Chapter 1900 - 1899 - Cracks

Lind had imagined a lot of scenarios when finally confronting the Bastard. Hostages was very high on the list but the sheer scale of it left him numb.

Not only were the people with him still in grave danger if he let up even a little bit, people he thought safely tucked away in the Divine World could be at his finger tips.

The Bastard would not give him time to get clever but he was missing something. The floor array was one thing but using Cyntilla and others as a threat was desperate. Why were there not more already?

He had the time, so why just her? Was it because it would narrow his vision? It worked but it also was a mistake.

She was in pain but her eyes looked at him. They needed no words.

{He is weak. He is afraid, find the opening!}

Lanbao had no eyes but she was not panicking. She was calmly looking out of the sphere at him. She was ready to die again to stop the Fiend.

He knew the same was true for all the people there but he would not sacrifice them without the certainty of victory.

As if reading his mind, the Bastard sneered. He snapped his fingers and a wail was heard. It sent chills down all their spines as a grown woman appeared. She was all filled out but Lind felt shock go through him.

"GAIA!" She heard him and her face briefly wept in joy before the dark hand closed on her neck.

"That's right. She is another rare one but she made it in a few of your iterations. She is a minor person, just another family member you can't save!" Lind almost let go of his attack against the array but his eyes narrowed.

Another family member he couldn't save? He could have summoned a vast array of people if that was what he was going for. Why Gaia? Why Cyntilla?

Was there a limit or some other restriction? Lind could not waste time to test his theory as he did something rather desperate.

His aura flared and all 3 women were suddenly gone. The Bastard blinked and snapped his hand shut to test if it was an illusion. His own aura now flared and tried to find them but there was nothing!

He snapped his fingers and nothing happened again! What was going on?! The Bastard looked up and Lind felt him seem to analyze them all within a centimeter of their lives.

He especially focused on Annabelle but it was not an illusion. Lind kept his aura going and that made the Fiend focus on him.

"What have you done? Whatever it is, it is not real but it feels real. Why is no one attacking me if I have no leverage?" The Fiend saw the cracks in the moment. If Lind had truly rescued his loved ones, why was the Bastard not being bombarded outright?

Even with the dangers of the Fiend latching onto them via their Arts, there were various weapons and other artifacts to safeguard their existence. He should be fighting for his life but no one had moved.

Lind smiled then and stood up easily. His aura was still going as he freely stood before his foe and the Bastard's confidence wavered.

"You forget I am not like those other versions. I do not know what they learned or what they did but I have been forced to survive in places you helped create. I learned your tools to use against your kind." Lind was happily talking and the Bastard knew it was a delaying tactic.

He slashed outward but struck nothing. What was going on? It was not an illusion and it was not anything Lind had shown before. His confusion made Lind smile wider.

A glance at the floor was followed by a foot strike from the Fiend. There was not even a ripple which made the white eyes narrow. Lind then walked forward which startled the Bastard.

Lind stood easily an arm's length from the Fiend and the 2 foes were now staring at each other.

"What have you done? What is this trick?" Lind stayed silent now. Words would cost too much but he also knew silence would bother the Bastard more.

The Bastard then seemed to look past him. He was looking at the faint emerald aura around his body. His ash grey hand brushed it and snapped it back as his fingers sizzled.

The burns did not heal right away but they did heal quickly. The glowing emerald lines in the floor were still there but when the Bastard put his palm on them, nothing happened.

"You burn me but your staff effect does not. The small army here could freely attack me but they do not speak or move. My prisoners vanished yet they are nowhere to be found." The Bastard slowly stood up and a true look of shock passed over his face.

"I have severely underestimated you. The Fusion Path versions always tried to turn the tables on me but failed every time. They never had enough power nor did they have enough raw courage to touch on this path. I will kill you but I respect you more for your ruthlessness." Lind felt his body twitch. He was running out of time.

He still smiled as he looked at his enemy.

"Do you remember what I told you on old Earth? Do you remember what I promised?" His questions gave the Fiend pause. He remembered. The venom and rage as he had tried to trick Lind.

