Twelfth halted. The strange smile on Lam Minh's dying face made him feel that something was amiss. A groundless unease crept into his mind.
But the arrogance of a Holy Messenger quickly suppressed that doubt. He assumed this was just the final act of defiance from a man on the brink of death.
"Still have the strength to talk tough?" he sneered. "Let's see if you can still smile after I tear your heart out."
He hesitated no longer. He lunged forward, the two Ya Ying short swords in his hands drawing two black arcs, aiming straight for Lam Minh's heart. He wanted to finish off his prey in the quickest and most ruthless way possible.
Lam Minh remained kneeling, with no intention of resisting or dodging. He simply closed his eyes, the mysterious smile still lingering on his lips.
He was waiting.
Waiting for death's blade to touch him.
SCHLICK!
The two sharp short swords, carrying a soul-corroding black energy, plunged deep into Lam Minh's chest. Their power tore through his body, utterly destroying his heart and internal organs.
An absolutely fatal blow. No living creature, not even a Peak Golden Core expert, could survive such an attack.
Twelfth let out a long breath, preparing to withdraw his swords. He had won.
But...
He couldn't pull the swords out.
His two swords were held fast by some invisible force, clamped tightly within Lam Minh's body.
"Wh-what?" he stammered.
Then he looked up.
He saw Lam Minh's "corpse" slowly raising its head. His closed eyes gradually opened.
In those eyes, there was no longer any pain, no longer any weakness. There was only a terrifying calm, and a brilliant golden glow.
"Thank you," Lam Minh said, his voice no longer weary, but clear and full of life. "Thanks to you, I've got another 30 minutes of fun."
[Host has died. Killed by the unique weapon of a Peak Golden Core Holy Messenger. Received a massive bonus: 100,000 Immortality Points.]
[STATE [IMMUNITY] ACTIVATED. TIME REMAINING: 29:59]
[All negative statuses (poison, corrosion...) have been cleansed.]
A golden light suddenly erupted from Lam Minh's body. The horrific wound on his chest healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. New skin regenerated, and his heart and internal organs were restored in an instant. The evil black energy of the Ya Ying swords was swept clean by his Dragon Qi and the system's power, vanishing as if it had never existed.
Twelfth's eyes went wide and his jaw dropped, staring in utter disbelief at the impossible scene unfolding before him. He tried to yank his swords free, but it was useless. Lam Minh's muscles had clamped down on them like a steel vise.
"No... impossible... What sorcery is this? What... what in the world are you?" he babbled, sheer terror overwhelming him.
For the first time in his life, he felt that he was the prey.
"What am I?" Lam Minh smiled. "I am your nightmare."
Without a moment's hesitation, he used his hands to grab the two blades embedded in his chest. The sharp, soul-corroding edges could not harm his hands in the [Immunity] state.
He slowly pulled them out of his own chest.
SCREEECH...
The sound of metal grinding against flesh and bone was utterly bloodcurdling.
He looked at the two short swords in his hands, then at the petrified Twelfth.
"Nice weapons," he said. "I'll be borrowing these."
With that, he snapped off the hilts of the two Ya Ying swords and tossed them aside. He kept only the two jet-black blades.
Twelfth snapped out of his stupor, scrambling backward in a frenzy. He had lost his weapons.
"Now," Lam Minh said, rising to his feet. His body was overflowing with a boundless source of energy. "Let's start over. But this time, by my rules."
He vanished.
His speed was no longer that of a Peak Golden Core expert. It was the speed of a monster buffed by a paradoxical system.
Twelfth only felt a cold wind brush past him.
SWISH!
One of his arms flew into the air.
"AH!" he screamed in agony.
He had just been dismembered by his own Ya Ying blade.
"One," Lam Minh counted, his cold voice echoing from behind him.
Twelfth spun around in panic, but saw no one.
SWISH!
His other arm was also severed.
"Two."
"No! Stop! Spare me!" Twelfth roared in desperation. He hastily activated his mutation ability. His skin turned jet-black, hard as steel, and sharp spikes sprouted from all over his body. He had transformed into a true monster.
