Second World

1928  Chapter 1928. Mano-a-mano

"Im… Impossible…"

Dajja was amidst the battle near the defensive walls but still paid attention to what happened to Satan. His superior eye gave him a very wide field of view. Not as wide as the vision of Tetsuo's Battle Mantis, but his field of view was around two-hundred-and-seventy-degrees. He could also see farther than normal. Satan and Jack fought at a location so far it was unperceivable by normal beings, but Dajja could watch their battle.

This was the first time in his life that he questioned the information his exceptional eye had acquired. He couldn't wrap his head around how the outworlder managed to reduce such a large portion of Satan's HP in such a short window. This was something unheard of, even in the underworld.

His mind was in turmoil. He had to go help his lord! His instinct was correct. There was something unusual about that outworlder.

His state of mind made him careless. He was struck by Honuren's silver lightning, which possessed the soul element. Tetsuo came punching then.

Dajja's eye flared with dark light. Tetsuo suddenly found himself shrouded by a dark blanket. He had trouble seeing and moving. He relied on his mana sense to shoot using his gun.

Dajja ignored the gunshots. He was about to leave, but a lightning cage barred his way. Honuren in his lightning titan suit approached.

"You, pests…!" Dajja cursed.

"Dajja, calm down… It's unbefitting of you to lose your cool."

"My… my lord…?" Dajja heard Satan's voice in his mind.

"Do you truly have that little faith in me?" The voice asked.

"No… I…"

"Stay out of my fight. I should be the one who loses the cool, and you are the one keeping it. Let's keep our roles like that, shall we?"

"Ye… Yes, my lord…"

*

Satan was conversing telepathically with Dajja, but he didn't show it. He was observing his body, which continued to be assailed by the turbulent energies from Jack's rune technique and mega spells. Damage numbers kept popping up above his fiery halo.

"Heh…" Though Jack's feat surprised the shit out of Satan and Dajja, Jack himself found it hard to believe what he was seeing.

Any normal being assailed by either his rune technique or mega spell would have been writhing in pain, but Satan's expression showed as if they were just minor inconveniences.

When his Time Lock ended, Jack didn't stop his assaults because he wanted to. He stopped because his instinct told him to move away.

"I apologize, outworlder," Satan finally spoke. "It seems I've gravely underestimated you. What is your name?"

"… You can call me Storm Wind," Jack answered.

"Hm… I thought you outworlders had real names aside from the ones shown from Inspect. Very well, Storm Wind. I will remember your name."

Finished speaking, Satan's body shook.

He seemed to be exerting. Jack could sense Satan's mana fluctuating greatly. Then all of a sudden, the devil let out a booming roar. At the same time, the air around Satan exploded. A shockwave radiated out.

A huge damage number came up above Satan. His HP bar dropped again. It was below sixty percent now.

"What…?" While the huge damage suffered by Satan was a pleasant surprise, something else shocked Jack, not in a good way.

All the energies from Jack's rune technique and mega spells that were assailing Satan were gone. Satan and everything around him were serene. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"You… You break the spells by force?" Jack asked in disbelief.

"I am rarely forced to exert this much force," Satan replied. "Even when I fought against that so-called lord of the dragons and the leader of the strongest divine faction in this upperworld. You, Storm Wind, deserve my full attention. I'm going to enjoy this one-on-one fight."

Satan's arms were no longer folded. Runic symbols gleamed throughout his body.

Jack sighed. He had seen this when Satan fought Eoranth and Honuren. It was Satan's protective layer. It was not a skill but came from a combination of Satan's mastery over mana manipulation and understanding of rune diagrams. If Satan had applied this protective layer right from the start, Jack wouldn't have scored that huge damage from the series of assaults after his first strike.

Violent flames erupted from Satan's body. It was his buff skill, Flame Rage.

'Crap! Now he truly takes this seriously,' Jack thought.

"My turn," Satan uttered. He then charged forward.

