Chapter 249: Deception

Cough! Cough!

Green blood fell from Joseph's lips as his expression frowned in deep pain, the cut had gone deep but what hurt him the most were the flames that burned just as much if not deeper.

Doctor, who had half of his body burned, extended his hand to the front and tried to attack the man but before he could do anything the flames that were still burning on his skin flashed and exploded stopping him in his tracks. The same occurred with Joseph.

Ignoring the Doctor and continuing his attack, Adryan prepared to cut off the head of the demon in front of him.

Seeing that the red-haired man's attack was going to continue, the next to react was Wraith Steve who opened his mouth wide.

At the same time that he prepared to launch the Wraith Shriek, Adryan raised his free palm towards him.

Surrounded by an almost recovered trio from the attack earlier but still keeping his mind as cold as an iceberg. In the same deep, gravelly voice, Ancient Hermes roared.

"Steal!"

Steve who was about to shout, spat out a gargle and a somewhat confused look was born on his face. The attack he was about to launch completely forgotten and the man hovered not knowing what he was going to do.

"Princess at 9!"

Fush!

Immediately following his partner's warning, Adryan used Sky Walk and with one step managed to dodge a furious and bleeding Joseph who had already recovered from the attack from before but had not regenerated, clear by the open wound on his chest.

Smiling at the Demon who even though he couldn't see his smile because of the armor felt his blood boil, the leader of the fallen gang was about to continue his attack when his expression of fury was replaced by one of alarm.

The Demon's sense of danger flared up again at the same time as the red-haired man's armor glowed for a second!

"Tell me Little Joseph~ Do you like fireworks?" In a gentle voice, Adryan asked playfully. The helmet's scarlet eyes seemed to grin wickedly at everyone present who looked at the flaming man in astonishment.

He seriously planned to do-?!

'This son of a-!' 

Joseph immediately tried to pull away, having figured out what the flame-covered man wanted to do. But to his shock and disbelief, something that would have only taken a quick flap of his wings he found himself unable to do.

It was as if his wings had suddenly found themselves covered in cobwebs!

'It's the same as before!' the devil thought remembering how he had been unable to get away from the red-headed man in his assault earlier. Knowing what was coming, he tried to flee through the shadows but they still hadn't recovered and the flames that covered the redhead killed those around him!

"Bastard!" Roaring, Joseph tried to raise his arms in front but the movement was too slow confusing him even more.

Looking at his arms out of the corner of his eye, he noticed how they were covered in strange and extremely thin threads!

The rest of those still in the air looked alarmed at what Adryan wanted to do and tried to move away but they were stopped by the same invisible threads!

Smiling hugely at the quintet around him, Adryan said only one thing in the sweetest and gentlest voice he could give.

"Boom~"

His golden armor glowed and in a white flash that made one think they were looking directly at the sun in the morning, it exploded completely covering Joseph, Steve, Tyre, Jason, and the Doctor.

The 5 men were sent flying in different directions. Jason and Tyre who had been the farthest away received the least damage while Steve and Doctor who were at a distance were sent flying.

Joseph who had been the closest was the worst hit.

Crack!

The ground broke at his feet from the impact of his fall, his figure kneeling and covered in green blood.

"You crazy fucking crazy son of a bitch!!!" The fallen Gang Leader roared as he watched the ball of smoke in the air with pure hatred.

The Bastard had blown himself up!

One of his wings was gone and the other was full of holes and burning with golden flames. Half of his face and torso were full of burns and pink skin underneath. His arms were completely black and the only reason he could still use them was because of the enormous resistance his transformation gave him and the healing properties of his green blood.

"Your mother would be very disappointed in you. Falling for such an obvious trick. What a disgrace." A mocking voice spoke from the smoke ball as something shot out of it at high speed.

Thanks to his enhanced eyes and senses, Joseph could see that it was a large white arrow!

Gritting his teeth, he tried to get up to dodge it when suddenly something rang out.

Snap! Boom!

Immediately followed by the snap, the fire in his wings glowed and exploded on his back forcing him to the ground again. He was barely able to twist his torso to avoid the arrow piercing his head, causing it to sink into the ground inches from his face.

