Chapter 113: Desperate...
Blade took the full brunt of the attack, this was most likely someone at the Demigod realm. But even she didn’t expect it the attack to be so strong...
As she was enveloped in yellow light, felt her whole body burn, and it was only because of her exceptionally strong physique as a Unique Being that she survived at all.
When the blast cleared, there was a huge crater with her as the centre, Blade looked pathetic, both of her arms were gone. Parts of her legs were missing as well; her left foot only had two out of five toes remaining, and her right leg was worse, only fragments of her foot were left.
The only parts of her body that had survived relatively intact were her torso, shoulders, thighs, and tail.
Most of her face was burnt. Most of her horn was gone with only a fragment remaining. Her left eye was destroyed for good, and the vision in her right eye was barely functioning.
This was a big issue. Unlike what most people assumed, just like her blades, her eyes were a crucial part of her strength; they allowed her to see far more than just physical matter.
Her eyes allowed her to sense metaphysical concepts like fate, destiny, and karma as well.
That was how she knew Night’s destiny was being manipulated, a fact later confirmed by [Dream], who admitted to being the one pulling the strings.
"Who might you be?" a voice asked.
Blade looked up and saw a grotesque creature with twelve arms, four legs, and a lion’s head. It had mouths all over its torso.
A Stronge Devil definately Demigod Realm, Blade thought
Blade narrowed her remaining eye. "I should be the one asking that question. Who are you, and why is a Devil like you attacking us?"
The creature answered, "I am Grand Duke Alze-beus, one of the Twelve Grand Dukes under the direct command of His Highness, the Devil Monarch Aathan." Alze-beus gave the same answer he had given Arthur the first time they met.
"I don’t remember picking a fight with you..." Blade said.
"You didn’t," Alze-beus replied. "But the colleague you just teleported away picked a fight with the Supreme God [Zethe-thoth] and his Chosen, ’The Witch Diana’."
Blade’s pupil constricted.
The moment he uttered those names, she sensed fluctuations in destiny that made absolutely no sense.
Destiny acted as though it were being attacked by countless tentacles, and at some point in the near future, the threads of fate completely stopped showing anything.
As if no destiny existed beyond that point...
This was the first time Blade had ever encountered a situation like this.
But despite seeing it for the first time, she had a grim guess as to what it meant.
Death. It could be just her, or it could mean Sara, Night, and herself, all three of them, would die today.
"What is up with people?" Alze-beus complained seeing the creature in a daze. "Every moving thing that talks to me ends up ignoring me! First it was that sword-wielding human, and now you too..." The lion-like face almost roared.
Blade didn’t answer.
Unlike Arthur, she was not under the influence of the [Void God]. Immediately, her aura exploded, and she floated into the air.
Alze-beus didn’t look surprised; instead, he grinned. "Now that’s what I’m talking about!"
His aura exploded as well. The surroundings trembled as the Demigod aura erupted, vibrating the entire region as if someone were shaking the world at high speeds.
His overwhelming presence immediately suppressed Blade’s aura.
Blade knew her chances of survival were slim.
Just as she was about to charge at him, she sensed Sara’s aura flaring from the sword she had given her. It meant Sara was going all-out as well.
If that was the case, then...
In the next moment, thousands of white blades appeared in the surroundings as Blade unleashed her most powerful skill.
[Blade Domain]
All twelve of Alze-beus’s hands opened, and a different type of weapon appeared in each one. Some were swords, some axes, some hammers, and one was even a bell.
Just as he prepared himself, all the blades attacked him with a strength that shouldn’t have belonged to a creature below the Demigod realm.
He had already expected something like this to happen, which was why he had sent strong incarnations this time.
He had burned through almost all his resources to get them to the surface of Earth.
Both incarnations, the one facing Sara and the one facing Blade, were Demigods, and not low-level ones either. Both of them were Level 200, meaning they were 100 levels into the Demigod realm.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The blades rained down on Alze-beus, but instead of striking him head-on, they detonated.
The explosions did almost no damage to him, only managing to mess up the surroundings.
Alze-beus looked at where Blade had previously been standing, but she was already gone.
All he could see was a spatial tear that was already healing over.
