Clearly, the Demon King had no intention of negotiating. Seeing this, Lucas knew that without a desperate fight, he wouldn't survive this ordeal. Clenching his teeth, a vicious expression appeared on his face. Yet, deep down, he hesitated. He wasn't sure how far he should go. If he fully unleashed the power of the Heart of Holy Light, Lucas was confident he could take down the Demon King before him. But was it really worth it?
In that moment of hesitation, Zhang Nu sneered, summoning countless thunder flames from all directions, which converged in his palm to form a massive war spear. With a swift motion, he hurled it.
The war spear pierced through space without any flight process, penetrating Lucas's back and pinning him in place with almost impossible-to-evade precision. All magical defenses and shields were rendered useless against this attack.
[You are struck by Chaotic Thunder Flame. HP -10,000......]
One casual strike had caused such immense damage. Lucas's face turned pale with fright, and he no longer hesitated. The Heart of Holy Light in his hand rapidly shrank, and he swallowed it like a pill. This guy actually consumed the Radiant Church's supreme artifact.
The scene was shocking, but Zhang Nu seemed to have anticipated it. He neither stopped Lucas nor showed any surprise. Lucas's every move was almost impossible to hide from his insight and foresight.
"So what if you're a god?" Lucas's skin began to crack all over, releasing intense light from these fissures as well as from his eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. His aura surged wildly. He let out a hysterical roar, "Now that I've merged with the Heart of Holy Light, I can even challenge a true god!"
In the next second, Lucas's body completely exploded. His flesh disintegrated, replaced by a giant of light dozens of meters tall, as if the God of Light himself had descended to the mortal world, exuding an aura that surpassed all beings.
After transforming into the giant of light, Lucas extended a massive hand to crush Zhang Nu. This attack seemed simple, but it was exceptionally powerful. If struck, dozens of suppressive and sealing divine spells imbued within would simultaneously activate. However, Zhang Nu did not dodge. Such an attack might easily overpower any Level 7 entity, but it was ineffective against a being who had already entered the realm of the divine.
Lucas realized that as the giant hand of light struck the Demon King, it felt like hitting a black hole, with all energy and divine spells being absorbed. It seemed that an invisible spherical barrier surrounded Zhang Nu, absorbing any force that touched it.
At the same time, Zhang Nu extended a single finger and lightly poked the giant hand of light. Like a drop of dark ink in clear water, the entire hand turned red in the next instant. Moreover, this red hue began to spread. The red energy emanated an extremely filthy and evil aura, the essence of corruption created by the Source of Corruption.
After ascending to the divine level, the corrupted blood created by Zhang Nu was thousands times more potent than before. Even a Level 7 being would be frantically corrupted by an Evil God's blood upon contact. In the end, the Heart of Holy Light was just an artifact and the corrupted blood could taint all things. With Zhang Nu's current power, the corrupted blood he created could weaken, nullify, or even cause artifacts to lose control.
"Arghh!" Lucas retreated and decisively severed his right arm. By sacrificing his arm, he avoided the corrupted blood from spreading throughout his body, barely saving himself.
"Damn it!" Lucas noticed that the Great Demon King was surrounded by a substantial amount of red aura. Zhang Nu frantically created more corrupted blood and summoned dozens of flying swords formed from chaotic thunder flames, infusing them with the corrupted blood.
All the flying swords were then teleported, striking Lucas instantly without any trace of their flight. The attacks pierced Lucas's body in dozens of places, each strike carrying the power of the Dragon God and the aura of the Evil God. Such an onslaught not only caused significant depletion to the Heart of Holy Light but also allowed a considerable amount of corrupted blood to infiltrate and permeate through the giant of light's body.
Now, the entire giant of light was suffused with red tendrils spreading rapidly like blood vessels, covering him in no time.
"I can't move!" Lucas was horrified to find that, having been severely injured by the Dragon God's power and affected by the corrupted blood, his body was now completely immobilized.
Simultaneously, Zhang Nu underwent a transformation once more. This time, the Great Demon King did not take on the form of the nine-clawed Dragon God but instead transformed into a towering monster over a hundred meters tall, covered in green scales, twisted and indescribable.
No one could precisely describe its appearance. Its very existence seemed to epitomize chaos.
This was the form of an Evil God. After evolving into the Chaos Dragon God through the divine essence of the Eight-Eyed Evil God, the fragments of the Evil God within Zhang Nu had not disappeared. He still retained the ability to enter the state of the Evil God. Compared to when he was at Level 6, the aura and power Zhang Nu now emitted in his Evil God form were enough to replace the Eight-Eyed Evil God; he was the new Eight-Eyed Evil God!
"Do not think you can just kill me! If I die, we die together!" Lucas, completely desperate, decided to go all out. He prepared to release the Heart of Holy Light within him, unleashing nearly 100,000 years' worth of faith energy in one go.
How powerful was this force? If fully released, it would wipe out the entire Darkness City, the Darkness Valley, and most of the Chaos Forest. Thousands of kilometers of land, all life within it, would be obliterated. This was why Lucas was confident he could take Zhang Nu down with him, because no one could withstand such an attack.
But at that moment, the eight eyes of Zhang Nu merged into one. Zhang Nu unleashed a unique attack skill of the Evil God, where the eight eyes released eight different energies that fused into a single black beam. In an instant, it struck Lucas in advance. The full-force attack of the Eight-Eyed Evil God was extraordinary, directly suppressing the power of the Heart of Holy Light, preventing its release for a moment.
Within the next second, there was a blood-curdling scream. Lucas cried out in despair, "No! No!"
But it was too late. Under the combined attack of the eight eyes, Lucas was instantly obliterated, crushed by the immense power. All that remained was a glowing object, the size of a fist, floating in the air---presumably the Heart of Holy Light.
Finally, the three troublesome Heroes had been dealt with. With Zhang Nu's breakthrough to Level 7 divine, even these demigod Heroes were no longer a threat to him.
"It's time to end this battle once and for all!" Having eliminated the three demigods, Zhang Nu did not stop. He continued to take action.