.
Lightning and flame clashed violently in the air.
Thanatos barely managed to stop the attack ... granting himself the opening he needed.
With a swift swing of his scythe, he struck Frey and sent him plunging downward.
Frey crashed straight into the vast ocean of blue fire below.
Thanatos pursued him without hesitation.
"The sky is no longer your ally."
But Thanatos’ expression darkened the moment he saw a violent surge of violet aura erupt from within the depths of the burning sea.
"Nameless Judgement!!"
A colossal pillar of violet aura exploded upward, swallowing Thanatos from below.
Frey emerged above it ...
His body completely charred by the flames.
He raised the Shadowbolt Spear toward the heavens once again.
Lightning struck from every direction, gathering into the weapon.
Then ...
With every bit of strength he had left—
He hurled it at Thanatos.
But this strike was different.
Through the spear, Frey unleashed his strongest attack, merging it with the black lightning itself.
"Shadowbolt Spear + Nameless Judgement!"
The spear surged toward Thanatos.
But what flew toward him was no longer a spear.
It was a roaring tempest ...
A vortex whose winds were made of black lightning and dark aura.
The storm engulfed him completely.
It hurled Thanatos away, devastating him and a vast portion of Belgrade along with him.
The blue flames scattered.
Frey dropped to the ground, driving his sword into the earth to steady himself.
He breathed heavily as the charred flesh of his body slowly regenerated.
Violet aura surrounded him, sustaining his strength.
A faint smile formed beneath his mask.
"This is going to be difficult."
He lifted his head.
And found Thanatos already standing before him.
Half of his body had been destroyed.
Yet it regenerated just as quickly as Frey’s.
Without wasting a single second—
The two clashed again.
Their close-range battle erupted at a terrifying pace, inside a massive crater surrounded by blue flames and black lightning.
Their fight was nothing short of a natural catastrophe ...
One powerful enough to reshape an entire continent.