Death… And Me

Chapter 4589: Fall

The Bone Vulture noticed the twins’ group appear, and its eyes immediately fixed on Lukay at the back. Its instincts told it that Lukay possessed the highest power among them. Without hesitation, its wings spread wide, and several bones filled with decaying energy detached themselves from its body.

*Zush, zush, zush!*

The bones shot toward Lukay like arrows while the Vulture followed right behind them. Dark Godly Energy began to swirl around its body, and its red eyes glowed with an even deeper crimson.

Rean and Lukay immediately retreated. It was obvious that they were the Vulture’s targets. Roan and Celis moved to intercept it, opening the way for the two to retreat. The Vulture didn’t bother stopping, however, simply passing between them in a flash of dark energy.

Of course, Roan and Celis weren’t going to let such an opportunity pass.

‘Red Death, Dragon Claws!’

‘Full Energy Repeal!’

Ten identical Crimson Intent Scythes descended upon the Vulture from one side, forming a deadly rain of blades.

The Vulture was still a Godly Horror, though. Its eyes briefly glanced in Roan’s direction, and the wing on Roan’s side immediately reacted. Numerous bones took shape around that wing, forming a skeletal shield as the Vulture flew past. It clearly had no intention of wasting time fighting Roan.

However, Celis’s Full Energy Repeal was already in place.

The Vulture had ignored it because it couldn’t sense anything threatening from Celis. It wasn’t an unreasonable assumption. The Energy Repeal primarily worked by interfering with and repealing the enemy’s own energies. Celis barely needed to use his own energy to maintain the effect, making the technique appear almost harmless at first glance.

*ZuOm!*

The instant Celis’s Full Energy Repeal reached the Vulture, the energy circulating throughout its body was violently affected. Against its own will, the Vulture’s body was pushed toward Roan’s attack, dragged along by the very energy it was using to protect itself.

The skeletal wing it had prepared as a shield failed to stop five of Roan’s Elemental Intent Scythes. They sliced through the dark feathers and slipped between the gaps in its skeletal armor.

*Creeee!!!*

The Vulture let out a shrill cry of pain.

The Flying Godly Creature clearly possessed a strong affinity for the Dark Element, but it couldn’t possibly compare to Roan’s mastery of it. Roan’s own Crimson Dark Element Decaying and Destruction Effect immediately took effect, spreading through the deep wounds and damaging the Vulture from within.

Even worse for the Vulture, Roan’s Intent Scythes contained not only his Dark Red Lightning but also some of Rean’s Light Element. The two opposing powers combined to make the attack especially troublesome for a creature that relied so heavily on the Dark Element.

The Vulture stumbled in the air, its body falling sideways before it quickly regained control. It was still a Godly Horror, and its defenses were naturally formidable. It immediately circulated its Godly Energy and Dark Element through its body, suppressing and expelling the foreign energies that were ravaging it.

It took only a second or two.

However, that was already enough.

Its pursuit of Lukay had failed.

The Vulture quickly looked around, but Lukay had disappeared. Since it possessed no true sentience, there was no complicated reasoning behind its next action. Its instincts simply redirected its aggression toward the others who remained.

In this case, it charged toward Roan.

Roan had been the one to injure it the most, after all.

‘Red Life, First Form, Enhancement!’

‘Red Death, Third Movement Form, Crimson Lightning!’

Roan didn’t stay in place. The difference in cultivation was simply too great. He had only managed to land that previous attack because the Vulture had been completely focused on Lukay. Even with Celis’s assistance, Roan knew he didn’t possess enough power to inflict a truly fatal injury on a Godly Horror of this level.

Unfortunately, Roan wasn’t as fast as the Vulture.

The Godly Horror rapidly closed the distance between them.

‘Leaves Slaughter!’

Before it could attack, however, thousands of golden leaves suddenly filled the space ahead of it. Each leaf was sharp enough to function like a blade, creating a dense wall that completely blocked the Vulture’s path.

Naturally, that was Celis.

He had infused the leaves with his Wood Element and a considerable amount of Godly Energy. The Vulture had underestimated Celis and Roan once already. It wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.

Its instincts immediately warned it of the danger, and it changed direction, narrowly avoiding the storm of golden leaves.

Then, its attention shifted toward the source of the attack.

Celis.

The Vulture charged toward him.

