The Mountain Ape Hermit clutched his ears in agony, as the shrill shriek resounded and reverberated in the area. He rose up and staggered back for a few steps while holding his head.

Jack slowly climbed out of his hole that was created from the continuous blows dealt by the old hermit; the flames in his eyes dim. Leslie reached down and helped Jack out of the hole.

[What are you doing!] Jack quickly mentally messaged Leslie.

[Helping you, bonehead! Why are you letting him kick your ass!?] Leslie reprimanded.

With Leslie's help, Jack got out of the hole, now his upper body was completely exposed, and only the loose sash around his waist held the tatters of the bottom of his robe, as he stood up fully.

[Shoo... Leave quickly!] Jack urged, as he broke in a swift run to another building, as he looked over his should to the giant ape that was starting to blink his eyes regaining his bearings.

Leslie's banshee wail was an extremely powerful tool, that even an Ancestor Ranked Cultivator would have to give pause, though it's effect would be diminished if it had impacted a Skeletal undead Cultivator.

The old hermit used his massive arm to wipe the blood from his nose with a grunt, as he stared at the retreating... God-King... And... The little bitch that screamed in his ears!

With a massive thumping of his chest, the mighty beats sounded out like war drums at his chest pounding.

"Oo! Oo!" The ape dug in his feet into the cobbled street and pushed with an explosive impact to the ground covering the distance between him and the two running in but a few seconds.

As Jack and Leslie heard the Gorilla sound behind them, Jack was already sent flying again.

"Fuck!" Jack yelled out, as his body flipped through the air crashing into another building, as it toppled around him.

Eris still on top of the room of the Holy Palace reached down to touch the spattered blood of her mother... This wasn't her only veil, but it was her only veil she took with her... And to be wasted like this...

A tear splattered next to the drops of blood on the roof, when Eris clutched her chest again, as she looked to the fight below. She was now helpless to do anything but wait for the outcome and prey her choices to now weren't in vain.

Jack groaned as he pushed out of the rubble, wondering why he was still intact. He looked up to be horrified, as he saw the giant ape with a crushing hold on Leslie in both his hands.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!" Jack howled, as the flames in his eyes crackled with fury even in their dimness, as he urged his body to move as fast as he was able, which was vastly slower than it was before by many levels, and now looked to be a snail's pace before his God-Form or the Mountain Ape Hermit.

Leslie was seized by the hands of the giant gorilla, as she went to help Jack again. She had no idea how this gorilla found her while she was invisible. Unknown to Leslie, that the old hermit could see her, as he could feel her presence due to his Cultivation Rank and Tomb, he cultivated which heightened his sense greatly, such as sight.

She began to let loose another scream, but just as it began, she was stifled, as the old hermit commenced his crushing of her in his hands, "Uh-Uh! Scream no more little ghost!" The old hermit laughed, as he heard Jack howl from the toppled distance.

"HAHA! This little ghost is yours? See how it feels to be me!" The giant ape suddenly squeezed down even harder to crush Leslie in his grasp, as Leslie became visible, as the Mountain Ape Hermit felt a stinging pain along his back, as he yelped in surprise. He could barely believe he was sneaked attacked.

"Who has the guts! Oh!" The giant ape turned his head to see a woman with a head full of snakes wielding a giant Meat Cleaver in his right hand, and a large boning knife in his left skeletal hand.

"HAHAHAHA! I'VE NEVER BUTCHERED A MONKEY BEFORE!" Crazed laughter rang out behind the old hermit.

"Oo! And chou never will!!" The old hermit turned and threw the object in his hand at lightning speed toward Joan. She didn't expect that the old bastard would use the person in his hands as a weapon, as Joan wasn't as willing to drop her weapons, but didn't want harm to come to what she suspected to be the God-King's consort. She used her body as a shield, to take the impact from Leslie. Joan at first wasn't sure if it was Leslie, but seeing her face and feeling the aura... She confirmed her suspicions, as she was hurling backward by the force of impact.

Jack changed course from the old hermit to Leslie in Joan's arms and was just about to pass the hermit to make his way to Leslie fully committing the mistake of disregarding your enemy, the equivalent of turning your back.

"Where chou going!" Jack was snatched up, as he struggled free from the grasp.

Joan stuck both of her weapons in the ground to hold Leslie in her hands. She wasn't familiar with the form of which she had taken but knew it wasn't a form with a body... More like a corporal soul, like a ghost.

Jack was again smashed into the ground, as he desperately attempted to climb out calling, "Leslie!"

Joan looked up, as she was unsure what Leslie's condition was... She saw Jack attempted to get away from the giant ape.

She shook her head to indicate she didn't know her condition, but everything paused for Jack in that instance.

He watched Joan shake her head left to right. He could see everything in crystal detail. How Leslie laid in Joan's arms unmoving. He could even see the most micro of details at that moment.

How Leslie's hair fluttered in the wind, and the coiling of Joan's snakes on her crown, the flicking of their tongues. It was as if everything was in slow motion, as Jack misinterpreted Joan's meaning to be that Leslie was dead.

Jack felt everything slipping away... So distant... So far away...

Jack struggled near fear from the ape, as he began to crawl to Leslie quickly. He was again grabbed by the Mountain Ape Hermit by the legs, who now found he was struggling to pull the God-King back to him as he had done earlier.

As the old hermit, decided to pummel the God-King again, he punched Jack, who was crawling forward, into the ground again, he moved his face to peer into the deep hole he re-made, only to be met with a fierce and unstoppable crashing force.

A colossal sound echoed sundering the remaining building in the surrounding area district where the conflict was taking place in Saigunrai, as the body of the old hermit hurled into the distance in an arc that lasted until he left the city crashing down in the outskirts of Saigunrai.

Jack floated out of his hole and into the air, as he spoke, "I'm waiting for prayers from Souigak... But I haven't gotten them yet... Without the faith of my people, I am nothing... But... Who do I prey to...? To save me and those I love?" his solemn voice rang.

"I..." Jack looked to Leslie one last time... He had another Consort, and other perspective ladies, but Leslie... Leslie was his world, his sky, and his dream... It wasn't like that in the beginning, but over time... It had turned from infatuation and a poor choice to something Jack hadn't felt before... Something he wasn't sure was called, but he would like to call it... Love.

Joan's mouth opened and closed a few times... She had no idea who a god would pray to... Themselves?

"AHHHHHHHHH!" The grounds rumbled, as all of Saigunrai shook with the fury of an angry god.

Joan watched from on the ground, and Eris held her breath, as she watched from the Holy Palace roof... As the golden runes on Jack's upper body went out one by one. They started from the top of his ribs, down his arms, and on his spine until only a few above his waist down were still glimmering with light.

As the runes golden runes went out, they watched, as it seemed to almost reverse, as they no longer gave light, but it appeared... It appeared that these runic inscriptions were drawing the light in!

Jack's mind played over and over his memories, as he looked over Leslie laying on the ground.

"I can bring her back..." Jack muttered as he reached out with his long skeletal hand. The space around him warping, as if his very bones were drinking the light.

Jack's hand paused as he heard in the distance, "CHOU THINK CHOU BETTER THAN ME!?"

Jack turned his head slowly to see an incoming giant ape. As he was no longer thinking, but on autopilot...

His objectives were clear to him...

Destroy the one in his way...

Bring Leslie back...

Jack backhanded the gorilla that now reached out to him, as he flashed from afar to in front of him.

Black blood slung from the mouth of the old hermit, "Huh?" as he dumbly sounded.