Chapter 141

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Chapter 141: War

Let’s begin.

Almost at the same time, the two sides facing each other started to move. Three figures disappeared from their original positions. Tasha flew high with her wings, Victor moved as fast as an arrow, and strangely, the reaper lord also vanished.

The pale Anmeng was quite large, even though its body was just bones without flesh. It was as formidable as the giant monster on the Primary Material Plane. How could such a massive creature disappear in an instant from its original position? It wasn’t because it was too fast to catch, it simply vanished.

The reaper, a prototype of the Death God image in the Primary Material Plane, is a demon associated with death, wielding a scythe made of bones. However, each individual is different. Hundreds of years ago, the "King of No Destiny" Acce was sacrificed by Victor in the Primary Material Plane, had no head, a mist above it, and beneath its tattered robe was emptiness, with bone hands protruding from the sleeves with multiple joints. The Demon Lord was fragile with strong magic abilities, while the pale Anmeng excelled in hand-to-hand combat. While still, it appeared pale all over like a normal skeleton, but once it started moving, the bone white color would vanish without a trace.

The pale Anmeng’s bone-like body seemed to merge into the air and disappear.

No one could see it, not even the Evil Eye Witch Medusa standing here would see anything. Anmeng’s disappearance wasn’t a disguise or a spell; it naturally grew to look like this, as if a moth could naturally hide among dry leaves and branches. Its rough and strange bone surface absorbed all sound, and even if the scythe passed right by your ear, you wouldn’t hear a noise. The bone structure with tiny holes disrupted the air flow, making it hard to perceive. Only when the scythe reached extreme speed would it distort the air, creating ripples in space. But by the time the attacker could see the "ripples," how much time did they have left to dodge?

The abyss’s hard ground made collapsing sounds, and in a seemingly blank area, traces of something had plowed through. Tasha’s long knife was grazed, sparking metal. The grating sound grew louder, making teeth ache. The sparks traveled from the tip of the knife to near the handle as she leaned back to deflect the force and dodged to the side.

Victor stood opposite to Tasha, so he was behind the enemy if Tasha faced them. However, the former demon was anything but idle; in fact, it was busier than Tasha.

He ran wildly in a very narrow space, stopped suddenly after a few seconds, leaving a deep crack in the hard rock layers where he stood half a step forward. The invisible scythe rose again, Victor’s eyes caught the distortion of the air, he suddenly leaped, bouncing several meters high in the air, kicking Reaper Anmeng’s invisible body and changing direction with a sudden burst of force. His movements were so fast and seamless between running, turning, and jumping, as if they were clips cut at random and pieced together in a video.

Only this way, he managed to remain unharmed until now.

The falling scythes were denser than a storm, stacking one wave after another like layers of sea waves – there were more than one scythe attacking Victor. The Demon Lord, whose movements were now unclear, had revealed its true form during the previous pause. Its body seemed like many skeletons fused together, each side with faces and several hands holding blades or scythe-like limbs. This Demon Lord, which could only attack like a spinning top, had no concept of a front or back.

In the blink of an eye, they had clashed countless times, the ground kept booming, countless debris flying chaotically. The battle of the three heavyweight warriors was enough to turn this place into a dusty and shattered battlefield.

This was a brutal battle, where every strike of Reaper Anmeng could move mountains and the seemingly humanoid opponent was fighting back in a way impossible for a human body to achieve. Victor’s movements were smooth and flexible like a snake, swift and graceful like a cheetah, the cracked ground beneath his feet revealed his dragon-like strength. He turned abruptly in mid-air, dodging a scythe that was supposed to land on his neck, a strand of metallic silver hair cut by the sharp wind, drifting into the abyss.

Victor raised his fist and swung it forward.

The punch was thrown as the silver hair broke, hitting directly at the scythe that hadn’t left yet. The blade was already slashed off, exposing the knife body to Victor, like a wolf revealing its chest and belly after a successful bite.

Buzz—

Crack!

The iron fist smashed onto the sickle, demon’s flesh colliding with demon’s bones, making a deep thud. At the end of the thud came a crisp crack, the bone sickle snapped, fell to the ground, turning from transparent ripples back to pale bones.

"Hahahahaha!"

A deep laughter rang out, buzzing in people’s ears, as if a mixing sound system was placed inside the chest. Pale Anmeng laughed, the sound echoing in its skeletal chest.

