Chapter 160: Why am I in the Air!?

The King of the Underworld will not accept it; he will never accept such a pathetic death. He may accept his mistake of underestimating his opponent and, ultimately, overestimating a not hard-earned power like the crystal that is chucked into several parts of his body, but he will never accept such a one-sided defeat.

As petty as it might be, after all, it was he who had given himself an unrealistic standard of surpassing Urduja, and when he thought that he was able to finally do it, he was faced with an opponent that might not be stronger than him, but hell she is smarter, at least the said opponent knew that she was weaker than her adversary, thus took precautions and used all things that can be used under her disposal against Tydings, but for the king, it doesn't matter anymore.

_Honor doesn't have a bearing anymore, I just have to go down fighting back!_

The King of the Underworld is resolved. Thus, he opened his unique skill [King of the Underworld], he said earlier that he doesn't have a solution, however, at that time, he was in the lowest moment of his life, and he didn't have a very strong dose of adrenaline that is now being produced by his body. Thus, he never thought of double suicide.

He then willed it, and in an instant, he chose the ability [One Last Stand] it is an ability with a very self-explanatory effect, the user will be able to burn all of his life force to transform and mount a final stand against his opponent, a perfect ability for a double suicide, however still, it was normal for the system to send a warning for him, but Tydings ignored it, he was already dead, so he must as well die with a bang.

And thus, he activated it, the ability that would end his life and, hopefully, his enemy too.

________

Eleanor stared at the sand tsunami that became increasingly silent as it finally stopped hovering violently, she squinted her eyes, wary, in her hands was her second set of preparation besides the stored mana, a 4th dimension rift spell that is directly connected to Ruphas whom Eleanor already contracted to be a backup if ever she needs the call for help.

"Where is h-"

Eleanor wanted to hover around the sand wave. However, she immediately stopped her thoughts and immediately retreated 10 meters away from the immediate surroundings of the sand wave she had just created because in there, the 20 or so meters covered by the wave glowed a bright orange light, and Eleanor was so thankful that she has sensed the danger, for she saw a giant man, or a demon that sprang out of the whole wave, its whole body covered 5 meters in width with a height of over 15 meters, it has an armor, the same armor that is being used by the King of Tydings, except for the fact that the demon had obsidian black skin with numerous cracks on them, in the demon's head are two horns connected in the middle of the forehead, forming a U.

The demon's hands were overhead, in them was a 10-meter sword that was slowly descending towards the direction of Eleanor.

_Why is that sword as thick as a chair?_

She could not help but lament, yet she did not dawdle, she injected mana immediately into the pentagram on her palm as she retreated with haste, and as she did, the sword landed on where she was earlier, causing a 5 meters deep trench to be made, yet the demon, formerly known as Tydings IV did not stop, it stepped forward, and once again put his sword above his head, ready to struck down Eleanor with the last remaining of his life force.

"You're coming with me!"

The demon shouted in a cacophony of shrill voices, and as it did, Eleanor noticed something.

_The lava all over the crack of its body dimmed down by a lot, it seems like it represents all of his burning vitality, there should be 2 more swings before he dies out... I am almost sucked dry with mana, and I am not versatile enough to go pound for pound like Sophia, it would be a good test of ability, one of my goals here is complete already, so let's end this._

As Eleanor mulled all of this, the pentagram finally glowed up to its end, and in Bulawan, a goat who was soundly sleeping without a care for the war that was happening was suddenly woken up by his herbivorial instincts, he wanted to stand up and get ready for battle, but before he knew it, Ruphas already has a 4th dimension below him that immediately sucked him without resistance.

"Ah, that's right, Lady Eleanor asked for my servi... WHY AM I IN THE FUCKING AIR!?"

As Ruphas mulled why is he disturbed, he suddenly felt winds in his fur, he then saw, at what it seems to be a hundred-meter altitude, a demon that was swinging down its sword.

"Urghh! It's frustrating if it's your superior who ordered you!"

Ruphas grumbled, he could not complain as he did not need any instructions, for he knew that he had to strike the demon with a meteor containing water condensed enough to destroy it with one strike, which he did, as he was free-falling, the diamond horns in his head slowly retracted, they then started to spout out large quantities of water that then enveloped the whole body of Ruphas, that is by now, is nosediving to the enemy.

_Can't breathe...!_

Ruphas, like always, grumbled, however, like always too, he delivered his job properly, the demon that was already not aware of his surroundings was bashed by the gallons amounts of piercing water square in the head and in a stupor, it watched its body get cleaved by a giant goat covered in blue water, it's body then exploded, causing several large chunks of molten obsidian to be ejected from all direction, is that what his final struggle truly looks like? Maybe, maybe not.

However, all of that doesn't matter, for in the end, Eleanor defeated him, with the help of Ruphas, of course.

After confirming that the enemy was dead, Eleanor knelt on the ground. [Inorganic Defiance] made her stamina greater than that of her opponent, but not her constitution because the said ability doesn't allow her to defy two things at once, so her whole body started aching quite harshly when she released the ability as her body cannot take days of fighting nonstop, yet she has a smile on her face, for the moment she slumped to the ground, she heard a notification rang out to her ears.

