THE VILLAIN'S POV Chapter 718: The Last Thousand Steps (3)
Previously on THE VILLAIN'S POV...
Frey leveled his blade once more at Zibar and Abraham. His gaze was icy and devoid of mercy—a stare so piercing it caused a shiver to run down Zibar’s spine.
“Ten Thousand Steps of Shadow…”
“Are you joking with me…” Zibar spat a curse, hurling his entire weight toward Frey with desperate intensity.
The edge of Zibar’s sword was only millimeters away from Frey’s skin...
but at the final breath, Frey shifted through space, repositioning himself before discharging his technique.
“Nameless Judgement.”
—BOOOOOOOM!!!!—
Right before Zibar’s eyes, the fabric of reality was shredded once again by Frey’s strike, which came roaring toward him like a tidal wave.
Gritting his teeth, Zibar funneled every scrap of his remaining strength into Katarina’s blade, saturating the metal with a massive flood of aura.
“Void Eater!”
A titanic dark crescent erupted from Katarina’s sword, matching the scale of Frey’s incoming destruction.
Within moments, the two monumental forces collided in a clash without precedent, each attempting to violently consume the other.
It was a battle of Zibar’s dark aura against the Black Hole aura of Frey.
Following a savage struggle, the balance shifted as Frey’s power began to overwhelm Zibar’s defenses...
A fragment of the strike broke through, slamming into the Katarina armor and leaving a massive dent. Though the armor tried to disperse the impact across its surface, it was powerless against the sheer volume of aura contained in Frey’s blow.
The thunderous collision persisted for a long, agonizing moment…
until the energy finally bled away.
Zibar had survived the hit, though only by a hair's breadth. However, his expression turned to stone as he felt the aura beginning to circulate once more.
Pure dread washed over his face when the aura drifted back to Frey. The Young Master raised his sword again, his killing intent surging like a violent gale.
“Ten Thousand Steps of Shadow…”
Upon hearing those words...
Zibar’s body flared with power, and Abraham transformed into a dazzling explosion of stellar light, both warriors committing their total strength simultaneously.
They lunged toward Frey at the speed of light, the air screaming as they tried to close the gap in a final, desperate bid... but they were too late.
They were unable to reach him in time, for Frey was warping space itself to his will.
In their sight...
Frey pried the world open one more time.
“Nameless Judgement!!!”
With a roar that came from the depths of his soul, Frey unleashed his most powerful technique again, pulling them both into the dark abyss of the Black Hole.
Zibar and Abraham were swallowed by the strike, fighting back with every bit of their formidable power, refusing to be extinguished.
Eventually, the aura subsided, revealing a massive crater that had been gouged into the earth...
a hollowed-out scar on the landscape where everything within had been completely erased.
Zibar and Abraham remained standing, but their condition was dire.
A jagged fracture had appeared on the Katarina armor.
Abraham’s body, forged of aura, was marked by a deep laceration that bled starlight.
They were battered and broken, yet they still stood.
But for Zibar, there was no sense of relief.
Because the aura was stirring once again—
—and Frey was lifting his sword.
“Ten Thousand Steps of Shadow…”
The earth groaned and buckled with every word Frey uttered, as if a cataclysmic earthquake were tearing the world apart.
At the same time, he shattered the resolve of his foes just as effectively.
“Frey Starlight...!!! Just how much further are you going to go?!”
Zibar charged again.
Abraham followed close behind.
But the only thing that greeted them was—
another incinerating Nameless Judgement,
drowning them both in a terrifying flood of shadow.
“Until death.”
Frey gave a frigid reply, drawing the aura back into his body.
Confronted by that horrific vision—the masked youth raising his blade repeatedly, summoning endless destruction—
Zibar felt the cold touch of fear.
As he witnessed the sheer magnitude of the power Frey was wielding...
his previous insults returned to haunt him.
Had he really... referred to this monster as “weak”?
Weak? This man?
The realization hit Zibar with the force of a lightning bolt...
just before the darkness consumed him again.
Both Zibar and Abraham fought to the bitter end, utilizing 100% of their power and saving nothing for the future. They drained every drop of their essence into this single struggle.
Why?
Because the man they faced had ascended far beyond their highest estimates...
reaching a height where, for the first time in the entire conflict...
they felt the shadow of death.
Frey Starlight discharged Nameless Judgement over and over...
a ceaseless bombardment that caused the entire planet of Earth to tremble.
Pulses of Black Hole energy and violent aura shocks radiated across the globe until every living soul on Earth could feel the vibration.
Every living thing sensed it...
the tragic, world-altering battle of Frey Starlight.
Far away, within the walls of the Shadow Sect...
Many cultivators stood up, gazing at the horizon with wide, disbelieving eyes...
recognizing the owner of that aura immediately.
Among them, Snow Lionheart understood the situation better than anyone else.
“Frey…”
Grasping the gravity of the moment, Snow took to the sky without a second thought...
a streak of light cutting through the heavens as he flew toward that ominous aura, his face a mask of terror.
Across the world, all of Frey’s allies felt it too...
the realization that he was locked in a life-or-death struggle somewhere far beyond their reach.
Meanwhile...
Frey continued to fire off Nameless Judgement, one after another, without a moment’s rest.
Each blow sent Abraham and Zibar tumbling, their forms torn by wounds that became increasingly horrific. Despite their immense power, they were unable to get near Frey... who was spamming a world-class technique as if it cost him nothing.
This wasn't the work of Nameless.
This was Frey—and Frey alone.
With every swing of the sword, Nameless—watching from a distance—narrowed his eyes in thought.
“How peculiar... He claimed to be weak, yet he is suddenly performing my technique with nearly flawless precision.”
Frey was far from a common man.
Initially, he could only reclaim 30% of his power using the method Nameless had provided.
But in the heat of combat, the situation had evolved.
“Now... he is recovering over 90% of the energy from every strike he releases.”
It was as if he had practiced—no, mastered—this secret technique over centuries of Cultivation.
For the first time, Nameless felt a genuine sense of admiration for the youth known as Frey Starlight.
With such a recovery rate, Frey was able to unleash Nameless Judgement perpetually, even as his body began to fail under the sheer recoil.
The pain must have been unbearable... yet Frey didn't even flinch.
“Frey Starlight... you are anything but weak.”
Nameless murmured softly before falling silent, watching the conclusion of Frey’s final rampage.
Frey’s frantic assault continued for a while longer.
Only a few minutes passed... but for those caught in the middle, it felt like an eternity had gone by.
The ruin left in the wake of Frey’s attack had deleted a massive territory from the map. All that remained was a gargantuan crater, a deep wound carved into the world itself.