Rise Of The Anti God

Damien's aura instantly flared up and crushed every single Blight Slayer on his body to smithereens with just his terrifying ethereal aura!

Within that second, Damien climbed forward 3 meters in one leap, reaching for the Crimson Berry hanging on the branch and instantly deactivated Undying Wrath.

As he opened his palm, he smiled seeing a crimson-colored berry on his hand.

The exhaustion started to settle in already even though he barely activated Undying Wrath for a second. Even without the burden of the usage of his Anti-God Arts, he now looked like a bloody bag of bones.

His skin was missing here and there over his body, as blood kept oozing out of his injuries. Damien had been biting his tongue to keep himself from fainting.

He did not activate Undying Wrath from the beginning, since he knew he wouldn't be able to maintain it for more than a second unless he wanted to collapse on the spot.

After all, he hadn't recovered his extensive use of soul energy and the backlash from slicing off his soul essence.

He saw a new swarm of Blight Flayers swarming up from the ground towards him. However just as he was able to go down, he noticed some large white oval-shaped shells with few cracks resting on some twigs and leaves. 

'Eggs?'

*SCREEEE*

'SHITT!!' Damien felt a tremendous and stiffening pressure descending on him just as he heard a loud high-pitched cry of a bird which made it even hard to even turn his head.

His eyes moved and through his peripheral vision saw a silhouette of a flying ethereal beast with a 20-meter wingspan!

Even the fog cleared up as it flapped its huge wings speeding towards Damien's position. 

Damien's eyes widened as he recognized it from the books he had read as the Phantom Mist Roc, and knew that it was rumored to be at the Peak Level Sky Ethereal Realm!

He realized it must have flown away from its territory in search of food for its fledglings that were about to be born.

Damien coughed up blood as the pressure became heavier. He instantly lost his footing on the tree and started falling towards the ground.

He saw the huge roc closing in on him and knew he would be ripped apart the moment he gets grabbed by its sharp talons. Even if the roc ignored him, he knew he would die from a 100-meter fall unable to even stabilize his own fall.

'I can't die like this...Luna!' Damien didn't know why, but he screamed Luna's name while mid-air. 

"You are one big idiot!!!" He heard Luna's incensed cold tone.

Luna suddenly manifested outside and her glossy black hair looked as radiant as ever especially under the moonlight while her snow white skirt danced in the air. She caught Damien by his chest and hovered in mid-air.

She had appeared between Damien and the huge roc speeding towards Damien. The immense pressure that was pressing upon him disappeared as soon as she appeared and felt as if a heavy ton of iron was lifted from his chest.

Her eyelashes fluttered as she looked up at the huge bird with an icy stare. She simply moved her mouth to let out a single word, "Die!"

All these happened within a split second and as she closed her eyes, the roc's eyes became lifeless, its huge wings drooped as it went plummeting towards the ground.

*THUMP*

Its huge body crashed on the ground as dust lifted off the cracked ground from the impact of its body. 

Damien's eyes widened, his jaw slacked as he witnessed the corpse of the roc whizzing past him, nosediving towards the ground.

All he saw was Luna simply staring at the huge roc streaking towards him. He noticed she didn't even make any movements let alone lift her fingers.

He once again realized that this mesmerizing girl who looked thirteen years old was once the most powerful goddess in the universe.

Damien saw her mesmerizing face without any trace of her usual impish expression, glaring at him coldly.

Before he could think of anything else, he felt his back resting on the cold ground near the dead roc and realized that he was not even in mid-air anymore!

'What the…' Damien realized that it was Luna that put him on the ground. However, he couldn't see Luna anywhere.

"Luna…are you okay?" Damien called out anxiously as he saw her soul body waning slightly before. He knew she must have paid a huge price to kill that ethereal beast.

…

"Luna!!" Hearing no response, Damien was filled with unease as he mentally shouted her name.

"Stop shouting you dumbo!" Luna's frustrated voice sounded in his mind.

Damien heaved a sigh of relief after hearing her familiar vexed voice. 

