This is a story that goes back to a time when the fruits of chaos are still being formed, the cruel fates yet to be revealed.
In another volume of his journey through the Underworld, the "Adam's Heir" will fight memorable battles and meet people who might have the answers he is looking for.
Origins, convictions, and duties. Everything will be put to the test once more.
Memories of the past led Lied to uncover the identity of the Mad Snake: it was Hitoshi Yasahiro, an orphan who lived in the same orphanage as the Adam's Heir.
"'Hito'…" the prisoner mumbled.
"What happened to you?" the prince asked him.
"D-DEVOOOUUUR!" Hitoshi tried to think logically, but his subconscious quickly took over his mind.
From a distance a swarm of snakes assaulted Lied as the Lost Prince found himself backed up against the wall, his limbs immobilized. Hitoshi was closing in on the prince in order to finish him off when the latter used the Expandability property and released the accumulation of prana of his body, thus destroying the snakes with an explosion just like in the second trial. The Mad Snake didn't want to let his prey escape and threw a punch that Lied blocked with the blade of the Anime Sancta. There was a power struggle between them.
"Stop! I don't want to fight you!!" the Adam's Heir appealed to him to pack it all in, but to no avail.
"RAAAAAH!" the snake roared.
In the other fight that was happening simultaneously, Susumu and Blasius were dueling with their spiritual firearms. A true spectacle featuring two officers whose proficiency in this category of weapons was well above average.
"By defeating me, you intend to prove the legitimacy of your principles. However, such a 'noble' stance is nothing but a mirror image of your own arrogance" Blasius said assertively after a pause.
"What do you mean?" Susumu asked Blasius to explain himself.
"You see, more than proving those ideals of yours, you try to force them on others, rejecting different views and assuming your view is the only right one. That's exactly what you are doing right now" the former cop said.
"You're wrong!" the young man shouted.
"In that case, allow me to ask: what is 'justice'?" the prisoner asked him.
"The meaning of justice…? It's obviously about doing the right thing, acting in accordance with the law" the teenager gave him an answer straight out of a textbook.
"Hypocrite, that's nothing more than your opinion, the meaning may vary from person to person. If the justice you defend is a practice that rejects freedom of speech, then you are what you despise, a corrupt narcissist, wrapped up in the bubble that is the human ego!" Blasius said vehemently as he didn't spare the words.
"Fallacies!! I am righteous!" the detective refuted the accusation raised against him as he was beginning to lose his mind.
"Ah, the harbinger of judgement, responsible for deciding what is right and what is wrong. Who do you think you are? God?!" the prisoner retorted with a strong argument.
"No, that's just… my duty…" Susumu said in a low voice, without conviction.
"I don't have time to waste on pseudo vigilants" the inmate took a step forward and said.
Blasius' words had the desired effect on Susumu as he went through a mental breakdown. The boy got closer to the man with the Progressus Justitiae in hand.
"You killed your own comrades! There's no way that's JUSTICE!!" the detective bellowed.
"I have never considered them my 'comrades'" the aztec corrected him, unapologetic.
"You scum…!" the teenager had reached his saturation point as reason and an insurmountable anger conjugated.
Seeing as how Susumu snapped at the enemy in the midst of the fight and fell for provocation, Zosimus concluded that defeat was imminent and thought about offering him his help.
"Stay out of it, Zosimus! This fight… is MINE!!" the lad shook his head and promptly refused his assistance, for he wanted to prove his righteousness without relying on others.
"Susumu…" the Chains Man said quietly, sounding slightly surprised.
The member of the old Illuminati understood that he couldn't talk him out of fighting alone and decided to leave everything in fate's hands. Meanwhile, Lied was dealing with the dilemma of either facing Hitoshi or toughing it out until he loses his stamina.
The prince used his blade as a shield to block the hasty opponent's attacks.
"That's enough! Open your eyes, Hito!" Lied beseeched him to stop as he refused to fight back.
"L-Lied" the Mad Snake restored his conscience for a fraction of seconds and said.
"Yes, it's me, Lied, from the Regenbogen orphanage!" he exclaimed.
"Lied… AAAAAAAAAAH!!" the prisoner said before being plagued by headaches.
The Mad Snake embraced his instincts again and was able to overcome the Adam's Heir defense. Lied dropped the Anima Sancta as it laid on the ground before fading away, leaving its wielder unshielded. Nevertheless, the Lost Prince managed to parry Hitoshi's punch with his fist. Their clash then sent them on a new and longer trip to the past, with Hitoshi Yasahiro as its protagonist.
