Chapter 167: A Battle Between Siblings
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Annabelle glanced at her brother; a battle between all six of them had broken out, her armor and spider-like claws clashing against her brother’s mighty sword.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
Her eyes were both blazing with conviction but also filled with grief and sorrow. Thinking of the past, she couldn’t help but be distracted by such memories.
“Annabelle, are you alright?”
“Don’t worry, I will always protect you.”
“This world rejected us, but we will carve our path here. Don’t worry, I will make sure to create a world where you can belong—no, where we all can belong.”
“Did you eat all of your vegetables? You need them for vitamins and whatnot, so you can be healthier and perform better.”
Those words, filled with so much love, constantly reminded her that the man she was fighting right now was her beloved brother, who had shown her his true face and his true nature.
“Don’t you feel remorse for fighting your sister?!”
As she cried tears of regret, Heisenberg swung his sword against her, and a powerful storm of crimson slashes reached her.
“Remorse… That is a feeling I cannot allow myself to feel any longer, Annabelle.”
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLAASH!
BOOOM!
“Annabelle!”
Baihe and Sara panicked as they saw Annabelle being engulfed in an explosion of demonic energy and chaotic forces, only for a shield of bright light to appear in front of her, protecting her.
“Kevin…?” Annabelle realized her friend had appeared at the last moment, shielding her from the majority of the attacks.
“Annabelle! You idiot! Didn’t you say you were ready to fight him?! If you end up doubting your own resolve, you’ll die against him!” Kevin roared. “He’s no longer your brother; if he truly doesn’t love you unconditionally, then he never did!”
“Ahhh…” Annabelle took a step back, glancing at the cold, crimson eyes of Heisenberg; they emanated pure bloodlust.
“Annabelle.” He said this, slowly walking towards her and Kevin. “If you’re not ready to fight this war, then leave. I will not persecute you anymore. Consider this my last gift to you, sister.”
“B-Brother…” Annabelle sighed. “But I… Why? Why can’t we get along?! Why can’t you just live in this world? Why must you destroy it?!”
“…” Heisenberg sighed, his hair waving from the snowstorm’s winds. “I want to create a world that’ll welcome us. This society, this entire world created by humans, is unbefitting of us. We must make our own kingdom amidst a destroyed world; that is the only way we can survive and thrive.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense; we could always escape somewhere else!” Annabelle refuted.
“Escape?” Heisenberg asked, furious. “I will not run away anymore, Annabelle! I will continue on my path, no matter what. Just leave! You’ve been brainwashed by those “friends” you made, but they’re all nothing but selfish bastards that want to use you because you’re strong!”
“No! They’re not selfish or bastards! They're the first real friends I’ve ever had in my life!” Annabelle cried. “And you… You forcefully turned me into a monster back then! You’re the one... You’re the one that used me!”
“That was only necessary so you would get rid of them and stop wasting your time.” Heisenberg’s mindset could not be changed, no matter what. “And yet now... Why can’t I force that transformation on you anymore? What happened?”
“Anna helped me seal that terrifying power... I don’t want to be an ugly monster anymore!” Annabelle said it angrily. “I’ve developed my own strength!”
“Ugly monster?!” Heisenberg suddenly grew mad. “You think we are all just ugly monsters? Did you never see us as people, Annabelle?!”
“I-I didn’t mean that!” Annabelle cried. “I just want to talk and not fight anymore! I think it’s pointless to kill!”
“Maybe you should have told that to Roy, right? The one you killed.” Said Heisenberg. “Annabelle… You’re no longer my sister.”
“W-Wha…?!” Annabelle stepped back, feeling utterly destroyed by his words.
“Annabelle, that man is no longer your family!” Kevin cried. “He’s not someone you can trust; he wants you dead... He’s crazy! You have to understand!”
“…” Annabelle didn’t know what to say.
She thought she had come prepared for anything, but her fragile heart quickly made it quite evident that she was not.
There was nothing more heartbreaking for a girl like her, turned into a laboratory experiment that could finally find a family to be suddenly rejected by them because of nonsensical ideals.
But as Kevin said, they were no longer right in their minds.
They were insane.
While Annabelle and Scarlet could keep their sanity to an extent, it wasn’t the same for them, who had only continued digging deeper into their own madness.