"Oh? Transforming?" Lam Minh's voice rang out again. "You look even uglier than before."
Lam Minh appeared before him, holding the two black blades, and thrust them straight into Twelfth's eyes.
His steel-hard defense, before Lam Minh's absolute power in the [Immunity] state, was rendered useless.
"Aaaaaaa!!!!"
Twelfth let out one final roar before everything faded to black.
Lam Minh didn't kill him right away. He slowly "carved" the monster before him, like an artist creating a blood-soaked sculpture. He wanted to make him taste all the pain and despair that the innocent people had suffered.
The battle had turned into a one-sided execution.
And in the sky, the night itself seemed to tremble before the wrath of the newly reborn god of death.
...
The execution continued in an eerie silence. Twelfth's screams had long since died down, replaced only by labored gasps and faint, weak moans.
He no longer resembled a man, nor even a monster. He lay there, in a pool of his own blood, all his limbs severed, his body a canvas of wounds. His steel-like skin had been peeled off in patches. Only the heart in his chest still beat feebly, deliberately left intact by Lam Minh.
Lam Minh stood there, without a single drop of blood on him. The two Ya Ying blades in his hands were still jet-black, unblemished. He gazed at his "masterpiece," his eyes cold and devoid of any emotion.
He felt no satisfaction. Only emptiness. Killing these scum could never bring back the dead.
He walked over and squatted down in front of Twelfth.
"Now," he said, his voice calm. "Do you have any last words?"
Twelfth lifted his ruined eyes, looking in Lam Minh's direction. He was no longer screaming, no longer crazed. He just laughed, a hoarse, gruesome laugh.
"Haha... hahaha... You... you won... human..." he whispered. "You are strong... absurdly strong... But... you will never defeat the Holy Master..."
"Is that so?" Lam Minh said. "Why?"
"Because... you have a weakness..." Twelfth said, his breath growing weaker. "You still have... human... emotions... You care about those insignificant ants... But the Holy Master... he has nothing... He has cast everything aside... to obtain absolute power... You can never defeat a man... with nothing to lose..."
Lam Minh was silent. Twelfth's words, though from a dying man, carried a strange weight.
"I... will be waiting for you... in the underworld..." Twelfth spoke his final words.
Then his body flared with a red light. The final self-destruct device had been activated. He had chosen a "clean" death for himself.
Lam Minh didn't stop him. He just quietly stood up and stepped back.
BOOM!
A small explosion rang out, blowing what was left of Twelfth to smithereens.
The earth-shattering battle had finally, truly, come to an end.
Lam Minh stood there, in the middle of the desolate square. His [Immunity] state still had more than twenty minutes left. He felt no physical fatigue, but his spirit felt heavy.
He looked towards the civilians huddled in a corner, still in a state of shock and fear. He knew he had to get them back.
He was about to step forward when he suddenly froze.
His spiritual sense detected something.
In the sky, very high up, very far away, another aura still existed.
It was a very weak, very faint aura, trying its best to conceal itself, but it could not escape his detection in his Golden Core state.
And it was the aura of a human.
Not a "Saint Child," not Madakaros. A pure human.
"There's still another one?" Lam Minh frowned.
Who was he? A member of the "Saintly Way" who hadn't been mutated? Or someone else entirely? Had he been watching the entire battle from the very beginning?
Lam Minh didn't move. He just tilted his head up, looking into the empty space, his cold voice echoing, loud enough for the one hiding above to hear.
"Enjoying the show? Aren't you going to come down and say hello?"
There was no answer. Only silence.
The faint aura seemed to flinch, then began to move, attempting to flee at high speed.
"Trying to leave?" Lam Minh sneered.
He activated his Dragon God Battle Armor. Black and red dragon wings unfurled from his back.
He stomped his foot on the ground, shooting into the sky like a rocket, chasing after the mysterious aura.
He had to know who this observer in the shadows was. And why he was here.
A new chase began in the night sky, leaving behind a ruined city and hundreds of bewildered citizens staring up, with no idea what was happening.