Chapter 1533 Lazarus: “He"s Got Some Serious Game”
Partial Shapes.h.i.+fting + Instant Reset
Due to his strategic use of multiple Abilities during the battle, Eren"s injuries were mitigated, preventing him from suffering the same fate as any other Master Ranker facing House Lowin"s white flames.
Eren allowed Ariella to retreat when he decided to extinguish the white flames. He opted not to let them hinder his battle with the half-blood, as she was merely a distraction from his primary mission.
Still baffled, Ariella regarded Eren with a mixture of caution and unease, bracing herself for another round of deadly combat. She had devised a strategy to outmaneuver Eren by having her subordinates attack him at a critical moment while he defended against her. Her intention was to catch him off guard and allow her subordinates to inflict mortal injuries on him. She had selected two of her subordinates for this task.
"Kekeke. Do you think I am an idiot, Ariella, my dear?"
However, it seemed as if Eren could almost read Ariella"s thoughts. His own fiends swiftly obstructed the path of the two approaching Master Rankers from House Lowin before they could reach him. Without wasting a moment, he launched an attack on Ariella before she could hatch an even more sinister plan.
Swoosh. Zoom. Boom.
In dire circ.u.mstances, most half-bloods had the ability to ignite their bloodlines, granting them enhanced strength and accelerated healing. Normally, this was considered forbidden magic for half-bloods because it could adversely affect their bloodline purity and hinder their progress in Ranks.
However, facing life-or-death stakes, Ariella didn"t hesitate to unleash her bloodline power, determined to finally confront Eren.
Ariella had to admit that she had underestimated Eren. The man was every bit as ruthless as Demonmir, if not more so. Furthermore, he remained acutely aware of his surroundings even amidst their intense, lethal duel.
She regretted allowing House Lowin to become entangled with someone like Eren at this stage. Yet, regrets were always a bitter pill to swallow, and there was no use lamenting past decisions.
Purple Reaver!
A barrage of sword strikes in condensed mana forms emanated from Eren"s weapons as he clashed with the wounded Ariella once more. These strikes were infused with three distinct Elemental Aspects of the lightning element: blue, purple, and red.
As Eren and Ariella dueled, these sword attacks enveloped them, forming a dense coc.o.o.n. Their destructive power wreaked havoc on their surroundings, even injuring nearby Rankers due to their lingering effects.
Eren"s mastery of Elemental Attainments and his profound Weapon Comprehension were on full display. Their potency was so remarkable that they began to subtly disrupt the spatial fabric in their vicinity. The sheer intensity of these attacks was enough to deter ordinary Rankers from approaching, an awe-inspiring spectacle that even most who had battled alongside him had never witnessed before.
Ariella found herself once more overwhelmed by Eren"s relentless a.s.sault. Despite only a minute pa.s.sing since their battle commenced, their subordinates were just beginning to clash, yet their respective leaders were on the verge of determining a victor.
Though her left arm, stripped of its flesh, was slowly regenerating due to her Bloodline Ignition, Eren swiftly severed it once more, chopping off her flesh like he was slicing off a roasted meat chunk, evoking another agonizing scream from Ariella.
Eren"s Abilities surged once more, breaking through Ariella"s defenses. At a critical juncture, he wielded her own severed right arm, which he had removed earlier, as an instrument of attack.
Ariella remained unaware of how and when Eren had retrieved her dismembered arm, which had fallen onto the battlefield during the prior exchange. The white flames enveloping her body treated her severed limb as an extension of herself, enabling Eren to inflict a fatal injury using Ariella"s very own hand as a weapon.
"Aaaargh!"
Ariella looked down to see that her own chopped arm had been lodged through her stomach, right below her solar plexus. Eren used the gaping hole as a way to insert his own hand into Ariella"s chest cavity and squashed her heart with one swift motion, as if he had done this hundreds of times.
Everything happened within a split second and it was over before the half-blood could do anything about it. Ariella opened her eyes wide in shock and dread as she realized what Eren had done. She couldn"t even scream and register her pain because Eren had yanked off her larynx and shoved it inside the chest cavity from the gaping hole at her solar plexus, which he had enlarged earlier with his own hands.
Ariella"s entire body had become a mess. Her own voice box was in her stomach. Her heart had been squashed. And both of arms and legs had been finally severed and chopped down, making her fall to the ground. Only then did the pseudo domain of Purple Revear disappear, finally revealing the visage of Eren and Ariella to the rest of the Rankers.
Thud!
Ariella"s torso, which was about the only intact things about her, if it could even be called intact, fell to the ground with a loud thud. Before her subordinates could even get to see the state of the battle, she had met her end by Eren"s hands.
"Hmmm? What is…."
Eren paid no heed to Ariella"s remains as he strode past them. His gaze fixed firmly on the path ahead, ready to proceed with his intentions. But an uncanny sensation emanated from her barely animated form. Something that made him halt in his steps and turn around.
"Wrath Mana!"
The butcher was surprised when he recognized what was happening to Ariella. A fiend transformation was triggered within her before the last vestiges of her life could be extinguished. She was basically turning into the Creature of Wrath.
Swoosh. Zoom. Boom.
Just as the gravely wounded scion of House Lowin was nearing the completion of her fiendish transformation, Eren acted decisively. His right foot forcefully struck her face, shattering her skull and splattering her gray matter in all directions. In an instant, her fiend transformation was abruptly halted, preventing Ariella from making a potential resurgence.
"Demonmir… Guess he f.u.c.ked her," Eren mumbled to himself as he lifted the right leg before channeling his lightning-element mana throughout his body. He got rid of all the bloodwork he had received from fighting with Ariella.
"Unbelievable! Almost nine years of efforts for this mademoiselle, and yet I couldn"t succeed. Meanwhile, Demonmir accomplished what I couldn"t so easily. Life isn"t fair. I have to give it to him, he"s got some serious game. Or was it due to the fact they spent more time together?
Not that I mind. Especially considering what I"m about to do to him." the butcher chuckled as he strolled away from Ariella"s lifeless form.
"Nothing personal, Ariella," Eren appeared to speak to the deceased Ariella as he departed. "It would have been..."
He paused suddenly. "Um... I suppose... you"re already no more, so it doesn"t really matter to you as well, does it?"
In the next moment, whatever remained of Ariella"s body burst into flames, and the butcher vanished from his spot, apparently in pursuit of his next enemy.