Without even time to be relieved for successfully dodging, the demon immediately tried to move away from the arrow that glowed for a second.

Screaming in frustration, Joseph could only cross his arms again and place his damaged wing in front of him.

Boom!

He barely made it a few steps before it exploded, burning and destroying his last remaining wing. His large yet damaged body was sent flying and the devil felt his consciousness slipping away.

Fush! Fush! Fush!

'My body's resistance to explosions increased but I'm not immune to them yet.' Adryan thought calmly as the bones in his arms and the occasional rib snapped back into place with a resounding crack. While he was almost completely immune to the flames from the explosion, he was not immune to the kinetic force generated by it.

This caused slight annoyance to the red-haired man. Not from the sensation of his bones breaking and rearranging, they simply tickled him at this point, but from the fact that he wouldn't be able to do this move again until his body became immune to it!

'With how much fun it is to blow me to bits. What a piece of crap.'

Fush! Fush! Fush!

Sky Walk brought him with extreme speed closer to the devil's still-flying body, not wanting to end his brutal assault on the man. Two spears formed in his hands that quickly burned white.

Extending his arms as far back as he could and adding even more speed to his steps with Sky Walk, Adryan spun himself around as he released the spears which flew into the air with a hissing sound like high-speed missiles.

Joseph heard his Danger Sense for the umpteenth time in the last few seconds which was now becoming extremely annoying. Gritting his teeth he tried to move but his damaged body that was still covered by some of those strange threads was too slow.

The warning cries turned into howls that he found himself unable to respond to. A sense of impending death clouded his judgment and the man found himself falling into despair.

Was this the end of him? Had he come this far?

His troubled mind filled with these thoughts even as it was drowned out by the pleas of his Danger Sense. 

The shadows a little further in front of Josep moved and trembled, from these emerged a now healed Doctor who quickly caught the demon with one arm stopping his aerial travel, and with the hand he still had free he pointed to the front.

In front of him and coming out of the ground breaking it, the thorny black ivies obeyed their master and quickly began to weave between them forming a thick and high black wall.

The white spears impacted with these and with a white glow exploded almost destroying the wall.

Emerging from the shadows several dozen meters away from it, the Doctor reappeared with Joseph in his arms and with his hand already on his chest healing him.

"My Lord..." the man muttered weakly gaining more strength at the end and the Blood Moon leader only allowed himself a second to look at him before returning his attention to the Fire Knight who had another spear pointed at them.

"Dear Joseph don't let your guard down again. This time we cannot underestimate Mr. Kenway." 

Pursing his lips at his lord's emotionless voice, Joseph gave a weak nod as he stood up. The healing almost complete.

"YOU'RE NOT LOOKING SO GOOD DOC! YOU'RE KIND OF PALE!"

And not only that, the man looked thinner than before and his skin seemed to have dried slightly. The change in that aspect was not very noticeable but thanks to his enhanced senses he could easily notice it. Not only did the Doctor look worse but he had gained a foul odor, like that of a body in the early stages of decomposition.

'I was right. One of the conditions is to touch the one you want to heal and not only that, it seems that doing so takes a toll on your body.' Smiling having confirmed his theory, Adryan charged his arm.

The spear left his hand and quickly traveled through the air towards the duo but before it could get any closer to them it was intercepted by spears of transparent ice.

The man did not have time to see where the spears came from as he had to stomp backward to dodge even more of these ice spears that destroyed the place where he was and from that place, a light layer of ice began to spread on the ground. A layer that did not reach far because as it approached Adryan it melted into vapor.

He again felt some of the multiple threads coming from his body break and he quickly turned around and raised his elbow blocking a fist of ice from a furious Tyre, a proper armor of ice covering his body.

Pum! FUSSHHHHHHH!!!

A shockwave of wind shot out from the impact causing the flames covering Adryan to dance gracefully. 

The red-haired man felt his arm tremble slightly from the force of the blow and also as the Zombie's fist ice and curses tried to spread to him but the holy fire eliminated them before they had a chance to do anything.

Not having expected his punch to be blocked so easily, Tyre looked somewhat stunned at the man in front of him.

