Chapter 269 Incarnation Of Death
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The black blade fell down, missing Nephis only by a hair's breadth. She rolled back and performed an impossible handspring, launching herself into the air from the ground. Landing on the marble floor with an effortless grace of a trained acrobat, Changing Star slid back a few meters and came to a stop some distance away from the devil.
But he was just as fast... no, much faster. The giant was already lunging forward to skewer her on the tip of his terrible greatsword. She shifted slightly, dodging the deadly attack, a dashed forward along the vast length of the black blade. Her sword flashed through the air and impacted against the vambrace of the menacing armor, leaving a deep scratch on its dark surface.
…Everything was happening so fast that other members of the cohort were having trouble joining the fight. The Stone Saint had just landed on the marble floor a moment ago and was currently rising back to her feet. Effie had recovered from receiving the full brunt of the Black Knight's first attack and was rushing forward, but she was still a few meters away.
Kai had drawn his bow, but couldn't send an arrow flying without the risk of hitting one of his companions. With how potent the enchantment of the Blood Arrow was, this was something he could not allow to happen.
Cassie mostly relied on Echoes to fight, and since they were not enhanced by the Dawn Shard, their utility in this battle would not have been high. More than that, they risked being destroyed by a single strike from the devil. As such, she was relegated to holding back for now, and would only join the fight if things really went south. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
So for now, it was up to Sunny and Caster to slow the fiend down.
Their only saving grace, and the point that Sunny had explained in detail, was that the terrifying greatsword, while deadly and utterly unstoppable — well, almost — was ultimately an unwieldy weapon.
The Black Knight was strong enough to throw it around as though the giant blade weighed no more than a feather and skilled enough to turn momentum and inertia into useful tools as opposed to obstacles, but he still had to obey the laws of physics. Even more importantly, the damn thing was very long.
Which meant that they had to stick to the Fallen Devil like glue in order to use its long reach against him.
As the steel giant sidestepped and pulled his greatsword into a vicious horizontal swipe aimed at Changing Star, Sunny closed the distance between them and approached the devil from the opposite side. The Midnight Shard flashed, striking at the elbow joint of the plate armor.
All Sunny achieved was leave a small scratch on it, but he also pushed the Black Knight's hand down and closer to his body a bit, changing the angle of the swipe slightly. At the same time, Caster dove under the terrible blade and suddenly appeared right in front of the devil, thrusting his jian at the steel helmet.
p??da n?vel The Black Knight just turned his head slightly, causing the ghostly green blade to slide off the helmet without doing any damage. At the same time, he let go of the sword with one hand and threw his elbow back, almost smashing Sunny's skull in.
…All the while continuing his deadly strike at Nephis.
Nevertheless, their tandem attack helped Changing Star avoid being cut in half. Taking a swift step forward, she raised her own sword and received the blow on its blade. Since she had time to close the distance and was now mere centimeters away from the devil, the part of the greatsword that hit her was close to the cross-guard, and as such, did not carry too much destructive force.
Still, it was enough to send her crashing onto the ground, the sword sliding from her hand.
Even with the three of them fighting together, they couldn't slow the cursed creature for more than a moment.
But then, a moment was all they needed. Because it gave Effie enough time to rejoin the fight.
It also gave Kai the opportunity to take a shot.
A black arrow streaked through the air… and plunged right into the crack of the devil's visor.
Sunny noticed a startled expression on the charming archer's face. He himself was stunned, too: no one had expected Kai to actually hit the bastard right in the only chink in his armor, least of all Kai himself.
The head of the Black Knight was violently jerked backward.
…But in the next moment, Kai staggered and groaned.
'Curse it! Why am I always right?!'
Sunny had anticipated that result, too. He had guessed a long time ago that there was no flesh beneath the menacing black armor. Rather, the armor itself was the Nightmare Creature, or at least the vessel for the evil soul of a powerful revenant. As such, there was no blood for the ghastly arrow to drink. That's why Kai had been affected by the backlash of his Fallen Memory despite hitting his target.
Just in case something like that happened, Sunny had tasked the charming archer with fashioning a few mundane arrows out of splinters of bone that was everywhere on the Forgotten Shore.
So Kai wasn't entirely out of the fight, yet. However, the amount of damage he would be able to do to the terrifying devil was not extremely low.
'Damnation!'
But Sunny had no time to lament this turn of events. The battle was only growing more chaotic and fierce…
Thanks to the incredible precision of Kai's shot, the Black Knight was disoriented for a moment. Effie arrived just at the right time to use it to their advantage. Leaning low, the used the momentum of her lunge and the bone-breaking weight of the Dusk Shard to deliver a devastating blow to the thigh of the steel giant. As another shockwave of sound rolled through the grand hall, the fiend staggered.
But a fraction of a second later, he brought his armored fist down on the mighty huntress, causing her to reel away with a pained scream. The pommel of the black sword lurched forward, catching Caster in the chest despite how fast the proud Legacy was moving. He crumbled to the floor like a broken mannequin.
Lastly, the Black Knight turned his blade to Sunny, causing him to retreat.
The damn bastard was simply unstoppable. None of their attacks had achieved anything except for annoying him a little.
'Not good, not good...'
…Pushing herself off the ground, Nephis looked at the Fallen Devil that towered above her like a bastion of darkness. Her face was pale, and there was blood flowing from her mouth.