"You’re bleeding," it said.

Drip, blood dripped from Victor’s fist.

Not just bleeding, the skin where the bone sickle collided tore open, Victor’s fist hung loosely, some parts twisted unnaturally. Three bones in his right hand were broken in this collision.

Such a thing would not have happened in the past.

Victor was a demon of melee combat, knowledge, memory, and intelligence attached to the soul, but most of his strength was tied to his body. He seized the best opportunity, swung the best punch at the best angle, the former Snake of Lies could shatter a bone sickle unharmed, but not Victor now. Having recently escaped a long death, the entity that had accompanied him for thousands of years, devouring countless strong beings, is now deep in the abyss, regarded as the pivot between the abyss and the Primary Material Plane.

"Thanks for the reminder?" Victor shrugged, "Don’t worry, I’ll patch myself up nicely after I dissect you."

His skin is healing rapidly because demons have strong healing powers. However, the enemy is also a demon, a Demon Lord who has not been banished to the abyss, but resides within it. Even though the scythe wound is bigger than Victor’s, it will heal in time. Trying to outlast each other in battle is definitely futile.

"Are you trying to intimidate the Deathless King Acce as well?" the pale Anmeng sneered, "Snake of Lies, you were once a legend indeed, but your time has passed, legends should die gracefully—or be reaped by the lord of death."

"Look at you, boasting now that the Heavenly Realm is no more. Do you think the god of death won’t come after you for copyright infringement?" Victor clicked his tongue and dodged another wave of attacks, "Oh, by the way, that guy who said I was outdated, he’s nowhere to be found now."

"Ragehorn Simon was brainless, it perished in the chaotic space streams," the reaper scoffed, "Intelligence is useless against absolute power. Deceiver like Victor, think you can best me in the abyss with your weak body banished here?"

"Absolute power, hah, oh, excuse me, it’s been a while since I heard such a ridiculous joke." Victor laughed, "Besides… obviously, I’m not alone in this."

The sword came down.

Reaper Anmeng had many hands, many pairs of eyes, but it only had one soul, one mind—of course, there’s no warm brain inside the skeletal frame, it’s just a metaphor, to understand the concept. By focusing most of its energy on dealing with its former colleague, there’s not much left to handle another enemy.

Tasha had demon horns, demon wings, and dragon claws. Her essence was a mixture, not fully demon nor dragon, similar to some advanced composite creatures. Even though she had not spoken, even though she showed no signs of belonging to Victor, in the mind of the pale Anmeng, she was still considered one of Victor’s underlings.

In fact, it was because Tasha had spoken naturally and not appeared like a puppet that the reaper saw her as a kind of deception by Victor. Despite saying the Snake of Lies had exited the stage, this former colleague was still very wary of him.

"Look, it’s great to be on my team," joked Victor to Tasha, "Being with a flashy devil like me, even with your stunning beauty, you’ve gotta follow behind me."

"Yeah," replied Tasha, "Not many can out-sass you."

The long knife caught a small opening and came down. Just as Reaper Anmeng noticed and tried to intervene, Victor’s fist also struck down.

Tasha and Victor didn’t need to speak or exchange glances, their close bond during contracts and body enhancements allowed them to understand each other without words. Facing a three-headed, six-armed enemy was not scary, as they shared each other’s vision and hearing. They had two bodies, two sets of senses, two brains, yet acted as one.

The ripples seen from two different angles converged in their minds, creating a three-dimensional image of the invisible enemy. Tactical discussions could be completed in a second, their mental communication was fast and secretive. The knife and fist, one forward and one backward, accurately hit the same spot. In the giant skeletal body, there was one narrow area, like an hourglass waist.

The neck bone connecting the head and body.

The long knife struck the colorless bones, the fist hit the throat heavily, the moment when two equal forces collided, Reaper Anmeng was momentarily immobilized, the invisible bones were covered in a faint mist, appearing and disappearing in the air.

Success!

But…

The hit neck bone only had a small crack.

Even the seemingly immortal demon skeletons could die as long as the flame in their skull is extinguished. Reaper Anmeng knew this weakness well, with its most vulnerable neck bone being heavily protected.

Tasha and Victor struck and immediately prepared an escape route, regardless of success or failure. Victor leaped down while Tasha flew up, narrowly avoiding two scythes that could have cut them in half.

