Chapter 333 - Never Cut The Whiskers

Ruri's and Seth's fists met causing a massive explosion that shattered the ground beneath their feet.

Rocks floated in the air from the force of the collision but Ruri and Seth were completely focused on each other, not minding the rocks that would break on their superhuman skins.

Seth allowed Ruri to overpower him a bit, pushing him away from the debris in the air and then Seth accessed his mastery over his Death Dimension to supercharge the debris with Death-Energy.

*clap*

Seth clapped his hands together, sending all the debris shooting towards Ruri who was still at the center of the explosion.

[Shadow Travel]

Ruri was engulfed by her shadow and reappeared with her fist under Seth's jaw ready to strike a killer blow, but Seth was quick to react, tilting his head slightly to the side, avoiding a devastating blow.

*BOOM*

Ruri's fist impacted the air with such strength that the sound barrier was broken, sending out a shockwave that pushed Seth upwards into the air without any way to maneuver around.

[Shadow Stream]

Ruri transformed her body into a projectile of Shadows that traveled beyond supersonic speed to get to Seth's side.

[Shadow Travel] couldn't be used unless Seth was on or near the ground so Ruri selected her second-best means of Travel.

Just before Ruri could land a hit in Seth's stomach, The God of Death twisted his body in the air, managing to grab Ruri's fist with his bare hands.

*Bang*

There was a muffled sound of an explosion but Seth seemed unperturbed by the force of Ruri's attack.

Seth re-directed Ruri's punch from his stomach into the air above them and then gripped Ruri around the waist as he urged Death-Energy to shoot them both towards the ground like a cannon.

*BOOM*

Seth drilled Ruri into a crater in the ground with a force that split apart the Earth and shook the Death Dimension.

Ruri bounced up from the ground like a ball due to the impact and Seth used the opportunity, grabbing her around the neck and swinging her over his shoulder to smash her into the ground.

[Shadow Travel]

However, Ruri's body that should have collided with the ground, with force enough to kill a normal God thousands of times over, instead disappeared into the dark soil of the Death Dimension.

Ruri sunk into the shadows and hopped out of the shadows appearing behind Seth while charging up her fist with dark sparks of lightning.

[Shadow Lightning]

*BOOOM*

*ZZZZTTTTT*

Seth felt a massive impact along his spine and was sent scraping along the ground creating a split in the Earth with his near-indestructible body.

However, Ruri was not someone to give an enemy a breather, especially when she had him on the ropes.

"[Consuming Shadow]" Ruri muttered as a gate of Shadows appeared in Seth's path, swallowing him whole.

Still, Seth managed to whisper something before being consumed by a Gate into Ruri's Shadow Dimension.

"[Death Titan]" was what Seth said just before he was consumed but Ruri didn't know what Seth was referring to.

Before Ruri could figure it out, a gigantic fist was above her head as a Titan of Death grew from the dirt and Death-Energy of Seth's Death Dimension.

*BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM* *BBBBBBAAAAAANNNNNNNGGG*

The fist pounded Ruri into the ground, creating such an impact that Ruri was dazed and loosened her grip on Seth who had just entered one of her Shadow Dimensions.

Seth exited Ruri's Shadow Dimension with a thirst for vengeance. Seth blurred from his spot, shattering the sound barrier a couple of times over.

He reappeared about a mile in the air directly above where Ruri was buried by the gigantic fist of the Death Titan.

Seth raised both his hands above his head and the body of the Death Titan broke apart, swirled, and then began gathering above Seth's hands as he floated in the air.

When the Death Titan was reduced to nothing, Seth had molded an enormous, 20-miles wide sphere of Earth from the Titan's body.

Seth ignited the sphere with Flames of Death and tossed it towards Ruri who was buried in the crater below.

What such an attack would do to his Dimension was the least of Seth's worries, now he was only concerned with killing Ruri.

[Meteor of Death]

An enormous meteor, filled to the brim with Death Flames, tore through the air towards the buried Ruri but Seth had taken a bit too long to perform the attack.

Ruri had already awakened beneath the Earth and proceeded to make a painful sacrifice that made her eyes water in reluctance.

The bracelet on Ruri's left wrist broke apart, releasing the power of an entire pseudo-Shadow Dimension into Ruri's weakened body.

Ruri felt her wounds heal as she sank deeper into a trance that connected her with more and more Shadows in the Death Dimension.

"[All-Consumer]" Ruri yelled in a beastly voice, urging all the shadows to heed her command.

A crack of Shadows opened in the void above Ruri and expanded until it was exactly 20-miles wide, just enough for the [Meteor of Death] to be consumed entirely.

