Chapter 97: Sin Devourer vs. Iron Muscles (4)

With a tense smile, born more from stubbornness than confidence, Daniel held back the force of his enemy’s fist with his own knuckles. Meanwhile, Ebony, with the little strength she had left, kept biting through Lucian’s bindings.

Charlie, the gigantic assassin with swollen red muscles, began throwing punch after punch trying to defeat Daniel, and the boy, seeing that brutal rain of knuckles, started answering every attack with his own fists.

As the greenish-yellow mist emanating from Daniel’s body expanded two meters around him, it began touching the skin and slowly the flesh of the gigantic assassin, leaving sickly marks that kept spreading.

Charlie felt the pain in his body and his instinct ordered him to step away immediately, but his mind held only Xavier’s voice, which had been there moments ago, heavy and threatening, as if he were still breathing down his neck.

“(Please… please… just die already!)”

Holding back the tears in his eyes, the assassin shouted as he struck in desperation, abandoning calculation and diving completely into violence born from fear.

The assassin’s speed and strength increased explosively again. Daniel, facing the blows that began landing one after another, could only cover himself, raising his arms and shoulders while feeling each impact tear through his body.

Despite his spell, which slowly drained his opponent’s magic and helped increase his own strength, he couldn’t keep up with the pace and began stepping backward until he found himself against the wall again.

Daniel, feeling his bones beginning to break, fell into desperation. With no escape in sight, the boy took a direct hit to the stomach and grabbed his attacker’s arm purely by reflex.

With no other idea in his head, the boy bit into the assassin’s flesh and tore a piece away, swallowing the disgust and blood just to activate something that could keep him standing one more second.

Charlie, feeling the bite, flung Daniel across the basement with a violent motion, smashing shelves and wine bottles everywhere, filling the room with broken wood, glass, and the sour smell of spilled wine.

The boy rose from the floor among debris and shards of glass embedded in his skin, panting, bleeding, and still staring at that monster, as if falling down was no longer a real option for him.

“Bind!” Daniel shouted.

{{Dark Magic: Necrotic Magic:}}

{{Tormented Soul Binding X2}}

The absorption speed doubled, rapidly healing Daniel’s wounds while his muscles began expanding and radiating magic intensely, as if he could no longer contain his own energy.

Charlie felt his strength weakening with every passing second. He had no time to waste or he might die, so the enormous assassin fell into desperation and shouted in rage:

“Discharge!”

{{Warrior Art X Blood Magic:}}

{{Blood Parasite: Adrenaline X3}}

Both began striking each other with monstrous force, releasing powerful gusts of wind with every impact, and every clash of fists and forearms sent dust, splinters, and shards of glass flying throughout the basement.

The house began to tremble from the impacts of the battle. In Kanary’s room, Veronica felt every tremor with growing worry, not knowing what was happening below.

Charlie, as if an animal instinct warned him of his end, felt his flesh beginning to tear apart with every impact from his enemy, not only because of the rotting mist but also because of the excess magic inside his own body.

Unable to surrender and accept his death, the assassin shouted one last time, burning through the last drop of magic and blood in his body.

“DISCHARGE!”

{{Blood Parasite: Adrenaline X4}}

A massive surge of magic ran through every muscle in the assassin’s body, pushing his strength to such a level that his speed completely surpassed Daniel’s reaction. His fist slammed into Daniel’s face and drove him into the ground.

A huge crater formed in the floor as a tremor ran through the entire property, even shattering some windows.

But in the end the muscles could not withstand the strain and burst, spraying blood everywhere. Even so, he managed to land that blow, and that single strike was enough to decide the fight before the assassin’s own body collapsed completely.

Daniel ended up unconscious from the hit, buried among dust, blood, and broken stone, his bones still slowly repairing themselves thanks to the magic he had stolen during that savage exchange.

Charlie fell to the floor as his body deflated, losing size, volume, and the monstrous shape he had used to fight.

Ebony freed Lucian, but he remained unconscious, slumped in the chair, useless for now, which made the blonde clench her teeth before leaving him there for a moment longer.

Ebony crawled toward Daniel, dragging her body across the broken floor because she no longer had the strength to walk properly, yet refusing to leave him there without checking how he was.

Daniel had broken bones, and even his skull had a crack from the blow, but they were slowly healing thanks to the last bit of magic he had managed to steal, leaving him still alive.

He was out of danger, but he would remain unconscious, which allowed Ebony to step away from him with a small sense of relief.

The blonde then approached her enemy, ready to finish him off—not with pleasure or satisfaction, but with the simple logic of someone who had already learned that leaving a monster like this alive was inviting another tragedy.

“Why can’t I get up? Why can’t I feel my arms? I won… The ones who win survive… I don’t want… I don’t want to die… I don’t want to die, Mr. Xavier…”

The assassin cried and spoke to himself with a high, broken voice, as if he were no longer seeing the basement and had begun sinking into memories far older than this fight.

“No… I can’t breathe… I want to see… I want my dolls… Please… I want to see my dolls…”

The assassin, covered in poorly stitched rags, tried to remove his mask while murmuring disconnected words, as childish as they were twisted by his criminal life.

His muscles had vanished, collapsing into themselves, leaving only a small body covered in wounds that continued to bleed.

When she reached him, Ebony granted her enemy’s request and removed the mask, more out of the need to understand what she was facing than from any true pity or desire to comfort him.

But the moment she saw the author of that disaster, her breathing stopped.

Under the mask was a little girl, bald and covered in scars from cuts everywhere, an image so out of place that for a moment all the rage Ebony had been carrying since seeing her friend nearly die loosened inside her chest.

“Princess… You’re a very pretty princess… Did you come to save me?… I don’t want to die… I killed many of Mr. Xavier’s enemies before… But I had never died… Is this what dying feels like?”

The girl’s voice sounded strangely soft and watery. By her size she might have been eight years old, but by her frail appearance she looked like a dying old woman who could not stop crying from her gray eyes.

“No… this isn’t dying… You’re just sleepy, little one… Don’t worry, you’ll wake up safe and sound… you’re only tired from hitting that idiot…” Ebony replied with a sweet and calm tone while gently stroking the girl’s withered skin.

“Your hand is warm… I’ve never felt something so warm before… Thank you, princess… When I wake up let’s have tea with the other princess with green hair… You’ll stay with me and I’ll take good care of you… Yes… I’m sure you’ll get along… well…”

The girl smiled and closed her empty, almost blind eyes, no longer seeing the blurred lights and frightening shadows.

Her last image before leaving was a kind smile, and her last sensation a drop of water falling on her cheek.

Ebony, without magic to save her, without the strength to help her, and resigned to reality, could only hold the little girl’s body in her arms until her heart stopped fighting and her breathing faded away.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep