Chapter 589 Last Stand Of A Friend (3)

The panting of the people that are exerting their bodies to the utmost limit filled the place.

Corpses of the Awakened guards were scattered all over the place from being hit by the collateral damage, they were once filled with vigor but now they were lifeless just because of one Awakened. It was the first crisis that happened in the Silverstar Family's mansion.

Something that shouldn't happen, sector 2 should guarantee their safety.

Edward sizes Zero up and down searching for any indication of making a move, his left hand is resting on the big wound on his stomach that is still bleeding profusely. Sounds of blood hitting the ground can be heard subtly.

From the initial clash, he's very injured and can't summon Sentine to help.

Sentine's physical presence was shattered and torn to shreds by the spell Zero did earlier, and it needs time before Edward can use Sentine again. But that is a very bad sign, he lost the dark fire shield that is the only thing able to block Zero's attack.

But as if cleansing the doubt inside his head, the three women connect to him again.

Once again the grey strings from their fingertips and their injured Shadow Spirit's fingertips connect to every media and spirit core inside Edward's body, he becomes way stronger than before since now they all focusing on him only without Sentine around.

In the next second, Edward's eyes squinted seeing a twitch in Zero's muscles.

Swoosh!

Zero dashes forward alerting Edward as he puts his senses to the max and get into his defensive stance, but just as Zero takes a couple of steps his body suddenly split into five identical clones.

"Dark Titan Sentinel Art, Unbreakable Body!"

"Great Spell! Whisp o Fire!"

Following the quick succession of the chant, Edward did his defensive move.

Aside from strengthening his body with the Unbreakable Body art, he also summons five whisps of dark fire that shot at Zero and his clones. But that doesn't help much seeing that Zero and his clones slapped the whisps away rather easily.

With the whisps out of the way, Zero and his clones jumped while raising their swords.

The three women from the Hester Family didn't hesitate to help, each of them chanted the same spell and directed it to Zero and his clones in the sky, "Great Mental Spell! Chaos of the Mind!!"

Ngoong!

An invisible shockwave exploded from each of their bodies and headed to Zero and his clones.

It was a very powerful spell that sent a mind attack that will rattle Zero and his clones' minds. The spell seems to be working as the clones got rattled and fall to the ground, they then slowly dissipate into light particles.

But unlike the clones, Zero didn't get fazed at all.

"Die!!"

Slash!

With the extreme moment of life and death, Edward saw the descending sword of light.

Although he was wide open he was not intending to die just like that, he raises both of his arms above him to block the sword of light in slow motion. In the next split second, the sword descends normally and strikes his arms.

SLASH!

"Gargghh!", red iron-scented liquid exploded into the surroundings.

Edward finds that his arms slowly got cut despite the Unbreakable Body art that he used earlier.

Zero's blade of light cuts halfway through his left arm slowly bringing an immense amount of pain alongside it, his own blood splashes onto his face as he desperately tries to hold on. Realizing that he doesn't have enough strength, Edward's eyes turn bloodshot.

It was starting to get bleak, the three women are also having a very difficult time.

They already pour everything they got into Edward's body but it seems the gap between them is too much and Edward is already weakened from the injury on his stomach, blood even started to come out of their nose, ears, mouth, and eyes.

Following this gruesome scene, Edward and the three women fall to their knees.

More blood gushed out of their mouths, and Edward started to be overwhelmed by the sword of light. Zero smiles even wider seeing that he's finally winning, he puts more strength into both of his arms until suddenly.

Slash!

Blood splurted, staining the grass in the backyard as half of Edward's left arm was sliced cleanly.

Not stopping there, the momentum of the sword of light keeps on going down and also sliced his shoulder. It keeps on going and stops just after cutting through his collarbone. The three women try their hardest to help Edward by infusing him with more of their energies. However, their attempts were stopped when the link between them snapped and the repercussion flung them away.

Despite everything, they still are unable to win against an eighth-rank realm Awakened.

Edward's body loses so much power from that attack as he looks down at his own pool of blood, the pain tries to evoke emotions in his face but he held it in before slowly gazing up at Zero while holding onto the sword of light with his right hand.

Krak!

With a slow movement, Zero pulls out his sword before swinging the blade to clean it off of blood.

"Your life ends here, Edward. Blame Rex for your death."

Knowing that Mrs. Greene and the others are getting farther away and this place will soon be crowded by Awakened by the UWO and FAA, Zero wanted to finish this as soon as possible since he already wasted so much time, fighting against Edward and the three women.

Affirming his intention, Zero raises his sword once again for the finishing blow.

Swoosh!

Pulsating light mana started to imbue the sword of light and made it burns even brighter, the sword started to tremble and become chaotic as it started making a humming voice of death.

But when Zero's eyes glisten as he swings the sword down, something unexpected happened.

Clang!

"Hmmm?!"

Out of nowhere, a scaled hand blocked his attack and even managed to stop his swinging momentum Zero was watched off-guard, he didn't even sense anyone here except for Edward and the three women.

Zero doesn't have the time to look at the person before he was punched and sent stumbling back.

