CHAPTER 65: GUNGNIR (4).

He was so close.

He was so damn close!

Separated from life and death by just a few meters.

The dark fog wafted over the walls and into the Temple.

It was thick and viscous, bringing with it the stench of death.

A look of mad desperation flashed in Nero’s eyes as he roared at the damned things grinning down at him,

"To Hell with you bastards!"

He was frustrated beyond measure.

Why did it seem like the entire world wanted to tear away at his life?

Why was every turn filled with so much pain and death?!

He had barely been in the wicked Wilderness for less than a month. And yet, he had to live through dozens of near life-ending scenarios, some of which he had no idea how he had even survived.

And now, this...

How?!

How was he supposed to survive this?!

He felt defeated.

He was exhausted.

The feeling of exhaustion was only heightened even more as the black fog seeped into his lungs.

He collapsed to the ground.

The surface of his skin began to bubble and melt off, revealing the pink flesh beneath that rotted deeper as the black fog ate away at it.

’What am I even doing?’

He was completely helpless.

There was nothing he could do.

In the end, he had bitten off more than he could chew.

Time and time again, he had overestimated his own capabilities.

And now, he was bearing the consequences.

The Demons, despite only possessing the power of grade E Abominations, were not truly grade E Abominations.

They were more comparable to grade B Abominations. They had once been entities that commanded entire hosts of Demons— creatures revered as terrifyingly strong and evil.

And yet, he had let his arrogance cloud his judgment.

He grit his teeth even as his lips and gums rotted off, falling to the ground with disgusting squelching sounds.

Still...

Even if he had bitten off more than he could chew...

Even if he had overestimated himself...

He didn’t want to succumb to these cold, frigid arms wrapping around his soul.

He had a promise to keep.

Death terrified him.

If he died, then all the suffering would be meaningless. There would be absolutely no point to it.

He gritted his teeth so hard, some of them popped out and fell to the ground.

A guttural scream broke through his bleeding throat.

The shadows around him rolled and boiled to life.

From their depths something shot out.

’Faster!"

The large frame of the slender Demon shot over the Temple walls.

It landed at the center of the once sacred grounds.

Nero had identified that this had to be the Demon with the attribute of Water. Despite its proportions being so out of place, its movements had a certain grace to them and were swift and heavy.

It was a powerful creature that relied on its large, blade-like arms to deliver powerful and lethal attacks.

He had been able to survive, only by the skin of his teeth.

And now, the Demon seemed to have become slightly more powerful.

"Get out of my way!"

Nero didn’t care about that anymore.

His eyes glowed golden in the darkness as he let the Silver Blade fly.

It cut an arc through the air, smashing at the Demon’s bared blade arms.

The Demon skidded backwards, the force of his charge and blade forcing it to step back.

Nero took advantage of that small window of opportunity to shoot past it.

’Almost!’

He stretched his arm out.

BANG!

His body shot out of the shadows and skidded on the ground, leaving a train of black blood behind.

From over the broken Walls of the Temple, the Hybrid Demon of Lightning and Thunder let out a soul splitting screech.

The tip of its stinger had shot out the invincible shockwave again.

A gurgling sound came from his throat.

His arm had been shot right off.

It lay a few feet away from him, still twitching slightly.

’Ah...’

Nero lay on the ground, his gaze on a particular patch of sky.

For a moment there was silence. For a moment, there was a damning peace.

At this point, half his body has already rotted away so he couldn’t feel much of anything.

He also couldn’t smell much of anything.

The only thing he could still do was see.

He could see with utmost clarity.

He could see it all.

He could see as the other Demons tore through the walls of the Temple like it was made from paper.

’It’s over.’

He had done his best.

In the end, there was a limit to how much he could do. To how far his arms could reach.

He let out a hoarse sigh and then a chuckle.

It was comedic, in a way...

Everything that led up to this point.

The more he thought about it, even as his strength drained away, the more reason he found to push what was left of his strength into his legs.

Most of the flesh in his arms had rotted away. Despite that, he pushed against the ground and rose to his feet.

This was the purest form of defiance.

Even as his flesh and bones rotted away.

Even as his mind screamed at him to give in...

He stubbornly refused.

The depths of his soul burned with the energy that filled everything.

It burned bright, burned hot, and burned fast.

The burning gave rise to shadows thicker and darkness than the blackest abyss.

A damning roar cut through the night.

His bloodied, rotting feet smashed against the ground as he dove into the shadows once again.

Shadow Shift reached the furthest it had ever reached, taking him right to the wall.

The force of his arrival shattered the rotting wooden box.

From it, a beautiful silver spear with accents of crimson and gold covering it entered his view.

As one of his eyeballs plopped out of its socket, Nero stretched his sinew-covered fingers forward.

The blaze within him had yet to die out.

The Ein Sof— his very essence burned bright as he gripped the spear.

And with his dying embers, he turned around.

Heaving it over his shoulders, Nero let the spear of a god soar.