Celis had deliberately moved closer to the ground. There, he could make use of the surrounding Wood Element to strengthen his attacks, and the forest beneath them was extremely dense, providing him with an enormous amount of natural energy to work with.

Celis didn’t panic after becoming the next target.

He simply turned around and dove between the enormous trees.

The Vulture followed without hesitation.

*BOOM! BOOM!*

It didn’t bother avoiding the trees. Its enormous body tore straight through them, snapping trunks and sending splinters flying everywhere as it forced its way after Celis.

Even with everything that had happened, no more than a few seconds had passed since the beginning of the battle.

That brief exchange had already been enough for the twins’ group to estimate the Vulture’s strength.

It was definitely much stronger than a Godly Creature that had only recently become a Godly Horror. Its power was roughly equivalent to what a Middle or Late Stage Law God could display.

That information was extremely important.

The Yin Yang Sanctuary could weaken their enemies by approximately one cultivation stage. Even if they activated it now, the Vulture would become considerably weaker, but it would still retain the power of a Godly Horror.

The Vulture continued its pursuit of Celis, but Celis was considerably slower than Roan. It took only a brief moment for the creature to close the distance.

Its anger continued to build. Every time it focused on someone, another member of the group interfered. And now, once again, someone else was getting in its way.

Roan!

The Vulture had already given up pursuing him after Celis’s intervention, yet Roan suddenly appeared above it, very close.

‘Red Death, Death Cross!’

Both scythes crossed in Roan’s hands, releasing a powerful wave of Dark Crimson Lightning in the shape of a cross. The attack descended directly along the Vulture’s path.

The Vulture’s eyes turned even colder.

Perhaps it was nothing more than instinct, but the instant Roan appeared, the creature immediately changed direction and charged toward him instead. It was almost as though it had expected the enemy it had previously allowed to escape to appear again.

*Creee!*

Dark Energy erupted from its body as its talons shot toward Roan’s chest! More bones shot from its wings, trying to close Roan’s escape path.

It was far too fast.

Roan couldn’t retreat in time. He had deliberately approached close enough to use Death Cross, and at this distance, the difference between their cultivation levels became painfully obvious.

Yet Roan simply looked at the incoming talons and smiled coldly. “So what if you didn’t forget about me? Your focus was correct before. You should have paid attention to the Spirit.”

*Zush! Zush!*

Two figures suddenly appeared out of thin air directly on the Vulture’s back.

Rean and Lukay!

Lukay was fully charged. At such close range, the Vulture would have needed to be blind to miss the attack coming from behind.

‘Voltari Thunder Bolt!’

The Vulture immediately sensed the ambush. It desperately redirected its energy toward its back, attempting to reinforce the area where Lukay’s attack was about to land… Or, at least, that was what it tried to do.

[Yin Yang Sanctuary]

[Activate?]

‘Yes!’

Rean and Roan willed it at the same time.

[Yin Yang Sanctuary activated.]

[Time: 120 Seconds]

The moment the twins activated the Sanctuary, the Vulture’s energy circulation was thrown into disarray.

The creature had been desperately concentrating its energy toward its back, but the sudden weakening effect disrupted that flow at the worst possible moment.

The Sanctuary didn’t reduce the Vulture’s strength enough to bring it down to the Godly Predator level. As a result, it would only take a second or two for a Godly Horror of this caliber to adapt to the weakening effect.

Unfortunately for the Vulture, it didn’t have even that much time.

Because of the sudden disruption, the protection around its back became even weaker than it would have been if it hadn’t attempted to reinforce itself at all.

*KABRUMM!!!*

One brief moment.

One attack.

That was all Lukay needed. For that single attack, Lukay possessed power equivalent to a Law God, and he wouldn’t be able to do it again for a few hours after that.

The lightning that should have been yellow was now so heavily infused with Godly Energy that it had turned completely golden. The Golden Thunder Bolt struck the Vulture’s back with terrifying force. It pierced through the gaps in its skeletal armor, burrowing deep into its body while releasing an enormous amount of destructive lightning inside.

The impact caused massive havoc throughout the Vulture’s internal organs. It was called a Bone Vulture, but it was still a living Godly Creature. Beneath all those bones and dark feathers, it possessed organs just like most other creatures.

*Creeeeee!!!*

Its shriek shook the surrounding forest.

The Bone Vulture’s enormous body began to lose altitude.

Its wings flailed helplessly as its strength rapidly declined, and the Godly Horror finally began to fall from the sky.