Chapter 158
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It wasn’t hard for her to recognize the giant black wolf.
“Jack?”
“GRRRHHH…”
However, the black wolf only glared at her with bloodthirsty eyes, filled with endless wrath.
They glowed with crimson light as the wolf’s body exuded an enormous quantity of darkness and an energy Henrietta had only sensed a couple of times.
“Cosmic Energy?!”
Before she could even make her own thoughts about what was happening, the giant black wolf pounced out of the ground and then clashed against a descending enemy.
CLAAASH!
“CRAAAGHH…!”
A giant humanoid black crow was kicked in the stomach before it could attack Jack with a powerful spell that could consume everything, its entire body flying down and impacting several corridors below.
BAAAM!!!
“That was a Death Apostle!”
Henrietta looked down to see the humanoid crow-like demon slowly beginning to recover the wounds on its body, trying to stand back up again.
Gabriel didn’t even waste a single second.
[The Cosmic Throne {Divine Judge of Flames} confirms to you that the crow is indeed an Evil Death Apostle, Neberius!]
[He asks you to immediately slay it before it is too late!]
“But I’m worried about Jack! He’s berserk!”
Henrietta noticed a shadowy figure lurking behind her. The senses all around her body activated in that moment as her Celestial Aura formed a barrier of holy light around her body.
CLASH!
A wolf claw made of shadows reached her in that split second, almost crushing her to death. Her entire body hit the floor, shattered it, and fell right over the crow-like demon.
CRAAASH!
Neberius gave an agonizing groan as he vomited blood right as Henrietta hit his stomach! He glanced at the blonde human, panicking to realize her very presence of holy light was burning his skin!
“HYEEEEGH!”
He swiftly flew away from her, seconds before Fenrir was to descend towards them, his snake-like tails opening their jaws, attempting to bite Henrietta’s head off!
“ROAR!”
“Jack, what are you doing?!”
She swiftly parried the attacks with her Divine Golden Sword; she swung her sword vertically and then horizontally, unleashing a barrage of bright, dazzling sword attacks with great mastery.
The giant claws of Fenrir attacked her while its tail attempted to bite through her armor, failing every time.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
“Stop this!”
Henrietta was growing both furious and worried about the mental state of her beloved, quickly beheading the wolf heads with a powerful slashing attack.
“{Starlight Blade}!”
Suddenly, her sword shone as bright as a star, releasing a wave of burning heat that set ablaze the giant black wolf, the light slowly weakening the endless shadows encompassing it!
FLASH!
This was the power of Henrietta Claus’ Strongest Innate Skill, {Star of Justice}! Fenrir screamed in agony as he burned, quickly retreating, only for countless black chains to descend upon Henrietta.
“Chains?!”
Henrietta quickly attempted to cut them, but her sword only gained small scratches over its surface as she tried.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
“I can’t cut them?! But this is a Divine Sword imbued with the power of {Star of Justice}!”
Since she acquired these powers, there hasn’t been anything Henrietta couldn’t cut through.
Even when she fought the powerful Darius, who had become the Incarnation of Leviathan, she was still able to hurt him, despite how invulnerable he seemed to have become.
Yet these chains were simply impervious to any damage!
They attempted to capture her, but she swiftly evaded by temporarily turning into a flash of light. The chains ended up impacting the wooden floor, shattering apart one hit at a time.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
At the same time, Henrietta tried to assess what was happening right now. Not only had Jack turned into a berserk black wolf with incredible new powers,.
But there were also two other enemies he had yet to kill!
Neberius was somewhere else, hiding until he could recover. She knew that Demon would not run away due to his pride.
And then there were the crimson snakes, of which she didn’t know what they exactly were, which had already been crushed.
She scanned her surroundings while evading Jack’s crazed attacks.
Until finally!
“There…!”
She noticed someone with a red tail lurking around the rubble within the destroyed corridors; Neberius was following him!
FLASH!
She grew a pair of angelic wings and descended as fast as possible to see who had dared to push Jack to this extent, her divine sword unleashing all of her brilliance.