There was no turning back any longer.
“That’s…” Annabelle muttered, still feeling doubtful.
“The more you doubt, the more openings you’ll give to him!” Kevin said. “Ah! He’s coming!”
“I won’t let ANYONE get in the path to my goals!”
Heisenberg roared like a beast, his entire body shapeshifting and growing more monstrous, resembling a giant, muscular abomination with many arms, scales, and body parts of monsters unified together.
Using his enhanced stats, he reached Annabelle in a split second, his giant sword only growing larger by the second.
“Goodbye, sister.”
SLAAASH!
A powerful vertical slash descended towards Annabelle, strong enough to destroy half a whole city on its path!
However, Annabelle’s emotions erupted from her body in the form of a powerful Aura, dark red and purple colors converging together and swirling around her body.
They all channeled within her hands, transforming into a pair of gigantic claws in the shape of eight spider legs.
“RAAAH!”
Crack, crack…!
With a ferocious roar, she clashed back against her brother; the powerful claws she created quickly shattered into pieces, but she managed to stop the force and block the impact of Heisenberg’s sword.
CRASH!
“Where is this power coming from?!” Thought Heisenberg, gritting his teeth. “She wasn’t supposed to be this powerful, even less without her transformation!”
FLUOSH!
Once more, Annabelle’s Aura transformed, resembling a swarm of spiders that quickly merged into her hands, transforming into two enormous black spears.
“I won’t doubt anymore!” Annabelle roared. “I’ve had enough, big brother! If you don’t get to your senses, then I’ll beat you down until you realize how WRONG you are!”
With a mighty roar, Annabelle clashed against her brother, her two powerful black spears piercing his arms and then releasing explosions of black miasmic poison energies.
BOOOM! BOOOM!
“URGH…?!”
Heisenberg swiftly stepped back as he saw both of his arms explode into pieces. Even Kevin was surprised that Annabelle had received such a huge boost to her strength!
And it was all because of Anna’s own sponsorship, the power to continuously grow through “character development,” the ability of a person to change the way they used to be, developing into someone much better.
Sara, Baihe, and now Annabelle was undergoing this transformation, acquiring unprecedented powers that awakened from within their very latent talents!
“I won’t let you hurt my friends!” Annabelle roared, her Aura transforming into thousands of giant black spiders, rushing towards her brother.
They swarmed him and attacked him, biting, slashing, and poisoning him with their powerful jaws and claws. Heisenberg desperately tore them apart one after another as he continuously regrew new arms.
However, the spiders that were too torn to shreds would quickly detonate, dealing continuous damage to him.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Both clashed against one another as Heisenberg slowly started to overwhelm Annabelle’s power with his own raw strength; however, that’s where Kevin sneaked in.
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Like a flash of pure golden light, he accelerated his movement speed to his limits, appearing whenever Heisenberg gave him an opening, piercing his body with his spear, and then releasing a blast of light.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
“Tch! Begone!”
Heisenberg furiously swung his giant arms, punching Kevin away, only for a dozen swords made out of Annabelle’s Aura Spiders to quickly pierce his entire body, exploding once more.
Heisenberg was beginning to struggle for the first time; Annabelle’s newly awakened powers and Kevin’s interference were making it increasingly hard for him to concentrate on the fight.
His Aura slowly started to change, the power of his {Radiance} emerging slowly. Black and purple flames surged from his regenerating claws, blazing with demonic energy.
“You’re getting on my nerves now.”
At the same time, Shade was constantly fighting Baihe’s frost magic and Sara’s fast and sneaky attacks, which became a deadly combination.
His shadows were constantly flickering and being cut down to pieces by Sara, while whenever he tried to move or escape, frost would freeze him temporarily, inhibiting his movements.
“That’s enough!” He roared with fury, his entire body twisting and swirling like a mass of darkness.
“{Void Domain}!”
RUMBLE!
Complete darkness engulfed his surroundings, swiftly beginning to drag the two of them closer to him, his claws growing sharper!
“This power… It is somehow manipulating gravity.” Baihe muttered.
“This bastard, he’s trying to force us to move closer to him!” Sara cried.
“Let’s see how sneaky you can be now!” Shade laughed.
