Reborn as the Last van Ambrose
Chapter 187: Split Heaven

Chapter 187: Split Heaven

"Enough playing around," Sunfire’s voice echoed in Grim’s mind, carrying decades of pent-up frustration. "Show this fool what our family’s true art can do!"

Grim’s expression shifted from casual interest to focused intensity. The orange radiance surrounding Sunfire began to intensify, and the temperature in the chamber rose noticeably.

"You’re right," he said aloud, though Mo Xuan couldn’t hear the sword’s voice. "It’s time to stop holding back."

"Sunfire Sword Dao: Solar Flare!"

The technique that erupted from Grim’s blade was unlike anything the chamber had ever witnessed. This was pure, concentrated sunlight given cutting edge.

The strike didn’t just cut through Mo Xuan’s defenses—it burned them away. Where Sunfire’s edge passed, the air itself ignited, creating a trail of superheated plasma that cauterized everything it touched.

Mo Xuan screamed as the attack carved across his chest, but no blood flowed from the wound. The heat was so intense that it sealed the injury instantly, creating the perfect cauterized cut that had given the Sunfire Sword Dao its nickname as the "bloodless sword art."

"Impossible!" Mo Xuan gasped, staggering backward. "That technique was lost! The Ambrose clan’s records were destroyed!"

"Records can be destroyed," Grim replied, advancing with steady steps. "But blades have wills of their own."

He began to move differently now. Each step left brief scorch marks on the ancient stone floor.

"Celestial Mist: Ethereal Mist," Grim whispered, and immediately the chamber began to fill with a strange hybrid technique. The mist that poured from his body wasn’t the cool vapor he had used before—it was superheated steam that glowed with orange light.

Mo Xuan tried to track Grim’s movement through the burning mist, but the combination of techniques created something entirely new. Where Celestial Mist had hidden him through illusion, the Sunfire enhancement made the very air around him a weapon.

"Celestial Mist: Drifting Steps!"

Grim’s movement through the superheated mist was like watching lightning take human form. He appeared and disappeared, striking from every direction with a blade that left trails of fire in the air.

Mo Xuan’s crystallized soul energy began to crack under the assault. Each strike from Sunfire didn’t just damage his transformed body—it negated the very magic holding him together.

"You don’t understand!" Mo Xuan shrieked, trying desperately to counter with his remaining soul techniques. "I sacrificed everything! I gave up my humanity for this power!"

"And that’s why you’re losing," Grim replied, appearing behind the sorcerer and delivering another cauterizing cut. "You threw away what made you strong to chase after power that was never really yours."

The combination of sword arts was devastating. Celestial Mist’s positioning and stealth, enhanced by Sunfire’s overwhelming offensive power, created a fighting style that was both elegant and absolutely brutal.

"Sunfire Sword Dao: Corona Strike!"

The technique sent a wave of solar energy through the chamber that made everyone present shield their eyes. When the light faded, Mo Xuan was on his knees, his crystallized form showing cracks that spread like spider webs through his entire body.

But it was what Grim saw next that made his expression shift from focused intensity to cold rage.

As Mo Xuan knelt, his hood fell back, revealing his full head for the first time. Long, pointed ears marked him unmistakably as what Grim had always suspected but never confirmed.

An elf.

"You," Grim said, his voice dropping to a whisper that somehow carried more menace than any shout. "You’re one of them."

Mo Xuan looked up, confusion mixing with fear in his expression. "What are you—"

"An elf," Grim snarled, Sunfire’s radiance flaring so bright it began to melt the stone around his feet. "You’re a filthy, pointed-eared elf."

The hatred in Grim’s voice was so pure, so concentrated, that even the Dragon Kings took a step back. This wasn’t the controlled anger of a warrior in battle—this was something primal and terrible.

"Just like Malaxis," Grim continued, his grip on Sunfire tightening until his knuckles went white. "Just like the bastard who destroyed my family. Just like all of your wretched kind."

"Please," Mo Xuan tried to say, but Grim was already moving.

"Celestial Mist: Seven Sword Strike!"

But this time, the technique was enhanced by Sunfire’s heat. Seven strikes of concentrated solar energy struck Mo Xuan simultaneously, and when they connected, the sorcerer’s scream echoed through the chamber.

Grim wasn’t aiming to kill quickly. He was aiming to hurt.

The first strike severed Mo Xuan’s left ear completely, the superheated blade cauterizing the wound instantly. The second took the right ear. The remaining strikes carved precise, agonizing cuts across the sorcerer’s body, each one sealed by Sunfire’s heat to prevent blood loss or unconsciousness.

"You want to know what it feels like?" Grim asked, his voice carrying a coldness that made the Dragon Emperor himself look concerned. "You want to understand the pain your kind inflicts?"

He picked up Mo Xuan’s severed ears from the chamber floor and forced them into the sorcerer’s mouth.

"Eat them," Grim commanded. "Taste what you are."

Mo Xuan tried to resist, but Grim’s enhanced strength made opposition impossible. The ancient sorcerer was forced to swallow his own ears while Grim watched with satisfaction.

"Now you know," Grim said. "Now you understand what it means to lose pieces of yourself."

He raised Sunfire above his head, and the blade began to gather energy unlike anything it had channeled before. The orange radiance became white-hot, then began to shift toward something that hurt to look at directly.

"Sunfire Sword Dao: Split Heaven!"

The technique that followed was on an entirely doffermt level. Concentrated solar energy erupted from Sunfire in a vertical slash that didn’t just cut through Mo Xuan’s body—it divided him on a fundamental level.

The ancient sorcerer was split cleanly in half from head to groin, but the heat was so intense that both halves were cauterized instantly. Where they cauterized, his body began to burn and turn into ash.

For a moment, Mo Xuan’s consciousness remained in both pieces, experiencing the horror of bisection while unable to die quickly.

Then the residual energy from the technique continued outward, striking the chamber walls with force that made them begin to melt like candle wax. Ancient stone that had withstood millennia started to flow like liquid under the assault of concentrated starfire.

"Get behind me!" the Dragon Emperor commanded, and everyone in the chamber scrambled to take shelter behind his massive form as molten stone began to rain from the ceiling.

Ao Guang, despite his missing arm, managed to create a barrier of water that helped deflect some of the falling debris. "By the depths," he breathed. "What kind of technique was that?"

"That," the Dragon Emperor said, his voice carrying a mixture of pride and concern, "was the true power of the Ambrose bloodline."

Grim stood amid the destruction, Sunfire still glowing in his hand as molten stone flowed around his feet without touching him. Mo Xuan’s bisected form lay before him, finally and completely dead.

"It’s finished," he said simply.

The chamber continued to melt around them, ancient architecture that had survived the rise and fall of civilizations reduced to flowing magma by the sheer heat of Grim’s final technique.