Alze-beus smirked.
He already had a guess as to where the creature was headed, and he wasn’t worried.
Outside the city limits, he was like a fish in water. Even if Blade and Sara ganged up on his other incarnation, they couldn’t do much.
Alze-beus shook his head, finding it funny how overly cautious he had been. Just one incarnation would have been more than enough for this mission...
Still, he decided to head over there. At least this way, he could end it faster and prevent any unforeseen complications.
...
Night looked at the three-headed monster but didn’t say anything.
Instead, he started moving toward Sara, ignoring the monster entirely.
"Brat, did you not hear me?" Alze-beus snapped, clearly annoyed at being ignored. "Do you really think I won’t kill you just because you are a Primordial God’s Chosen?"
Night finally spoke. "We have never antagonized you, so why are you attacking us?" Though outwardly he appeared calm because he was cloaked in Nightmare Fire, inwardly, he was terrified.
He could already tell without fighting that his Nightmare Fire would not be as effective on this monster. At the very least, it wouldn’t instantly kill it like the other beasts he had faced before.
"You didn’t," Alze-beus said, giving the same response he had given Blade. "But your colleague picked a fight with the Supreme God [Zethe-thoth] and his Chosen, ’The Witch Diana’."
Knowing exactly how low their levels were, the Devil was neither worried nor anxious.
By now, Night was right beside Sara.
He could see she was bleeding from all her orifices. It seemed that even though Blade had tanked the earlier attack, it hadn’t been enough to stop it fully, and Sara must have borne the brunt of the shockwave.
No wonder he was completely unharmed.
Sara had already been suffering from a soul injury, and now this...
Night really wanted to kill the culprit in the worst way possible, but even he knew the strength gap between them was too massive to make something like that happen.
Feigning ignorance, Night asked as if he had just remembered something. "Is that the same God that uses tentacles?"
What he didn’t expect was for Alze-beus to freeze in shock upon hearing it.
As soon as he spoke, Night felt his connection to [Blaze] thicken.
"So, you know about the Supreme God [Zethe-thoth]?" Alze-beus asked cautiously.
Night still didn’t know how to fight his way out of this situation, so he decided the best he could do was buy time.
Maybe Blade would arrive, or maybe someone strong from the city would notice them by luck.
His Natural Calamity Physique didn’t just affected him and his friends, it affected everything close to him which meant it affected his enemies as well.
There was a saying ’Sometimes your enemies were closer to you than your friends’
"Yes..." Night said, drawing out each word slowly. "He... attacked... one... of... my... friends."
"Then what happened?" Alze-beus pressed.
It seemed the Devil was genuinely interested in the matter, completely ignoring Night’s deliberate attempt to stall.
He probably didn’t care, probably confident that nothing could go wrong.
Night wasn’t wrong. Alze-beus was extremely interested in the story; after all, he had been "attacked" by the said [Void God] as well.
"It... appeared... in... the... form... of... transparent... tentacles," Night continued slowly. "It... hid... in... the... hair... of... another... friend... and... when... it... saw... the... opportunity... it... wanted... to... switch... targets..."
Alze-beus gulped. "Then?" He was already familiar with that tactic. After all, in his own experience, he had been the target.
"My... Patron... God... intervened," Night bluffed smoothly. "He... destroyed... the... tentacles... and... even... attacked... its... main... body.....He... grievously... wounded... it... It... barely... survived... the... attack..."
All three of Alze-beus’s heads looked shocked by what they heard.
"Impossible..." Alze-beus muttered.
Night raised his voice. "Do... you... think... my... Patron... God... a... Primordial... God... one... of... the... only... twelve... Primordial... Gods... in... the... cosmos... would... lie?"
Night was desperately hoping this would scare the monster off.
Alze-beus’s pupils shrank. "No, I didn’t mean it like that. Of course, the Supreme Primordial God [Blaze] would not lie..."
Night raised his voice even more, asserting dominance. "Then... what... did... you... mean?"
As he spoke, the Divine Artifact, the Game of Chess, appeared in his hand.
Hidden behind the shroud of his Nightmare Fire, Alze-beus couldn’t see it.