Death

'Phuff...I managed to get here in time' Kevin exhaled deeply before eyeing the terrified Sophia, who was lying on the ground with deep holes scattered around her body, 'Such injuries...how is she still conscious'

Fortunately, Kevin managed to notice the bright beams coming from this direction, and knowing something was wrong, he rushed over and managed to stop the advance in time.

'Thank you, teacher' Kevin said in his head, seeing the lifelessly lying body, covered in crimson blood.

'This voice...this hair....Kevin?' Sophia immediately recognized the identity of the masked man, as her eyes shimmered with doubt, 'But why is he here? What is this monster? What's this gear?'

"Sophia, I understand you have many questions, but we have to somehow retreat" Kevin replied, feeling the mana supply slowly dwindling.

Although Wolf managed to stop the attack, it still left a deep wound on its belly, and combined with the fact that Kevin's injuries were still fresh, battling against beasts would be disastrous.

"Sophia, heal yourself and escape, I will stall the ape" Kevin resolved with slight anger. Even though Sophia wasn't killed, witnessing such damages on your only close person still filled his eyes with fury, but he tried to keep his emotions under control.

"You retreat, Kevin, I will stall the beast" Sophia retorted while struggling to get up despite the pain.

'Seems there is no other way' Kevin thought internally as he summoned Hulu, who instantly gripped Sophia into his two hands.

"WHA -" Sophia tried to free herself from the beast's embrace, but it was impossible because of the fatal injuries.

"Go" Kevin ordered, and Hulu nodded, beginning to creep back out of the area.

Sophia couldn't even cry out before she began to promptly move away from the scene, leaving Kevin standing behind with a scary beast beside him.

The ape, however, had already cast an eye on the retreating Sophia, which shone with red color as if it was getting angrier by the second.

The ape formed another ball of light on the edge of its finger and aimed at the retreating figure.

The sudden appearance of more and more people was getting annoying for the monkey, so it decided to end it fastly and maybe find some more toys to play with.

'As expected, he won't let her go so easily' Kevin cursed inwardly before ordering the Wolf to block the attack.

As soon as the light bullet shot out of the monkey's finger, Wolf appeared right in front of the attack and repeated the actions.

However, this time, the light bullet penetrated right through Wolf's body, causing it to disappear from the spot as the light bullet continued to move into the distance.

Fortunately, the orb's direction was altered as it flew into the nearby building, causing a loud bang that overwhelmed the surroundings.

The ape's eyes shone with incredible light, showing its immense rage brewing from within.

The constant failure to kill this woman really annoyed the ape as it fixed its gaze on the weakly standing Kevin, deciding to kill this human first.

'It seems that emotions did fluctuate my actions.... I didn't think about what I would do after Sophia withdrew. I'm out of mana and escaping is impossible' Kevin tried to put a plan in his head that wouldn't end in his death.

Just as the monkey was about to attack, an idea struck Kevin as he said:

"Adam"

Hearing the words that came out of Kevin's mouth, the ape paused as the anger inside of its eyelids subsided.

'As I thought, Valaar doesn't have full control over his beasts' Kevin thought as he proceeded to convince the ape of his true identity:

"Don't you remember? You're one of the workers in the hunter's union, Adam"

At this point, the monkey completely stopped as it looked doubtfully at Kevin.

"Do you remember, Natasha? Your work colleague and friend"

"Nata-natasha" the monkey muttered as it looked into its own hands, seemingly lost in deep thought while Kevin already began to back away slowly, taking tiny steps.

'Slowly...Slowly' Kevin tried not to make any swift movement, so the beast wouldn't notice his reluctant departure.

However, with the next move that Kevin made, a soft sound of something cracking echoed through the area.

The ape immediately looked up, only to see the already fast-moving figure as its eyes glimmered with killing intent.

Pushing all previous doubts aside, the monkey lunged at Kevin, who was hoping to escape unnoticed.

'Sh*t....if I want to stay alive, there's no other way' Kevin cursed inwardly as he slid his hand into the pocket, pulling out four shiny crystals.