"You still think you can win? After so many failures, I know you. I know what you can and cannot do. In the end, I will win as always. I will take any path, any sacrifice, but I will live forever. I will defy Heaven and Earth as I crush it under my heel." Lind sneered in his mind at the tirade.

"You are a coward. You have always been a coward. Is it scary that we die? It is but when faced with the choice to act or not, I pulled a woman from death. I did not know I would die but I moved. As I lay bleeding on the street I was afraid but then she was crying over me. I realized I had done something with my life. If nothing else, I had saved her! At that moment, the fading light and feeling was not so bad." Lind felt power flow into him. He felt like everything he had lived was coming to the fore.

The Bastard was now sneering but Lind's staff moved and swept his legs out from under the Fiend. The smoking injuries on his legs prevented him from rising as Lind loomed over him.

"I had met a fellow human from Earth that used a special realm as a hunting ground! I had no chance to live but I chose to expose him! I was nearly burnt alive and still chose it! I knew there would be no third chance! Ethry tried to die for me and I saved her too! I have faced my death over and over and do you know what? Death is not that scary. What is horrifying is if you know you did nothing with your life!" Lind's eyes burned as he looked down at the now far less intimidating monster that had hunted all existence.

No one wanted to die. Everyone wanted to live, but there was a difference from just being alive and actually living.

"What have you done? All those billions of years over and over you have lived, yet you just took! You did not find it fair, fine, but then you chose to take at the cost of all! You gave nothing back! Did it ever occur to you to even try to find a way to live for every moment you had?" The Bastard had been reborn. He had been given the certain ceiling of the Heaven Realm.

That was an additional thousands of years no one on old Earth ever got and he had spent the entire time trying to find a way around the rules!

The Bastard roared as he finally healed and tried to strike him. The vile fist froze just outside the emerald aura. Lind still stumbled. His time was up as cracks began to appear.

"A Soulmancer can manipulate souls. You learned how to manipulate my awareness and tie myself into a place our 2 souls could be isolated but you are beyond my reach. You based this off of the thrall connection and even my absorption?" Lind did not bother confirming it.

It had been a trump card to catch the Bastard off guard and while he had achieved that goal, the other was lost. He would not win with that tactic.

"You wasted a perfect chance to kill me. You are such a fool." Lind then looked up at his enemy and smiled wide.

"Wasted? Oh I did not waste it. I may not have killed you, but I did do something else. Your leverage is lost forever!" A frown marred the shadowy face before shock flared.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Lind did not win but he did take away the most dangerous card. He did it with the very power Fiends had used over trillions of lives.

"Refinement. I used refinement as the basis of this little attack. It can't work like yours but it can take the fangs out of the tiger!" Cracks spread wider and Lind fell to his knees. He could not hold on anymore.

"I will see you burn!" Lind smiled as the world shattered around them and the Bastard realized his body was in massive amounts of pain! He was missing one arm and a leg while his torso had a hole in it but he lived!

Gaia, Cyntilla, and the sphere with Lanbao in it were now safely in Lind's influence. The cage was shattered instantly as the emerald flames had consumed it. Qing and other healers were working over the demoness.

Chu was severely injured with Shoti as the array was still active. They had risked their all to save their family.

Fey was also missing an arm but she was healing. Ethry, however, was barely alive. She had taken the brunt of the Fiend Qi so the others could succeed.

The Bastard now focused and healed instantly as he stood up.

He was enraged as some of his skills were sealed! His soul had been changed! He glared at the smiling Lind Frey.

"I WILL KILL YOU ALL SLOWLY!" He then blurred but a dark skinned bald man sent him flying backwards with a spear. All were shocked as the man seemed unaffected by the Fiend array.

Lind had dinner plates for eyes as Haro turned back to him.

"Master, I will buy you time. It has been my honor to serve but now we all must put it on the line. I thank you for the journey. I will now protect you as I was always meant to!" The aura of Haro dwarfed them.

The Bastard looked at him in anger.

Ring spirit vs Fiend began in front of the exhausted group. The fate of all hung in the balance!