Swoosh—Zero lunged forward while screaming from the bottom of his lung and threw punches like a gattling gun.
Mars opened his hands and slapped away the punches as if he were playing a game of whack-a-mole.
“What’s up with him?” Ambrose asked, as he didn’t think Zero was the kind of person who would attack like a mindless beast.
“Not sure, but let’s help him!” Apollo said and summoned several golden arrows, then placed them on the string before pulling it and releasing all of them towards Mars.
Mars bent his knees and jumped over the arrows. While in mid-air, he kicked across the air and sent a wind slash towards Apollo, striking him with enough force to knock him down to the ground.
Then, several illusionary figures of Loki appeared around Mars and lashed at him with the black whips.
But then, Mars caught all the whips and punched through the illusions. The illusions vanished like fleeting clouds.
“The Silver Death!” Leon streaked across the air like silver lightning and slashed at Mars with ferocious speed.
Mars chopped his hand at the incoming blade and stopped it with a powerful force.
“Tres Stab Cordis!” A flash of crimson light appeared behind Mars, and Damian emerged from it, his nails approaching Mars’ unprotected back.
At the last possible moment, Mars elbowed behind him, landing it on Damian’s face and sending him flying away with a bruised cheek.
Swoosh—several daggers tore through the air and appeared in front of Mars with blinding speed.
Before the daggers could stab through his eyes, he caught them swiftly with his broken right arm and threw them back towards Henri.
Henri backflipped like an acrobatic and dodged the daggers.
But then, Mars crashed into the ground in front of Henri, grabbed him by the throat, and slammed him head-first on the ground, creating a large crate that looked like the result of a meteor crash.
The impact caused Henri to almost lose consciousness. He already saw the darkness swallow his vision, but at the last moment, he managed to pinch himself in the leg.
‘Fuck…’ Henri groaned loudly and saw the faces of his former classmates flashing through his mind.
They were now all dead because of Mars.
They were supposed to go to a beach resort as a school trip, and it was supposed to be a fun and relaxing experience, but it turned out to be a tragic and deadly one.
Mars grabbed Henri by his throat and smirked. “Henri, you wanted to become a bard, didn’t you?”
Henri flinched and felt Mars’ grip around his throat tighten.
After several years of being with Black Heart, he learned some singing from Apollo because there was nothing else to really do. However, he happened to fall in love with the singing.
His dream was to travel around the world, sing as a bard in desolate locations, and bring smiles to the people.
“Well, too bad.” Mars said with a sigh and then squeezed hard, causing something to crack in Henri’s neck.
“I destroyed your larynx.” Mars stood up, standing above Henri like an evil god. “You cannot talk anymore. Too bad, I enjoyed your singing.”
“…” Henri gasped loudly and touched his neck.
He tried screaming, but nothing came out as muffled sounds.
“Restoration Gel won’t be able to recover that either.” Mars said with a smile. “It’s a shame, but that’s why you shouldn’t have tried betraying me.”
“Henri!” Apollo screamed loudly and sent several arrows towards Mars.
Mars kicked the arrows away and dodged the sword strikes from Leon and Ambrose.
While he was fighting against them, Apollo crouched beside Henri and asked urgently. “Are you fine?!”
Henri trembled and pointed at his throat, tears dripping down his face.
“Is he alright?” Loki quickly came to their side and felt a pain in his chest as he saw his best friend pointing at his throat with teary eyes.
Apollo grabbed the bow in a tight grip and coldly said, “Mind helping him with the pain? I’ll go help others.”
“All right…” Loki nodded and did several spells for Henri, which would ease the pain.
Apollo stood up and walked towards Mars. Then he summoned several golden arrows and placed them on the bow string.
“Mars!” Apollo screamed loudly.
“Sup, first mate?” Mars nonchalantly dodged the attacks from others and looked at the blond-haired man with a grin.
“Raaah!” Apollo screamed like a primal beast and released the golden arrows.
Swoosh—the golden arrows stabbed through the air, flying towards Mars.
“Venus Retaliation!” Mars did an ordinary straight punch in front of him. However, a strange force radiated from his fist, which stopped all the arrows in the air.
It was just like Zero Impact!
Apollo threw his bow away and pulled out a shortsword from thin air. It was a beautiful sword with a gold handle and a shiny blade.
Mars smashed through the arrows with a powerful punch and approached Apollo with a long leap. He then clenched his right hand into a tight fist and screamed.
“Mars Right Gatling!”
Swoosh, swoosh—like a powerful gatling gun, he threw thousands of jabs simultaneously. It was impossible to see any of the punches and only the afterimages.
If an ordinary person faced such a threat, they wouldn’t be able to do anything, as a single jab was enough to end their life.
“…” Apollo put the sword in front of his body and whispered. “I’m not afraid of you.”
As the thousands of punches appeared in front of him, Apollo’s hand twitched, and then he delivered a single downward slash. The sword sliced through the punches and struck the ground with a resounding thud.
Boom—the afterimages of the punches vanished, and only a single fist remained. The fist was in front of Apollo’s face, nearly touching his nose, but it didn’t move.
Mars’ expression was calm, but slowly, his eyes began to narrow.
Drip, drop…
Around Mars’ wrist, a small cut appeared, and it started dripping blood, falling slowly to the drenched ground. Then, the small cut grew larger and soon circled the entire wrist.
Mars’ eyes widened in shock as his blood flowed out of the cut at an alarming rate, and then his hand separated from the rest of his arm and fell to the ground.
Damian’s eyes widened in shock, as did everyone else’s.
Mars looked at his right arm, which was now lacking a hand, with a shaky look. He never expected anyone to be able to injure him to such an extent.
Especially not the people he thought of as nothing but insects.
Henri and Loki stood up, looking at the scene with a shocked expression.
Apollo lowered his sword and turned to look at others with a smile. “Rest is up to you. If any of you survive, do you mind visiting Fountaine Residence on Flower Island? Tell my parents, I am sorry.”
“W-what are you saying?” Damian tried to reach out towards Apollo, but then blood splattered across his face.
Apollo’s head exploded, and his body fell lifelessly to the ground. A pool of blood appeared around his corpse, mixing with the drenched ground and the dirt.
“He knew he would die, and yet…” Mars looked at his bleeding arm and scoffed. “I will just fix this with Restoration Gel. What is the point? What a fool.”
Ambrose’s eyes shook as he looked at Apollo’s headless corpse. This was different from anything he had ever witnessed.
It was different from any player’s death.
This was the end of Apollo.
While most players thought of them as nothing but pieces of code, Ambrose knew that they had their own personalities, their own lives, and their own desires.
“Apollo…” He whispered painfully and screamed loudly.
This might be the first time he had truly lost anyone that made him truly scream loudly in anger.