"Hey~ Nice trick~" Praising without praising the Zombie's new card, Adryan laughed softly.

The unhinged grin on his face grew even bigger as he threw a right hook of his own.

"But!"

Zombie Tyre raised his ice-covered elbow to block and Adryan's fist of golden fire made contact with the undead man's arm.

Boom!

A concentrated explosion on impact caused the arm Tyre used to block to go out to the side in flames, the ice armor failing to withstand the assault of the sun's fire. The undead's eyes widened as pain covered his expression.

The fire covering Adryan's body burned even brighter slightly melting the ice covering the zombie who in response could only try to create more to replace what was broken.

"Mine is better!!!" Adryan roared as he threw another punch.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Without stopping, Adryan launched a hail of golden fists at Tyre. Each impact was accompanied by a concentrated explosion that destroyed the ice armor.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Right hook, left, to the kidney, low kick, medium kick, high kick. Uppercut. A full assault fell upon the zombie who could do nothing but defend himself.

In just a few seconds, Tyre went from a decent offense to a pitiful defense!

The zombie could do little and nothing to defend himself. Not only did the man's explosive fists destroy his armor as soon as he summoned it, but every attempt to cover himself was crushed with even more ferocity. Blood quickly covered his body and despair began to overwhelm him.

His movements were becoming clumsy and clumsy, increasingly slow and predictable. Not only because of his desperation that was affecting his judgment but because of the invisible threads that were slowly slowing him down.

TapTapTap

Taking a step to the side and without taking his eyes off the zombie who seemed to be having difficulty moving already, Adryan threw a backhanded punch that landed squarely on Jason's face who tried to attack from behind.

Boom!

The werewolf was sent flying and his flight was only stopped by the ice spears from before that dug into his back and caused him to let out a howl of pain.

"Go back to your cage little doggy." Adryan said in an icy voice without looking back.

With the short time given by his companion, Tyre desperately tried to pull away from the fire knight but as soon as he took a step back his body froze, immobilized. Looking alarmed at his body, he saw how it was wrapped in almost invisible threads.

He felt that they were not very strong! If he put a little strength into it, he could run away-

Boom! 

An explosive fist smashed into his face sending him to the ground with several teeth missing and his nose bent horribly, his vision filled with white for an instant, the enormous hardness of a Zombie's body yielding completely to the knight's assault.

"Didn't they tell you it's a bad idea to get distracted in the middle of combat~" Adryan grinned madly under his helmet as he held Tyre's head and prepared to blow it to pieces.

Before he could do so, some of the threads on his back snapped and a sword quickly formed in his free hand.

Clash! Fusshhhhhhhh!!!

Turning around, he gave a quick slash cutting dry the slash of a healed Joseph who looked at him furiously. His eyes were red and huge veins pulsed in his neck.

"Princess from behind!" Flora roared and immediately Adryan felt his threads cut behind him.

He 'saw' as out of the shadows a few feet from where he blocked Joseph came the Doctor. A vacant expression on his face as at his feet the spiky black ivies sprang out and rushed towards him while at the same time his hands now held something.

Being just as large as he was and emitting a foul as well as perverted aura. With a crimson glow similar to blood and dripping a black liquid from its edge. The Doctor carried in his hands a huge monstrous scythe.

Not alarmed, Adryan simply tried to take another Flaming Jump to dodge the attack but his eyes widened slightly under his helmet. 

He felt his connection to the Jump suddenly severed!

Behind Joseph's back and moving at his side, a furious Jason extended his claws towards his face. Claws dripping with purple venom.

He also felt Tyre rise from the ground behind him and rush towards him. Despite the brutal assault the undead suffered, he lived up to the Zombie's great vitality and got up to continue fighting.

Being surrounded on all sides and without the opportunity to escape or dodge comfortably as Joseph was holding him in place and the duo of Tyre and Jason blocked his exits, and with the Doctor a few steps away from him. Adryan found himself in a precocious situation.

But despite that, the man's mind was calm, having a great deal of experience with dealing with more than 1 enemy, Adryan found himself serene.

