The poison god thrust his staff forward, a wave of toxic mist and curses spiralling toward Evan. But the godslayer simply swept his yellow flames across the air, incinerating everything before it could touch him.
Orothis tried again—spikes of hardened venom shot toward Evan, followed by a blast of corrosive energy—but the Flames of Purification consumed it all.
Evan closed the distance, swinging his sword so fast his hand blurred. His blade carved through Orothis' limbs, torso, and stomach, leaving gashes all over the god's body.
The god staggered back and Evan pressed forward, driving his sword into Orothis' chest before he could react.
Just as Evan intended to pull his blade out to behead him, he sensed danger coming from behind.
So instead of pulling his blade out, he thrust his sword deeper into Orothis and lifted him off the ground, sticking the god's body in front as he turned around.
A fraction of a second later, a dozen arrows shot toward him from behind. They pierced through Orothis' back, embedding deep into his flesh before exploding on impact.
Orothis let out a horrified, agonized scream, his body convulsing as the detonations tore through him.
Evan then twisted his sword inside Orothis' chest, unleashing a stream of flames from the blade that burned a hole straight through the god's torso.
Letting Orothis' lifeless body drop, Evan jumped back and cosmic energy surged through him, healing the light wounds left by the arrows' explosions.
Raising his left hand, he counted with his fingers.
"Four down. Four more to go."
Hearing Evan count their deaths only fuelled Miresi's rage, her wounds and bleeding doing nothing to temper her fury, especially since Evan had used Orothis to block her attack.
As for her surviving the combined self-destructive blasts of the giant king and dragon, Evan wasn't surprised.
Those two undead had only been around 70% as powerful as they were in life, so he never expected their self-destruction attacks to kill Miresi, who was stronger than an average god King.
It had done a number on her, though.
'Miresi's next, but first—Malrik.'
Just as that thought crossed his mind, a spear encased in powerful light energy hurtled toward him from behind.
Like he had eyes at his back, Evan shifted to avoid it, released the Vanquisher, then caught the spear mid-air, spun around, and hurled it straight back at its sender.
In the same motion, he snatched the Vanquisher out of the air and charged at Malrik, who had just reattached his severed arm.
The god of Death immediately attempted to summon a wave of cannon-fodder undead, but before they could even rise, Evan called down a storm of green flames, their potent life energy disrupting his necrotic power.
Miresi's arrows followed in rapid succession, but Evan didn't even glance at them. He conjured humanoid shield-bearing constructs with Ember Genesis, commanding them to intercept the projectiles.
Extending his left palm behind him, he unleashed a roaring beam of red flames toward Leor, who was rapidly closing in from the rear.
As Leor veered off to dodge, Evan turned as well. He thrust his sword forward, unleashing a spiralling Vortex of cosmic-destruction flames, toward Leor, forcing him further back.
Without waiting to see the result, Evan immediately turned back to Malrik, closing the distance in an instant.
Malrik swung his scythe down at Evan, but before it could complete its trajectory, Evan snapped his fingers and Malrik's reattached arm erupted into a violent explosion of indigo flames.
|GAK!!|
The Death god screamed, pain and shock written across his face as the limb was obliterated once more, while Evan just laughed.
'I knew this bastard would reattach his arm. Good thing I left a dormant flame inside it.'
With no hesitation, Evan raised his sword, cosmic energy surging along its edge.
|Time for the Death god to die.|
The Vanquisher descended, cutting through the barriers of darkness Malrik desperately conjured as if they were paper.
The blade was moments from slicing his neck when suddenly—
**PUK!
"…huh?"
A sharp pain lanced through Evan's chest. His eyes widened as blood spilt past his lips.
His body shuddered from the sudden pain in his chest, and his blade, meant to sever Malrik's neck, faltered mid-swing, only cutting deep into the Death god's shoulder instead.
A sharp burning pain coursed through Evan's body, his breath turning ragged and his vision blurring. Before he could even try to find the source of the sudden phenomenon, Malrik activated his Authority.
|Death Nova!|
A sphere of pure death energy materialized in front of Evan, detonating faster than he could back away.
