Chapter 530: I will save Aeshma, no one can stop me ! [2]
The fight resumed without the slightest pause. The Antichrist, whose body was covered in hundreds of gashes from which a blackish blood spurted, let out a howl of pure rage. The sulfur lances still suspended in the air multiplied by the thousands. They came down in an infernal rain, transforming the laboratory into a veritable grid of burning projectiles.
Klein did not retreat; he activated Dash again and reappeared a few meters to the side. His katana cut through a dozen lances in a single stroke. The fragments of molten sulfur burst around him and scorched the obsidian floor. Another wave came immediately. He pivoted, the black blade in hand, and cut again, again, and again. Each impact sent sparks and acrid smoke flying. One lance managed to graze his shoulder.
He did not stop; with a hoarse cry, he hurled himself forward. His right foot struck the ground with such force that the stone cracked in a starburst pattern. He used Aura Repulsion. The blue wave expelled the nearest lances. The Antichrist raised both hands. A sphere of purple and black fire formed between his palms. It swelled in a fraction of a second and exploded.
The blast of the explosion threw Klein against a stone wall. The bones in his back cracked. The Antichrist advanced; the ground deformed under his steps. Gravity increased again. Klein felt his joints groan. He raised his katana and cut the invisible threads with his mystic art.
As the pressure vanished, Klein propelled himself toward the Antichrist and sliced the air toward the entity’s face. The Antichrist blocked with an arm of black mana. The shock sent sparks flying. Klein immediately followed with the blade toward the belly. The Antichrist twisted and dodged by a hair’s breadth. A claw of pure darkness emerged from his free hand and sank into Klein’s side.
The pain was instantaneous. The flesh tore open over several centimeters. The ribs cracked. Klein retreated limping, one hand pressed against the wound. Blood flowed heavily. The Antichrist smiled a carnivorous smile and launched another rain of lances. Klein made hand signs to heal his wound.
He used Dash once more, reappeared behind the Antichrist, and struck with all his might. The Antichrist turned with supernatural speed and seized Klein by the throat. Aeshma’s fingers, reinforced by demonic mana, tightened. Klein felt his trachea compress.
Klein drove his katana into the Antichrist’s arm. The blade pierced flesh and bone. The entity howled and hurled him across the room. Klein crashed into a row of vats. The glass exploded. Alchemical liquids and preserved organs spilled everywhere. He rose among the debris, his face covered in cuts. His torso was a battlefield of open wounds and burns.
The Antichrist ripped the katana from his arm. Blood flowed. He raised his arms to the sky. The air became charged with purely demonic energy. Chains of black fire erupted from the ground and coiled around Klein’s limbs.
Klein activated Aura Repulsion at full power. The blue wave made the chains explode. He fell back heavily. Without losing a second, he used Dash, reappeared behind the Antichrist, and seized his katana. Each exchange produced a sound of metal against mana. The floor was now a mixture of blood, stone fragments, and sulfur.
A demonic claw sank into Klein’s shoulder and pulled. The muscle tore. Klein answered by driving the black blade into the entity’s thigh. He twisted the blade. Blood gushed like a fountain. The Antichrist punched Klein in the face. The nose broke. The teeth clattered. Klein retreated, his face bloodied, and spat out a tooth.
Annoyed by the situation, the Antichrist released an explosion of mana. A shockwave of unheard-of intensity swept through the entire laboratory, and Klein was violently hurled backward. He flew through the space before his back struck the stone ceiling with a violence that made the edifice tremble, then he fell heavily to the ground, where several of his ribs gave way under the impact. A sinister crack echoed, but he still got up, jaw clenched, his fingers dug into the dust to push himself upright. On the other side of the room, Aeshma’s body was rising in turn, and a sound of reverse fracture was heard, accompanied by a wet snapping of flesh reforming.
The fight therefore resumed without respite. Klein charged once more, but the Antichrist struck at the same time, and their attacks met. The blades clashed in a shrill metallic screech, and white sparks flew from each impact. The entity’s claws tore through the air repeatedly, slashing flesh where Klein failed to parry. The magical fire encircling the room crackled and licked at the debris, while blood gushed from open wounds, staining the flagstones and cracked walls. Despite the violence of the exchange, Klein used Mystic Art: Soul Healing between two strikes, just as he retreated to avoid another clawing. A brief bluish glow ran across his torso and arms, closing the worst wounds, and the torn flesh rejoined in temporary scar tissue. Opposite him, the Antichrist regenerated without cease, and each new wound he suffered, each gash opened by the lance, closed within seconds, leaving behind only a network of purplish scars on his skin.
The Antichrist moved quickly then seized Klein by the hair and hurled him with all his strength against a massive stone pillar. The impact was sharp, releasing a shower of fragments and dust. Klein collapsed heavily. The entity approached without haste and, with a wide movement, delivered a kick square into his broken ribs. Klein flew across the room, bounced twice on the ground before stopping in a heap against a pile of rubble. He coughed and spat a trickle of blood, then stood up. He activated Dash again, and his body dematerialized for a fraction of a second before reappearing behind the Antichrist. He then concentrated all his energy into an Aura Repulsion, and an invisible wave, of devastating power, hurled the Antichrist far away. The entity flew across the room in a glide before collapsing against a wall.
The laboratory, at this point, was nothing more than a vast field of ruins. The walls, once smooth, were now riddled with deep impacts and radiating cracks. The floor, strewn with dust, stone shards, and broken glass, had transformed into a veritable swamp. The blood of the two combatants mixed there in viscous puddles, and the scattered debris formed slippery obstacles on which it was difficult to keep one’s balance. Klein breathed with increasing difficulty, and each inhalation tore at his lungs, as the internal burns and fractures compressed his ribcage. His entire body was now nothing but an assembly of open wounds, charred tissues, and cracked bones, and his limbs trembled from the prolonged effort. The Antichrist, for his part, seemed less spared; although he continued to regenerate, the process slowed down less quickly, and his movements lost their fluidity. Aeshma’s irises remained two unfathomable pits of darkness, but the entity’s body now trembled, shaken by almost imperceptible spasms.