'It must be because of that strange Scythe. One of its abilities may be cutting a Beyonder ability? Considering the ability to absorb the strength of the ivy, it's not too crazy to think that weapon is capable of that... But it doesn't seem to be able to cut many powers but at least it can choose which one to cut and choose when to do it... It's like a Farmer, picking the harvest when it's already ripe.' Immediately relating his inability to jump and the strange weapon in the man's hands in less than 3 seconds thanks to the enhanced brain of a Conspirator, the red-haired man only grinned in amusement. ' What a curious and useful ability~'

'Mmm, curious... At this point, Joseph should have appeared by now to have helped in the assault but he still hasn't done so. Did he abandon his companions and Lord and run away like the cowardly rat he is... Nah, I don't think so, he must now think he still has the advantage so he won't run away yet, he must be somewhere waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack...' His eyes that were still focused on Joseph looked behind the devil, at the still present several spears of transparent ice.

Recognition glinted in his eyes and Adryan felt his smile grow. 

'So that's what they wanted to do eh~ Not bad~'

Finding the hidden conspiracy, Adryan swallowed his laughter and prepared to flip the deck.

He only needed a little Deceive and Manipulation for this, and the cards had already been laid out a while ago. 

If he wasn't mistaken, it was 20 seconds to the 3-minute mark~

Opening his mouth, a horrible shriek that scourged the spiritual bodies of everyone present came forth, stunning them all and even causing Jason to drop to one knee.

Wraith Shiek! The ability he had stolen from Steve!

Joseph's eyes blurred and blood fell from his nose, even though he was a transformed Devil, due to the proximity to the shriek, he took a considerable hit. The only thing that kept him from losing consciousness was his strength.

Werewolf Jason on the other hand almost fainted, his already weak will made him extremely vulnerable to the spiritual attack. Zombie Tyre was the same but he was able to withstand it better thanks to being a zombie.

The ivies and the Doctor froze in place for a few seconds, the black ivies screeching horribly.

Being his 'own attack' Adryan found himself well and taking advantage of the window he had just created he abandoned his sword and stepped to the side letting the magma greatsword hit the ground without doing anything to him. His fist charged with power and connected with great force the explosive punch in the mouth of the Demon's stomach who spitting blood, was sent flying again with his abdomen in flames.

Adryan immediately followed up with an explosive spinning kick to the still-dazed Jason in the middle of his face that sent the little dog flying.

The next second, a flaming sword formed in both hands and he raised one high and one low.

Clank! Clank!

Ice and Blood clanked against Holy Fire and the sound of boiling water came from it.

"Wow Doc! Did you come from mowing the garden or what?" Adryan asked with a grin as his arms trembled slightly from the force he had to exert to keep both men at bay.

"I'll kill you..." Tyre muttered with pure venom, his left eye completely closed and the other a blood red.

With dark blue veins pulsing in his neck, the Doctor gritted yellowish teeth and exerted more force on his scythe which began to release crimson sparks.

Seeing this, Adryan didn't waste a second and concentrated an explosion at his feet.

Boom! Crumble!

The ground beneath the men's feet gave way and Adryan managed to take several steps backward gaining some distance from the duo who lost their balance at the sudden movement.

Not wanting to miss his chance, the Doctor let out a scream as he launched a powerful slash with his scythe.

The red sparks that completely covered the blade suddenly concentrated on the edge. With a perverted glow, a sickle of crimson energy shot out of the scythe moving with great speed at the redhead.

Opening his eyes in shock. Adryan could barely raise his fire blades to block the energy sickle.

Clash! Zisssssssssss!!!

Golden light collided with crimson light. Sparks flew out and the red-haired man found himself dragged several meters back, his feet sinking into the stone.

His muscles swelled and he gritted his teeth against the energy of the attack. The crimson light emitting from the sickle suddenly intensified and scarlet eyes glowed in recognition.

'Oh shit-'

Boom!

The sickle exploded sending the fire knight flying, the golden armor shattered into several pieces finally revealing half of the red-haired man's face along with part of his torso and legs. The thread meshes broke but served the function of largely protecting Adryan who collided with the transparent ice spears from before.

The surviving golden flames slowly began to fade, bringing a huge smile to the Doctor's face.