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I'm Hitoshi. Or at least that was the name on my citizen card when the social workers found me on the street, hungry and thirsty, abandoned by parents whose faces I have trouble remembering, at the age of four.
For someone like me, without a home to return to, Regenbogen was a miracle of God. I considered myself to be a fortunate person as I couldn't have asked for a better family. All my 'brothers' thought the same thing… except him. I'm talking about Lied, an orphan of the same age as me.
Even though we came from similar backgrounds, Lied always acted as if he had suffered more than any of us. In the orphanage they said he was like that because he lost his memories, but I still hated him.
It was only for four years, but the time I spent with my brothers and friends, especially Aki and Kenta, was something I wouldn't trade for anything in this world.
At the age of eight, I was adopted by the Yasahiro family. They were wonderful people, a new life awaited me. Unfortunately, the same fate that gave me so much robbed me of that opportunity.
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Aqua, Boverum, eight years ago
Hitoshi woke up hours later, after someone or something sneakily abducted him while the child took a stroll with his parents. The kid felt like he was in someone else's torso as his arms were entirely covered with snake scales, but it was effectively his body, just genetically modified.
Hitoshi looked around, he was mounted inside a cryogenic chamber, a tube-shaped device that the boy saw many times in sci-fi movies. In front of him stood a man in his mid-30s wearing a lab coat, with blue eyes and slicked-back brown hair, and next to this apparent scientist was a green hooded youth, a little older than Hitoshi.
"The spirit is chained to the body by the perispirit, and the pineal gland is the valve that binds them together. Must the original image of the vessel be preserved for a successful reconstruction? Or would it be possible to…?" the scientist maundered on endlessly as he wandered around the lab.
"Who are these people?" the child thought as he blinked in confusion.
The man was visibly busy as he rummaged through the experimental reports spread out on a table. The green hooded lad looked at Hitoshi coldly as his chilling, snake eyes sent a shiver down the human's spine. The scientist realized that his experiment was awake.
"Oh good, you're awake. Human boy, from now on you will be called 'Experiment Zero Five'. Welcome… to the snakes' nest" the scientist stretched his arms wide and greeted him with a smile.
Two green hooded men — one in his 30s and the other a teenager — and a young adult woman also wearing a hood entered the lab; it was almost as if they had agreed to appear at that particular point in time. The three of them took off their hoods: they shared a common phenotype, the dark green eyes, while their hair was of a different color.
"The pigs are dead, I devoured them 🎵" the light brown-haired woman, with a crooked canine tooth and wearing a neckband, was singing with rapture.
"We have returned, Doctor Anastius" the older, bulky man with dark gray hairdo and an intellectual air announced as he looked at the scientist.
"The three of us were supposed to kill one target each, but that whore Anguis had to go and steal my prey" the black-haired, olive-skinned teen wearing earrings lashed out at the woman as he was hopping mad.
"Kakaka, you were too slow and I couldn't let them escape" Anguis said in a provocative tone.
"You b*tch… I swear, one day I'm going to devour you" the lad responded with an apparent threat, the demon inside him woke up as the pupil in his eyes turned fiendish for a moment.
"Calm down, Naga. Mm, all that matters is that we completed our mission" the oldest man had a pedagogical philosophy as he hoped to nurture the younger fellow.
The teen called Naga was surrounded by a tenebrous dark green aura as he turned to his much taller companion and loomed over him. But the man didn't even blink; his essence, too, was known as that of a snake.
"Lexus, how many times have I told you to stop talking to me like you're my superior? Just because you're the oldest among us doesn't mean sh*t, you ain't in charge of anything here. I was the first to join the cult, so don't order me around again, you f*cker" Naga answered in an angry way as he hurled obscenities at his colleague.
The group continued to argue among themselves as it turned into a ding-dong. Hitoshi watched, confused and terrified. If this was a nightmare, he just wanted to wake up from it.
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Aqua, Boverum, two years later
At some point, living inside the container in the laboratory, Hitoshi lost track of time. He was fighting the Talking Serpent's influence on his body as the invasive cells transplanted into him shaped his identity. In psychoanalysis, the little one's resistance was called 'repression', a defense mechanism that keeps unconscious material out of conscious awareness. His only hope was the police, but it seemed unlikely that they would find him.
The child felt like he was living on the line between life and death in that freeze state.
