Second World
chapter-1958

Thundering explosions occurred repeatedly at the place where Satan and Jack were dueling. They had been at it for two and a half days now. Even after fighting for so long, the victor was still undecided.

In Satan's case, he was unmistakably stronger than Jack. If both sides didn't use any buff, he would also be slightly faster than Jack. Jack's HP was not high, considering he was an outworlder. In theory, it shouldn't take long for Satan to defeat Jack. Yet, it was not so. The reason was that the time he successfully landed an attack on Jack was scarce. Jack also had many means to recover his HP after getting nailed by those rare hits. Hence, why he couldn't defeat Jack after such a long battle.

As for Jack, he could only attack when his buff was available and when Satan was not using the Soul and Chaos Peak Flames. In other situations, all he could afford was to focus on evasion and stay alive. During that time, Satan utilized his high self-recovery using Flame Meditation or simply staying put. Hence, Satan's HP kept going up and down without ever going below forty percent.

Such a protracted battle would have frustrated most. Yet, these two seemed to be enjoying the battle instead.

No need to mention Satan, considering his battle lust and how rarely he got into a real fight. As for Jack, he had always enjoyed such a battle. Big boss battles were the pinnacle of any RPG game. He lived for this kind of shit. He enjoyed it so much that he asked Eoranth to bugger off when the dragon came barging into the fight.

Eoranth retreated due to his wounds, but he returned one day ago. He wasted no time but searched for Satan after arriving on the battlefield. He was at first surprised he couldn't find Satan until he noticed an explosion occurring some distance away. Then only he discovered Satan's whereabouts. He was surprised when he saw Jack was fighting the devil alone.

He immediately charged over to help, giving the devil a body blow before following up with a breath attack. He called for Jack to continue the assault together, only to receive a scolding from Jack.

Jack apologized to Satan for the interference. He told the devil he would not attack until Satan recovered the lost HP from Eoranth. Eoranth could only gape at the scene.

Satan told Jack he didn't mind if Jack attacked him with Eoranth, but Jack refused the offer. Jack explained the situation to Eoranth and told him to go help the army instead. Eoranth was having trouble processing the request. This was a life-and-death struggle to determine the fate of the upperworld. How could Jack treat this as if it was a game?

Eoranth was disappointed but had to obey due to his bond as Themisphere's country guardian. He grumbled as he flew away to aid the army.

As for the battle between Honuren's and Dajja's groups, they had moved away and rejoined the main army. While fighting Honuren's group, the demons Dajja brought prioritized assaulting the defensive structures. After one day of fighting, Dajja considered they had caused enough damage to the enemy's backline. Even if the enemy returned to utilize the defensive structures, there were not many they could utilize.

Dajja himself didn't rejoin the main army with the rest of his demons. He used a spell and vanished from the fight.

When Dajja's group retreated to the main army, so did Tetsuo and Honuren's group. Tetsuo knew about Jack's intention of dueling Satan. He could understand. He respected the duel and avoided interfering. Honuren thought about aiding Jack, but Tetsuo told him about Jack's intention. Like Eoranth, he was displeased by Jack's act. However, seeing Jack survive a duel with Satan for so long when he needed Eoranth to do so, a sense of admiration rose in his heart. He decided to respect Jack's decision.

"Are you sure you don't need help?" Satan asked.

Jack was panting. Fighting Satan was more taxing than he expected. Even his gamer body felt tired by now, not to mention his mental fatigue. Even so, he replied with a grin.

"Why did you ask? Do you need one?"

"Hehe, you are fun," Satan said.

"Thanks," Jack replied. He glanced at the battling armies in the distance. His dragon eyes allowed him to see that far.

The two armies were still battling fiercely, but it looked like the defenders were at a slight advantage. The boost from War God Blessing and War Rally had ended, but the defenders slew many demons during the boost. This allowed them to bring the enemy down to a manageable number. With Linda's tactical maneuver and the passive healing from the Rune Tree, the defenders could maintain the momentum and keep their advantage.

The guilds also summoned their guild armies recently. Only a few guilds still possessed enough guild soldiers by now. Most had their guild armies wiped out after multiple battles. They didn't have enough time and resources to rebuild the guild army with the war still going on. Only Everlasting Heavenly Legends maintained their recruitment and training pace for having stockpiled sufficient resources. John tasked the low-level members to continue working for resources instead of joining the war.

With the guild armies, the war scale tipped further in the defenders' favor. It was the underworld force that was struggling.

When Jack glanced at the army, Satan did, too. He couldn't believe the upperworld force he looked down on could push his army to such an extent.

"Impressive, Storm Wind," Satan said while gazing in the battling armies' direction.

"Thanks. I have good soldiers," Jack said.

"I was praising you in person," Satan said. "I've fought that army these past few months. Though I admit it was better than I expected, it is currently a different beast. The difference between now and then is your presence."

"You give me too much credit."

"Perhaps. Even so, this makes things easier. If you are the catalyst, taking you out will make your army fall in efficiency. We only need to eliminate you."

"Are you sure that is as easy as you said? You have been trying to do that this past two... Wait, did you say we?"

While Jack was processing Satan's words, he sensed a change in his immediate surroundings. A large sphere encapsulated both he and Satan. His mana sense told him that he wouldn't be able to pass through the wall of this sphere, even if he used Teleportation.

Satan charged over then. Jack immediately flew away to dodge. His buff skills were still on cooldown. He was currently in evasion mode. However, he soon found his back bumped into the sphere's wall. He needed an open space for evasion mode. If he was restricted inside this sphere, his movements were limited.

"Ugh! This sphere is not yours! Someone is interfering with our duel!" Jack exclaimed.

Jack saw it then. A large eyeball demon showed itself not far away. That eyeball demon was Dajja, who hid after leaving the defensive walls. It turned out he had been secretly monitoring Satan and Jack from a distance. It took action by casting Space Lock after receiving a telepathic

signal from Satan.

"Hehe. I told you I can be devilish, didn't I? It's your fault for being naïve to trust a devil."

Satan charged over again. Jack used Wind Dash to dodge. Upon finishing all three dashes from the Wind Dash, Satan vanished with a burst of flame.

"What...?" Jack couldn't sense Satan anywhere within this locked sphere. Even if this sphere was cast by Satan's ally, Satan shouldn't be able to exit the sphere as well.

Jack then sensed a strong spike of mana behind him. He quickly turned while summoning War God's Shield. Satan's flaming fist slammed into the golden shield and shattered it. Jack shot down and bumped into the sphere's floor.

"Ugh!" The War God's Shield saved him, but he still lost a considerable amount of HP. Peniel

quickly used Fast Heal.

"You... You can conceal your mana as well?" Jack asked in surprise.

"Not as good as you, though. You can still sense me when I attack," Satan replied.

"I'm disappointed. You still have hidden cards but resort to such a lowly tactic."

"Hehe. I am Satan. What do you expect?" Satan chuckled.

Jack sighed. "I was expecting to keep dueling until you use your skill, which is only available when your HP reaches thirty percent. I guess you are not as principled as I wish you to be." "Oh? You know about that skill of mine?" Satan asked with a surprised expression.

"I do. I know it is your ultimate trump card," Jack answered. He knew about it from Wilted.

"You are a funny man. If I use that, you will die in seconds. In all my existence, I've only ever used it once when Lord Lucifer asked me to spar with him for entertainment."