"The 3 minutes are up! That pesky artifact must have broken by now!" He shouted hugely pleased as he relaxed slightly.

Pieces of these spears flew through the air upon impact, these quickly turning to vapor at the remnants of the holy fire that still covered the red-haired man's body.

The reflection of one of these transparent shards trembled slightly and the reflection of a man with greasy hair and wearing a burnt dark red cloak appeared in it.

Wraith Steve!

The reflection disappeared from the shard and reappeared in Adryan's scarlet eyes. A great expression of pain in the Wraith as parts of his body were covered in golden fire.

Wraith Possession!

Adryan's hand slowly went up to his neck, Steve finding moving the red-haired man's body very difficult because of the golden flames that made the possession very hard to control 100 percent.

"Jason Now!" The Doctor roared at the Werewolf who was closest to the possessed redhead.

They barely had a few seconds before Steve couldn't hold on any longer! Every second that would pass would only make things worse for the wraith who was now being purified by the dying flames!

"On it!" The hairy man shouted euphorically as he lunged towards Adryan. His tongue hung from his broken snout and his few remaining teeth glowed in the crimson light of the log.

'I will tear him apart! I'll rip out his heart and eat his intestines! I will devour it! I'll devour it! I'll devour it!' Jason's desire-wracked mind roared hungrily as he launched himself at the frozen Adryan with a great leap.

His claws aimed for the man's neck ready to rip his head off. 

A few feet from touching him, his pupils suddenly shrank and all his hair stood on end. A cold sweat covered his body and made him start to shiver.

The man's scarlet eyes still reflected Steve's figure, clearly still possessed.

But something was terribly wrong!

On the man's frozen face, the corners of his lips had lifted slightly. His possessed gaze focused on Jason. Even though his hand was slowly closing on his neck, Jason felt that he was the one being choked!

'No! Nonononono! Something's wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!' The Werewolf's bestial mind shrieked in horror and he tried to stop his assault but he was already in mid-air less than five feet away from the grinning redhead.

He felt like a bug about to fall into the spider's trap!!!

Within 50 centimeters of his claws making contact with the man's neck, Jason suddenly found himself suspended in mid-air. A ridiculous expression on his face as he looked at Adryan's smiling face in dread.

Invisible threads covered the red-haired man's entire front in a complicated and effective spider's web. These same threads now completely covered the body of the Werewolf who had an expression of absolute terror.

No sooner had that happened, the red-haired man's body was suddenly engulfed in golden flames, and the next instant, a Steve completely covered in the same golden flames came out of them.

"AHHHHHHHH!" The wraith shrieked in pure agony as he felt the holy fire burn all his flesh. The man began to writhe on the ground a few feet away from them. The man tried to crawl further to try to recover and deal with the flames but a large amount of threads covered his legs and prevented any movement.

But Jason's attention was not on his fallen leader but on the figure covered again in the golden armor that had one fist extended backward. His free hand tapped his palm twice.

The helmet's scarlet eyes glowed with enormous satisfaction and a deep, mocking voice came out of it.

"Gotcha~"

A powerful explosive fist covered in white fire with golden flashes connected squarely in the middle of the Werewolf's face, right in the Red Zone that appeared as soon as he ignited his spiritual vision. Jason's head and most of his upper torso exploded in a shower of blood.

Adryan then took a mighty leap and descended with power upon the badly wounded Steve. His feet centered in the Red Zone on the man's back.

Steve looked up with eyes like plates at this, he raised his hand and quickly tried to form a wall of ice.

Boom!

Doctor, a healed Tyre, and Joseph who were running towards the trio stopped dead in their tracks. Their stunned and disbelieving expressions as they looked at the back of the Knight of Golden Flames who turned his head slightly towards them. 

Chunks of flesh fell around him in a shower of gore and blood, the crimson droplets boiling and evaporating as soon as they came too close to the armor.

The cold scarlet eyes of the helmet looked down at them. In a deep, heavy voice, like war drums beating on a battlefield, Adryan said.

"Next."

The Doctor gritted his teeth and a vein began to throb in his neck. His fists clenched tightly and blood began to fall from them.

'He always knew where Steve was! He just acted like he didn't know to set a trap and he'd end up with two of us!' 

