Divine Emperor of Death

By this time, after seven battles with his imitation, Davis had drastically improved in his usage of Essence Gathering Cultivation as well as keeping heavenly fire and heavenly lightning together. It must also be known that he hadn't reached the level of combination and could only stick them together, thanks to both heavenly flames and heavenly lightning being yang in nature.

Although they were destructive and could explode upon contact, his heavenly physique made it so that he could easily keep them unagitated until they hit the target.

Now, it was possible for him to combine them, drastically increasing their prowess.

However, what made it possible for his imitation to learn combination shortly after him?

Myria's imitation was too prideful. Since that imitation also had the advantage, it didn't bother to comprehend insights from their battle and tried to wholeheartedly kill the original. Hence, its laws weren't up to par with Myria's. 

But then, it learned its lesson, learning with each battle after their sixth battle and somewhat improved its Reincarnation Laws, able to match Myria and even slightly overwhelm her due to its higher prowess.

However, Davis's imitation was different. 

From the start, it knew that Davis possessed Fallen Heaven to kill it and that he could wake it up anytime he wanted. Therefore, it was extremely cautious, maintained a distance, and always tried to come up with something to kill the original and even considered comprehending the combination of fire and lightning, and as it saw Davis use it on top of its own insights, it naturally had a moment of enlightenment like Davis and reached that level within the battle, countering him.

This remained a fact even though Davis consciously tried to avoid re-reading his memories of the Immortal Grade Essence Gathering Cultivation Manual he procured from Fallen Heaven that contained the insights of fusion between fire and lightning, only trying to comprehend it during their battle so that the imitation doesn't gain an advantage.

Even then, his imitation managed to have a miraculous comprehension, just like him.

Nonetheless, Davis quickly descended, arriving before his imitation and strands of black-silver lightning revolved around him.

Davis's burned body was slowly healing, but the imitation's body had suffered more wounds at this junction, its body responding slowly to its commands.

The imitation had stood up, heavily gasping for breath while looking like a charred piece of wood as its expression was stiff. It abruptly released a wave of flames, enveloping Davis in a tsunami of immolation flames, when suddenly those thick billowing waves of dark crimson flames exploded, engulfing Davis within.

It swiftly flew toward the exit without even looking at Davis, blood constantly leaking from its body before those drops kept disappearing each second later.

"I see. You have injured your meridians and consequently lost your essence energy more than you should. You ran out of essence energy, didn't you?"

Within that raging flames, Davis walked out as he was clad in black-silver lightning, his chest heaving as he heaved a sigh of relief.

After all, even he received a backlash from suddenly using the combination of fire and lightning, so how could a physique-less version of him endure? It had obviously sustained more injuries that required quick recovery or even had a chance to end up crippled.

However, even though Davis possessed the absolute advantage at this moment, his expression couldn't help but turn cold.

"That said, why are you trying to go outside the barrier? Did you confuse your memories with mine at the precipice of the battle, forgetting that only the originals could exit…?"

"…!"

The imitation appeared frozen on its tracks. However, it was already near the exit, staring at the other side, where Evelynn and the others remained.

"Seems like this formation is extremely close to reality to a fault that it should perhaps… never exist."

Davis's voice echoed from behind. However, the imitation paid no heed to it as it stared at Evelynn, its bloodied yet sapphire pupils trembling before its lips moved.

"Evelynn, you won't betray me… right?"

"…!"

Evelynn's heart shook. That face, that voice… everything was similar. However, her heart turned cold, causing a murderous intent to brew within her.

"I won't, but you're not Davis, so just drop dead."

The imitation appeared like it had lost all strength and dropped to its knees, but in truth, its blood fell as his body refused to listen to his commands. Its eyes were wide with disbelief as it panned its gaze from Shirley to everyone else to the end, who was Natalya, who shook under its gaze.

"Damn… this isn't fair… you all..." Its voice cracked. However…

"I guess that's just how my obsession towards Evelynn and the others runs deep..."

Davis waved his head, beheading his imitation while a strand of heavenly lightning penetrated into the soul sea and struck the soul!

However, a burst of soul force exploded as death energy surged like a tide, about to envelop Davis within when his hand struck out like a snake and held that ball of expanding death energy, crushing it into nothingness.

'I thought you wouldn't give up till the end, but unfortunately, my soul force at the moment is weaker than my essence energy.'

The body fell to the ground, resounding with a thud. However, it too ended up disappearing into the formation while the barrier simultaneously disappeared.

"Davis~"

Evelynn gently called out, her smile blooming like a lotus which made Davis's cold expression leave as he smiled.

"I won."

"Indeed~"

"Yes!!!"

Natalya and the others celebrated as they jumped. Even Lea, who had aged enough among them, couldn't help but tremble with wide eyes, her body constantly shuddering in excitement.

'So he won...'

Myria inwardly sighed as she lowered her head, her lips lightly curving.

"…!"

But suddenly, a wave of dizziness hit her, causing her heart to shake.

'Huh…? I'm losing consciousness…? Why…? Because… I relaxed…?' She couldn't believe her own thoughts but quickly tried to take action.

'That's bad… if… I… don't… heal...'

"Shir-"

Myria called out, or so she thought when her mouth didn't make much of a sound that it was more like a squeak instead.

However, the celebrating Shirley looked like she heard something as she doubtfully turned to look at Myria as she was rather standing close to her.

"Did you call me?"

"…"

However, there was no answer but just a Myria who had her head lowered, seemingly in utter focus.

Shirley's lips couldn't help, but quiver as her joy left her body and soul. 

Was Myria no longer going to talk to her as she did before? After all, Davis had won, and that might affect their relationship in a bad way.

Or did she, out of guilt, just imagine that Myria was calling her?

Davis hadn't stepped out yet. He waited for a few words of congratulations from the palace, but nothing came up which seemed eerie and suspicious on its own, but since the coast was free and the treasures seemed ripe for the taking, he was about to step out and take some advantage of his beauties when his body froze.

"Congratulations!"

"…!? He turned around, catching sight of an existence that could only be described as a fairy.

"If you had used the apex treasure in this challenge… I might've had to change my mind… Fortunately, you didn't use it..."

"…!!!?"