Chapter 473

Valentine’s divine armor absorbed the heat, golden plates glowing but not melting, holy protection negating fire damage.

[DRAGON’S ROAR]

Satou drew in breath and unleashed sonic devastation.

"RAAAAAAHHH!"

The sound hit Valentine like a physical wall, the concussive force actually staggering the angel-possessed form backward several steps.

But divine protection prevented serious damage, the angel’s power reinforcing Valentine’s human body against the catastrophic internal trauma that should have resulted.

Valentine retaliated.

[DIVINE JUDGMENT BEAM]

The angel’s eyes blazed brighter, and twin beams of concentrated holy energy shot from them, tracking Satou with perfect accuracy.

Satou activated[VOID STEP]and teleported through absolute darkness, reappearing behind Valentine’s position.

[VOID FANG]

His claws, coated in existence-erasing energy, swept at the angel’s unprotected back.

Valentine spun impossibly fast, six wings wrapping around his body like a shield, the light-wings intercepting Satou’s Void Fang claws.

Where existence-erasure met divine light, there was a spectacular explosion of competing energies—darkness trying to unmake, light trying to purify, neither force fully winning.

They disengaged again, creating fifty feet of separation.

[LIGHTNING MANIPULATION]

Satou raised his hands and storm clouds gathered overhead with supernatural speed. Lightning came down, multiple bolts striking at Valentine-Zarathiel simultaneously.

The angel-possessed form’s wings spread wide, divine energy forming a dome of protection that intercepted the lightning, channeling electrical force around the shield rather than through it.

[HOLY SWORD TECHNIQUE - HEAVEN’S SEVERING STRIKE]

Valentine launched himself forward, the forty-foot greatsword glowing with divine power so intense it hurt to look at. The blade descended in a strike meant to cut continents, reality itself screaming as space tore along the sword’s path.

Satou couldn’t dodge this one—the strike was too wide, too fast, covered too much area.

So he didn’t try to dodge.

[ABSOLUTE SEVERANCE]

His claws blazed with cutting power that operated on conceptual level, the ability to sever not just matter but connections, bonds, fundamental relationships.

He met the forty-foot divine greatsword with his six-inch claws.

The collision generated a shockwave that flattened everything within a hundred yards. Trees were uprooted. Stone was pulverized. The ground itself cracked from the force of competing powers meeting.

For a frozen moment, both attacks held—divine blade pressing down, existence-severing claws pressing up, neither force able to overcome the other.

Then Satou grinned and poured more power into his claws.

CRACK.

A hairline fracture appeared in the divine greatsword’s blade, starting from where Satou’s claws pressed against it.

Valentinel’s golden eyes widened fractionally. "IMPOSSIBLE. THE SWORD OF HEAVEN CANNOT BE BROKEN BY MORTAL POWER."

"Good thing I’m not fully mortal then," Satou replied, then twisted his claws andthe divine blade shattered.

The forty-foot greatsword, forged in Heaven’s highest realm, blessed by divine authority, broke into golden fragments that dissolved into light as they fell.

Valentine stared at his empty hands for a microsecond of shock, then adapted.

[DIVINE MARTIAL ARTS - ANGELIC COMBAT FORM]

If the sword couldn’t hurt Satou, then close-quarters combat would have to suffice.

The angel-possessed form’s fighting style shifted, becoming something that transcended what Valentine alone had been capable of. This wasn’t just enhanced human martial arts—this was combat technique refined over millennia by a being created specifically for warfare.

They exchanged blows at speeds that created sonic booms with every strike.

Valentine’s divine-enhanced palm struck at Satou’s heart.

Satou’s claw intercepted, redirected the strike past his body.

Satou’s knee drove toward Valentine-Zarathiel’s ribs.

The angel-form’s wing wrapped down, blocking the strike with condensed light.

Valentine’s elbow came up toward Satou’s jaw.

Satou leaned back, the elbow missing by millimeters, then countered with a palm strike to Valentine’s chest.

The angel-form didn’t try to dodge—just took the hit, divine armor absorbing the impact, then grabbed Satou’s extended arm and attempted a throw.

Satou planted his feet,[ENHANCED STRENGTH]preventing the throw, then pulled back with force that dragged Valentine-Zarathiel forward into waiting claws.

The claws raked across divine armor, Void Fang energy carving furrows in golden plates that were supposed to be indestructible.

They separated again, both showing signs of accumulated damage.

Satou’s scales were cracked in several places where divine power had broken through. His breathing had quickened—not from exhaustion, but from the intensity of sustained combat at this level.

Valentine’s armor was scored with claw marks, sections of golden plate cracked or missing entirely. And the cracks in his skin were spreading—the possession was burning through Valentine’s mortal form faster now, the extended combat accelerating the dissolution.

"YOU ARE STRONGER THAN ANTICIPATED," the combined voice acknowledged. "ELRIC’S INTELLIGENCE REPORTS WERE INADEQUATE. YOU POSSESS POWER EQUIVALENT TO FOURTH OR FIFTH SEAT DEMON LORDS."

"Is that a compliment?" Satou asked, his tone conversational despite the battle’s intensity.

"IT IS ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THREAT ASSESSMENT."

They clashed again, and the destruction they created was catastrophic.

Each exchange carved craters in the earth. Each technique warped reality in their vicinity. The landscape around them was being systematically demolished by the collision of divine and demonic-draconic powers.

===========

[THE PROLONGED BATTLE]

Five minutes of sustained angelic combat.

Ten minutes.

Fifteen minutes.

They were evenly matched. Neither could gain decisive advantage. Every attack met a defense. Every technique countered by an equal technique.

But there was a crucial difference that both combatants recognized:

Satou could fight like this indefinitely. His stamina was halved from the five-hundred-mile sprint, yes, but he still had enough reserves to maintain this level of combat for hours if necessary. His Legendary Regeneration healed damage as fast as Valentine-Zarathiel could inflict it. His diverse ability set meant he could always find a response to whatever the angel tried.

Valentine-Zarathiel, on the other hand, was dying.

The Angelic Descent was consuming his mortal form. The cracks in his skin had spread across thirty percent of his body now, the flesh turning crystalline as divine power overwhelmed biological matter. His movements, while still supernaturally fast, were becoming slightly more sluggish as his human body struggled under the strain.

In a prolonged fight, Satou would win simply by surviving longer.

Valentine knew it.

Satou knew it.

And Satou had no intention of letting this possession kill Valentine before he could do what needed to be done.