The plan that had worked so many times before against dozens of opponents was easily seen and used completely against them! 

All the effort they had made to hold out for those three minutes had been in vain! 

The artifact had not broken! 

It had all been a hoax! 

A trap!!!

The man had used the arrogance they had because of the numerical advantage and the belief that it was a race against the clock and exploited it to his advantage!

'Is this the same man as before?!!!' 

'We had the numerical advantage! So why? WHY?!'

Why did it feel like they were the ones being beaten?!!!

'That went a lot better than I had planned.' Adryan thought calmly as he looked at the remains of Steve and Jason.

'Steve hiding in the ice was a little too obvious, he did that when he ambushed me in my house. Same with what they wanted to do. I was hoping to take advantage of that and kill one of them... I didn't expect to kill Steve as well, that was a surprise.' 

'It seems that receiving attacks from the path of the Sun in his wraith state is several times worse than receiving it in his physical body...'

Shaking his head internally, Adryan looked at the quivering form of the Doctor who looked about to have a seizure. This caused him enormous satisfaction that he was quick to show, the satisfaction that only grew as he felt a significant portion of his potion being digested at once.

"That was a very good warm-up Doc~ I already feel my muscles well stretched! Sorry about your... 'friends' though. Looks like they couldn't hold up to the dancing and had to take a little break. But fear not, I'm sure you'll see them soon enough~" Rolling his shoulders, the man let out a chuckle as he shook his head.

"Well, that doesn't matter. I still have 3 dance partners. Please don't disappoint me again, will you? I'll be very sad if you fall as easily as these two." To add more gasoline to the flame, Adryan kicked a considerably large piece of meat that had survived.

Joseph and Tyre began to shake with barely contained anger. Both wanting more than anything to go tear the man in front of them apart with their bare hands.

The only thing keeping them bound was the Doctor who even he was having trouble controlling himself.

Letting out a sigh to calm himself, the Doctor felt the red mist that threatened to blind him recede.

'Never mind... Never mind... It's almost over...' Letting out another sigh, the Doctor let out a chuckle as he shook his head. 

"You almost made me lose my mind Mr. Kenway. It's been a long time since that happened!" 

"What do you want me to say, I have a talent for that. A pretty big one if I can make cockroaches like you lose something they never had." Adryan replied in amusement as he looked at the trio. The flames engulfing him danced lightly as if accompanying their master in mockery.

"You..."

The thin, ugly brow quivered and another blue vein began to throb vigorously in his pale, sickly skin. 

The Doctor looked much worse than before, now resembling a dried corpse than a human being. And the odor he gave off was stronger than before, now smelling like a rotting corpse in an advanced state of decomposition.

It was as if his life force was being depleted and fast.

'I was right. Whatever his way of healing is, it takes a heavy toll on his body. It was a good idea to force him to take on more of a healing role than an attacking one. That way I wear him down without having to risk finding out what else this Unknown Path can do.' Satisfied that his experiment worked, Adryan relaxed and tensed his body in preparation. 

The vitality of this pathway should not be underestimated. He completely blew his head off and the body could still move and even regenerate from that, that was levels beyond what a normal Sequence 5 can survive.

Now the Doctor would be forced to take the role of attacker. He was sure that if he kept healing Dutch's body it would not hold much longer.

"It looks like they are about to lose their minds. This is the best time to do our part." Flora said seriously and quite tired, stealing a Sequence 5 skill was very draining. She could already feel herself falling asleep at any moment but she resisted.

Nodding inwardly, the redhead took a step.

Tap Tap Crack! Fush!

At the third, the ground at his feet cracked and Sky Walk accelerated him towards the group. The Doctor and Jason summoned their respective weapons at this and Tyre unconsciously took a step back.

Letting out a chuckle at the man's reaction, Adryan snapped his fingers.

From his fire armor came multiple Golden Ravens that lashed out at the trio still standing. A small smirk came from under his helmet as a golden fireball formed in his right hand and he extended his arm out to the side.

The fireball quickly began to expand and gained a white color but still retained some golden tongues. It quickly expanded until it was bigger than him and as big as a house.

