Gabriel approached and was about to slash Raiden’s neck, but Raiden suddenly woke up. He looked at Gabriel and chuckled weakly.
“I guess I could never be better than you with my real strength. You always found a way, no matter how hard it got.
You lacked strength and even mana, but somehow, you always bested us and everyone from our group. My strength was never enough, and power was never good enough.
But I’ll not lose like that. I refuse to just die. My heart will never rest knowing I never bested you even once,” Raiden said as he struggled to turn over.
Gabriel didn’t know what he was planning, so he watched closely.
“But what am I saying? I’m defeated, weak, unable to fight. I guess my wish to defeat you will go unfinished.
But before I die, I’d like a sip of wine. There’s some in my ring. Help me take it out,” Raiden asked.
Gabriel had a feeling that he should end this now and get it over with, but he had known Raiden for a long time, and every moment he wasted another second, the harder this got for him.
He let out a sigh and walked to Raiden. He pulled out the ring from his finger and took out the bottle of wine, then handed it to Raiden.
Raiden was really weak and could barely move, but he managed to collect it and take a large gulp from it. He let go of the bottle and suddenly burst into a loud laugh.
“Hahahaha, Spark Blade, you have always been the best, but underneath all that is a kind man, and no kind person should be kept until battle. They’ll make reckless mistakes, like you have done right now,” Raiden said.
Suddenly, his eyes turned blood red, his body started changing, the popping sound of bones, and the tearing of flesh, all of that filled the air.
Raiden’s skin turned grey and hard. He grew in size and grew a second set of hands. His black claws extended outward.
His face grew two long horns that curved backward, and then they lit on fire.
“You failed to kill me when you had the chance. Now I’ll pay back the debt and kill you,” Raiden said in a loud and deep voice.
He charged at Gabriel with so much speed that Gabriel could not react. His claws stretched out, targeting Gabriel’s guts.
Gabriel could not react or dodge. The claws dug into his stomach, causing him heavy damage. He immediately fell to the ground, bleeding his guts out.
“You could have defeated me, but your kindness got in the way. Now I’ll end you right here and right now, Spark Blade,” Raiden said and struck at Gabriel.
But before his claws could touch Gabriel, a powerful gust of wind slammed into him and threw him into a tree.
“First of all, you talk too much. Secondly, I can’t have you killing our chief chef. We have a wedding, and we need him,” Lily came out of the darkness. She had in her hands one of the followers of Raiden.
She tossed the body at Raiden. “This is one of yours. My master has probably killed all the rest, so that leaves you.
He wanted to allow Gabriel to fight it out and survive, but then you used that transformation after drinking the wine.
Right away, he knew it had something to do with the demon blood, and he decided that I should come and get you. After all, your blood has a modified version of the demon blood.”
“Get away from him! He belongs to me. I’ll be the one that kills him,” Raiden said.
“It seems the demon blood is not as perfect as it looks. It’s taking over your mind already. We still need to take you in, though,” Lily said.
“Get out of here!” Raiden roared and charged at Lily.
“I’ve been really pissed after that hero tossed me around, so I want to beat something up,” Lily said and raised her hand into the air. The wind took the form of a spear over her hand.
She threw the wind spear with so much force it dug into the chest of Raiden, ripping a massive hole into his chest. Enjoy exclusive content from empire
Raiden tried to get back up, but she was already in front of him, her hand placed on his abdomen. Then she released a powerful wind blast. The force turned his insides out; it was like his guts were over-boiled spaghetti.
Raiden coughed out a mouthful of blood. He struggled to keep himself up, but Lily was already touching him again.
“Let’s try this again,” she blasted his guts again. Raiden coughed out blood.
“You might be strong in this form, but ultimately, you are still weaker than me. You will lose every time, no matter how you come at me,” Lily said.
She made a fireball in her palm and waited for Raiden. Raiden, overtaken by the blood, charged at her recklessly. She released the fireball, and it exploded on contact with Raiden.
Raiden was thrown several meters away, bringing down trees as he went. He blacked out completely, not moving at all.
Lily walked to him. She checked if he was still alive and then grabbed him, dragging his demonized body back to where she left Gabriel.
When she got there, she created a portal and chucked Raiden inside. She grabbed Gabriel and went in as well.
She walked into her new lab in the castle and placed Gabriel on the bed that was there. She quickly healed most of his wounds.
“Rest up. I’ll be taking this one to see Silva,” she said to Gabriel, then grabbed Raiden, dragging his huge body out of the room.
She headed for the dungeons and locked Raiden up inside a cell.
“We finally have an actually good specimen to work on now,” Silva came from behind and said.
“His transformation is different from everything we have seen so far. It’s really well done,” Lily said.
“I guess we will learn what makes him so special now,” Silva said.