bookpower Chapter 230: The Price of victory
Chapter 230: The Price of victory
"I will not allow you to save him, Lorem. Honoured Royal Knight and Divine Bird, whom holds my admiration."
Siegfried looked solemn as Asura struggled against the fetters binding him, feelings of anger and murderous intent filling his soul as the whispers and darkness of Azoth continued to sound inside his mind.
'This man will kill our loved ones. We must stop him, Asura.'
"I will not permit you to harm him, even if it means cutting short my eternal lifespan!"
While Lorem was ready to fight Siegfried, Asura himself sensed a strange sensation. Asura hadn't heard his past selves speak before, and this was the first time one of his past lives had communicated with him directly.
However, this might have been a sign that the cultivation technique itself had broken the user. Like a piece of glass smashed into nine parts, that was the true form of his technique: nine plumes, nine selves.
A soul shattered into nine.
"Then let me become a phoenix slayer along with a dragon slayer!"
'Step by step.'
'Our strength will break these chains, Asura.' (Azoth)
'We are one.' (Unknown Voice 1)
'We are many.'
'We are the one who devours.'
The thoughts caused Asura an intense headache, the mixture of eight voices speaking at once, and the feeling that somebody hid something powerful inside his soul.
A darkness that even he couldn't see made him frustrated and angry. Although he could feel they were all himself, Asura would never let them take his life or body.
'I am the one—you are the many. Follow my desires, or I will shatter and discard you!'
Asura awoke from the clash of Lorem and Siegfried, their blades flickering with many elements. Siegfried used earth, wind and water like they were parts of his body, and Lorem used wind and fire like an ancient legend.
"Don't think for a second I would lose to you!"
Siegfried's roar caused the earth to shake. As he swung his blade, a three-foot stone spear appeared behind his back, causing the earth beneath his feet to crumble and crack before the three-foot stone spike shot towards Lorem at full speed.
With a single thought, Lorem's aura exploded, her wind affinity's power enabling her to leap high into the air, her wings flapping while Asura felt a sense of dread from the high-level clash because the next stone pillar shot towards him, not Lorem!
"!?"
His eyes widened as the huge rock approached, and his legs began moving on their own. The chains that bound him shattered. Siegfried's desire to kill him outweighed his desire to stop Lorem.
"Enough!"
"You bastard!?" Lorem exclaimed before diving towards the pillar, with Siegfried's blade chasing down her back.
In an instant, Asura's foot slammed into the ground and launched him upwards and over the stone spike, causing it to miss his body by a hair's breadth. As he landed on top of the stone spike, his body shifted to the left, his foot left. A battle instinct he hadn't possessed before overtook him.
The next moment, Asura's body landed on the ground before his body twisted and drew his blade, slashing with everything he had, the flash of silver covered in black lightning colliding with the blade aimed at Lorem's wings.
"How!?"
Siegfried's eyes widened before he stepped back, his blade deflected by Asura's strength. Though he'd seen that his mana surpassed the boys by a huge amount, Asura's physical power felt like a terrifying entity at the moment they clashed.
"Asura!"
Lorem landed beside him, her lips kissing him as thanks for saving her from being wounded, while Asura tried to hide the fact that cracks and wounds covered his entire damaged left arm that bled underneath his armour.
'Thank you.'
"..." (Azoth)
'What's wrong?'
'It's nothing. The master shard is a little strange, thanking us for protecting our own body.' (Unknown soul shard)
'Fool... it's because he could protect her.' (Azoth)
"No. You will not take my husband!"
Lorem gripped Asura's waist and flew away while Siegfried swung his blade in anger; her body froze for a moment as her lips filled with flames, and she spat a huge billowing fire at the old man's attack.
'Lorem, we should fight... If you keep trying to save me, you might get hurt. Azoth... whoever is in there, give me the strength to at least resist his blade.'
'You will suffer. Once this battle ends, you will be in a period of recovery if I help you. Are you sure?' (Azoth)
'My recovery would be faster anyway and if you gave me the power to at least resist his blade, I won't be dead weight.'
The moment she spread her wings, parrying his blade, hundreds of scarlet plumes shot into Siegfried's body, causing him to become like a pincushion; the plumes then ignited with a devastating flame that exploded in an enormous dome, burning his skin and muscles.
"Enough!" Siegfried roared, his blade piercing forward as it sucked the flames in before he raised his blade and cut a line across Lorem's beautiful eyes, blinding her before she could dodge.
