CHAPTER 557: DEATH OF A DEATHLESS

Lucy raised her pistol and blew away the dark green smoke with a confident smirk. The weapon was created by Sera, Agnes and Lucy herself. It can shoot bullets made of the Essence of Life and Death, which has similar powers to her scythe, albeit weaker.

They came to this solution after learning about Death’s most dangerous ability, which kills everything in her proximity. It probably wouldn’t have affected Lucy, but taking chances wasn’t something Sera enjoyed.

The Angel wanted a foolproof, perfect solution, so a gun was the best option. It did feel quite underwhelming to shoot her opponent without a prolonged tiring fight, but killing Death felt pretty good either way.

"It seems the shooting training with Xinya’s weirdo friend didn’t go to waste. I fucking nailed that shot!" she said while beginning to walk back towards the platform.

The crowd sat in stunned silence. Light wind blew through the grassy plains, and soon a whisper reached Lucy’s ear.

"It’s not over yet! Watch out!" said the surrounding darkness, and without hesitation, the Reaper jumped to the side just as the ground exploded.

A giant skeletal arm pierced the floor, where Lucy had stood a moment ago. Upon the palm stood a lone figure, her pale robe gently blowing in the wind as she brandished her dark scythe.

The bullet wound on Death’s head stayed unhealed, with tiny dark veins spreading from its depths. She couldn’t seem to heal the wound, but a single gunshot wasn’t enough to kill her.

Her face stayed emotionless even after getting shot. She raised her scythe and pointed its blade straight at Lucy. Dozens of giant skeletal hands pierced the surrounding ground, raising a giant cloud of dust and dirt.

Gunshots, with flashes of light, echoed inside the crowd as Lucy evaded the attacks. The surrounding darkness kept telling her Death’s exact position, so even in the overwhelming dust cloud, she could stay out of her proximity.

Soon, Lucy reached the edge of the dust cloud and jumped away. The crowd went wild as the hands followed her. The interlocking bones created a monstrous structure with uncountable elbows that bent in every direction.

Each shot Lucy released pierced and broke multiple bones in its path, yet the gigantic arms continued moving uninterrupted.

"Right behind, 75 degrees above, falling fast!" whispered the darkness, and with a single stride, Lucy jumped away and turned in the air. She aimed her pistol and shot at Death’s chest three times before landing.

Her scythe moved faster than the bullets, and she destroyed all three before coming close. She seemed to learn her lesson after the initial shot, which made Lucy’s job much harder.

Yet, through the struggle, Lucy’s grin only widened as lighthearted, joyful chuckles echoed from her lips. This is exactly what she wanted! A fight to the death! A real battle with real stakes!

She felt like a person walking through a desert and finally finding an oasis. It invigorated and empowered her body, pumping her full of excitement and bloodlust. This was only the beginning as her enjoyment continued climbing!

Through the cheers, explosions, gunshots and whispers, her laugh was like a knife cutting butter. It pierced the sounds with ease, since nobody expected to hear sounds of joy from a killing field, yet the Reaper’s dark eyes glinted, her creepy grin widening unnaturally.

The expression gave even Death a pause. Such bloodlust and unprecedented enjoyment of a fight... Other than War, these traits weren’t frequent, especially on such unhinged levels as Lucy’s!

She continued running, and shooting until the distance between the arm and herself reached about a kilometer. However, she soon regretted that choice as the ground exploded again, creating a different dust cloud.

More skeletal hands tried crushing Lucy, but she spread the dark green mist over a wide area. The skeletal hands disintegrated upon touching the smoke, but it didn’t seem to affect Death as her scythe pierced its surface.

The Reaper was already running and shooting. Every time Death attacked and tried getting closer, she escaped in the other direction. As if Lucy knew the exact moment and angle of Death’s attacks even during a chaotic battle.

Death had her suspicions, since had such an amazing mind for battle. However, she couldn’t prove Lucy’s cheating, so she just needed to beat her through sheer overpowering force!

Lucy continued evading the two abominations. Hundreds of connected arms kept trying to crush her body, but she jumped between them like a grasshopper, while she kept shooting bullets.

The Angelic Metal gun needed no reloading, but each bullet costed precious Essence. While Lucy enjoyed the fight, her reserves wouldn’t last forever, so she needed to end the fight as fast as possible.

