CHAPTER 62: A BEATEN HERO.

The sound of bone crunching under a superheated, demonic-powered fist was sickeningly loud.

Isaac’s head snapped back at an unnatural angle,the force of the blow breaking his jaw and shattering the entire lower half of his face. Despite being purportedly blessed by the gods, his "Hero’s" body offered no resistance.

He was lifted clean off his feet, sailing backward through the air like a stone skipped on water.

He crashed through the charred remains of a nearby tree, the trunk exploding into splinters, before tumbling end over end.

He finally came to a stop in a heap of smoldering rubble, unmoving.

Ash stood perfectly still, his fist still extended.

The dark orbs, born of Raphael’s power, continued to dance around him, bathing him in an oppressive, shadow-like aura. The 10x boost of demonic energy was thrumming through his veins.

The toxin on his neck, which had been blurring his vision and numbing his limbs, was now being aggressively burned away.

The dark energy was a superior poison, eradicating Isaac’s lesser one.

Ash’s vision cleared, becoming sharper than ever before. He could see every particle of dust, every ember floating in the wind, and every twitch of his enemies’ muscles.

He watched the crumpled form of Isaac.

A few seconds passed.

Then, a sickening wet snapping sound echoed from the rubble. Isaac’s body convulsed as his bones visibly reset themselves. Torn flesh and pulverized organs rapidly reformed under his skin. His shattered jaw clicked back into place.

Isaac pushed himself up onto one knee, coughing and spitting out blood and fragments of his own teeth.

He looked at Ash, his eyes wide, not with rage, but with pure, unadulterated terror.

He had felt that. He had died. The death clock had activated, using one of its precious ten charges.

"You..." Isaac gasped, his voice raw and newly reformed. "Don’t you dare think you’re winnning just because you landed a couple of hits."

Ash lowered his fist, flexing his fingers. He felt the silver blade in his other hand, Aisha’s will, pulsing in anticipation.

’One down,’ Ash thought, his mind a cold void of calculation. ’Nine to go.’

Across the crater, Kelvin was having the time of his life.

"Come on, man! Is that all a ’King’s Guard’ can do?" Kelvin taunted, weaving between the heavy, powerful swings of the Gold Rank Warrior.

The warrior was a mountain of muscle and steel plate, his face set in a grim mask of determination. He wielded a massive, two-handed greatsword, swinging it with enough force to cleave a building.

But Kelvin wasn’t there to be hit.

"You talk too much, cur!" the warrior roared, bringing his blade down in a vertical chop that cracked the very earth.

Kelvin was already gone, appearing on the warrior’s left. "And you swing too slow!"

Kelvin didn’t even draw a weapon. He was just moving, a blur of motion, landing quick, precise strikes to the gaps in the warrior’s armor—the joints at the elbow, the back of the knee, the visor slit. Each hit was like a small explosion, staggering the much larger man.

The warrior was pure defense and power, but Kelvin was pure, untouchable speed. He was toying with him, keeping him completely locked down and unable to assist his "Hero."

"Just stand still and let me hit you!" Kelvin laughed, ducking under a desperate horizontal swing.

"Never!" the warrior bellowed, frustrated.

"Cool, cool. Just checking."

Echidna’s battle was far less physical, but infinitely more one-sided.

"You call that magic? Don’t make me laugh." Echidna scoffed, hovering twenty feet in the air. Her grimoire floated open before her, but she wasn’t even looking at it.

The ’greatest mage of the capital’ was sweating profusely, her hands moving in a frantic, complex series of gestures.

"Grand Fireball Array!" she shrieked, launching a dozen basketball-sized fireballs at Echidna.

Echidna merely sighed and waved one elegant hand. "Absolute Zero: Reflect."

A shimmering wall of iridescent ice appeared. The fireballs hit the wall and were instantly frozen solid, the flames extinguished. With another flick of her wrist, the frozen fireballs shot back at the mage, ten times faster.

The mage yelped, diving to the side as her own spells, now imbued with Echidna’s ice magic, slammed into the ground where she had been standing, flash-freezing a huge patch of dirt.

"Pathetic," Echidna stated, her voice dripping with disdain. "You are a disgrace to the very concept of magic. You rely on chants and gestures for spells I could cast with a single thought before I learned to read."

"Y-You... You’re a monster!" the mage stammered, raising a shaky hand.

"I am Echidna Kimberly," she replied, as if that explained everything. "And you are boring me. Try not to die too quickly. I want Ash to see me properly support him."

The mage knew, just as the warrior did, that they were not fighting opponents. they were fighting natural disasters. They had no hope of winning, and no hope of helping Isaac.

Back in the center of the crater, Isaac had regained his footing.

The terror was still in his eyes, but it was now mixed with a desperate, cornered-animal rage.

