Chapter 607: 85. The True Self
“Whoosh!”
In the air above the Knowledge Gate, as Barbatos opened the portal leading to the ground, the torrential rain from the Southern Continent poured down. However, it quickly evaporated into steam in the scorching flames of the dynasty, transforming almost instantly into a dreamlike place reminiscent of the Dream Marsh.
“Boom!”
“Eil!”
Amidst the rising steam, a figure seemed to be struck by a tremendous force, violently piercing through the dark reefs and lava, ultimately creating a massive deep pit.
From that pit, Eil’s arrow-shaped tail shot out and wobbled a bit as she struggled to get up. The serpents of fire in her eyes twisted continuously as she looked towards the approaching Barbatos.
He aimed to knock her out of the battle entirely, but mid-flight, a terrifying pulling force came from the side, followed by a dual-ring magic of destruction and lightning that disrupted Barbatos’s path in mid-air.
Subsequently, Barbatos ignored Eil and turned back to join Ag to attack Fisher.
The battle had just begun for less than half a minute, and the scales of victory were recklessly tilting towards Ag and the others, and this was still under the condition that the opponent had not yet used their full strength.
Ag and Barbatos had not completely unleashed their full power at this moment and continued to engage Fisher in combat for a simple reason—they seemed to be trying to stimulate the growth of the chaotic power within Fisher through battle.
Eil gritted her teeth as she watched Fisher, who was struggling against the two demon gods amidst the steam. An unsettling feeling suddenly rose within her.
She knew that the little whale folk girl had come here seemingly to watch Fisher, worried that he might use dangerous powers in a crisis. As a demon god, Eil understood that the so-called “dangerous power” referred to the chaos hidden within Fisher.
But right now, all she could do was watch helplessly as Fisher’s control over that chaos was slowly being weakened during the battle, becoming increasingly evident and in dire need of manifestation.
They were going to use the power that would manifest to seize the blessings on that dragon race.
Eil bit her teeth again, covering her body as she charged towards that direction, turning into a meteor in an attempt to separate the battlefield. However, the two demon gods would not let her have her way. Barbatos coldly drew his longbow and aimed at Eil, releasing an arrow with such force and speed that even though her combat instincts detected it, she could not escape the range despite fully activating her current power, helplessly watching the arrow approach her skin inch by inch.
“Whoosh!”
But at that moment, from behind her, Fisher’s powerful hand suddenly grasped her shoulder, pulling her back as he leaped over the retreating Eil to face the incoming arrow.
“Clang, clang!”
Fisher just raised his hand to deflect the arrow wrapped in the raging wind, and instantly, two gashes opened on his neck, as if countless branches had sprouted from within his body. Then, his head and chest were covered in plants. Yet, Fisher’s reaction was extremely quick; at this moment, with life and death hanging in the balance, he did not hesitate to grit his teeth and reach into his own body, forcefully pulling out the branches one by one with thunderous momentum.
“Drip, drip.”
His blood gushed out everywhere, even half of his face was covered by broken flesh, but in the next moment, he still raised the magic formed from black mud to smash the portal in the sky, hoping to close the portal that could potentially draw Raphael into it.
“Fisher!”
“How interesting, this human! So cruel to himself, no wonder Eil takes a liking to you. But why not use the chaos inside you that is already stirring to show me a bit more of your new power? Perhaps I would also show mercy!”
That dreadful fighting stance and quick reaction not only earned Ag’s praise, but also made Eil shiver in fear as she reached out to help him. Yet, anyone could see that her Fourteenth Rank abilities had no effect on this battlefield.
The current situation was roughly equivalent to Fisher battling two Eighteenth Rank demon gods alone.
“…”
But just as he raised his hand, Barbatos aimed his bow at Fisher and Eil, unleashing countless arrows wrapped in raging winds that knocked Eil back and instantly pierced through Fisher’s limbs.
“Pfft!”
Fisher’s eyes narrowed, and he was uncontrollably pushed away by the tremendous force, kneeling on the ground. As he attempted to rise and continue destroying the skyward portal, he discovered that the arrows had already pierced through his two calves and anchored him to the ground.
But
That portal
Raphael!
At that moment, the pain from the severe injuries surged into his soul. He coughed up blood, which splattered onto the ground, writhing as if it were alive.
Amidst the swirling dust and smoke, the shadows of the two demon gods loomed like death itself closing in on Fisher.
