Chapter 361: Greed Descends
Swoosh!
Damian vanished from where he stood.
To Hagrid, it was as though the world itself skipped a frame. One moment Damian stood several dozen meters away. The next, he was already within arm’s reach.
Without hesitation, Hagrid threw a desperate punch with his remaining left arm. The fist tore through the air with enough force to shatter reinforced concrete, yet Damian merely tilted his body slightly to the side. The attack missed him by mere inches.
His expression never changed.
Almost lazily, Damian reached out and grabbed Hagrid’s wrist. Before Hagrid could react, Damian planted one foot firmly against his chest and pulled.
Rip!
The entire arm tore free from Hagrid’s shoulder in a gruesome spray of black blood. Flesh ripped apart, tendons snapped violently and fragments of bone spun through the air as the severed limb remained firmly in Damian’s grasp.
"Aaaah!"
Hagrid’s agonized scream echoed throughout the parish grounds.
Inside the church, Clara instinctively covered her eyes and turned her head away, unable to bear the horrifying sight.
Was he really planning to murder his own brother in law?
She understood why Damian wanted him dead. Hagrid had stalked her, manipulated events from the shadows and tried to kidnap her. Even so, the man was still Hazel’s elder brother. His death would undoubtedly complicate things between Damian and Hazel.
Before she could gather her thoughts...
Bam!
The massive parish doors burst open. Clara quickly lowered her hands to watch as Hagrid staggered out of the church, black blood continuously pouring from both shoulders as he struggled to remain upright. His body lurched from side to side while the severed arms slowly regenerated. New flesh crept outward from the torn sockets, but the regeneration was painfully slow.
Behind him Damian calmly walked out of the church. There was no urgency in his steps, he simply followed. Each measured footstep echoed across the courtyard like the tolling of a funeral bell.
Outside, the world had become strangely silent.
Around the parish, dozens upon dozens of civilians lay asleep exactly where they had been moments earlier. Some remained slumped across park benches. Others rested peacefully inside their vehicles with their heads against the steering wheels. Several worshippers were still kneeling on the ground, only now they slept as though the deepest exhaustion had overtaken them.
The thick white mist stretched for miles in every direction.
Within it, transparent crimson barrier plates quietly formed one after another high above the streets, rooftops and sky. Every step Damian took caused another mirror-like panel to materialize somewhere within the expanding mist, steadily sealing the entire battlefield away from the outside world.
The feeling of death remained directly behind Hagrid. Unable to endure it any longer, he abruptly turned around.
His furious gaze met Damian’s emotionless eyes. Damian briefly shifted his attention elsewhere. His eyes settled upon the black SUV parked outside the church.
Inside Lith remained seated behind the steering wheel. His body no longer moved. His head rested lifelessly against the horn while dried black blood trickled from his nose.
The demon had likely been the first person to discover Hagrid’s arrival and he had paid for it with his life.
Damian slowly returned his gaze to Hagrid.
"You came into my world... You killed my subordinate. Then you attempted to take my woman."
Damain’s eyes became frighteningly cold.
"Regardless of who you are to my wife you will pay the ultimate price."
Hagrid’s frown deepened. How dare a mere human pass judgment upon him?
"You think this is over?" Hagrid growled like a wounded beast. "You actually believe I’ve lost?"
Damian offered no answer. Words had become meaningless. He simply leaned forward slightly.
Swoosh!
His body blurred as he charged. Every instinct screamed that this attack carried only one purpose; to take Hagrid’s head.
"LAZARUS!"
The desperate roar shook the battlefield.
Buzz!
Damian abruptly halted his advance. His instincts flared violently.
A pillar of brilliant golden lightning descended from the heavens without warning, striking Hagrid directly before Damian could close the final distance.
Boom!
Golden light engulfed Hagrid’s entire body and the violent radiance forced Damian to leap backward instinctively. He landed several meters away while narrowing his eyes toward the blinding pillar.
He recognized that presence.
It was the same exhausted yet terrifying aura he had encountered for the first time today. As the golden light faded, Hagrid slowly raised his head.
His entire body had changed.
Bulging veins pulsed beneath his skin like living rivers of molten gold. Every heartbeat sent brilliant golden light surging through them until even his eyes abandoned their crimson color, glowing instead with an ancient golden radiance.
His posture had also changed. Gone was the savage beast driven by wounded pride. Now he stood with perfect composure and elegance.
Damian couldn’t explain it but he could tell while the body before him still belonged to Hagrid. But it had become possessed by someone else.
"I can’t reach you with my true body because of Sol."
The voice that emerged from Hagrid’s mouth no longer belonged to him. It carried Lazarus’ calm indifference.
"I can only kill you through this method. Even so, a demigod’s body can contain a God’s soul for no longer than three minutes before collapsing completely."
Standing upon Damian’s shoulder, Rin’s expression became unusually serious. To think Hagrid would willingly surrender his own body and invite Lazarus into it simply to survive...
Even Rin hadn’t predicted such a move. Yet the more he considered it, the more logical it became.
Sol had restricted the direct intervention of the other Princes upon Earth. This technically wasn’t direct intervention.
Lazarus himself had not descended. Only his consciousness had.
The body remained that of a demigod, meaning the power unleashed would never exceed the world’s limitations. Even if Sol discovered it, there was little justification for interfering.
However a God controlling a demigod’s body and a demigod controlling his own body were two entirely different concepts.
Damian slowly smiled.
"So the question is whether you can defeat me in less than three minutes."
Snap!
[False World Created]
Immediately, crimson barrier plates rapidly expanded throughout the mist, weaving together into an enormous mirrored prison that isolated everything within.
Lazarus watched the formation calmly. He made no attempt to interfere.Damian immediately understood why.
Lazarus wasn’t interested in escaping. Neither was he concerned about the collapsing body. For the next three minutes, only one thing mattered.
Whether the Prince of Greed could kill the Prince of Lust before time itself claimed his borrowed vessel.
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