As Eddie finishes his brutal onslaught on Shadowclaw, he withdraws a small, intricately designed dagger. His eyes, cold and resolute, lock onto his trembling foe.
"You may speak your final words now," Eddie states, his gaze briefly shifting towards Evilfire in the distance.
He is aware that Evilfire won't readily accept defeat and is likely to summon a more formidable beast to reverse their fates.
For Eddie, this battle is more than just a confrontation; it's a test of his current strength, a crucible to understand the extent of his powers.
Defeating Shadowclaw and Evilfire had never been a question for Eddie, but he deliberately cultivates the difficulty of his battles, seeking challenges that will enrich and temper his combat experience.
He realizes that irrespective of his latent potential, complacency in training could lead to unforeseen dangers when facing true adversaries. His curiosity about the mightiest beings in the world keeps him driven.
Since emerging from the black hole space, Eddie has recognized that there once existed entities capable of defeating and sealing the formidable Empress Vivian for millennia.
Are these supremely powerful beings extinct? Eddie doubts it. Even if the Dragon Continent no longer houses such powerful figures, places like the
Tower of Heaven might, and the celestial realms, said to be accessible only to saints, are unlikely devoid of such formidable beings.
While Eddie doesn't yet see himself confronting entities that sealed Empress Vivian for a millennium, his goal remains unwavering: to grow continually stronger, to surpass all.
With his innate body-breaking invisible sword energy, he is confident about the path ahead. Still, he yearns to accelerate his journey through rigorous training and tactical combat enlightenment.
Individuals like Rock, Iron Fury, Shadowclaw, and Evilfire are mere stepping stones on his path to greater power. By overcoming them, he intends to reach heights of strength unprecedented.
As Shadowclaw attempts a feeble plea for mercy, the dagger swiftly finds its way through his mouth and into the brain. Eddie, with an air of detachment, shrugs, "Quite succinct for a last word!"
The onlookers, engulfed in a mix of awe and fear, watch the scene unfold in a profound silence, deeply stirred by the grim spectacle.
Everyone had anticipated Shadowclaw's demise, but no one had expected a third-level high-order hero to meet such an end.
As his eyes rolled back and life left his body, the contractually bound warhawk in the sky, sensing its master's death, fled. It soared into the darkness, a desperate escape to nowhere.
"Now it's just you left, Evilfire," Eddie directed his gaze towards the sinister man who had been ominously quiet. He suspected Evilfire still had a trick up his sleeve, a final move perhaps. "What's your last gambit?"
"I know I won't survive tonight, but I'll take you with me!" Evilfire's laughter was tinged with a chilling malevolence.
"With blood and life, I can summon a demonic entity powerful enough to annihilate White Stone City itself! Hahahaha..."
His maniacal laughter sent shivers down everyone's spine. A demonic entity with the power to obliterate an entire city would have to be at least of a golden sovereign beast level, right?
The Captain of the Guard reacted first, drawing his sword and rallying the onlookers to rush Evilfire and thwart his apparent madness. But as they leaped forward, they noticed countless dark fire orbs swirling around Evilfire, looking like ghostly flames.
With a maniacal laugh, Evilfire swung his arms, sending the sinister black fireballs hurtling in all directions, targeting both the charging warriors and the songstresses on the balconies.
The horrific fire touched them, and they immediately burst into flames.
Weaker victims, like the songstresses, screamed in agony as they were consumed by the infernal blaze, bursting into deadly fireworks of blood and flesh, leaving a gruesome scene in their wake.
The terrifying aspect was that the blood and limbs continued to burn. Anything splashed by the black fire immediately caught flame, and the walls and ground where the fire touched also began to burn incessantly.
Some warriors attempted to dodge, but the black fire seemed to have a life of its own, relentlessly pursuing and hitting its targets. Except for a few of the quickest responders, no one was spared.
The captain of the guard slashed at the black fire with his sword, only to find his blade too caught alight, burning red-hot until he couldn't hold it any longer.
