The fight went up a notch as Xezbeth started to move seriously this time around.
The two of them fought in the air, on the ground, and even sometimes underground, destroying everything in their way and basically annihilating the whole foundation of the land they were standing and fighting upon.
"Do not falter! Pray for the messenger of our god. Give him your utmost Faith."
Even as the fight was going on, Kang Ho managed to get back his bearings and gather back the believers to support the devil.
These were not empty words that he spoke of. Even though they were only pitiful ants in front of the Celestial Supernatural creatures, some godly entities who used Faith to ascend would become stronger through the direct application of faith and the wishes of their believers.
Kang Ho did not know who the bastard was that just came to this place and dared to fight the messenger of the Devil himself…
But he did know that if he was caught by the hunters and brought to the tribunal, his destiny would be something even worse than death.
He had given up too much and made way too many sacrifices for him to only stop here and now.
He needed to succeed, nay, he would succeed. No matter what happened, this would only end in his win. He would make sure of that possibility.
———
While Kang Ho was doing his best to help the devil of lies win this battle, Adam was also slowly but surely being cornered by Xezbeth's onslaught.
At the end of the day, the difference in stats between them was even more brutal than what he expected initially.
For every one hit Adam could send to the devil, Xezbeth could send three with even more force than what he could hope to deliver with his abilities…
Adam was more human than anything else and was thus limited by his human body. He needed to avoid nearly any and all attacks coming from Xezbeth to avoid being put down instantly.
Meanwhile, even when Adam landed a solid hit, Xezbeth barely twitched, acting as if he could not even feel a tickle when getting hit by Adam's strikes.
He would sometimes avoid the projectiles that were thrown at him or would tank them with his body and come out completely unscathed from that bout.
This only led to the scenario of, even as time passed, Adam becoming more and more bloody as small wounds accumulated throughout his body.
Meanwhile, the slightest of wounds that he could barely be able to make on Xezbeth's body would instantly regenerate due to the monstrous being's inhuman healing factor.
"Give up already, mortal. You cannot hope to win against me."
'I need holy power.'
Adam clenched his teeth but soon relaxed after taking a deep breath of the calming cigarette smoke.
Now was not the time for him to use that trump card. He was being pushed back with little effort by that messenger of hell and while he was able to slightly keep up with him after exhausting nearly all of his abilities bar his trump cards, Adam knew that this would not be enough for him to land a decisive hit on the insufferable creature.
'One deadly blade.'
Boom~!
A shockwave filled the air as Xezbeth's punch landed on Adam's psychic shield.
Boom~! Boom~! Boom~! Boom~!
What followed suit was a flurry of hits with such speed that it gave the impression of hundreds of hits being delivered simultaneously in the span of less than a second.
Crack~!
In the end, after one last mighty Swing of his fist, Adam's barrier was unable to support the power of the devil and instantly shattered into pieces.
The power behind the hit was enough to send him straight down in the direction of the altar.
Wooosh~
Using the momentum to his advantage at the last moment, Adam barely managed to avoid the destiny of being squashed into meat paste when he landed.
"This is getting complicated."
He hated this feeling of having so little he could do despite his overwhelming amount of skills and possibilities.
He was about to fly again and fight against Xezbeth when he finally realized something.
"Ah…"
There was the corpse of a woman next to him. A corpse that he was barely able to notice in all the turmoil.
If this was just a corpse of an average woman, he would not have even paid it any attention. Well, not in the dire state that he was in. His aversion would've been amplified since the body of the woman was in quite a bad state.
But when his gaze landed on the face of the woman, Adam's mind paused and all of his cognitive abilities shut down at the same time.
"Ah…"
Where was Hae-Won?
Adam did not think too much about this initially. Most likely Kang Ho had not brought her for the ritual, was what he believed.
That was normal, right?
But now… He understood…
Kang Ho had indeed brought Hae-Won with him.
—and she was now dead. In one of the most gruesome ways possible, she had been killed in this place.
And it was all because of him…
"You are distracted."
It was too late for Adam to react to the voice. In more ways than one, he was physically unable to react. By the time he registered the devil's words, Xezbeth's hand, shining with a powerful light, was already right in front of his face.
"It seems like that woman was someone important to you. Then you just have to accompany her."
Light flashed and a huge part of Adam's torso was cleanly erased, creating a donut-shaped hole. Blood did not even spurt as the wounds were closed by the scalding heat of the energy wave.
In the end, the body kneeled before falling helplessly and lifelessly, eerily close to the lifeless body of Hae-Won. Ironically, their posture in such a way that made it seem like they were looking at each other even in death.
And with that… Adam died for the first time in this fight… Laying alongside the woman he partially drove to her demise.
———
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m