"Nick! Nick! Nick!" Jenny shouted, stirring Nick awake from his momentary daze.

With Nick's mind no longer drifting, Zeel, who was also tapping into the connection, also snapped awake from the trance.

Codes started to flicker in Zeel's eyes as he calculated all the ways he could now achieve his goals with the new information.

Everything was turning out smoother than he initially thought, and that triggered Zeel's paranoia.

When things were going too good, they could turn into a shit show the next instant.

"What was that?" Nick asked perplexed.

Had it been before meeting Zeel, Nick would have dismissed the phenomena as just his mind wandering, but now, he thought otherwise.

The concerned look on Jenny's face somewhat warmed Nick's frozen heart but Zeel's presence gave him a foreboding sense of crisis.

"Setepa-I," Zeel whispered staring at Nick intently after finishing his calculations.

"It means chosen," Nick answered instinctively "How would I know that?"

"We need to get out of here," Zeel stated and continued "That coffin draws power from the desert. The longer we stay here, the stronger it grows,"

"What do you mean the stronger it grows?" Nick asked exasperated and slightly scarred "It is a coffin; it is dead right? How can it draw power from somewhere?"

Not paying Nick any mind, Zeel walked over to Jenny and asked "What is the fastest way out of the desert?"

Jenny thought for a while until she glanced at Nick's communicator and answered "Greenway's cargo plane. It is military and has permission to move without registering a flight path temporarily,"

"Why would you need to travel without a registered flight path?" Nick asked confused.

'Are they thinking of stealing a military cargo plane?' Nick thought.

Not giving Nick a chance to consider their intentions, Jenny walked over to Nick and grabbed his communicator.

"Because we are not taking this Coffin to a military base!" Jenny stated and radioed Greenway for extraction.

From the grave look on Zeel's face, Jenny knew that she had to take this coffin to Henry as soon as possible.

After Jenny radioed Greenway the extraction information, she froze in place because the atmosphere suddenly turned tense.

Maybe the atmosphere was already tense but she just took note of it.

The tomb had a unique chill caused by Death Energy, but the feeling just intensified as Zeel stared at Nick with an expressionless gaze.

Had Alice and Elizabeth been here, they would have immediately recognized Zeel's 'I am about to kill someone' face.

Nick felt slightly nervous, he couldn't understand what caused the change in Zeel's expression so suddenly, but he knew it was bad for him.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked Zeel while taking measured steps backward like he was avoiding a beast.

Nick was a trained soldier, so of course, he would be able to tell when someone was gearing up to attack him.

It was that slightly cold feeling at the back of your neck that made you duck before a bullet whizzed past your face.

That was exactly the feeling Nick now had… only he could not duck to avoid this attack.

Despite Nick's mess-up in Baghdad, Jenny still loved him and didn't want anything unfortunate to befall her on-again-off-again lover.

Using all her willpower, Jenny dashed in front of Nick, holding both arms out towards Zeel as if to push him away.

Zeel watched Jenny and then directed his eyes at Nick. For a brief moment, he imagined what it would feel like if Jenny was Alice, and he was Nick.

The hopelessness that came along with knowing you were going to die.

Still, the thought only flashed through Zeel's mind for an instant and the nanites deemed it useless thoughts.

"I don't want to take the risk but I have to," Zeel said, waiting for Nick to come to terms with what was about to happen.

Zeel knew that Nick would now be able to perceive the killing intent he was directing his way.

After all, Nick was no longer a member of the mortal races, he was now a Herald.

Heralds were the embodiment of their respective God or Pantheon.

Feeling death looming over him, Nick stomped his left foot on the ground, snapping a bone in half to create a make-shift borer.

Nick bent down, picking up the sharpened bone, and got in a combat stance much to the amusement of Zeel.

Nick showed that he wouldn't go down without a fight.

Still, Zeel had to admire that Nick was a true man since he moved Jenny out of the way instead of remaining behind her.

Had it been Zeel, he would have stayed behind Alice and Elizabeth simply because he deemed his life more important than both of theirs combined.

This was not his pride speaking, but merely the truth calculated by his Homo-Superior mind.

Of course, the real reason Nick moved Jenny was that he was sure that Zeel would kill both him and Jenny if she got involved.

Nick didn't know why he felt this way, but he knew this fact as if by instinct.

After he came out of the trance, Nick felt as if both he and Zeel were now at the same level of understanding.

"What's happening Zeel?" Nick asked, still uncertain of the feeling he was perceiving from Zeel.

"Wa..." Jenny wanted to speak and come to a sort of understanding before both men tore each other's throats out, but she was a nano-second too late.

Transparent lightning flickered and Zeel was gone, reappearing a moment later with a bloody hand piercing through Nick's chest.

Zeel was not a second-rate villain or hero, if he saw a chance to get something done immediately, he would take that chance without hesitation.

Killing was never a personal matter for Zeel, it was just a necessary action to achieve his goals.

Nick stared at the hand that pierced his chest with wide eyes, but Zeel was even more surprised because he had a small cut on his cheek.

The moment the Time-Zone shifted, Zeel casually walked over to Nick and sent his hand through Nick's chest cavity.

However, just after his hand pierced through Nick, Zeel witnessed something impossible.

Nick's right hand created a phantom shadow image, and faster than even The God of Speed could discern, Nick's hand was piercing towards Zeel's face.

Of course, Zeel tilted his head a bit causing Nick's last-ditch effort to reap no rewards, but it just demonstrated Nick's unconscious will to survive.

Nick was just a powerless Herald of The God of Death, but he somehow managed to manipulate Death Energy a moment before his demise.

It was poetic in a sense.

Still, everything was not yet over so Zeel clenched his teeth and waited to see if his gamble had paid off.

A couple seconds passed, and Zeel determined that his gamble was indeed correct.

The gamble was simple, Zeel gambled with the fact that Nick was no longer a mortal after being inflicted with the curse.

That meant that he could kill Nick without any backlash.

Had Nick still been human, Heavenly-Lightning would have already descended and punished Zeel.

After all, Zeel was currently weakened due to the earlier Heavenly-Lightning that disabled his left hand.

Sighing in relief, Zeel removed his hand from Nick's chest as the latter slumped to the ground lifelessly.

Zeel's right hand vibrated as the blood became a red mist that dissipated into the air.

Seeing Jenny's distraught face, Zeel walked over and slapped her across the face as gently as he could, which was still somewhat too strong for her to bear.

"You need to focus!" Zeel urged and continued "He was cursed and Henry sent you here to do a job, so do it!"

Jenny was still a bit stumped after the slap, but Zeel didn't see the logic in slapping her twice. He might cause more trauma instead of less.

'This is exactly what I hate about humans.

They're too emotional at the wrong times!' Zeel complained in his mind, but still turned around to wrap Nick's body in cloth materialized from his storage Dimension.

Nick was the closest thing to a friend Zeel had since growing into his new emotions.

Zeel wanted to make sure that Nick was buried at home, next to the grave of his wife that died from cancer.

Even if Nick was unable to forgive his wife in life, he could have a change of heart in death.

Truly, if Zeel had any other choice, he would have allowed Nick to live, but Ahmanet made sure the curse was entwined too deeply into Nick's soul to be removed.

Killing Nick was the only way to make sure that he was no longer a Herald of Death, and now Zeel only had to kill Ahmanet to make sure that Seth would never leave his dying Dimension.