Witnessing this, the few remaining warriors and the captain turned deathly pale. "My God, this is hellfire, the inextinguishable fire of hell! Evilfire must have summoned a devil from the depths. We're doomed!"
Eddie was surrounded by several orbs of the dark fire. With the flick of his wrist, he shattered them, causing them to rebound off the ground and ignite the surrounding stones.
But the red light shield around him remained utterly impervious to the inferno. As the hellfire splashed upon it, it vanished without a trace as if it had never existed.
Evilfire watched Eddie with a sinister grin.
He pulled out a sharp, curved knife and, in a horrific display, sliced open his own abdomen, letting his entrails spill out onto the ground.
"All life and blood, I offer to my lord, Hasin. Your humble servant calls upon you with blood and soul as the guide. Come forth, my lord Hasin, and lay waste to this land, manifest your supreme might!"
He continued to mutilate himself, throwing pieces of his flesh towards the heavens, his face twisted in maniacal glee, his eyes burning with fanaticism.
Eddie frowned slightly, his body tensed, ready to confront whatever monstrosity was about to be summoned.
"Kill Evilfire, now!" the guard captain shouted, his eyes red with desperation. "Roar!" The remaining warriors, despite their fear, charged forward.
But it was too late. "Ha ha ha ha! You'll join me in the afterlife! We'll meet again in hell, and I'll be sure to give you a warm welcome!" Evilfire exploded into a burst of blood and fire.
The warriors who had been about to attack him were instantly killed, their bodies torn apart in a horrific display of gore.
The captain of the guard lay on the ground, severely wounded and spitting blood continuously. The scene was one of absolute chaos and despair, a testament to the horror unleashed by Evilfire's final act.
In the midst of the battlefield, Eddie stood alone, the sole survivor amidst over a hundred fallen. His right leg had been struck by the hellfire, rapidly spreading its deadly flames.
The captain of the guard, with a painful grit of his teeth, used his sword to sever his own right leg to stop the spread of the inferno.
Struggling to crawl away from the burning ground, he shouted at Eddie, "Leave now! Flee far from White Stone City! Evilfire has sacrificed his life to summon a demon from hell. Leave, before this place turns into a living hell!"
As the captain's terrified voice echoed, the ground where Evilfire had exploded violently split open.
A colossal portal slowly emerged, its size hinting at the enormity of the demon pushing its way through.
Eddie's heart raced as he witnessed the demon's immense arms, covered in blood-scaled spikes, forcibly widening the portal to hasten its arrival from the depths of the abyss.
If the monstrous demon made its way through, Eddie knew he would be a fool to stay.
He waited for the right moment. "Binding Chains!" Eddie harnessed the power of Little Wenli's binding talent, aiming it at the fearsome demon.
To his shock, the binding chain, which could restrain the Bronze Bull and the Stone Golem for over ten seconds, now relayed that it would last less than a second against this demon.
In that brief second, he needed to make an effective attack, or the chain would break, and the demon would be free to wreak havoc on White Stone City.
Eddie was confident he could escape the demon's pursuit, but he couldn't leave behind the people he cared about in the city, including Grace and the little girl.
"Farewell!" With his eyes shining like stars, Eddie unleashed his most powerful attack for the first time since his arrival in this world.
His innate, formless sword energy burst forth with all its might, wrapping his arms in a rainbow of colors.
All his innate energy converged into a singular point, creating a sword of annihilation aimed at the heart of the demon still behind the portal.
This strike, Eddie believed, could instantly slay a mighty war kodo or even a mammoth. It was his strongest blow yet.
Whether it would severely wound or barely affect the demon, Eddie couldn't tell.
But it was the best he could do – the Binding Chains, the hundredfold strength of the Giant Shadow, and his ultimate sword strike, all combined into one.
Victory or defeat – the outcome of this single sword thrust would decide it all.