"Boasting already? I'll stand right here and see just how you plan to tear me to pieces. Within the World Tree's range, I don't fear anyone." Fafner drew the weapon he'd used to kill the guards earlier: a long metal whip.
"Even without the World Tree, you wouldn't be my match. Gold Saint, I'm nothing like those weak former God Warriors who lost to your Sanctuary."
"Let me split you in half! Dragonman Bomb!" The metal whip lashed toward Deathmask with incredible speed.
Deathmask neither dodged nor flinched. He reached out and grabbed straight for the barbed metal whip.
"Fool! Then die for me, Gold Saint!" Fafner flicked his wrist and the whip's trajectory shifted again.
But Deathmask's body moved at the same instant, flashing like light. The whip came to a dead stop, firmly caught in his hand.
"Impossible! A Gold Saint with his Cosmo suppressed can still see through my technique?" Fafner's eyes widened as his weapon was halted.
His only answer was Deathmask's contemptuous smile. "To abandon your body and rely on toys like this… So this is a God Warrior. Witness the wrath of a Gold Saint."
"Cancer Light-Speed Fist!" Countless flashes like lightning streaked around Fafner's body. He was blasted into the air, spitting blood.
By the time he hit the floor again, his God Robe was crisscrossed with cracks. That one attack had actually damaged its supposedly sturdy armor.
"No way… How can your Cosmo still be so strong?" Fafner struggled to his feet, staring at Deathmask in disbelief. "The World Tree should be suppressing your Cosmo. Even as a Gold Saint, you shouldn't be able to beat me. Why?"
"Because our Cosmos are no longer suppressed," Aphrodite answered before Deathmask could.
"Impossible. Lord Andreas wouldn't lie to us. What trick did you use?" Fafner growled. His earlier overconfidence had led him to skimp on defense and suffer a serious wound. At full strength he might have stood a chance; now his odds were close to zero.
Especially with two of them here. Fafner had never been much of a warrior. Faced with this situation, the thought of retreating sprang up immediately.
"Trying to run? Did you ask us? Tear everything apart—Piranhan Rose!" Aphrodite read his intent at a glance and flung several black roses before Fafner could move.
"Perfect timing." Seeing Aphrodite attack, Fafner actually rejoiced. He planned to escape while Aphrodite struck. As for the black roses? He barely cared. Just a few flowers—what if they hit?
But his skin crawled an instant later. When the black rose touched his God Robe, the armor that had only cracked under the light-speed fists actually began dissolving like soap bubbles. Only by reacting quickly, rolling clumsily across the floor to change direction, did he dodge the remaining roses.
"Those roses are terrifying," Fafner concluded, shaken.
They were one of Pisces's exclusive techniques: Piranhan Rose, one of the three deadly colors that could tear anything apart.
Even Andromeda's toughest chains among the Five Main Cloths could be corroded by them. Many Specters had suffered under this move in past Holy Wars. It could easily destroy high‑rank Surplices—let alone a normal God Robe without Odin's Sapphire.
"Hey, Aphrodite! I said this guy is my prey! Why are you butting in?" Before Fafner could react again, Deathmask turned and yelled, annoyed.
"Yeah, yeah, dead crab—I know you want to show off in front of your beloved. Just don't let him slip away, or explaining things to big bro Saga will be a problem." Aphrodite's deliberate use of "beloved" made both just-awakened Helena and Deathmask, facing Fafner, flush bright red.
"Got it, geez, you're such a pain…" The Golden Crab tsundere‑ing hard.
Tch, they're ignoring me completely. Damn it—why doesn't Lord Andreas's barrier work on these guys? What power… so this is a Gold Saint of the Sanctuary? Fafner glared with beady eyes, scanning for an opening.
"Hey, you, the sleazy uncle over there," Deathmask said.
"Damn you, with that scruffy mug you look more like an uncle than I do!" Fafner snapped back.
"Shut up. You dared hurt my Helena—so now you'll know the terror of the Land of the Dead." Deathmask raised his right hand; countless points of light gathered from all directions at his fingertips. "Look at what you've done. How many innocent people did you slaughter for your selfish wish?"
The lights were coming from the villagers embedded in the green crystals around the lab.
"What technique is this?" A bad feeling twisted in Fafner's gut as Deathmask's fingertip grew brighter.
"It feels weird to say this, but… today, I'm here to demand justice on behalf of all those innocent dead!"
"Go confess in the Underworld—Sekishiki Meikaiha!"
A purple beam shot toward Fafner. He tried to dodge, but to his horror, no matter where he moved, the beam curved after him even faster.
"My body… ah—" A black fissure opened above Fafner's head, the entrance to the Underworld. A tremendous suction dragged him upward. He clawed at the air, trying to grab onto something, anything, but it was useless. His body and his Cosmo vanished from sight.
"All done, dead rose. Too easy. That level of enemy, and he dared strut in front of us? Doesn't he know that I, Deathmask, have broken through to high‑level Seventh Sense lately? Let him play in Yomotsu Hirasaka for a while. Without my Meikaiha, he's not getting out."
"Come on, let's report back to big bro Saga. Tell him we landed a big fish. Andreas… tsk tsk, what a piece of work."
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