Chapter 1545 - 219 - Sins Vs. Leon (7)
Satania and I continued clashing against each other without letting up for even a moment, while the other five did everything they could to keep the pressure on me from every possible angle, making sure I never had a chance to breathe or regain complete control of the fight.
Beelzebub kept coming after me, creating clones whenever she found the opportunity and making it increasingly difficult to tell which one was the real body. At the same time, Levi continued closing the distance, relentlessly trying to cut me down with her blade, while Asmodeus circled high above us before diving straight at me whenever she spotted even the smallest opening in my defense. Morsea wasn’t making things any easier either, constantly throwing all sorts of things at me that I couldn’t even recognize anymore. Maybe they were weapons. Maybe they were blades. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure anymore, and I wasn’t exactly eager to find out by letting one of those things smash into my face. Getting hit first and identifying them later sounded like an incredibly stupid plan, and I wasn’t interested in volunteering for that experiment.
I blocked every attack as it came, redirecting the momentum behind each strike before pushing it away whenever I found the chance. At the same time, I kept trying to force all of them back little by little so I wouldn’t end up completely surrounded. Fighting all six of them at once was already difficult enough, so every time I managed to knock even one of them away, it bought me a tiny opening to steady my footing, catch my balance, and prepare myself before another relentless wave of attacks came crashing toward me.
Satania, however, had absolutely no intention of giving me even that tiny bit of breathing room, and she made that painfully obvious with every passing second.
She burst forward with overwhelming speed, staying right on top of me so relentlessly that I barely had enough time to recover my balance before another strike was already coming my way. She looked completely determined to kill me, throwing one attack after another without the slightest hesitation, almost as if she believed slowing down for even a heartbeat would somehow let me escape. Even so, I continued blocking every strike she threw at me while Ayuru and Samui absorbed almost all of the impact, preventing the force behind her attacks from overwhelming my body and allowing me to remain standing.
Even with their help, the pressure I was experiencing was absolutely insane, and every exchange made my muscles feel heavier than the last.
Every clash felt like my entire body was being crushed beneath an invisible weight that simply refused to let up. More than once, I found myself struggling to draw a proper breath before another attack came flying toward me, leaving almost no room to think and even less room to relax. Whoever said six against one was fair clearly had a strange definition of the word.
Seeing the smallest opening in their formation, I immediately activated Levitation Magic before any of them could react.
The sudden shift in my movement caught Satania off guard just long enough for me to slip out of her reach before quickly creating a considerable amount of distance between us. I landed several dozen meters away and finally managed to steal a brief moment to breathe, even if I knew that moment wasn’t going to last very long.
My eyes swept across all six of them as I steadied my breathing and tightened my grip on both of my swords.
"I don’t think this is going to work out, you know," I said. "Even with all six of you fighting together, do you really believe you’ll be able to defeat the people who are clearly stronger than me when you can’t even manage something as simple as taking me down? At this rate, you’re only proving how much harder this is for you than you expected."
"You don’t get to lecture us!" Satania shot back as she glared at me with burning determination. "Even if I have to invade other worlds just to build the army I need, then that’s exactly what I’ll do. I’ll conquer those worlds if I have to, all so I can protect this one."
The look in her eyes was filled with so much anger and determination that it almost seemed impossible to shake her resolve. She looked like someone who had already decided on her path long ago and was willing to throw away absolutely everything if it meant reaching the end of it. Looking at her expression almost made me wonder whether she had forgotten what turning back even meant.
It was an absolutely fucked up dream, no matter how noble she believed it sounded inside her own head.
"The war is coming, and I know it," she continued without the slightest hesitation. "The day when different worlds begin colliding with each other is getting closer, and nothing good will come from it. This world will suffer. This world will eventually be torn apart and destroyed if nobody has the strength to stand against what’s coming."
She tightened her grip around her weapon until her knuckles nearly turned white before continuing without taking her eyes off me.
"But if I win those wars and continue expanding my undead army through Necromancy, then I’ll have soldiers from countless different worlds fighting for me. With an army like that, I’ll finally have enough strength to protect this world when that day arrives. People can hate me for it if they want. History can curse my name forever. None of that matters as long as this world is still standing when everything is over."
Her expression never wavered for even a single moment, and her voice remained just as firm as before.
"I know exactly what I’m doing," she said firmly. "And I absolutely will make sure this world is protected, regardless of what anyone thinks about the path I’ve chosen to reach that future."
I stared at her for a brief moment before letting out a quiet sigh that carried far more disappointment than anger.
"You really think you’re protecting this world," I said. "But in reality, you’re the one destroying it by creating those undead armies. You’re killing the very people you’re claiming to protect just so you can turn them into your soldiers. If anything, that makes you far more of a destroyer than a protector. Calling yourself a protector doesn’t magically erase everything you’ve already done."
"The means are different from the goal," she replied without the slightest hesitation or regret. "As long as I achieve that goal, it doesn’t matter how many people I have to kill. They’ll become part of something greater, and that’s a price I’m willing to pay."
Her answer came so naturally that it almost sounded rehearsed, as though she had repeated those words to herself countless times over the years.
She had already convinced herself that what she was doing was right, and nothing I said was ever going to change her mind. That much was painfully obvious just from looking into her eyes. Somebody who had buried herself this deeply inside her own conviction wasn’t going to stop because of a few arguments, no matter how reasonable they were.
"Well," I said as I slowly raised both of my swords into position, "I guess if you want to win, then you’ll have to defeat me first... and turn me into one of your undead. That’s assuming you can actually pull it off, of course."
A faint smile slowly spread across my face as I settled into my stance, knowing full well that talking any further wasn’t going to accomplish anything.
Without wasting another second, I exploded forward at full speed toward Satania once again, beginning the second phase of our fight with both swords ready to meet hers head-on.