The battle between the chimeras and the hunters that invaded the castle only became more intense, all while Anna, Gram, and Sepa fought against a Constellation.
“{Thousand Blades}: {Absolute Sword Domain}”
FLASH!
Anna decided to go all-out, unleashing her strongest Technique so far, a combination of many of her abilities and skills, further boosted by the Cosmic Energy she was gaining by absorbing Uroboros blood.
“What the…?!” That part of Uroboros soul quickly found himself trapped within a Domain of countless stars and cosmic light.
The stars flickered, transforming into countless swords of light and darkness, flashing across the cosmos, and reaching his body!
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
They pierced through his body constantly, exploding after making sure they pierced as deep as possible, blowing up his own soul piece by piece.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“S-She’s using Sword Domains?!” Uroboros was panicking. “How did she get her hands on the power that only Murim World’s Strongest Experts possess?!”
Uroboros was utterly baffled by Anna, who not only had developed a Radiance already but was smart enough to fuse it with her Skills and other abilities, forming a {Domain}, something that only experts among experts could conjure at much higher levels than her!
Of course, thanks to the power of her amazing sword, equipment, and Cosmic Energy, she was able to reach this far through brute force.
“You’re not going to escape my sword, Uroboros!” Anna roared with righteous fury.
A storm of swords kept pursuing the snake, piercing through his already damaged soul and constantly tearing apart more and more of his cosmic powers.
That he tried to manifest himself right now meant nothing against Anna, even less when another Constellation was helping her, to boot!
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
Sepa opened her gigantic bug-like jaws, biting through Uroboros soul body and injecting her deadly, cosmic venom into his soul.
His powers quickly started to weaken severely, at the same time as Anna’s brother battled against him with Henrietta and her Constellation’s help.
“AARRGHH…! STOP, YOU LOWLY WORM!”
Uroboros resisted and struggled as much as he could, but the enormous damage he had sustained by trying to swallow Anna’s entire soul continued to worsen; the black void in his stomach had yet to go anywhere!
“Well! This lowly worm is the one that has you screaming like a little girl now.” Laughed Sepa.
“GRUUAAGGHH…!”
More swords descended towards him, exploding on contact and tearing through his soul. Amidst the smoke, Anna’s body appeared right in front of him.
The power she had gathered from her equipment’s abilities was swiftly harnessed into both of her swords, and at the same time, her domain swirled, fusing with her two swords!
A trail of cosmic flames surged from within her blades, twisting space itself and then piercing through Uroboros soul!
“{Thousand Blades}: {Cosmic Dragon’s Dance}!”
With a beautiful and elegant set of movements, Anna danced through Uroboro’s soul as she cut it through, reaching the depths of his entrails and then slicing through his lungs all the way to the heart.
The Heart of his Soul itself!
“S-STOP! STOOOP!”
As Uroboros was cornered on both sides, all while the Administrators were constantly punishing him with penalties that lowered his stats,
The impossible was accomplished!
Anna’s blades pierced Uroboros' very Soul Heart, the Cosmic Branches that spread into his many Sealed Traits quickly began to shatter one after another.
“DIE!”
With a mighty and righteous roar, Anna imploded Uroboros’ heart, causing a series of chain reactions that completely started shattering his very own existence.
Crack, crack…!
“N-No…! This... it’s impossible.!”
CRACK!
“A Constellation like me… To die against a MERE MORTAL?!”
Crack, crack…!
Despair swiftly consumed Uroboros entire mind, as he felt his connection to the Realm Beyond cut down swiftly, the Administrators already predicting his demise.
“I was… supposed… to win…!”
His entire soul shattered into pieces, as both Anna and Jack saw the end of the Constellation that had been trying to ruin their lives since their journeys began.
CRASH!
His very being shattered into thousands of glass-like pieces and was then absorbed by Fenrir and Anna’s Cosmic Heart.
Today, humanity has done the unthinkable; across all Realms, no Mortal has ever accomplished this feat, not even the ones chosen to combine with the Realm Beyond!
Yet today, that changed, as the lowest world across many dimensions achieved what nobody could have ever expected.
The Constellations all across the Cosmos glanced at this scene in utter disbelief.
A Constellation has been slain by the very hands of the Mortals they nurtured!
…And the Throne for the Archdemon of Gluttony has been freed.
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