The cryogenic chamber suddenly opened and he fell to the ground.
"Congratulations, Zero Five. You'll finally see the light of day" the scientist named Anastius, who was always accompanied by the green hooded youth, said with a smile on his face and handed the human one of their coats.
The three left the den of mischief. Hitoshi, dressing as one of them, was at last able to breathe fresh air. Wherever they were, judging by the forest encircling the hideout, it wasn't Ganeden.
Hitoshi was taken to a grassy field near the lab. There, Anastius instructed the human and the hooded snake to stay 20 meters away from each other as he, too, moved to the sidelines.
"Go, Yarok" the gent stared at the hooded boy and said in a serious way.
Yarok obeyed him and called upon his inner power as he was enveloped by a ghastly green aura not for the faint-hearted. A colossal spiritual snake sprouted from his back and targeted Hitoshi with the intention to kill. The reptile purposely missed its target and knocked down a tree instead.
"Eh…?" the kid said, perplexed by his current situation.
"If you want to survive, you will have to awaken the Spirit Mode" the smiling Anastius told Hitoshi.
The hooded boy controlled multiple medium-sized snakes as they incessantly went after the human child. All Hitoshi did was run away from the predators; tears rolled down his cheeks as he longed for the nightmare to end.
"I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. Somebody… somebody help me!" he thought desperately.
"In this tepid and factitious reality where the law of the strongest prevails, you either devour or you are devoured — that's the only way to go on living. There are those who embrace destiny and resign themselves to its inevitability, but they couldn't be more mistaken; even illusions can be devoured. Nachash, 'The Talking Serpent', is the living proof" the scientist said, gesturing with his hands as he spoke.
Hitoshi tripped over a rock and found himself in serious trouble. He was gripped by fear, quaking in his boots, completely vulnerable on the ground. Yarok launched another swarm of snakes on him.
"I don't… want to be devoured!" the human kid thought right before being hit as he unleashed his wild instincts; the pupil in his eyes turned fiendish and he awakened the power of the spirit.
Hitoshi was enveloped by the same dark green aura that enclosed Yarok's body, surprising both the hooded lad and Anastius. The kid instinctively created a shield made of snakes to protect himself from the attack. However, Yarok promptly deactivated his Spirit Mode and the reptiles that were targeting Hitoshi disappeared into spiritual particles.
"Once more, welcome to the Nachash Cult" the scientist walked up to the child, who was glancing over at the energy around his body, and said with satisfaction.
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Aqua, Boverum, one year later
Hitoshi, more and more obedient and less independent, spent the last twelve months developing his Spirit Mode; his SSL had recently reached the 40% milestone. Anastius left Lexus, who already had educational experience through teaching, in charge of the youth's training sessions.
At the present time, the initiate was doing physical exercises under the supervision of his personal trainer as he strictly followed the workout plan created by the latter.
"In order to use the Spirit Mode to its full potential, the body and the spirit must be at the same level. In other words, you need to gain muscle mass. Mm, without muscles you won't devour anyone" Lexus said as he stood with his arms crossed.
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Aqua, Boverum, four years later
Hitoshi gradually began to get involved in the operations of the Nachash Cult, namely participating in assassinations where he accompanied Anguis or Naga, as his control over his ability improved. The targets of the cult were usually prominent figures in aztec society such as nobles and big bourgeoisie. For the completely submissive and emotionless youth, taking someone's life became an almost daily occurrence. He had lost all sense of humanity.
Anastius and Lexus were at the hideout discussing Hitoshi's progress in his training, shortly after the Experiment 05 returned from one of their missions. There was only Yarok listening.
"It's been five years since Experiment Zero Five awakened the Spirit Mode and yet he hasn't even passed the sixty percent SSL mark. The worst thing is that the Fourth Stage seems to be the limit of his evolution" the scientist said.
"Mm, physically speaking, the child also fell short of expectations. I'm afraid he won't be useful to us in the future" the muscular man said.
"What a fiasco… I will never experiment on humans again!" Anastius cried out in anger as he was outraged by the results of his efforts.
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Aqua, Boverum, one year later
Hitoshi hadn't celebrated his birthdays since the day he was kidnapped, but he still knew he was about to turn 16. Eight years had passed since he last saw his parents, Aki, Kenta and Lied, who kept coming to his mind for some reason.
