The situation had not improved much,

Marth was unable to do any damage to me, but I also could not do much. He was simply dodging and destroying the plants, his mana was being conserved, while I had to maintain the entire forest; if this battle dragged any longer, I would be at the absolute disadvantage,

The thing about the battle is, even the most long-lasting fights can end just in an instant,

Everyone has their strength and weaknesses; how did I kill most of my opponents? By dominating them in strength? No, by enduring every attack thrown at me? No, it was by hiding and waiting for the right moment to attack; even the most powerful people can lose their life under a proper surprise attack, cowardly? In a battle surviving should be the utmost priority. What can honor give to a dead man? even if a human kills a demon in the most despicable way, he would still be considered a hero and a savior,

“Absolute Stealth”

Suddenly the entire forest vanished, the sound of the vines moving, the screaming sound of the plants, the foul smell emitted by the flowers, everything disappeared,

This was the very advantage of merging with the forest; the forest itself could be considered as my own body, so, when I used spell-like stealth, the entire forest would be affected,

Marth was in a daze

Stealth was the ability I used from the beginning to the end of the dungeon; one could even consider it as one of my most used technique, it had evolved to the point that if I genuinely wanted to run or hide, none would be able to stop me, but it also had some flaws, stealth was also divided into types, from lower levels, just hiding the sound, to hiding the smell, as the level progressed more and more of my traces would be hidden, Absolute Stealth was like the final form, but I only used it in a dire situation as it would consume all of my remaining mana, it was mostly used to run from the enemy I could not beat, but the reason I used it now was not to run, even if I was now out of mana, I still was merged with the forest, recovering the forest required mana but just controlling it did not consume anything,

Thump!

A large piece of root penetrated Marth’s chest, he could not even see it coming,

Bang! Bang!

More roots followed, black and grey vines surrounded him, previously he could have torn them or burnt them, but now after their evolution, he could not. Also, the flesh he created around his bones to increase his strength instead became his weakness previously; if he was trapped like this, he could just drop one his bones and regenerate from it, but now that he had muscles surrounding his body, he made it easier to hold him,

Once trapped by the vines, it was over, his mana got sucked, and now he was unable to do anything,

[You killed an Undead Sorcerer]

I laid on the ground, “Finally it's over” the roots merged with my body slowly cleaved, my hair turned back, and my original look returned,

I undid the forest and the earth golem, the land slowly returned to its previous state,

The sun was setting; the final rays of the sun reflect the dry and bare land in front, and beside me, Crimson was slowly chewing on the bones of the sorcerer’s, “Eh? What in the hell are you eating?”

“What? It’s delicious”, she said that with an indifferent expression,

“Never mind.”

Lazarus spoke with a Quizzical smile, “So, you did manage to defeat him.”

“Of course, I did, but with that over, I need to have a chat with someone.”

The previous fire explosion I created earlier had created a giant straight line, where all the buildings were annihilated, but thankfully half of the church still remained,

We went inside the church, and I stood in front of the statue,

My surroundings changed, it was covered in white fog, I could hear the sound of water flowing around me, but there was no river around, I did not feel the presence of anyone around me, just like before, and the old man appeared in front of me,

“Ho ho ho you won, I see,” he said that while laughing,

With a Focused gaze, I spoke, “The people who worshipped you just got slaughtered, their empire got destroyed, they got turned into my undead puppets, I also won the bet, and still, you stand there laughing, did you finally lose your grip on reality and lost your mind.”

“Ho ho, they got slaughtered nice, nice, you seem to be mistaken to think I ever cared for those people, why would I ever care for those mortals, they worshipped me? How foolish, they simply worshipped the beautiful goddesses, and just a few young gods, using the names of gods for their own gain, quite clever actually, but you see those things were never of any concern to me.”

I was surprised to hear that, but I did not really care about that, “I see if you did not care, then why did you give me such a task and tried to protect the humans from me? But that’s really none of my concern. The only thing I care about is I fulfilled the task you gave, and now I want my memories.”

After hearing that, he suddenly started laughing in a sinister way, “You seriously expect me to return your memories, you think I tried to protect the humans? How foolish, I always knew, not a single one of them carried any faith in them. It never mattered whether you completed the task or not. The humans made way for their doom themselves, they were bound to get killed, I never cared about them as a species, like I said before, either one can use someone or get used by someone.”