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Chapter 037: Two Against One

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Another glass-shattering sound and everyone saw Sandra backing off, thrown out by the force of that sword slash carrying a weight that not even her full stats as a Quasi-Immortal could counter.

A beat later, Siva disappeared and appeared right next to Sandra and swung the Fire Sword bathed in the aura-light of his Transcendent State.

"Don't get cocky!" she roared as her other hand made to block the sword slash as if a suicide stunt.

But...

A green light flashed through that hand as binding spells, two in a row, erupted and bound the sword and Siva's body at the same time.

"Sandra!" Hossain was slower to react but he also cast a spell —no— he just stretched out a hand to Siva's direction and his fingers began to morph in a morbid way, becoming tree roots that stretched out in a hurl that helped in binding Siva.

Hossain was from the Treant Race!

A ripple in space and before the binding spell that should have taken only a moment to bind Siva, was now grasping air as Siva's figure became merely an afterimage as he teleported away, just behind the retreating Sandra, 40m at the far back.

"Hah!"

Sandra's Mana Sense deployed to its limits as she didn't have to turn her head back and cast a Fire Field around her, pushing Siva away with a burnt right sleeve and right leg.

"Heh! You're still a mortal after all!" Sandra could be said to be experienced in fighting as she didn't have any wasted efforts when she casts her spells and changed attacks and counterattacks at the right moment and opportune time. Her actions are crisp and had a sure-killing precision that even Siva was feeling pressure more than he thought he would have during this collision.

Everything might have been too long to explain but it was all happening at the speed that it takes you to breathe in and then breathe out.

A whip whistled in the air and hit Siva square in the flank —or not, as the BMA appeared from nowhere to block that attack for him.

""...!!""

The leaders of the Church Battalion were shocked to see there were two of them and at this moment they realized that only one of them seemed to be a living being and the other... doesn't seem to be breathing at all.

"Now that I actually sense it, the energy emissions coming from that puppet of yours... there's no doubt that it was from a Vajra. Hah! So you actually did the Soul Puppet Spell Ceremony yourself!"

Although he was wrong in his assumption, Siva still managed to get some valuable info from his guess.

Hossain laughed crazily as Sandra began to cast another Tier-5 Barrier Spell to protect the both of them. She didn't dare to give openings for Siva to use that eerie ability to teleport against them.

The two parties stood there for a face off.

"Where... is he."

It was a command and wasn't any sort of inquiry.

Siva's voice was coldly acidic yet placid and free of the burning ire seething beneath his skin.

No reply came from the two leaders while the rest of the Acolyte Battalion felt their legs go weak at the sight they've seen just now.

In just a matter of a few seconds, Siva had almost pushed their Priestess Sandra into a corner and even if there was Cardinal Hossain, Siva wasn't in the least bit on the defending side.

And what more, in just those small seconds, they exchanged so many attacks and counterattacks it's almost bordering to an impossible.

Just how fast were they moving?!! They could only think so to themselves.

"For someone who wears a mask, you sure is quite demanding, huh... why don't you show us who you really are before we begin our talk?"

He didn't reply but he out a hand to his face.

Siva removed the faceless mask and his handsome face became visible for Sandra and the others to look at.

For a moment there, the orange aura-light emitting from his body turned his handsome face into some sort of deity —an angry deity— whose wrath, right now, is actually locked onto them... into Sandra.

And yet, as attractive as he was to Sandra, those pair of eyes of his told her otherwise.

At the moment their eyes met, the air suddenly felt as if she was in an ocean and breathing in seemed to take so many tolls on her brain and body.

Something within his killing intent doesn't add up to that of a mortal's. It was as if...

It was as if she was looking at a furious [God].

Just that fact alone proved something and it was a frightening thought to even her herself.

How is this possible?! How could a mortal have such a thick killing intent?!!

Sandra was someone who fought in the battlefield of the Terran Alliance for multiple years. She had her share of bloodshed, more than, in fact, those of the [High Seats] at the echelon of the Terrans.

On a certain mission, she was wounded by one of Hossain's spells and was on the verge of dying.

She knew the fear of death for she was close to it at that time. But Hossain didn't kill her and instead told her about the truth that he himself had seen.

He said that...

In this world, the Gods are dead yet of all of them, only a single [God] remains alive but weakened by the War of the Gods in the past.

[He] was the Blood Dragon God.

...and he is coming back.

Ever since then, she became his follower and she had been enlightened by the truth of this world.

In the ranks on the same level as Hossain's chain of command within the Church, she is considered as a top tier Battle Mage. She had led expeditions upon expeditions, victory after victory in the name of the church... and although she had faced many strong opponents on both the Dragons and the Terran Alliance before, she had never been frozen by any of their murderous intent before... until this very moment, in this very day, by this very man.