Half of Fisher’s face was covered in blood, and the only eye he had left barely opened as it looked back to see Eil, who was trapped and locked by arrows.
But unlike Eil, the arrows aimed at her had not penetrated her body; they had only formed a cage, making her unable to move.
They had no intention towards Eil, and since they were acquaintances, they just wanted to target Fisher.
“Almost there, take him to the ground, Ag.”
“Not yet, just a little more.”
From behind, Ag and Barbatos’s intentions were clear to see, and they did not hide anything from Fisher. However, seeing Eil behind them, wide-eyed and unharmed, Fisher couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
He then lowered his head slightly, with blood dripping from his body. It was hard to tell if it was an illusion, but it seemed that, in his increasingly dazed gaze, the blood was starting to turn black.
Time, was it not enough?
Hadn’t the seal of that base been broken yet?
Eil gritted her teeth, trying to pull the arrows embedded in her body out, but with her rank still not reaching the mythic level, she couldn’t break free at all.
The gap between mythic and non-mythic was simply too great, practically a dimensional strike. Moreover, they were both Eighteenth Rank entities, and escaping was an impossible dream.
But just as her disbelieving and anxious gaze lingered, Fisher simply glanced at her, then took a deep breath, reaching out to fiercely grab the arrow that Barbatos had shot through his calf, yanking it out. This allowed him to stand up once more, placing himself in front of Eil.
However, at that moment, in Eil’s view, the blood gushing from Fisher was no longer bright red but a thick, viscous black mud resembling oil, filled with rich chaos, seemingly pulling nearby souls closer to it continuously.
Even so, Fisher still wanted to approach the portal above, aiming to destroy the only channel that possibly led to the surface.
He wanted to destroy the passage that directly connected to Raphael on the ground, so that even if he couldn’t control the chaos within and died, it wouldn’t endanger Raphael. However, Eil knew that once the portal was opened, it could not be closed again until the entity that opened it either entered completely or gave up.
This meant that if Barbatos did not comply, no matter how hard Fisher struggled, he could not close that door.
But watching Fisher make futile attempts repeatedly to eliminate the potential crisis facing that dragon race while being locked to the ground, Eil felt increasingly furious, as if a flame was flickering and growing more intense.
She suddenly recalled events from long ago, thinking of those beings who fought and died uncontrollably under the influence of their own nature.
She watched helplessly as her attendant killed his own children and spouse to prove his faith in her, fearing they would vie for Eil’s blessings.
She watched her favored warrior, in a bid to seize his parents’ wealth, fall into conflict with his brothers, poisoning and launching surprise attacks, slaughtering his brother’s entire family, then laughing as he proclaimed his victory to Eil.
Perhaps Eil had not thought of escaping since that time; after all, how could a competitive being like her tolerate the existence of an opponent she could not defeat?
But why ultimately did she adopt such a method of hiding away and sleeping to cope?
Because in the struggle against her nature, she realized that the path to victory came at a cost. The more she desired to conquer her nature, the stronger her nature became in response to this resolve, leading to war and slaughter.
Thus, for a long time, she had set aside any conflict, downplaying reasons that might incite disputes, even when it came to her prayers, even to her humiliation, even to her being forgotten.
She had forgotten to engage in conflict due to the harms it caused, yet at this moment, she saw the reason she once so loved to fight.
She enjoyed watching warriors rise to defend their homeland and families, unabashedly blocking enemies; she enjoyed seeing people endure humiliation, never yielding in their fight for dreams; she enjoyed the sight of the weak not backing down against strong foes, daring to challenge again and again.
Eil clutched the arrow prison, as unyielding as steel, gritting her teeth and gasping urgently, with sounds erupting from her chest like the explosion of magma.
“Buzz! Roar!”
“Ag!! Barbatos!!”
“Rip!”
At that moment, as Fisher struggled even more in battle, his body becoming increasingly riddled with wounds, a strange wave suddenly surged from the direction of the Knowledge Gate, like the sound of something shattering.
The barrier at the base stored by Baemon was destroyed!
Wounded and seemingly drenched in blood, Fisher dropped to one knee on the ground, a hint of joy flickering across his face, but in the next second, that joy ceased abruptly as he felt the power of the base, yet the two powerful beings before him remained unscathed.
Could it be that Jasmine and the others could not control the base to send them back?
Or was it…
But in the next second, he felt the power of the base erupting and spreading throughout the Demon Dynasty, which meant the base had fallen under the control of Jasmine and the others below. Meanwhile, the sneer on Ag’s face became increasingly evident.
