Chapter 120

Several spheres of blue light formed behind me and shot towards me at hypersonic speed. I met them head-on, crushed them and hacked them with my hands. The ensuing mana explosions hit me and sent me flying in all directions.

I redirected a couple behind me, using the rebound to propel me towards the enemy.

"Yes! Fight! Fight and struggle!!" he shouted.

Mana moved and an immense pillar of stones shot from the ground and intercepted my trajectory. I pierced through it at high speed, but the enemy was prepared, his weapon in hand. He got hold of me by grabbing my left shoulder and he hacked at my side with the sword of torn space. Even if lacking mana, it still dug through my flesh.

It quickly slowed down and stopped against my spine. The eyes of the demon shone in excitement. Mana surged through the blade and the space around it imploded. A huge chunk of flesh disappeared and my insides were now open.

"Do you feel despair now?" he whispered in my ear, still holding onto me and keeping me in midair

"It's best to avoid grappling," I responded back.

I dug my fingers through his mana armour and skin. His eyes widened and his amused expression disappeared as I started ripping his body apart.

"You don't dare to touch me!" he shouted, invoking a mana outbreak that propelled me back to the ground.

I looked at him from beneath. He was furious and pained. I could see his heart through the window left by the rib I had dug out and I was currently holding it in my hand. I squeezed my fist and the bone broke in half.

He distanced himself from me by flying higher up into the sky and mana started to converge towards his wound. His expression distorted when the wound didn't heal. He closed the hole in his chest by crystallising mana inside his wound and severely increased the thickness of the shadow armour covering his skin.

I squatted down, preparing to jump towards him. My severed trunk began to close up, quickly returning to its previous state. I jumped and quickly reached his height. Anger, madness, amusement. All sorts of complex and contrasting emotions were plastered on his face.

"Amazing! I'll make you suffer!" he exclaimed and cried in opposing voice tones one after the other.

His figure turned dark and in the blink of an eye he disappeared and reappeared behind me.

"The night is my reign," he laughed, as a pillar of blue light fell down from the moon and hit me square in the face.

I was pressed to the earth and my body sunk into the ground as the cold light freezed and ablated me. I kicked my feet and got myself outside of the area affected by the ray of light. My entire body was covered in a thick layer of ice, which broke off as I ran around avoiding the stone pillars emerging from the ground.

"Yes! Yes! Struggle! Suffer!"

Shadow chains and hands emerged from the cracks of the earth and grabbed at my body. I fought back but there were too many to move freely. Another moon ray hit me, destroying everything around me. I felt the chill penetrate my body. It reached my internal organs. My lungs became rigid and brittle and my heartbeat slowed down almost to a stop. My blood froze and my eyes stopped moving.

"Do you fear me now?" I heard his laugh.

I couldn't answer as my lungs had become solid blocks of ice. Nevertheless, I turned my head to him, aiming my blocked eyes in his direction.

"What?" he exclaimed.

I moved my arms and legs, breaking the frozen blood, and I clumsily got outside of the frozen crater I was in. I raised my hand and dug my fingers through my chest. I grabbed my heart and manually contracted it, forcing blood to circulate and raising my body temperature.

"What?" he shouted once again, another ray of blue light hitting me while I was still recovering.

Nevertheless, this time my body didn't freeze over. On the contrary, I started to burn up and my skin turned bright red to the sudden increase in temperature. The ensuing thermal shock caused the outer layers of my body to crack and break off, but my core was preserved from the cold.

I smiled and he shivered.

"This is quite the productive encounter. Show me more," I provoked him.

He gnashed his teeth and his eyes curved up in delight.

"As you wish, my friend!"

A blanket of shadows covered the world and all lights disappeared. Beasts perfectly blended in the environment started biting and scratching at my body. I ignored them and ran in a straight line towards my enemy's position. I climbed one of the few remaining standing buildings and reached his location. Not even the light created by the sphere of ionised air around me could light up the place, but even in deep darkness my eyes could see his outline.

He tried to distance himself silently, most likely believing I could not follow him and had simply shot towards his last known location. I kicked him, aiming my foot at the hole in his chest. The layers of crystallised mana were extremely solid and I failed in piercing through. We were sent flying in two opposite directions, but I ran to him as soon as I touched the ground.

"How did you…" I interrupted him by swinging my fist.

He raised a shield from his shadow, blocking my attack. He was projected downwards while I went upwards. I fell down on him and planted my foot where his head had just been.

