Chapter 323: Humbled

Moby inwardly smiled at himself, he was expecting such an answer. After all, Nags had the exact same reaction when faced with his sin mode. And, just like everyone else, seeing a shalker incited some sort of primal hatred towards them. All humans were affected by them in some way and were taught to hate them out the womb more than anything else in the world. And, Kai was no different, proof from all the power he was receiving from his emotions. 

"You! You're no fucking hero! You were with those fuckers! YOU FOOLED EVERYONE! This… This is insane… I-I…"

"You'll what? I'm no Shalker, you can believe what you want. All that you need to know is that I'm gonna beat your ass!"

"Heh… I never expected this might be why my parents liked that place… You understand… That once I'm over with you… Your life is over… And, I ALONE AM GONNA BE THE ONE TO STOP YOU!"

Moby's smile grew even larger. As expected, he was not willing to release his fire tornado and ask for any outside help. He wanted to defeat him all by himself, to reserve all the honour and prestige to him and him alone.

Moby looked up, tightly grasping the hilt of his sword in his hands as he witnessed an enraged Kai lifting his spear up in the air, a massive, perfect sphere of fire hovering over the tip, and several smaller ones floating all around it. The walls of flames previously erected quickly crept up and began moving closer to the center, now giving barely any space for movement.

"SHALKERRR!!" Kai yelled at the top of his voice, his face looking like a red, frenzied mess as he launched all of his charged-up attacks all at once.

There seemed to be no escape from this eventual barrage of destruction. Yet, as Moby looked up, he did not worry or fear. There was no hesitation in his keen, steady eyes, if anything, he felt abnormally calm and confident. 

He had attempted to use the sword before but never once in sin mode considering he saved it for emergencies and it felt nothing to how he currently felt.

The sword in his hands began to greatly resonate with his will, pulsating a purple, almost distorted aura that Moby had never seen before… Just by wielding that blade in his hands, he felt like a one-man army. It invigorated him more than he could ever remember. It was almost like it was calling him or was fated to be in his hands.

He Readjusted his god slayer and his aura multiplied and grew more and more distorted in the space around it. He needed some way to dodge or bypass all of these incoming attacks in the narrow tunnel of fire and reach his opponent. And, like it was some sort of embedded instinct, he looked at his sword and knew exactly what to do.

He bent his knees and dashed off the ground like a lightning bolt, forming a hole on the terrain underneath his feet and facing the balls of fire head-on with a serious expression focused solely on what lied ahead. 

As he moved closer, he felt his sword and spirit grow in power, and as he was mere inches away, he slashed directly in front of him at an open space. 

*BOOOOOOOOM*

Like massive fireworks, the balls of flame exploded in the air, their power nearly destroying the burning wall surrounding it. The display of power left massive dust of orange smoke in their wake.

A wide grin from ear to ear appeared on Kai's face. Yet, he did not celebrate. More than anyone else, he knew the powers of the Shalker and he was not about to underestimate them. Even still, there was no doubt in his mind that his barrage of attacks connected and managed to do a great deal of damage.

He kept his guard up, spear in hand looking down at the work of his own destruction. There he saw a single body falling to the ground through the smoke. But, with his knowledge, he knew that the body could very well be a clone, so he did not solely focus his attention on it. 

He prowled around the entire area under him, looking for more he might have missed and prepared for the unexpected. But, nothing could have possibly prepared him for what happened next...

Out in front of him was an explosion of void that turned into some sort of pulsating ripple in time and space, as though someone had cleaved it clean in half. And, out of that ripple was the winged demonic dragon, his dark aura consuming all, sending cold shivers down his spine, his glowing sword thrust out in front of him and his gaze piercing through the darkness and into his heart. 

He was so bewildered that he did not have time to react, and before he knew it, there was a sword firmly planted into his chest… 

He coughed out a mouthful of blood on his opponent's face and tightly clenched his teeth, regaining his vigour. He did not give up, nor did he waste any time to question what had just happened. His glowing eyes turned bloodshot, and his aura exploded, focusing solely on the eyes of his opponent. 

And, using all the power he had left, he manipulated the still-raging firewalls all around him into sharp, streams of fire-like spears and launched them straight at the shalker without him noticing. But, even if he did notice, there was nothing he could do to stop them at such close proximity and from all sid-

"WHAAAAA!!" Kai could absolutely not believe his eyes as he coughed buckets more of blood from the glowing sword in his chest. 

The flurry of attacks he had just incited were now all blocks of purple ice, frozen mere centimetres away from his body…

The calm yet raging tornado of flames all around him began to slowly disappear, revealing itself to the outside world. Yet, his opponent allowed no such thing to happen, as he replaced it with a dome of his own blackend pure demon energy. 

That was when Kai gave up all hope, and his eyes became blurry, the sword thrust out of his chest as he dropped on the ground like a ragdoll, going out of his spirit mode and causing cracks on the ground below… 

His body felt like jello, that purple energy in his body did more damage than to just his chest… His bones felt brittle, his energy was non-existent.

Not in a million years did he imagine himself in such a pathetic state.

Many thoughts were suppressed in his mind as a single thought overtook all of his senses… SURVIVE. 

Tears ran down his face, the heavy snot coming out of his nose mixed with the blood from his coughs and drools turning them a disgusting red. 

With all of his might, he tried to force his body to crawl to the edge of the dome of black, using his teeth when needed, it was to the point that he was left with no teeth and was forced to slither like a worm.

Still, despite all of his efforts, it was all for not, a pathetic, non-existent hope he forced upon himself to escape his dreadful reality.

The figure of his own demise swooped right in front of him… And instinctively, he looked up to gaze upon its shadowy, demonic face, its gaze down on him like a hawk scouting its defenceless prey, ready to tear it to shreds. 

A faint whisper was seen from his disgusting, toothless face, begging for the life he had… the life where he was chosen to lead above all else… Yet, he did not hold any pride in those words, that had no meaning or value to him now... All he had was only pure desperation, and a sudden fear looking at what was soon to be his own fate. 

"Pelllleassse… ssshparrre meeee…" 

But he received no answer… At least not one he expected… His opponent simply crouched down to his level with a serious face and spoke in a near otherworldly voice, a small smile appearing towards the end of his speech…

"There shall be no salvation for the likes of you… You are a mere stepping stone for my path to power… But, I can promise you safe refuge for the time being…" He smiled, and slowly placed his hands on his forehead. "Now, stare into my eyes and all will be okay…"