Chapter 142: Conclusion Part 1 (1/2)

“Tilith, if you can’t bear to finish her off then I’ll do it! A frightening existence like her mustn’t be allowed to exist!”

The towering man gave out the command to kill without any hesitation, and from the looks of it, planned to step in himself.

Tilith breathed another heavy sigh before shaking her head and saying, “Team Leader, I’ll be the one to do it.”

Without answering her directly, the man nodded at her.

With that, the momentary respite was over as the girl launched a barrage of stabs. Rather than calling it an attack, it would be more accurate to call it a light show as each stab transformed into a flash of light the moment she thrust out with her cross sword. With no way to dodge them, I was forced back bit by bit until finally I felt a chilling whoosh from behind me. Before I could react to it, I was hammered with a crushing force that sent me flying away right back at Tilith.

Had she chosen to attack then I would’ve undoubtedly died, yet unexpectedly, she didn’t do so.

“Team Leader, you agreed to let me handle this alone!” The girl glared at her superior and even seemed to have adopted a posture to shield me.

“Haha, I apologize, but this fellow is simply too dangerous. If we let her escape now, it would cause a lot of trouble in the future.” The man smiled a smile that was anything but remorseful. Then he shrugged the shoulders which he had used to slam his shield into me, signalling to the girl to continue. “Do it then, the credit for this kill is yours.”

“…”

Just from our short exchange alone, her principled and honorable nature was more than made apparent to me. Despite having just declared a one on a one battle, her companion had attacked me with his shield just a few seconds later. She burned with righteous fury at my treatment yet there was nothing else she could do about it. The person who broke the rules was her superior, and he had done so under the sanctimonious banner of slaying a devil.

If she chose not to attack me now, the other party could treat her hesitation as collusion…looks like these two had a rocky relationship.

As I struggled to my feet, the girl stared directly into my eyes; her eyes wavering as she did so. She was probably reluctant to kill me because she felt I was a kind soul, yet the cruel reality was that I was a devil and devils were the nemeses of demon hunters like Tilith.

“Perhaps you are a good person but…I apologize, I have no choice but to kill you.” In a voice that only she could hear, she muttered to herself as she approached, sword drawn and pointed at my various weak points: “I do not know what you are looking for but I can feel your unwillingness, however the world is as such, the good aren’t always the ones who live the longest.”

“Haha, you make it sound like I’m so despicable.” The Team Leader gave a dry laugh before rushing her once more: “Cut the c**p and do it.”

“Hmph!” Tilith turned her head around to avoid looking at her superior. At this distance, I could clearly see her knuckles whiten from tightly gripping down on the cross shaped sword as she prepared to send me on my way.

“Flames!” Thankfully, that short reprieve was enough for my hardy devil constitution to recover by around 50%. Gone was the devil who looked like she could barely lift a finger as I created a flame wall to block Tilith. After going through that recent evolution, my flame wall crackled with the blackish red of my Nether Flames, right from the very base of my feet…

The sudden appearance of the flame wall forced the girl back as she didn’t dare to take on the demonic flame; she leapt back immediately as the flames roared to life. The Nether Flames had succeeded but it came with a price of its own.

The flames had engulfed my entire body by now, and while I had a greater fire resistance than other normal devils, this was not some ordinary fire. Nether Flames were known for their terrifying power and could easily reduce a weak person to cinders in an instant should they refuse to escape. Even me, their summoner, wasn’t spared their fury as they ravaged my reddish hide.

“Nether Flames!? Damn it, how is a three-star able to control these forbidden flames! Tilith stand aside, leave this fellow to me!” The Team Leader shoved aside the girl who didn’t dare to approach the flames while he himself dove right into them; a thick layer of yellowish aura wrapped around his body as he did so.

I had intended to deter Tilith by summoning this wall, and while this had succeeded, I had forgotten about her superior standing nearby. That man was a five-star!

With his kite shield whipped out in front of him, the five-star warrior charged right through my flame wall with ease like a raging bull.

*bang!*

I was promptly thrown backward by the titanic force, flying into the air like a helpless leaf within a raging tornado. After what felt like an eternity, but was probably just a couple of seconds, I finally landed on the floor with a loud smash, my body continuing to spin around despite that.

A wave of lightheadedness hit me as my body throbbed with a numbing pain all over. Without a doubt, this was the end of the road for me. There was no one who could save me now unless Duran suddenly died. Without him as my medium, I would be thrown out of this world by the natural laws and be instantly teleported back to the Prison of the Dead.

“Little Brother, this one will send you back this time around but this one will have to slumber once more. However, it was fun talking to you during this short period of time. Besides, Yi Yi had requested this of this one, letting you die isn’t an option…”

Return? Return where? This is my home, the place where I lived for eight years…

“Don’t be so willful, this one has already ordered Ancarin to do it.”