After eyeing them frantically, Kevin stuffed them all into his mouth and swallowed immediately after.

Incredible energy completely overwhelmed him as veins burst from his forehead while blood began to flow directly from his nostrils.

Coupled with the immense pain, the mana reservoir near his heart began to grow, filled with the chaotic energy.

"Come out, servants," Kevin called to the three servants, except for Hulu, who was still retreating with the unwilling Sophia.

"Stay here," Kevin ordered as he disarmed the blade with his newfound power.

Although it was possible to increase a person's mana by forcibly eating soul ores, it was only for a short duration. Many would not even dare to eat the crystals, despite the danger, because of the possible consequences such action could bring.

Right after the soul crystals lose their effect, the mana in the person's body may abruptly become unstable, causing the person to turn into a half-beast or the beast itself.

On the other hand, it can also regress the human's cultivation or even cripple them completely.

Death is also a possibility.

However, Kevin cannot doubt such decisions at the moment. Retreating with a tiny amount of mana is impossible. Either he faces the ape head-on with all his might and hope for a possible escape, or get pierced from behind by the rain of attacks.

"I have to be quick," Kevin groaned out in the direction of the incoming small ape as he swung forward with his blade.

However, just at the moment when they were about to collide, Kevin turned the blade 180 degrees and executed an attack from below.

The little monkey only smirked at such actions as a bright dagger formed in its small hand, catching Kevin by surprise:

'So he has the power to completely control light and shape any object he wants'

The ape slashed at Kevin's blade as he felt an immense weight on his shoulders that made him grit his teeth in pain.

"NOW", Kevin shouted while trying to resist the tremendous power of the beast.

The servants who were slowly circling the duo, after hearing Kevin's command, immediately pounced on the ape.

However, only a grin formed on the ape's face as one of its hands flickered.

Kevin felt a certain uneasiness forming around the area, but it was too late to retreat, so he continued to push the blade, trying to at least keep it balanced.

The servants that were rushing at the ape from all sides suddenly stopped, confusing Kevin.

No matter what Kevin ordered, the beasts always carried it out without disobeying.

So why were they stopping now?

However, the dissolution of a part of his already chaotic mana caused Kevin to glance at the servant with more precision until finally noticing the problem.

Invisible objects were statured through the beasts' bodies, leaving obscure holes in their bodies.

'Invisible attack? No way, did that monkey merge his two god powers?' Kevin guessed before proceeding to push the blade with all the power.

Sometimes when humans or beasts have dual god powers, which is quite rare, they are able to fuse the two and create new, deadly attacks.

But that's only possible with immense control and composure, which isn't something easily achieved.

'Even after forcing my cultivation, I'm still nowhere near as strong as this monkey...and the mana is only getting more turbulent,' Kevin muttered dejectedly in his head.

The monkey began to slowly push the sword further, causing tremendous pain in Kevin's shoulder, until eventually, Kevin could no longer hold on.

Lettin the sword go, Kevin instantly punched towards the monkey's jaw, yet the attack was easily dodged.

Engaging in combat, Kevin proceeded to attack from every side while doing many maneuvers. Unfortunately, all the attacks were easily anticipated by the beast.

Kevin was desperate.

No matter what he tried, not a single stroke landed on the monkey's body, and he became even more hopeless after feeling the mana turning completely abstract.

"Cough" Kevin suddenly got hit straight into the stomach as a gush of blood shot out from his mouth.

Due to the incredible force behind the blow, Kevin was sent flying backward as he did a few spins in the air before landing on the ground in torment.

The usual collective face disappeared from Kevin's grimace as he slowly turned pale. The disordered mana within him was already on the verge of completely overwhelming him, and along with all the accumulated injuries, he was truly becoming hopeless.

However, just as he was about to lose consciousness, an unexpected warmth inundated him, causing the mana to slowly settle.

"No way" Kevin glanced behind, and as predicted, the familiar girl with dark hair and delicate yet serious face was standing there, chanting [Healing] at his body. All the injuries on her body seemed to have already been treated, but Kevin only turned even more hopeless.

