Chapter 221: Stage Crash
"Let’s finish this real quick," Eren called out, his voice cheerful.
Branagh swept the iron girder in a horizontal arc that could have bisected a building. Eren dropped into a slide, the wind of the passing metal ruffling his hair, and then he was moved. Dark blue flames erupted from his boots, leaving trails of shadow-fire across the floorboards as he became a blur, a streak of afterimage circling the ten-foot monster.
"Stop running, insect!" Branagh roared, his glowing blue eyes tracking the afterimages with growing frustration.
Eren didn’t stop. He accelerated, flames trailing behind him like comet tails and creating a vortex of dark energy.
Branagh snarled, slamming his massive foot against the stage.
The floorboards erupted and several sharp, Jagged stone spears burst upward in a spreading pattern, chasing Eren’s path. The stage became a minefield of death, each spike capable of impaling a horse.
So Eren ran up the wall.
Literally up the wall, defying gravity, his dark flames finding purchase on vertical stone as the spikes chased him like a hungry cheetah.
"Gimme that sword!" he shouted, extending his hand backward without looking.
Gold hurled her blade without hesitation.
Eren caught it mid-leap, his body twisting in mid-air, dark blue flames wrapping around the steel as he came down on Branagh’s position with the force of a falling star, the sword trailing black fire, and brought it down in a brutal overhead slash.
"HRAAAGH!"
The blade bit deep into Branagh’s shoulder, carving through mutated meat down to the bone. Blood sprayed across the ruined stage.
But even as Eren landed, the flesh was already knitting, demonic regeneration fighting against the dark magic.
"Pathetic!" Branagh laughed, backhanding Eren with a fist like a wrecking ball.
Eren rolled with the impact, skidding across the floor, and shouted, "Gold! Your turn!"
She was already in the air, having launched herself from the orchestra box railing. "Throw it!"
Eren flipped the sword back to her without question, Gold snatched it from the air, and suddenly the steel ignited with a holy light.
Blinding pure light that only a few possessed—Divine magic.
She brought the sword down on the same wound Eren had carved, and this time the effect was different. The white light hit the dark regeneration like water hitting fire, canceling it, burning it away. The flesh stopped knitting and the wound stayed open, bleeding.
"AAAAAAGH!" Branagh screamed, genuine pain in his voice for the first time. "WHAT—WHAT IS THIS?!"
Eren’s mouth hung open as gold landed beside Eren. The unhinged confidence was momentarily replaced by genuine, baffled confusion.
"How," he said, pointing at the sword, at her, at the light, "do you have divine magic? That’s—that’s impossible. You’re an assassin. You kill people. Divine magic —"
"Just like you knew the Empress’s secret," Gold snarled, her amber eyes blazing with that white light from behind her mask, "I have mine. So shut the fuck up and let’s talk after this!"
Eren stared at her for one long heartbeat. "Is this your plan?"
"I need to get deep inside his mana core," Gold said, her voice serious and tight. "Overflow it with divine magic. The Substance is the demonic essence—divine light is its antithesis. But I need him to be still. I need him not to move for a few seconds."
"Few seconds," Eren repeated, rolling his shoulders. The dark flames around his hands intensified, spreading up his arms like living shadow. "I can give you ten seconds."
"Then let’s start, brat!"
They moved as one.
Eren went high, launching himself into the air on pillars of dark fire, raining down slashes of shadow that forced Branagh to guard his head. Gold went low, sweeping attacks at his knees, the divine light on her blade leaving scorch marks on his flesh that wouldn’t heal.
Branagh roared, swinging the girder in wild arcs, smashing through the remaining stage supports. The floor groaned, cracked, and began to give way.
"NOW!" Gold shouted.
Eren dropped from above, both hands clasped together, dark mana compressing into a solid mass above his fists. He came down on Branagh’s skull like a hammer, driving the monster’s head down, down, down—
"GOT YOU!"
Gold lunged forward and drove her sword straight into Branagh’s exposed chest. The divine magic erupted, a pillar of white fire that shot upward through the ceiling, through the floors above, burning away the night itself.
Branagh screamed. But the stage screamed louder.
Already weakened floorboards finally shattered. The entire center of the stage collapsed in a shower of splinters and dust, the three of them fell into the storage rooms.
As they fell, Eren caught Gold’s hand in his.
"Ten seconds," he said, his voice barely audible over the rushing wind.
"You gave me twelve," she replied, and for just a moment, he thought he heard a smile in her voice.
Eren rolled through the impact, using the momentum of the fall to slide across the floor before coming to a halt in a low crouch. Beside him, Gold landed on one knee.
And they found themselves surrounded by numerous iron cages.
The holding pens where they store rare monsters before auction. The monsters inside were thrashing violently against iron bars in response to the intrusion.
Right in front of Eren, he spotted the Shadow Cat cub. It had a pure black coat, two tails lashing in a mixture of terror and feral defiance. Its eyes met Eren’s blue gaze.
"Well, look at you," Eren murmured under his breath, dusting powdered stone from his bangs with an unbothered smirk. "Mira would love you...I guess?"
CRUNCH.
A sound like grinding boulders shattered the moment.
From the mountain of collapsed stage debris erupted outward in an explosion as Branagh rose.
The Lord of the Flesh was no longer remotely human. The divine mana Gold had triggered a catastrophic, desperate reaction from The Substance saturating his bloodline. The drug, sensing imminent destruction, went into hyper-adaptation.
His flesh burning. His grey muscle bulged until he reached nearly twelve feet in height. Thick, jagged plates of black, bone-like carapace ruptured through his chest, arms, and skull, forming a monstrous, organic exoskeleton. Four additional, arachnid-like bone scythes erupted from his shoulder blades, dripping with corrosive, dark-blue ichor. At the center of his chest plate, partially shielded behind interlocking ribs of black bone.
"Insects..." Branagh’s voice was no longer a rumble—it was demonic. "You forced my hand... You ruined my establishment... I will digest your marrow for eternity!"
Gold stepped up beside Eren. "His exterior has petrified into an anti-magic bone carapace. If we can’t crack the chest plate, my divine strike won’t reach the core."
"Leave that shit to me," Eren grinned, his blue eyes gleaming with delight. "Just make sure you don’t miss the delivery window."