—Manifestation Arch Devil King of the Abyss
*Clang*
A black hand with enormous claws stopped the blade as the flames sizzled, yet the hand seemed unaffected.
"Finally, you released your true self! Devil! I suppose I will have to make this quick."
Siegfried's voice sounded cold, yet with a hint of respect and sorrow, like someone forced to slay a family member.
"Foolish mortal, you forget who gave you everything."
A cold voice filled the battlefield as Asura's mouth opened, yet the voice seemed to come from everywhere as his body struggled to move. The devil's arm held Siegfried's blade. "I will take back what is mine, human child."
"My life and body are mine and mine alone. Devils will not rule me."
Asura's eyes narrowed as his devil arm, filled with pale white runes, grasped the old man's left arm, and sucked the strange aura that Azoth called devil aura while Siegfried's blade penetrated his chest. There wasn't some magical power that would let Asura beat a Stage 10 in battle, instead he could only weaken him for Lorem to defeat.
"Knight Lorem."
Siegfried raised his left hand towards Lorem and seemed to be about to snap his fingers when Asura's devil arm tore away the energy it wanted from his arm, leaving a blazing red mark on his skin that caused him to bellow in pain.
Asura fell backwards, reverting from the distorted black shadow with only visible arms because he lacked the understanding and power to take this manifestation.
"Ah!?"
Lorem only saw Asura's bloody chest falling from Siegfried's blade. The attack that should have killed or blinded her instead hurt Asura. His chest, with a gaping hole and recessed from the earlier blows, caused her mind to collapse.
"Y-You.... Asura?"
Her face transformed into many shapes, guilt, grief, pain, agony, and disbelief as she rushed to his side; because Siegfried lost his devil powers and killed Asura, he lowered his guard, watching the pitiful woman cry as she returned to her humanoid form, or rather a perfect fusion, with beautiful plumes within her hair, lovely red wings and sharp nails like claws.
'Don't cry, he missed my heart...'
Asura wanted to say, but the blood continued to pool from his lips. As she tried scooping it up with her lips and pushing it back into his throat with her tongue, the scarlet eyes of Lorem filled with tears as her body became hotter each moment her temperature increased by ten degrees Celsius.
"Forgive me..." Lorem's face returned to a calmness; her cheeks flushed like the maiden in love she was before she lifted Asura's head and placed it on her thighs.
"Everything can end. If there is no Asura, let this village be his grave and make it all burn."
Lorem's face changed once more into a calm smile as she lifted Asura and kissed his lips before a tornado of flames exploded from their bodies.
Her wings burned and transformed into a huge vortex of fire and wind, sucking in every source of air around her before Siegfried finally realised the danger he was in and rushed forward. But without his devil's arm, it was impossible.
"Why don't you just die?"
The moment Siegfried's pressure shot out towards Lorem's flames, his eyes widened in surprise before his feet as she just gave him a single look of detest, hatred and loathing, as if she were glaring at him while calling him scum before her flames exploded into an inferno, forcing him to use everything he had to defend.
Asura's consciousness finally returned when Lorem's flames enveloped the entire village, burning the earth, the air and even the fluids into nothingness.
"Lore—mgh..."
Asura tried to speak before the huge inferno faltered for a moment. Her eyes looked down, leaning towards his chest, when she heard it.
"Two heartbeats... two hearts!?"
"You live!?"
Lorem's flames became berserk with joy at the idea Asura lived, her hands touching his chest and then his cheek before Asura realised why Siegfried had failed to kill him.
However, this lapse of focus allowed the old man to escape with half his body severely burnt; he watched the young phoenix and the evil he failed to slay and could only retreat because Barbatos and the primary unit were returning from the false assault report.
"This is bad..." Asura's voice finally returned to normal as his right hand wiped the blood from his lips while his left hand groped Lorem's cheek.
"Oh, thank goodness. Nothing is bad. You are alive!"
"No, if you keep being this captivating, I might fall for you."
"Idiot!"
Darkness covered Asura's eyes, blocking his sight.
However, only the image of Lorem became clear and beautiful. Her flames melted his dark feelings and his horrible feelings away, and that is why he called her captivating.
Asura knew that to avoid death, he had taken a different, darker, and more corrupt path than the one he had taken before.
Yet, to survive and avoid Lorem getting hurt, he didn't care.