'Did Hulu disappear because I ate those ores?' Kevin cursed inwardly.

He had acted so recklessly for the sole factor that Sophia would get safely evacuated.

Kevin was willing to sacrifice his own life just so Sophia could be saved, yet she came back, proving all of his previous actions to be in vain.

"Sophia, why did you come back? Quickly run away" said Kevin weakly as he gritted his teeth in pain. Despite Sophia's healing, it still wasn't enough to calm the chaotic mana inside him.

"Kevin, I can't run away...I can't leave you behind," Sophia said firmly as she stepped in front of Kevin, facing the monkey, who had been smiling throughout the entire time after seeing her coming back.

"Sophia, you don't understand....now that you are back, we are basically both dea-cough" Kevin fell back to the ground as his eye reddened, causing Sophia to put more mana into healing.

However, the sudden brightness that spread from the side caused both of them to look towards the monkey, where an already incoming bright ball of light could be seen.

"Ru- cough," Kevin tried to summon the bear, but he once again fell to the cement in unending agony, "Rum"

A dark creature rose from the ground, shrouding the duo in gloomy shadow. Yet, the shadow disappeared immediately after, as Kevin could not force it to emerge again after getting destroying by the monkey's attack.

"Where is he?" Sophia murmured, not seeing the monkey anywhere in sight. Panic spread across her face as she felt a certain déjà vu that forced her to look towards the direction of the struggling Kevin.

Suddenly, a bright light flickered behind Kevin's body as Sophia immediately rushed forward.

Kevin couldn't even react in time as he was knocked aside by a pair of hands, causing him to roll a few feet to the side.

*Thrust*

'What is happening?' Kevin questioned, trying to stop the constant rolling, and after some struggling, he finally managed to settle. However, once he looked towards the source of the noise, devastation and horror spread across his face.

Sophia stood on the place with a golden sword pierced right into her ribs while blood slowly spread throughout her already broken gear.

All the defoliation which was on her expression earlier disappeared and was replaced with warmth and care once she looked at the shocked Kevin.

"I...am..sorry" she mumbled wryly while her eyes turned watery before she slowly closed them.

"Sophia?" Kevin repeated doubtfully, sticking out his hand forward as if to reach her paling face. Shock spread throughout the entirety of his cast as his heartbeat stopped.

"SOPHIA!!!"

Kevin yelled as his eyes suddenly went completely black, alerting even the smiling monkey.

Sensing something not being right, the monkey dissipated the glowing blade, causing Sophia to fall lifelessly to the ground.

Dark liquid began to make its way out of Kevin's eyes while he stood up from the ground as if he had never had any injuries.

Monkey unconsciously took a step back due to the immense pressure coming from Kevin's body.

The current Kevin didn't seem like the weakling from before at all. Instead, it was as if the demon himself was standing in front of the monkey.

"You are dea-cough" a completely different voice rang through the vicinity, followed by a bloody cough.

Once again, Kevin fell to the ground as his eyes regained their normalcy. This time, however, Kevin did not rise anymore, losing consciousness on the spot.

The ape, who had been already prepared to retreat, shifted his gaze back to Kevin's pitiful body. Despite Kevin's vulnerable appearance, the monkey was still afraid to make any sudden movements, recalling the feeling of powerlessness in front of those dark eyes.

However, before the beast could decide whether to act or not, a loud bang resounded from inside of his brain as he immediately moved towards the south without even glancing back at the prone Kevin.

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Somewhere in a desert, far from the land of Japan.

Two completely blood-soaked figures stood right next to each other, breathing deeply.

"You nearly killed me, strong human, but by teleporting me here and saving your useless breed, you almost used up all your powers," Valaar spoke while wiping off the blood from his dark mouth, "You are the second human to gain my respect."

"I do not need your consolation" Oda muttered as he fell forward hitting the warm sand.

A slight breeze landed on Valaar's smiling face as he turned away from the dead Oda's body before muttering:

"Come back, my children...it's enough for today"