If he could do it over again, Asser would definitely pay any price to kill Salas instead of letting him join the Godhunter Alliance. It was a shame that it was just a helpless plea. The moment they emerged from the dark corner, he knew there was nothing he could do about it.
Ossora was now badly injured; even if he could still fight, there was nothing he could do to help. Before Han Shuo arrived, Asser and Ossora had spent too much energy fighting each other. Now that they were facing three people at their peak, they felt that death would soon be upon them.
"Any last words?" Han Shuo looked at Ossora and decided not to waste any more time talking to him.
By now, Ossora seemed to have realised his true predicament. Seeing Han Shuo about to act, he stomped on the ground and caused an earthen wall to appear. At the same time, he pulled out a portal scroll, intending to rip space-time to escape.
But Han Shuo didn't act. Instead, he watched mockingly as Ossora attempted to use the scroll. The scroll glowed brightly for a moment, but immediately stopped before it could do anything.
"This..." Ossora really despaired this time. His eyes looked dead now.
"No one can leave Pandemonium at any time without my permission!" Han Shuo smiled and prepared to kill Ossora himself.
Wasir and Salas exchanged glances before smiling and heading towards Asser...
...
Meanwhile, in another formation, Dagmar couldn't move at all. The clouds around him were all dark and many colourful creatures joined together to form a gigantic monster that danced beside him.
Dagmar could see many blurred but bloody figures in his vision. They looked like dead people he knew who had risen from the dead and were jumping at him, clawing at him with their rotten arms.
All sorts of sights manifested in his mind. He seemed to remember them all, and now it looked utterly real to him. If he couldn't get rid of the empty thoughts in his head, he wouldn't be able to get rid of the hallucinations.
After who knows how long, Dagmar's mental state recovered. He had felt a little burdened by his years of mad slaughter, but he concentrated the Death Energy in his body into a Death Scythe and cut them all apart, properly dispelling his hallucinations with physical attacks.
Suddenly, a familiar figure with a bone spear emerged from the thick mist. Dagmar's mouth curled into a scornful smile as he realised it was just another illusion. Using the death scythe he had formed earlier, he swung it at the approaching figure.
However, something strange happened; halfway through the slash, he lost control of the scythe. The death energy that formed the scythe was so chaotic that it could no longer support the sweep. Not only that, but all the death energy in the area seemed to be attracted to that figure instead of Dagmar. When he realised he had lost control of the Death Energy, he knew this wasn't an illusion. "Han Hao, is that really you?"
The one wielding the bone spear was indeed Han Hao. A strange light flashed in his eyes as one strange rune after another appeared on his irises. The irresistible power of death emanated from his bone spear. As the pure energy of death, coming directly from the Quintessence Shard, washed over Dagmar, he couldn't help but prostrate himself in worship.
"Dagmar, you are no longer my equal. Promise to serve me and reveal your divine soul to me unprotected. Then I will spare you," said Han Hao.
"Hahaha... Hahahaha..." Dagmar laughed so hard that he started to cry. He pointed at Han Hao and said, "Me? Submit to you? Haha... On what grounds? Han Hao, you are my subordinate, my inferior! You always have been! You want to take over? Well, let's see if you're up to it or not!"
Back in the Death Domain, Han Hao had worked under Dagmar for more than fifty years. But now Han Hao wanted Dagmar to submit to him. That was something the proud Dagmar could not accept.
Han Hao looked at Dagmar and sighed before nodding slightly. "Then let me show you!"
One strange tombstone after another came out of the bone spear and floated to Dagmar's side, awakening his desire to fight. However, he found that the energy of death within him was being affected by the tombstones, making it impossible for him to release a single ounce of it.
"Why... why did your body didn't have the Quintessence Shard back in Omphalos?" he cried unyieldingly.
He could tell that the tombstone had come from the Quintessence Shard itself. Compared to what he had experienced before, the power of the Shard was far more mysterious and insidious. Originally, when he had faced Han Hao, he had been able to resist, and Han Hao had not been able to do much to him.
This time, however, he felt completely helpless. The death energy he'd cultivated over the millennia was of no use at all. He now knew that Han Hao had probably truly absorbed the Quintessence Shard, which meant that from now on, apart from Overgod Nestor, a bearer of the Quintessence, he was without equal when it came to controlling Death Energy.
"Dagmar, submit to me! I will not harm a single hair on your head if you do!" Han Hao said coldly when he saw Dagmar so dejected.
"I'd rather die than submit to you!" He shouted and willed the remaining death energy in his body to implode, crushing his organs instantly. Then some strange undulations came from his divine soul, forming into dissipating lights of darkness.
Dagmar knew that facing Han Hao, a Quintessence Shard bearer and fellow Death Energy cultivator, he couldn't even finish him off with a suicidal attack of his own. Before his attack even landed, the Death Energy contained within would be dissipated by the Shard.
Dagmar was a prideful man. Even though he knew that bowing his head just this once would see him spared, he still didn't do it. As someone who had once ruled over Han Hao, he couldn't bring himself to surrender, so death was the better option.
When Han Hao felt Dagmar's soul waves, he knew that he was about to vanish from existence forever, which took him by surprise. He didn't know why Dagmar would choose death instead of submitting to him.
As he looked at Dagmar's body, his eyes glowed. After a while, he threw a ghostly torch he had summoned at the corpse and burned it to ashes.
Although the Overgod Dagmar was dead, his divine body still had many uses. His bones could be used to make even stronger bone spears or spurs, while his skull and brain could be used to create some impressive demonic artefacts. Even his skin had its uses.
But for some reason, he didn't harvest Dagmar's corpse and burned it instead. He only stopped the flames when everything was reduced to ashes.
A simple ring of white bone fell to the ground. After a moment's hesitation, he stepped forward and picked it up. As he sent some death energy into the ring, a gigantic white bone throne appeared.
Stunned, Han Hao took a deep breath and slowly sat down. He sent some divine energy into the throne and it moved as he wished. Some strange ripples came out of the throne and mixed with Han Hao's soul ripples. As he sent more death energy into it, the bone throne seemed even more terrifying than when Dagmar had used it. It seemed to have changed somehow after reacting to Han Hao's energy.
Han Hao felt that the throne was now part of his body, much like the seven bone spurs on his back. He then stepped off the throne and looked at it as it floated in the air.
With a single thought, the throne moved and bobbed in the sky like a remote controlled drone. A smile appeared on Han Hao's face as he played with his new toy. The throne moved through the air as he willed it, picking up speed as it went.
After a while, he jumped into the throne and sent more death energy into it, causing it to speed up and activate the white bone blades around the throne. From a distance, he looked like a skeletal monstrosity, capable of many agile offensive moves in the air.
Han Hao was in no hurry to leave this place. He enjoyed the sensation and felt that the throne had never belonged to Dagmar because he hadn't been able to use it to its full potential. However, Han Hao's own energy was able to unlock the forbidden seals on the throne and reveal even more of its mysterious functions.