Only now did she remember, and realize, that she had already forgotten what it was like to feel fear for your own dear life.

WHOOSH!!!

Like an illusion, Sandra saw a vision of a battlefield full of death... and a fire that burns everything, the world burning up to its planetary core.

What?!! She gasped but for some reason, Sandra was part of the scenery and she can't move even a single muscle, and could only watch the vision as it went on and changed one by one.

World after world burned, millions of lives; Mortals, Gods and Immortals... they burned in agony and a frightening amount of despair...

Helplessness in the face of that tyranny that even she as a passing spectator, could feel the terror of the victims of the owner of that dreadful blood red fire.

And as the visions continued, she couldn't help but feel that even as a passing spectator, cold sweat is flowing at her spine.

What is this nightmare?!!

I want to wake up! Someone, please, wake me up!

HELP ME!!

The visions went on, world after world burned and the universe trembles in fear of that nightmarish existence.

...and then, in one fateful vision...

She watched him burn another world and she was right behind him.

HELP!!!

So absorbed within the illusion, she began to cry for help desperately as if she was about to face it next... the wrath of that God of Slaughter... the God Slayer of this illusory universe.

Her gaze fixed on that back of his as he slowly, so ever slowly, turned to face her.

GASP!!

She held her breath and the illusion vanished.

GASP!!!

Sandra was shocked and she gasped for air.

Since when have I been holding my breath?!

Moreover...

What was that just now?!!

Sandra came back to his senses and realized that not even a moment had passed since their eyes met and yet there was still the lingering fear of that illusion embedded on her soul. She could still smell the scent of tar and the trace of burnt flesh, of the color of a burning world, and the resounding cries of despair and agony of the millions of people and souls forever trapped in the hell of that scene.

She swallowed but couldn't feel any liquid on her dried throat.

Since when... she gasped to herself, since when, no, how long was I holding my breath to gasp for air like this?!!

An answer struck her mind and she shivered.

It was only a short moment of eye-contact but she didn't even realize that she was sweating, that she actually began to remember her life up to this very moment itself... and that she had actually seen an illusion of death and destruction that exceeded the scope any war record or story that she'd read and heard before.

Sandra began to sweat profusely at the horror that this realization brought upon her while Hossain is just laughing beside her, unaware of what had just happened to her in those fleeting moments of their eye-contact.

Was it intentional? She wanted to know. Because as seemingly impossible the scene she'd seen just now was, but for some reason, the fleeting image of that God Slayer and Siva was imprinted to her in a vividly clear impression.

Unbeknownst to her, her legs began to lose their strength and she began to rattle.

Is it him? She wanted to warn Cardinal Hossain but she held the thought back as she felt that it was a hard to believe notion.

Because it was only her who had seen that vision just now and as such, she felt something else.

Anger... and an intense amount of humiliation!

"Siva!" she roared.

Sandra realized, Siva just made her experience a humiliating illusion because of that one eye-contact they made and for a War Goddess of the Church like her... it was a great amount of humiliation.

Yes, they knew he was strong. But Intel said that a lot of openings are available in Siva's strengths. He was incapable of this illusory feat.

And as for that instant-teleportation, she can tell that it wasn't natural to him and that it was just a gift that came, perhaps, from that True Immortal in the Surface Continents.

But Sandra still consoled herself.

There is absolute in a battlefield. Intel reports were just that, guides. They are nothing more than just preparatory information to gauge eventualities that may happen during the fight.

Yet... as confident as Sandra was to her calculation ability, no report —no amount of calculations could possibly actually measure the extent of changes a thick murderous desire like this can bring to the battlefield.

And perhaps because of that miscalculation that she got her guard down and experienced that short bout of illusion.

This caused her to feel furious, forgetting the fear she sensed earlier.

I am also an experienced fighter!

How can I succumb to another's killing intent?!!

Right now, it was a matter of pride. Although one's murderous desire can measure one's ability to kill, no, the history of their strength, it doesn't mean that things will become an absolute. Sandra had experienced countless battles and she had her own share of fights against impossible situations but still reigned victorious against those impossible odds. She believed in her own ability.

Siva's [killing intent] reflected his ability and so far, none of the people she'd met have such a thick amount of killing intent on them.

Yes.

But Sandra believed that she can defeat him with her skills and magical abilities. She was a top-class "Battle Mage" and she was the Goddess of War of the Blood Dragon God Church.

"I'll kill you!" she roared.

Siva didn't answer.

The air around Siva rippled as he entered the very realm of strength of True Immortals. The orange aura-light coming from his body overlapped with the seething actions of the curse and right now, it seemed to be an orange smoke evaporating in the air like steamed water.

His face, bright with the aura-light, was handsome, very, in fact, in any standards, but what's different were his eyes that radiated the calm burning rage, like a super-sized star that was about to go nova.

