Julius could only watch their battle. He couldn't intervene, not anymore.
There stood Zhou Rui, his breathing ragged and feral, shoulders rising and falling in heavy, animalistic rhythm. His right eye had vanished behind that dark green gradient layer crawling across his face, and where his iris should have been was now a glowering, deep green disk surrounded by a lime-colored sclera. A guttural growl rumbled from his throat, the last vestiges of his human voice dissolving into something more ancient, more monstrous.
Across the hall, the Magma Tyrant surged forward in a blur of red-orange afterimages, molten sword trailing a shimmering heat haze. The Tyrant's blade came down in a cleaving arc aimed to split Zhou Rui's skull. But Zhou Rui's body reacted faster than thought—he slipped aside, low and predatory, the strike missing by inches and slamming into the floor with an eruption of magma shards.
Zhou Rui was already behind him, spinning with a sudden, inhuman torque, the Guardian Blade hissing through the air. The Tyrant twisted, immense reflexes snapping its armored body around, its own sword rising to meet the strike. The two blades collided with a shriek of metal and raw magic, and Zhou Rui was hurled backward by the force, his boots gouging long scars into the frozen floor until he crashed shoulder-first into an iron lantern.
The impact kindled a ripple of pale flame—lantern after lantern igniting down the walls, bathing the entire throne room in shifting orange light.
Zhou Rui dragged himself upright. Now, only his hair remained unchanged—black and human. His face had transformed fully, jawline thickened, skin marked by coiling sigils. His eyes blazed as though lit from within. His muscles had swelled, skin stretched taut with raw power. Drool dripped from between his jagged teeth as he crouched, glaring at the Magma Tyrant with unbroken hatred.
The Magma Tyrant did not wait. It lunged, a volcanic gale spiraling around its sword as it swung in a wide, annihilating arc. Zhou Rui braced low, the Guardian Blade coming up to intercept. The moment the weapons collided, a blast of pressure rolled across the chamber—lantern flames flattened against the walls, the frozen floor beneath Zhou Rui's feet shattered in a spiderweb of fractures.
His claws clenched tighter around the Guardian Blade. The green gradient advanced, creeping across his chest and shoulder, crackling like an emerald wildfire. With a strangled snarl, he wrenched himself free of the lock and exploded forward. The Guardian Blade swept up, trailing a ribbon of luminous green air.
He swung.
A green air strike erupted from the weapon's edge, slicing across the room. The Magma Tyrant met it with a roar that shook the pillars. It braced and answered in kind, driving its sword down into the floor. The stone split. A tide of lava screamed upward, gathering into a conical vortex before lashing out in a searing red arc.
The two projectiles collided midair—green hurricane against molten storm. For a breathless instant, the forces canceled each other, casting the hall in flickering emerald and crimson. Then the backlash struck them both like a physical blow. Zhou Rui skidded backward, boots scraping for purchase, and the Magma Tyrant staggered, mantle of magma sloughing in chunks from its shoulders.
Zhou Rui was moving again before the debris had settled. His outline blurred as he shot forward, every muscle pumping with the grotesque strength of Cerebrus's curse. He leapt—far higher than human legs could propel—and came down in a diagonal slash aimed at the Tyrant's neck.
Steel rang against magma-forged alloy. The impact cratered the stone beneath the Tyrant's boots. But this time the Magma Tyrant did not retreat. It held him there, the two locked, inch by inch forcing Zhou Rui back. A shockwave burst outward, ripping the nearest lanterns from their iron mountings and hurling them clattering across the floor.
The green aura spread further, consuming Zhou Rui's throat and jaw, climbing toward his left cheek. The glow within his eye burned hotter. He planted a foot behind him, pushed off, and wrenched the Guardian Blade free, spinning it overhead in a vicious feint. The Tyrant raised its sword to guard—but Zhou Rui vanished, reappearing at its flank.
The Guardian Blade lashed out in a low, hooking slash that tore through the Magma Tyrant's side. A gout of luminous orange ichor erupted from the wound, hissing where it struck the frozen stone. For a heartbeat, the Tyrant staggered.
Zhou Rui did not let up. He struck again—once, twice, each blow accompanied by a thunderclap of displaced air. Sparks ignited in the growing cracks beneath their feet. Mana burned in his veins, searing his mind with every expenditure. He lunged in a final thrust aimed for the Tyrant's core.
But the Magma Tyrant had endured centuries of war. In the instant before the blade struck true, it pivoted, its massive gauntlet slamming into Zhou Rui's