"You think that changes anything?" Isaac spat, raising his twin blades. "I can’t be killed! My Death Clock is absolute! I’ll outlast you! That toxin is still in your system, rotting you from the inside out!"

Ash glanced at the dark patch on his neck. It was almost gone, faded to a faint grey smudge under the overwhelming tide of Raphael’s demonic energy.

"Is that so? Lets see how right you are about that," Ash said. He spoke in a flat, emotionless tone.

The whirling balls of devastation pulsed together as he raised his left hand.

Isaac, trusting his instincts, activated a skill. A skill that allowed him to move faster than the human eye can detect.

He vanished, moving in a burst of golden light, attempting to get behind Ash and stab him in the back, reapplying his toxin.

He was fast. Faster than any normal human.

But Ash wasn’t normal.

The instant Isaac disappeared, one of the dark orbs detached from the spinning cluster and shot backward, firing a beam of pure black energy exactly where Isaac would reappear.

Isaac materialized directly into the path of the beam. His eyes widened as he tried to bring his blades up to block.

Schvrm!

The beam struck his chest, immediately causing it to erase upon impact.

His entire torso, from his shoulders to his waist, vanished in an instant, leaving only his legs, which stood for a second before collapsing, and his head, which fell to the ground with a look of stunned surprise.

The remaining body parts dissolved into motes of light.

A few yards away, the light coalesced, and Isaac reformed again. He was panting heavily this time, the regeneration taking a visible toll. He clutched his chest, even though the wound was gone.

"How... How did you know...?"

Ash didn’t answer. He was already moving.

’That’s two.’

Ash closed the distance in a fraction of a second. Isaac, still reeling, barely had time to raise his blades.

Isaac roared, lashing out with his enchanted short swords.

Ash met the attack with the silver blade.

Clang!

Shhnnk!

Aisha’s blade, living up to its description, sliced through Isaac’s right-hand blade as if it were made of soft butter. The slice, whatever it touches, was not an exaggeration. It negated mundane durability.

Isaac’s eyes bulged in disbelief. His enchanted, king-gifted weapon was destroyed.

"Get up, we are not done here." Ash stated, his voice a low growl. He spun, the silver blade’s momentum carrying it around in a flawless arc.

Slash!

The blade cut clean through Isaac’s waist. His upper body slid off his lower half and hit the ground with a wet smack.

’Three.’

The body dissolved again. Isaac reformed ten feet away, scrambling to his feet, his face a mask of primal fear. He had just died three times in less than a minute.

"No... No! Stop!" he screamed, holding up his one remaining blade.

Ash appeared directly in front of him. Before Isaac could even register his presence, Ash had thrust the silver blade forward.

It pierced Isaac’s heart cleanly.

Ash leaned in close, his face inches from the "Hero’s." Isaac’s eyes were wide, staring at the man who was methodically, easily, and repeatedly executing him.

"Get up," Ash whispered, the demonic energy in his eyes glowing. "This was how you killed me back then, get up."

He ripped the blade out sideways, tearing Isaac’s chest open.

’Four.’

Isaac collapsed, dissolving into light for the fourth time.

He reformed further away this time, stumbling and falling to his knees. He was breathing like a bellows, sweat and tears mixing on his face. The regeneration was costing him massive amounts of energy. He had six "lives" left.

He was going to die. Here. For real.

"I wasn’t the one who killed you; it was John. yes, John came up with the idea!" Isaac shrieked, his voice cracking. "It wasn’t me!"

"You watched and laughed. The weak boy was getting killed, so what does it matter?" Ash replied, his voice still terrifyingly calm. He began walking slowly toward the kneeling hero. "You, Elsa, all of you. You just killed me, for no reason."

Isaac knew he couldn’t win. He couldn’t fight, he couldn’t run, and he couldn’t hide.

He had one option left.

He thrust his hand forward in defense, then he utttttered-

"Protect me!"

A brilliant, golden dome of light erupted from his body, encasing him completely. It shimmered with divine power, covered in holy runes. It was the ultimate Hero defense, a blessing from the gods themselves.

Isaac, safe inside the bubble, grinned with a mix of relief and malice.

"You can’t break this, Ash!" he taunted, his courage returning now that he was safe. "This is a divine blessing! A gift from the gods! Your filthy demonic power can’t touch it!"

He pointed a shaky finger at Ash. "You’re still poisoned! You can feel it, can’t you? You’re dying! You’ll rot from my toxin before you can even scratch this barrier! I win! I still win!"

Ash stopped walking. He stood ten feet from the golden dome.

He looked at the shimmering barrier. He looked at the Orb of Destruction, still pulsing with Raphael’s power.

He slowly raised the sword.

The multiple dark orbs floating around him suddenly stopped spinning. One by one, they streamed toward the silver blade, merging with the metal.

The silver sword turned pitch black.