Chapter 1584: Born five hundred million years ago

“Dammit!” Cain inwardly cursed. There was no time to evade the sword strike aimed at his neck. At the last possible moment, he twisted his head, angling his jaw to block the blade and prevent decapitation.

“BOOOOM!”

A burst of black starlight erupted from the point of impact, flinging Cain backward. He tumbled across the cracked earth, feeling fire race through his nerves. A deep gash scored his face—so deep the bone was visible beneath shredded flesh. Even so, Cain managed to wrench himself upright almost immediately. The pain burned through his skull, yet his battle instincts remained razor-sharp.

A mere instant later, he looked up to see another distorted strike falling upon him—a double-bladed assault, sword and staff descending like twin comets. The Flow revealed the likely trajectory of the weapons, letting him predict their lethal arcs. By that reading, a single step to the right would have allowed him to dodge. But Cain deliberately raised the Shooting Star Dragon Halberd instead, adopting a defensive stance.

“BOOOOMMM!”

Black and white energies collided in a harsh explosion as the Night Prince’s sword and staff clashed with Cain’s halberd, forcing Cain’s feet nearly a foot into the ground. Cain’s eyes narrowed; he realized that the range and speed of the weapons had expanded just before impact, meaning if he had attempted the dodge suggested by The Flow, he would have stepped directly into the attack.

A smile flickered across the Night Prince’s face. Rather than simply forcing the sword and staff downward, the Night Prince snapped his leg out in a lightning-fast kick. The blow slammed into Cain’s chest, launching him hundreds of meters backward.

Yet the Night Prince did not continue his barrage after landing the kick. Instead, he paused, regarding Cain with an intensity that bordered on fascination. His gaze lingered on Cain’s body, evidently surprised that a kick strong enough to break the bones of an Astral Peak Divine Transcendence Master caused relatively minor damage.

“Impressive,” the Night Prince spoke, his voice edged with curiosity. “For a Soul Realm life form to attain such endurance, you must practice a very high-end Body Transformation Technique.”

Cain exhaled, rolling his shoulders to dispel lingering pain in his chest. It had been a long time since he had fought someone who surpassed him in hand-to-hand combat so convincingly. “Its name,” he said, “is the Indestructible Herculean Technique.”

A meaningful gleam shone in Cain’s eyes as he continued, “And for you to reform that body, bestow it with such physical power and an enormous energy reservoir—along with these advanced martial skills—there’s only one possibility. The one in control must be a Prima Deity.”

The being wearing the Night Prince’s form paused, arching a brow in mild amusement. “I am a Third Realm life form, yes,” he admitted, shrugging his shoulders. “But don’t confuse me with a mere Prima Deity. My power was once so great I stood above Laws and the Astral Supremacy Stars themselves.”

He spoke with a small but unmistakably proud smile. It was the contentment of a creature happy not merely to boast of his strength, but also to encounter someone worth speaking to.

Cain’s expression turned grave. “So you were an Archdeity?” Suspicion flickered in his mind—could this being be lying? Yet everything in his gut told him it was the truth.

The Night Prince’s lips curved further, but he said nothing for a moment as though savoring Cain’s question.

“Go ahead,” the Night Prince said at last, his dark eyes glittering. “Ask the real question.”

Cain inhaled slowly, steeling himself. “Are you Reverend Madness?”

“Jackpot!” the Night Prince exclaimed with something like triumphant glee. Or rather, the being who had commandeered his body—Reverend Madness—shouted as he heard his old moniker spoken aloud.

Cain frowned, recollecting the ancient records. “Reverend Madness was a Prima Deity said to have lived five hundred million years ago. How can you still be here?”

Reverend Madness studied Cain for a few seconds as though weighing whether to indulge his curiosity. Eventually, he shrugged again, more lazily this time.

“The further back in time you go, the more distorted the so-called facts become,” he began. “Just because I was never officially recognized as an Archdeity doesn’t mean I did not reach that rank. I was, indeed, born five hundred million years ago, but the stronger one becomes, the easier it is to cheat the rules of the universe—death, time, and even fate itself.”

A distant light shone in his eyes as if he were recalling memories that stretched eons into the past. “Naturally, achieving this point took incredible effort. I spent literally a million years planning, scheming—and doing unimaginable things—to survive. You can’t possibly fathom all I’ve done to continue existing up to now.”

A grim solemnity tinged Reverend Madness’s gaze, an intensity so daunting that Cain felt his spirit quail for a heartbeat, as though standing beneath a towering, unseen force. The oppressive aura lingered, a testament to the Archdeity’s incalculable will. Then it faded, replaced by a broad grin.

“Yet here I stand,” Reverend Madness announced softly, “ready to be reborn, mightier than ever.”

He shifted his attention fully onto Cain. “And as for you… I see how special you are from the memories of this body’s original owner. You have the potential to touch the Third Realm yourself one day. Unfortunately, you’ve crossed my path, and that means you’ll become part of something greater.”

As soon as those final words left his lips, Reverend Madness exploded into motion. He hurtled toward Cain like a dark meteor, staff in one hand, sword in the other. A grotesque nightmarish entity sprang forth from the staff—something half insect, half infernal—and the sword crackled with a sundering black starlight that made the very air groan in protest.

Cain’s eyes went wide. Not only was Reverend Madness freely wielding the Night Prince’s powers, but he was employing them with greater proficiency than the Night Prince had ever shown. Simply possessing a body should not grant complete mastery of its skills. Yet that was exactly what was happening.