Chapter 161: Uroboros Must Die
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The berserk Fenrir and the embodiment of Uroboros continued an intense fight. Both titanic beasts were tearing each other apart into pieces. Fenrir held greater speed and power, while Uroboros had endless stamina and the ability to regenerate without end. Both were locked in an intense battle, but it seemed like the black wolf was slowly losing!
“Don’t you dare lose, Jack!”
Frost emerged out of Baihe’s hands, covering half of the Embodiment of Uroboros’ body and freezing it in place. The black wolf used this opportunity to attack it, biting one of its many necks, tearing apart its head, devouring it, and swallowing it.
CRASH!
Uroboros retaliated by biting the wolf’s neck with its many smaller heads, injecting paralyzing venom. Fenrir attacked back with its claws, imbued with abyssal flames. The titans kept biting and clawing at one another, and while Baihe’s frost kept Uroboros in place, Henrietta, Sara, and Kevin coordinated their attacks.
“Just die already, bastard!”
Kevin’s Divine Light Spear attacked Uroboros at lightning speed. He targeted the wounds Fenrir had already inflicted, infusing them with his holy light.
“Jack, just hang in there!”
Henrietta’s blade resonated with her powers, and combined with her Anti-Mana, she cut down two heads out of Uroboros, temporarily inhibiting their regeneration.
“Hah!”
Sara duplicated herself into a dozen specters, attacking Uroboros' whole body and covering it with phantasmal flames. The knife that Anna had given her, made out of Bael, was very effective.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
With all those attacks raining down on Uroboros, any person watching the scene would believe the beast would soon die.
But that wasn’t the case for such a powerful entity; the embodiment of Archdemons were beings that could easily surpass the power level of S Rank Monsters.
“Pathetic vermin… Your attempts are utterly pitiable. But I am not a being that can be easily defeated… Not even by this RABID DOG!”
Uroboros laughed out loud, swinging its tails against everyone and sweeping them away with a mighty whipping attack.
CLASH!
At the same time, new heads popped up from its monstrous, serpentine body, biting and tearing apart more of Fenrir’s body. Blood splattered everywhere; Uroboros was feasting on him!
“AWROOO!”
Fenrir furiously howled back, firing beams of darkness from its jaws, while its endless domain of shadows attempted to submerge Uroboros within!
However…
“RUBBISH!”
Uroboros released a mighty shockwave of Crimson Devouring Force; more than 90% of the domain of shadows disappeared in that instant, while countless biting marks appeared over Fenrir’s body.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
“AARRGH…!”
The wolf gave out an agonizing weep, while Henrietta screamed Jack’s name.
“NO! JACK!”
She flew directly toward Uroboros but was quickly overwhelmed as countless heads attacked her, firing beams of Devouring Power and slowly eating her Aura.
“Kuhahahaha! Your pathetic attempts are adorable!” Uroboros laughed. “But I have planned this for way too long for me to even lose! Right now, even your little sister, Anna, has already been- GUH?!”
However, before Uroboros could finish saying his words, he felt a sudden pain in his stomach. The stomach he shared with all his vessels because they were mere extensions of his True Cosmic Body.
“ARGH…! What is happening- UGH! BAAARRFG…!”
The giant snake started vomiting from all its heads while stepping back. Its energy suddenly grew incredibly weaker!
“W-What’s going on?!” Henrietta was confused.
“GROOOAARRR!”
Fenrir didn’t waste this opportunity, furiously biting Uroboros and tearing it apart piece by piece. But this wasn’t even the biggest of Uroboros' worries right now. Because within Aim’s Soul Scape, right after swallowing Anna, he was suffering terrible repercussions for his actions.
“W-What’s happening to me?! AARRGHHH…!”
Uroboros kept screaming in agony, while two powerful Authority Fragments inside his stomach started to blow his insides, consuming it all.
“It looks like it’s working.”
Anna was currently floating amidst an endless pool of blood and gastric acids. Her body had now become completely made of steel, which she further enchanted with her Celestial and Demonic Energy, turning it into Chaotic Steel.
Chaotic Steel was an incredibly tough metal, formed out of any metal that could withstand the power of Chaos, which there were only a few! Of course, that rule did not apply to Anna, who had turned her whole body into steel thanks to her Steel Body Skill.
