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Heisenberg and Shade were desperately fighting against Jack, Lee, and Henrietta at the same time, while Anna and her friends desperately ganged on Roy. Despite the clear display of incredible power that Heisenberg and his subordinates had showcased the moment they descended from the Demon Castle, all of it ended for nothing, as their primary target was rescued and they were being stopped from infecting the rest of the city with the Miasma due to a large dome of light, courtesy of Henrietta herself.
CLASH!
Henrietta's Divine Sword of Light impacted Shade's Chaos Barrier once more, sending several ripples through. The barrier began to shatter as if it were made of glass, and Shade started to grow desperate.
"{Shadow Beasts}!"
Expanding his shadows around him, several beams made out of them emerged, imbued with the new powers of Chaos he had acquired from acquiring a Demonic Stigma, thanks to their new friend, Beelzebub.
"ROAAR!"
"SHAAAH!"
"GRAAR!"
Wolves, snakes, and even bears made of condensed shadows and chaotic energy jumped toward Henrietta all at once. But the brave young woman's eyes shone brightly, her blade channeling her mana. As she swung the blade horizontally while spinning with her body, all the beasts were cut down into two halves and swiftly disappeared into explosions of black mist!
SLAAASH!
"W-What?!" Shade muttered, stepping back.
It was clear that, at first, they had shown clear superiority. However, something had happened that made Henrietta much stronger. According to what they had researched, she shouldn't be capable of destroying chaos energy so easily!
Unless…
"So it is that damned Archangel again!" Roared a demonic voice within the Demon Castle, overseeing what happened through the eyes of Shade.
Without a doubt, Archangel Gabriel, the one who protected Henrietta and made her his incarnation, had fed her with even more privileges, perhaps something related to being able to unleash Celestial Power, which Anna could unleash after changing her Class to Nephilim.
This wasn't just out of nowhere; it was thanks to Henrietta earning enough merit due to her many efforts, most of them provoked by the changes Anna was constantly provoking through fate, forcing Henrietta to push herself to her limits and even beyond that.
"She's too strong to handle her by myself!" Shade muttered.
He had always possessed a supporting role within the group, someone who was capable of teleporting between shadows. He had grown too cocky after acquiring a Demonic Stigma thanks to Beelzebub and believed he could handle at least an A+ Rank Hunter on his own.
Well, maybe, but Henrietta had already surpassed the realm of A+ Rank Hunters and could be said to be much closer to an S Rank hunter now after all her growth and training through the battles she had gone through.
FLASH!
"What's wrong?! You're getting sluggish!" Henrietta roared, flying using her wings at supersonic speed, quickly catching up with Shade's Shadow Teleportation, which allowed him to appear instantly within shadows he had touched before.
Her blade quickly neared Shade's head as it quickly sliced through the two layers of Chaos Energy Barriers he had set up! Henrietta was completely different, and that's without even letting Archangel Gabriel descend into her body!
"Ungh?! {Chaotic Shadow Void}!!!" Shade cried in desperation, raising his arms.
Channeling his element of shadows alongside the chaos energy generated a third, even stronger, and bizarre element, void. This was a spell he had created just recently, and it was too dangerous because it could also hurt him, but Shade didn't have any other option now.
A huge hole of pure darkness emerged right in front of Henrietta's sword as it began absorbing her energies constantly. A strong pull attempted to suck her inside the void, which Henrietta could sense lending somewhere that wasn't Earth anymore!
"Shit!" Henrietta gritted her teeth and imbued her mana into her wings, rapidly and swiftly moving them down, creating enough force to fly into the skies and evade a swift death! "You tricky bastard!"
Henrietta was furious, ignoring the void and descending towards where she sensed Shade was hiding. Her sword expanded its Sword Ki and then generated three blades of light at the same time, which she fired at him; this time she didn't want to risk getting another of those in front of her face.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"Uuaagh!"
The scream of Shade echoed from below as he evaded two of the swords, but the third followed him and pierced his back, all the way through his lungs, barely missing the heart. The man desperately fell to his knees, sinking into the shadows seconds before Henrietta was about to decapitate him.
