Chapter 795: Do you regret it now?

Without giving June a heartbeat to react, Max lunged forward, moving with such explosive speed that the forest itself seemed to blur around him. His blue-lightning-infused fist smashed into her midsection like the wrath of a raging thunder god.

Bang!

The impact detonated with a sound like the heavens themselves splitting open. June’s body folded around his fist, spit and blood spraying from her lips as the shockwave tore through the trees, uprooting them and sending splinters flying like lethal rain. Her form shot backward in a screaming blur, carving a deep trench through the ground as she went.

Yet before she could even tumble to a stop, Max’s figure vanished in a flicker of shimmering distortion, only to reappear directly in the path of her hurtling body. His hand extended, fingers spreading apart as space itself seemed to ripple and freeze around him.

His eyes burned with cruel determination as he growled, "Spatial Anchoring!" In an instant, the second level of his Space Concept came to life, locking June’s momentum in place mid-air as though the world itself had seized her in an invisible vice.

Her limbs quivered, her eyes widening in absolute terror as she realized she couldn’t move an inch, her entire existence pinned into a fixed point in space.

Max didn’t waste a single moment. His fists blurred forward in a flurry so fast they seemed to vanish into streaks of crimson and black. He pummeled her relentlessly, each punch exploding against her body like meteor strikes.

Every strike burned with the combined ferocity of his four deadly concepts: the shearing force of his Severing Sword Concept slicing into her defenses, the searing heat of his Flame Concept scorching her flesh, the electric detonation of his Lightning Concept sending spasms through her nerves, and the twisting, reality-warping pressure of his Space Concept compressing her very existence with every blow.

The sounds of his fists landing were sharp, violent bangs, like the constant pounding of war drums, echoing across the shattered forest.

June’s mouth flew open as she tried to scream, but the bursts of pain stole her voice, leaving only ragged, gasping wheezes as Max’s fists carved bruises and bleeding cuts across her flawless skin. Blood sprayed with each rapid impact, flecks of crimson scattering like rain across the debris-filled wind.

Her armor shattered in splintering chunks under the barrage, falling away piece by piece as Max reduced her defenses to dust.

And finally, with his eyes still burning like twin stars of red hellfire, Max cocked back one final punch, his fist now blazing so brightly it was nearly impossible to look at directly. With a savage snarl, he smashed his knuckles into her chest, sending her flying backward like a rag doll shot from a cannon.

Bang!

June’s body tore through trees, splintering them like matchsticks, before crashing into a distant rock outcrop with an impact that sent an avalanche of stone tumbling down around her. She slumped amidst the rubble, battered beyond recognition, her chest heaving weakly as blood oozed from countless wounds, her eyes glassy and dazed.

But before June could even draw the faintest breath of relief, still reeling from the beam that had torn into her flesh and left her senses spinning in a haze of pain, darkness seemed to swallow the world around her.

Shadows flickered and coiled like living serpents, and in an instant, she was completely engulfed in a sphere of pitch-black flames, its surface shimmering and writhing as if it were alive, each ripple pulsing with sinister energy.

The searing heat radiating from within the sphere was suffocating, the air thick with the acrid scent of burning earth and charred flesh.

"AHHHHHHH!" June shrieked, her voice so hoarse and raw it barely sounded human anymore, ripping through the air with the desperation of someone who had plunged into a nightmare without end. She screamed until her throat was torn and bleeding, screamed as though the sound alone might somehow save her from the inferno consuming her very existence.

Outside the flaming prison, Max stood tall and unyielding, his blood-red eyes cold and merciless as the glow of the black flames danced across the fierce lines of his face. His hair, a mass of dark crimson strands still seething with the remnants of violent power, stirred in the turbulent air like a crimson banner. With chilling calm, he lifted a single hand, his fingers curling slightly as if crushing something invisible.

"Explode," Max uttered, his voice quiet, almost gentle, as though he were merely giving a mundane command rather than pronouncing a death sentence.

Bang!

The black flaming sphere contracted sharply upon itself, shrinking into a dense ball of writhing flames before detonating outward in a violent burst. A concussive shockwave slammed through the forest, ripping trees from their roots, sending waves of scorched leaves and embers spiraling high into the storm-tossed sky.

The blast flattened everything within dozens of meters, the ground splintering open in deep, smoking fissures as debris rained down like a storm of burning ash.

When the furious swirl of black flames and dust finally cleared, June’s figure became visible once more—but the woman standing there bore almost no resemblance to the proud Heaven Grade genius who had confronted Max with haughty disdain.

Her lustrous hair was reduced to singed, brittle strands clinging to her scorched scalp. Her delicate face, once flawless and regal, was now charred and cracked, streaks of burnt flesh revealing raw, bleeding wounds beneath. Her armor was all but disintegrated, leaving her form trembling and exposed, each ragged breath rattling painfully in her chest.

She looked like a figure clawed from the depths of hell itself, her beauty transformed into something monstrous by flame and violence. And yet, impossibly, she was still alive—her eyes fluttering open in barely conscious agony, her body quivering with involuntary spasms as she lay sprawled in the blasted earth.

Max slowly stepped toward her, his crimson aura fading as he dropped to a crouch beside her mangled form. His face softened fractionally, his eyes losing some of their blazing ferocity as the glow dimmed and his features reverted to their usual form.

His long red hair shifted back to pristine white, and his irises glowed softly pinkish-red instead of hellish crimson. Leaning forward, he brought his lips close to her ear, his voice low and intimate as silk but carrying the weight of a guillotine’s blade.

"Do you regret it now?" he whispered, each word dripping like ice water onto searing wounds. His breath fanned against her blistered cheek, the question so deceptively gentle it made the moment feel all the more terrifying.

June couldn’t answer him. Her voice was gone, her throat shredded from screams, her body so ravaged she couldn’t muster even the smallest shake of her head. Her eyes, glassy and unfocused, brimmed with tears of pain and humiliation, and the only sounds that escaped her bloodied lips were soft, broken gasps.

"Ah...ahh...ahh..." she rasped weakly, the feeble noises barely more than whimpers as she stared up at him in shattered disbelief, unable to comprehend the magnitude of the force that had utterly demolished her.

And just at that moment, a group of figures burst onto the battlefield, skidding to a halt at the edge of the devastated clearing. Scott, Josh, Derek, Frank, Gayle, and Rose arrived, their eyes widening in absolute shock as they took in the smoldering crater, the trees reduced to blackened stumps, and the clouds of ash hanging thick in the air.

Their gazes fell upon Max, who knelt there whispering into the ear of what appeared to be nothing more than a charred corpse. The instant they realized the burned figure was June—a Heaven Grade genius who only moments ago had seemed invincible—terror blossomed across all their faces.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay