Before the dome of golden flames could reach far enough to harm anyone, it stopped and returned to Mars’ body.
Mars absorbed all the golden flames, then his reddened, injured body turned colors until he looked like a golden statue, shining with a fierce, otherworldly glow.
“A true essence of the sun is now with me.” Mars said, and when he smiled, his teeth showed that they had also turned golden.
‘Kill them all!’ The eye spoke inside his mind.
Mars dashed towards his opponents and threw a single punch. However, that punch alone released the hidden power of his golden physique.
Boom!
Ambrose crossed the swords in front of his body, and the blades glowed with a fierce light. He unleashed his Inner Power, but the golden punch still managed to ignore his defenses and strike his chest.
Crack—once the attack landed, it sounded like half of Ambrose’s chest bones had been shattered.
“Cough!” Ambrose’s eyes shook as he crashed into the ground. He had difficulty breathing, even though he couldn’t feel the pain, but all the air had left his lungs.
His health plummeted and was quickly nearing zero.
Unfortunately, Immortality was only usable once every 24 hours, and he had already used it against Dreadnought.
‘This ain’t working. The poison only seemed to make Mars stronger!’ Ambrose gritted his teeth. ‘Only one plan is left.’
Jake continued evading Mars’ relentless strikes, but he knew he couldn’t keep it up for much longer. His knuckles were bloodied, and his body was weakening.
‘I have never felt like this before.’ Jake thought to himself. ‘Because of my Starborn physique, I can run all day and not even break a sweat, but this is different.’
He was exhausted and in pain, but he knew he couldn’t stop now.
Loki, Henri, Leon, and Ors were in the same spot. They felt exhausted, as it seemed that the entire night of fighting was for nothing.
Mars was now stronger than ever.
A little further away, Zero fluttered his eyes open and groaned quietly. He tried lifting his fingers and arms, but it felt like he was stuck in cement.
‘A power… to defeat Mars… liar…’ Zero thought painfully.
‘If you want more power, you’ll need to sacrifice more.’ His inner devil spoke inside his mind. ‘We can do another contract.’
‘Fucking… schemer…’ Zero gritted his teeth and spoke painfully. “F-fine…”
Something snapped inside his mind, and his veins suddenly turned pitch black, and his eyes turned crimson red. He felt a surge of power and strength coursing through his body.
It felt like nothing could stand in his way.
Zero stood up and moved like a puppet, as if he were currently controlled by some unknown force.
This time, crimson tendrils burst out from the tips of his fingers and shot towards the golden man in the distance.
Mars’ golden eyes widened in shock as the crimson tendrils pierced through his golden body and wrapped around his heart. The tendrils squeezed hard and started draining all of his life force away.
‘Your golden form is already draining your life energy. You can’t let him do the same to you; otherwise, you might lose years of your life!
‘If this continues long enough, you will lose enough life energy to die within hours!’
The Eye of Shimon inside Mars’ head panickedly shouted. He realized the danger of the crimson tendrils immediately.
Mars grabbed the crimson tendrils and used his golden flames to burn them.
Soon after, the crimson tendrils turned to ash and disappeared.
Zero didn’t seem to care as more crimson tendrils appeared from his fingers, ears, and mouth. They then lashed towards Mars like crimson whips.
Mars tried to dodge, but the tendrils were too fast, and they struck him with a flurry of blows.
He quickly put his golden arm as a block and tanked the tendrils with a painful-looking frown.
At that moment, Leon lunged at him and punched across his golden cheek. The punch seemed powerful as it caused a powerful-sounding smack, but Mars didn’t seem affected even slightly.
Mars backhanded Leon and sent him flying away with a bloodied face.
“Slash of the Six Worlds!” Ambrose appeared above golden Mars and slashed through his back with a powerful and deadly strike.
“Ugh…” Mars turned around and tried to backhand Ambrose, but he quickly ducked it and stabbed his red-bladed sword towards the golden face.
“Mortal Style, Zuf?lliger!”
The sword, at first, missed, but Ambrose then flicked his wrist, and the blade curved enough to slash through Mars’ face.
Mars staggered backwards with a wound that spanned from his ear, over his nose, and to the other ear. Once he started bleeding, it was clear that his blood had also changed to a golden color.
“High Pain!” Ambrose quickly slashed through Mars’ shoulder.
Mars twitched as the stun effect took hold of him, stopping him from moving.
“Mortal Style, Dual Kanone!” Ambrose reeled in his swords and thrust them into Mars’ golden body.
The impact sent Mars flying back, and he crashed loudly on the ground with a metallic clang, as if he weren’t made of flesh anymore.
‘Get up!’ The eye shouted inside his mind.
“Shut up!” Mars shouted and climbed back to his feet with a rageful look. “You think I’ll die to these fuckers? You’ll fuckers will find out what happens when you underestimate me!”
A short distance away, Loki turned to Henri and said:
“While those guys are keeping Mars busy, we can make a trap.”
Henri turned to Loki and tilted his head to the side as a sign of him asking what kind of trap. He couldn’t speak after losing his tongue.
“Mars is basically made of fire.” Loki turned to look at the ground. “What happens if we drop him to the bottom of the ocean?”
Henri nodded as a sign that he was on it.
But then his ears perked up, and he snapped his head in the direction of Mars. However, nothing was there anymore, except the smoldering piece of ground in the place where he was before.
Henri could only see Ambrose’s panicky face, as he seemed to be trying to run in their direction as quickly as possible.
Henri felt intense heat, and he quickly turned to the sky. There, he saw a golden man descending towards Loki from his blind spot, a forcefield of golden fire surrounding his fist.
“You’ll do—” Loki spoke, but he was suddenly interrupted as Henri quickly pushed him out of the way.
As Loki fell to the ground, he groaned and asked. “Henri, what the—”
At that moment, everyone turned silent as they looked at the scene in front of them.
Mars looked at the young man in front of him and scoffed. His golden fist ran through Henri’s chest, and only a burning hole was left.
After Mars removed his fist from Henri’s body, the young man fell to the ground lifelessly.
The light left Henri’s eyes as he let out the last breath of his life. His body, with a burning hole in his chest, finally stopped moving.
After Apollo and Damian, the third one died.
“Henri!” Loki screamed hoarsely as he saw his best friend die in front of his eyes.