As they dodged, the small cracks they caused had already healed.

"Is this your confidence? Is this what you rely on to venture deep into the abyss?" Reaper Anmeng boomed, "Just you two?"

Its attacks were relentless, shifting between offense and defense. When it was certain the opponent couldn’t break its defense, it abandoned defense and focused solely on attacking. Victor and Tasha began to accumulate wounds at an increasing rate.

"So noisy," Tasha thought.

"Because of their large size," Victor replied through the link.

"Why are creatures in the abyss always so big?" Tasha sighed. The way they were attacking Reaper Anmeng made them seem like two small birds attacking a bear.

"Because it’s a big place with many things to see," Victor casually used an idiom, "With such a large area, everything grows abundantly, so let’s just go explore."

"I’m starting to dislike this tough and endless meat," Tasha remarked.

"Meat? That’s giving it too much credit, it’s just bones. Can’t even scrape off two ounces of meat, just good for making soup," Victor chuckled, "But bones are bones, no matter how huge, all you need is a cutting board and a knife."

"Exactly," Tasha chuckled back, "Please be my cutting board for a moment."

"Got it!" Victor replied.

He stepped forward.

Victor couldn’t fly, but he could jump very high, and there were plenty of footholds on the reaper’s skeleton. Stepping on the protruding bone spurs, dodging the falling bone sickles, he climbed like a goat on a cliff during a hailstorm. Even the most exquisite skills couldn’t avoid all the bone sickles. A strike hit his back in an instant, shattering layers of protective spells, leaving a deep wound visible to the bone. As he was about to reach the finish line, another bone sickle struck down unavoidably.

He reached out his left hand and caught the sickle.

If it were his true body confronting the Snake of Lies, the result might have been just a bloody mess, but his body had only been rebuilt a few years ago. The bone sickle met his flesh palm easily, sinking in effortlessly, blood spraying as half of his forearm fell to the ground.

But the scythe was pushed to the side, becoming Victor’s last leverage point. With all his strength, he jumped towards Anmeng’s head, which was wide open due to the attack and arrogance.

Victor threw a punch.

A small sonic boom was heard in the air. The reaper was helpless against this straight punch in the final small distance. Its white bony skull was hit, toppling in the opposite direction. Small cracks spread from Victor’s fist like a tiny spider web.

Unfortunately, that was the end of it.

Reaper Anmeng couldn’t dodge, nor did it plan to. It had already decided that Victor’s full-force attack couldn’t break through its defense, like an ordinary demon-slaying blade. It smelled the familiar yet detested scent on the blade, Saro’s blessing. But what use was a blessing as small as a grain of rice against a colossal Demon Lord the size of a house-sized cockroach?

It wasn’t worried, nor afraid of a short setback. So when Anmeng fell towards Tasha under Victor’s attack, it didn’t rush to escape.

This was probably the pale Anmeng’s worst decision in its life.

The blade of the sword aimed at Anmeng’s head. If the huge reaper wasn’t invisible, this scene would have looked like trying to push down a tree with a toothpick, purely futile. Three meters, two meters, one meter, just as the Demon Lord’s thick skull was about to snap the sword, Tasha’s hand wielding the blade moved.

The blade was unsheathed.

Yes, this sharp long knife has been drawn out again.

The long knife, one meter away, has a back edge, blood groove, and unique patterns on the blade – every knife owned by Tasha looks like this, each one different. Over the years, the residents of the dungeon have crafted various types of long knives for Tasha, craftsmen making the blade sharper and more durable, witches adding poison to the blade, black-robed wizards putting all kinds of curses on the long knives, priests writing demon-breaking runes on the blade… Magician Technicians came up with unique ideas, creating blades that may not really be considered cold weapons.

Just like the long shields of the Griffon Legion and the long spears of the Dragon Riders.

As a blade, this long knife of Tasha’s can be used, just like a gun without bullets can be used as a bayonet. However, the most important function of this long knife is not for slashing or demon-breaking, the mithril and the blessing of the Saint Child of Saro are somewhat useful, mainly used to conceal the magical fluctuations on the blade. Inside the long handle held by Tasha, runes densely wrapped in a thin layer, with the layer completely filled with solidified Magic Stones. Due to limited reserves for durability considerations, Magic Stones cannot support long battles.

But for just one strike, it is absolutely sufficient.

