The clouds swerved in the night as it formed circularly, creating a black mass of darkness in the middle where it pinpoints below the collisions of power between Belle and Pate.
"Uggghh… " Belle grunt, the numbness in her arms keeps getting worse as the shocks of every blows spread throughout.
She can't even have the time to wipe the trickling blood from her lips.
Trying to catch her breath as she keeps exchanging blows with Pate's beastly claws, but her strength keeps declining and was force back bit by bit.
Her great sword's aura earlier was thinning out. Even if the legendary conquering haki could suppress the ghastly power of Pate, it still needed to be supplemented by its user.
Despite that, her eyes gleamed with unyielding will and scream "Ahhh!" putting all of her strength in her great sword, but it nullified all of her attack with a much more powerful ripping claw of Pate.
In a short amount of time, Belle's body has a few visible black aurae that keep wriggling at her body without her noticing it.
And as the fight kept going, her mind was little by little invaded by a ripple of negative thoughts, diminishing her willpower as an impression of a vengeful spirit gnawing on her flesh.
Belle was only fighting with her willpower as it shrouded her in mist and underwent in a place where uncountable spirits trying to pull her down with them.
'P-please… stop!'
Bunch of spirits were crawling at her body as they expressed full hatred against her shouting for justice, freedom, and mercy.
'I-i'm… not your murderer… please let… me go!'
"DIE!!! DIE!!! DIE!!!" their murmurs kept echoing in her mind and for the first time, Belle felt helpless and terror.
To be imprisoned in this kind of torment.
Clap!~ Clap!~ Clap!~
"Hahahaha!" Belle heard a menacing laugh as it overlapped by a round of clap, lifting her heavy eyelid.
She saw the marine lieutenant earlier, who was strolling toward her with ease. "Amazing! The devastating battle between you two is so powerful. I'll admit that just one of you two could take my entire crew. It's just saddening.." She was lying flat on the ground and her great sword was on the side. Only the handle remained.
"That you two aggressively take on each other, not waiting for my cue to enter!"
Feeling confused, Belle tried to search the young man she fought, but failed to turn her neck because of weakness.
Lieutenant Curio arrived beside Belle, squatting to look at her and stroke her soft cheek in which the girl gritted her teeth in return "Ohoh, such an attitude, but you still have what I needed. That overwhelming pressure you burst out and, of course, that young man too! Such powerful techniques."
Reminiscing those scenes earlier, that blast of force, the collisions of each attack, he wants it!
To possess that kind of power 'Plus the fact she was a beauty!'
"Lieutenant, some of them can still fight back and our men are currently battling them!" a marine crew emerges from the wreckage of a tree.
"Don't worry, they will settle it later." Lieutenant Curio said while covering his acts from putting a drug pellet into Belle's mouth who couldn't do anything as it dissolved inside her mouth.
Seeing that Belle closed her eyes and her breathing stabilized as she entered deep sleep, he stood up and ordered the young marine, "Come, call some helpers and get this white-haired girl in the HQ, as she needed medical attention."
"Yes!" the marine rushed out of the area while the lieutenant looked around searching for the young man's whereabouts. 'Well, I guess the last plan wouldn't be necessary anymore.'
But as the lieutenant was deep in thought, a metallic claw appeared out of nowhere on his side, targeting his head.
The lieutenant envisioned how his head was severed because of how potent the killing intent of that attack was, and even though the claws hadn't landed in his head, his eyes constricted as it showed terror.
'I don't want to die!' the lieutenant could only scream in his mind as death slowly came his way.
A blast of spark and impact surged on his side as the feeling of death faded.
"So you are the one who I am perceiving from the start!" a voice resounded in the lieutenant's ears, turning his head to see the young man's claws were inch apart from his cheek.
But fortunately, lady luck smiled at him as the cloak man appear between them and blocked the young man's deadly attack.
The silver gauntlet of the cloak man, firmly stop the claws from advancing.
"Back off a little. I'll play with this young man for a minute." the cloaked man said with an undistinguished voice and pushed the claws of Pate by shoving his arm.
Pate felt the intense tremor as he slid a few meters away and with shocked expressions, 'What a strength!'
Now that the hidden variable appears right in front of Pate, he lets the sliver of his sanity surge with momentum. "Come!" with a powerful stomp, Pate bulldoze upfront of the cloak man.
A series of afterimages of claws attack at every angle of cloak man who distorted in a blurring wave, vanishing in existence.
All the attacks of Pate rained down on the patch of dirt, creating an explosion.
"Tremendous amount of strength!" a calm voice echoed in the blanketing smoke.
Pate tried to pinpoint the location of the voice, but he couldn't determine it and he could only feel that he was near.
'I could only bait him then!' Pate didn't waste time and execute a barrage of punching blows around him as the ground quake in terror.
This time, the black smoke surging out of Pate becomes much more menacing as it form few ghouls shrieking out that even Pate didn't expect this kind of outcome.
This Sin's seed form shrouded Pate's consciousness this time as it plunged him into the deeper darkness.
'T-this!?' the cloak man startled, appearing in ten meters' distance with a three lingering dark aurae attach at him.