Corrupt Creations

Velgor didn't even look at Sixth Shadow's body as he passed by; his eyes were already connected to Seth's silhouette, staring at the target of his previous lifelong ambitions. But his eyes lacked the desire they once had before. Now, they only displayed darkness, since his ambitions were all dead now. 

When he saw Seth's silhouette now, he just wanted to thoroughly extinguish him from the surface of the planet, together with everything and everyone else. But differently from what was expected, Velgor kept calmly moving forward, unhurried to reach the place where Seth was. His personality has always been like that and what had happened just made him an even calmer individual. 

Seth watched as Velgor calmly move towards him, but each time the Demon Emperor took a step forward, he felt an incomparably heavy pressure coming down his way. 

Velgor's aura was so dense and heavy, that he was able to suppress Ninth Shadow's body easily with it, killing him without the need of even using a skill. Just that heavy pressure Seth was feeling now, was enough to severe his lifeline and damage his energy veins. 

Velgor's aura of darkness now, was thoroughly charged with death and damnation and even the vegetation in that area was quickly dying because of it; verdant leaves drying up almost as if instantly, whenever he took a step forward. 

The valley was dying while immersed in that dense aura, getting consumed by a gloomy darkness. When Velgor finally stopped, he was already standing just a few meters away from Seth. 

One of them had lost his family and his naivety because of the other's ambitions, but ironically, Velgor's ambitions were swiftly stolen from him and torn to shreds right before his eyes. And the one responsible for that, was none other than the "vessel" he had raised. 

Suddenly, Seth crossed his arms and decided to say some things. 

"Velgor... I have once questioned myself, why did so many bad things have happened in my life, but I was being naïve, trying not to believe the obvious answer that was right in front of my eyes. Only now I was able to understand why you did everything that you did... Because only with power, one can reign supreme or live a peacefully life, free and unrestrained by anything or anyone."

"..." Velgor just kept hearing, without saying a single word. 

Seth continued: "That's why I desperately went after power... To destroy you and be free." 

Velgor finally smiled and said: "Don't worry. I'll make sure to free you from that tough life you had and allow you to rest in peace." 

Swoosh! 

Velgor's aura suddenly exploded, drowning Seth in the pressure of a Mana Sovereign middle-stage Realm cultivator. 

As the oldest demonic Mana Sovereign, Velgor has been staying at that level for a long time. Because of that, his Mana and aura were even stronger and more solid than the Elf Queen's aura. Actually, the initial pressure that Seth felt coming from him, was at least twice stronger than the aura he felt from Arwen. 

Velgor was not only one of the strongest Mana Sovereigns, but he was the demonic practitioner with the best mastery over darkness, easily surpassing Seth's level of mastery on that particular element. That's why the pressure being emitted from his aura was heavy beyond any measurements. 

However, just as his aura pressured Seth down, Seth released his Profound Mana Realm cultivation, making it collide against that heave and gloomy aura. What was really impressively, was that his aura, dispelled Velgor's pressure over him and created a friction area where both of their powers were fighting for supremacy. 

Velgor furrowed his eyebrows and intensified his aura. 

Bang! 

The force generated by that shock of auras was so strong, that it made the floor caved in, creating many fissures around the area they were standing. The destructive aura kept expanding, generating a shockwave that sent hundreds of stones flying away and changing the landscape for the first time in their battle. 

Merely releasing their Mana was enough to create that wide area destruction. When they finally decide on showing their real might, maybe the entire valley might change from what it was now. 

Actually, many parts of that huge valley had already been changed. After so many powerful cultivators decided on battling there, it would have been impossible for that piece of land to remain the same. 

Where Arwen and Qiao Xuan had battled, there was literally nothing more than a huge crater. 

Lilian and First Shadow's battle, created a burning inferno that was littered with pools of dark elemental energy and raging Phoenix Flames everywhere. That last attack, had especially incinerated everything with flames that were refusing to extinguish until now. 

And now, that the third and last battle between top tier cultivators was about to start, the valley would suffer a wide area destruction once more. 

However, this battle was a bit special, since from one side, there was one of the strongest Mana Sovereigns in the entire mainland and at the other side, an irregular, a dark horse that was still at the Profound Mana Realm, yet had the power to battle a Mana Sovereign. 

As their contest was getting more and more brutal, Seth was the first one to lose his calm, deciding to make the first move. He knew that Velgor had studied dark elemental arts for way longer than him, but he still wanted to use his dark elemental techniques on this battle, trying to see how great was the difference between them in that particular field. 

Seth didn't stand on ceremony, trying to use "normal" techniques like the Orb of Darkness or those dark spikes, but created two Specters of Darkness right away. They swiftly entered two separate instances of the Shadow Walk, each one moving to different directions in order to strike Velgor. 

The first one went directly towards the enemy, hidden inside a veil of shadows, but when it was still approaching the Demon Emperor, Seth saw a strange shadow extending from Velgor's feet, directly binding his specter that was still hidden from sight. 

The shadow Velgor had released was not only flexible, but it was tangible as well. With a bit of strength, it crushed Seth's specter, going as far as nullifying his self-explosion ability. But right at that moment, Velgor suddenly extended his arm backwards and grabbed Seth's other specter by the neck. 

That specter had used the dark teleportation technique to take the Demon Lord by surprise, but it was a futile attempt. It seemed that Velgor was easily able to see through Seth's shadows, like the darkness that covered their bodies and turned them invisible, didn't even exist. 

Seth furrowed his eyebrows, realizing that his Shadow Walk would be mostly ineffective in this fight. He still would be able to acquire the movement speed, but not the other advantages it brought to the table. 

Right at that moment, Velgor suddenly did something that made Seth get a bit shocked. A dozen of filaments left from his main shadow, each one generating dark elemental fluctuations in the air behind his body, from where twelve specters appeared. Every single one of them were shaped into his Twelve Shadow subordinates, like they were mirrored after those individuals. Seth was even able to feel they behaved similarly to how those individuals behaved. 

Velgor saw Seth's shocked expression and said: "Did you think that you would be the only one able to create clones? I'll show you how to properly use that technique." 

Just after he said that, his Twelve Shadows started to move according to their own initial level of abilities. Between them, the most notorious ones, were Second Shadow's specter vanishing inside his Shadow Walk and First Shadow's specter hovering high up in the air and calling down her Nightmare, drowning the whole sky in darkness. 

While the entire area was being thrown in a blackout, eleven specters moved towards Seth with an extreme speed, trying to take him down. 

Seth quickly started to retreat, evading the joint attack they were about to do. If he wanted, he could use a strong ability to destroy those specters, but it wasn't the right time for that yet. 

Impressively, besides Second and First Shadow's specters, the other ones were all madly dashing towards Seth, trying to directly strike him with their techniques. But while avoiding every single attack from those shadows, Seth realized that it was actually a strategic battle formation that Velgor had devised. Those specters were most likely going to serve as a support for the strongest ones, buying them time to cast their strongest skills. 

Very quickly, Seth also noticed that the speed on which those specters were moving, were actually not their normal moving speed, but a speed based on Velgor's Mana Sovereign Realm. Because of that, the specters were quickly able to reach him, blocking his path while attacking from the sides. 

But Seth already knew what he had to do and who he should focus.