The Nachash Cult gathered at the hideout today for an extraordinary meeting of sorts. Hitoshi and Yarok listened quietly while Anastius, Lexus, Anguis and Naga talked among themselves for 30 minutes about topics that the human child didn't fully understand.
The mention of Lied's name several times caught his attention though. Hitoshi felt his conscience clear enough to connect some dots as he uncovered the truth behind the organization and how his fellow orphan was caught up in the midst of it all.
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Aqua, Duxis, just before Hitoshi went to the Underworld
The Nachash Cult's assassination target for today was the Wegelius family, middle-ranking nobles trying to rise through the ranks of the aztec hierarchy. Almost all members of the cult were summoned for this mission, even Anastius was present. The reason for this particular gathering was because they were planning to test Hitoshi's abilities for one last time and ascertain whether or not the human would be useful to the Talking Serpent Cult hereafter.
The group was in the vicinity of the Wegelius mansion, hiding in the bushes.
"Yep, there's nothing more fun than massacres" Naga said excitedly and glared at Anguis "Don't get in my way or you're f*cked, you lunatic b*tch" the lad threatened her.
"Kakaka, provided that you don't turn into a crystal like ten years ago, when we had to save your ass!" Anguis laughed, referring to the attack on the Eve Cult.
"Grr…" Naga gritted his teeth as he remembered bad memories.
"Go" Anastius made a hand signal at Naga, Anguis and Hitoshi, then the three of them burst into the residence as the scientist, Lexus and Yarok stayed behind.
That was when a military squad set up a perimeter around the house and blocked their way. Among the soldiers were some 2nd, 3rd and 4th Stage Spirit Mode users wielding macuahuitl swords imbued with spiritual energy, and commanding them was a sixty-something knight wearing an attire with an eagle badge. Apparently the army was expecting their attack.
"Kakakakaka, more piggies popped up!" Anguis said, feeling elated, and stopped on her tracks as she was enveloped by a dark green prana, then licked her lips.
"Your terror ends here, Talking Serpent Cult" the veteran knight said and activated his Spirit Mode as a powerful salmon pink aura enfolded him, then he drew a labrys — a double-bitted axe — from his back, imbuing it with prana.
"No, it has barely started" Naga slowed down his pace as he took a moment to assess the situation, then he smiled before his body was surrounded by a ridiculous amount of dark green spiritual energy "Or do you REALLY think I'm gonna pack up just because of a dozen bugs and a geezer? Yahaha!" he shrieked with laughter and summoned exactly thirty snakes that danced above him.
"Settle down, Snake Boy" the captain said and slammed his axe down as he increased the gravity of the area around Naga and Anguis, Full Spirit Mode users like him, causing them to be immobilized.
Anastius was feeling apprehensive in the bushes behind them, overwhelmed by the current events as they clearly weren't in his plans for today. He gritted his teeth.
"Abort mission!" the scientist communicated telepathically with Naga using the Penetrability property.
"Ab…? Are you telling me to run away from these weaklings?!" the young man sent a telepathic message to him.
"We can't let them trace the location of our hideout, so shut up and do as I say!!" Anastius said as he was behaving like a cat on a hot tin roof.
In the midst of chaos, the front door of the mansion opened as a well-dressed, 8-year-old little lass holding a doll came out of the house. Apparently she had forgotten her toy in her room and headed back home to retrieve it, even though the residents were told to evacuate.
"There was still someone inside?!" one of the soldiers asked rhetorically.
Naga, unable to move because of the knight's ability, stole a glance at the girl and then glared at Hitoshi, the only one who wasn't conditioned by the increased gravity. The teenager couldn't help but shiver when their eyes met.
"We ain't leaving empty-handed. Devour her!" Naga told Hitoshi.
The human followed his companion's order as he activated the Spirit Mode and rushed towards the bewildered lass at high speed.
"Captain Firminus!" one of the 4th Stage Spirit Mode users shouted as he was waiting for instructions from his superior.
"I'll leave that one with you" the knight named Firminus turned to the soldier and said.
The entire patrol nodded and wasted no time in forming a circle around the girl, with the two 4th Stage users standing in front of this defensive formation.
"You're not getting past us, you scoundrel!!" one of them screamed at Hitoshi.
"DEVOOOOOUUUUUR!" the Experiment 05 growled and uttered his battle cry as he faced his enemies head-on.
