His gaze was deathly locked onto Lin Huai.
Without any pre-battle words, the fight erupted instantly in silence!!
The first to strike was the Saint who had just regained himself, Itmer.
On this Angel's aged face, compassion and humanity had not yet fully faded, but a look of resolute fire already burned in the depths of his eyes. His hunched body suddenly straightened, and he stomped hard toward Edward's direction.
"Thump!"
Invisible ripples spread out with him as the center. The space, air, light, and even the laws around Edward became viscous and stagnant under this stomp, locked within an invisible cage!
"Teacher, I'm sorry!"
Itmer shouted, throwing a punch from a distance with his withered fist. Where the fist pointed, the imprisoned space began to distort.
Facing this strike from his student, Edward's expression changed slightly, but it was quickly overshadowed by killing intent.
"Ungrateful fool."
He raised His left hand, but at that exact moment, a dazzling bolt of lightning tore through the Night sky and struck down toward His head!
"You bastard, I'll return all the pain Loki suffered back to you!"
Thor's roar echoed across the coast. Unbeknownst to anyone, he had already rushed to the other side of the battlefield. The mjolnir in his hand was wrapped in the Blue Divine Lightning bestowed by the Lord of Storms, forming a perfect angle with Itmer's "cage," sealing off Edward's path of retreat!
However, Edward didn't even look at the lightning that could split the earth. He simply flicked His right hand, which held a yellowish-brown orb of light, toward Itmer.
There was no explosion, nor was there an Impact.
Itmer's "Space Cage," into which he had poured all his strength, "decayed" instantly upon contact with that yellowish-brown light, as if it had experienced ten thousand years. The laws forming the cage snapped inch by inch, the stagnant space fell apart, and the fist force capable of distorting all things vanished along with it.
At the same time, a faint spark flickered out of thin air ten meters away from him.
Lin Huai's figure emerged from the flames.
As soon as he appeared, his fingers danced into phantoms, sending Air Bullets flying toward Edward. Then, with another flash of fire, he appeared in front of the two crosses where Loki and Kaelan were hanging.
He had to save them first!
Just as Lin Huai's hand was about to touch the cross, Edward finally moved.
He didn't even turn around, merely glancing back casually.
Lin Huai felt a decaying will surge back instantly along His gaze. The Air Bullets he had fired earlier were directly annihilated, rapidly "rotting" into nothingness.
"Pfft!"
Lin Huai let out a muffled groan, his body turning directly into a lump of mud and falling from mid-air, finally transforming into a yellowish-brown Paper Clone Substitutes.
"Naive." Edward's voice rang directly in his mind.
At that very moment, Thor's Mjolnir finally arrived.
Only then did Edward slowly turn around. Facing the immensely powerful blue lightning, He simply raised His left hand, the one not holding the light orb, and spread His fingers.
He didn't take it head-on, nor did He dodge.
At the instant Mjolnir was about to strike, His fingers closed slightly.
The violent lightning on Mjolnir actually diminished and extinguished at a visible rate, the energy itself "dying" along with it. The massive force transmitted through the warhammer caused a sharp pain in his arm, and he was sent flying uncontrollably, crashing heavily into a pile of reefs in the distance.
Itmer launched another attack, trying to stall Edward, but was knocked back again with a casual wave of His hand. In just one encounter, two powerful combatants were completely suppressed.
"Your turn."
Edward didn't even look at the Paper Clone Substitutes on the ground. With a light scoff, His figure appeared silently in front of Lin Huai, who was hiding at the edge of the battlefield. That yellowish-brown palm, condensing the concept of "Decay," slowly pressed toward the top of Lin Huai's head.
At this critical moment, a terrifying roar that didn't sound human, mixed with the screams of countless women, erupted from the writhing mass of flesh nearby!
"Arghhhhh—"
The out-of-control Demoness Kaelan was completely awakened by this high-intensity battle!
The mass of flesh composed of countless female bodies suddenly expanded. Numerous distorted faces emerged from the surface of the mass, their mouths opening wide to spew out large amounts of Black Flames and Pale Frost! Simultaneously, strands of nearly transparent, mucus-covered Spider Silk swept indiscriminately toward everyone on the battlefield!
"How disgusting!"
