Bartholomew stood beneath the crystal core, surrounded by the twenty remaining Grace-enhanced angels.
These enhanced angels no longer looked like angels. Their skin had split open from the excessive Grace injected into them, golden light pouring from every crack and illuminating the twisted expressions on their faces.
Some had eyeballs bulging from their sockets. Some had golden blood streaming from the corners of their mouths. Some had fingers that had already melted into thick golden liquid, dripping onto the ground and corroding little pits into it.
They stood there, their bodies trembling slightly like a pack of living bombs on the verge of exploding.
Bartholomew himself was a head taller than he had been three months ago. His muscles bulged like boulders, and the surface of his skin was covered in a thick membrane of golden energy.
He held a spear condensed from pure holy light. Its shaft was three meters long, and the light at its tip was so blinding that no one could look directly at it.
Corpses were piled all around the altar.
The corpses of demon hunters, angels, and civilians used as energy supplies.
Blue-gold angel blood mixed with red human blood, soaking into the vitrified ground. The air was thick with the stench of blood and the scorched smell left by holy light.
Isaac stepped over a corpse and walked beneath the altar. Blood still dripped from his bone blade, while the glowing cracks beneath his skin pulsed.
"Demon Hunter Knight?" Bartholomew's voice came from atop the altar, like metal grinding against glass. "You modified freaks think you can kill me?"
He raised a hand, and a golden spear of light shot straight at Isaac.
Isaac raised his bone blade to block it.
The instant the spearhead struck the blade, a shockwave exploded outward, flinging