Chapter 26

Baraquiel froze for a bit in contemplation of Azazel's words. In the end, he sighed.

"I agree to another round."

.

|DxD|

.

"Azazel-kun."

"Yes, Cleria?"

"It's been three days."

"Yes, Cleria."

"And they're still fighting?!"

"..."

Azazel was lost for words as well. Three days ago, both fallen and devil had left the two battle-lovers to fight a third time. Having exited the barrier, Azazel and Cleria went their own separate ways since each party had their own job to do.

It was only through receiving Shuri's call asking for Baraquiel's whereabouts that Azazel realised neither the blonde nor his brother ever returned. So abandoning his work, he went to find Cleria before coming back to the scene.

And the scene right now, was a bloodied Igor and Baraquiel still going at it. Baraquiel had all his wings out but all of them were already shrivelled. It could be guessed that he had already withdrawn all the energy stored within them. Thankfully, they still offered him the ability of flight so he could dodge Igor's attacks.

As for the blonde, his condition was quite terrible. Dried blood hung all over his body. Whether it was from the cadre or himself, it wasn't clear. His hair had already fallen to his sides. The 'last seen' of the rope once holding his hair together in a ponytail was unknown. 

While their fight was exuberant on the starting day, their motions had gradually slowed down. Having a body with needs, they gradually tired until on the third day, their blitz-like motions were now degraded to the level of a street fight. When before, they could bound the entire clearing in less than the time it takes to blink, now they could barely run to the other end.

Since Baraquiel had almost exhausted his light energy, it was natural that the blonde was in a similar state as well.

"*Huff* *Huff* *Huff*"

Stretching out his hand, Igor tried to form a ki blast. But the energy in his hand briefly formed before fizzling out like a dying light bulb.

Gruuuuuu

"I'm…so…hungry."

Having been distracted by his growling stomach, Igor couldn't block the punch to the face that Baraquiel released.

Gu!

Staggering backwards, the blonde tripped over a stone before falling on his back. Baraquiel tried to run forward, but the best he could muster was an awkward stagger. The same was true for the blonde. Having fallen on the ground, he was too tired to get up.

At this point, Igor wanted to call it quits. He didn't even have enough energy to fly at this point. Although the blonde didn't have an insanely high amount of ki, he could make up for that with the insane level of ki-regeneration he got after the combination of triggering his divine ki and spirit control. 

But all that ki-regeneration came at a cost.

Gruuuuuu

It came with the cost of having a high appetite. To constantly generate or regenerate ki, the blonde became a calorie-guzzler. Although he had eaten the equivalent of three cows before leaving the time chamber, all that energy was already spent.

So his eyelids were threatening to close at anytime, Baraquiel's nearing steps forced the blonde to stay open.

"That's it!"

Performing a kip-up, he successfully kicked Baraquiel in the jaw, causing the fallen to stagger backwards. Ignoring the protests of his body, Igor forcefully compressed a bit of ki into his fist before charging forward with a war-cry.

"Raaaa!"

Baraquiel, too tired and dazed, couldn't block the punch.

Gu!

Nailing the fallen right cleanly on the side of the head, Igor tiredly watched as Baraquiel finally fell on his side. He stood quietly for a moment, keenly sensing the fallen's current state.

Upon sensing that Baraquiel was unconscious, the blonde eagerly shouted.

"Hahaha! I won!!!"

Tiredly, Igor fell to the ground on his back. His arms and feet lay spread out, his chest heaving up and down. He was too tired to even remove the lock of hair hovering above his eye.

But even though he was tired, his stomach didn't care.

Gruuuuu

"Ohhhh..."

A stream of tears fell down his face. He began releasing a few sobs. The pain of his stomach clawing at him was just too agonizing.

"I'm so hungry."

The adrenalin had washed off. Now he could feel the full force of his hunger. He looked to the side, hoping to find even a single blade of grass he could nibble on. But unfortunately, most of the field had endured a thorough 'grass-cutting' during their three-day battle. The areas that survived were mostly those at the edges, and as fate would have, Baraquiel and Igor were smack dab in the middle.

The only things were sand and rock. Igor looked around. Not even a single bug could be found. Briefly falling into despair for a moment, Igor remembered that a few dozen kilograms of meat was lying just a metre or two from him.

"..."

He didn't even need to consider twice. Briefly sitting up, he tried getting up and was successful for a bit before his legs gave up on him. Falling on his stomach, Igor wasn't discouraged by this minor setback. He crawled forward, looking at Baraquiel's bicep like it was the plump roasted thigh of top-grade chicken.

This would be the first time Baraquiel wished his skin wasn't tanned since this only served to further motivate Igor to press on. The blonde was even using his chin to move forward, trying to decrease the centimetres of distance between them as soon as possible.

In the end, the blonde got close to Baraquiel and hurriedly grabbed his arm. But in that brief moment, a semblance of clarity came upon the blonde. The image of a chicken thigh was replaced with the bicep of the fallen. 

Igor tried to let go. He really did. But he couldn't stop squeezing Baraquiel's arm. He could feel the meat inside. He reasoned to his stomach that eating people was wrong. But one look at Baraquiel's wings provided his stomach with enough ammunition to shatter his resolve.

His mind raced through all the things with wings. Chickens, ducks, turkeys, etc. The list went on and with each entry, his eyes glazed over. In the end, he made a simple calculation.

Wings + meat = Food

And so with that, he opened his mouth filled with saliva.

*Chomp*

He bit down with all the strength he had. But as the seconds trickled by, he couldn't break through the skin.

"Nnnnnnggggg!"

The blonde felt like crying again. Meat was already in his mouth and yet he couldn't get it. He began shaking his head wildly, trying to atleast tear the skin off. But that only served to awaken Baraquiel. It took a while for the fallen to come to.

But when he felt the pain in his left arm, he screamed…like a man.

"AAAAAAAAAH!"

He began using his right hand to slap Igor's head with all his might.

Pa! Pa!

"GET OFF ME!"

But Igor remained stubborn. The blonde was just too clouded by hunger to let go. And he could feel it. Just a few more seconds and he would be able to pierce through that annoying skin. And Baraquiel could feel it as well since the frequency of his hits desperately increased.

It was only fortunate for him that Azazel arrived at the scene with an amused smile.

"That's enough now brat."

Placing a finger on the back of Igor's neck, he released a jolt of light energy that slightly burnt the blonde's skin.

"Ack!"

Instinctively opening his mouth, Igor began slapping the point where it felt like a mosquitoe had bit him. Although he began slapping and scratching the spot, it was enough for him to regain some clarity.

Turning towards Azazel with an aggrieved look, he shouted.

"What the hell, Uncle A?!"

Azazel pointed towards a frowning Baraquiel who was examining the bite mark on his arm.

"I never knew that my brother was a…delicacy."

While Igor wanted to reply, the world around him suddenly grew hazy. The motion of swinging his arms consumed one calorie too many and his body decided to shutdown in order to conserve energy.

The last words he heard were of Baraquiel cursing his entire lineage to hell and back.

.

AN

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