For the first time, Edward showed disgust. Severely injured by the ritual's backlash, He temporarily abandoned the killing blow on Lin Huai, His figure flickering as He floated back dozens of meters. As soon as the Black Flames and Spider Silk approached His body, they mysteriously lost their vitality, withering and falling away.
But Lin Huai and the others weren't so lucky.
As the Black Flames swept past Itmer, his face remained indifferent. It seemed his own Status completely ignored these damages, though the Black Flames appeared reddish-black upon Him.
Thor had just struggled out of the rubble when he was entangled by over a dozen sticky strands of Spider Silk. A bizarre power capable of triggering primal impulses penetrated his body, making him feel hot all over, and even the circulation of his divine power became sluggish.
Lin Huai reacted the fastest. He narrowly dodged with a Flame Leap, but was still grazed by a few strands of Spider Silk. A wave of numbness mixed with nausea hit him.
The battlefield was in total chaos. The mass of flesh representing Kaelan had become an uncontrollable source of disaster. Its attacks were devoid of logic, leaving only chaos and tyranny.
"Interesting... truly interesting." Edward hovered in mid-air, watching the chaotic battlefield below with great interest, as if enjoying a good show.
While suppressing the reddish-Black Flames, Itmer also had to distract himself to imprison the mass of flesh. Lin Huai saw that the clarity in His eyes was being rapidly replaced.
Thor began a hard struggle. He had to use lightning to burn away the bizarre Spider Silk on his body while dodging the soul-freezing frost. Despite having a body full of divine power, he couldn't unleash it.
Lin Huai became the only person on the field who could still maintain mobility. He used Flame Leap to constantly weave through the chaotic battlefield, firing Air Bullets repeatedly, but they could only serve as a distraction.
However, their predicament provided Edward with the best opportunity.
"The farce should end now."
Edward's voice rang out again, sounding somewhat impatient this time. He slowly raised His hands, palms facing each other. A yellowish-brown light, thicker and deeper than before, gathered in His palms.
An invisible yellowish-brown ripple spread silently from Edward's body as the center.
Everywhere the ripple passed, everything came to a standstill.
"Decay" descended.
The whistling sea breeze slowed down, becoming weak and sluggish. The writhing Demoness flesh mass froze, countless distorted faces were fixed in place, and the Black Flames and frost on its body lost their energy in mid-air, dissipating into black ash and water vapor.
Itmer's forward-charging posture froze, his entire being turning into a grey, decaying stone statue, with the breath of life rapidly draining from him. Thor's raised mjolnir stopped in mid-air, the lightning on the hammerhead extinguishing inch by inch. His burly body was quickly covered by a layer of greyish-brown crystals, turning into a sculpture on the verge of weathering away.
Lin Huai had just completed a Flame Leap and was still in mid-air when he was completely imprisoned by this power. His own thoughts and Spiritual Body, even the concepts that constituted his existence, were rapidly "rotting" and "decaying" under this power.
Only the Sinful Angel Edward maintained the ability to act.
He slowly landed in front of Lin Huai, ignoring the completely imprisoned "statues." His pure black eyes were filled with the indifference and mockery of one who controlled everything.
"See, I told you, you're just stalling for time."
Edward reached out and gently pinched Lin Huai's chin, forcing him to meet His gaze.
"Night... Storm... and that old thing hiding in the Mists of History. They spent so much effort and sacrificed a Lunatic they had nurtured for seventy years, and what did they get in the end?"
He smiled.
"They only managed to... delay my descent. Even with a failed ritual, I have reclaimed a portion of my power and Authority."
"As for you," Edward's gaze fell on Lin Huai's face, looking at him with the eyes of someone examining an interesting collectible, "a Puppet endowed with a false humanity, actually dreaming of defying fate. Do you really think your ridiculous schemes could have any effect?"
He let go, stepped back two paces, and spread His arms to embrace this World that was about to be completely corrupted by Him.
"In this decaying and sinful World, I never lack followers. I can fail countless times, but I only need to succeed once."
"As long as you disappear, no one will have the ability or the will to stop me. Farewell, Puppet."
As the words fell, that orb of yellowish-brown light representing ultimate corruption emerged once more in Edward's palm. This time, its target was Lin Huai's heart.