"I...are you f—"

"Stop asking me stupid questions and quickly treat yourself. I don't want you dying like a pig after everything I did." Luna said in a scathing tone.

'Damn...she's really pissed off.' Damien had never seen Luna in such an angry mood before and knew it was because she had sacrificed some part of her soul essence for him.

He quickly popped a Rank 4 healing pill to stabilize his injuries as he couldn't even move his body around much.

Followed by that, he also popped a Rank 4 Mid Grade Soul Revitalizing Pill to replenish his soul energy and also to soothe his fatigued soul.

However, seeing the dead roc lying on his side, his eyes flashed. He focused on his soul plane, as he slowly sent his soul energy towards the dead roc to make a soul energy connection.

'Damn it...I can't...handle it…' Damien gritted his teeth as he tried his best to hold off the soul of the dead roc from dissipating to buy enough time to slice off 40% of his soul essence!

"Anti-God's Second Stage - Shackles of Death!"

"Arghhhhhhh!!" He let out a roar of pain as he began to tear off 40% of his soul essence from his soul plane. His face convulsed as his body shuddered violently in pain.

'God damn it!!! Come ON!!!!' Damien roared in pain while tearing off his soul essence.

"Haa….." He let out a pant of fatigue as he finally sliced off 40% of his soul essence and instantly transferred it to the dead roc.

Seeing that the process was completed, Damien panted heavily as his limbs lay spread on the ground, completely exhausted and spent. However, inwardly he was rejoicing as he gained a powerful Peak Level Sky Ethereal Realm beast as his undead slave.

Now who under the Heaven Ethereal Realm would dare to stand against him?

His ethereal energy was almost full to the brim, however, his soul had suffered enough backlash, and coupled with his bloody injuries, he felt his consciousness fading in and out frequently.

"You...what the hell did you just do?!" Luna bellowed.

Luna was preparing herself for a long sleep and only noticed the changes happening in Damien's soul essence too late.

Her eyes widened sensing 40% of Damien's soul essence being sliced away and she also gained the soul essence Damien was saving up for his soul cultivation. The soul essence he had taken from Igor and Aldrich Ward.

Damien spoke in a sluggish voice, "Why...be surprised? Now...the soul essence you sacrificed...didn't go to waste hehe."

"Yo—Did you know that coupled with the 10% of soul essence you sliced away earlier, you have practically cutaway 50% of your total life span. Now it would at least take a year for you to recover your soul essence completely!" Luna felt frustrated that she was unable to take out all her anger on him, since she knew he ended up like this to get the fruit for her.

She also felt that the reason Damien turned the dead roc into his undead slave was not only to benefit himself but also to make her feel better since she didn't sacrifice her precious soul essence for naught.

He even gave up his share of soul essence to her to compensate for her sacrifice. She knew how important those soul essences were for him since he needed them to breakthrough his soul cultivation.

Luna didn't know how to react or what to say to Damien since this was the first time she ever faced a situation like this. She also wondered why she felt a complex emotion momentarily when she saw Damien suffering from the onslaught of the Blight Flayers. 

"Only...one year...that's more...than enough…" Damien said in a lethargic tone.

However, Luna's bitter tone sounded in his mind, "Forget it...do whatever you want… you can also take back your soul essence, I don't want your charity. I am going to sleep for a long while and won't be able to hear anything you say. Now that you have the Peak Level Sky Ethereal Realm beast to protect you, I don't have to worry about you getting killed, hmph." Luna harrumphed as she cut off all her senses completely and went for an indefinite sleep. 

Silence filled Damien's mind as he also got back the soul essence he had given to her.

'This little goddess....' Damien inwardly shook his head as he wryly smiled.

He wondered how long Luna would sleep since she had suffered quite a blow to her soul essence. He felt a bit guilty thinking about whether he should have done things differently.

However, he shook his head as he struggled to get up. After all, he had one more agenda left to finish.

'Marcus, the last thing you should have done is try to drug me....now all that awaits is your death warrant!'