Chapter 144: Desperate Survival

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Beelzebub glanced at what was happening through the many pocket dimensions that Jeremias created within the Demonic Castle. His bug-like eyes grew madder in anger and disbelief as he realized the insanity that Anna had done.

"She… She defeated Astaroth, who was being sponsored by several constellations and even Impossible!" Beelzebub screamed in utter disbelief.

"What did she do?" Heisenberg asked, his eyes glowing with bright red light.

"She sealed Astaroth's soul inside a strange realm of her own creation!" Said Beelzebub. "To be able to do such a thing... Only beings that have already passed through the Third Awakening could ever, and only the strongest magicians out there in the Higher Planes! What's… What is she?!"

"So she sealed Astaroth's soul?" Asked Heisenberg. "Wasn't he a big shot like you?"

"He was… Well, he is much weaker than me, but even then, a mortal like her should never be able to do such a thing." Said Beelzebub. "This is unbelievable. She even broke through the dimensional walls and is trying to interfere with the other hunters."

"What did I tell you?" Heisenberg asked. "She's dangerous… She knows too much, she's too strong, and her powers are strange. Since I set my eyes on her, I've felt a strange feeling about her. She even convinced my little sister to betray me. She's someone that must be disposed of right away."

"You plan on going yourself? Are you insane?" Asked Beelzebub. "Don't lower yourself to the level of these mere sacrifices, Jeremias!"

POOF!

"Yes, Lord Beelzebub?"

The imp-like demon emerged at the side of Beelzebub's manifestation, bowing before him.

"Catch that girl and don't let her interfere anymore. Trap her and destroy her! I allow you to use as much demon energy as you need." Beelzebub said, clicking his insect-like mandibles.

"…I see. Very well." Jeremias smiled maliciously, looking forward to that. "I shall do as you ask me, my lord."

FLASH!

The imp-like demon disappeared in that very instant, as Beelzebub kept watching, waiting for the hunters to die and give him the needed power to complete his true goal.

A goal he was even hiding from Heisenberg, who had grown more suspicious of the demon.

.

.

.

CLASH!

A gigantic crow talon clashed against Jack as he was pushed away several meters, clashing against dozens of walls and breaking all of them one after another.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

"Dammit, this fucking crow! Stop getting in my way!"

Jack roared furiously; he was already giving his all to defeat Lee until a Death Apostle Manifestation appeared out of nowhere.

He quickly assumed that this was the actual enemy they were supposed to defeat. He was already imagining that Beelzebub decided to summon his little friends again, this time one after another in different rooms, trapping the hunters with them so they could easily be slaughtered.

"KAHAHAHAH!Weak! You're too weak, human! I thought the wielder of Fenrir's powers would be much stronger, but it ended up being a weakling such as you! Utterly Pathetic!"

Neberius, the giant humanoid crow-like Death Apostle, laughed as he quickly reached Jack once more. Lee had been blown away by a tremendous explosion of feather projectiles and was bleeding all over.

"Weak?" Jack smiled. "You're going to see what a truly weak being is when you realize how pathetic you are, shithead."

"Huh?! You're talking in such a tone to the King of Cunningness?! Fool!" Laughed the crow, rushing towards Jack, his sharp talons unleashing a barrage of explosive kicking strikes!

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

Each attack landed on Jack as his body was torn apart piece by piece. Neberius laughed, amused by the weakness of humans against the almighty power of the Death Apostles, beings that were just a step from reaching Ascension and becoming Constellations themselves.

"You're being torn to shreds like a pathetic bug! Humans are truly just little insects compared to us almighty Demons!" Neberius laughed once more, until suddenly...

FLUOSH!

All the pieces left from Jack having been torn to shreds started to overflow with shadow energy, exploding one after another!

"{Shadow Flare Explosion}"

"CRAAAAHHH?!"

Neberius was shocked to realize the one he had been kicking wasn't Jack, but a Shadow Clone he had made. Just in that moment, each of the Shadow Clone's pieces became a bomb, with several explosions engulfing his entire body!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

His body was quickly covered in many burn wounds as his black feathers flew everywhere. The deadly Shadow Flare was a powerful type of flame Jack could wield, a result of having fused many fire-related skills together and further enchanted with Fenrir's Divine Shadows.

Therefore, even if he was a mere mortal compared to Neberius, it was bound to deal a good amount of damage! And... that wasn't all either.

FLASH!

Jack appeared right behind Neberius as he was dizzy from having taken so many attacks at once, his Demonic Gram overflowing with his Shadow Aura and his Shadow Flare!

"{Sunless Blade Arts: Hollow Slash}"

SLASH!

