Reborn as the Last van Ambrose
Chapter 186: Sunfire Release

Chapter 186: Sunfire Release

Grim stood motionless in the center of the chamber, his transformed body drawing the attention of every being present.

Mo Xuan trembled before him, his crystallized soul energy flickering as he tried to comprehend what he was facing. Ao Guang, despite his missing arm, watched with intense interest. The other Dragon Kings positioned themselves around the chamber, waiting to see what would unfold.

But Grim seemed distracted, his head tilted slightly as if listening to something only he could hear.

"Finally," came a voice that made Grim’s eyes widen. "Finally, you can hear me, you stubborn fool!"

"Shut up," Grim said suddenly, his voice cutting through the chamber.

Everyone present looked confused. Mo Xuan had said nothing. The Dragon Kings exchanged glances, wondering who Grim was addressing.

"Who are you telling to—" Ao Run began.

"Not you," Grim interrupted, his hand moving instinctively to the sword at his side. The weapon he had carried but never drawn.

Understanding dawned on his face like sunrise.

"It’s you," he whispered, his fingers wrapping around the hilt. "Sunfire. I can hear you now. I must have been too weak before."

The Dragon Emperor’s laughter filled the chamber, a sound like distant thunder that somehow managed to be warm and amused rather than threatening.

"I heard all three of your swords the minute you entered this room," the Emperor said, his eyes twinkling with something that might have been fondness. "They’re quite rambunctious. The one at your side has been particularly vocal about wanting to be drawn."

"Why now?" he asked the voice.

"Because now you’re strong enough," came the reply, filled with anticipation that had been building for over a decade. "Because now you can handle what I truly am."

Slowly, deliberately, Grim began to draw Sunfire from its sheath.

The moment the blade cleared its scabbard, the entire chamber was bathed in warm orange light. Not the harsh glare of artificial illumination, but the gentle radiance of a perfect sunrise.

The sword itself seemed to be forged from concentrated sunlight, its orange metal pulsing with inner fire.

"Beautiful," Ao Shun breathed, ice crystals forming around him as his body instinctively reacted to the heat radiating from the blade.

But Mo Xuan’s response was far different. The ancient sorcerer staggered backward, his crystallized soul energy recoiling from the pure solar radiance. "Impossible," he gasped. "That’s not just any sun technique. That’s..."

"Sunfire Sword Dao," Grim finished, the name feeling right on his tongue for the first time in his life. "The original technique of the Ambrose Clan."

Mo Xuan’s fear transformed into desperate rage. He had come too far, sacrificed too much, to be defeated by a technique he thought had been lost forever.

"You think one sword will make a difference?" he snarled, soul energy gathering around him. "I have gifts you haven’t even seen yet!"

From somewhere within his robes, Mo Xuan withdrew a small, dark crystal that pulsed with malevolent energy. The moment it appeared, the temperature in the chamber dropped noticeably.

"A gift from Malaxis himself," Mo Xuan said, his voice carrying new confidence. "Given to me as thanks for helping him reach the human realm. I had almost forgotten about it."

He crushed the crystal in his hand, and immediately his form began to change again. The crystallized soul energy that made up his blood began to take on new properties, becoming darker, more concentrated. Where before he had been translucent, now he was becoming something that seemed to absorb light itself.

"Shadow Soul Dominion: Absolute Negation!" Mo Xuan’s technique was unlike anything he had used before. Tendrils of pure darkness erupted from his body, seeking to drain the light and life from everyone.

The attack struck Grim directly, wrapping around his transformed body like living chains of nothingness. Where the tendrils touched, reality itself seemed to flicker and fade.

"Yes!" Mo Xuan laughed maniacally. "Even your enhanced form cannot withstand Malaxis’s gift! You will be unmade, just as your great grandfather should have been!"

But Grim’s response was not the scream of agony Mo Xuan expected. Instead, he heard something that chilled him to his core.

Laughter.

"Is that it?" Grim asked, his voice carrying amusement despite the tendrils of absolute negation wrapped around him. "That’s Malaxis’s great gift?"

With casual ease, Grim began to move through the shadow tendrils as if they were nothing more than ordinary rope. Sunfire’s orange radiance seemed to burn away the nothingness wherever it touched.

"Impossible!" Mo Xuan shrieked. "Nothing can resist absolute negation!"

"You’re right," Grim agreed, walking steadily toward the panicking sorcerer. "Nothing can resist it. But I’m not nothing anymore, am I?"

The Dragon Emperor watched the confrontation with intense interest. "He’s not just resisting the technique," he observed.

Indeed, as Grim moved through Mo Xuan’s most powerful attack, he seemed to be studying it, analyzing how it worked and why it failed against him.

"The shadow tendrils target the concept of existence," Grim said, almost conversationally. "But my existence isn’t entirely based in this reality anymore, is it? The Dragon Emperor’s mana changed something fundamental about what I am."

Mo Xuan tried to pour more power into his technique, drawing on the last reserves of his crystallized soul energy. But it was like trying to drown the sun itself.

"You’re powerful," Grim admitted, finally reaching striking distance. "More powerful than anyone should be. But power without understanding is just destruction."

He raised Sunfire, and the orange blade seemed to sing as it cut through the air. Not the metallic ring of steel on steel, but something that sounded almost like joy.

"And you’ve never understood what real power looks like."

The strike that followed was casual, almost gentle. Sunfire’s edge barely grazed Mo Xuan’s arm, but where it touched, the shadow enhancement from Malaxis’s gift simply evaporated. Not destroyed or overwhelmed—just convinced to stop existing.

Mo Xuan screamed as his most powerful enhancement was casually negated by a blade that seemed to carry the authority of daylight itself.

"How?" he gasped, staring at the spot where Malaxis’s gift had been burned away. "How are you doing this?"

"I’m not doing anything," Grim replied truthfully. "I’m just finally working with my sword instead of fighting against it."

He began to circle Mo Xuan slowly, Sunfire held in a relaxed grip that somehow managed to be more threatening than any aggressive stance.

"You see, Mo Xuan, for twelve years I’ve been using techniques I learned from my grandfather. Water-based sword arts, mist techniques, clever tricks with positioning and timing. All very effective, but none of them were really mine."

Another casual strike, this one removing more of Mo Xuan’s shadow enhancements. The sorcerer tried to dodge, but Grim’s new speed made evasion impossible.

"But this," Grim continued, indicating Sunfire with a slight gesture, "this is my birthright. This is what I was always meant to wield."

Mo Xuan realized with growing horror that Grim wasn’t even trying yet. This wasn’t a battle—it was a test. Grim was experimenting with his new abilities, using Mo Xuan as a practice target while he adjusted to powers he had never accessed before.

"Please," Mo Xuan whispered, the last of his arrogance finally crumbling. "I can offer you knowledge. Power. Secrets that—"

"You can offer me practice," Grim interrupted, his voice carrying a coldness that made the Dragon Kings exchange concerned glances. "And that’s exactly what you’re going to do."

Sunfire began to glow brighter as Grim finally started to access the true depths of his family’s sword art.

The chamber filled with heat that made even the Dragon Kings step back, and Mo Xuan realized that everything he had faced so far had been nothing more than Grim getting warmed up.

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