Evanii POV:

Slashing his sword to his immediate left, Damon interrupted Cyprian’s attack. Cyprian had no choice but to catch the sword with his palms. Using this to his advantage, Damon blasted a beam of light from his non-sword hand-his right hand-right into Cyprian’s abdomen.

Cyprian was pushed back to Apis’s border as a loud boom echoed throughout the room.

Only dazed for a second, Cyprian then looked at Damon with a satanic smile and said, “Impressive, I’m surprised you can keep up with my speed, it’ll be a pleasure to kill you.”

So he had just confirmed what I had just deduced during their last encounter. Cyprian wasn’t using teleportation. He was just that much faster than me. It only appeared like he was vanishing. In reality, I was just seeing his afterimage. 

Unacceptable. Despite 22 years of pushing myself to my limits, I was still too weak to protect those I love. I hated this feeling of inadequacy. Everything I had done was to protect my family. Yet, as I looked at these two powerhouses before me I knew I was still far from capable.

The sounds of bones being crushed sobered me.

Cyprian and Damon had begun clashing again. Drawn into close quarters, Damon had started to take heavy damage from the few punches that Cyprian had been able to land. 

Then time itself stopped. As Cyprian started to take this fight more seriously, his punches began hitting harder and harder until a blow connected that shattered Damon’s fourth light-sword. Taking advantage of what happened, the red devil headbutted Damon and knocked him unconscious against Apis’s border.

30 Seconds remained.

“You did your part, Damon,” I whispered before telling Apis, “Let me in.”

Not hesitating, Apis opened a section for me to enter.

All I had to do was stall for 30 more seconds. 

“Ah, well look here, are you lost pup,” Cyprian mocked me.

Good. Keep him talking.

“Your power is quite impressive,” I said hoping to inflate his ego and thus get him to rant more.

 “It is isn’t it, too bad I don’t have enough time to show you its true extent.” 

What? Just like that Cyprian vanished. Focusing more mana into my eyes I was able to spot him just in time. Dodging to the left, I prepared a strike with my kusarigama but my chance never came.

He hadn’t been targeting me! He was dashing straight towards Chancellor Dunam. 

Cronus POV:

“Apis,” my sister shouted, though not in time.

It was as if a truck had just hit a bicycle. Obliterating Apis’s border, the so-called Cyprian now stood feet away from Chancellor Dunam. 

“Kill me,” Chancellor Dunam started, “But please, leave my child al~”

She was unable to finish her sentence before she was grabbed by the throat. 

“Don’t tell me what to do as though your worthy,” Cyprian said as he stared the Chancellor in her eyes. 

“And you,” Cyprian said as he intercepted Evanii’s attack by grabbing her with his other hand, “How dare you to try to at~”

Cyprian was cut short by his own sudden chain of curses. 

Although her initial attack had failed. Evanii had dropped her kusarigama and used both her hands to create a mini-thunder storm on Cyprian’s right arm. 

Although small, the storm caused great damage to the red devil and forced him to drop Evanii. 

I expected nothing less from my sister. My bloodline is full of total badasses.

However, the victory didn’t last for long. Enraged, Cyprian kicked a weakened Evanii a dozen yards away to the opposite side of the room. Almost all the way to the entrance room. 

Speaking of, if the entrance room hadn’t been damaged due to the falling ceiling from the ‘wormhole?’ then we obviously would have all escaped while the Rigels bought time. However, fate was cruel.

Looking at Chancellor Dunam in disgust once more Cyprian then slammed her on the holographic table ruthlessly, multiple times. Finishing with his little rampage, he quickly discarded her. 

Seeing his border was failing and both his comrades struggling to gain consciousness, Apis relinquished his border in hopes of being able to stop Cyprian. However, as he dashed towards the devil he was swatted like a fly. 

Cyprian then made his way to where he was standing over a cowering James. My friend. 

“Well look what I have here,” Cyprian said, “I don’t usually waste a stripe on kids but for you, I may make an exception.”

Cyprian brought his full force down onto James. Yet suddenly he was trucked before he could connect. 

“You, won't, touch, this, kid,” a beaten and crippled Damon said. 

“Hmph, you had your chance, now watch as everyone here dies.”

A blood-red stream of a spike-like creation shot towards James. 

“James,” I screamed just before a bright light blinded me.

Finally gaining my vision, I looked in horror as Damon lay impaled before James. Yet, it didn’t seem like James had come out unscathed either. Covering his eyes, James wailed in pain as Cyprian stood over him.

Laughing, Cyprian mocked, “You blinded the poor kid, haha, you gave him a much crueler fate than I would have even thought of, hahahha, oh well, he’s useless to me now, who else should I tor~”

As Cyprian glanced to his right he grew silent. Looking him dead in the eyes, I stood as menacingly as possible. With Evanii’s mana running out, so was her cloud, but at this point, I didn’t care.

Weakness. Powerlessness. I was over it. I wasn’t going to cower like some rodent while those I cared for risked their lives. Hell, strangers had put their lives on the line for me. Looking him dead in the eye, I honestly didn’t know what I could do. But I had to do something. 

“Well what’s this,” Cyprian said as he cocked his head to look at me better. 

“Sit down Cronus,” my father pleaded as he stepped in front of me. 

It was too late for that now. If I was going to die… again… it wouldn’t be as a coward. I would reincarnate however many times it took to kill all my enemies. Death didn’t scare me. I would become death. 

I would bring chaos onto my enemies. No. 

I was chaos.