Damned Healer-Chapter 578 578: Lived For Myself

Damned Healer-Chapter 578 578: Lived For Myself

Vanh took a deep breath, and his sword shone as all of his power focused into it. He realized Darian was getting exhausted, so he could attack him directly without needing to use Magical Techniques.
His offensive power, when he concentrated everything into his weapon, was far greater, but it also left him more vulnerable. That was why he only chose to do it now.
With a swift movement, he pierced through space like a shadow.
Darian had no choice but to go all out. In one hand, Awel activated the runic sharpening seal. In the other, Tir unleashed all of the power of Heavenly Annihilation.
**BOOM!**
The sky, the earth, and space itself shattered. Darian and Vanh were thrown backward.
"Heavens!!!"
A shocked cry echoed from outside. That collision actually caused cracks directly in the power sustaining the channel between the two universes. Everyone saw a massive fissure appear at the center of everything, and a terrifying power poured out from it.
That made it clear that the power of the two of them was extremely close to the immortal power of the missionary who had created this place while still alive.
The Heavenly Beasts were stunned. That meant Darian had, the whole time, possessed power close to that of the three Divinities.
But it only lasted two short seconds before the wound in the channel closed. Everything returned to normal.
The exchange between them was evenly matched. Neither managed to suppress the other. Still, both were left in a terrible state, with horrifying wounds all over their bodies.
Tir's maximum power acted like a supreme, impenetrable shield. Vanh struck it, and part of his own power rebounded in a counterattack. Then Awel's runic seal followed up, causing heavy damage.
Even so, a large portion of Vanh's strike still landed on Darian, seriously injuring him.
They had just been knocked back when they crashed into each other again. They roared in unison, and the void beneath their feet exploded. They collided in a blinding flash, like two stars slamming together.
Darian was forced back again, his badly injured body healing rapidly. Vanh was going all in to finish him, and that was quickly draining everything Darian had left.
This repeated four more times.
*Slash!*
At that moment, Vanh's sword struck Darian squarely in the chest, forcing him back. The heavens rained blood as Darian was sent flying.
But this time… he didn't heal.
All of his White power was gone.
Darian stabilized himself in the air, then waved his hand, pulling out two pills from his inventory and swallowing them immediately. They were Veyle's finest creations, made with incredible materials.
In two seconds, Darian's wounds closed completely, and his aura returned to normal. Those pills were truly amazing, but… he had just swallowed the only two he had.
Vanh advanced without mercy. He was very, very close to victory.
The two exchanged brutal blows once more and were injured again. This time, though, it wasn't as severe, and neither wavered, continuing to attack at high speed.
Outside the barrier, everything was completely silent. Everyone realized Darian was just a hair away from the end.
All eyes turned to Niara. Yet her expression was absolutely calm, as if she couldn't comprehend what was unfolding before her eyes.
*Blinding Break*
In a desperate, perfectly timed moment, Darian used the last thing he had. All the power from that skeleton was burned away. He could only deal any damage to Vanh at all because he managed to do this first.
**BOOOOM!**
Vanh roared, defending with everything he had, his entire body cracking. But…
*Blinding Break*
In a rapid follow-up strike, Darian attacked again, this time using all of his Black power at once. This strike wasn't even 10% as powerful as the previous one and completely consumed everything he had left. But there was no other moment where it could have had any chance of working.
**BOOOOM!!**
The second blow was weaker, but much faster and unexpected, stacking on top of the first. It hit Vanh head-on, and his protective blessing shattered violently.
He slammed into the ground, realizing just how terrifying Darian truly was. He had broken his defenses in such a way that, if he still had a living body, he would be in serious trouble now. But in his current state, that didn't matter.
Darian took a deep breath… then saw Vanh stand back up, now without his golden protection.
He had managed to break the defenses of an immortal Tank. Unfortunately, that move could only be used once, and he had saved it to try to finish things… but it wasn't enough.
Vanh moved his sword without hesitation, striking like lightning.
**SLASH!!!**
A horrifying cutting sound rang out.
At last, Darian was struck squarely once more by the sword.
Despite having his defenses broken, Vanh hadn't lost even half of his maximum power. Darian, on the other hand, was completely exhausted. There was no way to avoid it, even though he could foresee Vanh's movements through karma.
Darian crashed violently into the ground. Then… all the multicolored light of his primordial body faded away.
Vanh didn't move. He landed on the ground, his eyes fixed on a point ahead.
As space slowly stabilized, a figure began to rise.
When everyone outside saw Darian, their hearts leapt into their throats. His condition was horrific. A massive cut ran through his body, and he was a bloody mess.
"Bro…" Lucy and Lucius murmured, despair written across their faces.
Was this the end? After everything they had gone through, would it really end like this…?
Runar, who was also watching, could only sigh in regret. After seeing even a fraction of Vanh's strength, he was certain that even if he had fought alongside Darian, the outcome would hardly have been different. There was a tiny chance of victory, but it was so ridiculous that he dismissed it. Darian's choosing to fight alone had been pure madness.
"Nia…" Alear murmured, turning toward Niara.
Niara's expression didn't change. Her eyes were still fixed on Darian. Through their connection, she felt that Darian still had hope.
He would find a way to win.
He would never lose.
Niara was certain he would turn this around.
Vanh slowly moved his sword forward, taking steady steps toward him. It looked like the end, but he didn't dare lower his guard. His eyes locked onto Darian, seeing an intense red light, almost demonic, flowing in his eyes.
Darian no longer felt pain, nor the surroundings, nor anything else.
His mind was working at a speed it had never reached before, plunging him into a terrifying flow.
"…"
Time seemed to stop for him in that instant.
His thoughts returned to the very beginning, when he first awakened and discovered, during the entry test to become a Spiritual Guardian, the truth about his curse.