What's worse, the silver sword had slid far away and was now out of her reach. The incandescent radiance disappeared from its blade, allowing for the darkness that hid in the corners of the grand call to slowly begin crawling back.
Nothing stood between her and the Black Knight anymore.
Suddenly opening his eyes wide, Sunny glanced into the depths of the cathedral.
And then, a simple scream escaped from his lips:
"Neth! Run!"
Chapter 270 Runaway
As the silver sword was extinguished, Changing Star lingered for a moment. White flames ignited in her eyes, and suddenly, the pristine white breastplate of the Starlight Legion Armor was enveloped in blinding white light.
The darkness that had begun to seep back into the grand hall of the ancient temple reeled away once more. It appeared as though Nephis changed the target of her miraculous Aspect Ability and used her armor as its conduit instead of the sword.
But from the side, it simply looked like there was a furious white star burning in her chest.
…That momentary delay almost cost her her life.
As soon as Sunny's scream echoed through the cathedral, the terrifying black blade came down once again. This time, Nephis seemingly had no chance to escape.
But, somehow, she did.
Pushing herself off the marble floor, she twisted her body and barely avoided the falling guillotine of the Black Knight's greatsword, then swiftly rolled away. The next moment, she was already on her feet.
As the devil lunged forward to crush her, Changing Star did something that no one would ever expect the proud daughter of the Immortal Flame Clan to do.
She turned her back to the enemy… and ran.
From their early days in the Labyrinth, Sunny knew that Nephis could be incredibly fast when she wanted to. And indeed, just a second later, she was already far away. Cursing under his breath, he followed.
p??da n?vel No matter how fast Nephis was, the Black Knight was faster.
The devil was already pursuing his runaway prey, moving with a celerity that seemed strange for a creature of his size, especially one clad in an incredibly heavy suit of steel armor. With each moment, he drew closer and closer to Changing Star, his sword ready to reap her life.
Straining his muscles to their limit, Sunny ran as fast as he could, too, desperately trying to catch up to them. With Effie and Caster temporary put out of commission and Cassie and Kai sidelined, he was the only one left. He had to make it in time, no matter what.
If he didn't…
'Come on!'
Gritting his teeth, Sunny somehow managed to accelerate even more.
Nephis was already halfway through the grand hall of the cathedral. The statue of the nameless goddess on the far side of it must have appeared in her sight.
It was then when she suddenly stopped and turned around, sliding on the marble floor a few meters because of the momentum. The silver sword had already been dismissed and summoned back from her Soul Sea.
It seemed as though out of desperation, Nephis decided to mount one last, suicidal attack on the swiftly approaching steel giant. Or maybe she had just gone crazy.
But it only seemed that way.
…The corners of Sunny's mouth curled upward.
'That's my girl!'
Plan C was about to come to fruition. Changing Star had performed her role perfectly.
Well, what else did Sunny expect from her?
All that remained was to stall the Black Knight for a few seconds.
The devil descended upon the silver-haired girl in a fury of obliterating black steel. Nephis met him with her usual calm resolve, dodging strike after strike with incredible skill. Just like a lifetime ago, when she had been facing Caster at the dojo of the Academy, she used her understanding and control of the flow of combat to breach the gap in speed between her and her opponent.
She wasn't as much reacting to the deadly blows delivered by the devil as predicting them, moving to evade the strikes of the black greatsword before they could even happen.
Of course, this deadly dance could not last. The tiniest of mistakes would have been her last. And even if she didn't make any, Nephis was not going to be able to keep this level of concentration for long, not to mention the insane toll this fearsome clash took on her stamina and endurance.
But she didn't have to. All she needed to do was to keep the bastard busy for a couple of seconds.
And when those seconds ran out…
A sudden crack of breaking stone resounded in the darkness of the ancient temple.
***
In all the commotion, the Stone Saint had strangely disappeared. After Sunny had confirmed that the Fallen Devil was targeting Nephis above everyone else, their strongest combatant — his Shadow — was nowhere to be seen.
That, of course, was on purpose. She was laying the groundwork for the plan to work while the rest of them kept the Black Knight distracted.
The plan, however, could only happen in a certain spot in the grand hall. That was where Changing Star had to lure the Black Knight in case he fixated on her. Following the descriptions provided to her by Sunny, she led the devil deeper into the cathedral and stopped just in the right place.
And then, she engaged him in a fierce battle to give the Sait time to close the trap. frёewebηovel.cѳm
…Which she did by taking a running start and crashing with all her weight into one of the tall, magnificent pillars supporting the roof of the cathedral.
This pillar, in particular, was damaged at the base, making it uniquely unstable. Sunny knew every corner of the ruined temple like the palm of his hand, so he knew about this flaw of the pillar as well.
That had been what he based Plan C on.
As Sunny ran, he could see everything that followed in all its majestic brutality.
The breaking of stone resounded in the vast hall of the ancient temple. A net of cracks appeared on the massive, incredibly tall column and quickly spread to a deep gash in its base. Shards of stone flew in every direction, and the column began to topple.
It seemed slow at first. But in fact, it wasn't.
In the center of the hall, the Black Knight paused his relentless onslaught for a moment and turned his head, following the sound of cracking stone.
…He was a second too late.
As Nephis dashed away, the pillar fell on the devil, crushing him under countless tons of hard stone.