Chapter 181
On the other hand, Oliver, who saw the man rushing at him, had a cold glint in his eyes as he assumed a quick stance, with one leg stretched behind and one hand closely aligned with his chest.
His breath steadied, every fiber of his being focused on the impending strike.
He lunged forward!
His palm lashed out at a terrifying speed, colliding with the man’s frenzied charge.
The power of the [Eternal Twelve Lies Palm], previously held back due to insufficient espera, now surged forth with full force!
The man’s eyes widened as his instincts suddenly screamed at him to dodge; however, it was already too late. Lost in madness, he could only try to defend.
BOOM!
“Ark-!”
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The burly man clenched his jaw tightly as his vision suddenly darkened. For a moment, he found himself in a dark space all alone before twelve illusionary giant figures appeared before him.
Their forms were towering and ominous, each one exuding an aura of pure malice. The shadows of the figures loomed large, each one more imposing than the last, suffocating him with their sheer presence.
His body flared up as the danger reached its peak. He saw all twelve of those giants looking down at him before they moved. All of them, in unison, struck out their palms in his direction, crushing him from all sides.
Their forms remained unwavering; to them, he was nothing more than an insect, a mere pest to be crushed by their overwhelming might.
“ARGH-!!” The man roared as his eyes turned bloodshot. He exerted his body’s strength, every muscle contracting as he endured the impact.
BANG!!
The man was thrown backward into the air, crashing far into the mountainous rocks!
Spit!
A glob of blood was all he could manage to spit as even the air seemed to struggle in his lungs.
His mind raced, desperately trying to make sense of the overwhelming force that had just hit him.
The impact was too powerful!
Even someone as powerful as him was left reeling. He could only imagine how brutally his comrades had been vanquished by this kid.
He was no ordinary kid; the two girls from before were nothing in front of him. He could tell since he had just suppressed them both.
One of them was even a light element awakened individual. He could understand if she had this much power; however, this boy, who clearly had no relation to the light attribute, displayed such power. It surprised him.
How could someone so young possess such devastating strength? It defied all logic.
He was only Rank-1, and the difference was already this much?
Moreover, the boy did not seem too worried from the beginning. It was as if he had calculated everything beforehand and their existence was not a threat in his mind.
The realization that they had been underestimated from the start gnawed at him, deepening his despair.
The burly man gritted his teeth as cracks appeared in the heavy body armor he was wearing, which was also an artifact he had been given by the sect.
‘My artifact broke!? Just how terrifying was this impact…’
His eyes, which were earlier ablaze with fighting spirit, were now replaced with a hint of fear and wariness.
It was an Uncommon-rank artifact, and it was not something that would break so easily, given it was a defensive artifact.
For it to break meant that the opponent was too powerful for him.
But how could this be even possible?
Was it truly power, or was there something more sinister lurking behind those strikes?
That kid was clearly a Rank-1 exorcist from his espera; he had felt it earlier. So how could his artifact break from the impact generated by him?
He could only imagine what would have happened had he received a direct blow from that terrifying palm move.
‘Fuck! The Mystic Purge Clan are all monsters, even their kids are monsters. We should not have messed with them.’
He suddenly felt regretful that he had volunteered for this mission.
Their leader was still nowhere to be seen—probably still engaged with the expert from outside—and his two comrades had already been exorcised, leaving him alone.
Alone and outmatched, the weight of his earlier bravado now felt like a death sentence.
He did not dare imagine what would become of him if he returned to the sect empty-handed.
He could not flee; either way, it was a do-or-die situation for him too.
‘I can only put my life on the line.’
The burly man slowly rose to his feet, his eyes turning fierce.
“Ancient lords of the darkness, I offer my soul as tribute. Grant me strength beyond mortal limits, even if it costs my very essence.”
The burly man began an incantation in a guttural language, his eyes losing their luster until only a void remained.
Then, a transformation began—his eyes blackened completely, as if consumed by darkness itself.
It was then that he heard a familiar tapping sound, and there stood the white-haired boy, unperturbed, landing in front of him with a practiced ease.
“Survived, did you? Impressive.”
Oliver’s lips curled into a smirk. “I was hoping you’d be carrying something worthwhile, but it seems you’ve got nothing but your desperation. How… unfortunate.”
“So, there’s nothing worth taking from you after all.”
Oliver mocked as he looked disdainfully at the man who was earlier so arrogant but now had all the nerves in his body shriveled up just from the impact of the strike.
The mastery of [Eternal Lies Twelve Palms] had indeed not disappointed him in the least.
He felt quite good overpowering an opponent a Rank above him like this—it was only possible due to the enemy being hollow inside. These heretics only had borrowed strengths from demons, it was not unheard of them being exorcised by lower ranking exorcists.
He curled his fingers into a fist as his gaze gradually became colder.
He felt no pity for the man, only a cold detachment. He did not feel any regret or hard feelings when he earlier killed the old heretic. To him, they were nothing and had intended to kill him; he simply exorcised them from this world.
“Your eyes?” Oliver paused, looking the man in his eyes, causing the man to take a step back. Under his gaze, the burly man felt as if his body was cut open and his soul was present naked before the kid.
“Die!”
Without responding further, the burly man’s left hand started to glow as dark espera began to gather in his left palm. The tremors in the air surrounding the man grew more intense as the dark espera filled in.
A huge arrow, condensed from dark espera, emerged in the man’s hand as his eyes turned deadly. He struck forward, intending to sweep Oliver, the force behind the attack significantly faster and more powerful than what he had shown earlier.
The very ground seemed to shake under the weight of the man’s desperation-fueled attack.
Oliver drew out an axe from his mind space and immediately swung it forward, a blue streak of light appearing forth, clashing directly with the black power.
The impact of the dark espera gradually lessened, but it started to absorb the water espera that was contained behind that axe strike.
Oliver twisted his hand and threw the axe toward the man. The rapid speed made the man quickly put his hands forward as more of the dark espera began to release from his body, blocking the strong axe flying forward.
“A Sacrifice of Servitude… You’ve truly lost all hope.” Oliver remarked, eyeing the man’s grotesque form.
The man’s demonic eyes widened in disbelief as he unintentionally asked, “You knew…?”
Oliver’s eyes flashed with a knowing gleam, though he offered no explanation. The man, who saw the white-haired boy readying his fist again, felt a true sense of fear as he quickly scurried backward, stumbling over his feet.
For the first time, he realized that death was closer than he had ever imagined.
Oliver’s eyes narrowed, and suddenly he leaped off the spot he was standing on, like a streak of black light, sweeping across the sky. In the blink of an eye, Oliver was in front of the huge man, and the wolf-headed demons along the path burst apart sequentially.
Oliver sneered and launched his attack before the burly man could even react.
Too fast!
The burly man’s pupils dilated as he instinctively thrust his palm toward Oliver.
“A-AAH!”
Lost in fear and madness, the man lunged at him, throwing a strike at him. Oliver dodged and hit the man right in his solar plexus.
The moment of impact was swift, leaving the man breathless and broken.
Oliver’s fist was faster as it punched straight through the burly man’s abdomen. The terrifying force of the punch continued onward, shattering a series of rocky mountains in its path, and the fierce winds lifted all the rocks on the cliff into the air.
With a boom!
The azure light curtain in the attack forcefully surrounded the man, and together with the overwhelming power of the [Eternal Twelve Lies Palm], the man’s bones and organs were shattered.
Bang!
Another powerful impact, and the man’s body went limp as he crashed back into the rocks.
“Time to face your exorcism.”