130 The Unbelievable God of Death

Tai's seven different colored flame dragons flew towards Camazotz, while he himself rode a green flame dragon at rapid speed. The flame dragons all hit at once, causing a vibrant explosion of icy flames, lightning flames, and more.

A loud shriek pierced everyone's eardrums as Camazotz stumbled several steps back. When the flames cleared, his body was revealed to be completely unharmed.

"Tsk." Tai clicked his tongue while lazily waving his fan towards himself. "I knew you were going to be a tough son of a bitch."

"Who are you?!" Camazotz growled.

"Me?" Tai smiled. "Don't you think you should be asking the person behind you instead?"

"Behind me?" The bat hurriedly turned around in panic.

Ed had snuck up behind the bat, chimera scales covering his body. Purple flames concentrated on the tips of his fingers as he clawed towards the mutant's eyes.

Camazotz quickly dodged to the side, causing Ed's attack to just barely scratch the skin around his eyes. He hissed loudly. "A cheap move. As to be expected of weak humans." He licked his lips. "But I'll happily devour you all!" Purple mana so thick that it was visible to the naked eye began radiating off the bat's body. The mana transformed into two translucent hands several times the size of his body.

"Hmm?" Ed rose an eyebrow as he prepared to defend himself. "What? Not going to use any of those powers you've stolen?" He questioned half out of curiosity and half because he wanted to taunt the enemy.

"Kekeke." The bat chuckled. "Very well. Originally, I was going to hold back, otherwise it'd be no fun. But since you insist!" Suddenly, red flames appeared beneath his feet and spread in all directions. "FEAR MY FLAMES!" He roared as the fire quickly shot towards Ed.

"You're joking... right?" Ed questioned in disbelief as he easily deflected the weak flames with his mana. "Stop fooling around." He frowned. "I could've took that attack just a few weeks after I first became an esper."

"Humph!" The bat snorted. "I was just warming up! Behold, the power of dark ice!" Shards of black ice congealed in midair and floated around the bat. They shot forward like bullets as the bat waved his hand forward.

Ed hurriedly released his recently acquired red water and covered the ice. Shockingly, the dark ice melted easily without him even having to use much mana. Confused, Ed glanced at Tai, his eyes asking for an explanation.

Tai shrugged as he circled around the bat, coming closer to Ed to join forces. "Maybe the bat likes fooling around?" He guessed. "It easily withstood my all-out attack after all."

'Just what is Camazotz's game?' Ed wondered as he slowly looked around the battlefield. Rubi was engaged in battle with the general. Well, that was actually putting it lightly. The general was covered in some type of strange armor, but Rubi was treating him like a sandbag. Every punch she threw towards the man caused rings of fire to explode outwards as the earth trembled. If anything, she was a monstrous beast in human form. As for the other espers, they seemed to be holding their own against the soldiers just fine.

"Oh, shit." Ed muttered as a sudden realization set in. He hurriedly looked to Tai. "You idiot! You didn't set anyone against the fat guy!"

"The fat guy?" Tai confusedly turned around while cautiously watching the bat out of the corner of his eye.

"HINA! HINA! WAKE UP, HINA!" Tears poured from the fat man's eyes as he cried over his granddaughter's unconscious body. Suddenly, he glared towards Tai. "I'LL KILL YOU!!!" Golden light, white light, and green wind covered the man's body, and then, he was gone.

"Where did he go?" Tai looked around in confusion.

Suddenly, the man reappeared directly in front of Tai's face. He growled through clenched teeth. "Remember the name of Souma when you meet King Yama in the afterlife."

"Prime Minister Souma?!" Tai replied in shock as he hurriedly covered himself in yellow flames to attempt defending himself.

Shockingly, Souma's hand sliced directly through the fire completely unimpeded. Tai barely managed to move back to avoid a critical blow, but he still received a large gouge on his forehead, causing his own flowing blood to partially blind him.

"Ed." Tai grimaced as he focused on the prime minister. "This battle just got a lot more difficult. Think you can handle the bat solo?"

"The names Camazotz!" The bat growled.

Ed glanced at the bat and hesitated a moment before nodding. "If its attacks stay as weak as before, then I should at least be able to stall the fight."

