The Broken Halo

The moment Lilith said the name of her art, the thousands of dark golden chains shot forward.

They did not move like ordinary chains, instead, they flashed through the sky like burning lines of judgement.

Some wrapped around the monster’s hundred arms.

Some pierced through its torso.

Some wrapped around its three necks.

Some plunged into the writhing mass of shadows that made up its body.

The colossal shadow monster staggered.

And for the first time, the enormous creature was forced backward.

BOOM!

Its foot struck the air, but the sky itself seemed to crack beneath its weight.

Sunless gritted her black teeth.

"Don’t look down on me!"

The hundred arms of the monster moved at once.

Weapons slashed down on the chains.

Axes hacked.

Swords cut.

Scythes tore.

Shadows spread from the monster’s body and tried to devour the dark golden fire.

For a few seconds, the sky became a battlefield of chains and weapons.

Dark golden fire clashed with pitch-black shadows.

The chains burned through the shadows, but the shadows kept regenerating.

The hundred arms kept attacking.

Then the three heads raised their heads to the sky, and a few seconds later, the three heads released beams of condensed shadow from their mouths.

The beams tore through several chains, causing them to explode into dark golden sparks.

Lilith’s expression remained calm, but a deep crack suddenly spread from Simon’s chest to his shoulder.

His bones creaked.

Blood flowed from his nose, lips, and the cracks on his body.

Even his eyes began to bleed.

In his Sea of Consciousness, Simon’s expression became darker.

He could feel it.

His body was screaming.

But Lilith did not stop.

And he too did not stop Lilith.

He watched with a cold and determined gaze.

Lilith suddenly folded one fiery wing around herself.

The shadow beams struck the wing.

BOOOOM!

Darkness and fire exploded in the sky.

The shockwave flattened what remained of the nearby forest, and several frozen demons in the ravine fell to the ground like puppets whose strings had been cut.

When the flames and shadows scattered, Lilith was still there.

The wing had protected her, but half of it had been torn apart.

The damaged wing burned again, then it slowly reformed.

Lilith’s eyes flashed with a golden light, and the chains tightened.

The colossal monster’s body trembled violently as the chains began to pull in different directions.

Some pulled its arms back.

Some pulled its heads apart.

Some dragged its chest open.

The writhing shadows that made up its body began to split, and for a split second, Lilith saw something.

A thin black thread.

It was invisible, and no other person could see it aside from her.

It was what she and Simon had been waiting for for a long time now, and her eyes flashed with relief.

The thin black thread extended from Sunless’ body in the chest of the monster and disappeared into the distance.

She turned her head and squinted her eyes, and for a moment, she didn’t know what expression to have.

[What’s wrong?]

Simon could perceive her baffled state, and this baffled him too.

Why would Lilith be distracted by something else during a battle of this caliber?

’I’ve found her soul.’

Simon was instantly relieved and happy.

[Where is it?]

Lilith’s expression became strange.

’Around the withered tree.’

Simon’s expression also became strange.

[Hold on.]

[So you mean to tell me that all this while, her soul was hidden in a place I was already planning on going to?]

’I guess you can say that.’

Simon could not help but face palm.

His body was dying, and had gone through so much for something he already knew.

The thought of it was just...

Sigh

Simon let out a deep sigh.

’Just deal with her and kill her soul. Let this be over with.’

Lilith said nothing, but her eyes flashed with a cold light.

Meanwhile, Sunless became furious as the chains held her down.

The hundred arms of the colossal shadow monster suddenly abandoned defense and attacked with everything they had.

New weapons formed, and all weapons fell toward Lilith at once.

The three heads opened their mouths to the sky, and three massive shadow beams was released by the three heads toward the sky.

The three beams joined together and formed a much larger beam, and the heads tilted their head at Lilith, firing the massive beam at her.

The monster’s torso split open, and thousands of screaming shadow faces surged toward Lilith like a black flood.

Lilith raised the Chaos Blade, then the two massive fiery wings behind her spread wide.

The dark golden chains pulled back, and all of them converged around the Chaos Blade.

In that moment, the blade became the center of all the fire, chains, wings, and sword light.

The dark golden flame became thin in the blink of an eye.

A second later, Sunless’ attacks arrived.

Lilith swung once... Then the world became silent.

A dark golden line appeared across the sky.

It was not large, but it was twice the size of the colossal shadow.

It was also not flashy. It was just a single sword slash.

But wherever the line passed, shadows were burned, severed, and nailed in place by chains of dark golden fire.

The massive shadow beam was split apart.

The shadow weapons shattered.

The screaming faces burned away.

The hundred arms froze.

And then, cracks of dark golden light spread across the colossal shadow monster’s body.

Sunless coughed out black blood inside the monster’s chest, and her eyes were filled with shock, disbelief, and fear.

"What are yo-"

She could not finish her words as an extremely thin dark golden line appeared on her forehead down to her crotch.

This golden line was not only on her body, but on the colossal shadow monster’s body and even Sunless’ Chaos Manifestation.

A second later, Sunless’ body split in half and so did the colossal shadow monster and her manifestation.

Everything split apart, crumbled, and fell like a falling star.

Lilith however, had stopped looking at Sunless’ a long time ago.

Her eyes were fixed on the thin black thread that led to the withered tree.

She took a step forward, but her expression drastically changed as dozens of large cracks started appearing on Simon’s body.

Cough!

Then she coughed out a mouthful of blood and fell from the sky.