“Well, I didn’t lie to you, Fisher. Your plan has failed. Next time, remember to be more rigorous when verifying before you act. But still, you tried your best, facing those of us from the Demon Dynasty whom you knew nothing about alone. If that were the case, we would have fallen to you. And besides, there won’t be a next time.”
Fisher gasped for breath for a moment and had no choice but to accept the worst possible reality.
His body was already saturated with blood that seemed tainted black; he knelt on the ground, completely drained of any strength to stand.
He looked up at the portal above, where rain fell down, catching a glimpse of the misty sky and the war filled with cries for blood on the Southern Continent.
Yet he couldn’t tell if it was an illusion, but at that moment, the sounds of war above seemed to grow fiercer, the shouts and roars of countless beings becoming clearer. In this moment, Fisher’s increasingly dazed consciousness intertwined with the roaring whispers and ringing in his ears, creating a sort of rhythm.
The rhythm of conflict howled down from above, making everyone present shiver.
“Whoosh!”
Within the Performance Gate, a hot wave surged from afar, sweeping over Fisher’s blood as if it might dry him up or ignite him.
“Boom!!”
The next moment, a towering fire pillar erupted behind Fisher, swirling and breaking through the limitations of the ground as if it were igniting the entire atmosphere of the Performance Gate like the sun.
Amidst the scorching atmosphere, a terrifying pressure cascaded down, sending chills through everyone who felt its potential.
“Ag!! Barbatos!!”
That roar, resembling the rage from hell, came from within the fire pillar, causing Ag and Barbatos to momentarily halt their actions. In the next instant, a figure became clearer amidst the rising fire.
Looking up, two palms explosively tore through the fire pillar, revealing the true form within.
“Ding, ding!”
The first sounds heard were the chimes of two crisp bells, illuminating the figure of about two meters tall like a curtain rising.
The face of that being looked just like Eil’s, but the tiger teeth that were originally hidden in her lips now appeared more pronounced, and her wheat-colored face was covered in mysterious blood-red markings. Just the sight of those markings was enough to make one’s head spin.
On her forehead, the irregular black horns had swollen significantly in size and twisted outwards, resembling molten lava as they revealed a hint of blood-red.
Her red hair was completely ablaze, flying uncontrollably, creating a cascading red waterfall behind her head and forming two sharp triangular shapes at the peak; from a distance, it resembled the ears of an enormous cat that might glow.
But she indeed had actual ears, resembling those of an elf, with two small bronze bells hanging from both sides of her cheeks; the previous crisp sounds had come from those bells.
From her back, two pairs of robust arms extended from above and below her scapula, clawing at the towering fire pillar with terrifying power. She was clad in bronze armor that protected only vital areas, exposing her strong, wheat-colored muscles that possessed destructive power.
Within her chest, wrapped in bronze armor, was like an engine that caused thunderous sounds, with the armor alternating between light and dark with each breath.
“Hiss!!”
“Boom!!”
As the thunderous roar swept through, Fisher turned back incredulously, and the terrifying six-armed demon god immediately came into his view.
This was Eil’s true form?
Fisher was momentarily stunned, while Ag also found his expression stiffening, his fingers tightening. Barbatos sighed beside him, murmuring,
“We’re in trouble now.”
“Boom!”
But before Barbatos could finish his statement, Eil’s fist appeared in front of his face in an instant, deforming his handsome features as it sank deep into the ground, creating violent upheaval in the terrain.
“You two idiots who can’t understand words!! Die!!!”
Amidst the spilling lava, Barbatos’s battered body kept rolling. Soon, his body, which had previously been indistinguishable from a human, began to shatter piece by piece, as a ferocious wind swelled, morphing into a ghostly green robe adorned with countless long-feathers reminiscent of a peacock’s display.
Like the wind, he twisted in this expansive space, continuously clashing with the spreading power of Eil, while a voice echoed from the wind to Ag.
“Don’t hold back, Ag, hurry! She’s already angry! Is the chaos ready or not?!”
“…”
Barbatos’s body soon surged high, his Eighteenth Rank power bursting forth without reservation. The skin on his forehead split open gradually, revealing an eerie vertical pupil.
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”
“This era hasn’t seen a full-blown war like ours in ages; well then, let those beings standing beneath all life see what war between ‘mythics’ really looks like.”