Karma was a single thing. There was no good or bad karma, no white or black.
It was like Yin and Yang, or Time and Space. The two were, in truth, one and the same, like two sides of a single coin, where only one side could be seen at a time.
Was people's karma connected to their souls? Not exactly. Darian knew, because of that book, that everything was connected to a person's Origin energy. That was completely hidden inside the soul, where their past memories were also stored.
The world's Laws manipulated this within souls, sealing memories of another life inside them, and then connecting there the karma each person was meant to have.
In that book, the current Heaven's Will had learned very early on how to manipulate that Origin energy. He only discovered what it truly was much later, but he had already created a technique capable of killing gods and immortals with it.
Of course, the consequences of using that randomly were absurd. He had nearly killed himself many times before creating a safe method of use.
'What do I have left?'
Darian had nothing left. But… because of his curse, he understood karma extremely well.
So, for the first time, all of his focus turned…
Toward himself.
Almost immediately, Darian felt a darkness connected to him. It wasn't anything abnormal or flashy.
That was his karma.
'Why did I never really try to see my own karma?'
In truth, he had tried once, but failed. After that, he simply accepted that it was impossible to see his karma, as if he didn't want to look at his own past.
After sensing it, Darian focused and searched…
Because of his curse, he was definitely the only mortal who could track that.
At the very center of his soul, he finally felt a tiny, invisible point. It was like the entrance to a secret place no one should ever find or touch.
All karma was connected to that place. Without hesitating, he moved his senses inward…
In the outside world, not a single second passed. In that instant…
"!"
Vanh suddenly stopped in his tracks, feeling a premonitory tightness in his chest.
All of a sudden, Darian's eyes changed completely. A strange light, colorless and impossible to describe, began to flow through them.
---
In a place very far from there.
Meru sat with her eyes closed at the top of a calm mountain, surrounded by breathtaking nature.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped wide open.
"How is this possible!"
She had been watching everything Darian did, as she did almost all the time.
Her mind raced: "This… he should only be able to use this once he has all nine cores and nine rings."
She let out a deep breath, still stunned. Darian had managed to do it on his own, using the unique power he had created. The technique she had made and placed within him at the very beginning had already been completely adapted and altered by him.
It was now something entirely his, and this new potential appearing so early was unexpected.
But… she took a deep breath and calmed herself.
"Good thing my mother helped me create that technique. It'll be fine… I hope."
---
Back to the confrontation.
Darian clenched his fists.
The air around him didn't vibrate. No light shone.
This was an almost invisible, unnatural energy that began to materialize in his hands. The world seemed frozen, and even Vanh felt completely oppressed by it.
This was Origin Energy. A power above everything else. It was half of the driving force that started all things, existing even before the world itself.
In Darian's hands, there was only a thin layer. A minuscule amount, yet enough to suppress heaven and earth.
'I did it.'
Darian thought. But as he drew that force directly from his soul…
His consciousness began to be swallowed by darkness. His soul lost its shine, seeming too fragile to inhabit flesh. Using Origin energy wasn't an attack; it was outright suicide.
'I won't last… but I won't lose.'
Darian stared at Vanh.
The world was in absolute silence. Everything was frozen. No being, not even the Immortal Vanh, could move a single inch.
Darian raised his right hand. Every millimeter was a desperate struggle against his own existence, which was being pulled into the void.
'Go!'
Gathering his will, he roared in his mind. That energy moved like an arrow and shot forward.
**PIERCE!**
The sound of something fundamental shattering echoed out.
The energy struck Vanh in the center of the chest, ignoring all forms of defense and matter. Vanh's body collapsed like rotten wood.
But the strike went deeper. Upon contact, cracks spread through Vanh's immortal soul. He felt it with terrifying clarity.
This was the end.
Vanh looked at Darian, a light of understanding in his eyes. The madness, the weight, the hatred — all of it vanished. He was free.
Darian staggered, dropping to his knees. His vision was narrowing into a tunnel.
But he refused to fade away now.
His trembling left hand still held the last drop of forbidden power. Slowly, painfully, he raised it.
His focus wasn't on Vanh, but on the Demonic Cocoon above.
**PIERCE!**
The second Origin shot pierced straight through the cocoon.
**CRASH!!**
The world shook and fractured. The scarlet web covering the crater exploded into a rain of blood, and the channel between universes nearly collapsed into a vortex of light.
Runar swallowed hard. Darian hadn't just defeated an Immortal; he had also destroyed the Missionary who was on the verge of reviving. He had… he had really managed to kill two beings of that level at once?!
Darian's arms fell, his body on the verge of collapsing, but he remained kneeling.
A dragged, muffled sound echoed ahead.
Darian forced his head up.
There, Vanh was kneeling, using his sword planted in the ground as support. His lips were stained with blood, and his chest had a horrifying hole through it. Yet his expression was serene, peaceful, and somewhat melancholic.
His red eyes focused on Darian.
"Sorry for everything..." Vanh murmured, his voice barely audible. " I lived for myself... following the path I thought was best... just like you taught me."
He coughed, a faint, bloodied smile forming.
"It was fulfilling... the only thing I regret... is not waking up sooner..."
As he spoke, strength left his body.
Vanh closed his eyes. In that instant, the last traces of his immortal soul evaporated forever.
It was the end of an Immortal. A complete and eternal death, where not even his soul remained.
Darian heard his words as darkness flooded his world.
With Origin light, he had won… but at what cost?
Would his soul truly revive after losing something like that?
He felt the answer was no. His master's technique couldn't restore something so terrifying.
This was his end… his very consciousness and existence began to fade away completely.

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Chapter 578 578: Lived For Myself