Chapter 469: This isn't a monster... it's a god!
As Seto Kaiba's declaration, filled with incredibly complex emotions, fell, the earth shook violently.
Then, a giant humanoid, deep blue all over, with muscles bulging like forged steel, appeared behind Seto Kaiba, enveloped in lightning and thunder.
Its crimson eyes stared fixedly at Demitri, who had screeched to a halt. Whether due to rules or some other reason, the colossal humanoid only had its upper body barely exposed.
Just by standing there, the pressure it emitted caused slight distortions in space.
"This isn't a monster... it's a god!"
"Obelisk the Tormentor!"
As the summoner, Seto Kaiba's own eyes gleamed with an even more dangerous light.
He wanted to vent, to unleash the unique emotions that had nowhere to go in his heart, and Demitri was the target of his catharsis.
But Kaiba, the stubborn immortal, was in a much worse situation than it appeared.
First, he had been hit by the Evil Beam in the previous clash. Because he shared life with Blue-Eyes White Dragon, he suffered a synchronized blow, and his internal organs were actually somewhat damaged, requiring treatment.
Secondly, summoning Obelisk the Tormentor not only required an extremely high MP, but also necessitated meeting certain sacrificial conditions.
In the past, he would have chosen to directly sacrifice Blue-Eyes White Dragon in exchange for this god's ultimate attack, which was the most prudent course of action. Blue-Eyes White Dragon, being bound to his soul, could still return to his side through various means.
But this time, his body very honestly prevented him from making that choice... so the consumption of this life force was borne by himself.
No one knew what kind of choice this stubborn man had made. Only the Blue-Eyes Maiden, whose eyes only held her soul's bond, was looking at Kaiba with immense worry.
Even without turning around, Kaiba could feel that gaze very clearly... which further stimulated his desire to vent.
Upon witnessing the arrival of the Tormentor, Demitri slammed on the brakes, stopping dead in his tracks, his eyes showing a color close to despair.
"This is way too unfair, isn't it!?"
Demitri, the Dark Nobleman of the Demon World, couldn't help but blurt out this sentence.
At the Tormentor's scale, it was clearly no longer something his mere Midnight Bliss could affect.
It seemed he could only stop at the top 16... No, perhaps his demonic life would also come to an end along with it?
"Regret? Too late! Taste the judgment of the God Hand Crush!"
Realizing that Demitri had lost his will to fight, Seto Kaiba clearly had no intention of letting him go.
The Tormentor's strong arm, which seemed capable of shaking the entire arena with a slight movement, had already begun to draw back and gather strength, destructive energy highly condensed in its fist.
Accompanied by a piercing roar that only air compressed to its limit could produce, the Tormentor's fist crashed down like a falling meteor—
"God! Hand! Crash!!!!"
The moment the fist touched the ground, a hemispherical energy field exploded on the spot. The unfortunate ground, already subjected to a whirlwind of explosive bullets, was once again directly struck by the god's iron fist.
The ground collapsed in layers, and large amounts of rubble shattered into dust in mid-air before they could even scatter. The energy shockwave rapidly spread to the surrounding area of the field, causing the ground to surge in layered waves, finally stopping at the protective barrier in front of the audience seats.
However, while the audience was protected by the barrier, the waiting fighters, being in close proximity, truly bore the brunt of the punch's aftershock.
Energy, whirlwinds, fighting aura, psychic powers—various forms of techniques were unleashed from their hands, and for a time, the arena was filled with colorful lights.
After one strike, the god's majestic body could no longer maintain itself and shattered on the spot, leaving only a 'meteorite crater' in the center, still retaining a reddish hue from the residual high temperature.
Although Seto Kaiba, as the caster, would not be affected by this special friendly fire damage, he uncontrollably suffered a second bout of physical exhaustion, almost collapsing, due to excessive life force consumption and his existing injuries.
Just as his knees were about to touch the ground, the Blue-Eyes Maiden, who was even taller than Atem with his hair, expertly caught Kaiba in her arms.
No matter how cute she looked, her essence as a Blue-Eyes White Dragon would not change. Although she temporarily lost the power to clash with strength-type fighters due to her form change, she still had enough strength to toss Kaiba around like a sandbag.
Kaiba, being a stubborn person, still tried to struggle, but the maiden held him firmly in her arms. After several failed attempts to break free, he chose to play dead. As for his flushed face, it was unclear whether it was from exhaustion or caused by brainwave interference.
As for Demitri?
The audience craned their necks, trying to spot any remnants of Demitri in the meteorite crater, but ultimately saw nothing; not even dust remained.
Meanwhile, on Cheng Tian's table at the commentator's desk, a small, charred bat had appeared at some point. It could move, but it looked listless and severely weakened.
"Do you need help?"
Cheng Tian turned off his microphone and asked the weakened flying creature, which seemed to have fruit bat ancestry, in front of him.
"...Please do."
Demitri, the little bat, who had narrowly escaped death from the God Hand by sacrificing most of his power and was now temporarily unable to even transform into his human form, weakly and listlessly smiled ingratiatingly at Cheng Tian, who had instantly seen through his secret.
[You have received a 'Protection' request from 'Demitri', triggering a side quest—Hehe! I want to live!]
[Team Quest. Demitri, who successfully survived the God Hand Crush, has chosen you, the mysterious one, to issue a protection request. According to the request, you need to ensure Demitri's survival during The King of Fighters '97 tournament. If you can help him recover as much of his original power as possible, that would be even better.
Quest Reward: You and your teammates will receive 1 skill taught personally by Demitri that meets learning conditions. The skill can be chosen freely, but the skill level will vary based on completion. You and your teammates cannot choose the same skill.]
"Winner! Seto Kaiba!!!"
As the announcer declared, the audience seats also erupted with enthusiastic cheers.
It was just that Kaiba was indeed a bit weak at the moment; otherwise, he would definitely have joined in the roaring applause.
On the other side, Terry and Geese initially waited expectantly for their recovery, but after waiting for a long time with no changes, and also noticing that the Blue-Eyes Maiden on the stage hadn't transformed back into Blue-Eyes White Dragon, they... no, *they* suddenly thought of a possibility.
The death of the caster doesn't automatically dispel the spell, but rather, makes the spell permanent?
The two fighters, with ashen faces, fell into despair.