385 Locked Into A Stuggle

Before, the monster had only looked somewhat surreal.

Now, however, its appearance was so bizarre to behold, if it starred in a movie back on Earth, that movie would be rated 'R' and possess a 'parental discretion advisable' warning. Its current appearance was not something the visual effects in B-movies could hope to achieve.

"Oh! Now, this is a body I would call 'perfection'!" The monster said, but its voice was no longer as regal and commanding as a god's. Instead, it now spoke in the cunning manner known to demons. Baiyi could almost smell the stench of demons' breath from the monster. Only demons would appreciate the monster' grotesque look. 

"Hmm… Why do I still feel that something is stopping it from being flawless?" The monster mumbled. It suddenly did something that shocked Baiyi. It used its huge palms to clutch its head, the only part of its body still made of wood, and crushed it to pieces, making it look as skinless as a Nuckelevee.

After that, a black mass of muscle began to ooze out from the stump in its neck. The thick strands of black mass wriggled grotesquely, forming a disgusting-looking head. The head only contained two gigantic eyes, whose pupils were slits, like those of reptiles. The aura emanating from the pupils were maleficient.

'Okay, are you cosplaying as a Minion, or as Sauron?' Baiyi quipped in his mind.

The Devil Walker suddenly exclaimed, "Those eyes! If I'm not mistaken, only the Abyss Lord Molocchus possess them! The Abyss Lord's original body is a bug-eyed monster, and almost all its powers come from its eyes. I've faced that bastard before and suffered a little scratch in the scuffle; this is why those eyes were burned into my memory."

"Oh, please don't tell me that those pupils can change their shapes into three tomoe bound by a circle, or the pattern of a pinwheel, or maybe a ripple pattern?" Quite obviously, Baiyi did not feel threatened, so he just spilled more pop culture references. "So, what are their powers? Illusions? Black flames that cannot be put out? Death gaze?"

"Of course, it can dish out illusions! How else would it have been able to fool so many mortals into offering their power to it? Nevertheless, none of those will work on you, for no matter how good it is at illusions, it can never best the Charlatan Walker, who is here with us in the Void. Plus, there are no such things as lethal illusions in this world, unlike that anime on your Earth. Molocchus certainly did not become an Abyss Lord using tricks like these!" The Devil Walker said. "Also, isn't there a better time to crack jokes?"

"Look, you really shouldn't underestimate this slimy, cunning bastard; it's much harder to defeat than Thaas. Not only has it siphoned a lot of power from humans over the years, but it now has this diety-like body and powers, enough for it to be called a heretical god!" The Devil Walker warned Baiyi, who seemed unrattled by the appearance of the Devil Walker's old acquaintance.

"Pssh. All I hope for is that this guy lasts a little longer than the last one," Baiyi said, and a long black spear appeared in his hand. He thrust it right at one of the skinless monster's gigantic eyes. 

The skinless monster waved its hand casually — same way Baiyi casts common magic spells — and the Voidspear, which was made from Void Energy, instantly dissipated.

Heretofore, these blades were known to be indestructible, but yet here they were, crumbling after a casual wave from the skinless monster!

Baiyi was in no mood to make any more quips. It had taken only a casual wave for his current opponent to prove itself more troublesome than Thaas. Furthermore, the skinless monster's movement was fluid and natural — a stark contrast to the Gundam-like monster's movement, which was stiffer than Gundams back on Earth. This was enough to show that the skinless monster's current pilot controlled the creature far better than the previous pilot, who claimed to be Nature God, did.

Suddenly, the current pilot, Abyss Lord Molocchus, decided to try reasoning with Baiyi. "There's no need to rush into a brawl, eh, Messenger of Space? We're not enemies; in fact, we could be allies working towards the same cause."

"Oh, yea? Convince me," Baiyi replied and clasped his hands at his back, secretly constructing the hidden formation he had used once before.

"I am the Demon Lord of the Endless Abyss. You may know me as Molocchus!" The monster bellowed. "I watched your duel with the Nature God. The power of darkness you wield is the same power that the Church forbade a long time ago, correct? If I'm not mistaken, someone from the Church's branch in this realm should be rushing over here as we speak."

Baiyi smirked scornfully. "So what?"

"You and I are existences no mortal can contain, so why don't we join forces and conquer these lower-level beings?" The Abyss Lord directly offered. "Your power and mine combined will be unstoppable! The whole world will tremble before our alliance! Conquering the world will be easier than playing a child's game!"

Baiyi immediately shook his head sideways. "Meh. I'll pass."

