Chapter 290: No more games
Lucy looked at Aren for a while, then she stretched her hand to him. He looked at the hand and took it, a sign of their agreement.
He looked up at the skies from there after letting go of her hand.
"Elton, Loki, and all you assholes sitting up there, I’m coming for you, get ready."
After declaring that, they left the mountain fast, and right at that moment, every single awakened that was inside the trial was sent a message about the angel not being there anymore and to find Shadow and the angel and kill them both.
Aren also got a message, though his own was different.
[kill the fallen angel now or be branded an enemy to all awakened]
The message was clear and simple. Aren had a choice, and if he chose to disobey, he would officially become the enemy of humanity right now.
’I’m not stopping now, I’ll get my freedom at any cost, any,’ Aren thought to himself.
Not long after, he saw a ton of awakened headed his way. They had somehow tracked him very fast and were now all coming to take down the shadow.
"You still need to recover your strength," Aren said to Lucy. "Allow me to handle this."
He was still very much weak and could not use his full strength now, but he didn’t believe that he would need to use all that strength.
With the wolf guard on his right hand, he waited for them to get close, and then he slashed, unleashing a claw strike.
One of the awakened reacted to the attack first and slammed his hands into the ground, causing a wall of vines to launch from the ground several feet thick. The attack hit it and was stopped.
Vines shot from the wall at Aren.
He countered with shadow slashes, multiple ripping through the air. They hit the vines and chopped them down.
The wall came down and all the awakened were still standing there, many of them stunned to see that Aren was the shadow.
"All of you can back down now and not have to die, I’ll not be stopping for anyone, and even your gods and angels know this. They are all sending you to your death in hopes that one of you can take me down," Aren explained.
"We would rather face you than face them," one said. He wielded a spear and charged ahead, leaping into the air, and a purple flame engulfed the spear as he hurled it down.
Aren and Lucy backed away fast, the spear hit the ground and a massive explosion followed. It acted like a trigger as everyone rushed at Aren.
There was no other choice anymore, each one of them would have to die for him to show the angels that he was not stopping now.
The first one came in fast with a slash. Aren dodged the attack easily and then grabbed the arm, ripping it clean off. The blood splattered into the air and before the man could even scream, he turned around and slammed the hand right into the face of the man, hurling him back through the air.
He tossed the hand aside in order to block the attack that was coming, a reddish blast from the hand of a young lady about his age. She immediately wanted to attack again, but before she could, tendrils shot from the ground and grabbed her, ripping her hands off in a gruesome manner.
He did not even bother looking at her as his eyes had already turned to the dude that had attacked with the spear the first time, he was attacking again with a flame covered thrust.
’They keep coming even after seeing that I’m not playing around, fine, then I’ll make the message clear.’
He dodged the spear and then grabbed it with his right hand. The flames exploded right there at point blank range and Aren didn’t even shake. He looked the man dead in the eyes and pushed the spear backwards and the sharp end penetrated through the armor of the man.
He drove it deep and then pushed the man into the arms of an incoming attacker, rushed forward and punched the tip, driving it back even more until it impaled the man behind.
"Hiaaaaa"
Aren heard a scream behind him, a lady attacked. She stretched out her hands and they turned to elastic metal looking arms that wrapped around him, then she tried to pull him in. Aren looked at her with a cold gaze and then pulled her in fast and then headbutted her so hard that her head shattered on impact, blood splattered everywhere.
Lucy watched this scene and couldn’t help but be scared. This level of brutality, was it really needed, but then she recalled that all those people would do the same to her if they could and Aren was protecting her. That managed to warm her heart towards Aren and his brutal acts started looking lovely.
After Aren basically took out four of them in gruesome ways, about ten were left, but their eagerness to attack was now shaky. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place, disobey the system and run or face Aren.
At the end of either door was pain and regret.
"Fuck this, I’m killing him," one yelled before transforming into what looked like a massive crocodile with black scales and blood red eyes.
He charged at Aren, wanting to bite him and kill him as fast as possible. Aren watched him come and then charged at him as well. He unleashed a claw strike, but the hard armor completely blocked the attacks.
Aren was unbothered though, he pulled back his fist, evaded the first bite and then punched the mouth shut.
BANG
The punch was so powerful that it shattered the mouth and the bones in it. Aren then proceeded to use shadow tendrils to wrap around the mouth and force it open until the mouth ripped off and killed the awakened in that form.
[Note to Readers: Brutality levels from this Chapter on is at least doubled. If you didn’t catch it in the Chapter, Aren is currently in an indifferent state where his goal matters the most]