The explosion struck Evan head-on, blasting him backwards and forcing his feet to skid through the charred earth.
Evan's knees crashed to the ground and the Vanquisher slipped from his grip, clattering uselessly beside him. His hands instinctively clutched his chest, fingers digging into the torn fabric of his clothes as he gasped for air.
Then, he saw it—a sickening patch of purple, rotting skin spreading across his chest.
'Poison…? But how? I killed Orothis.'
His head snapped up, and there, standing in the spot where he had dropped Orothis' corpse, was the god who should have been dead.
Orothis cackled, his outstretched hand glowing with a venomous light.
Evan's mind raced. He had made sure Orothis was dead. He had even gained EXP from the kill.
So how?
The answer came a second later when he noticed Orothis' black sclera, and he felt his flames of life stir.
'Undead?!'
The realisation dawned instantly. Malrik had reanimated Orothis, reviving him as an undead.
|Mesarthim: Yello—|
|I won't let you!|
Miresi unleashed a storm of arrows towards him faster than he could summon the flames of purification, forcing him to redirect his focus towards Mesarthim's RED flames.
The crimson fire erupted in an explosion that engulfed the projectiles, consuming them mid-air.
And in that moment Miresi bought, Orothis activated his Authority of Poison.
|Poison Flower: Bloom.|
The rotting patch on Evan's chest tore open violently, and from within, a purple flower bloomed. Its twisting roots burrowed deeper into his flesh, rapidly spreading like a parasitic curse.
Evan grabbed the flower and tore it out with his left hand while the Vanquisher flew into his right.
But despite injuring himself in the process, he couldn't remove all of its roots—some remained buried in his body.
Worse still, the flower in his palm began sprouting new roots, trying to latch onto his skin.
|Yellow + Green: Purification of Life!|
Flames engulfed his left arm, and just as he reduced the parasitic flower to ashes, spears of light rained down on him from above.
Evan kicked off the ground, dashing away to evade them, only to be met with a volley of Miresi's arrows from his left.
Flames surged into the Vanquisher, and Evan was just about to swing it when the space behind him suddenly shattered.
Two giant green snakes lunged out, sinking their fangs into his sword arm.
|ARGH!|
A powerful paralytic venom surged right into his bloodstream, stiffening his body.
'This divinity…!? Dorian?! But the seal shouldn't have expired yet!'
The crack in space widened, and a massive three-headed dragon emerged, unleashing a simultaneous breath attack. It struck faster than his yellow flames could purify the paralysing poison coursing through his veins.
***KAABOOOMM!!!!
The blasts hit Evan point-blank from behind, hurling him through the air before he crashed toward the ground.
Miresi nocked three arrows and fired—three hundred projectiles streaked toward his falling body, piercing him all over.
Simultaneously, Orothis turned commanded the half-dead roots of the poison flower still lodged in Evan's chest.
|Poison Flower: Bloom.|
Another poison flower burst into existence on his body, and before Evan could even decide which of the dozen spears of light descending upon him he should block, Orothis issued another command.
|Poison Flower: Wither.|
***BOOOOOM!!!!!!
Evan's agonized scream was drowned out by the simultaneous explosion of Miresi's thunder arrows piercing through his hastily formed flame barrier, the spears of light stabbing into his chest, and the breath attack slamming into his side.
But shockingly, none of these inflicted the worst damage.
The true devastation came from the Poison Flower.
Because the command to "Wither" was not a physical attack.
It was a soul attack.
◇ ◇ ◇
Evan had suffered serious soul damage, the kind that couldn't be healed with a single burst of his Flames of Life.
Evan's body crashed to the ground, rag dolling across it as blood spurted from his lips. Cosmic energy fought to mend his wounds, but with how many there were—and the potent residual law energies lingering in them—it was going to take time.
Forcing himself onto one knee, he sucked in heavy breaths and looked up at the towering chimera that was the god of Evolution, Dorian.
The Dragonslayer Seal Evan had used should have kept Dorian imprisoned for much longer. How had he broken free so soon?