"Heheheh! Are you afraid of that mysterious War God?" Molocchus asked. "I know you're his Messenger, but believe me on this: no matter what he has gifted you, I can do just as much; ten times more, even! If we join forces, even gods would not be able to harm us. His petty retribution will be of no concern to you.

"When we have the world at our feet, these mortals will no longer consider you a taboo. No, you'll be seen as a new god! You'll have everything, including as many beautiful little girls as you want!" Molocchus continued, believing that he had pinpointed Baiyi's secret desires. When Baiyi continued to stay silent, Molocchus concluded with a threat. "This is the most sincere offer I can give you. It's the first…and the last."

Only fools tried to tempt or threaten the Fifth Voidwalker, however.

"Didn't you hear me? I told you that I'm not bloody interested! I am not interested in conquering the world or being buddies with you," Baiyi coldly replied. "Seriously, even if I wanted to conquer the world, I would never need a teammate, and even I did, it would not be you demons; I can't f*cking stand your odor!"

"Fine, then. Consider the offer retracted. You have made a sworn enemy out of me," Molocchus quietly muttered. It reached Baiyi in an instant, and then it slammed its palms together, as though it intended to smash Baiyi like a bug.

Despite the skinless monster's fluid movement, to the agile Baiyi, the attack was still much too slow. He easily sidestepped the attack and retaliated with a few bolts of black lightning.

It was at this point that the formation behind him was fully constructed. After sidestepping the enemy's attack, a black light shot out of the formation, accompanying the black bolts of lightning towards their target.

However, both attacks failed to do any damage to the monster. The skinless monster did not both erecting any magic shields to protect itself, as the Nature God had done before. It just stood there and receive Baiyi's attacks, one after the other, incurring no damage whatsoever.

'Well, it looks like certain attacks are now ineffective Seriously, which idiot Voidwalker in the R&D department came up with Voidbeam? When has this technique ever been useful?!'

Previously, when the skinless monster used a casual wave to stop a Voidspear, Baiyi thought that the Law of Power had somehow gained control of Void Energy. To him, such a development would put him in a lot of trouble.

However, after firing off a few more attacks, Baiyi was relieved to find that he had been wrong. Molocchus had used Holy Power to fend off Baiyi's Void Energy attacks. The Abyss Lord, who had a more fluid control over the body, had erected an invisible shield over the monster. When Baiyi fired off the back bolts of lightning and the black beam — attacks much stronger than Voidspear — he saw ripples and faint white halos appear momentarily inches before the monster's skin. Their appearances were just too subtle to notice.

Baiyi had no idea how he would overpower the Abyss Lord. Its reservoir of Holy Power was too much, and it was too strong for his Void Energy techniques to penetrate except for one: the technique he had used to defeat the Divine Leather suit. The problem with that spell was that it required a long time to build up; this was an opportunity that the enemy would never give him.

Furthermore, the monster seemed to have more Holy Power within it than the Divine Bodysuit had. Baiyi also could not draw out much more energy from Mia, despite Laeticia supporting her.

Baiyi did notice something strange about the skinless monster, and he could not tell whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. Despite possessing a deep reservoir of Holy Power, the skinless monster did not perform incredible techniques befitting it. All it did was charge at Baiyi, trying its best to slap him around.

As a result of this, the fight was locked in a stalement. Baiyi was unable to penetrate the skinless monster's Holy Power shield, and it was unable to hit him with its physical attacks. 

From a bystander's perspective, the skinless monster would look like a large kaiju scratching its ear and cheeks, desperately trying to catch an annoying mosquito.

"So, despite those huge eyeballs on its face, 'Bugsy' is actually a melee type?" Baiyi asked the Devil Walker.

"Preposterous! That bug-eyed monster's skill lays in Black Magic. Even I could floor Molocchus if we dueled only with physical attacks!" The Devil Walker replied.

"Er… Could it have been forced to use physical attacks because it had no idea how to manipulate Laws? Or, is there a possibility that Black Magic has been rendered impossible to use by the previous alteration to the Power Law?!" Baiyi exclaimed in the Void.

"That's possible!" The Archmage answered. "The intricacies of Laws are not to be taken granted for. The Nature God Rewrote the Law of Power completely; it is possible that this demon cannot undo it!"

"Besides, have you not noticed how sparingly the enemy has been utilizing its Holy Power? The Abyss Lord only uses it only to defend itself. Despite being able to move fluidly, the Abyss Lord is unable to take full advantage of the power imbued in the skinless monster! It could not change its method of thinking, which is similar to other demons!"

