Chapter 571: Death Of A God

Bang! Bang!

Golden and black beams of light shot across the space, colliding relentlessly and tearing apart everything caught between them. Neither side showed any sign of backing down.

Every clash sent ripples through the already distorted space of Realm Zero, and the battle continued for nearly half an hour without either combatant securing a decisive advantage.

Blegh!

Lazarus spat out a mouthful of blood as a golden fist tore into his abdomen, but he merely gritted his teeth through the pain and swung all six hands forward violently.

Booom!

Crimson Kiss!

Devil Hands!

The combined attack slammed into Lazarus before he could recover. His body jerked backward, his vision blurring before repeatedly snapping back into focus.

Azure flames exploded across his body, burning through his golden defenses and digging into his already damaged soul, yet the flames did not diminish the intensity of his resolve.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Lazarus roared, throwing his head forward for a headbutt.

However, the Damian he rammed into suddenly exploded into a cloud of purple mist.

BANG!

Lazarus’s eyes widened as his momentum carried him forward. His mouth opened, but no sound escaped before azure flames erupted across his back and blasted him violently through the air.

The golden glaive shot past Lazarus and positioned itself directly along his path, its massive hilt forming an unexpected wall that blocked his retreat. His body slammed into it with a heavy crash, bringing his uncontrolled flight to an abrupt stop.

Hufff!

Lazarus’s chest heaved up and down as he steadied himself, his eyes fixed on Damian with a mixture of disbelief and pain.

"How... How are you able to keep going against despite being weaker?" Lazarus’ gasped, his cold gaze fixed on Damains body filled with bruises that should have made him fall yet he kept standing.

Lazarus, however, was not fairing any better. Several chunks of the armor had fallen away completely, exposing bare skin covered in bruises and burns. Lazarus looked nothing like the invincible golden deity who had entered the battle.

Bang!

A massive claw suddenly swatted Lazarus out of the sky, knocking him further toward the crimson eye below. Before he could regain control of his body, chains exploded from the crimson eye and wrapped around his limbs, binding his arms and legs before several more chains coiled around the Golden Dragon Glaive and pulled it away from him.

Thud!

Damian landed heavily on Abel’s head, and immediately clutched his aching heart as he stood nearby.

"With the devil hands I steal the life force you are dependent on to fight me while using it to heal myself of the injuries you inflict on me and with my crimson kiss, I further damage your already damaged soul which once again you are reliant on. That accompanied to the fact that most of your attacks only hit an illusion and not the real me. But of course you were too focused on the fight to remember you are still trapped in my Dream world false territory.... You were bound to tire first." Damian’s voice remained calm despite the blood covering his face.

Buzz!

Lazarus’s face twisted as the realization finally struck him. Only now did he understand what Damian had been doing throughout the entire battle. This had never truly been a contest of who possessed greater strength.

Damian had known from the beginning that he could not overpower Lazarus in a direct confrontation, so he had turned the entire battle into a war of attrition. Every action served to make Lazarus spend more while Damian spent less.

"Yes, you were bound to lose the moment you stepped into those arrays. It was only a matter of time." Damian said while standing upright.

Huff!

Dried blood could be seen around Damian’s eyes, cheeks, nose, lips and even his ears. Despite everything, he too had not walked away unscathed. His body had been repeatedly battered, crushed and pierced throughout the battle, and although the energy stolen through Devil Hands had allowed him to continuously restore his physical injuries, it could not repair the damage done to his soul.

This fight had already cost him at least five hundred years of his lifespan, despite planning everything down.

"I WON’T GO ALONE.... EVEN IF I MUST DIE, I’LL TAKE YOU ALL WITH ME!" Lazarus roared like a mad man.

His eyes suddenly blazed with violent golden light as cracks began appearing across his armor. Intense golden radiance poured from those fractures, growing brighter with every passing second. His presence shook violently, becoming increasingly unstable as the enormous amount of accumulated power within his body began collapsing inward.

The air itself trembled around him, and even the chains binding him began straining under the pressure.

"He’s going to detonate." Rin sounded unimpressed.

Abel’s crimson eyes narrowed as he watched the unstable golden energy.

"If he was going to do this anyway he should have done it from the start and saved us the trouble." Abel sounded annoyed.

Damian merely shrugged indifferently before his body flashed.

Swish!

He appeared directly before the restrained Lazarus and seized him by the face. "Devil Hands! Devour!"

Buzz!

A powerful suction erupted from Damian’s palm. Lazarus’s eyes widened as the force began pulling the energy from his body, his face twisting with rage as he struggled against Damian’s grip. He began pulling hard, trying to tear himself free, but more chains immediately erupted from the crimson eye and latched onto him, tightening around his body and forcing him back into place.

"Don’t bother little elf... The battle has been lost." Abyss chuckled from within the darkness.

"Don’t worry about a thing... Since you didn’t cause me too much problems, I will treat your wife well. I’m sure she would be happy to have a husband who values her more than her husband ever did." Damian grinned sinisterly.

Lazarus’s eyes widened violently as he struggled even harder, but the chains only tightened around him while Devil Hands continued draining him.

"Mmhmmmmmmmmm!" Lazarus’s muffled cries filled the realm as the golden radiance pouring from his body began rapidly fading into Damian’s palm.