'Did he receive external help? But my Ultimate Ski—!'
Evan's thought cut off as he sprang to the side just in time to evade a barrage of breath attacks—flames, poison, and pure divinity—all erupting from the dragon heads.
But the moment he moved, chains of death energy burst from the ground, wrapping around his legs and yanking him back down.
As he fell, arrows rained down on him. He barely dodged some, but the rest impaled his right leg and left arm.
At that same moment, Dorian turned his heads and unleashed another trio of breath attacks. The explosion of energy that followed was enough to decimate an area of land spanning the surface of several normal-sized planets combined.
And that was just the residual energy that didn't burn Evan's skin and flesh, wounding him all over.
|Vanquisher!|
His sword obeyed, shooting through the air toward Leor, who was charging in from his right.
Leor turned, raising his spear to slash at the incoming blade, but at the last moment, the Vanquisher curved around him, slicing through the air and flying into Evan's waiting hand.
Pouring energy into it, Evan roared.
|Prismatic Vortex!|
The wounded godslayer's power erupted in a spiralling torrent, surging toward Dorian.
The god of Evolution instantly curled his chimeric body like an armadillo, the tortoise-like shells on his back expanding to shield his entire form from the vortex.
Miresi fired arrows from Evan's left, while skeletal hands burst from the ground, clawing at his right leg.
Evan conjured a sword in his left hand and slashed, deflecting the arrows, then raised his foot and stomped down, shattering the skeletal hands.
But the moment he did, spears of light erupted from beneath his right foot, piercing through it. More spears burst from the ground around him, driving into his leg and perforating it with holes.
He tried to wrench his foot free, but Miresi's arrows struck his back, making him stumble forward—right into Leor's spear, stabbing toward him.
Evan cancelled the vortex and swung the Vanquisher, intercepting the spear slash. But in the same instant, Leor conjured light spears that drove into Evan's stomach.
Grunting, Evan infused energy into the ground, summoning a geyser of crimson flames that erupted beneath Leor's feet, knocking him into the air.
But before he could follow up, another barrage of Miresi's arrows came from behind.
He released a burst of flames, burning away the spears embedded in his right leg, then shaped a construct of indigo fire around his foot—like a boot—to support his wounded leg as he turned to cut down the arrows.
But just as he moved, Malrik's scythe slashed across his back, forcing him forward. The sudden loss of balance threw off his swing, leaving him exposed as Miresi's arrows pierced him again.
Just as he tilted his head to narrowly dodge the five arrows aimed at his forehead, Orothis dashed in from the side, unleashing a blast of poison while weaving curses to worsen his wounds.
Leor rushed in from behind, driving his spear into Evan's back and impaling him. With a powerful motion, he lifted Evan's body and hurled him toward Dorian, whose dragon head snapped forward, clamping down with razor-sharp fangs that tore into his flesh.
Despite the painful groan threatening to escape his lips, Evan swallowed it back and unleashed a burst of flames inside Dorian's mouth, forcing the god to spit him out.
But the moment he was free, Dorian's two remaining heads unleashed a double-breath attack that blasted Evan downward, driving him deep below the planet's surface.
Before he could recover, black chains of death shot down from above, coiling around his limbs and dragging him out. They flung him through the air, sending him crashing through distant mountains before he finally hit the ground.
Breathing heavily, Evan struggled to rise, forcing himself onto one knee—only for spears of light and lightning arrows to rain down upon him in the dozens.
He grasped the Vanquisher and swung, cutting through the onslaught, but the sheer numbers overwhelmed him.
Spears of light pierced his arms from both above and below, suspending them in mid-air and preventing him from swinging his sword. Arrows burrowed deep into his flesh, while chains of death wrapped around his body, entwined with poisonous vines that punctured his skin, causing even more poison flowers to bloom.
Finishing off the combo, Leor hurled his spear from afar, the weapon blazing across the battlefield at light speed before piercing straight through the right side of Evan's chest, its momentum carrying it through his body and embedding deep into the ground behind him.