Chapter 141: Why Do You Eat Everything?
"A divine core from a Lower God... I'm genuinely looking forward to harvesting this one."
Leaving those words hanging in the air, Shirazawa surged forward with his blade, closing the distance to engage Mael in a brutal, close-quarters melee. Mael, however, wasn't just blindly throwing himself into the meat grinder. He actively chose to avoid a direct head-on clash with the razor-sharp edge, hoping against hope that he could just hold out until the Primary Deity finally broke through to save them.
*Boom—!*
Zangetsu bit hard into Mael's shoulder, ripping away a torrential spray of crimson blood. Yet Shirazawa pressed the offensive without a single pause, acting as if the resistance was entirely nonexistent.
"Hahaha..."
Letting out a wild laugh, he planted a heavy kick straight into Mael's midsection, sending the angel rocketing out of the air to crash miserably onto the hard earth below. Mael scrambled to pull himself together, suddenly realizing that his connection to his magic had seamlessly returned.
But just as he gathered his holy light to mount a counterattack, he was greeted by a massive magical trap the couple had already set up well in advance.
"Taste the absolute darkness of the abyss! Dark Magic: Thousand Demon Spears!"
A massive black magic circle erupted right beneath Mael's feet. In the blink of an eye, an endless sea of dark lances materialized all around him, completely blanketing the sky. The atmosphere turned incredibly eerie and oppressive, looking as if a legion of demons was throwing a chaotic festival.
Mael's survival instincts screamed at him to run, and then...
Well, there was no "then."
Shirazawa unleashed his Evil Eyes to their absolute limit. Activating the Repellent Evil Eye—which he hadn't used yet in this fight—he unleashed a crushing gravitational force that pinned Mael completely to the ground.
"Ora ora ora ora ora—!"
The dark lances screamed through the air, thoroughly burying Mael beneath a torrential downpour of black steel.
"No!!"
"Holy Light!!!"
"Radiant Shield!"
Mael roared in a frenzy, a brilliant holy light exploding from his frame as he desperately tried to drive back the oncoming sea of black spears. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of the projectiles was simply too overwhelming; they were an endless tide that could not be stopped. This was the Dark Death Star, and they were fighting right along the edge of a massive abyssal trench—the sheer density of dark elements here was enough to make anyone's skin crawl. What hope did a single, basic Lower God have of blocking the terrifying weight of the abyss?
*Crack!*
The radiant shield shattered into pieces.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
The infinite dark spears instantly skewered his frame, leaving him thoroughly riddled with holes—a truly gruesome sight. Mael tried to use his metallic, sturdy wings to form a makeshift shield, but the demonic lances tore right through them, making his situation look even more miserable as blood spilled across the floor.
"Mael!"
Sariel, who was already having a perilous time dealing with her own fight, felt a surge of profound grief and fury at the sight of her companion's wretched state.
"Arrgh!!!" Mael shrieked, letting out a final, unwilling roar. "I don't want to die! I am the Third-Month Guardian Angel! I hold a sacred divine office! How can I fall into the abyss?!"
"Holy Sovereign, grant me new strength! Protect your devout follower, and purify these wretched creatures of darkness!" He closed his eyes tightly, rapidly chanting a holy scripture.
*Hum—*
A brilliantly glowing, pristine crystal orb floated out from his chest, suspending itself in mid-air as it spilled a blanket of endless, holy radiance across the battlefield.
Shirazawa frowned as he locked his gaze onto the crystal. "He didn't actually manage to summon the Holy Sovereign, did he?"
*Zing!!*
Zangetsu let out a sharp, ringing hum—a clear warning signal. The blade violently wrenched itself free from Shirazawa's grip, flying out on its own to cleave straight toward the crystal orb.
*Smash!*
The crystal instantly shattered into a million pieces, scattering a cloud of glowing particles across the sky. The holy radiance was immediately wrapped in thick black mist and swallowed whole.
"What on earth did you just do?" Shirazawa asked, thoroughly stunned.
*Hum, hum, hum~*
*(Tasted great!)*
"Uh..." Shirazawa was left completely speechless by the mental feedback bleeding through the blade's connection.
*My guy, you are safely on the side of the darkness faction. Why on earth do you have a craving for the holy energy of the light camp? Especially when it's the personal power of the Holy Sovereign who sits right at the peak of the sacred mountains.*
*Hum, hum, hum~*
*(Mind your business!)*
"Heh, look at you throwing a tantrum now," Shirazawa muttered, entirely out of words to describe the weapon's attitude.