“{Star of Justice}!”
FLASH!
“W-What?!”
The culprits were both almost carbonized by Henrietta’s divine flames, their bodies burning endlessly as they screamed in agony.
“D-Dammit! It’s Henrietta! AARRGGHH…!”
She quickly recognized the voice of someone within the flames, Lee!
“LEE?!”
Henrietta hesitated for a second, thinking she was hurting a fellow hunter!
However, the endless amount of demonic energy surging from his burning body quickly took that concern from her mind.
And Gabriel’s message gave her confirmation.
[The Cosmic Throne {Divine Judge of Flames} is on alert!]
[You’re confronting the Incarnation of an Archdemon! Be careful!]
“I knew it!”
Henrietta quickly descended amidst the endless sea of flames, kicking Neberius aside after cutting his wings as she clashed against the burning Lee.
“RAAAH!”
Lee gave a monstrous roar as his body slowly underwent molting, leaving behind a half-transparent bag of skin. His body was renewed, now covered with shiny crimson scales, and he greeted Henrietta’s golden blade.
“{Starlight Blade}!”
Her sword shone with the brightness of the stars as she unleashed a barrage of rapid slashing attacks, accompanied by stronger blunt blows.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
Each attack summoned an explosion of bright starlight as Henrietta tried to look into Lee’s eyes as she attacked him endlessly.
“WHY?!”
With a furious roar, she kicked Lee’s chest and threw him dozens of meters away, his body hitting several walls before it would stop.
“Why, you ask?”
Lee slowly stood back up; his wounds looked painful, but he seemed unconcerned about them as he faced Henrietta, who had just shown up.
“Why not?!”
He leaped towards her before she could reach him, his two swords overflowing with crimson demonic energy. His attacks held enough force to destroy whole buildings.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
Henrietta couldn’t evade such strong attacks; she felt as if she ever let go of his attacks with her sword and attempted to dodge using her light transformation, she could get obliterated.
“Seriously, you bastard?! Is that the only excuse you’re going to give me for selling your soul to an evil demon and sacrificing countless innocent lives?!”
Henrietta attacked with her sword while her aura transformed into four giant arms, punching Lee while he had his attention on parrying her attacks.
BAAM! BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!
Each blow burned and made the bastard bleed, but he only responded with a sick smile, proud of being the monster he had become.
“Yeah, I like it. Do I need a reason to kill ants? Do I need a reason to eat when I’m hungry?!”
As he laughed, he grew two pairs of arms and materialized four more swords with his Demonic Energy, his attacks were like an endless rampage.
“Okay, thank you for telling me.”
She smiled, however. Lee squinted his eyes as he realized Henrietta wasn’t calling him a bastard or a monster anymore.
“If I know you’re just a psycho, I don’t need to hold back!”
Henrietta concentrated her powers and then released gray electricity from her body, covering her sword with it. In a split second, she released a vertical, arch-shaped attack against Lee.
SLAAASH!
Lee attempted to defend against the strange energy with his Demonic Powers, forming a barrier of crimson energy that looked like it was made out of countless snakes.
However…!
BOOOM!
The barrier exploded, and the backlash made him bleed from his eyes and mouth. Lee then felt an agonizing pain as he glanced at his chest.
There was a huge wound piercing his heart; his two lungs were pulverized, and his heart was barely beating.
“What..?!”
[Impossible! How is this possible?!]
Uroboros' voice echoed inside Lee’s mind as he noticed something was wrong with Henrietta!
[Why is she... Why does this human possess Anti-Mana inside of her body?!]
“Anti-Mana?!”
“{Radiant Justice Swordsmanship}: {Star of Judgement’s Blade}”
That was the last thought Lee had before Henrietta appeared in front of him, her sword moving at lightning speed—no, even faster than that.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
It felt as if her sword strikes were like beams of light, each attack cutting through Lee’s body until he was sliced into shreds.
“I-Im… po… ssible…!”
Lee’s consciousness started to fade away as he saw Henrietta’s back behind him, her eyes filled with anger.
