Sinister winds gusted as scarlet mist gradually filled the air. Debris and bones kept the music playing and the dancing going. It looked just like love.
Slash!!
The Sacred Flame Sword Aura abruptly shattered this beautiful scene, sweeping straight toward a demon's five limbs.
Blood sprayed, limbs littered the ground, and the city gained another heartbroken demon.
But as a player who respected the elderly and cherished the young, Lynn naturally couldn't bear to see demons suffer so much. So he used Feast on the pale-faced demons.
[Feast Stacks: 104]
"Nergal's here. He's started invading Gotham. What should we do?"
Raven raised her hand and blasted a beam of energy into a demon's lower body, then rushed to Lynn's side.
"Why are you only hitting their weak spots?" Lynn asked in confusion.
"Isn't that enough?" Raven countered. "I learned it from you."
Lynn shook his head. "Targeting their weak spots is right, but you haven't grasped the essence."
As he spoke, he swung the Flameflow Blade again, severing a Minotaur Demon's five limbs in an instant. Golden holy flame blazed over the demon's wounds with a sizzling hiss.
"Aaaaargh!!" The Minotaur Demon let out an agonized scream.
Lynn turned toward Raven beside him and said with a smile:
"See? Just hitting their vulnerable spots isn't enough. You also have to cut off their arms and legs like I do, so they feel the pain but can't cover the places that hurt."
Raven: "..."
You really are a living king of hell.
Satan should have you tattooed on his back.
"Hehehe..."
A hoarse, shrill laugh came from above, as grating as a cat repeatedly scraping its claws against glass.
Lynn looked up at the tall, powerfully built figure and couldn't help curling his lip.
With that laugh, anyone who didn't know better would think Nergal had gone next door and eaten a few Soul Heavenly Emperors.
Nergal gazed at Gotham, now shrouded in hell, and slowly raised his right hand.
A dense cloud of green mist gathered in his palm, turning into countless tiny plague spores that drifted away on the wind.
The Plague Demons still fighting Lynn and Raven instantly went berserk after inhaling the spores. Their bodies swelled, their wounds rapidly healed, and even their attacks gained corrosive green flames.
"Awooo! Power! I can feel the power!!"
A Dog Demon clenched his fist and lunged at Lynn, as worked up as a humping toy poodle.
Then...
Chef Lynn's exquisite blade work carved him up cleanly. His limbs and the weak spot between his legs were all removed, while he kept babbling nonsense like, "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
"These plague spores can strengthen demons and corrode magical power!" Raven's expression darkened.
Lynn swung the Flameflow Blade, unleashing slash after slash of Sacred Flame Sword Aura. But these berserk demons had not only become faster and stronger-even their defenses had improved.
Low-level demons that he could previously turn into demon clubs with a few slashes now took more than a dozen.
Worse still, when the green flames splashed onto him, they corroded little holes even in the iron armor of his Big Bear Outfit.
"Tsk... The Big Bear Outfit has no magic resistance. This stuff damages it easily, and... the big boss has given all these mobs a group buff. That's a bit of a pain."
Even as Lynn complained about the difficulty, his blade kept rising and falling, chopping off the demons' weak spots.
"Everyone, hold them off for a bit. I'll go get reinforcements."
Constantine quickly retreated, positioning everyone else in front of him before turning and running away.
But before he had gone very far, he came back.
"Didn't you say you were getting reinforcements?" Raven asked irritably.
Constantine said nothing, merely pointing at the demons in front of him. He could see the vicious, lecherous grins spreading across their faces.
They were lusting after his ass.
"Screw it."
Constantine gritted his teeth and pulled an antique copper cross from inside his coat, then took out the holy water Chas had given him earlier.
Sprinkling the holy water over the cross, he began chanting an obscure, solemn incantation:
"In the name of the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit, I invoke the Covenant of Heaven..."
This was Constantine's ultimate trump card.
Years ago, he had used this very spell to summon an angel and narrowly escape the Hell Lord Nergal's trap.
"Constantine... I recognize you. Plenty of demons in hell have their eyes on your soul."
As golden light rose into the sky, the Hell Lord Nergal noticed Constantine too.
An amused smile flickered across his face as he said:
"They all say you've screwed over quite a few demons while signing contracts... Once your soul is in my hands, I'll let them give you a proper welcome..."
Constantine's sphincter involuntarily tightened.
"You really get around. Just what I'd expect from an exorcist from the United Kingdom," Lynn's voice came from beside him. "Even in hell, there are so many demons lusting after your ass."
"They're demons, not people." Constantine rolled his eyes. "Even if I swing both ways, I'd never get involved with something like a demon."
"Heh heh... Constantine, once I have your soul, I'll turn you into a woman and let countless Hell Demons have a taste of you!"
Nergal waved his hand. Hellfire surged straight toward the cross in Constantine's hand.
The next instant, decaying green flames crawled over the Silver Cross. Cracks instantly covered it before it crumbled into fragments.
"No!"
Constantine stared at the fragments scattering from his hand, looking as miserable as if Dickhead Four had forced open his back door.
"My magic... He interrupted it!"
He could clearly feel the green flames forcibly severing his connection to Heaven.
That meant he could no longer summon an angel down.
Worse still, more and more low-level demons were gathering around them, while green flames and black mist enveloped the entire ruined estate.
Some demons had even started charging toward downtown Gotham. Before long, the whole of Gotham City would become a Hell Branch.
"Damn it..." Constantine stared at the smug Nergal ahead. "Do I really have to use that?"
He still had one final trump card that was guaranteed to banish Nergal back to hell.
But if he did that, his soul really would
end up in hell.
Should he send himself alone to hell, or let a whole crowd of Gotham's people go there?
Constantine wavered.
Raven's head felt ready to split. The Ruby had sealed away both her father and her demonic bloodline, leaving her almost powerless against Nergal's invasion of Gotham.
If Gotham became a Hell Branch, her father Trigon would very likely be resurrected. But if her demonic bloodline awakened, Trigon would return immediately.
Neither path was one she wanted to take.
"Isn't there any other way?" Raven's expression was utterly grim.
"A way?"
Nergal glanced at the people on the ground and sneered.
"Gotham has already started becoming a Hell Branch. If you still had a way to stop it, wouldn't that make me a worthless excuse for a Hell Lord?"
The Magic Circle had already begun forcibly transforming Gotham into hell. Even if Raven's father came, he would have no way to reverse the situation.
At that thought, the corners of Nergal's mouth rose involuntarily.
Who in this world could possibly ruin my plans?
Just then, a calm voice suddenly rang out.
"You might really have to become a dog."
Holding the blazing Flameflow Blade, Lynn looked at Nergal ahead with a peculiar expression.
Didn't this Hell Lord know that popping the champagne at halftime was a cardinal sin?
[You have killed enough evil creatures for the Flameflow Blade to formally ascend to godhood. Would you like to proceed? (Choosing ascension will consume the Flameflow Blade to summon the Angel of Justice.)] [Note: My perfection will surely make them tremble!]