The arrows blasted from the countless peacock feathers behind him erupted in the dynasty like thunder and earthquake, stirring up all the lava and rocks within the Performance Gate, resembling a windblade slicing through the air.
Yet Eil paid no mind to this attack; she twisted her wrist, and her weapons appeared simultaneously in her three arms—a massive hammer in the uppermost arm, in the middle arm, a long black spear tightly gripped, and the lowest arm skillfully held a slender curved knife.
“Boom!”
“Clang, clang!”
Although they appeared heavy, when those weapons manifested in Eil’s hands, her terror was laid bare.
With the lower knife continuously slashing, it created a tangible gap in the storm ahead, while Ag, wanting to come to assist, was struck on the forehead by the hammer from above, crashing through the Performance Gate and dropping into the lava, and even though Barbatos tried to evade, the spear shot towards his head faster than sound, encompassing a tremendous sonic boom.
With his three eyes narrowing, he managed to dodge the spear, but the curved knife below made a swift turn, slicing through his peacock feather tail and the muscles of his lower abdomen, embedding itself in his body.
“Pfft!”
“Hiss!”
Green blood gushed out with a corrosive aura, splattering on the ground, yet the divine weapon in Eil’s hand remained unscathed. Barbatos felt pain as he lifted his arm to stop the knife from advancing further, but the hammer above came quickly.
“Barbatos, I’m going to crush your head!!!”
“Uh!”
Yet at the moment of the strike, the cat ears formed by Eil’s fiery hair, along with the long ears on either side of her cheeks, began to tremble. Looking back, she saw Ag, whose small human-like form had already cracked halfway, clutching his silver-white horn, raising his hand to tear Fisher apart.
Eil was about to retreat to assist, but Barbatos suddenly swept his peacock feathers, breaking free from the wound caused by the curved knife, heading towards the portal.
“Go, Barbatos, bring that dragon race back!”
Fisher suddenly raised his hand and grasped the fleshy tendril Ag extended, while his arm was pierced by the tendril, black mud gushed out, simultaneously drawing her soul.
Yet he did not pay attention to the wounds on his body; his gaze rose to the sky, watching Barbatos rapidly pass through the portal to the ground.
His pupils seemed ready to split as he turned to Eil, shouting at her,
“Eil, stop Barbatos! Do not let him bring Raphael here!”
“But…”
Eil looked back at the riddled Fisher, wanting to say something, but Fisher’s voice, now hoarse and distorting, screamed out,
“Save her! I beg you! I can handle Ag, but absolutely must not let Raphael come! Let the others go!!”
Before he could finish speaking, black mud surged from his seven orifices as if it were trying to consume him.
Eil watched as the black mud continuously poured out from him, feeling his sanity crumbling bit by bit, sensing that chaos was beginning to swallow him. Yet he still gazed directly at Eil, pleading her to save the dragon race above.
“…”
He understood why he was fighting; he should also know what he was fighting for as he returned to his nature at this moment.
Eil remained silent for a moment, then gritted her teeth, stomping fiercely on the ground. Wrapped in flames and lava, she transformed into an enormous meteor heading towards the portal above, chasing after the wind-like figure surrounded by green feathers.
As Eil and Barbatos vanished from view, Fisher clenched his teeth, swallowing the black mud that continuously surged from his throat, then fixed his dead gaze on Ag, whom he was ensnaring with his black mud.
Her glasses shattered slowly, along with her disguise as a human turning to smoke, revealing the massive silver horn on her forehead.
With purple long hair, her pupils scattered like a kaleidoscope, looking at the struggling Fisher before her.
“It seems Baemon was right; you truly would give everything for that dragon race. Is it only her who is special, or do all women connected to you behave this way?”
The battle above was key. Whether Ag and Barbatos could succeed depended entirely on whether Raphael could be brought back. At this moment, feeling the chaos within him continually erupting, Ag lost hope of bringing him out.
He was now completely unable to control the chaos within him, about to become a source of turmoil like Jahl Uzz.
Fisher gasped as everything before him seemed to be engulfed by darkness, but lowering his head, he bore down and recalled Raphael’s image.
“…”
“Not speaking anymore, huh? Well, you are close to becoming pure chaos.”
Ag’s hand penetrated his chest, then she tried to pull back her left hand, which held onto him with her last strength. Yet those arms, transformed into black mud, refused to relinquish their grip, determined to consume her entirely.
“Raphael…”
“.Tch, you madman.”
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