Second World
chapter-1919

1919 Chapter 1919. Four Lives

Belphegor's interruption brought realization back to Grace and Red Death. Emotion got the better of them, but their anger seemed insignificant now. The current situation was too dire for them to surrender to their ego.

Grace decided to be the better woman and apologized, "I'm sorry, but we need to work together. Please! We can't win if we fight like this."

Red Death didn't respond. She simply turned to Belphegor's clone, whom Grace had thrown earlier. This clone had retreated to Belphegor. It attempted to recover under the protection of the devil. Red Death turned in the other direction and saw the other four clones harassing Badass.

Without saying anything, Red Death dashed over to where Badass was.

While the two women were doing introspection, the archdemon lord lunged at Belphegor. It executed Penta Slash using its scythe. The scythe crisscrossed at high speed as it slashed the devil. Darkness almost fully covered Belphegor's ice armor as erosion from the dark enchantment accumulated. The ice armor finally shattered.

Belphegor wasn't concerned about losing his protective suit. He pulled back his arm when the Penta Slash hit him. The fist on that arm expanded exponentially. Once the archdemon lord finished its penta slash, that fist went forward.

The gigantic fist slammed into the archdemon lord. This was the same skill that took out Palgrost's defensive wall with one punch. While this skill dealt extra damage against structure, it still caused massive damage to any other target. However, the most terrifying aspect of the punch was its force.

The archdemon lord who received the punch flew at an unbelievable speed. They didn't even have time to glimpse the damage number caused by the punch because the archdemon lord was already a speck far away in the sky.

"Holy f*ck… It's a homerun punch," Badass remarked.

He was still wondering if his archdemon lord made it out alive when Red Death came and relieved him from being bullied by Belphegor's clones. He opened his skill page once he had the chance. His summon was gone. The archdemon lord was killed. He guessed this was expected. The archdemon lord didn't have much HP left when it received the ridiculous punch.

After killing the archdemon lord, Belphegor turned his attention to Red Death, who was fighting his clones. He wasn't worried about those clones. Even if Red Death could kill them, she would require some time to pull that off. What made him focus on Red Death was because Red Death was the outworlder who dealt the most damage to him. She was currently without any buff, so it was a prime opportunity to take her out of the board. He unleashed his infernal ice breath that was off cooldown. The breath aimed at Red Death, but someone intercepted this breath.

The one who did was Grace. She put her palm out and used Nine Yin Devouring Palm. The freezing beam that came her way was absorbed into her palm. As the ice energy entered her, recovery numbers appeared above her. The HP she lost from Belphegor's ambush earlier was fully recovered.

"What…?" Belphegor uttered with a shocked expression after his infernal ice breath ended. He asked Grace, "What did you do? I sense that what you did just now is not a skill."

"It is not!" Grace exclaimed as she flew forward. She activated Faith Armor and Angelic Possession. With Devilize still on, she appeared to have both angelic wings and devil wings on her back. She became much faster.

She thrust her fingers forward. The drilling energy of Nine Yin Abyssal Finger pointed toward Belphegor. The energy was even larger and fiercer when she used it on Belphegor's clone earlier. This was because the ancient art was strengthened by the energy from Belphegor's infernal ice breath.

There was still considerable residual energy left after Grace converted the energy to heal herself. Her mastery of the ancient art had improved further that she could direct the absorbed energy to bolster her attack.

Belphegor could easily dodge the attack, but he chose not to. He was curious. His sense told him Grace's current attack was also not a skill. He formed an ice shield using his palm to block the attack. Runic symbols were on the surface of this ice shield.

When the black drill collided with the ice shield, it first appeared as if the black drill couldn't advance. But as seconds passed, the runic symbols covering the ice shield started to shimmer. The ice on the spot where the black drill touched started to melt. Belphegor looked in disbelief as the speed of the melting increased.

While he was still processing what was happening, he felt a cold stinging pain in his palm. The black drill had pierced through his ice shield and was now stabbing into his palm.

"Grhh…!" He stifled a pained cry from his mouth, but he had to pull his hand back from the pain.

This gave Grace an opening. Grace landed a hit. Her mace struck using Divine Knight's level 70 skill, Angelic Penalize. This was a single-target offensive skill that dealt 1000% light-element damage. While the damage it inflicted was meek compared to other pinnacle classes' single-target skills, its advantage was in the side effects it caused. The target hit by Angelic Penalize could not use skills or cast spells for three minutes.

Belphegor felt the restriction. His shock again opened him to Grace's follow-up attack. Grace's mace struck his chest using Judgement Strike.

This strike was a distraction, though. The real attack came from an unexpected angle above Grace. The air right in front of Belphegor's face shimmered. His attention was still drawn to his struck chest when a black light shot out of thin air and stabbed his face.