However…!
“No… I can’t die against this bitch."
Uroboros desperately pumped energy into Lee to keep him alive at that moment, his powers erupting and surging endlessly.
“I CAN’T!”
His body parts suddenly reattached to one another and fused into a mass of flesh and blood, quickly taking the form of a gigantic crimson snake with dozens of heads and tens of huge and long legs, each ending in giant claws!
“SHAAAAHHH!!”
“Demonic Embodiment?!”
Henrietta quickly realized that Lee had desperately done what Darius did back then as well! He channeled Uroboros powers and transformed himself into the Embodiment of Uroboros!
Embodiment was a power that only Archdemon Vessels or Incarnations could do! By strengthening their connection with their masters by offering them countless innocent souls, they attained newer abilities.
After hunting and devouring one thousand innocent human souls, the power of Embodiment was unlocked!
This meant that Lee was as much of a monster as Darius had become, killing countless innocents secretly behind everyone’s backs.
“I WILL NEVER DIE! AS LONG AS LORD UROBOROS IS BY MY SIDEEEEE!”
With a monstrous and distorted voice, Lee opened his countless snake jaws and fired dozens of rays of demonic energy against Henrietta!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Henrietta dodged the attacks as best she could, but the explosions kept chasing her. The magic power that Lee had was amplified several times over too, making his explosions capable of destroying her Holy Light Armor with ease.
“SHAAAAH!”
The crazed Lee kept chasing her, destroying everything around him and making a gigantic mess. Pieces of rubble constantly flew everywhere as beams of crimson demonic energy rained upon Henrietta endlessly.
“Dammit! Can I take him down on my own?!” Henrietta thought. “Maybe if I let Gabriel possess my body, but- No, if I do that again, I might actually die this time!”
Henrietta quickly felt yet another deadly presence approaching her; a large shadow leaped over her, opening its enormous wolf-like jaws!
“GROOOAARRR!”
“Jack!”
Henrietta turned into light and evaded the deadly jaws, which ended up landing on the giant multi-headed snake behind her!
CRAAASH!
Both gigantic beasts started wrestling against one another right after that, with Henrietta looking at the scene in disbelief.
“Still berserk, but at least he’s not just targeting me!”
Henrietta quickly started to drink a Mana Potion as she ran around the two giants, trying to see where Neberius could have gone.
However, before she could find him, dozens of small snakes began to surround her, each one only around two meters long, but as they chased her, they merged together into giant snake-like monstrosities.
“SHAAAHH!”
“That bastard is giving birth to snakes?!”
Henrietta noticed how Lee’s aberrant body was constantly producing snakes from an open hole on the tip of its snake-like tail.
Whatever Lee had become, he was no longer just a human man. He had completely given up all of his humanity to turn into a vessel to give birth to Uroboro’s wicked demonic children.
While battling her feelings of utter disgust, Henrietta swung her blade against the creatures, releasing waves of light against them.
SLAASH! SLAASH! SLAASH!
The snakes exploded into pieces one after another; they weren’t that strong alone. However, the ones that were constantly growing larger through fusion were another thing entirely.
“SHAAAAH!”
Three enormous ones surrounded and attacked her. Their tails quickly tried to demolish her as she defended herself with her shield and blocked some blows.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
She evaded another tail attack before two jaws opened behind her, biting her arms, and trying to tear them apart from her body!
“Y-You…!” Henrietta gritted her teeth in anger. “{Star of Justice}!!!”
FLASH!
Her body turned into pure light as she unleashed a devastating shockwave of flames, carbonizing the snakes trying to kill her and freeing her from their swarm.
“Hahhh…!”
Henrietta crawled away from where she was while evading the gigantic shadow claws of Fenrir, tearing apart the heads of Lee’s monstrous form.
“GROOOAARR!”
Fenrir opened his jaws and started biting through the heads of Lee, tearing them apart one after another.
“SHAAAH!”
At the same time, Lee hissed furiously, biting the wolf and injecting it with deadly paralyzing venom. Several of its muscles constantly stopped to move.
