1513 Unexpected, As Expected

Icarus did understand the story of this world. It was interesting story, though his grandpa Keeper Equilius might have criticized for being a bit too obvious.

He just didn't expect to become the 'Devil' himself. It's the penalty he had to face for his terror act in paradise.

It wasn't a big issue, however.

He was confident in defeating the so-called 'holy warriors' and destroying the seal.

Even though the story of Eternal Empress did have devil winning at the end, he was sealed after all. So, this would count as a new ending and he could leave this world with Isadora.

That's why, he had to defeat 'Immortal' who also seemed to be trying to grab Isadora.

"Game? Do you think this is a game?" Immortal sneered, an expression of righteous anger on his face.

His physical features were significantly different from the outside, so he didn't feel any shame at immersing in the character of the righteous prince.

"You are going down, devil. Even if I shed the last drop of my blood, I will keep you sealed." Immortal raised his spear and a brilliant red light bloomed out of its tip.

The weapon fired at Icarus like a missile, carrying with it a potent power of death that could easily wipe out a million rank 8s.

"Tch."

Icarus hands moved in an elusive pattern and a new 'rule' was constructed in the area.

The dissipation rate of 'death energy' increased exponentially and the dissipation rate itself increased when the death energy decreased.

In this situation, before the spear could even cross a half of the distance, it lost a quarter of the entire death energy.

Icarus looked at Immortal with a victorious smile.

Even though their clones were both rank 9, they were fundamentally on different power levels.

As a divine ranker, Icarus could exert far more power at this rank despite Immortal being the strongest rank 9 to exist so far.

Boom! Kaa! Kacha!

A hammer slammed Icarus and a chain of fire whipped his shirt into ashes, scorching his skin. Space cracked and nearly swallowed half of his elbow.

Then came a powerful sword of darkness that cut off an arm and a relatively weak arrow that just bounced off the injured skin.

Icarus's eyes widened as he looked at the people he neglected.

He thought Immortal was the only worthy enemy. It was a mistake to take these guys lightly.

But with the first exchange ending with him taking significant injuries, the battle's result might have already been decided.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Weapons built of special ore materialized and rained down on the team, trying to take them out one by one.

Rules specialized to counter them individually began to set in.

Hammer Warrior's weapon suddenly grew heavier or lighter, throwing him off balance.

The land under the Old Witch exploded, pushing her to focus mostly on escape than attacking.

The Space Wizard was affected by a rule that made the matter in this area thousands of times heavier, destabilizing space for his regular attacks.

Isadora had to deal with an invisible wind that would erase her body upon contact.

Immortal still received the most focus, directly fighting against Icarus. The two powerful beings took it to the sky, where their shockwaves created concentric rings of colorful auras and shockwaves that swept the entire forbidden grounds.

The man neglected the most in this fiasco was Varian.

Even though he was recognized by both Immortal and Icarus since he didn't bother to change his physical features from the paradise, they saw him as a small fry, which he honestly was.

Icarus tailored a specific counter against each of them based on the strength he perceived from their attacks.

So, Varian ended up agains a mid rank 9 golem constructed from a very tough material.

Maybe it's because Icarus looked down on him too much or maybe beacuse he couldn't afford to spend more aura on him due to Immortal, the mid rank 9 was a beginner to its sub-rank.

Varian quietly drew away the golem from the site and used a treasure to block others from sensing their fight.

Since everyone was busy with their own thing, no one paid attention anyway.

Looking at the ten foot tall, obsidian stone humanoid golem with twelve arms and three heads, Varian pumped his fist into the air.

"I love this guy!"

Like a tiger, he leaped onto the opponent.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Moments turned into seconds and seconds into minutes.

The powers of life and death overflowed in the area.

Blood sucking plants popped up from the ground, entangled themselves around the golem and tried to drain its vitality. But the artificial creation had none of it.

It violently tore the the vines trapping it and stepped forward.

The dead plants were used as the source by Death Giant and an enlarged red fist struck one of the golem's head.

Despite being built of a very resilient material, the creature's head snapped to the side and almost got knocked off its neck.

Then, Varian jumped at the creature, engaging in a brutal fist fight against it.

It was a stunning sight.

A man of flesh and blood was not only going head to head against a lifeless machine, he was also acting more efficient and more ruthless than it.

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The brawl ended soon and Varian began using the powers of space and time. These were more effective against the creature than the life and death powers.

Even though the golem was regenerating itself, it took far more hits and had difficulty injuring him when he could easily 'speed' his reaction and escape its attacks.

Then came the banger.

The powers of Order and Chaos.

Since the golemn itself was built from the power of Order, these were the perfect paths to deal with it.

Since this was the creation of Icarus—a divine ranker in the path of Order—Varian not only fought a lot, he learnt a lot.

More than an hour later, the battle was still going on.

Icarus was not able to overwhelm them due to his initial injuries and Immortal was not able to win against a divine ranker's experience.

Isadora and the holy squad remained struggling against the traps they faced.

But—

"Huh?"

Icarus lost focus for a moment and was kicked in the chest.

He crashed to the ground, rolled like a log and quickly jumped back into the sky.

But his mind was spinning.