Chapter 270 - C270. Grim Reaper

•HellFlare•

At some point in time, the smile on Azalea's face had completely disappeared as his eyes glowed in an oppressive hue. Reddish black flames rose front of the ground and gathered a few inches from his outstretched palm. 

The intensity of the flames could even be felt from a mile away as one could see the space collapse around it. These were flames from the depths of the underworld. Conceptual or imaginary flames that could consume all, inflicting torturous pains beyond mortal comprehension. 

With a slight flick of his wrist, the tennis-sized ball of condensed hell flames shot at them with a force that seems it could destroy the world itself, but that didn't really matter as this world was collapsing anyway. 

However, the illusionary book floating in front of Emrys suddenly flipped to a certain page and he infused the skill recorded there with a massive amount of the soul energy from the ones he had absorbed. 

•Soul Colliding Implosion•

A ball of ethereal energy whose size and intensity matched the ball of hell flames and shot out of Emrys's outstretched arm. It stayed true to its aim and quickly collided with the flame attack halfway.

*Boom!

Immediately, a devastating explosion of power that certainly would've destroyed the entire world erupted but was quickly sucked into the vortex created by the soul energy as it abruptly collapsed on itself like a black hole and disappeared. 

[Annoying pest. I suppose I had disregarded the massive soul energy you had absorbed earlier. I assumed you used it all on that burst attack but it seems I was wrong. Since you had a bit of intelligence I hoped you'll learn your place but I suppose you are still only an undead.]

Seeing his attack canceled out by the black skeleton, Azalea got irritated but then smiled as he addressed the misguided nuisance with a fiendish smile.

"A common Devil should not address me so casually. Do not fret, you'll soon know the meaning of despair."

Hearing a lowly undead confidently belittle him, Azalea narrowed his eyes further as he glared at Emrys who he had originally been ignoring because he felt he was too weak to face him. 

[Is that right? And you're going to show me despair. Hahahahah... perhaps I've been too carried away with my fun this entire time. hahaha! Fine then! Show me what it means to despair! I'm dying to know!]

Enraged by those arrogant words, Azalea was done playing around and he fully intended to show this pair what it means to be an Arch Devil. 

His skin got even redder as his horns got larger, ancient runes appeared on the visible parts of his skin as his aura shot through the roof to the point that the entire world began to shake violently.

His hand suddenly turned black as his claws extended like some type of clawed blade wrapped in the dense aura. 

[Hahahahaa... Cone on! What are you waiting for!]

Driven into a frenzy by Emrys's words, Azalea bent his knees in preparation to launch as the ground shattered under his weight. However, before he could even lunged forward, something happened—

*Crack!

A section of the space in the dimension of lies suddenly cracked and ruptured as a shadowy yet illusionary entity invaded the dimension and attacked with a wild swing of its massive weapon. 

The intruding being had not just attacked one side, but all three of them at the same time. However, the three were not beings that could easily be killed by a surprised attack and all three of them had defended themselves with defensive magic. 

[Who dares to intrude on my world.]

Turning their heads to gaze at the massive being that had suddenly appeared floating in front of them, what they saw was something that could only be described as death itself.

It was the very personification of death in the form of an illusionary but massive cloaked skeleton wielding a large blood-stained scythe that glistened even without light. 

The Grim Reaper.

•••••••••••

The sudden appearance of the massive illusionary figure of death had taken them all by surprise but that was not the problem here as none of them could be killed just because the enemy took them by surprise.

Its first attack had been aimed at all three of them which made it difficult to predict who had sent the embodiment of death after them as it could either be the undead king, Zerahut, or any one of the Great Five after they had lost visual of them. 

*Crack! Crack! Crack... Crash!

The appearance of death and the existence of the 10 Hydriads who were still moving about in the world of lies seems to have been too much for the already unstable dimension to handle as everything around them began to crack before suddenly shattering and then crashing down on them.

However, none of them had been affected by the world's collapse as they were exceptions and Azalea was too distracted to use the collapsing energy against them. Erin had also protected her creations who were now returning to her side. 

Their individual level seems to be around the 4th tier, which— while impressive on their own— could not compete with a Devil and death itself. Thus rendering them useless and a liability in the current situation. 

With that in mind, she quickly used her emergency return skill on them, sending them directly to her source. As they were being born from her spell, she had become their source hence why she could allow them to reside temporarily near her source until she finds a better place for them. 

As they were made of pure water, and could use powerful healing Magic and various other spells, she was confident they would prove useful to Lord Ty and hadn't hesitated in sending them to the underground labyrinth. 

With the glowing and very eye-catching Hydriads gone, only the four of them were left in the snow plains whose terrains had been altered by Emrys earlier. 

The moment they had returned to the physical world, they immediately felt those familiar monitoring gazes locked on them again and Azalea finally calmed down as he observed the situation.

However, the Grim Reaper had no intentions in idle chatter as it had been given a single directive and that was to kill every single demigod in this region and these two were the only ones it could sense.