He swung his sword but I intercepted his wrist and changed its trajectory. I aimed at his throat but he teleported behind me. A torrent of hot flames surged behind me and burned my skin and pushed me away. The ground under me turned to magma and I sunk inside of it, the molten rocks washing all over my skin.

I swam through it and avoided a shadow spear, while another one got stuck inside my thigh. I left the magma pool, freed myself from the spike and used it to meet his sword head-on. The shadow weapon diverted the wave of space distortion but ended up broken. I punched his face, breaking through his armour and causing him to lose most of his teeth.

He glared at me and manifested a tornado that sent us both high into the sky. Innumerable blades of wind hacked at my skin, but my body held together. I swam through the air and grabbed his hand. Before he could disappear, I got hold of one of his fingers and tore it off. Miasmatic mana surged and the blanket of shadow disappeared, revealing our location beside the ocean. The water swelled and the ground and sky became one with the sea. He laughed but stopped suddenly when I swung my hand and hit him with a cavitation bubble.

He let the waters return to the sea and disappear into space. The next moment several meteors manifested from nothingness and fell down on Earth. I moved quickly to avoid them. The crust broke and the tide rose. Numerous cities fell prey to this disaster. I rode on top of the surging debris and reached his height, several kilometres into the air. He tried to speak to me by sending waves of mana towards me, but I had yet to learn how to decipher this form of communication.

I appeared behind him and tore off his obsidian wings, which sent both of us falling down to Earth once again. He invoked the shadows and the waters to cushion his fall, while I embedded myself in the side of a mountain. I got out, he got up and the battle resumed.

And so it continued on, for hours, days and weeks. Everything in our path became a charred land from where nothing could be born again. He was a powerful being with almost complete control over all the elements and he was able to inflict on me many more wounds than I could on him; but the one I gave him lasted longer.

Nevertheless, I was slowly reaching my limit. The energy source of an archumans was durable but not inexhaustible. My regeneration had slowed down and my strength was failing. Similar things could be said about my opponent. His right arm was in tatters and he had lost the ability to invoke his wings. His shadow armour appeared to be made of broken glass, held together by flimsy glue. The miasmatic mana he brought upon the Earth was almost depleted and the land was starting to heal. After so many days.

Soon, a victor would be decided.

"You… are an unholy marvel…" he spoke, hardly breathing.

With its last strength, he swung his sword. I was too tired to move out of the way, my strength depleted by the long-drawn battle. The slash hit me. I felt myself slip and fall to the ground. I turned my eyes and saw my legs had been torn from my torso, even my spine cleanly cut in half.

"This… is the end…"

"No, it's not," I answered in a clear voice.

Even if my strength was failing and my body had been cut in half, my life was still not slipping away.

"Unbelievable…"

He took a step back and fell to the ground exhausted, his powers completely extinguished. I used my hands to right myself up and "stood up" while laying my cut section against the ground.

"There has never been a being that managed to do what you did today, Elder of the Contour. You fought me on equal grounds and almost bested me numerous times. Nevertheless, neither of us has the strength to continue and your wounds will soon lead you to your death. I'll make sure every being of this world will remember your name, John"

He was right. My body was at its limit. There was only one solution now.

"You won't be able to tell them," I spoke, reaching for his leg.

"What are you..." he couldn't finish the phrase as he began to cry out in anguish.

My hands dug into his thigh and with a last effort I tore his leg off.

"You disgusting thing! I showed you my respects, but you dare! You'll be brought back as undead and your soul will suffer for all eternity…"

He froze. His eyes quivered. He fixedly looked at me as I dug my teeth into his leg and gulped down his flesh. Horror and fear appeared on the face of the demon king as he saw me regain my complexion and my body regenerate. Once I had completely devoured the leg, I grabbed my bottom half and attached it back to where it belonged.

"Jonah's mother gave me good advice. I should indeed eat something," I spoke to myself.

I unsteadily walked towards him.

"Stay back!" he shouted, scampering away.

I put my foot on his chest and pressed him to the ground. One after the other, I grabbed his arms and the remaining leg, tore them off and ate them. Even if I couldn't return to my pristine state, it was more than enough to stabilise myself.

I looked at him. In a certain sense, I felt grateful to him. He had pushed me to the limit, letting me reach new heights that would have otherwise needed years of growth.

"Thank you. Now, rest," I told him.

I raised my hand, ready to strike him down, when suddenly everything came to a stop and the world turned grey.

"Wait, wait, wait! Don't, please don't! Can you stop, please?"