A powerful slash unleashing a tremendous quantity of pure darkness reached Neberius's back, quickly cutting one of his large wings and blowing him away from the scene. The rooms surrounding them quickly began to explode, filling the entire place with countless pieces of debris.

BAAAM!

"C-CRAAAHH…!"

Neberius groaned in agony as Jack was going to kill him, only to feel a deadly presence lurking right behind him!

"Hey Jack, don't forget about me!"

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

Three powerful attacks reached Jack's back, in the form of giant crimson snakes made out of Lee's swords and his aura, which Anna's brother barely managed to block with his sword. His body quickly transformed into a black werewolf appearance, enhancing his powers by further increasing his affinity with Fenrir and their fusion together.

"Lee! Don't be foolish! We should defeat that demon first before fighting again." Jack said. "Believe me, I really want to kill you right now, but there are priorities!"

"Priorities?" Asked Lee with a wicked smile, his tongue suddenly resembling the one of a snake. "This is perfect, actually! Neberius' presence in here is ideal; he will keep punching you while I sneak when you least expect it! Let's keep this going until you die, Jack~!"

Lee maliciously laughed as he unleashed a barrage of explosive attacks, his crimson aura erupting and shapeshifting into countless ferocious snakes, all of them trying to bite through Jack's entire body!

"You insane fucking nutjob!"

Jack roared back, attacking similarly as his Shadow Aura transformed into an amorphous mass of countless shadow beasts, but mostly the giant wolf jaws of Fenrir.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

"Who's the nutjob here when you're just as insane as I am, Jacky?" Lee laughed; his aura constantly transformed. Suddenly, several of the snakes fused together into gigantic arms; each finger was like a smaller snake, and dozens of gigantic arms constantly tried to pulverize Jack!

"{Snake God's Hands}!"

BAAAM! BAAAM! BAAAM! BAAAM!

"Shit!"

Jack continued blocking and evading the devastating and gigantic attacks; he moved at incredible speeds as he shapeshifted his back, taking the wings of Neberius, which he had just devoured.

"{Shadow Crow Demon Wings}!"

FLUOSH!

Utilizing the new skill he acquired from devouring one of Neberius' wings, he flew at incredible speeds, evading the attacks and cutting down to pieces all of Lee's attacks!

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

"W-What?!"

Lee stepped back in surprise at what he was seeing! He couldn't believe Jack had just copied one of that demon's powers like nothing.

"So that's your power... My master was right!" Laughed Lee. "Fenrir's true power... [Gluttony]! Not only can it devour things, but it can even absorb the powers of the things it devours?! Hahh~! I really want it! I'll make sure to get it once we devour both of you!"

"As if you could ever eat me, you snake-faced fucker!" Jack reached Lee before he could finish speaking, his legs transforming into the talons of a giant dragon he had once eaten, crushing his pretty face with both a big physical attack and an explosion of Shadow Flare!

CLASH!

Lee was blown away several meters away, constantly clashing and destroying the walls of this infinite pocket dimension filled with nothing but just rooms.

"M-My face…!" Lee screamed, tears flowing from his eyes as he touched his face. "Urgh, you're going to pay for this!"

He was an incredibly selfish and narcissistic man, as if that wasn't obvious enough, and his face had been marketed in many places around the world. He was a well-known model and hunter, so he had appeared in dozens of ads and was even going to star in a movie about hunters soon.

Seeing his face destroyed and burned by Jack made him extremely bitter! And also, it made Jack realize how frail this man's ego truly was.

"Pathetic, you get upset because I kicked your face?" Jack laughed. "You're really just a little bitch, aren't you?"

"W-What did you say?!" Lee was growing angrier; his entire body was constantly growing hundreds upon hundreds of scarlet red scales; a long snake-like tongue; longer claws; and his eyes were becoming sharper and more ferocious.

"Don't you dare ignore me, humans!"

BAAAM!

However, their confrontation was once again interrupted as Neberius arrived, his body mostly healed by the rich amount of Demonic Energy in the air. Lee smiled, quickly running away. Neberius didn't mind because his target now was Jack, after the beating he gave him.

"Lee, you bastard!" Jack roared, trying to chase him only for Neberius' giant fists to reach him, punching his entire body hundreds of times in just a few seconds, showcasing how incredibly fast he was!

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

"I told you not to IGNORE ME!"

CLAAASH!

"URGH…!"

Jack was blown away completely, vomiting a mouthful of blood as he landed on the ceiling, blowing through dozens of upper floors one after another.

"Hehehe, I'm pretty strong, aren't I? Did you think that because I was a low-ranking Death Apostle, I'm weak?!" Laughed Neberius. "Well, you're sorely mistaken!"