Satan's speed was fast after the Flame Rage, but Jack was not slow either. Jack zoomed away when Satan's fiery fist came punching. Satan vanished with a burst of flames after missing the punch.

Jack activated Gold Dragon Sight. It turned out Satan had multiplied into many. Each of his fiery selves was now coming from multiple angles. All their punching fists were aimed at Jack.

'Battle Monk's Multi-sided Strikes,' Jack recognized the skill.

Jack retaliated with Hundred Shadow Strikes. His split shadows clashed with Satan's multiple images. Their rapid clashes caused tremendous explosions. At the end of these explosions, something shot out and crashed into the ground.

That something was Jack. He lost HP, but nothing serious. He was back to standing when Satan appeared above him. A fiery hammer materialized in the devil's hands. This fiery hammer came down at Jack. The force radiated from this hammer swing gave the impression that it could flatten anything it smashed.

Jack felt the suffocated pressure but did not panic. The ten golden orbs from his aureole combined into a titanic golden tower shield. This tower shield blocked the fiery hammer. The tower shield only lasted a second. It shattered and turned back into ten golden orbs. The fiery hammer continued downward.

Though the golden tower shield only gave Jack a second, it was enough. Jack cast Teleportation and disappeared from there. The fiery hammer slammed into the ground and created a huge crater.

"Your Overlimit is almost at its end!" Peniel reminded.

"I know!" Jack exclaimed.

Chris informed Jack that if the Demonize Weapon and Overlimit were activated together, a special finishing skill was available. Using this skill would end both the weapon's skills. Overlimit might be at its end, but Demonize Weapon still had around five minutes left. Jack chose to end it to see the finishing skill.

Jack sent a mental command for that finishing skill. As he did, the glow on his right claw intensified. The glow flared with the brilliance of silver and dark purple. The two colors intertwined until they formed into a rapidly spinning giant ball the size of Jack's body. Jack could sense how intense the power of this ball was.

Satan sensed where Jack had teleported to. His fiery hammer was already swinging in that direction. Jack threw the giant spinning ball in his hand to this incoming flaming hammer.

The ball and hammer collided. The force from both sides appeared stalemate for a brief period, then a clear winner was seen. The spinning ball pushed forward while eroding the fiery hammer. The hammer slowly lost shape.

Satan found it hard to believe his weapon lost to the enemy's attack. The flaming hammer transformed into a fiery buckler as the spinning ball proceeded forward.

The same thing happened. Though the flaming buckler could stop the ball, it was slowly eroded. A hole started to form where the ball touched the buckler. Satan left his flaming buckler to keep the ball anchored. He himself flew up, away from the ball's trajectory.

He realized something as he flew up. He didn't sense the outworlder anymore. While he was wondering, a strong impact struck his head from behind.

The strong impact came from a giant golden hammer. This hammer was formed from the combination of War God's ten golden orbs. The powerful impact was enough to send Satan back to the ground.

Jack placed Void Cage right where Satan fell to. A strong pull kept the devil from moving away while he was assailed by chaos damage.

By that time, the spinning ball had fully eroded the flaming buckler. Satan was a distance away, but the ball was as if alive. It turned and flew in Satan's direction.

Satan sensed the ball approaching. He couldn't dodge in time due to the gravitational pull from the Void Cage. He shoved one hand forward in the incoming ball's direction. A flame shield covered by runic symbols stopped the ball. The runic symbols flared brightly as the shield resisted the ball's erosion power.

Jack didn't stay idle. The giant golden hammer transformed into a spear. He thrust this spear down using One-word Thrust.

The spear stabbed into Satan's arm holding the flame shield. Satan lost strength on that arm, and the runic symbols faltered. The flame shield was destroyed. The spinning ball continued its advance. Satan folded his flaming wings forward to cover himself.

The spinning ball touched the wings. It abruptly expanded into titanic size. Satan was engulfed by this titanic ball. Inside this ball, Satan was assailed by rapidly spinning turbulent energies of soul and chaos.