The Meteor was swallowed by the crack of Shadows and Seth even thought that he mistakenly heard a burp exit the Crack of Shadows before it was closed.

That moment of Seth's random thoughts gave Ruri the time she required to appear above Seth, throwing a roundhouse kick with all her might that shattered Seth's internal organs.

*BOOOM*

Seth crashed into the ground wounded but his wounds were recovering rapidly.

[Shadow Travel]

Ruri's shadow consumed her and the next moment she was in front of Seth just a moment after he had collided with the ground.

"[Shadow Manifestation]" Ruri thought, creating a gloomy, dark katana that had the engraving 'Veil of The Night'.

Ruri pierced at Seth's neck, intending to kill The God of Death with one fatal blow using her most treasured weapon.

The thrust of the katana ripped the fabric of reality and sliced at alternate realities as it made its way towards Seth's neck, but The God of Death could not be felled so easily.

Seth did the only thing he could – his infamous Scythe appeared in his hands, blocking the attack of Ruri's Primordial Katana of Darkness.

One Divine caliber weapon canceled another Divine Calibre weapon…

*Cling*

As the sound of a blocked attack echoed in Ruri's ear, she glared at Seth and he returned a similar glare with his eyes that were blinded by Elizabeth's attack.

"[Realm of Shadows]" Ruri whispered causing Seth's already hindered senses to weaken further.

Seth found himself trapped in an illusion of only Shadows but he was not an Elder God for no reason.

Though he was blinded by Elizabeth's unexpected attack, Seth was also in his own Dimension so there was still a way to see without using any of his senses – just use his Dimension to feel for intrusion.

Seth spun around and slashed outward with his Scythe, blocking Ruri's stealth attack while also breaking free of her hastily cast illusionary world.

*Cling*

Then the thought of battle was tossed away, all that entered Ruri's mind was the need to kill the threat in front of her…

And she had to be quick about it since her compressed Shadow Dimension Clones were being depleted a bit too fast for comfort.

Thousands of blows were exchanged in the blink of an eye as the battle continued to rage on… shaping the environment anew… Shadows versus Death but all attacks were based in Darkness.

∞∞

Zeel watched the constant explosions and earth-rending forces that erupted from Seth and Ruri fighting.

It may have looked like Ruri was holding her own against Seth but Zeel knew that her Shadow-Dimension Beads were rapidly losing potency.

He could tell, even from this distance, that she had already sacrificed one of her beads and would soon be forced to sacrifice the other two, leaving her powerless without a Dimension to manipulate.

'Well, she wouldn't be exactly powerless,' Zeel thought 'She would still have the natural Blood-Manipulation of an Akasha,'

Zeel was planning to intervene before Ruri was forced into desperation but when he gazed at Elizabeth's face, he twistingly thought that it was not such a bad idea for Ruri to die,

Healing Elizabeth had somehow become his number one priority in a Battle of Life and Death.

Logically, he should abandon Elizabeth to aid Ruri since she would be much more useful in a combat situation, but something just made it hard for him to leave Elizabeth's side.

"You should go," Alice whispered through gritted teeth as she saw the struggle apparent on Zeel's face.

As much as Alice wanted Zeel to stay and help her keep Elizabeth alive, she also knew that keeping him here would force Zeel to make an even harder decision.

It was against logic to remain and hence it was also against The Homo-Superior Way of Life.

Keeping Zeel away from the battle would just ensure that he killed Elizabeth himself to avoid the conflict of judgment altogether.

"But -" Zeel wanted to refuse but found himself lacking the strength to refuse since he wanted Elizabeth to live and die at the same time… he was extremely conflicted.

"I said fucking Go!" Alice shouted, flaring her aura to push Zeel away from her and Elizabeth.

Zeel was pushed back a couple of feet but still didn't leave because somewhere deep inside he knew…

Zeel knew that leaving when his wives needed him the most would create a fracture unlike any other in their relationship.

Previously, Alice and Elizabeth thought they were invincible due to Zeel's paranoid nature but with Elizabeth dying and the battle looking hopeless, Alice knew that such wasn't the case anymore.

Even if she didn't want to admit it to herself, Alice knew that one of Zeel's only redeeming qualities was the fact that he could always protect her and Elizabeth.

Alice didn't particularly mind that Zeel could not protect her since she was always used to doing her own thing from the beginning.

However, Alice was angry that Zeel couldn't protect Elizabeth so she decided to give Zeel an ultimatum.

"If you cannot promise me that Elizabeth will live… then we are over," Alice stated plainly, hoping that Zeel would realize that her threat was genuine.

Zeel did not immediately reply and simply turned around, walking off into the distance, leaving behind a lingering answer "I will be back!"