[Notice: The requirement for passing the hero's test has been met; the blessing sequence for the hero prospect [Eleanor] will happen in a moment; please wait patiently.]

Unlike Sophia, who needed a proper evolution for her once child-like body to accommodate her power, normal humans don't need a cocoon; they can even see how they will be blessed, though when Eleanor tried to do so, she felt her eyes burning. Thus, she still closed them in the end.

It took about 30 minutes before the blessing was over, something that Eleanor seemed to know by instinct, and as the blessing was finished, another notification was heard.

[Notice: Successfully became a hero, official title [The Defiant] acquired, all stats have been raised, the system changed to system of heroes.]

Eleanor was quite satisfied as she was finally able to match the title of her mother, Urduja, well, it's just the title and not strength, but still.

_My test is very hard, actually, in terms of difficulty, isn't mine the hardest one? Relative to what Sophia can do, overturning a forest to become hers is the easiest way for her to advance, while according to Bakunawa, the second half of her hero's test is just her having to defeat a general of the enemy army, yet here I am having to fight an "artificial calamity" to advance... how unfair..._

Eleanor sighed, she then stood up as she felt that her stamina had already recovered alongside her very sore body. She then hopped around to reach the ground where Ruphas was, and when she was just about to thank the goat, her eyes widened, for Ruphas had his head detached from his body.

"Wha- !?"

Eleanor didn't even have time to exclaim, for she felt a cold glinting blade infinitesimally close to her carotid as the other hand of the blade's owner was wrapped around her body to lock her hands and ultimately, Eleanor herself in place, and as if to declare the identity of Rupha's murderer, purple colored snakes with a hint of crimson red shine in their eyes started caressing the cheeks of Eleanor.

"Do you know me?"

The woman at her back replied, rather suggestive, flirtatious even, however, of course, Eleanor knew the gravity of the situation, and she did not feel anything.

"Hebi Tsukaiza...!"

Eleanor muttered, though isn't she grinning a little?

_________

After her defeat at the hands of Sophia, Hebi Tsukaiza grew retarded, she seemed to forget everything that she had learned mentally, but she was still able to use them with precision, which is surprising for the dark magic injected into her is not only a type of magic that is very compatible with illusions, it is also injected to her in large quantities that one would be surprised that she did not become a vegetable and just needed an extensive mental rehab and some round of physicals to smoothen out her movements, however, as impressive as it may be, the shame is still there.

Hebi Tsukaiza, the third hero of Valentine, the one under the two great ancient calamities, was one-sidedly defeated by Sophia, not only that, because the illusion used by her is potent, even Loki himself, the only master of dark magic, cannot do anything about it, thus not only was she used as a punching bag, she was also used to slap Loki, her husband in the face with the fact that Sophia can match Loki and the only thing that makes Loki superior is his cautious nature and also a very intelligent mind much like the fallen hero.

Hebi was ashamed, she really was.

And that shame served as her motivation, she never rested and used whole weeks, months even to realign her brain, after that, to retrain her mobility, she was helped by her sister-in-law, Eris, finally to shake off any remaining rust, she fought with Loki non-stop for a week before getting her first mission in 4 months, to kidnap Eleanor, for Loki's.

She thought that it was quite the easy first mission for so long, but she never thought that Eleanor would become a hero right when she entered the fight between her and Tydings IV, which, again, was a surprise that she managed to win.

_Kamatayan have hero prospect with hero's test that involves killing people that forcefully dragged themselves up the level of calamities... and they managed to pull through... such a bunch of ridiculous son of bitches..._

Hebi, as she is still restraining Eleanor, frowned, yet she does not dally, even though both of them are already heroes, Hebi is still naturally stronger and is fresh out of a defeat caused by pride. Thus, she immediately created a thick metal with a serpent design, put the hands of Eleanor at her back, and then let it coil from her hands to her elbows, causing an ominous creaking sound that seemed to be ignored by Eleanor for when Hebi just finished tangling her up, the serpent bearer immediately jumped to the back, and in her previous position emerged a dragon made out of glass.

Eleanor hopped to face her and controlled the glass dragon to charge. However, she overestimated herself, Hebi gasped the air with both hands positioned parallel to each other horizontally, in the space then appeared a hammer with a weird conical shape; the sharp side blunted whilst an iron ball appeared in front of it, and she immediately bashed it with an immense force, causing it to advance like a bullet, penetrate the glass dragon easily and slam the supposed to be reinforced stomach of Eleanor, she used all her force to resist, still, Eleanor was dragged to the ground for 3 meters, she vomited blood and as if a child punched by a bully, clutched her stomach and as she slowly knelt to the ground.

Eleanor, however, still felt an immense pain circulating in her abdomen that she could not help but plant her forehead to the ground and clench her teeth to stop herself from screaming.

Hebi doesn't care about the pain of Eleanor she sat on her slanted back of Eleanor, causing it to bend slightly, she then engraved a magic circle in her nape to suppress her magic and then, once again, bound the hero called [The Defiant] using her iron snake.

Hebi succeeded on her first mission back in her field.

Though she did not notice the grin on Eleanor's still grimacing face, the serpent bearer just dashed out of the warzone of the Second Elven Undead War.

_Everything is happening, as Sophia has said._