Even though he was an eighth-rank realm Awakened that is nearing the highest hierarchy of an Awakened, the punch that landed solidly on his face managed to break his nose. Blood started seeping out and his eyes began to get teary.

"Who dares?!"

With his hand covering his face in pain, Zero looks at the person that did this.

But his eyes widened upon seeing that it was not a person, but a Supernatural. Something that he never expected to be here, none of its kind should be here since Ratmawati City doesn't have that kind of problem.

"D-Dragonman?! How is this possible?!"

Contrary to his expectation of another Awakened, the one that punched him is a Dragonman!

Standing in front of him is a creature that has some part of his skin covered with very dark red scales. They were glossy, boasting the defensive capability that they possesses. On top of the fierce demeanor, there was no mistaking this creature just from its eyes.

Two large red irises, and vertical pupils exhibiting an air of dominance and arrogance.

Every sense of this creature that appears out of nowhere emits the feeling of the highest-rank lizard the world has ever known, and the shape of its body shows that it has mutated into a humanoid figure.

Dragonman, it's a Dragonman. But there shouldn't be any Dragonman in this part of the world.

Upon seeing the muscular scaled arm that blocked the descending sword of light, Edward looks back and saw the figure that he also recognized as a Dragonman. But it's clear that this figure is someone he knew, "R-Ryze...?!"

Without even glancing and answering, Ryze steps forward protecting Edward behind him.

Fixating his spiteful lizard eyes toward Zero that reduced Edward to this state, Ryze grabs a regular sword on his side that seems to once belong to an Awakened guard. Looking and raising at the sword for a bit, Ryze glances back at Zero again.

"Another Supernatural, Is this a Supernatural farm? But it's good that you're here, I'm killing you too!"

But instead of being intimidated as those words came from an eighth-rank realm Awakened, there was no change in Ryze's expression. Stone cold. But slowly, Ryze's jugular started to burn with flames.

In the next split second, he did the signature dragon move.

Swoosh!

Without a second thought, Ryze breathes dark red flames directly into the sword.

After doing that Zero unconsciously steps back in surprise, the sword is now coated with the flames that came from Ryze's mouth that can even make his danger sense ring inside his heart. From the way it sizzles domineeringly, Zero knows that it's not a regular flame.

Ryze has the soul of one of the Heavenly Dragons, Zaddrass Lord of the Red.

One of its distinctive features is the flame that Zaddrass possesses that can melt anything it touches, the absolute King of the flame that is unrivaled by even the True Fire element. It's a flame solely possessed by Zaddrass.

"I've never killed a Dragonman before, you'll be my first!", Zero exclaimed with a maniacal laugh.

Ryze seems unfazed as he bent his body a little before his body seems to make boney noises, he was going into a world of pain as his human fangs becomes thicker and longer. But the most noticeable change is happening on his back, the skin on his back is tearing apart.

Upon looking at this, Zero doesn't intend to let him finish his transformation.

Swoosh!

Disappearing from the spot he was on before, Zero tackled Ryze's body with his hand on Ryze's neck before both of them turns into a streak of light that burst through the fence and screeched across the ground.

But while Zero is smiling brutally, his smile went stiff when he saw Ryze's neck start to burn.

Even though the light aura is covering his entire body like a blanket, the heat coming from the flames inside Ryze's neck burns his hand. In reflex, he lets go of the neck before Ryze glares at him and opens his mouth.

Boom!

Ryze shot a spiral of dark red flames that threatens to melt anything in its way.

Upon looking at this, Zero scoffed.

Although he wasn't able to dodge the flame breath in time due to how big it is, there was not the slightest bit of worry on his face, "Vanishing Light!", with the activation of the spell, no attacks can touch his corporeal body of light.

It was an exception for Adhara that can attack him in this state, but this flame shouldn't be able to.

Soon enough Zero regretted that decision as the dark red flames hit his body despite using one of his strongest spells, "RAARGGGHH!!!", he screamed at the top of his lungs finding his entire body got severely burnt.

With the last bit of his strength, Zero propels himself out of the spiraling flame breath.

Zero looks at his trembling hands and finds that his skin is already burnt to a crisp leaving nothing but his actual flesh, even his white robe which is also battle equipment got tattered and scorched showing glimpses of burnt flesh.

'H-How...?! How did that flame touch me?!'

But just as Zero was in confusion, he can feel a powerful gust of wind pushing him back.

Looking over to his back while his body still screaming from the burn, he finds that Ryze was not on the ground anymore. Tilting his head upwards, Zero finds Ryze in the sky with wings wrapping around turning him into a ball.

In the next second, the wings on his back flapped open as he roared loudly.

ROAR!!

An ear-shattering roar escaped his mouth filled with sharp teeth as he spreads his dominance to the surrounding, this caught everyone's attention as it was very eye-catching. Two burning horns started protruding out of his head like two spikes from hell.

Even Edward that is still hurting saw this scene with wide eyes.

'R-Ryze... he finally managed to overpower Zaddrass's soul', Edward thought with a light smile.