“GRAAARRRGH!”
However, Fenrir summoned his Aura, now having evolved into a pseudo {Radiance}, as an endless wave of shadows engulfed Lee’s entire body while the wolf retreated!
FLUOSH!
“SHYAAGH!”
Lee was temporarily stopped from moving within the shadows, which shaped into countless beasts that Jack had devoured, including other Demonic Humans.
“FENRIR, YOU BASTARD!”
The voice of Uroboros echoed through Lee’s monstrous body.
“How dare you use the corpses of my followers to attack me?! Is this your so-called {Radiance}?!”
Uroboros had battled Fenrir before and knew that one of his powers aside from Shadow-bending was the ability to summon the ones he had devoured as “Shadow Beasts”.
This was a power Jack didn’t possess before, but after unsealing another part of Fenrir’s power, it was unlocked!
However, at the great price of losing more of his memories while making Fenrir go berserk due to the overwhelming power coursing through him.
“ROOOAAARRR!”
Fenrir had gone berserk after channeling too much of his powers, incapable of reasoning or talking; his eyes simply continued to glow bright red as he pounced towards Uroboros once he regained the mobility of his limbs.
CLAASH! CLAASH! CLAASH!
The two titans clashed, as Henrietta was being constantly chased by snakes until she felt something coming. A gigantic crow, not like the humanoid one, descended towards her, his sharp claws attempting to grab her head and tear it apart. Henrietta managed to evade by a hair’s length as she gathered her energies into her free hand and fired a beam of light towards the giant crow’s back.
BOOOM!
“UARGH…! Damned human!”
Neberius quickly moved back towards Henrietta, his wings channeling his powers as he fired a rain of feather projectiles toward her. Henrietta parried them with her sword while burning the snakes around her, and then gathered her holy flames into several fireballs.
“{Holy Star Fireballs}!”
Each fireball absorbed her celestial energy and became small stars, catching up to Neberius, who attempted to evade them with his flight, and burning his wings!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Neberius plunged into the ground, shattering the wooden floor, his body burning and bleeding. Henrietta tried to finish him off, but was once again stopped by dozens of monstrous, fused snakes, which she had to take down one after another.
“Get out of the way!”
As she battled, Neberius could no longer lift his body; the holy flames were restraining his demonic powers and suppressing them.
“Ugh…! No…! Am I going to die again?! Am I going to fail once more?!”
“Shaaah!”
However, he found himself surrounded by thousands of small, crimson snakes as he heard the whisper of Uroboros.
“You’ve done well by cooperating with my Incarnation. I will bestow upon you the privilege of becoming my Demonic Apostle.”
“L-Lord Uroboros’ grace?!”
Neberius felt utter joy as the thousands of snakes started to meld into his body, his entire vessel beginning to twist and transform, becoming larger, gaining crimson scales, several tails, snake-like heads, and another pair of larger wings, covered with crimson snake-like eyes!
The transformation itself released an enormous shockwave, shaking the entire Demonic Castle! Not even Beelzebub had foreseen that Uroboros would appear in his Demonic Castle, further ruining his plans.
“Uroboros…! You bastard!” Beelzebub screamed. “Was it not enough with usurping my throne as the Archdemon of Gluttony?!”
Henrietta could only feel utterly hopeless as she saw Neberius' new form, ten times his original size, and overflowing with the combined powers of Uroboros Demonic Apostles and his own Demonic Radiance.
“KUHAHAHAHA! This is it! This is my new power! I will no longer be a lesser Death Apostle!”
As Neberius celebrated, his aura exuded an endless crimson smoke that started to set everything ablaze with strange, snake-shaped black flames…
“T-This is getting more and more ridiculous…!”
Henrietta already knew she had no chance to win against an endless army of snakes and two monstrous Demons! And that’s without even including the crazed Jack, who couldn’t identify an ally from an enemy.
“Henrietta! Brother!”
However, at that moment, a light of hope blossomed in her heart.
She heard Anna’s voice.
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