SLASH!
"Missed it! Where are you?!" Henrietta started chasing Shade around, sensing his mana to find out where he was hiding, quickly flying towards him again while the man desperately took out the blade of light from his chest while burning his own hands.
"Uuurgh…! Y-You bitch!" Shade cried in fury, his Demonic Stigma glowing as his entire body started fusing with his own shadows. Henrietta stopped her charge seconds before a huge shockwave of demonic energy hit her!
"What the…?!"
She pierced the ground with her sword and resisted the tremendous shockwave. She noticed Shade's entire body shapeshifting, fusing with the shadows, and growing taller.
A lanky, thin, and terrific body emerged instead, with a faceless face and a single red eye in the middle of his chest. His height now reached over five meters, as his long arms had long, claw-like fingers, and the rest of his pale body was wrapped around worn and thorny black robes.
"You have forced my hand…!" Shade groaned, having difficulties trying to articulate words in this form.
"Right, Annabelle mentioned they were "chimeras"…" Henrietta recalled. "Does this mean every single one of these guys can turn into some sort of creepy monster?!"
"RAAAAH!"
Shade leaped towards Henrietta with new strength and speed, quickly clashing against her sword with his huge claws and forcing his way through a reckless charge. She was quickly overwhelmed, as Henrietta stepped back constantly while parrying his rapid and wild attacks!
The difference between the frailer Shade and this was like heaven and earth; it was as if she was fighting a different entity altogether. Her Celestial Energy was much more limited than Anna's, and she was already beginning to be pushed back.
If push comes to shove, she'll have to finish him off utilizing her Incarnation Form, which might only bring an even bigger backlash than before.
"You two make for a terrible combination."
Several blue tentacles surged from the back of Heisenberg as Jack and Lee ganged on him with everything they had. The two hunters had terrible cooperation and performance together but were strong enough that the leader of the Dawn of a New World had to put his full attention on them.
"And you love to say useless things."
After that snarky remark, Jack's Demonic Gram, which was one of the two halves of Gram that had been devoured and transformed by Fenrir into a different sword enhanced with his powers, swung vertically and horizontally, generating several cross-shaped aura slashes.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
The slashes easily cut down Heisenberg's tentacles, only for new ones to regrow right away, while his two hands gathered large quantities of Chaotic Energy, shaping them into two spears.
"Tch, I imagine it is useless to convince you now, dog-faced bastard?" Heisenberg asked with a pissed-off look. "The thing I detest the most are people who, instead of using their strength to claim the thrones they rightfully deserve as kind, help others that don't even deserve such kindness."
Two spears made of chaos flew towards Jack, almost piercing his chest if it wasn't because he melded into shadows, emerging once more as a mass of countless black wolves, attempting to tear apart Heisenberg's entire body.
"Useless!"
The leader of the Dawn of a New World laughed as a barrier around him emerged out of thin air, generating dozens of sharp spikes made of chaos and piercing through all the wolves at once, making Jack's original body gain several holes across his body as if it had affected him.
"Ungh…!" He vomited a mouthful of blood as the rest of his body bled as well, but new shadows filled the wounds, forcefully regenerating them at the same time as one of Jack's arms changed its appearance, growing larger, more muscular, and monstrous.
"Oh?" Heisenberg opened his eyes in surprise as he saw something very familiar.
Jack's arm transformed into a chimeric mass of countless interconnected monstrous beings, attacking him by firing all sorts of magical spells and skills! Flames, Ice, Lightning, Slashing attacks, bite attacks, anything!
"You're like us…!" Heisenberg stepped back as he evaded the measly blows, only to be surprised by Lee appearing from above, his sword overflowing with Light while his eyes glowed and shaped like those of a ferocious snake.
CRASH!
The powerful sword attack pierced through Heisenberg's barrier, taking him by surprise as it pierced through his shoulder, blood splattering everywhere as he gritted his teeth, but he didn't scream in pain.
"Tch, and here's the snake." Heisenberg laughed, swinging his arm as he unleashed a similar power to Jack, transforming his limb into a mass of countless beasts combined together, punching Lee, an S-Rank Hunter, several dozens of meters away with tremendous force and speed.
