Episode-770
Chapter : 1539
The air in the room instantly turned freezing cold. The torches along the walls flickered and died, plunging the vast chamber into a gloom illuminated only by the purple light leaking from Cassius’s fist. Shadows began to bleed out of the corners of the room, pooling around the Prince's feet like living ink.
"If I cannot rule this kingdom," Cassius hissed, his voice distorting into a demonic growl, "then I will sacrifice it."
The ink rose. It coalesced. It formed a shape that defied geometry—a towering, hooded figure made of smoke and screams. It had no face, only a gaping maw filled with rows of needle-like teeth. Long, shadowy tendrils lashed out, cracking the stone floor.
A Black Spirit. A gift from the Abyss.
"Kill them," Cassius ordered, pointing a shaking finger at the court. "Kill them all. Leave no witnesses. Start with the doctor."
The Black Spirit roared. It was a sound that wasn't heard with the ears, but felt in the marrow of the bones. A wave of pure terror washed over the room. Nobles screamed and scrambled over each other to get to the sealed doors. The elite guards, hardened killers, dropped their weapons and fell to their knees, paralyzed by the sheer, supernatural dread radiating from the monster.
Ken Park stepped forward, putting himself between the monster and the children. He raised his serrated knives, but even he looked grim. "That thing... it’s not normal, Doctor. It eats light."
"It eats fear," Lloyd corrected calmly. He didn't move. He didn't flinch. He just watched the monster advance.
The Black Spirit lunged. A massive tendril of shadow shot across the room, aiming straight for Lloyd’s heart.
"Lloyd!" Seraphina screamed.
Lloyd didn't dodge. He didn't run. He simply sighed.
"I really wanted to keep this suit clean," Lloyd muttered. "It was expensive."
He closed his eyes. He reached deep into the unified reservoir of his power. He didn't reach for the subtle tools of the spy. He didn't reach for the precision of the surgeon.
He reached for the sun.
"Iffrit," Lloyd whispered. "Wake up."
His eyes snapped open. The gold in his irises vanished, replaced by a blinding, white-hot incandescence.
BOOM.
It wasn't an explosion. It was an eruption.
A pillar of fire erupted from Lloyd’s body. But it wasn't the orange fire of a torch or the red fire of a campfire. It was white. Pure, blinding, absolute white. It was the color of a star born in a vacuum.
The heat was instantaneous. The water in the flower vases evaporated in a millisecond. The velvet curtains on the far walls burst into ash. The shadow tendril that was inches from Lloyd’s chest didn't just stop; it ceased to exist. It was vaporized by the sheer thermal pressure radiating from him.
The Doctor Zayn persona didn't just fall away; it was incinerated. The hunched shoulders straightened. The meek expression vanished. In his place stood a warrior wreathed in a corona of solar plasma.
Behind him, the air ripped open. A vertical tear in reality appeared, bleeding liquid fire. Two massive, armored hands gripped the edges of the tear and pulled.
Iffrit stepped through.
He wasn't suppressed. He wasn't holding back. He was the Demon King of Annihilation, nine feet of magma armor and burning rage. His greatsword was a river of white fire, dripping molten steel onto the floor.
The Black Spirit recoiled, screeching as the intense light burned its shadowy form.
Lloyd looked at Cassius. He smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. It was the smile of a predator who had just found a new chew toy.
"You brought a shadow to a gunfight," Lloyd said, his voice echoing with the roar of a furnace. "Allow me to introduce you to the sun."
----
The Throne Room, once a place of cool stone and political maneuvering, had become an oven. The temperature spiked so rapidly that the gold leaf on the pillars began to soften and weep like tears. The terrified nobles huddled against the back walls, shielding their faces from the blinding radiance emanating from the center of the room.
Lloyd stood in the eye of the firestorm. He didn't look like a man anymore; he looked like a conduit for a celestial event. The white flames danced around him, caressing him, obeying him. He raised a hand, and Iffrit mirrored the movement, raising his colossal zanbatō.
"Burn," Lloyd commanded softly.
Iffrit swung.
Chapter : 1540
It wasn't a fast strike. It didn't need to be. It was inevitable. The blade of white fire carved a bright arc through the air. The Black Spirit tried to block it with a wall of shadows, but shadows cannot exist in the heart of a sun. The blade passed through the darkness as if it were mist.