FLASH!

He quickly flew with a single wing, reaching Jack to unleash another barrage of punches and kicks, his black feathers flying around him, and then being shot towards his target like deadly explosive projectiles as well!

"SHAAAH!"

And as if things couldn't get any worse, dozens of crimson snakes emerged right from behind him, opening their jaws and aiming at his throat!

"I can't take a fucking break, can't I?" Jack lamented.

.

.

.

"Hahahah! What's wrong, little girl?! Afraid your ice is not working properly?!"

"Ugh! You disgusting fucking cat, stop chasing me!"

"Well, the other guy is already dead; what do you expect me to do?! GAHAHAHA!"

Dan Baihe had entered into a nightmare the moment she and the rest of the hunters raided the Demonic Castle.

Not only was she teleported away with Hector from all people, but a giant Jaguar-like Demon that called himself Aim swiftly killed him before he could even attack.

His incredible movement speed was otherworldly, and Hector, the incarnation of Thor, met a swift end as his head was devoured by the giant jaguar's jaws before he could even fight back.

"Huh…?"

CRUNCH!

Hector wasn't even able to react in time or even scream; his head was pulverized, and his brains were splattered everywhere. Dan Baihe could still remember that traumatic sight, which only happened a couple of minutes ago.

An A+ rank hunter was killed in a second.

This was something the Death Apostles could do; Dan Baihe had already seen the bastard of Astaroth kill Sara before!

"Hector died so suddenly... I couldn't do anything!" Dan Baihe was crying as she kept flying away from Aim as fast as she could. "My ice has almost no effect on him either! He's covered in such a powerful Lightning Aura!"

"You're pretty fast with that spell of yours, but how long can you keep flying away before your Mana runs out, brat?!" Aim reached her in a single second, covered with lightning, as a powerful lightning strike reached her!

CRASH!

Dan Baihe barely survived as she conjured a giant wall made of ice that shattered almost at the same time it received the attack, but at the very least it took it, and that gave her a second to escape!

"Anna…!" Dan Baihe thought. "Will I die here without even being able to meet her again?!"

"Getting closer and closer~"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Dan Baihe screamed, constantly conjuring gigantic spears of ice one after another, trying to pierce the jaguar's body, only for his incredibly swift body to evade all blows and move at lightning speed!

"Hahahaha! TOO SLOW!"

FLASH!

With a beastly pounce, Aim reached Dan Baihe once more, his gigantic jaws aiming at his head, to give her a swift end just like Hector, a famous and powerful A+ Rank Hunter, who died so suddenly!

"No…! All my training, everything I've learned... Is it all for nothing?!" Dan Baihe thought about it in those seconds. "Will I die pathetically? Like the extra nobody cares about in a story?!"

As she thought that, Dan Baihe suddenly felt time freezing around her.

"Huh?"

Her surroundings started to become incredibly cold, freezing everywhere. A cold, chilly air started spreading everywhere.

As she looked around in disbelief, she heard the sound of heels walking behind her. She turned around to find something utterly bizarre.

A woman that looked almost exactly like her, but much older, was wearing a blue dress, her eyes glowing with dark blue light.

"Why are you not using your powers? Why are you doubting?"

"W-Who…? Who are you?!"

"Isn't it obvious enough, Dan Baihe? Or should I say... past me?"

"E-Eh…?"

Dan Baihe was filled with disbelief.

Just what was happening?

"That girl overwrote the future. But my existence did not disappear. I still linger within the Veins of Causality, trapped in a lost future. To the whims of whoever would ever desire to summon me elsewhere." She explained. "We are linked because we are the same. But you're much weaker and pathetic."

"My... future self?" Dan Baihe couldn't believe it.

"You lack anger, you lack fury... You lack resentment." Her future self told her. "Dan Baihe, remember what made you so angry back then—the abuse, the discrimination, and the death of your parents. Remember your anger!"

"Ahh…!" Dan Baihe had forgotten about such things because of how comfortably she had been living with Anna.

But now... those memories started flashing once more, one after another, through her mind, her powers beginning to intensify because their abilities were based on her own emotions.

The true power of the [Frost Queen] Skill!

Time quickly started resuming its pace as her future self slowly started walking away, leaving Dan Baihe to her own fate.

"I've told you what you need to know, my pathetic little self. Now fight and survive... It wouldn't be fun if this was our last time meeting one another." Her future self said, smiling maliciously back at Dan Baihe.

FLASH!

Time resumed, and Aim's giant jaws reached Dan Baihe, almost covering her entire mouth.

But then…

"{Winter's Wrath}"

BOOOM!

Aim's entire mouth was filled with endlessly growing ice crystals.

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