Everything happens very fast, even for Lucien, who has ridiculously powerful senses.
As the bright light blinds him, he hears the air in front of him being cut and knows that someone is attacking him.
Lucien doesn't know who his enemy is, their strength, or their weapon. But all of that doesn't matter because he has to protect Oya in his arms at any cost.
But what movement can he also make while evading by pus.h.i.+ng himself backward in the air?
His instincts act on impulse while Lucien turns around to keep Oya away from his attacker's weapon while summoning his red katana in his other hand, positioned in front of his waist.
His action, despite being quick, is inefficient because while he is blind and turning his back on his attacker, they can clearly see the blade of his katana and attack another part of Lucien's body.
In that case, it is the face.
*BAM*
Lucien feels his face smashed by a brutally powerful attack with a force he has never felt before.
As the pain quickly radiates from his face to his entire head, he feels his body being pushed forward.
And losing all balance, Lucien is thrown in an unknown direction while hugging Oya and rotating their bodies so that his back is in the direction they are being thrown to prevent her from getting hurt.
Lucien tries to regain control of his body using his wings, but he fails because he continues to be influenced by his attacker's heavy blow.
L.u.s.t, who was not influenced by the bright light, materializes her body behind Lucien and tries to stop him, but she fails to do that before they hit the ground, after breaking several trees.
*BOOOM*
Lucien feels his bones creak as he hits the ground hard, breaking rocks with his back and opening a large crater in the area.
L.u.s.t's body is destroyed, and she returns to Lucien's soul while Oya is fully protected in Lucien's arms.
That light blinded not only Lucien but also the other people who were looking at the sky, including Eve.
Before she even regains her sight, she mentally screams at mentally Pride as she runs towards the loud noise. 'PRIDE!!!'
Pride, floating on the spot where Lucien was just ago, looks at her fist with a curious expression and thinks out loud. "The boy has hard bones."
She cannot deny that she had a good first impression of Lucien. [People usually panic when blinded by my light, but he stayed calm and tried to use his body to protect the woman in his arms... maybe L.u.s.t got a really good host this time.]
Still, Pride can't let anyone get in the way of her plans. Then she speaks mentally in a rigid tone to Eve. 'Don't get into it!'
Eve ignores Pride's order and continues running towards the loud noise, but then she hears another voice, this one in an affectionate but firm tone.
"Don't get involved in this, big sis," Lucien speaks as he hears Eve running towards him.
Lucien wastes no time, and while regaining his vision, he focuses his demonic energy, puts Oya to the side, jumps off the ground, and flaps his wings hard, propelling himself into the sky again.
*Whoosh*
Eve sees Lucien going up to the sky at speed almost as high as he fell. "So fast!"
She is upset that she can't fly and stop Lucien from going after Pride, so she sends her a mental message. 'Don't fight him!'
'This cannot be stopped now. I will not kill him.' Pride responds.
As Lucien flies towards Pride, he can't help but be surprised by her appearance. He likes her skin full of blueish onyx scales, her big curved horns, her thick tail, and everything about her imposing look.
'Just don't use the naginata. Soul dragonic weapons can hurt her soul, hurting your sister. But other than that, you can hurt her as much as you want as it won't affect Eve.' L.u.s.t explains it to Lucien mentally.
Lucien stops in front of Pride, who continues to look at him with a curious expression. He also looks at her with the same expression while speaking in a provocative tone. "Pride? I'm not sure if this name does justice to someone who makes such a sneak attack like that."
Pride laughs, showing her sharp white teeth. "Sneak attack? I attacked you from the front. If you couldn't keep up with my speed or look at my brightness, it is not my fault."
Lucien smiles as he swings his arms, making creak sounds with his bones as he resets it in place. His incredible regeneration fixes his body while he just has to deal with some pain.
"We have things to resolve," Lucien speaks after readjusting his body.
Pride notices the hostility in Lucien's gaze and quickly concludes that it is not just because she has just attacked him. "What did L.u.s.t tell you? Oh, it doesn't matter. Doesn't she have the audacity to go out and face her eldest sister?"
When Pride speaks her arrogant words, Lucien thinks that L.u.s.t would materialize her body at his side and answer Pride. But she remained silent, and Lucien can feel that she is hesitant.
He already expected that the situation with Pride would be quite different from that with Envy, but he did not expect L.u.s.t to be afraid of Pride. He also didn't expect Pride to attack him like that, and due to Eve's reaction, he knows she didn't either expect or agree with that.
Although a part of Lucien finds hurting a woman very wrong, he knows that he has to punish and Pride, and for that, he will have to use all his power, except the golden naginata, of course.
However, he doesn't want to use his red katana either. Then he opens and closes his hands, clearly preparing his fists. "Let's do it."
"No weapons? I like that." Pride smiles.
'Her power is in the eighth layer of the Earth Realm, so don't save your demonic energy. I will share mine with you if you need it.' L.u.s.t talks to Lucien.
Lucien cannot deny that it seems ridiculous to fight someone from the eighth layer of the Earth Realm while he is not yet in the fifth layer of the Mortal Realm.