The impact was silent, followed a split second later by a thunderclap of displaced air.
The Black Spirit shrieked—a sound like tearing metal. The arm it had raised to defend itself was gone. Vaporized. Not cut, but unmade. The heat of Lloyd's fire was so intense it was breaking down the spiritual bonds that held the entity together.
Cassius didn't cower. His shock turned into a greedy, desperate sneer. He saw the massive amount of mana radiating from Iffrit.
"You call that power?" Cassius yelled over the roar of the flames. "That is my power! You Ferrums stole the ley-lines centuries ago! It belongs to Altamira!"
Cassius slammed both hands onto the floor. The purple light of his pact flared.
"Abyssal Siphon!" Cassius screamed.
The Black Spirit didn't retreat. It opened its massive, toothy maw and inhaled.
Suddenly, the white flames on Iffrit's sword began to bend. The fire was being sucked into the Black Spirit. The shadows grew larger, feeding on Lloyd’s attack. The severed arm regenerated, formed of stolen fire and shadow.
Iffrit roared in annoyance as his flames dimmed slightly.
Lloyd frowned. He felt a tug on his own core. Cassius wasn't just attacking; he was trying to drink Lloyd dry.
"You are trying to eat my mana?" Lloyd asked, his voice calm but dangerous.
"I am taking back what is mine!" Cassius laughed manically. "I will drain you dry, Dragon! I will leave you as a husk!"
Lloyd adjusted his cuff. He looked at the greedy monster inhaling his fire.
"You have a big appetite," Lloyd noted. "But you forgot one basic rule of biology."
Lloyd’s eyes flashed blinding white.
"Some things," Lloyd whispered, "are too hot to eat."
"Impossible!" Cassius said with surprise voice, shielding his eyes. "That is a Black Spirit! It is made of the Void! Fire cannot hurt it!"
"This isn't fire," Lloyd said, taking a step forward. The floorstones beneath his boots turned to liquid lava, hissing and popping. "This is purification. This is the concept of 'Heat' taken to its absolute limit."
He pointed at the monster.
"You call that darkness?" Lloyd scoffed. "It's just a stain. And I am the bleach."
The Black Spirit, enraged and terrified, changed tactics. It dissolved into a swarm of shadowy bats, thousands of them, diving at Lloyd from every direction. It was trying to overwhelm him, to find a gap in the heat.
Ken Park shouted a warning, but Lloyd didn't even turn his head.
"Omnidirectional Pulse," Lloyd murmured.
He clenched his fist. Iffrit slammed the pommel of his sword into the ground.
A ring of white fire exploded outward from them. It moved at the speed of thought. It washed over the swarm of bats. There was no sound of impact, only a collective hiss as thousands of shadow-constructs were instantly sublimated into nothingness.
The shockwave didn't stop there. It hit the ceiling of the Throne Room. The ancient stone, weakened by centuries and now subjected to thermal shock, groaned. Cracks spiderwebbed across the vaulted dome.
CRACK-BOOM!
A massive section of the roof, easily ten tons of stone and lead, blew outward, blasted into the night sky by the rising column of heat.
Moonlight—and fresh, cool air—flooded into the room, instantly warring with the inferno below. The sudden pressure change created a whirlwind of ash and sparks.
The nobles stared up at the open sky, their mouths hanging open. They looked back at the man who had been checking their pulses just yesterday.
"He... he blew the roof off," a Duchess whispered, clutching her pearls. "The doctor blew the roof off."
"He is not a doctor," General Kaelen murmured, staring at Lloyd with professional awe. "He is a walking siege engine."
In the center of the devastation, the Black Spirit reformed. It was smaller now, diminished. It looked pathetic. It chattered its teeth at Lloyd, backing away.
Cassius was trembling. His insurance policy was being eaten alive.
"Attack him!" Cassius shrieked at his spirit. "Don't retreat! Consume him!"
The spirit hesitated. It looked at its master. It looked at the white sun standing before it. It knew, with an animalistic certainty, that it was outmatched.
Lloyd walked toward Cassius. Iffrit walked behind him, a shadow of fire.