Not even Uroboros could easily digest Chaos itself, even less when he was only an Archdemon proficient in using Demonic Energy. The transformation was depleting her Ki and Mana rapidly, but she could afford some minutes in this state…
“Now…”
Anna smiled, noticing her black gauntlet, which had just released a blast of Abyssal Flames that left Uroboros stomach burning horrendously, was now once again overflowing with Abyssal Energy!
“Oh yes…”
And her crimson armor too, on which she spent all the Blood Energy conjuring Bleeding World, was now overflowing with more Blood Energy once more. Each piece of equipment was already full of their respective energies, and it only took a couple of seconds!
The reason? Floating in this highly corrosive digestive acid that could digest almost anything constantly caused damage to her; even if she was negating it, the damage still counted and accumulated.
“Prepare yourself, worm. You’ve brought this upon yourself.
Anna’s gauntlet’s powers resonated as she merged them with the power of her Armor. She couldn’t merge the abilities of equipment pieces into new Skills through Fusion, but she could still combine their powers to generate a devastating new Spell!
“Abyssal Flames and… Bleeding World…!”
Anna flew out of the digestive acid once both energy reserves were full, using her angelic and demonic wings.
RUMBLE!
The power of the Seamless Abyss combined with the Bleeding Scream, even if they were merely a small fragment of their powers.
They were still Void Rulers.
“{Abyssal Burning Pandemonium}”
A gigantic sphere of crimson and black energies was conjured, it exploded in an instant, consuming everything within Uroboros stomach.
BOOOM!
It felt as if a black hole had opened inside of him. Uroboros was in such a state of agony that he could only scream and vomit blood.
“GRYYAAAAEEEGGGHHH…!”
The other Archdemons and Constellations noticed the state of Uroboros at this moment. Wherever his true body was, he had already manifested himself too much through Lee and Neberius, enough to be considered extensions of his body!
“I-I can’t take this anymore!”
Crack, crack…!
CRASH!
“Stop… STOP!”
Uroboros suddenly saw his own stomach beginning to be torn apart as a black hole emerged inside, his blood and guts splattering everywhere as Anna crawled out of it, covered in them.
“Uroboros, did your mother never tell you to not put in your mouth every single thing you find?”
The powerful Primordial Snake, for the first time through his long life as a Demonic Serpent that embodied one of the fragments of the Endless Cycle, felt fear against a mortal!
“Y-YOU…! W-WHAT… WHAT ARE YOU?!”
“What am I?” Anna asked while absorbing the blood and guts of Uroboros with her crimson armor. “I am that thing you shouldn’t have put in your mouth.”
“H-HYEEEGH!”
Giving a pathetic scream of horror and agony, Uroboros quickly decided to retreat, moving his manifestation barely across Aim’s Soul Scape.
“I need to run away! She’s targeting my own Soul! Where did she get such broken equipment?! Who is backing her?! The Void Rulers themselves?! But that’s BULLSHIT!”
[“Anna! He’s trying to pull out now! Let me cut him into pieces!”]
“Calm down.”
Anna said, turning into lightning as she absorbed the leftovers from Uroboros, her Cosmic Energy suddenly beginning to be regenerated. The blood and flesh of Constellations could, naturally, recover it.
Ding!
[You’ve absorbed the Blood and Flesh of Uroboros.]
[Your Cosmic Energy has been fully recovered.]
[You gained +10 Cosmic Energy.]
[You gained +10 Cosmic Energy.]
[You gained +10 Cosmic Energy.]
[You gained +10 Cosmic Energy.]
[…]
Her Cosmic Energy was constantly growing, which made the little millipede living inside her Cosmic Heart Core finally wake up.
“What is this delicious feeling?! Anna, what did you do now?”
Sepa couldn’t even take a break, and now Anna was already trying to kill another Constellation.
“We’re hunting down the fucking snake; let’s go.”
“Uroboros?! Is that him?!”
Sepa was shaken the moment she saw Uroboros screaming, crying, and running away. Despite how ruthless, mocking, and monstrous he was, Uroboros had a fragile ego and an even more fragile mind. The moment he starts to lose, he panics, loses his cool, and his mind is turned into shambles. Because of his selfishness, he only wants to prioritize his safety.
