Chapter 93
Zavi kept blowing up the paths he passed through to make it harder for the seven people chasing him.
However, of course, those seven people, one of them being Celina, attacked Zavi using her basic supernatural ability: controlling the objects around her with magnetic force, while the other four kept firing pistols and revolvers at him.
But Aaron repeatedly thwarted those attempts, trying to protect Zavi so he could focus on recovering.
Several minutes later, Zavi had transferred the wound in his chest by sacrificing half of the spirituality within his body, and he kept running while replenishing his spiritual energy until he reached the pathway north of the university.
A vast grassy field used for sports such as horseback riding, archery, and others, illuminated only by the moonlight.
Then Aaron's body emerged from underground as his hand formed first, before he raised it and released the veil of shadows beneath the earth.
He stared at the seven people walking forward with steady steps, several of them glaring at him with clear dislike.
Aaron clicked his tongue.
"That woman has something valuable," Aaron said, breaking the tense silence. "Want to take it?" he asked while glancing sideways.
At that moment, the two of them stood on grass that reached ankle height and slightly higher ground than the grassy field where the seven people stood.
"Something valuable?" Zavi asked to confirm, glancing sideways.
"A hidden Artifact," Aaron answered calmly.
Zavi fell silent for a moment to think, then after that he looked at Aaron and said casually;
"If you want it, then it can't be helped."
Aaron smiled faintly.
"This is what I've been waiting for."
Immediately after that, his body shot forward and crawled through the surrounding shadows.
Zavi's breath hitched, his fingers trembling as he held onto his hat while his gaze fixed on the seven people charging toward him.
Zavi immediately ran backward, fighting on uneven grassy terrain could make him lose.
Two people lunged at him with extremely fast movements as they slid from where Zavi had been standing moments ago, then swung a punch with the hand holding a revolver directly toward his head, but failed when Zavi smacked the hand away.
Not stopping there, the corner of his lips lifted into something close to a smile as the man was about to pull the trigger.
Bang!
Zavi reflexively tilted his head, then rolled to the side, and just as he was about to stand up, a heavy punch from the woman beside him landed squarely on his chest. The woman stuck a sheet of rough-patterned paper onto the left side of his jacket before retreating several steps.
Boom!
As black smoke filled the area where Zavi stood, something shifted in his throat, making him suddenly cough as he stumbled out of the smoke.
Then, a thunderous voice rang out, almost like an echoing command.
"Now." The woman ordered her companion to fire mercilessly into the smoke surrounding the area ahead of them.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The gunshots echoed through the silent night across the university grasslands, causing the man and woman to stand still as they observed the situation ahead.
Meanwhile, Aaron moved with incredible agility as he attacked and slipped underground, merging into the shadows of trees and buildings near the field, including the shadows of the five people fighting him.
He was not being serious. He was enjoying the game because he wanted to provoke his opponents, especially Celina.
A cold voice mixed with mockery rang out loudly as the five of them tightened their positions into a circle.
"Why are you all so weak."
"Are you scared to fight me alone, Celina?"
"Is this really all you're capable of?"
Aaron kept talking endlessly, provoking Celina until the veins of rage bulged on her face, her jaw tightened, and her fingers gripped her pistol tightly.
"Come out, traitor," Celina shouted loudly. Then she smiled mockingly as she continued, "What, are you scared? Still upset because you lost because of that pathetic trick?"
From underground, Aaron clicked his tongue while wearing a slightly annoyed expression.
"If I am, then what?" Aaron shot back while solidifying his form and standing not far from them, making all five immediately break their circular formation.
One of them, a man with deep dark brown eyes and long black hair tied back, pointed his revolver at him.
Then...
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Aaron stayed still as he realized three bullets were speeding toward him. With relaxed yet measured movements, he began splitting his body apart, allowing the bullets to pass through and destroy the pillar and lantern lamp on the building behind him.
He glanced back before looking at them with a sharp, disgusted stare. He was slightly irritated because he had planned to save that resurrection ability for later, yet he had been forced to use it today because of Celina's earlier shot.