Wasting no time, he hurled it at the trio with a loud laugh.

"Get them little one!"

The attack that looked more like a small meteorite left a cascade of destruction in its wake. Golden trenches where it passed through.

Growling in annoyance, the Doctor raised his scythe and slashed the air, a new sickle of energy shot out of it and sliced the huge fireball in half, and continued its onslaught against the knight.

Delicate red eyebrows rose slightly as he felt his connection to the ball being severed as it exploded to the sides in streams of golden fire.

Adryan who stepped to the side calmly dodged the sickle that brushed past him. Looking at what became of his attack, the red-haired man just laughed in delight.

"Oh silly~ That won't be enough!" He raised his hand and snapped his fingers with an amused grin. 

Snap!

The flame trenches left over from the golden meteor shook and trembled for an instant before a huge golden flock of crows flew at them at high speed.

Gritting his teeth, Joseph opened his mouth and Foul Language came out of it.

"Slow!" 

The onslaught of the flock of crows suddenly slowed which allowed the trio to dodge but Doctor not wanting the same thing to happen as before raised his hand and clenched his fist.

An enormous amount of black ivy came out of the ground and grabbed the crows in mid-flight like snakes. The ivies shrieked in pain as they touched the holy fire but obeying their master's will, they cut down and destroyed the birds.

The Doctor's eyes were not only focused on the slaughter of the flock of crows but also on the Knight in the background who now held in his hands a bow burning with a white arrow.

Adryan smiled as he released his fingers. The arrow flew in a straight line with enormous speed being only a blur. It passed through the black ivy vines and flew on, its target reacted quickly and raised his magma sword in front of him.

Pam! Crack!

The arrow connected and contrary to what Joseph expected, it exploded in a torrent of flames instead of an explosion. His sense of danger screamed and he unconsciously turned his head to the side, his ear and part of his horn falling to the ground thanks to the flaming sword that came out of the torrent of flames.

Emerging from the torrent of flames and with a sword in both hands, the knight laughed madly.

Controlled by his sixth sense, Joseph raised his arm and blocked a kick to the same side of his face. 

Boom!

The kick connected with a concentrated explosion and Joseph was sent flying into the trunk accompanied by a scream of pain, the explosion having blown off part of his face and destroyed his left eye.

 The Doctor and Zombie Tyre tried to stop the assault but Adryan ignored them and focused all his attention on the demon. His only response to their combined attack was for his armor to glow again.

"Did you learn nothing?" Adryan said with clear disappointment.

Boom!

From the black cloud caused by the explosion, multiple fireballs chased Joseph who was barely rising from the ground as he held his face and breathed raggedly, his back to the edge of the crater.

Multiple veins pulsed in his neck and his scowl was as deep as the darkest abysses.

Huf! Huf! Huf!

"KENNNWAYYYYYYYY!!!!"

Seeing the heavy attack coming at him, Devil Joseph screamed furiously, a red mist slightly blinding his vision and clouding his judgment. Several green fireballs smelling of ammonia appeared behind him, 5 in total. Their size larger than the ones coming against him.

These balls flew into the air and went against the golden fireballs. Ready to destroy them and lunge at his enemy.

Before hitting the first golden fireball, it suddenly expanded and through it came out the knight facing the ammonia balls. A mad laughter accompanied him as the green of the balls took on a reddish color.

These reddish-green balls did a spin in the air and flew with power towards the demon who looked at this with his pupils picked out.

"Are you such an idiot? How can you use fire against me! No wonder your family is so disappointed in you! You nameless devil!!!" Adryan shouted with all the mockery he could muster finally using the information he had on Joseph to his fullest advantage.

Since meeting him face to face, Adryan had noticed how this one despite always mentioning his family's heritage, never mentioned his last name. And not only that, when the red-haired man provoked him with being a disgrace to his family, the man had reacted in an extremely impulsive manner.

As far as he knew from the original history and theories of some crazy fasts, a Devil's surname was the pride and blood of a Devil. Not having it could be considered a complete disgrace as it meant you were not recognized by the family.

'Of course. It's just a theory made by a bunch of lonely people with too much time for themselves and not much of a social life... But even they can be really useful.' Adryan thought with a grin as he raised a hand, his eyes locked into a completely frozen Devil.

