Beelzebub felt as though his entire body had been set ablaze.
The flames did not come from outside. They raged within him, devouring nerves, flesh, and spirit alike. He had quite literally burned a fragment of his own soul to achieve that single, decisive moment. To freeze the flow of time across an entire world—even for the briefest instant—required a sacrifice few beings could comprehend.
It had lasted no more than a heartbeat.
But that heartbeat had been enough.
In that suspended instant, when the winds stopped and the sky itself seemed to hold its breath, the Xaos King had been unable to move. And Beelzebub's claw—infused with boundless temporal authority—had struck.
The True Depravita of Lust never had a chance.
The temporal power wrapped around his talons crushed through her defenses, bypassed flesh and energy alike, and sank directly into her soul. The force contained within that strike could have shattered the essence of any Lord-tier powerhouse.