Lee felt several of his bones breaking as all the magic shields he had prepared beforehand broke. Heisenberg's arm was coated on a thick barrier of Demonic Energy and Chaos Energy, easily negating his lower-level Mana Barrier.
"Uurgh…!" Lee groaned. "Without using the powers of Uroboros' Incarnation, I cannot go all-out against this sleazy bastard!" He thought, gritting his teeth.
He was conflicted about using his true powers, as that would alert Jack and everyone else that he was a Demonic Human, not so different from what Heisenberg and his group had become now, and he might become the next target, completely destroying all his reputation.
"{Shadow Mirages}!" Jack roared, appearing and disappearing as countless clones of himself emerged around Heisenberg, attacking him all at once!
All of his blows were genuine, and none of them were exactly a mirage of a physical shadow clone! Heisenberg carelessly evaded and destroyed the mirages one after another, only to be greeted by Jack's anthropomorphic form overflowing with even more power, growing large as well as his sword.
"I have yet to go all out, bastard!" Jack roared, rushing towards Heisenberg and swinging his massive sword against his barrier, shattering it!
CRASH!
"Hoh? Not bad! {Abyssal Confinement}!" Heisenberg laughed as several dark portals emerged around him, where gigantic black tentacles were summoned, wrapping around Jack's body and inhibiting his movements in a second!
"Ungh?!" Jack was left speechless as he felt all of his Mana being drained from being in contact with those strange, otherworldly limbs.
"Yeah, pretty tough, aren't you, Jack? Filled with a baseless pride built upon thinking that protecting this sheeple makes you better than us, right?" Heisenberg gathered a large quantity of Chaotic Energy on his hands, firing a beam towards Jack's chest.
BOOOM!
"Aaarrgh…!"
Jack's chest was completely blasted; his heart, his lungs, everything was vaporized as his body quickly fell to the floor, smoke coming out of the hole in his chest.
"JACK!" Fenrir cried in horror as his soul quickly wrapped around Jack's body, swiftly regenerating his fleshy wounds and even creating a new heart.
However, Jack was still exhausted; the attack didn't only affect his near-immortal body, but his soul had been left with an equally huge hole, making his spiritual and magical powers greatly decline in strength.
"You couldn't devour that one, couldn't you?" Heisenberg asked with a smirk. "I'll end this now, while you're weakened." He pointed his hand at Jack.
"STOP!"
However, Heisenberg was quickly startled by the scream of Roy, as he was killed by Anna and her friends at long last. Not only that, but Scarlet was cooperating with them. He also noticed that Shade was forced into a corner, transforming into his monstrous appearance.
"It looks like things didn't go as we expected…" Heisenberg sighed, almost as if he didn't care.
"RAAAAH!"
However, before he could do anything else, Jack's entire mass transformed into a huge black wolf's jaws, attempting to devour him whole.
"Ungh?!"
Heisenberg had lowered his guard, having one of his arms caught by Jack's jaws and torn apart from his body before he blasted the wolf's head into pieces with another beam.
"You tricky bastard!" Heisenberg muttered, wrapping his aura around the wound. "Shade! Let's get out of here!"
"At once."
Shade appeared right behind him, wrapping Heisenberg in his shadows as Lee and Jack tried to catch him before both disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"W-We survived…" Henrietta muttered, covered in wounds, before collapsing on the floor.
Jack was just in a terrible state, and even devouring that guy's arm wasn't enough to help him recover all the energy those blasted tentacles absorbed out of him.
"Where are the other Hunters anyways?! They never appeared!" Jack muttered angrily, suddenly receiving a call from Hilda. "Hilda? What's going on?"
"There's something BIG happening here!" Hilda said. "A lady with silver hair appeared holding a scythe, and then she brought an army of like a million skeletons! Hector's fucking dying! Dimitri and Heckert are barely holding back the skeletons! Come here quickly! We need as much strength to hold back all the undead!"
Just when they thought they had managed to survive through this ordeal, another problem came knocking at their doorstep.
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