Chapter 271: As long as you don't stop, the road will continue (BGM starts)
Kishugar and Saur fought a total of three times.
The first time, he lost to Saur, a very clean defeat, with no room for argument.
The second time, they fought to a draw. It was then that the Axeman had already undergone modification with the Demon Factor, and his body had changed significantly.
And the last time, he won, killing Saur.
But in his heart, Kishugar knew very well that his victory was, in fact, unfair.
Because before this final battle, Saur, who was responsible for holding the line, had already slain an unknown number of monsters; his magic and stamina were depleted, and the accumulated wounds on his body were enough to be fatal to an ordinary warrior.
Saur died under his, Kishugar's, battle-axe, but this left him with an immense sense of emptiness.
This was both an emptiness caused by the elevated combat threshold set by Saur, and an emptiness arising from losing a challenging opponent due to his identity forcing him to deliver a killing blow.
No matter how much he rationalized, he couldn't hide the fact that he had relied on external forces to kill his opponent.
If the Demon Factor hadn't existed, Saur might have been the lifelong goal Kishugar pursued.
The Axeman, whose fighting spirit had turned to anger after being played by Cheng Tian, immediately lost his desire to fight upon seeing this divine weapon, which once belonged to Saur. He even voluntarily deactivated his Demon Transformation.
"You people are, after all, still too far behind Saur..."
Recalling Commander Saur's sharp swordsmanship and powerful flame magic, the Axeman's tone revealed an undisguised boredom... What kind of substitute culture was this?
Cheng Tian sniffed hard and truly understood Kishugar's current state.
"Leave the Goddess and you can scram. I'm not in a good mood right now and don't want to kill weaklings... And put the Greatsword of Crimson Lotus back. Weaklings who only run away don't deserve to wield a strong man's divine weapon."
The Axeman pointed at the Greatsword of Crimson Lotus in Cheng Tian's hand and spoke in an impatient tone.
But he quickly noticed a detail: Cheng Tian, who was supposedly a weakling who only ran away, possibly had Fakete family blood, and whose abilities should specialize in summoning, was actually holding the Greatsword of Crimson Lotus with one hand!?
And it wasn't an act of bravado; he was genuinely wielding it with one hand!
Something was wrong! Terribly wrong!
"Kishugar!"
At this moment, Cheng Tian suddenly called out the Axeman's name, which made the Axeman narrow his eyes.
If he remembered correctly, he should have never introduced himself to him.
But Cheng Tian's next words caused the Axeman's fading killing intent to surge back fiercely.
"How does it feel to use the Demon Sea tactic against Commander Saur and win unfairly in the end?"
"...How do you know that? Answer me!"
The Axeman, whose hand gripping the axe handle instinctively tightened, was directly poked in his sorest spot. This made him involuntarily raise his voice.
He constantly claimed to be the strongest, but in reality, he had killed Commander Saur when he wasn't at full strength. This would undoubtedly be an eternal knot in his heart.
And the only ones who knew this information were members of the Dark Clan.
Saba, whose skirt was pulled off, didn't seem likely. His silly younger sister didn't seem to have any connection with them. Lord Dales certainly wouldn't say such idle things... Could it be Torfakete, that traitor who also participated in the rear-guard battle but ultimately chose to betray his master for glory?
The Axeman, whose mind also conjured images of Cheng Tian using the "Eye of Fakete," became increasingly convinced of his speculation.
But the next moment, Cheng Tian gave an answer that utterly astonished the Axeman.
"Of course, I got the news directly from Commander Saur himself."
"Huh?"
"What 'huh'? Do you want me to call him over to catch up with you?"
"What nonsense are you spouting? Saur is dead! I killed him with my own hands!"
The Axeman's emotions were even more agitated than expected.
Cheng Tian remained silent, merely raising his Ghost Gauntlet.
As the storage bar for innocent souls directly dropped to one-quarter, Commander Saur's soul reappeared before the astonished eyes of the Axeman and the Goddess. And from a transparent state where one could see through him, he quickly solidified into a real body.
Saur didn't even glance at the stunned Axeman; he walked directly to Fina, knelt on one knee, and the crisp sound of his knee armor hitting the ground pulled the Goddess out of her shock.
"Lady Fina, I, Saur Tobar, will continue to protect your safety as a Guardian Spirit until this last wisp of soul power shatters and dissipates."
"You, you actually did it!?"
Fina, disregarding her status as a Goddess, directly grabbed and tugged at Saur's hair. Feeling the real texture in her hand, her face was filled with disbelief.
After confirming, she immediately looked at Cheng Tian. In her opinion, Cheng Tian had used his previous ability to create human knights out of thin air with magic to preserve Saur's soul, which was about to dissipate, and give it a materialized physical form.
It was no exaggeration to say that this almost directly involved the authority related to the creation of life, and this authority was truly a taboo in every sense of the word.
"How is this possible!? I clearly—"
But compared to his allies, the enemy Axeman, Kishugar, was the one with the greatest emotional fluctuations.
"You're not mistaken. I can still clearly remember the moment your axe blade was deeply embedded in my forehead, completely taking my life."
After Cheng Tian had pulled away the Goddess's small hand that was tugging at his hair, Saur, whose eyelids still twitched uncontrollably after witnessing this scene, quickly chose to stand up, looked back at the Axeman, and said.
"I'll go earn souls; you two fight to your heart's content."
Cheng Tian handed over the Greatsword of Crimson Lotus, which had completed its resonance mission.
"...As you command. Lady Fina, please also follow Lord Cheng."
Saur, knowing what Cheng Tian was saying, took his sword and a rare, faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
And the Greatsword of Crimson Lotus, back in the hands of its true master, let out a humming sound as if its "weapon spirit was overjoyed."
And so, Cheng Tian and Fina casually walked past the Axeman, Kishugar. In Kishugar's eyes, besides Saur, there was no room for anyone else.
"Saur!!!!!!!!"
The Asura Battle-Axe, charged with ice magic, ruthlessly cleaved towards Saur with the force of splitting a mountain.
Saur stood ready, his Greatsword of Crimson Lotus, charged with flame magic, directly parried upwards, actively meeting the opponent's strike.
At this moment, the number of innocent souls above Saur's head, invisible to others, had dropped to 27, meaning his maximum existence time was less than 30 seconds.
Moreover, with each clash between the two, one more soul would decrease, indicating that the Axeman's strike was transmitted through the sword into Saur's body.
But after several clashes, the Commander's single-digit souls, which were already nearing depletion, visibly and rapidly increased—
Cheng Mouren, who had left the field early with his people, was slaughtering the monsters in the Blazing Fire Domain, frantically absorbing souls to extend Saur's life!