Then he immediately rushed forward, allowing shots from the three men to continue flying toward him as he accelerated, coating his hands and sharpening his nails with shadows, shattering the bullets apart.
The five separated, Celina taking the initiative to spread black smoke while rapidly moving through it. As the black smoke crashed toward Aaron and obscured his vision, Celina instantly appeared behind him and fired while adding magnetic force to the bullet.
But because seriousness had completely overtaken his mind, Aaron managed to avoid the attack with the help of the shadow beneath his feet, swallowing the bullet for a moment before delivering a crushing punch toward Celina.
Thud...
Her face flushed red as she was thrown several meters away and crashed into her female companion standing not far from her.
Thud.
The two collided together, with the woman's head pinned beneath Celina's leg, including the tip of her black boot that seemed to jab painfully into her chest.
The remaining three men immediately launched a counterattack, one charging forward while the other two fired at Aaron from a distance.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
With one swift movement, Aaron spun the nearby man around and used him as a human shield against the bullets.
The man screamed loudly as several bullets tore through his chest, piercing his lungs and heart.
Blood poured heavily from the holes in his white shirt, staining his tailcoat crimson as his vision blurred while he desperately tried to hold the wound shut.
The two companions who witnessed it wore grim yet furious expressions.
And the man who had fired at Aaron the very first time signaled to the man beside him by pushing him backward.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" the man beside him asked with deep hesitation.
"Of course," he answered with a bitter smile directed toward him. "I'll do it, and end that man's life, and this will become the punishment for everything I've done until now." On that last sentence, he lowered his voice, almost into a whisper.
Celina and the woman from before stood up simultaneously and watched the man, Nafer, calmly walking toward Aaron, and both were startled as they shifted their gazes elsewhere, staring at their companion lying across the red-stained grass with blood scattered everywhere.
"Aaron..." Celina's teeth chattered as she spoke with rage burning inside her chest.
The man, Asivise, along with Celina and the woman beside her, Rose, hurriedly fled after realizing there would be massive destruction once Nafer truly used his ability.
Aaron felt confused, every breath felt like burning embers scorching his throat as he stared at Nafer walking toward him so calmly, as though he had awakened a tiger from its sleep.
He swallowed hard as sweat began pouring down his face.
Without a single word leaving his mouth, Nafer formed a U-shape with both hands pointed upward, then in an instant several monsters with bizarre, horrifying, and disgusting forms emerged and stood around Nafer.
Meanwhile, Zavi, who had already defeated those two people with little effort because they were merely ordinary humans, was trying to help Aaron deal with the remaining five when he froze in shock while standing on the grassy hill above and saw countless strange creatures surrounding Nafer.
His mouth hung open as he spoke in disbelief. "What the hell are those?"
He remained standing still as he watched those creatures begin running toward Aaron, while at the same time he stared at Nafer whose face twisted as though enduring something while something delicate like threads wrapped around his body.
'That's it, huh?' Zavi thought, feeling extremely familiar with Nafer's method after the creatures began moving.
Then he slowly backed away and began summoning foxes and jellyfish whose forms were created from dark purple aura wrapped in pale grayish-white aura.
Zavi maintained complete control over his own body as his created creatures began advancing under his command and hiding behind the tall trees lining the vast grasslands, waiting for the perfect moment.
Meanwhile, Aaron repeatedly split apart his body and condensed it again to launch basic attacks from the Exorcist Ability, enough to kill several of those creatures before splitting his body apart again and merging into the shadows.
He repeated the same movement several times, but he made one mistake because those creatures actually split into even more creatures every time he killed them.
"Are they zombies?" Aaron muttered while attacking with his hands and the shadows beneath his feet.
Then, as the creatures multiplied more and more than before, Aaron suddenly fell silent while raising his hand upward, triggering a circular wave of shadows beneath his feet that caused the ground to tremble briefly before the shadows hardened and crushed the creatures with varying forms; resembling cats, tigers, buffaloes, bulls, or black panthers, destroying them and even preventing some of them from splitting apart again.
