The moment when Lars arrived was also just before the greatest climax of the battle.Covered by runes of stealth, he dashed over to Luca"s side, layered protection over her fled as fast he could. Still, he did not forget to channel a mixture of Earth Pulse and Divine Light, spurring her body"s natural regeneration while supplementing her vitality with his own abundant energy.
As Lars sped away from the centre of the explosions, he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck being singed even through his defensive layers, but he didn"t care. He held her tightly in a princess carry, still being careful not to touch her bountiful a.s.sets. Even unconscious and dying as she was, Lars had to work hard to ignore her sweet scent and flawless face body that could belong to a G.o.ddess" statue.
Without a heart and lungs, Luca"s body had already started to cool. However, he could sense that there was still life force remaining - as an Elder (Legendary) Divine Light cultivator, her inner vitality had advanced to a high level.
When he reached a distance he judged safe enough, he immediately executed the resuscitation plan he had thought of. He grunted and steeled himself as he split open his chest to allow his a small ball of flesh to emerge.
From the time that Luca had fallen to now, he had gone through the agonising process of extracting heart cells from every key area of his own heart and simulated a new organ. Based on natural processes, this organ would be nothing but a lump of meat in the shape and structure of a heart, however, Lars added an extra step that made it beat.
He split off his mana core, infused it with Earth Pulse and melted it down into nutrients to be the life catalyst for the artificial organ.
"Here goes nothing... Please, live! Else, how will I repay the debt to the entire Fetch homestead? To whom shall I repay the debt of saving my life and giving me a foundation in this world...?" Lars concentrated as he carefully placed the artificial heart into Luca"s chest cavity and then allowed her body to heal itself, sealing the wound.
"From here... There"s nothing left but to leave it to chance... Luca... Live!"
Having settled that, Lars sprouted wings of a grey so deep that it would allow him to be camouflaged against the midnight sky, then rose into the clouds to find his prey.
He arrived back at the ruined battleground just in time and smiled. Belic Wildwood"s soul had just begun to dissipate while the Sun Lord was oblivious to his surroundings as he stabilised his state, neither aware of the danger lurking right on their doorstep.
"The fisherman has arrived at just the right time..." Lars smiled grimly.
He cast a fine net of runes into the skies spreading several kilometres in every direction to block Belic and the Sun Lord"s soul and consciousness from returning to their main bodies.
Then, Lars flitted down from the pre-dawn sky towards his first unsuspecting target – the soul fragment of Belic, the War Angel.
He moved quickly, wasting no time. The moment he was in range, Lars summoned his soul-imprint of Prime Evil, manifesting in the shape of a door that seemed to leak blood from its edges.
"Prime Evil: Door of Gluttony!" whispering under his breath, Lars watched as he summoned this soul-ability for the first time.
If it weren"t his own ability, Lars himself would have been creeped out by the sight, and despite it being under his control, he made a point never to allow the Prime Evil"s combined power to override his conscience.
When he spoke the words under his breath, Lars felt an insatiable hunger to devour not just food or life, but to swallow up all things. Then he realised that this hunger was not from within him, but was emanating strongly from within the door.
He felt a sense of danger and backed away from the door in an instant – just in time as well, for in the moment he withdrew, a gruesome eyeless head burst out from the door"s frame with its neck pouring forth and stretching further and further to snap up Belic"s soul fragment. Not stopping there, the blood-covered head that had its veins and arteries exposed swiftly turned and bit at the spot where Lars had been just a moment ago.
Watching the scene of the ravenous mouth devour even the air, dust particles and s.p.a.ce where he had been located, Lars felt the back of his clothes grow wet with cold sweat. However, another sharp pang of danger struck him and he used a Blink to withdraw a further 100 metres.
Again, he was just in time. The snapping mouth that was already 5 times bigger than the door had disappeared. No, it had just moved so fast that its speed eluded even Lars" perception. The mouth re-emerged right where he, now 10 times larger than before and bit down on the empty s.p.a.ce he had just vacated.
Lars s.h.i.+vered and trembled when he saw the ferocity of his own summoning. He fought off the dread at the thought that he had just opened a door to a world of horrors beyond any horrors he had just seen.
"It"s, it"s just too shockingly fast! I"ve gotta act before it stretches again and devours me!"
Decisively, he channelled energy into his soul-imprint and forced the door downwards at high speed, sending it like a meteor cras.h.i.+ng down at the Sun Lord. The snapping fleshy head/ mouth released a deafening roar of defiance when it realised that its prey was moving further away, and it shot out its tongue like a la.s.so to catch Lars which he barely dodged by rocketing backwards.
He breathed out a sigh of relief when the tongue stopped short by several metres. He could almost feel the frightening power of that gargantuan tongue even from a distance – he had no desire to find out what the insides of this infernal creature were like…!
Upon hearing the roar above him, the Sun Lord"s eyes snapped open in shock. His gaze turned to the skies and his expression turned from shock to horror as the mouth chomped down not just on him but also everything in a 3 kilometre radius.
"No!!! How could anything elude my divine sense…! This can"t be, can"t be!!! How can such a creature enter the Prison Planet, this power that exceeds even the Star—" the Sun Lord could not finish his last thoughts as even his soul fragment was turned into nutrition for the embodiment of gluttony.
Lars breathed out a sigh of relief. He checked the rune net above him briefly and found that no hint of soul-sense had pa.s.sed through – which meant that neither Belic nor the Sun Lord"s memories of him had returned to their main bodies…
Which also meant that he would remain hidden in the dark, unknown and unnoticed by his soon to be doomed enemies!
Suddenly, Lars" skin began to crawl and he felt the grim reaper descending down on him. He hurriedly began to unravel the Door of Gluttony when he realised that the mouth, though it seemed to be happily munching on its latest snack, was actually keeping its eyeless attention on him while inching closer…
He banished the flow of Earth Pulse he had used to summon his soul-ability and allowed the door to fade away into a b.l.o.o.d.y red stream of energy, much to the chagrin and unwillingness of the devouring G.o.d. When it realised its time in this world was up, it desperately fled back through the door with the neck, mouth and head managing to stuff its humongous body into the frame that looked like a pinhole compared to its size. It promptly disappeared without a trace.
And as the door faded away, the streams of red energy that looked like a shower of blood turned to particles of light and returned to Lars body, nouris.h.i.+ng him with the power of laws he had just devoured.