After devouring the holy light, a faint scattering of starlight began to surface along Zangetsu's ink-black steel, looking like a brilliant, dazzling sea of stars captured right on the blade.
But right now, there wasn't a single spare second to investigate the weapon's evolution; time was running dangerously short.
"The Holy Sovereign... No, it can't be... How could his majesty's power be swallowed by the darkness..."
Mael's eyes went entirely blank, losing their inner light. His core belief had completely collapsed like a falling tower, leaving him standing frozen in place like a hollow shell. He could barely believe his own senses, but the reality was staring him right in the face. It felt as if he was an abandoned child left behind by his deity—lost, wandering, and entirely stripped of his will to survive.
*Flash—!*
Seizing the golden opening, Shirazawa swung Zangetsu in a brutal, sweeping arc straight at Mael's neck.
*Slash!*
Blood sprayed across the stone as Mael's head went flying into the air.
Of course, slaying a god was never going to be that simple. Shirazawa needed to thoroughly erase the target's true soul while leaving the divine core perfectly intact so he could smoothly absorb its power later. Normally, using the Annihilating Evil Eye was the absolute easiest shortcut to erase a soul, but the physical backlash was far too steep to justify using it here.
Mael's mangled, broken torso was already starting to slowly writhe and twitch. Given enough time, a divine being could easily piece themselves back together.
Shirazawa planted a heavy kick on the torso, sending the physical frame tumbling down into the massive abyssal trench so the ambient power of the abyss could slowly erode it to dust. As for the severed head, he quickly used a layer of spider silk to seal it away, tucking it safely into his pocket dimension. Once they reached a secure location, he could take his time thoroughly grinding away the lingering soul.
With that cleared, Shirazawa looked up to check on the action in the sky.
Sariel was barely managing to trade blows with Shiro, leaving their side of the field locked in a tense, drawn-out stalemate.
But over on Menka's side, things were entirely lopsided. Zeus was basically a pampered prince who had zero real-world combat experience. Even though he was packing a massive reservoir of raw divine power, he was being thoroughly and brutally suppressed by the cat-eared maid. There was simply no helping it—Menka's personal arsenal of weapons and high-tier items was absolutely ridiculous. After fighting for this long, Zeus hadn't seen her pull out a single duplicate tool. Aside from the massive warhammer that stayed firmly glued to her hands, she had casually swapped through seven or eight entirely different sets of armor.
Zeus had always assumed he was incredibly wealthy, but compared to this cat-eared maid, her sheer financial backing was entirely devoid of any standard divine logic!
*Clang! Clang! Clang!*
The massive iron hammer in Menka's grip clashed violently against Zeus's greatsword. The deafening strikes sent bright sparks showering through the air, every single impact carrying a ruinous amount of weight.
"Meow-hoo~!"
Menka swung the massive hammer in another vicious arc. The sheer force of the impact nearly rattled Zeus's brain straight out of his skull.
*Just hold on a little longer... Father God is about to drop in. Once he arrives, I'll see who gets turned to dust!*
After a split-second calculation, Shirazawa rocketed straight toward Zeus. Through the high-speed simulations running in his mind, he knew the remaining time window was likely only enough to secure one more clean kill. Since that was the case, a greedy guy like him was naturally going to lock his sights straight onto Zeus—the textbook definition of a high-value target who was incredibly easy to push over. Slaying a guy with a high-tier core like him was vastly more profitable than hunting down ten basic Lower Gods.
"Yaah~! Little thief, give me your life!" Shirazawa barked as he closed the distance, his blade driving straight for Zeus's throat.
Zeus jumped half a clean foot in shock, frantically hoisting his weapon to parry the strike. He was inwardly crying tears of pure frustration. *Aren't people supposed to pick on the softest target in the room? Why on earth are you coming after me? Go hunt down Sariel instead!*
But in Shirazawa's eyes, this pampered king was the absolute softest target available, and an incredibly easy one to squeeze.
"Shi—Shirazawa! Buy me a quick window! I'm going to drop my ultimate and one-shot this thing!" Menka barked across the link.
Hearing Menka's call, Shirazawa flashed a calm smile. "Leave it to me. Just pinning him down won't be an issue."
Despite his casual words, he didn't drop his guard for a single second. At the end of the day, the guy was still a genuine Middle God; even if his combat skills were laughably bad, he wasn't going to be a total walk in the park to finish off.
Therefore... time for the classic strategy.
"Antimagic Field, open!"
Zeus: "..."
*Can you please, for the love of the cosmos, just play like a normal person for once?!*
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