The long knife is drawn, the tip of the blade suddenly extends. A semi-transparent glow connects to the tip, and a light beam several meters long rushes out from the over-a-meter-long blade. Different from the long spears of the Dragon Riders, this beam seems thinner, but the temperature condensed within the thin beam is no weaker than those long spears.

It is more accurate to say that this weapon specially made for Governor is much more ferocious than the Dragon Riders’ long spears.

The rapidly sprung light blade pierced through Reaper Anmeng’s skull.

Without cracks, without a roar, it was truly a perfect small hole, as if drilling through an egg perfectly. The pale Anmeng tried to dodge, but Victor’s fist hit it, and the strike from the other direction, while unable to break Anmeng’s skull, was enough to prevent its escape. Just as Tasha and Victor said earlier, Tasha wielded the knife, while Victor acted as the anvil for now.

Even the biggest bone is still a bone.

The reaper swung his bone sickle wildly, seemingly unconcerned, even if it meant risking attacking himself to kill two birds. Unfortunately, the giant demon was so big that there was a distance of nearly a hundred meters between its hand and head. The pale Anmeng was not slow, normally a hundred meters would not be considered a long distance. But now, with Tasha just a step away from the finish line, a hundred meters felt like an impossible gap.

Tasha just needed to push down the blade.

The long blade disappeared completely into the cut hole. Tasha let go, allowing the hot and magical blade to pierce through the skull, entering the hollow interior, and then she began to climb upwards. They quickly evacuated simultaneously, Tasha flew up, Victor fell down, this time not to avoid the attacks of Reaper Anmeng, but for…

Boom!

It was not easy to have a durable long blade capable of fighting the giant demon while also carrying a light blade effect at the same time. Durability and stability, blade power and sustainable endurance could not be compatible, there had to be trade-offs. At Tasha’s request, this powerful long blade was strong but unstable, sturdy yet disposable.

Since it couldn’t be used for long, it was better to cause maximum damage before it expired.

One second after the light blade popped out, the high heat and magical runes collided violently, losing all stability and turning into a fierce explosion.

A mountain-like skeleton appeared, pale colors running amok within the bones, resembling a wounded octopus losing control over its colors. The skeleton had three half-faces in different directions, like many skeletons pieced together, resembling the malevolent gods with multiple faces and hands from ancient legends. As soon as the head became visible, it exploded like an apple corner hit by a bullet, bone fragments flying in all directions, along with soul fire.

The bone scythe was about to hit Victor, but it drooped halfway down.

Anmeng fell to the ground pale and motionless.

When Tasha landed on the ground, Victor was searching for his severed left hand in the bone fragments. It seemed like a huge task and would take some time. Tasha landed beside him and he sighed as he looked at the mountain-like pile of bones.

"Let’s go," Victor waved his hand. "The way will appear as we go."

The severed limb, which had been spouting blood just now, had miraculously healed. Tasha looked at it, with images of tail-less geckos striving to survive filling her mind.

"…Hey," Victor said.

"Is it resolved this way?" Tasha looked around uncertainly.

"The reaper is an undead demon. Killing it completely is troublesome. Depriving it of movement for several months to several years is sufficient for us," Victor shook his head. "We don’t have the time."

Indeed.

After succubus Terralynn was expelled, Tasha realized something good and something bad. The good news was that there was a minimum time interval between every two Demon Lords, so the return of Succubus Lord Terralynn gave the Primary Material Plane a relatively safe period of time. The bad news was that Tasha found out that the flow of time between the Primary Material Plane and the Abyss was different.

They encountered the first Demon Lord in the Abyss five minutes after arriving there, and another five minutes later, they stopped to observe the battle on the other side – the intense conflict between the Primary Material Plane and the succubus was definitely more than just ten minutes.

The flow of time on that side was faster, but not always. Part of Tasha’s soul came to the Abyss along with her body, while another part remained in the dungeon. She could feel that the flow of time on both sides was inconsistent, with no constant conversion ratio between them. Was the flow of time in the Abyss always slower? However, Ragehorn Simon from the Abyss mentioned that the Battle of the Heaven and Earth happened over four hundred years ago.

It seemed that the time discrepancy between the two sides only started when the Abyss Passage opened. This time difference had a terrible effect on Tasha, whose soul was split between two places. The longer the two parts of her soul stayed separated, the larger the cracks on both sides grew.

Time had to be seized.