“Loki, pour water on him or something!” Ambrose shouted while running towards Mars.
Loki snapped his fingers, and the water from the foggy ocean suddenly flew across the air and landed on top of Mars, soaking him from head to toe.
When the water hit the golden flames, thick steam burst out and filled the air.
The steam rose high into the sky, creating a thick fog that obscured the view.
At that moment, Ambrose felt his swords turn much heavier after turning their weight heavier.
“Mortal Style…” He switched the blades into the reverse grip and whispered, “Geschwind!”
With the Formlessness and the strange footwork of Mortal Style, he crossed the distance and struck Mars with dual slashes. He immediately reappeared further away from Mars as he moved with such incredible speed that it made him look like he was teleporting.
Mars looked down at the two cuts on his chest and immediately covered them in golden flames.
“A fruitless attempt.” Mars summoned a ball of golden flames on top of his hand and pointed it towards Ors, shockingly enough. “Without him, how can any of you survive now?”
Ors’ spine tingled with danger, but he didn’t back away and instead put his polearm in front of him as defense.
Mars shot the ball of golden flames towards Ors. It had unimaginable destructive capabilities.
‘I’ll just slice through…’ Ors raised his polearm, readying himself for the inevitable clash with the ball of golden flames.
However, at that moment, the ball popped like a soap bubble, and golden flames like a geyser of fire shot towards Ors.
He was caught off guard and unprepared for the sudden attack.
Ors quickly rolled out of the way, but a few of the flames landed on his back, causing him to cry out in pain. His skin was scorched and burned, leaving him with a deep wound.
Loki quickly transferred water from the ocean and splashed it into Ors’ back.
“Argh…” Ors bit his lip and groaned loudly.
“You alright?” Loki asked.
“Y-yeah… I’ll be fine…” Ors said painfully and stood up with his polearm in hand.
As the fighting continued, from the faraway fog, a strange greenish smoke started to move towards the battlefield. It seemed harmless at first.
But as it drew closer, it became clear that it was not just smoke.
As Henri backed off with his two daggers in hand, he frowned and looked down to the ground. His feet were covered in the green smoke, and he could feel a strange tingling sensation as if someone were tickling his feet.
“What is this?” Henri frowned.
However, the green smoke ignored them all and moved towards Mars. As soon as it reached him, the green smoke turned into a shade of dark green and seemed to become rageful.
It instantly shot forward and wrapped around Mars like a blanket of death.
“?” Mars touched the green smoke, trying to rip it off, but of course, it was still made of smoke even though it acted like a blanket.
After that didn’t work, the golden flames burst out of his body and he fought against the green smoke. Yet, even they were unable to get rid of the green smoke.
The green smoke then shot through Mars’ nostrils and mouth, infiltrating his body like a plague. It spread throughout his veins and organs, causing his body to become overwhelmed and weakened.
Soon, all of the green smoke had entered his body and was out of sight.
“Ugh…” Mars shook his head and staggered side-to-side. He felt disoriented, as everything looked hazy and blurry.
Others looked surprised, wondering what the hell was happening to them.
But then, a shout woke them all up.
“Attack, now!” Ambrose shouted and was the first one to lunge at Mars.
He put both his swords into reverse grip and swung them down at Mars.
“Dual L?wenklaue!”
Spurt—they left behind two deep cuts on Mars’ chest, bleeding heavily.
Jake smashed his rock-solid fist across Mars’ face and then grabbed him by the throat before choke-slamming him head-first into the ground.
“Silver Death!” Leon moved like a streak of silver lightning and cut through Mars’ chest.
Loki and Henri quickly attacked Mars before he returned to his previous form.
“Ugh…” Mars coughed up blood and almost fell down.
‘T-this can’t be… the end…’
…
Many years ago.
On a random island in Dark Waters, bells rang from the church as a signal of someone’s funeral.
Inside the church, a dozen black-clothed figures were seated on chairs, looking towards the priest and the open casket. A man’s body was lying inside the casket, with candles and flowers all around it.
After the ceremony was somewhat over, two young men and their grieving mother approached the casket.
They looked at the dead man with mixed emotions. He was never a good father and was somewhat abusive, but they still loved him from deep in their hearts.
“Mercury, Mars, I’ll… go talk to the priest. Please behave, okay?” The grieving woman asked and wiped her tears with a napkin while approaching the priest, who spoke with other people in the church.
Mercury and Mars looked at each other before turning to their deceased father’s corpse.
“He wasn’t that good of a father, wasn’t he?” Mercury said it as a question, but he already knew the answer.
“Yeah…” Mars crossed his arms. He looked rather lanky, as if he had just started exercising a little while ago.
“I don’t really have any good memories of him.” Mercury said thoughtfully. “I only remember the belt, his star-pupiled eye, and the grin as if he was enjoying tormenting us.”
“…” Mars stayed silent and was ready to leave, but then their father’s eye twitched and a small eye rolled out of his eyesocket.
“What the fuck?” Mercury flinched and took a step backwards. “D-did his eye just pop out of his socket?!”
“I didn’t know that could happen to the deceased.” Mars said in a rather casual tone, but even he was taken aback.
“No way that is possible…” Mercury said and again approached the casket. The eyeball landed on the nice suit their father’s corpse was wearing.
“Should we call the priest?” Mars asked. “Maybe we shouldn’t let mother see this. She might pass out.”
“Agreed…” Mercury nodded, but when he tried to walk away, he realized he couldn’t.
Same with Mars.
They were both stuck in their places, staring at the eyeball as if it were the most glorious treasure, and looking away would be a sin.
They were suddenly both captivated by the eyeball’s beauty.
“Uhm…” Mercury reached towards the eyeball and said with a shaky tone. “M-maybe I’ll touch it for a moment.”
Smack—Mars immediately slapped his hand away and angrily looked at him.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“What the fuck?” Mercury rubbed his hand and glared at his brother. “What did you do that for?”
Mars scowled. “You plan on stealing that? In the house of God, nonetheless? I never took you for an idiot, Mercury.”
“Steal?” Mercury laughed. “I just wanted to touch it for a moment!”
“Hah, you think I believe that shit?” Mars laughed mockingly.
“You two!” At that moment, their mother shouted from next to the priest after hearing their shouting. “Can’t you two behave?!”
Mercury’s eyes, which were blinded by greed before, regained their clarity, and he immediately touched his head as if he were having a headache.
“W-what was I doing?”
But Mars immediately snatched the eyeball and pocketed it. The greed in his eyes intensified, and his lips curled into a wicked grin.