With a flickering of Transparent Lightning, Zeel was already miles away, about to enter battle against Seth.

∞∞

[Deep Time-Zone]

The world around Zeel seemed frozen in time as the environment around him distorted and was destroyed by the intensity of his Transparent-Lightning running amok.

*step*

*step*

Zeel took two steps and the ground deformed under the force of his steps but Zeel was already gone by the time the ground under his feet turned into molten rock.

Only a line of molten lava could be seen from where Zeel had stepped.

Zeel dashed forward, running along with the flow that he had become all too familiar with when the world was slowed to near frozen-in-time.

Lightning flickered and then Zeel appeared amidst the frozen battlefield where Ruri and Seth were slowly exchanging blows.

Compared to the near-frozen world around, Seth and Ruri were fighting at near-normal human speed, showing just how fast they were actually moving relative to real-time.

Before Seth could put his guard up, Zeel wanted to strike a decisive blow. Truly, he was a bit worried about Elizabeth's health so Zeel used a trump card he promised never to use.

This trump card was highly unstable and Zeel would never take the risk but now, his mind was preoccupied with losing both his wives.

He knew that Alice's threat was as serious as a human heart attack… and from what he got from the internet, the human heart was a very unique conceptual entity.

Zeel took a deep breath, forcing the air to go down his throat like a sludge due to the Time-Zone he currently occupied.

Ruri had noticed Zeel preparing for something big so she created adequate space between herself and Seth.

Ruri knew that Zeel wouldn't care about her safety when he attacked… that was just his nature as a Homo-Superior.

"[Homo-Superior: Crawford Family Technique – World of Timelessness]" Zeel shouted and the very fabric of time-space in Seth's Dimension came to a halt.

Ruri was frozen in time, Seth was frozen in time, the Dimension was frozen in time, and everywhere even remotely connected to this Dimension was frozen in time.

The technique was as lethal as Homo-Superior techniques came, specifically, Crawford Household Techniques since they could manipulate Time expertly.

However, Zeel knew that using this technique came with a great risk that was immediately becoming apparent as orange particles were slowly eating away at the barriers of the technique.

The orange particles were called 'Motion Particles' and they served to keep Science-based techniques from affecting the 4th Dimension while grounded in the 3rd Dimension.

Manipulating Time through the use of supernatural forces would attract the attention of powerful Beings but Manipulating Time using Science would forbid all Supernatural Beings from 'righteously' intervening.

Usually, Zeel's Technique would also freeze the Motion Particles but that was no longer the case due to the power of Absolute.

Zeel fought against the heaviness weighing on his shoulders and rushed towards the frozen Seth as a blade made of nanites grew from his palm.

Zeel was almost at Seth's location when he noticed imperceptible movement being made by The God of Death and Ruri.

That told Zeel that the Absolute was wiping the Homo-Superior Technique from existence and soon, even he would forget ever having this technique in his arsenal of abilities.

Zeel charged his sword with his Divine-Lightning and slashed at Seth, severing an arm of the God of Death but he didn't stop there.

Zeel charged even more Divine-Lightning into his next blow and gathered all the power his muscles could produce as he hacked at Seth's dog-like head.

Halfway through his slashing motion, Zeel felt his technique disappear without a trace and he forgot about everything apart from the fact that he wanted to kill Seth.

Seth reacted quickly, ducking under Zeel's slash at the last possible second but it was at that time that Ruri used her shadow to bind Seth in place.

Zeel managed to lower his slash at the last possible moment, leaving a laceration on Seth's cheek while also cutting all of Seth's whiskers.

Zeel didn't even have a chance to relax, the next moment he was pulled into a shadow as he and Ruri teleported a couple of miles away from Seth.

Both Zeel and Ruri could feel the atmosphere of the entire Death-Dimension become indifferent. The type of indifference born from witnessing Death too many times.

"We are going to die now…" Ruri stated like it was a fact and there was nothing they could do about it.

Unexpectedly, Zeel just nodded and raised the single whisker he had caught from his earlier attack.

"We are definitely going to die," Zeel stated a bit sadly.

"Why the fuck would you cut off his whisker?" Ruri shouted angrily "You don't do that shit in battles of Life and Death!"

"If you didn't hold him in place, I would have missed and we didn't have to die so early," Zeel countered lazily but Ruri could hear the edge in his voice.

Zeel's eyes darted around the landscape but saw no sign of Seth.

"I don't think he is -"

Zeel's words were stuck in his throat when he witnessed a headless Ruri and Seth standing behind her with his mouth wide open, slurping on the ruby-red blood of Ruri's severed head.

'Well, Fuck me sideways!' Zeel thought depressingly.