Chapter 36: Damian Vs Bathin [1]

Damian parted his lips, discreetly breathing through his mouth since it hurt to breathe through his nose. His chest felt tight, a burning sensation spreading within. He was not a doctor, but he knew for certain he had suffered internal damage.

If Damian had unleashed his transformation skill even a millisecond later than he did, he would have died from that strike.

“Heavy and fast,” he muttered, his voice barely above a whisper.

That attack had been insane. It almost felt as though Bathin had teleported, yet Damian had seen it clearly. There was no teleportation. Instead, the world ahead of him had seemed to shrink, instantly reducing the distance between them to nothing. It felt as if space itself had carried Bathin forward. He did not walk, nor did he vanish and reappear. It was a strange technique, one that even someone with a sharp mind like Damian struggled to comprehend.

Despite that, Damian was oddly calm. Panic felt like a conscious choice he would have to make, and the current him did not seem to grasp the concept of fear.

Still, being struck down by an old woman riding a pale horse could traumatize anyone, and Damian was no exception.

On the other hand, Bathin was shocked to see Damian still standing. For a moment, he had mistaken him for Lin Qui, and that thought alone had terrified him.

’He has awakened the power of his inheritance?’

Bathin’s expression darkened.

’This will be difficult,’ he admitted to himself.

Yet there was something he could not understand. How had this human grown so fast in such a short time? It had not been long since the Demon Lord and Lin Qui had fallen.

’Could it be that those wretched whores found him first?’

This time, he shuddered in genuine fear. It was well known that while Lin Qui had been the most terrifying of the seven princes, the fear he inspired in both friend and foe was nothing compared to that commanded by his wives.

Those three were infamous for their cruelty and viciousness. If you were deemed a threat to their husband, you were destined to suffer a death so horrific that even the Demon Lord would refuse to watch.

If they were here, then Bathin needed to escape immediately.

His eyes darted around in paranoia, searching for any sign of them, but he sensed nothing. Most importantly, if they had been present, this human would not have made the mistake of revealing himself so openly.

That realization convinced Bathin that Damian had yet to reunite with his wives. Though he still did not understand how Damian had awakened the power of his sin, the human was inexperienced. Everything was still within his control.

“It’s a pity I have to kill an old lady,” Damian said.

His eyes did not match his words, and the silence shattered in the next instant as intense crimson flames burst from his body, surging wildly.

[Fox Fire: Infernal Ember]

“Die!”

Damian roared as he pushed his power to its limit, unleashing a torrential wave of fire that swallowed the entire road and surged forward with terrifying might, completely consuming Bathin. Even Damian was stunned by the sheer force of his unrestrained output.

’I know I inherited the power of a prince of hell, but isn’t this a bit too much? I still have a long way to go. How powerful will it be then?’

That thought vanished as quickly as it came when he noticed Bathin’s figure boldly outlined within the flames. There was no scream of pain, no sound of suffering. Only pure, eerie silence.

Bathin remained seated on his horse, a thin layer of concentrated demonic force tracing his frame and forming a protective barrier around both him and his mount.

Just as he suspected. This human had only just awakened these powers and knew nothing of control. He was powerful, but inexperienced.

“He can be killed,” Bathin concluded coldly.

Krak! Krak!

The sickening sound of bone breaking echoed behind him as his back burst open in a mist of blood. From the torn flesh emerged the stinger of a scorpion tail nearly two meters long, slick with blood and fragments of tissue.

It coiled above his head like a serpent, pointing directly at Damian. Tightening his grip on the reins and his demonic lance, he pulled sharply. The pale horse reared onto its hind legs, kicking the air and neighing violently before bursting forward with incredible speed, cleaving through the crimson flames like a blade.

In less than a second, he reached Damian and thrust forward with both his stinger and his jousting lance. Caught off guard, Damian could only cross his arms over his chest as the attacks struck.

Swish!

Bathin’s eyes widened in shock as the Damian he pierced dissolved into a wall of illusory violet flames that had been cast before his attack.

[Fox Fire: Veil of Mirage]

The real Damian, who had been lying in wait, sprang forward at that exact moment, his hands blazing with intense blue fire.

[Fox Fire: Soul Lantern]

“Baited by a mortal. Silly demon!”

Damian’s voice dripped with venom, but it was swallowed by the deafening eruption of azure flames.

“GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”

Bathin screamed as he unleashed as much demonic force as possible. He dared not hold back against the Soul Lantern, a flame that ignored flesh and burned the soul directly. It was the perfect weapon against demons inhabiting mortal bodies.

“This mortal…”

Bathin gritted his teeth as cracks spread across his barrier of demonic force under the relentless assault of Damian’s Soul Lantern. The raw power of a prince of hell, even in its early stages, was terrifying. Even veteran soldiers of hell like him, who had served several Princes of Greed, struggled against it.

“IMPUDENT!”

Bathin roared as the demonic lance began spinning rapidly, expanding as it drilled forward. In mere seconds, it transformed into a miniature whirlpool of concentrated dark red demonic force.

“Devil’s Lance!”

Without hesitation, he thrust.

BOOOM!

The collision was cataclysmic. The shockwave hurled both combatants dozens of meters in opposite directions, and the force of it triggered the alarm systems of every car in the neighborhood, creating a chaotic symphony of wailing sirens in the night.

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