“Sepa, there’s enough Cosmic Energy again.”
“I know…”
FLASH!
Sepa’s manifested herself within Neberius Soul Scape. Two Constellations at once were already making the entire soul shake, slowly beginning to tear itself apart. Anna and Sepa rushed through it, reaching Uroboros faster than he imagined. To “pull out” his own powers and connection from Neberius, he had to move his manifestation to the very core and crush it, killing Neberius in the process.
But that didn’t look like an easy task now...
Uroboros tried to defend himself, releasing his {Radiance}, but due to his horrendous wound and the black hole still consuming his insides... That didn’t come out as he expected. A million very tiny snakes were summoned, and Sepa smiled, realizing the Uroboros she once feared as a mighty archdemon had finally fallen from grace.
“Who’s the pathetic worm now, huh?!”
She opened her massive jaws, tearing apart the snakes and reaching Uroboros. The two coiling creatures attacked one another, desperate. Uroboros bites were so weak that Sepa’s exoskeleton didn’t even budge. To make things worse, Anna was right around the corner!
“Did you miss me?”
Uroboros only screamed in horror as he saw her approach! She had summoned Gram and Aim as her swords, even in this ethereal world. This was because they also possessed souls of their own. But that wasn’t all; she turned Jeremias into a pair of boots to enhance her movement speed by using his power to skip through space. And she also turned Agares into a third, crimson sword, which she was now wielding with her mouth.
Indeed, she was using a triple-sword-wielding style!
Because in the Soul Scape, there were no limits to a person’s body, she was able to both speak through telepathy and hold a sword with her mouth with ease. Uroboros saw these three swords, noticing two of them being enslaved demons that had been turned into weapons.
The third, however, was one half of the relic that the Heroic Constellation, Sigurd, wielded to slay Fafnir in his own epic, which he lost against the war he held against the Archdemons and Fenrir.
The sword ended up being divided into two halves; one was swallowed by Fenrir, and the other was reclaimed as a prize by Bael, who later descended into a Death Apostle when Leviathan stole his throne.
“Get away from me!”
Uroboros fought with everything he had, even as weakened and sick as he felt. He tried to tear apart Sepa’s exoskeleton, used his Radiance to absorb some of their Aura, and constantly tried to regenerate, although he failed miserably every single time.
Anna didn’t let go of him, always blocking his way while using her three swords at once to cut through his manifestation, weakening him constantly.
At the same time, she unleashed Abyssal Flames and Bleeding World wherever she could, accumulating tremendous damage on him.
As the battle grew in intensity, in the real world outside, everything was being engulfed by Chaos.
Hilda slowly opened her eyes to find the little Shiro healing her wounds, while Dimitri was carrying her on the back of Violet.
“W-What’s going on-”
RUMBLE!
However, her question was quickly interrupted when she saw what was happening. Her eyes widened in surprise and awe.
“That’s happening.”
Dimitri pointed at their side, seeing how the Soul Scape exuding out of Neberius' own body, which was still somewhat alive, was melding with the Demonic Castle’s dimensional structure.
The whole vision could only be described as if two dimensions were clashing against one another, melding together!
This was all because Anna, who was standing right in front of Neberius' dismembered body, was constantly focusing on imbuing her soul and that of her companions inside of the demon’s soul!
The Authority of the Seamless Abyss was way too strong, to the point that it caused ripples in the dimensional structure of the demonic castle.
The only reason Anna wasn’t being penalized by causality was due to the combination of her Hero Title, and the fact that she wasn’t in the outside world but in a dimension made by Beelzebub!
“Anna… Just how ridiculously strong is she?!”
Hilda could see Anna fighting against a titanic crimson snake while the ripples in space continued to expand, countless dimensional cracks opening.
And as this battle continued, Fenrir was battling against the Embodiment of Uroboros that Lee had become, weakened to its limits; it was now being overwhelmed with ease!
“ROOAAARRRGH!”
With a furious roar, Fenrir tore apart the last of the snake’s heads, while Baihe, Sara, Henrietta, and Kevin continued assisting him with damage on the sidelines.
CRASH!
An agonizing scream coming from Uroboros reverberated across the entire demonic castle. Beelzebub’s plans were shattering apart one after another as he saw his entire castle beginning to break!
“N-No…! What’s happening?! This is… Uroboros?! Why is he here?!”
As his manifestation panicked, Heisenberg grabbed a huge black spear resting in front of the walls, his eyes flashing bright red.
“It looks like your little scheme could not hold itself any longer. You’ll have to do with the souls you’ve got.”
“Wait! Heisenberg! You can’t go fight them now!”
“Why not?! We agreed to cooperate together for a single goal, but it feels like you’ve been trying to manipulate me this whole time.”
“That’s not what I mean! Foolish Mortal, Uroboros, and Fenrir are down there. But something even worse is manifesting itself, messing with everything!”
“What?”
“Whatever that girl has conjured... the dimensional cracks! Something is coming here; it is further disrupting everything.”
“Something… else?”
“It is the presence of a Void Ruler...? Somehow that girl has summoned their presence!”
“What?!”
RUMBLE!
The castle could not hold any longer; several parts of it were beginning to shift or fall apart into the city below.
“URGH…! I can’t hold on anymore! And Lee is just about to die too!” Uroboros thought. “I- Huh?!”
Uroboros suddenly noticed that Neberius' Soul Scape was slowly condensing with the dimension of the demonic castle; a chance surged amidst this terrible situation!
“That’s right, not all hope is lost yet! NOT YET!”
The titanic crimson snake attempted to escape through the cracks; Anna, noticing this, persecuted him. Quickly reaching him, she manifested a titanic, thunderous hammer.
“Where do you think you’re going? We’re not done with you yet!” Anna smiled.
“{Mjolnir’s Manifestation}!”
BAAAM!
The strike sent Uroboros flying right back where he came from, his guts splattered everywhere, as Anna bathed her swords in his blood and internal organs. The snake screamed in agony, realizing his fate was now coming.
“{Thousand Blades}: {Absolute Sword Domain}”
Before he could even react, Uroboros was absorbed into a cosmic domain where an endless number of swords constantly pierced his body and soul.
Lee’s body, which had been turned into an aberrant snake, suddenly regrew a head and hissed back at Fenrir, desperately biting his neck, and then parasitizing his soul!
“If I’m going to get killed by that damn brat, I’ll quickly turn this bastard into my new body! I don’t give a fuck about causality anymore! Screw this!”
Fenrir suddenly felt paralyzed, as Henrietta and everyone else saw the giant wolf slowly turn back to Jack, unconscious.
“Jack!”
Henrietta ran towards Jack, holding him in her arms.
“Is he okay?”
“He looks pale…”
Kevin and Baihe arrived at her side, as Henrietta constantly conjured healing magic over Jack’s pale and weakened body.
“He’s… stable, but there’s something odd! His soul… His soul is being attacked!”
“What?!”
FLASH!
“What the…?!”
Fenrir and Jack found themselves within their own Soul Scape, as an endless wave of crimson energy in the shape of millions of snakes was slowly approaching them, attempting to parasitize everything.
“Uroboros, you bastard! Are you planning to go against casualty and attempt to forcefully take over Jack?!” Fenrir grew furious.
“That’s… your nemesis, Uroboros?!” Jack asked.
“He’s somehow really weakened, though; he’s desperate!” Fenrir barked. “This is probably the only opportunity we’ll ever have, but... Let’s kill him!”
“Kill a Constellation? Is that actually possible?!” Jack asked.
“Now it is, thanks to whoever is weakening him to this extent!” Fenrir laughed. “Now, Jack, let’s become one!”
FLASH!
Jack and Fenrir’s minds became one, their Ethereal Avatars quickly becoming giant black werewolves, rushing towards Uroboros. Accompanying him was a gigantic sea of shadows, which clashed against the crimson sea of snakes.
CLASH!
RUMBLE!
As these two battles against Uroboros unfolded, Beelzebub tried to make sense of everything that was happening.
“Uroboros’ Cosmic Presence is weakening constantly,” he thought. “Is his demise approaching?”
Suddenly, a smile surged on his insectoid jaws.
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