"Oh, that's great. But, I'm still stuck here, with no idea how to get out of this stalemate," Baiyi replied as he deftly dodged another attack, closing the distance between himself and the monster. He bobbed and weaved its attacks right in front of its eye. The monster growled and sent a huge palm at Baiyi. 

Baiyi dodged this attack just as easily as the others before it, and the monster's palm struck its own eye.

"Arrrrghhhh!!" The Abyss Lord screamed in pain.

However, an attack of that caliber was not enough to deal it much damage. This was because the eye was not fragile, despite its lack of formidable visual-based techniques.

"I cannot end this fight by making it hit itself, right?" Baiyi muttered to himself. He dodged an attack and zoomed close to the monster's other eye. As soon as he got there, he hurled a few Voidspears at the exposed sclera. When the spears were inches away from the eye, they dissipated. It seemed the Holy Power shield around the monster's eyes were stronger than other parts of its body.

"Should we increase the power of our spells, or do we resort to melee attacks?" The Archmage asked, upon noticing how the monster's own slap had affected it.

"Good point! I'm gonna try the latter." Baiyi pulled the Saint Quartz Staff from his pocket before streaking toward's the enemy's eye.

This time, the Abyss Lord did not try to slap Baiyi away. It tried to block his path by closing its huge hands around him.

Baiyi sped up and zoomed past the gap between the monster's massives fingers, headed straight for its eyes. It took only moments for him to reach an eye, and it took even less time for him to give it a hard wallop with his staff.

"Gaaarrrgghhhhhhh!!!!" The monster screamed at the top of its lungs and cupped a hand around its damaged eye.

'Haha! It was super effective!' Baiyi's mood brightened. He spun and attempted to strike the other eye, but the sudden appearance of a huge hand caused him to streak backward. Despite Baiyi's disappearance, the huge hand continued on its trajectory until it smashed into the other hand holding the monster's eyes. The monster had just cut off its own hand.

Suddenly, a huge mass of pulsating black muscles wriggled out of the stump and formed a new hand. The chopped hand holding onto the monster's injured eye turned into a mass of black flesh, then the wriggling flesh turned into a helmet, which protected both eyes.

Baiyi zoomed close to the same eye and swung his staff at it once more. However, when the staff smashed into the flesh helmet, all it did was generate sparks. It was akin to a normal human striking a large boulder. 'Is this bloc of muscle really that hard?!'

A small slit large enough for a human to pass through appeared on the flesh helmet. It allowed the monster to see. The flesh helmet made the monster seem as though it had covered its head with a pitcher plant.

Baiyi figured that if he zoomed through the small slit, it would close back up instantly, trapping him inside.

Baiyi subconsciously reached into his inner pocket for the War God's Sword, only to remember that he had left it with his Kitty-cat Maid for her self-defense.

'It sure looks like this will go on forever, doesn't it?'

Contrary to his expectations, the monster stopped moving. It stood unnaturally still, seemingly deep in thought.

Baiyi was not sure what had happened. Suddenly, a wave of magical energy, which Baiyi found incredibly familiar, surged out of the monster. Another energy wave accompanied the first, and both were very violent.

"Hehehehe! Not bad for a warm-up. It was good enough for me to test my control over this new body," Molocchus said with a chuckle. "Now that my warm-up is over, I bid you farewell."

A Transporter Formation suddenly appeared in front of the monster, and in less than a second, the formation lit up; it had been activated! The Abyss Lord quickly became more transparent.

Baiyi hurriedly hurled a few black spears at the fading creature, but all they did was pass right through it.

Despite the enormous size, Molocchus had managed to turn its body into a mirage in mere seconds!

"Just you wait; wait till I have mastered Holy Power and the Laws of Power. Next time I see you, your time in this world will expire!" Molocchus bellowed before vanishing.Check out the Nuckelevee! It's a really terrifying (and okay, I'll admit it… A little bit cute) monster from Orcadian myths. It's basically a human torso with no legs attached to the back of a big horse as if it was its rider. The best part? "The Nuckelavee has no skin; black blood courses through yellow veins, and the pale sinews and powerful muscles are visible as a pulsating mass." Check the Marionette's current physical appearance, and honestly, these two monsters are getting some kin-feels!Yes, The annoying and lethal-when-overdosed. From Despicable Me.Yes. The one and only. Of Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' fame.If you haven't gotten it, Baiyi was referring to the Sharingan from Naruto. Tomoe is that "fat comma" shape. The pinwheel pattern referred to Sasuke's Mangekyou Sharingan, while the last one referred to the Rinnegan.A.k.a. Doujutsu. Ya know, the Sharingan and Byakugan and all that from Naruto… and maybe some other anime/manga too that I'm not aware of?