But he cannot back down. He is also his 'pride,' and he cannot let Pride step on it.
As Pride has already made the first attack, Lucien does not think twice before flying towards her with all his speed, using part of his demonic energy on his wings.
His control of demonic energy is already at a level where he can use a certain amount of it on any part of his body to improve any of his physical capabilities for a long time before he runs out of energy.
Pride is impressed by Lucien's speed because of his low power level, but she can follow his movements naturally.
Lucien punches forward, aiming for Pride's upper body, but before his fist touches her body, she disappears, turning into a cloud of white smoke.
He hears the air moving aside his body as she materializes her body on his side and punches his waist.
Due to being able to dematerialize and recreate their bodies instantly, Pride and the other great demons can literally teleport as L.u.s.t has been doing since Lucien replenished her demonic energy.
Now, without being blind and carrying Oya, Lucien quickly turns his body in time to use his arm to block Pride's attack.
*BAM!*
*Crack*
Lucien expected Pride's attack would be strong, but not to the point of opening wounds on his skin and creating cracks in his bones even though he used demonic energy on his forearm.
He is thrown to the ground again, but this time he is prepared for it and regains his body's control by flapping his wings strongly.
Eve's troops are surprised as they watch the incredible fight in the air as she gets more and more upset with Pride and worried about Lucien.
"Tsk." Pride scoffs before charging towards Lucien. Despite not having wings, she can fly simply using her energy, which is already potent thanks to Eve's power.
As soon as Lucien sees Pride going toward him, he raises his arms again, but before her fists touch his forearms, he flaps his right-wing, propelling his body to the side to dodge the attack.
"Humph." Pride scoffs again as she teleports in front of Lucien, continuing her attack and landing a powerful punch on his forearms.
*BAM* *Crack*
Lucien is thrown through the air again while feeling terrible pain in his arms. His powerful life affinity quickly begins to repair his body, but at the cost of life mana, of course.
He is aware that his strength is not impressive, but he gets frustrated by feeling slower than Envy, while his agility is his greatest a.s.set.
L.u.s.t tries to motivate Lucien while feeling his frustration. 'Don't compare yourself to her. She is a great demon with a body made of energy and is more than a realm more powerful than you. No one below the Earth Realm could block an attack from her.'
Lucien regains his balance again and faces Pride.
"Life mana? You have some secrets, boy." Pride sounds arrogant in any way she speaks.
Lucien doesn't answer Pride but flies towards her, trying to attack her again. This time she doesn't attack him but blocks all his attacks while he tries to punch and kick her from different angles.
While Lucien fails to hurt Pride, even using his demonic energy in many ways, she just laughs. "Is this all you have, boy? I must say that using demonic energy like that is impressive. Even Eve can't do that yet, but it's not enough to face me."
L.u.s.t is upset with Pride for her words. Obviously, Lucien is incredible for being able to fight her with more than one realm of power between them, but Pride still makes fun of him.
Eve also realizes that and is very proud of Lucien as she watches the fight from the ground. She is also disappointed with Pride, who does not look anything impressive, making fun of Lucien.
Oya also watches the fight as more than a hundred Alliance troops surround her. She doesn't understand much about power level, but she totally trusts Lucien and knows that he will beat even more powerful enemies than he.
After blocking and dodging over a hundred hits from Lucien in a few seconds, Pride ducks in the air and punches Lucien on the belly.
*BAM*
He is thrown into the air while spitting out a lot of blood and feels his organs in chaos inside his body.
Despite feeling a lot of pain with Pride's brutal attacks, Lucien is not discouraged by the fight; on the contrary, each time he exchanges blows with her, he feels more excited while his naginata seems more and more agitated inside his soul. He can even feel the golden gate inside the naginata tremble every time he takes a Pride blow.
However, Lucien knows that he will not have demonic energy to fight for long. After exchanging more blows with Pride and being punched several times, he feels that his energy is already below half.
He knows that L.u.s.t will give her demonic energy to him, but he feels like that would be the same as defeat as it would show his failure to deal with Pride alone.
But then he remembers the other energies within his body, specifically the mix of demonic energies he created with Envy and Amelia.
'L.u.s.t, can I use the mixed energies to boost my body as I use my own energy?' Lucien asks.
L.u.s.t and Envy understand almost nothing about the mixed energies, so she answers honestly. 'I'm not sure. Try it, and let's see what happens.'
Lucien prepares to attack Pride, but this time he doesn't focus his demonic energy alone but the mix, making his arm s.h.i.+ne purple and gray at the same time.
'It looks easy.' Lucien already had incredible control over the mixed energies, so he has no difficulty using them to boost his physical capabilities.
He feels much greater power than his original running through his arms and wastes no time before flying towards Pride, also using the mixed energies on his wings to boost his speed.
While L.u.s.t is impressed and proud of Lucien, Pride is shocked to the soul. Lucien seems to have many peculiarities, but she is perplexed to see him using energy that looks like a mixture of the energies of L.u.s.t and Envy.
"What the h.e.l.l?" She thinks out loud while having trouble following his current speed with her eyes.
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