Boom—
The collision of energies in the air stirred up another violent blast of wind, this time more intense than ever before, utterly annihilating the entire small town, leaving not even a broken wall or rubble behind.
The Priest helped Jeanna up, using this force to swiftly depart from the battleground.
The church illusion shielded them from the energy impact.
A small portion of the uncollected curse struck them with precise aim across space, manifesting in reality upon their bodies.
The Priest used his abilities one by one to dispel them.
He held a spatial artifact in his hand, calculating the distance.
Not too far, just a little more waiting...
The Priest was unsure whether he and Jeanna had been infected, so he kept the spatial artifact in hand just in case.
Qi Yun had nearly perished in the Shen City incident, and these SS-level ability users could no longer afford to overlook spatial artifacts capable of transcending space.
They wished to leave, but the monster did not wish to let them go so easily.
Its hatred was firmly locked onto them, seemingly unaware of the two lurking in the shadows.
The massive spherical monster hovered in the air, closely trailing them, its shadow enveloping the two.
Sensing their dire straits, the monster did not launch a second powerful attack, but instead fired off a series of small spheres.
The cursed energy spheres rained down like a hail of high-velocity ice pellets, leaving trails in the air.
The Priest, supporting Jeanna, was completely unable to evade the wide-ranging assault and could only unfurl his domain to protect them.
"Boom boom—"
The energy spheres collided with the domain, emitting an unending roar of explosions.
This assault appeared formidable but had little effect.
The Priest keenly sensed that the angel Jeanna had mustered with all her might did not fail to damage it.
It was now in a state of energy recovery, only pursuing them tenaciously because it did not wish to let them leave.
Drawing this conclusion, the Priest felt much relieved.
It seemed the monster's great power had addled its mind, causing it to lose rationality and neglect the consequences of a failed strike whenever it encountered prey it could not immediately dispose of.
He had thought such a grand offensive could be unleashed at least twice.
If so, they need not hurry to escape.
If they could not defeat even such a weakened monster, Bit Buddha and Bill Country would land on Britain's blacklist.
This performance was too blatant.
The Priest readjusted his supporting posture and headed outward during the lull in the attack.
The monster indeed followed.
He feigned being on the verge of collapse.
As expected, the monster eagerly launched an attack.
This attack was stronger than the previous, but its intensity was limited, only slightly greater.
Two probing attempts yielded the same results, which should have reassured them.
If he did not act, the monster would soon recover.
With this in mind, the Priest faced the monster and launched an attack, putting on a display of a last-ditch effort.
"I shall forgive you..."
The Priest drew the monster's attention, focusing its remaining spheres on deflecting his attack.
With all the spheres drawn away, its massive body became a giant target.
By the time it noticed the attack from behind, it had already been viciously slashed on its surface.
"Clang—"
The blade collided with its hard body, striking sparks on its surface but failing to cut in.
The Armored Man gripped the hilt with both hands, hacking downward with force.
"Aaargh—"
His eyes were blood-red, his expression twisted and manic.
Red-black raging energy coated his entire body and the great sword.
The raging energy on the blade took effect, corroding the monster's surface.
"Crack—"
A crisp sound rang out as a hairline fracture appeared on the sphere's surface, black-purple mist seeping out.
The monster let out a howl, its anguish evident in its voice.
It finally reacted, retaliating.
The spheres reversed direction, plunging towards the Armored Man, the curse energy within them continuously swelling and contracting, brewing an explosion.
Undeterred by the monster's warning, the Armored Man did not release the sword's hilt. He wedged the blade into the fracture, adjusting his stance to steady himself, then hacked again.
The near-person-tall great sword, coated in raging energy, slashed the giant sphere with an irresistible force, trailing wind.
The already fractured spherical surface was struck again, emitting a cracking, shattering sound.
Simultaneously, the Armored Man opened his domain, which contained only red-black raging energy.
Countless red-black raging energy particles moved erratically, igniting a succession of energy collisions within the domain.
The spheres entering the raging domain were detonated and engulfed by the raging energy, vanishing instantly.
The raging domain stripped the Armored Man of his last shred of rationality, and he swung the great sword in relentless attacks on the monster.
The monster, gouged with a gap, continuously emitted black-purple mist as its body fell.
The Armored Man gripped the gap with his hand, his palm pierced by fragments, fresh blood dripping down.
During the descent, the Armored Man continued inflicting new wounds, the gap growing larger and larger.
Events unfolded too swiftly. Before Johnson could react to the Armored Man's unsportsmanlike preemptive strike, the monster, in its greed and rage, had lost all rationality, leaving itself completely unguarded and sustaining severe injury from the Armored Man.
Of the four present, only Johnson had not participated in the battle. If he did not act now, he would have no stake in this.
The monster plummeted from the heights, crashing heavily around the Priest.
The ground was smashed into a massive crater, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The Priest raised his hand to block the windblown sand, peering into the crater.
The giant sphere had been gouged apart, a dense black-purple mist billowing from the fissure...
Johnson finally arrived and immediately attacked the spherical body.
However, as he approached, the Armored Man's great sword pointed at Johnson.
Just as Johnson suspected the Armored Man of wanting to hog the credit, he saw his blood-red eyes and crazed expression.
He cursed under his breath, "Fuck."
Remembering the Armored Man's ability was rage, he realized he had entered a raging state.
Once in a raging state, he would attack anyone approaching.
Evidently, to land a killing blow, he had maxed out his rage level.
Johnson had no intention of tangling with an irrational person, even if he wanted to claim some credit.
They could only wait for the Armored Man to expend some of his raging energy before regaining rationality, then assist.
The Priest and Jeanna could use this time to recover their strength. Once the monster was slain, they would have to swiftly destroy its domain to prevent its revival.
The giant sphere had drawn their attention, and they failed to notice the lingering black-purple mist.
Or perhaps they had noticed but paid it no heed, as this was the environment when they had entered.
It was not until the giant sphere uttered a word that their faces paled, sensing the curse energy that had insidiously seeped into their bodies.
"Curse..."
The dense black-purple mist permeated their bodies, and with the curse activated, a massive influx of curse energy instantly overwhelmed the ability shields they had just mustered.
The life force within them rapidly drained, while a vast quantity of curse energy flooded their bodies, suppressing their abilities.
They could not use their abilities to extract the curse from themselves.