However, killing Death wasn’t going to be easy. The entire Colosseum began shaking as the skeletal arms pushed against the ground, and soon an enormous torso appeared, connecting both arms.

The chest and shoulders could be considered humanoid, but instead of a couple dozen bones, thousands of them interlocked together, creating an abomination. Hundreds of ribs stood in every possible direction, and multiple spines held up the creature.

Lucy didn’t even know where all these bones came from. The arena’s ground only went for about a dozen meters. Below that, the Rune covered Angelic Metal surface prevented anything from passing through.

The bones continued connecting until an amalgamation of skulls appeared on the abomination’s multiple necks. Dark green flames burned in their eye sockets, and Death stood atop the creature’s head.

Her pale robe continued blowing in the wind as her blind eyes gazed down at Lucy. She lifted her black scythe and pointed it at the Reaper, a silent command to the abomination she stood upon.

The monstrosity screeched and lunged forward unnaturally fast. The bone-chilling noise froze everyone’s blood, and Lucy could barely react as a skull nearly bit her torso in two.

Luckily, she jumped up in time, which landed her inside the abomination’s mouth. The holes on the skull’s surface sealed off one-by-one, and sharp bone fragments tried impaling Lucy.

She dodged about a hundred before she grew bored. While tossing the pistol in the air, she summoned her own scythe in her right hand. Her left caught the weapon, and a cloud of dark smoke exploded from her body.

Through the loud screeching, another sound appeared, which somehow felt much more terrifying... Laughter... Amused laughter...

Multiple skulls disintegrated as Lucy flew above the arena. A pair of dark green smokey wings propelled her upward. Arms tried catching her mid-flight, yet she loosened bullet after bullet, while her scythe cut through the bones without resistance.

A second passed, and the dust cloud began dying down. No more arms tried grabbing Lucy as she floated a few hundred meters above the Colosseum.

Death stared up from her abomination’s head, while the Reaper grinned with delight... It was time to end this wonderful battle!

"Bea... Heal me after I killed her!" she whispered and felt a gentle warmth spread across her body. The greenish-gold gemstone embedded in her chest glowed gently under the cover of Lucy’s dark green mist-like armor.

Nobody else saw the gemstone or heard Lucy’s voice. Instead, they watched in awe as the wings disappeared from behind her back and gravity took hold of her body. She went into freefall, aiming right at Death.

The distance rapidly decreased between the two. The abomination raised thousands of arms, trying to either grab Lucy or interrupt her path, but the Reaper just laughed in Death’s face and slashed through all her attacks and defenses.

Eventually, only two dozen meters separated them. Lucy raised her pistol and loosened multiple shots. The gun released a small cloud of smoke, which she used cunningly.

Death raised her scythe and slashed the bullets into tiny metal fragments, until suddenly, a much more powerful shot pierced the gun smoke. Her blind eyes widened and she couldn’t move fast enough... The bullet pierced her chest and heart...

The Reaper chuckled at Death’s stunned form. With her scythe tossed away, she pulled back the slide and instead of the hammer, she flicked the casing with her finger. This gave it much greater acceleration and caught Death off guard.

She did the same trick two more times, each bullet piercing through Death’s eyes. However, as she came closer to Death’s stunned body, Lucy’s breathing became heavier and her eyes started swaying.

Her laughter echoed through the world as she understood what was happening... She was dying!

Suddenly, the pistol fell from her grasp, and with all her remaining power she grabbed her falling scythe. The Reaper’s body spun midair, and her blade slashed through Death’s neck without interruption.

The head flew into the air, but Lucy lunged after it, catching the bleeding body part by its long, white hair.

The ground rumbled beneath Lucy’s feet as the giant bone abomination began disintegrating. A giant cloud of dust rose across the arena as Lucy began coughing blood. Her entire body trembled, and Death’s head fell out of her hand.

Another second passed as she arrived at death’s door. Her eyes began closing as an empowering warmth swept across her body, starting from her chest.

"I can’t stop it! You need to Evolve now!" shouted Bea straight into Lucy’s mind.

With the newly found power of life coursing through her veins, the Reaper crawled to Death’s head. Blood dripped from all orifices on her face, and she felt her appendages shiver away.

Barely conscious, Lucy’s arm grasped Death’s head. Her fingers pushed into the dead being’s skull, and soon the usual question popped up in her mind...

’Do you wish to evolve?’

Lucy simply chuckled and with a coarse, tired voice said, "Well... Of course!"