"Thanks." Tai sighed. "If you can, try to win. We can't leave any witnesses here, otherwise I'll never hear the end of it when I reach my sect. To think I'd cause such an international incident by mistake."

"Alright." Ed agreed while focusing on the bat.

"So, all of the partners decided?" Camazotz grinned. "Tell me, boy. Why are you attacking me anyways? You must know you're out of the league when fighting the great Bat God of Death, Camazotz!"

"We naturally have our reasons." Ed returned the grin. "Now, bring out your real cards." He gestured with his hand, indicating for the bat to make its move.

"Fine then! Fear my power!" The bat screeched as a bright shining sun appeared behind him and shot out rays of light.

Ed squinted as the light nearly blinded him. Suddenly, he felt the wind and ground slightly tremble. He hurriedly lifted his arms up defensively, just in time for Camazotz's fist to slam into them. His forearms throbbed as he slid nearly a meter backwards, but he was completely unharmed.

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" The blinding sun vanished to reveal Camazotz shaking his hand back and forth while blowing on it. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!" He screeched in anger. "Humans are supposed to be weak soft things, like my favorite stuffed animal! This is bullshit!" He glanced over to the military men. "When are you bastards going to hurry your asses up and come help me?! Fighting is your job, not mine!"

Ed stared speechlessly at the bat. His chimera powers weren't even as strong as they had been back in the cage. Hell, even Rubi's body was probably a league or two stronger than his own at the moment. Yet the purple bat mutant with extreme levels of golden faith energy couldn't even handle it? "What game are you playing?!" Ed shouted angrily. "If you're not going to get serious, then I will!" Wind and flames shot from the mana-batteries in his legs, propelling him forward.

"Wait, wait, wait!" The bat eagerly waved his hands. "We can talk about this!"

Ed's leg came slamming down from midair towards the bat's head, but the attack was blocked by the bat's wings.

"Really, we can talk about this!" The bat insisted.

Ed threw one attack after another. Flames, lightning, water, fists, kicks, and more. However, the bat always managed to deflect the blows with its wings, much to Ed's frustration. "Damn it!" He yelled. "For fucks sake, stop holding back!" He was used to fighting strong opponents that gave it everything they had. He had never felt so insulted by an opponent before, and it was pissing him off far more than he had ever expected.

"Who says I'm holding back!" Camazotz shouted, tears practically pouring from his eyes. "Don't forget, you're the one that asked for this! Go, my ultimate attack!" The purple hands he had created previously flew forward.

"Finally!" Ed grinned in satisfaction as he saw the purple attack flying forward. He covered his body in purple flames in preparation to meet the attack. Shockingly, the translucent purple hands immediately fell apart as soon as they came into contact with the flames, causing no damage whatsoever. "You... You've got to be kidding!" He stared in disbelief.

"I'm not done yet!" The bat roared as it shot one type of attack after another forward. There were various types of flames, lightning, earth, and the other elements. Occasionally, mixed elemental attacks that were stronger were thrown forward.

Ed continued to easily deflect or block the attacks. After several minutes, he sighed aloud. "I get it now. You can only use one power you've stolen at a time. And since you've only ever stolen powers from newly awakened espers, all of them are especially weak. You've clearly never bothered training in any of them, meaning you've become a weak jack of all trades."

Camazotz's eyes widened in fear. "So... So what!" He screeched. "I still have my natural abilities!"

"Do you?" Ed frowned. "Your natural attacks are also weak. It actually makes sense, otherwise you would have hunted for stronger powers by now instead of relying on the government. Only your body defenses are excessively powerful. As for your golden faith energy?" He scoffed. "You don't know how to control it. You just managed to make it decorate the outside of your body as a status symbol or to cause fear. Hell, it may have happened naturally for all I know."

"FINE!" Camazotz yelled. "So, I'm weak, big deal! It's not like you can get through my defenses anyways!"

"Oh?" Ed grinned. "We'll see about that." He pummeled his fist into his hand as he cracked his neck. 'Those wings of his seem pretty strong. I think I'll call dibs on them when we divvy up the body. I wonder if he'll still withstand the attacks after I pry them open?' He rushed towards the bat, no longer worrying about defending himself. He reached towards the bat wings and grabbed ahold of them. He pushed his strength to the limits as he struggled to open them so that he could attack Camazotz's body hidden inside.

