Chapter 244 Looking Grim

Issac was coming to his wits ends against the admiral. No matter what he did he could not stop a single attack. It was also apparent that the admiral wasn't even taking the fight seriously. There were so many opportunities that the admiral could have killed Issac, but he just never took the chance.

'Maybe I shouldn't have thrown Luna in the dungeon.' Issac regretted his choice to lock her up in the dungeon as she would have been a great help. His instinct as a friend got the better of him, making him fail to see the actual consequences of her not being around.

"Enough playing." The admiral suddenly spoke his first words which only meant bad news.

In a panic, Issac entered his transformed state to give him the extra edge. He didn't want to use it, but now he had no choice.

'Hopefully, I can take extended leave after this.' His armour and shield began to sink into his flesh causing him to grow in size. Veins popped out of his skin, glowing a light red as demonic essence coursed through them. Even his armour adopted a similar reddish glow as it sunk into his skin.

The armour seemingly fused with his muscles, giving him quite literally muscles of steel. Now having a body on par with the most extreme bodybuilders, he wanted to test if the admiral could do him any damage.

"Tch." The admiral didn't like the look of things as his magic relied on his opponent wielding metal, but controlling said metal from within another's body was beyond his reach.

"Not looking so confident now are you?" Issac saw his opponent's frown, betraying a hint as to what was actually happening.

The best conclusion he could come up with was that the admiral had the ability to manipulate metal. So when he punched Issac, the admiral would force the metal to mold its shape, giving no resistance to his fist and making it seem like he punched right through.

To further hide this fact, he then returned the armour to its original state, making it hard to tell what was happening.

"Doesn't matter." With his strategy exposed, he had to attack in a different way. Luckily for him, they were in the middle of the city where a bunch of metal was present. He was capable of conjuring metal, but only from his body, so a metal-rich environment was where he shined the most.

Swinging his arms, metal spikes suddenly shot out from the buildings, barreling directly towards Issac from all directions. There were many sources of metal for him to make use of, from piping, to building reinforcements and even kitchen wares.

Issac stood still letting all the spikes hit him and, to the admiral's surprise, nothing pierced his skin. The admiral raised an eyebrow, curious as to how his skin was able to defend against the spikes. He knew the metal merged with his skin, but he didn't think it would also give him the same level of protection.

"My turn." Issac was thrilled to see the attacks were completely useless. It gave him the confidence to go on the offensive.

Kicking off the ground, the extra muscle mass he received lended his every move pure destructive force. His arms in particular have grown in strength considerably thanks to having merged with his shield. Strength he put to full use as he threw out a massive punch.

The Admiral tried to step back to avoid the punch, but an earth wall arose behind him preventing him from dodging. He didn't think the demon had any elements due to him not even using it to protect himself, but that was a clear misjudgment.

Taking the punch, he was sent through the earth wall and the buildings behind it. Even after going through a bunch of buildings the admiral showed no signs of slowing down.

And yet, somehow Issac was able to catch up to the admiral just before he broke through another building. Winding up for another swing just as the admiral came through, he punched again redirecting him straight into the ground.

A crater the size of a football field was formed, collapsing many buildings in the vicinity.

With most of his bones broken beyond repair, the admiral was left profusely bleeding from the many holes where splintered bones broke through his skin. It wasn't long until he died from blood loss ending the fight, but Issac wasn't fairing too well either.

Transforming back to his normal form, the armour that merged to his skin pushed itself out, ripping his skin in the process. Issac screamed in agony as he felt like he was getting skinned alive.

'Sorry... Luna.' He knew he shouldn't have used it, but it was his only choice. There was no way he could stay on the defensive forever. The post-transformation side-effects were truly horrific, but unfortunately, without Luna's healing he had no choice but bear with the pain and try to recover as best he could.

Luna was his safety net and without her there was promise he would survive after transforming, but he still took the risk.

His skin was no longer there, leaving his muscles fully visible. He did start to regenerate, but there was no telling if it was enough due to how slow it was.

The armour he wore was scattered all over the place covered in blood. The admiral's dead body was at his feet making it look like they killed each other.

All Issac could do now was sit through the pain hoping that he wouldn't die, but he accepted the fact he very well could.

'Please everyone else stay alive.'

*

<Jane POV>

After teaming up with the demon, she was able to gather around another 7 admirals willing to stand down. At first, it was awkward with Jane almost having to fight her own, but after she properly explained they were open to the idea.

4 of the admirals were willing to fight against the pope while the other 4 would simply stand down, not wanting to get involved. They didn't want to lose their livelihood so they preferred not to get involved.

This left Jane with a team of 12 including the demons to face off against anyone that stood in their way. Their goal was not to directly fight the pope as the admirals knew all too well that even with all 20 of them combined, their chances were still slim. The only person who was remotely close in power was Himeko, but she wasn't here.

They didn't know the kind of power the demons had, but seeing as they were of similar tiers it was unlikely their combined force would work.

"Jane, are you sure you are willing to fight your own?" Surprisingly the demon Jane fought with had gotten a little close. While they were making their way to the other admirals and demons, it gave them time to get to know each other.

"I'm sure it will be fine, Carole." Jane was too deep into this to turn back, so she continued forward without caring what the pope would think.

"I sense Issac here, but it seems like he is no longer fighting." Carole recognised Issac's presence, but it was odd that it wasn't moving.

"Down here." Pinpointing his location Carole took a dive towards the ground with everyone else following. Reaching a crater, they saw the dead admiral with a hardly breathing demon.

"Isacc! You dumbasss why did you transform without Luna?" One of the other male demons instantly recognised what happened to Issac. Running up to his side, the demon pulled out a red glowing liquid in a bottle from a small bag.

"Sorry Jin." Issac struggled to get his words out, but it was a good sign that he was still alive. Half of his body was still pure muscle as his flesh took its time regenerating. However, it had significantly slowed compared to when he first began healing.

Jin forced Issac to drink the red liquid which seemed to be some form of demon essence. Suddenly the speed of his regeneration increased, increasing the likelihood he will survive.

"Wow, he managed to take down Kinzoku." Jane was surprised he was taken down since he was one of the strongest. Sadly he had been with the pope for the longest so his loyalty was beyond reproach. No matter what Klaus did Kinzoku would follow him.

"It's one less person to worry about though so that's a relief." Bartholt, the oldest-looking admiral walked up from behind. He knelt next to Kinzoku's body, double-checking that he was dead.

"Would be a shame to lose him." Bartholt's words made Jane extremely suspicious, but before she could question him, he pulled out a syringe. Injecting it into Kinzoku's body, black mist quickly enveloped his body.

Bartholt turned to face Jane, but his eyes turned completely black. Whomever she was speaking to now, it wasn't Bartholt.

"Sneaky admirals going behind my back, I may not be there, but I know your every move." Klaus had used Bartholt as a vessel for his secondary body.

"Bastard what did you do!?" Jane jumped back while pulling out a long sword.

"Why don't you find out for yourself?" Bartholt fell to his knees while his eyes bled a black liquid. Soon his body fell limp as Klaus left his body.

However, Kinzoku's body rose up into the air by the black mist. No one knew what was going on, but they prepared for a battle as some form of dark magic took hold of the dead admiral.