The 4th Stage users skillfully wielded their macuahuitl and were about equal to Hitoshi in terms of spiritual strength. Nevertheless, the Cult of Nachash member made good use of his versatile Spirit Mode by summoning two snakes that cleverly wrapped their long bodies around the soldiers' obsidian blades in midair, thereby rendering them useless. The Experiment 05 then kicked the men as they were sent flying and hit the columns that supported the roof of the mansion, the majestic house shaking after the impact.
"O-Oh no…!" one of the soldiers lying on the ground said as he coughed up blood.
Hitoshi immediately attacked the remaining soldiers as they were easily outgunned by his brute strength and sheer power. At last there was no one left to protect his target, defenseless and petrified in the face of the monster that was about to devour her.
"Save me… mommy, daddy…" she said, trembling, and squeezed her stuffed animal into her chest.
The predator held out his hand like a cat stretching out its paw and claws towards a toy ball. That was when Experiment 05 came to a halt, or rather, he was forced to cease his movements by the humanity within him, which was thought to have been lost.
"He stopped?" the soldier that was bleeding said in disbelief.
"What are you waiting for, you idiot?! Kill her!" Naga ordered him to strike her as he protested against Hitoshi's inaction.
The human fought against himself as he resisted his primal instinct. And, finally, Hitoshi Yasahiro returned from the abyss of his soul.
"I have to, no, I WILL go back to Aki, Kenta and… apologize to Lied!" he stared in a fierce way at Naga, his eyes a parable about faith, and said from the bottom of his heart.
"Son of a b*tch…" Naga said as he was in a towering rage over the junior's insubordination.
The lass took advantage of the fact that the monster had a change of heart and ran away. A Wegelius butler came to get her in the meantime, and they were never seen again.
The soldiers capable of standing surrounded Hitoshi, whose next move was anyone's guess, and watched him rush out of there like a cannonball as he entered the forest instead of attacking them.
Naga was determined not to let him escape after the audacity with which he talked to his senior, and there was also Anastius' absolute order.
"Y'all drive me crazy…" Naga said, getting his knickers in a twist, then clenched his fists as he remembered the Crystal Manipulation user from the Moon Cult who humiliated him ten years ago.
"Hm?" Firminus said, he was monitoring the situation on the ground when he heard his enemy talking to himself.
"I SWEAR I WILL DEVOUR THIS WHOLE SH*TTY WORLD, EVEN IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!!" Naga cried out in a loud voice and literally exploded as he nullified the gravitational force acting on his body by releasing a tremendous amount of spiritual energy.
"What an aura…! He was hiding all this power?!" the captain thought as he felt overwhelmed by the intensity of the prana that his opponent was emanating from his body.
Firminus had no choice but to retreat and create distance since Naga was a ticking timebomb that could not be defused. Nonetheless, the snake decided to withdraw from the area and pursue the traitor who had gone awol as he went into the forest. Anguis, too, could have broken out of the knight's gravitational field sooner if she wished, and that was what the woman did now.
Anguis met up with the other members of the Nachash Cult who were hiding in the bushes and together they ran after Naga. No one dared chase them down as they knew their lives were spared by the alleged Talking Serpent worshippers.
Hitoshi ran like there was no tomorrow. His mind was once cloudy and now he felt it free and clear. The teen's only wish was to see his friends again, among them Lied, to whom he owed an apology; at one time, Hitoshi thought that pain could not be relativized and accused him of playing the victim, but he was wrong, Lied's suffering was truly unmatched. If the Nachash Cult were to achieve their goal, there would be no future for the Lost Prince. He needed to warn him of impending danger. Lied mustn't cross paths with Nachash, 'The Talking Serpent', or any of his followers, no matter the cost.
"They're here!" Experiment 05 looked back and thought as he felt Naga and the others closing on him.
Hitoshi quickened his pace and summoned a large snake that knocked down the trees standing before him, in order to buy time. If this world and his hometown were connected like he read in Anastius' books, then the passage they crossed to enter Aqua must be somewhere. It would make sense for the portal to be in Boverum since that was where the Nachash Cult operated, but then again he was still a few miles away.
Naga kept sweeping away the tree trunks flying in his direction as they were separated by just a few meters. The others caught up with him as he wasn't running at full speed. The same could actually be said of Anguis, Anastius, Lexus and Yarok.
"Hey, Anastius, your guinea pig has gone crazy, kakaka!" Anguis said as she was amused by the sudden turn of events.
"Mm, it's always sad to see a student stray from his path" Lexus groaned as he shed a tear.
"Tch, I should have gotten rid of him five years ago" Anastius grumbled.