"Gah!" Camazotz struggled keeping his wings closed as he hurled occasional weak attacks towards Ed. "Damn it! Stop! This isn't fair!" He complained.

"Such a waste of high quality mana!" Ed frowned as he continued pushing. "If you trained properly, you'd probably be one of the strongest mutants in the world, but you can't even compare to a crocodile I fought a long time ago. What a disgusting waste of talent!"

"Eeeeeek!" Camazotz screeched as is continued struggling. In panic, it looked around the battlefield for help, but everyone was far too occupied. The soldiers and espers were still on even footing. The general was getting demolished by Rubi, though he still managed to hold on thanks to his great defenses. As for Prime Minister Souma? He was far too enraged to even think of helping, and even if he wasn't, then he might just kill the bat himself out of anger. "Damn it!" Camazotz cried. "This is why I hate humans!"

Finally succeeding in prying the wings open, Ed kicked forward with his free leg, purple flames alight on his foot.

A cracking sound rang out as Camazotz's rib broke, causing him to spit out a stream of purple blood. "Bastard..." He barely managed to whisper as he slouched over.

"You can die now." Ed smiled as purple flames appeared on his hand. He clawed towards the bat's head, preparing to finish the job.

"Kekeke." Camazotz suddenly laughed. "Foolish human!" His tail turned translucent and shot out so fast it appeared invisible. It slammed directly into Ed's head. "Kekeke. You humans always let down your guard right when you think victory is guaranteed!"

Ed's seven elemental colors began to flow along the tail as he was frozen in place. 'Tch. I was careless.' He complained to himself. 'What an odd feeling. It's like the tail is in an entirely different dimension.' He watched as his power exited his head along the tail. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to move his body.

Suddenly, a golden light entered Camazotz tail as well. It rapidly shot past the various mana colors and entered Camazotz's body. "What is this?!" He screamed in shock while gripping his head. In his panic, he released his tail from Ed's head. "A soul?!" He shouted in anger. "You think a measly soul can stop me?!"

With the tail's connection severed, the extracted mana quickly returned to Ed's body. He didn't hesitate as purple flames again covered his hand. He clawed towards Camazotz's head, easily penetrating it. He gripped a mana-core inside, and in his anger, he squeezed his hand and shattered it. Camazotz eyes quickly grew vacant as his body slumped to the ground.

Ed pulled out his hand and glanced at the shattered mana-core. "Tsk." He clicked his tongue. 'What a waste of a good mana-core. It's rare I find seven-colored mana-cores to study.' He glanced at the dead body and sighed. 'Fuck. Here it comes again. I can't tell if I have good luck or bad luck lately.' Just as he finished his thoughts, a huge stream of golden faith energy poured from Camazotz's body and into his own.

Ed appeared in a void and began watching the lives of millions of Japanese humans and espers. At the very least, the number was on the same level as when he had defeated the Governor. Clearly the Japanese had truly worshiped this monster to an extreme level over the past several decades. One crack after another appeared on Ed's soul as he continued to watch. After what felt like a really long time, the process finally finished. He grimaced as he looked down at his soul body. The cracks now covered it entirely, leaving no area unblemished.

Suddenly, a long sigh rang out. The soul of Mayor Mick slowly materialized in front of Ed. "You've really done it this time..."

"I assume you were the one that helped me?" Ed asked.

"Of course." Mayor Mick nodded. "But you've really screwed the pooch this time, kiddo. Just look at your soul. It's a complete mess!" He grimaced and glanced back at the mass of golden faith energy which was hovering around Ed's mana-core. "And now there are twice as many souls. I can't hold them all back. An occasional one might slip through and take over, and it'll be up to you to take back control."

Ed trembled in fear, but his eyes quickly grew resolute. "I'll defeat all comers!" He confidently declared.

"Even if you do, how much longer can you last?" Mayor Mick sighed while shaking his head. His body slowly started fading as he returned to the mass of golden faith energy.