A golden ball of fire formed in his hand and it quickly began to shrink.

The mist that slightly tinged Joseph's vision became a curtain of boiling blood. His vision turned red and reason left him.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!!"

His huge body took the man's fireballs head-on and his own, gaining even more wounds but nothing mattered. His sense of danger was completely drowned by the sea of red that was his anger.

In his current state, nothing mattered to Joseph. Who ignoring the pain of his wounds lunged at the Knight head-on.

"JOSEPH NO!! YOU FUCKING IDIOT!!!" The Doctor shouted angrily as he tried to get up after receiving the blast, his appearance even worse than before, with his eyes extremely sunken in and his skin breaking and peeling like paper showing the rotting, putrid flesh underneath.

He was about to take a shadowy leap to stop the crazed man but just as he was about to do so, a horrible sound made him want to cover his ears.

Chiiiiiiiii

An extremely high-pitched screeching sound began to echo through the cavern. Coming from the fireball that was compressing even more, going from being as big as a basketball to being just like a small ball and just kept getting smaller and smaller.

His spirituality warned him of the enormous danger of that attack!

He was sure that if Joseph received it full on he was going to die!

Not wanting to lose any more men as it would only make dealing with Kenway that much harder. The Doctor rushed into the shadows head first.

Reappearing to the side of the Devil without Reason, he pushed him out of the way and they were both quickly covered by the shadows.

In the second it took for their bodies to be covered by the shadows, the Doctor and the Knight found themselves facing each other again. The latter pointed his arm at the duo and in the palm of it a small sphere of light, barely bigger than a Ping Pong ball and still shrinking, let out a horrible screeching sound.

Seeing such an attack so close and being in the sight of it, the little that remained of the Doctor's skin bristled. Fear along with enormous confusion was born in him.

If being so close to it did that to him. Why didn't Joseph who is a Devil move out of the way?

No matter how crazy and out of his mind he was. If something threatened his life, the devil would abandon all sense of attack and dodge it or run away from that danger! 

The current Joseph made no sense!

Then why-

Eyes widened in recognition and the Doctor looked to the side, to where the womb was throbbing in the middle of the crater.

Immediately realizing the man's true purpose, the Doctor could only watch helplessly as the red-haired man's white sphere hand moved from them to the uterus.

"See you never bitch!" grinning madly and holding his arm that was shaking hard. Adryan stopped holding the sphere and shot.

The screeching stopped and an extremely thin line of highly concentrated energy shot out of his palm. This beam of energy crossed the 40 meters of the lake with extreme ease and struck the womb!

The inside of it was glowing for an instant before a golden explosion blew it into a thousand pieces. Dense black smoke covered the womb area. 

"Hahahahahaha!" Adryan laughed madly, the plan had worked perfectly!

His goal had never been to kill the quintet. It had always been to damage the core!

He just wanted them to focus all their attention on attacking him instead of protecting the core to get a window! 

For a second, Adryan found himself somewhat confused. Why hadn't Chicho shown up already? He had destroyed the core outright-

His eyes widened as realization hit him.

He had destroyed the uterus but he didn't know if he had hit what was inside it!

Adryan's body suddenly froze, his pupils shrank and he found himself unable to think. His mind was completely clouded.

A horrible and incredibly heavy presence made its presence known in the cave. From the black smoke that made up the womb, a hand of red flesh emerged.

With disgusting thick hairs sticking out of it and thorns piercing its flesh. The hand was very thick, with stubby, somewhat short fingers. 

It looked like a baby's hand.

Waaaaa!

The cry of a newborn sounded in the cave.

...

High in the empty Backlund sky. Black storm clouds began to fill everything. An enormous amount of lightning began to rumble in these, completely humiliating Ace Snake's lightning bolts who looked at this in shock while Saturna looked at it with a huge smile.

Kraboom! Kraboom! Kraboom! Kraboom! 

With thunder roaming around and floating at the top of the tree and completely invisible to the two demigods, a woman dressed in ancient clothing and carrying a metal box in Her arms looked at all that was happening with serene crimson eyes.