Aaron did not expect this to end so quickly. The other creatures that survived Aaron's attack charged at him again, faster than before, trying to rip his body apart.
He dodged reflexively, causing his ankle to throb painfully in the middle of battle and Aaron grimaced from the pain.
Then he split his body apart once more and condensed himself in a safer location. But that was not enough, because a small cat-like creature moved swiftly without Aaron noticing and crushed the ankle he had sprained earlier.
Crack...
The sound of bones snapping rang out, followed by the sound of sharp teeth clashing against bone, accompanied by a scream echoing across the battlefield.
"ARGHHH... You bastard." The shadows beneath his feet churned violently, forming a hand that shot toward the creature and crushed it instantly.
Meanwhile, staggering unsteadily, he stared at Nafer who remained silent while casting him an indifferent gaze. That only made Aaron's irritation rise even further.
Then, the creatures whose attention had been entirely focused on Aaron immediately shifted behind Nafer after seeing the many foxes rapidly rushing toward the one who summoned them.
Realizing there were now two groups of creatures and animals that appeared to be creations born from supernatural abilities, Nafer immediately recalled the creatures, causing them all to vanish instantly like mist blown away by the wind, and he quickly turned around trying to destroy the foxes.
With a sliding footwork movement, he managed to knock down many of the foxes before they vanished as something sword-shaped destroyed their forms.
Even Zavi, who shared vision with the foxes, did not react to the countless swords created from Nafer's spiritual energy combined with one of his abilities.
Receivers of The Coffin, at the second stage, Executioner.
Contract Ritual, one of the three abilities of Executioner capable of taking several demonic horses from hell through an oath to demons and handing complete control of ten demonic horses over to his companion named Canel.
However, the efforts of the two of them alongside their companions and allies failed because of two things; the howling wolf, a fugitive with his Recipestele, and a young woman who was cold yet elegant and ruined all of their plans.
And... this was the pursuit both of them had long awaited, while also serving as atonement for the cruel acts that had caused several people to burn alive in flames and turned Moran City into an abandoned dead city.
The two-against-one battle immediately began as Zavi rose from where he had been standing before while Aaron had recovered the lower part of his leg that had been gnawed apart by the creatures.
Aaron immediately charged forward while splitting his body apart so Nafer could not touch him, then condensed himself again while launching a punch coated with another ability, Extraction, Destroyer, which allowed him to expel the soul from a person's body.
However, it was not as easy as he thought. The attack was effortlessly deflected as several swords rained down upon Aaron from above, forcing him backward while he struck at the slightly transparent swords wrapped in purple aura.
But this was merely a distraction so Zavi could freely attack Nafer from behind. Realizing the deadly weapon Zavi had once used in an attempt to kill him was emerging from underground, Aaron immediately split apart and sank into the earth.
With countless tentacles injecting poison into Nafer's body without him realizing it, he immediately moved to search for Aaron and shattered the grassy terrain using the nearly transparent purple-aura swords.
An explosion erupted instantly. It blasted a crater into the ground and unleashed a wave of heat shooting upward at incredible speed, causing the surrounding air to distort.
Sensing something was wrong, Nafer immediately summoned his swords and surrounded his body with them, attacking anyone who entered his territory.
But the moment Aaron slightly stretched out his hand, the swords were instantly hurled toward him and in a split second his hand vanished as blood poured heavily while he condensed his form and stood beside Zavi.
The two exchanged glances before turning away, descending the slightly elevated grassy terrain and leaving Nafer alone amidst the swirling dust within suffocating silence and darkness as the moon gradually disappeared behind the deep blue night sky.
Meanwhile, as the three of them; Celina, Asivise and Rose, had walked away from the spot, they were astonished to find themselves suddenly on a path flanked on both sides by lush trees.
The location was on another road, to the west of the university.
The three of them stood still, holding their breath, as they watched the five people standing not far from the junction ahead.
The Devils is here.