"I can devour the punk, right?" Naga asked.
"Yes, do it fast before…" the scientist said, but he didn't finish his sentence.
All members of the Nachash Cult felt the presence of the Superior looming in the distance at the same time. Hitoshi was the only one unable to sense the coming of terror incarnate, due to the fact that his Sensitivity wasn't at the same level as his former colleagues.
"Good, looks like they stopped following me. I have to take this chance to…" a bleak aura that gave the teenager the willies interrupted his thoughts as it was already too close to him.
Hitoshi's eyes widened as he stared in shock at the green hooded figure, slightly taller and older than him, that walked towards Experiment 05. The young man had gone completely white and was shaking like a leaf, as if he were in the presence of Death. It was a similar feeling to when he fought Yarok, but the depths of this fear were unbounded.
"L-L-Lord Nachash!" Anastius said as the thought of being reprimanded by him for his failure made his hair stand on end.
Yarok watched the leader of the organization with special interest. In the meantime, Nachash summoned a mystical sword adorned with snakes coiled around it, holding the blade in his right hand. The Talking Serpent raised his weapon. Hitoshi stood there motionless as he felt overpowered by fear. His soul had been shattered into a thousand pieces.
"You are not worthy of that power" Nachash said with contempt and cut him down in a single blow.
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The two boys returned to the present moment after their immersive experience of the past.
Lied was shocked by what he saw, and as for Hitoshi, he had fully regained consciousness, albeit temporarily.
"Hito… you…" Lied said, stunned.
"It was as you saw in my memories. I was kidnapped" the Mad Snake lowered his head and said.
"Did you not get adopted?" the Lost Prince asked him a question as he looked to learn more about Hitoshi's past.
"Yes, but what happened after that was something the orphanage could never tell you guys" Hitoshi said as sadness clouded his face.
"It's true that they kinda left us in the dark. Aki and Kenta missed you a lot. I heard they were adopted shortly after me" Lied told him.
"I see… I hope they're doing we- AAAAAAAH!" all of a sudden, Experiment 05 screamed as his subconscious mind took over, an immense and uncontrollable wrath dragged him to the very edge of darkness.
"Hito!" the Adam's Heir exclaimed as he was worried about him.
"R-Run, Lied. I don't… want to… hurt my friend…" the Mad Snake stuttered and then went back to his savage mode.
'Friend' — it was the first time someone called him that. Despite the way Lied treated the other kids at the time, Hitoshi still considered him a friend and a brother, that was how he felt towards all the orphans from the Regenbogen orphanage.
The prince clenched his fists and raised his head as he was overflowing with determination.
"Thank you. Just as you never gave up on me, I won't give up on you either" Lied said and assumed a fighting stance.
The Mad Snake right off the bat looked to hinder his mobility as he opted for long and mid-range combat wherein Hitoshi had the advantage over the prince, due to the snakes that he was remotely controlling. Lied was inevitably forced to defend himself against his attacks.
As the fight dragged on, the Lost Prince concluded that he needed to turn things around as quickly as possible if he wanted to have any chance of winning. Lied took a deep breath in and let it out, then he started using Sensitivity to predict the snakes' trajectory and Visibility to dodge them, so as to get closer to Hitoshi.
"I can see them. The attack pattern isn't unreadable. On the contrary, I'm able to completely read their movements, as if they were familiar" the Adam's Heir thought as he read the reptiles' movements.
Lied anticipated five snakes that were on the way at high speed exemplarily, and simply dodged them. The Mad Snake launched ten other reptiles thereafter, but the prince flipped away from the foe's attack by performing a flashy acrobatic leap.
The continued use of the properties wore Lied out as he had gone through something similar during the first trial. Notwithstanding, nothing would stop him from approaching Experiment 05 and throwing an emotional punch to his face interspersed with scales.
Lied's mind was filled with dozens of memories from his childhood spent in the orphanage, like a cinematic work. In all of those memories, Hitoshi tirelessly encouraged him to carry on living.
"I will save you… FROM YOUR SUFFERING!" the Lost Prince said as his fist met the Mad Snake's mug.
Meanwhile, Susumu was determined to end his fight as the bout with Blasius reached a stalemate. The former cop, however, was very calm and not feeling the pressure.
"Please tell me that's not all you've got" the sinner said ironically.
"The next bullet… will be the last" Susumu pointed the Progressus Justitiae at him and stated.
[END OF CHAPTER]