Raven's heart pounded violently.
Bardi stood tall, his hands holding back Trigon's overwhelming might.
The sight left her speechless, an indescribable storm of emotions surging through her.
Bardi's back, covered in jagged bone spurs, was coated in dust. Yet, even as the weight of the most powerful demon in the universe bore down upon him, he did not yield.
He stood before her—and held back Trigon.
He looked like a demon himself.
Like the greatest warrior imaginable, propping up the sky above her.
The sight of him wrestling with Trigon beneath that massive red palm burned into her vision.
It was impossible.
It was hopeless.
It was too much—Trigon was too powerful.
Raven had wanted to surrender.
To beg Trigon for mercy—for Earth, for Bardi.
But—
Bardi's actions told her otherwise.
Do not surrender.
Do not beg.
Fight.
Face it with everything.
Violence must be met with violence.
To defeat a demon become something worse.
In that moment, Raven clenched her teeth, her tears burning like fire.
Bitter—yet filled with warmth.
The courage to stand against Trigon ignited inside her once more.
Bardi was in front of her.
Giving her light.
Giving her the strength to fight fear itself.
She could feel it, radiating from his back.
A will stronger than death itself.
And that thought infuriated her.
Because it meant.
He was willing to die.
She would not let him.
Damn Trigon!
"Damn it!!!"
She screamed.
Her rage exploded.
Her cloak whipped violently in the storm of power surging from her body.
Her forehead split open, four crimson eyes burned with fury.
Dark energy erupted from beneath her feet, swirling around her like a black tornado.
The air itself trembled as waves of power rippled outward, distorting space with their sheer force.
Above the sacred peak—
The dark clouds convulsed, rolling like a stormy sea.
Her power sent shockwaves through the heavens, sending rings of black clouds surging outward, all centered on the Divine Peak.
The battle had changed.
For a moment, even the struggle between Bardi and Trigon was overshadowed.
But.
Trigon's power did not waver.
It was limitless.
Violent.
A force beyond comprehension.
His sheer kinetic energy and speed, more terrifying than any meteor, tore through the sky itself.
Before his colossal red palm, Bardi was tiny, a mere speck against a titan.
The keratin armor on his body kept bursting apart, revealing deep crimson muscle underneath, only for it to regenerate in an instant.
A cycle of destruction and rebirth.
His face was cold.
Expressionless.
The nerves that once allowed him to feel—to react, to show emotion.
Had been torn apart in his transformation.
Now—
He was only power.
A force of pure destruction.
He could not feel the agony.
He could not process the soul-rending pain.
He could only.
Fight.
Boom. Boom. BOOM.
Trigon's massive palm bore down upon him.
Bardi held it back.
His raw explosive strength forced Trigon's clenched fingers apart.
The force shattered his muscles, his bones.
The pain was unimaginable.
But—
Pain was his fuel.
The agony only made him stronger.
The ground beneath him collapsed, sinking down to his thighs.
The sheer pressure shattered the corridor's foundation, cracks spread like a spider's web in every direction.
Then—
A sound.
A shriek.
A deafening, overwhelming bird cry echoed over the Peak—piercing, high-pitched, and unrelenting.
The sound tore through the blood-red mist, ripping the sky apart.
Dark clouds shattered, obliterated by the sheer force of the sound waves.
Even the hellfire within the peak's hollow interior.
Extinguished.
The Peak was plunged into darkness.
Then—
The stars returned.
Behind the blackened sky, the starlight reappeared.
The sky glowed once more, revealing a terrifying scene.
Trigon.
A hundred meters tall.
His blood-red body towering over the battlefield.
He was unstoppable, a nightmare made flesh.
He stood upon the entire planet, his presence blotting out the sky.
And before him.
Bardi.
His body still covered in jagged bone spurs, his form monstrous yet human.
He held up his arms, resisting the might of Trigon.
As though he were holding the very sky upon his shoulders.
And above them all—
Raven.
Her body twisted, engulfed by her own power.
She soared into the sky, transforming into a massive, nightmarish crow.
Her wings spread wide, swallowing half the sky in darkness.
The energy forming her crow-like form was limitless, its presence terrifying.
Every black feather, every shift in its massive form was connected to a thousand layers of magic circles, pulsing with immeasurable force.
The darkness that radiated from her form was absolute.
A force of the unknown.
A force that terrified even demons.
Her voice pierced the world.
The shriek.
Not the cry of a bird.
But the roar of something divine.
Something ancient.
Something that could destroy worlds.
This—was Raven.
A being who represented the unknown itself.
"RAVEN! DO YOU DARE?!"
Trigon roared in fury, his voice shattering the atmosphere.
The entire planet trembled.
The Peak quaked, and in the sea of blood where the hellfire had been extinguished, a thousand layers of crimson waves surged outward in chaos.
But what answered him.
Was an even louder cry.
A piercing, high-pitched bird's screech erupted across the planet, reverberating through the endless sky.
Raven had transformed.
A colossal black crow, its wings stretching across the heavens, soaring through the darkened sky.
Then—
Without hesitation—
Without fear—
She attacked.
A flash—
A violent explosion of energy—
She moved like a moth to the flame, launching herself toward certain death.
Her massive black form became a streak of darkness, a rushing black comet cutting through the sky.
Straight toward Trigon.
The starlight above.
Couldn't even catch her speed.
Only a black afterimage remained, before she collided with his chest.
"BANG!"
The impact shook the entire planet.
A force like a category 30 tornado erupted outward, a shockwave so immense that it ripped open the atmosphere itself.
The very roof of the planet was torn apart.
The atmospheric shield—shattered.
A gaping hole was left in its wake, an instant vacuum forming in the sky.
It had been ages.
Eons.
Since Trigon had felt pain.
But now.
He felt it.
It burned through him.
His massive chest caved inward, his sternum fractured, the red bones within splintering apart.
Bright crimson blood erupted from the wound, scattering like rain.
Drifting upward into the weightless void.
Trigon's colossal form tilted backward, the unshakable mountain beginning to fall.
At that moment.
Bardi felt it.
The overwhelming strength that had bound his body loosened.
Trigon's grip weakened.
His hands trembled.
Bardi looked up—
And saw her.
Raven.
Floating beneath the infinite stars.
Her cloak billowed in the aftermath, caught in the fading energy waves.
Her frame—small, frail—
Yet standing against the vast cosmos.
Alone.
Empty.
Isolated beneath the endless, uncaring sky.
(To be continued.)
****
For every 100 PS = 1 extra chapter. Support me on patreon to read 30+ advanced chapters: patreon.com/Blownleaves