Emrys was undead and thus was not considered a living demigod as Zerahut had been unaware of his existence. The only reason the Grim Reaper's first attack had touched him was because he was close to Erin and the Grim reaper had no problems in collateral damage. 

-Death Wave-

With a slight swing of its scythe, a wave of instant death gusted at them but they each reached quickly and produced an effective layered barrier as this death wave was from the embodiment of death itself and even if it could not kill them, it would surely drain them of most of their energy. 

Taking advantage of the time they used in casting and maintaining their barriers against his attack, the Grim reaper moved and suddenly appeared behind Azalea who was closer, swinging its massive scythe in a smooth arc that cut through even the fabric of reality as it was trailed by blood-red aura. 

[You insolent little!]

Sensing the threat on his life, Azalea snapped once more as he nimbly avoided the weapon's arc and countered with his hell flame-infused claws that actually made contact with the illusionary figure of death and pushed it back.

[Don't you dare underestimate me!]

*Bang Bang Bang! *Clang Clang!...

Not relenting on his furious attacks, he pounced on the figure of death and continuously struck it with its claws as he kept pushing it back until it finally made an adjustment and began to defend itself with its scythe.

As the sounds of metal striking metal sparsely reverberated across the plains, their figures became blurry as the battle became intense but their strikes had no physical effect on the surroundings as their attacks were all conceptual and thus did not affect or interact with the physical plane. 

Erin and Emrys did not join in the attack as they decided it was best to observe from the side and gauge the abilities of both parties in order to more efficiently deal with the winner or if an opportunity presented itself, deal with both of them. 

*Boom!

As it turns out, that idea was not meant to be as the Grim Reaper finally retaliated and Azalea was sent flying further than they could even see without a skill. They had no idea how far he flew or if he was even still on their continent after that blow. 

The Grim Reaper naturally turned its head to the pair and moved to carry out its mission but Erin already had seven abyssal water dragons surrounding her and Emrys had summoned a superior fire spirit to defend him as he cast his spells. 

An epic battle thus began as the fire spirit no moved to intercept the Grim Reaper and water dragons began their attacks. Launching one water cannon after another while the fire spirits used various fire-based abilities against the Grim Reaper.

However, everything was in vain as their attacks were all almost completely useless as the Grim Reaper barely received any damages and each swing of its scythe, completely disintegrated anything around it. 

Their spells and skills also didn't seem to be having much effect as this was the embodiment of death and didn't seem like it could be killed even by conceptual attacks. 

[You Bastard!]

Appearing suddenly behind the Grim Reaper was Azalea whose suit had to been torn and tattered as he looked a bit wretched but was wielding a demonic-looking two-handed sword he hadn't possessed before.

The blade gave off an ominous aura as it looked as though it was consuming a lot of mana from him as well as the surroundings. 

*Boom!

He roared in anger as he swung the large blade at the Grim Reaper from above and sent it crashing to the ground completely split in half. 

Even Erin had been surprised by that display of strength as none of her attacks had worked against it. Whatever that sword was, it was surely a terrifying weapon that seems to possess a lot of drawbacks and could not be used often. 

[Now then, you two will be next.]

Panting heavily as he pointed his ominous blade at Emrys, Azalea was about to finish this before his weapon drained him dry when suddenly.

Both halves of the Grim Reaper moved and had floated up behind him before slowly putting itself back together. 

[That's impossible! I have the sword of destruction, how is this possible.]

Azalea was at a complete loss of words as he just dumbly watched the Grim Reaper raise its scythe high and was about to strike. The sword of destruction was a blade forged from the lowest parts of the underworld with the flames of destruction. 

Even an embodiment of death should not survive an attack from such a weapon yet that was not the case. 

[What's the point!]

With no other means of defeating the reaper left to him, Azalea lost interest in this and gave up.

He was a Devil and could not be killed even by conceptual attacks but it would take him at least a couple of centuries to gather himself back together again and regain his ego. 

With his awareness of the dimensional frequency of the physical plane, he was completely fine with getting sent back to the underworld. At least, he wouldn't have to deal with this bullshit any longer. 

Once he regains his consciousness and ego again, he wouldn't need to spend Andy time in the underworld waiting to be summoned, he could return here at his leisure. But, was that really okay. 

He was an Arch Devil, one of the strongest beings in the underworld. Was it okay to allow himself lose so pathetically here. 

That's impossible. 

[You absolute Bastards! Even if I can't win this time, I'm taking everyone with me!]

Suddenly determined not to lose to death itself, he began to release all the energy left within him. Due to the sword draining most of his powers, he had very little energy left but could still muster enough force to annihilates everything within this massive region.

However—

His mind was suddenly clouded as a terrifying and eerily familiar presence invaded deep within his core and a fear he had only felt once in his life completely paralyzed him. 

"Well then, I suppose this as good a time as any to make my grand entrance. Sup, Ty has entered the battle."

"All hail the master."

*Clap clap clap clap!...

"Stop that, you're ruining my cool entrance."