"Where... is... HE.......!!"

Siva repeated the question and he stretched out a hand towards Sandra, ignoring Hossain.

BOOM!!

A large opening appeared behind Siva and a thick bright light erupted from the opening in the fabrics of space, booming towards her —the first of Siva's two Longhorn Cannons had just mercilessly fired.

Their distance was merely 20+ meters and with a concentrated fire without any sign or warning, the full-powered strike hit Sandra's Shield Barrier Spell and shattered it, trashing her back like a kite that lost its string.

Beside her, Hossain also twirled and spun in midair as he fell back 30m towards the group of Acolytes.

Sandra, however, was thrown quite far away. But she was still alive as she drank two different vials of potions while casting healing spells upon herself and also a layer of protection, followed by a second layer, protecting herself from another incoming attack.

Yet deep in her heart, she felt nervous for the fear that had just vanished in her came back swinging in full force against her chest.

Dangerous! If I haven't setup a Tier-5 Earth Shield in time, I would have died back th—damn it!!

"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!"

From behind her, Siva appeared with a ripple in the fabrics of space and the large Fire Sword slashed at her, creating cracks in the Barrier Magic.

The shield didn't break but the force in the attack was enough to make her feel rocked to her core.

She jolted back, spun, and cast an Earth Spear as a counter but her actions were predicted and was dodged, followed by another slash.

"You can't kill me!" Sandra roared and insta-cast an Earth Spear again to meet the attack, followed by a Wind Slash to strike at Siva.

Her finger drew a line in the air and the Wind Slash followed the trajectory. The Earth Spear met Siva's strike and shattered but the force of his slash was lessened and his momentum reduced.

He won't be able to dodge it, she thought.

WOOSH!

But the Wind Slash she cast with her left hand was thoroughly destroyed by the BMA's War God Axe who appeared out of nowhere and spun just as her Wind Slash forced its stance to collapse.

"Wha—?!!"

BANG!!!

The War God Axe strike the shield and the cracks grew bigger. The force wasn't as strong as Siva's full-powered slash attack but it was still almost as strong as her, rendering her stance to break and so gave Siva the chance to deliver another attack.

But the next attack wasn't something she expected from a typical fighter.

The War God Axe the BMA had became ownerless after it attacked —no— they switched weapons in the middle of their broken stances!

Following the switch, a dull coloured sword-spear swung violently on the area Siva attacked just now while he himself grabbed the spinning War God Axe in midair and used the momentum to deliver a spinning blow.

CRACK!!

In just two seconds, Siva delivered three attacks from the moment he appeared behind her. She felt her sweat came colder and she could feel that her legs and arms were shaking from fear.

Rattled, she was thrown back like a pinball by the two consecutive attacks.

"Where is he!!" Siva roared and the two of them vanished from her vision.

"Shit. Shit! SHIT!!" she cursed loudly, casting Earth Shield once again followed by a grunt, "GAH!!"

Not giving her time to spin around, an attack came from behind her... Siva's full swing of the War God Axe in Transcendent State was a devastating attack coming from an Immortal with a sum of 1800 stats.

The Earth Shield shattered and she spun but Siva didn't give her time to react at all and delivered his next strike with lethal precision.

He took a step and vanished, then appeared right in front of her, a downward swing of the War God Axe blocking whatever vision she had.

"NOOOO!" a roar came from not too far away.

A Fire Pillar erupted and cast a shadow from Siva's left side, going towards him with killing momentum.

He didn't look at it and struck down, the slash of the War God Axe hitting another barrier, pushing the two of them apart.

"Tsk." He clicked his tongue and stretched out his left hand, the Fire Pillar met a spatial opening and was swallowed... with the other end teleported at the slightly celebrating Sandra.

"WHAT THE—?!!"

Her eyes went wide in disbelief.

Siva used the Mini Realms to transfer the direction of the attack towards her!

SHUUUUUUUUUUU~!!!

The seething sound of the Fire Pillar hitting her Shield Barrier Magic echoed and Siva who was just a few meters away from it cast an indifferent gaze at the burning sight.

"If you're not telling me, then I will just kill you!"

At that moment, space rippled again and the BMA appeared beside Siva holding the Fire Sword and Lancet Imperious —two Fire-attribute weapons!

Like a hungry whirlpool, the Fire Pillar Hossain had cast was absorbed by the two weapons and their bodies began to morph into a lava-like surface that was both beautiful and dreadfully ugly at the same time.

A moment later, a terrifying scene occurred as the Fire Pillar was totally absorbed by the weapons and the sight of a near-melted Shield Barrier boomed at every eyes witnessing; smoking hot and distorted in horrible angles.

Siva gave a mental command, absorbed back all of the Mini Realms in his network aside from those in the outskirts, and took a step forward, vanishing.

"Sandra!"

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