"Arrgghh…!!" He could no longer keep the cry from coming out of his mouth. The black light that stabbed his head not only caused damage but also disrupted his mind.

This black light was the Nine Yin Phantom Sword. Grace had successfully learned all three arts from the Nine Yin Scriptures. This was all due to her special constitution, which Murong described as compatible with the Nine Yin Scriptures.

Grace didn't waste the chance when Belphegor was staggered. Her mace split into two. She beat rapidly while executing the Phantom Beating Stick. Nameless had also come over and struck using his fallen apostle's hammer. Before Belphegor returned to his senses, the two used their weapons' offensive skills.

Nameless' weapon skill conjured a dense crimson light from heaven. This light bathed Belphegor while applying tremendous pressure on him, preventing him from moving. Damage number continued to come up above the devil.

Grace's one was also a single-target skill that came down from heaven. Hers came in the form of a giant fist made of light. This giant fist fell at a speed much slower than Nameless' crimson light. Belphegor could have easily dodged this attack with his speed. But thanks to the crimson light pinning the devil down, the giant fist of light was able to hit its target.

The giant fist slammed Belphegor into the ground and caused a cave-in. The fist continued to push even after Belphegor was flattened into the ground. The ground churned until the rock and soil buried Belphegor. The fist didn't stop. It continued to push the devil deeper into the ground.

Grace and Nameless stood on the ruined ground, unsure of what to do now that their opponent was buried inside the ground.

"Wow, I didn't expect my weapon's skill to have such a forceful effect," Grace said.

"Yeah, perhaps you should have–"

Nameless didn't get to finish his sentence when multiple ice weapons tied to two ice chains pierced out of the ground. These ice chains accurately struck Grace and Nameless. Grace failed to dodge because the ground was filled with the residual mana from her attack. She couldn't sense the ambush.

The ground then exploded as Belphegor's huge body jumped out. He could not use skills but could perform mid-range attacks using his ice chains. With the ice weapons attached to these chains, every strike dealt considerable damage.

He made a rapid circular swing. The ice weapons struck Nameless and Grace, who were still staggered by the ground ambush. The two were hit multiple times as the chains whirled like a helicopter's blades.

Grace quickly used Divine Knight's level 50 skill before Nameless' HP was depleted. The skill was Divine Aura. This skill recovered 50,000 HP for herself and her allies in the vicinity. After the healing effect, the affected targets received an increase in stats, passive HP recovery, and passive stamina or MP recovery for a duration.

"Don't underestimate us!" Grace roared back. She advanced and engaged the devil directly.

Nameless was a tank, but Grace with Devilize could better withstand Belphegor's punishments. Nameless supported Grace by attacking from the flanks. He used God's Champion's level 60 skill, God's Light. This skill conjured a pillar of light from heaven, covering a large area. All allies exposed to the light received healing over time, while all enemies received damage over time.

Badass came to help them after seeing they were in trouble. He took over as damage dealer while Grace focused more on defense and hindering Belphegor's movements.

Red Death didn't mind Badass leaving her. She always preferred to fight alone. She continued to whittle the HP of Belphegor's clones. She focused her offense so he could kill one of the clones first.

When Grace's Devilize ended, she used Divine Knight's level 90 skill, Seraphic Possession. It was a stronger version of angelic possession. Three pairs of wings made of light appeared on her back when she used this skill.

When her allies' HP was low, she used Healing Domain, Divine Knight's level 80 skill. This was a mass recovery skill that covered a large area. This skill lasted for a long duration. Allies inside this domain were unlikely to be killed unless they were hit by an attack that could one-shot them.

The battle continued until one of the clones' HP dropped to a critical state. Belphegor's HP had also dropped to 40%. Grace and her allies were in high spirits. Although they expended most of their big skills, they managed to whittle the devil's HP to below half. As long as they could defend until their skills were off cooldown and repeat, they should be able to take Belphegor down.

Suddenly, Belphegor ice chains shot into the distance. His chains caught all his clones and pulled them to him. Red Death was startled that her opponents were suddenly gone. All five clones clung onto Belphegor's back.

Belphegor picked the clone that was in a critical state. His mouth opened unnaturally wide as he shoved that clone inside.

"No!" Grace exclaimed. She tried to advance, but the ice chains on Belphegor's arms flailed about. They created a tempest that made it hard to approach him.

They could only watch as the clone entered Belpeghor's mouth, and he gulped.

The clone didn't fuse back with him. It was devoured, so he didn't lose his body-building form. His HP, which was around 40%, shot back up to 90%. He looked at his opponents and sneered.

"I still have four lives here," He pointed to the clones hanging on his back. "Want to see whose lives expire first between us?"

Grace turned to Red and said, "Look! We don't have to like each other, but we truly need to work together if we want to have a chance to win."

This time, Red Death didn't give Grace the silent treatment. She harrumphed, "Hmph! So be it."