Chapter 1725 Silent Clash.

A wide street was shrouded in darkness, framed by the burning buildings and billowing smoke. The ground was littered with rubble and broken vehicles. Here and there, human bodies lay in the pools of blood, covered with dust.

A woman with raven-black hair and icy blue eyes was standing in the middle of the ruined road, holding a black sickle sword.

In front of her, a towering figure was moving slowly across the rubble, each of its steps exerting an invisible pressure on the world. The creature was surrounded by a haze of swirling sand, with only a vague silhouette of a gaunt human visible behind its veil.

A thousand screaming souls shrouded the ancient devil like a mantle.Rread latest chapters at novelhall.com

Jet looked at him coldly.

«I hear that you are called the Heart of Kanakht... nice to meet you. I am called Soul Reaper Jet.»

A dark smile appeared on her pale face.

«This is my city. So, prepare to die.»

The Great Devil halted, looking down at her through the veil of sand. The whirlwind of souls surrounding it parted, revealing two gaping pools of darkness, Ghostly flames ignited in their depths, piercing her with a gaze of indescribable malice.

And hunger.

Then, a rustle of a myriad of whispers rose like a tide, enveloping her in a cold embrace.

Jet did not know the words of the ancient language the fiend spoke, but understood them regardless with the help of the Spell:

«...Broken... thing... bow, submit, surrender. Succumb...»

She felt a powerful compulsion press her into the ground, as if a thousand invisible hands were pulling her soul down.

However...

The weight of her shattered soul was too great for them to move it even by a millimeter.

Jet's smile widened.

She raised her sword and took a step forward.

«...In your dreams.»

A split second later, her ghostly figure dashed toward the Devil.

Jet possessed an unusual soul. Her core was like a vast sphere of shattered crystal, countless shards pressed messily together to form a jagged sun. Her radiant essence constantly leaked through the gaps between the shards... but, in return, the more living beings she killed, the more her broken soul core grew.

And Jet had slaughtered countless beings over the years, since that was the only way for her to survive.

By now, her core was massive like a giant star, burning furiously in the cold darkness of her desolate soul. Not only that, but her dead flesh could absorb much more essence than that of someone who was truly alive, which granted her tremendous physical strength.

Strangely enough, that physical might also translated to the dire power of her wraith form.

Moving like a ghost, Jet appeared in front of the Great Devil and lashed out with her sword. All of it happened in an instant, too fast to be discerned by mundane eyes.

Of course, the eyes of the Great Devil were not at all mundane. The figure hidden in the sand shifted, raising a hand to swat away her strike. At the same time, the sand rose like a giant palm, repeating its movements.

What was worse, Jet wasn't sure that she would be able to control herself when facing this slow and excruciating dissolution. The few times she had come close to exhausting all her essence... well, she didn't really want to remember them. She had done a few shameful things.

Unsurprisingly, pushing her the limits to battle a Great Devil consumed an ocean of soul essence.

Jet wasn't panicked yet, because her reserves were many times deeper than those of most other Saints. More than that, five powerful souls were bound to her mist blade — if push came to shove, she would consume them one after another, postponing the Inevitable.

Still, even if she miraculously won today, the sea of soul essence she had accumulated would be all but spent. Jet would have to collect it again, drop by drop.

«Such a chore...»

Killing had become a chore a long time ago, for her. Sometimes, she dreamt of being free of her Flaw and living a peaceful life somewhere where there was no need to ever spill the blood of living beings.

Not that there was such a place anywhere in the two worlds, for someone like her.

Those dreams were rare and silly, though. Most of the time, Jet was quite content with her life.

...Not at the moment, though.

She evaded another attack nimbly and delivered a ruthless strike to the abomination, then jumped back, phasing through a melting wall. The sand followed.

Despite the harrowing might and vile powers of the Great Devil...

She was still holding her own.

She was still fighting, full of resolve to see the fiend die.

Why wouldn't she kill him? She had killed countless bastards who thought that they were stronger than her, and were stronger than her, already.

Strength didn't decide who lived and who died.

Jet did.

«Come, come... Follow me more... hurt me more... waste time on me more...»

If there was one blessing about this excruciating fight, it was that the curse of lethargy affecting the Heart of Kanakht was slowly accumulating. Its effects were not significant yet, and yet Jet could feel that the devil was struggling a little to maintain his unceasing assault.

Ignoring the pain, Jet felt a dark grin twist her lips.

She retreated, one step at a time.

Perhaps she was not powerful enough, yet, to slay the Heart of Kanakht...

But luckily, she wasn't alone.

Just like the devil had a legion of souls to protect him, she had an army, too.

She had Effie and Kai.

So, she just had to preoccupy the bastard until they arrived.

Surrounded by smoke and flame, suffering the assault of a Great Devil, Jet smiled viciously and laughed.