NOVEL NEXT Chapter 601: Gleam Ripper
The air around them was thick. The desolate battlefield was devoid of voices, and the only sound that was heard was from the pants of the three, all worn down from the clashes of their swords.
Elliot figured out how unbalanced the fight was when it was only him that Malice batted. He carried no power against her even with his Arcane Surge. But with Lance, the field was evened out. The woman was now panting and he could feel her exhaustion from her tired eyes.
"What's wrong, boys? Tired already?" Malice formed a wicked smile on her lips. The two did not reply, making her shrug. The woman then crossed her arms, a burst of darkness flowing from her body.
She opened her hands, causing her sword to fall and sweep inside the darkness in front of her. "Let me show you one more trick that I have. It's something that I never used in decades. The last one that made me resort to this was when I was kneeling in defeat in front of the Forsaken."
Her body emitted a dark aura, darker than what she had shown before. The woman laughed maniacally as the dark cloud in front of her swirled into a small vortex, spinning as a figure appeared.
"Gleam Ripper," Malice yelled, grabbing the weapon. It was a long scythe, an eerie weapon that was humming with malevolent power, a weapon forged with nothing but the darkest of the darkness.
The two men in front of her felt a cold shiver run down their spine as they watched the weapon being wielded by the woman. She was powerful, one that knew the limit of her powers from years and centuries of experience.
And based on what she was showing them, she was nowhere near that limit.
Malice could still fight even when Elliot and Lance call for more people. She has the power and strength to fight non-stop for days- even weeks.
"Hoisted by tragedy, forged by the hands of the weeping," Malice chanted. "Weapon of mass destruction, born from chaos and cataclysm. Allow me to wield your strength and bless me with your unaltering spite. Give me your never-ending hatred to destroy the ones who try to stop me. Ripper of life, ripper of heavens, ripper of eternity. Guide my way."
The woman finished her chant and a surge of power exploded from her weapon. The woman laughed as she clenched her entire strength to hold on to it, letting everything around her be blown away.
"What is this power?!" Lance growled. "This is nothing I have ever seen before. I could never imagine her to have this."
"This is ways stronger than us," Elliot whispered. "But we are not done yet. We're not going to lose."
"I love your will. But that's not enough."
Without warning, Malice struck, her scythe slicing through the air with blinding speed. With only his courage, Elliot met the scythe with his sword. He used multiple layers of – to match Malice's strength.
But it wasn't enough. Malice overpowered him without even a second thought. The woman pierced through Elliot's defenses, striking through his sword.
"Elliot!" Lance yelled when his friend was blown away by the impact. He growled and dashed forward, unknowingly meeting the same fate as his friend.
Malice stepped to the side, waiting for Lance to reach her. She used the pommel of the strike to bash Lance on the back, causing the boy to land on the ground with a crater of his form.
"The both of you thought that with everything you have, you could come near my power," Malice said. "But you're both wrong. I am at a level that training could reach, a level where pacts are important because you already sold your soul. I am where the Absolutes fear. They fear that I am going to surpass them and kill them all. And they should be scared.
Because once I am done with you, they are going to die next."
'Make a pact? Use 50 years of your life to gain power that surpasses all beings in existence.'
Elliot listened to the voice of the system. Malice's words seemed to have triggered a hidden figure. It was like this when Elliot faced the cannibalistic lions when he just started being an Adventurer. The system would feed him to become stronger. A
After all, he was its host. It would give him everything that it has just so he could live and do what it pleases.
"You're the sixth idiot in our gang," Elliot chuckled. "Give me the damn pact."
'Prophecy blockage.'
"Damn you!" Elliot growled and sat up. Shaking his head to forgot that he even heard of the system. It was toying with him. "You hyped me up for nothing."
"I'm still here!" Malice yelled, suddenly appearing behind Elliot. The boy gasped, immediately dodging the deadly slash of the scythe. He distanced himself from Malice, grunting when he felt a sheer pain ring from his stomach.
The boy looked down to see a large wound on his belly. He groaned when the pain seethed through him, making him fall to his knees. "What in the hell was that? The blade didn't meet me."
When he saw Malice nearing him, he couldn't help but force his pain back and stand. He raised his sword, knowing that he wouldn't survive another impact.
"This is where your story ends," Malice smirked, swinging her scythe.
"Immaterialized Black and White Slash!" Lance arrived barely on time. He used his powers to parry the attack, gritting his teeth to block the attack with all his might. With a deep breath, he let his energy flow into his swords and greeted all of Malice's follow-up strikes.
"Stay focused, Elliot!" Lance yelled. Elliot wanted to argue due to his pain, only to stop himself when he saw the large hole in Lance's back. Blood splatting as he blocked each attack from the enemy. "Don't just stand there!"
Elliot nodded, his determination renewed. With a roar, he unleashed a slurry of powerful strikes, each one aimed to pierce through Malice's defenses. Even with thousands of layers of his Reckless Faith, Malice was evading with terrifying efficiency.
As their swords clashed, their blades blurred through the air, seemingly appearing all at once at the same time.
Lance recovered his strength from the momentary distraction of Elliot. He covered his wounds with some of his energy while focusing some on healing them. He was scared by how much power the scythe had. Elliot wasn't hit but his abdomen was cut, he was hit by a pommel on his back and it bore a hole.
"What should we do against her?" Lance gritted his teeth, shaking his thoughts as he entered the battlefield once more. "We just have to do what we have to do."
As the three continued to launch attacks on each other, a figure hovered a few miles away from them. He watched in pure intent, trying to determine the course of the fight.
He boasted a tall physique, standing over seven feet tall. His body was broad and the white draping cloth hung over his shoulder.
"The Black Queen against two of the Chosen," the man chuckled. "And the five beasts have rampaged the Kings. What will happen to this world if these people continue? I wonder."