The Crusader’s rampage was not sustainable, something that he was aware of. He should have been more cautious, as this mistake definitely did cost him the battle. All of his attacks did not land and destroy her core. Rather, they seemed to do nothing more than inconvenience the demon in front of him. While he did succeed at preventing her from being able to breathe and recover, his divine blessing was coming to a close at this time. His energy at this point had become close to nearly depleted, making his movements slow down despite the world moving rather slowly.

Despite the fact that the upper half of the woman has been turned into nothing but shreds and bits, he could not let his guard down. However, the problem came with the fact that his exhaustion was catching up to him, making the very act of swinging his sword genuinely difficult. This was not something he could continue and he desperately needed a break.

He had no choice anymore. He let free of his blessing and staggered back, taking the time to take in as much air as possible. His eyes maintained contact with all the scattered shreds of the woman, with the lower half still left intact. Those legs started to twitch, before starting to float and stagger around blindly. All the other flesh bits started to squirm and crawl towards each other, most likely to return to normal and regenerate all the damage done.

He could not allow this to happen. His right foot slammed down on a pile of small flesh bits and ground them down. With that, he took another step forward with his other foot and slashed out at the legs that were walking around endlessly.

His greatsword’s blade struck at the knees, splitting the bone and flesh apart. The upper legs were ripped away from the remaining feet, and he struck out once more, this time aiming towards the lower legs. The same weak point that the previous soldiers had, which ultimately did not succeed to change anything. If anything, all he did was allow the feet to float and fly around like projectiles.

They all went into multiple directions, fading into the fog and preventing the Crusader from being able to trace wherever they went. That didn’t really help him at all. For all he knew, the weak point could be in the feet, could be in any of the flesh bits, nothing. There was no information for him to go off of, and all he could do now was back up to recover.

At least, that was the plan. The fog started to lift away, revealing the room in its full proper. He blinked as he saw the mist fading. Did he succeed? Did he kill the demon and free the town?

In an instant, he found that no, that was not the case. The bone shards had started to clutter together to form a single form, the skeletal structure of a human being. The pieces of flesh were slowly crawling towards this upper form, all of them trying to patch up the body and return the demon to normal. This was something he could not allow, absolutely. However, the problem came with the fact that there really was nothing he could do.

Where was the bit necessary to put an end to the demon? He couldn’t figure it out, this was a task that the Spartan was far more suitable for. At this point in time, he genuinely could not figure out anything to do.

He was too exhausted to continue fighting. His divine blessing had run out of reserves, and even if he did win, there really was no way to escape. Whether he won or lost, he would be put into a situation of pure defeat.

However, despite all of that, he would need to move forward. If he was able to defeat this bastard, then the fog that was plaguing the town would be lifted. His ally would be able to move onwards and take care of every of the monsters that threatened the citizens. No matter what, this was a necessity. He had to move forward, he had to keep going.

He must achieve God’s will.

One step. Two steps. The skeletal structure of the criminal had fully formed, with bits of flesh beginning to stitch themselves onto the bone.

Another step forward. The meat was taking form, transforming into the organs that made up the human figure. The stomach, the lungs, everything was beginning to form itself back to normal.

One last step. The Crusader was standing right in front of the remainders of the woman. By now, she had transformed to have some skin forming all over the body, with the head mostly normal. However, there were parts of her skin still forming all over, which resulted in patches of pure muscle being shown throughout the body. This resulted in a vile look for the woman, with her hair still growing from bright pink patches of flesh.

“Y-you ba… bastard.” Her voice was slurred, her mouth a mess that was still being repaired, “Y-yo–youuuuu–”

“Oh, shut up, you vile demon.” He spat, stabbing his greatsword into the brain of the demon, “Go to hell where you belong!”

With that, he began to twist and turn the blade, moving it all around to destroy the brain and stall her regeneration even more. He did so with malice and spite, feeling satisfaction as he watched her eyes go wide, before going off in all directions.

He kept going for a little while, before removing the blade. The remaining half of the body fell onto the ground, but the Crusader kept his guard up. He needed to search for the weakness here and now, put an end to this battle once and for all. He–

In an instant, the tides of the battle changed. One of the feet that were flying earlier slammed right into his chest. A gasp of pain erupted from him as he was launched to the ground. He rolled away, but there was a sharp, hot sensation that was forming on his body.

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He tried to get up, but he collapsed once more. There wasn’t any more energy left in his divine blessing to try to dodge the next hit, nor was he capable of standing up anymore.

“Youuuu fuckerrrr.” The droning voice of the woman came out as she got up, her head now fully recovered from the previous injury, “Hitting me out of nowhere like that. Tearing me to shreds out of nowhere and humiliating me. Oh, I am going to make you bleed for that.”

A growl erupted from him as he struggled to at least get himself to a sitting position. He needed to defend, he–

Was launched back to the ground as she kicked him hard in the face. Thankfully, his helmet was capable of blocking the strike, but that didn’t change the fact that the pain still rang in his head. His nose felt itchy and his vision swam.

“You did a lot to me, you know? Why, I have half the mind to rip out one of your arms.”

With that, he felt his right arm being grabbed. He struggled and clamped onto the offending arm with his left hand, but the woman struck out with one of her fists. Once, twice, three times, multiple times. All until he let go of her arm.

She looked down at him and sneered, before grunting. Then, a loud crack erupted from his arm.

At that moment, he felt confused. Was his arm supposed to bend like that? What did she do to hi–

Then every single last bit of pain came in all at once. Fire and brimstone burst through his elbow, and an undignified scream erupted out of him. There was so much agony that he couldn’t feel his left hand anymore. No, more than that: his arm was no longer responsive. He couldn’t move any of his fingers, he couldn’t lift his hand, his entire left arm was dead. The she-demon had completely crippled him.

He could not fight back against the waves of pain and excruciating torment. His breath got hot and painful, the sheer act of taking in air made his chest burn and suffer.

“Doesn’t feel good, does it?!”

The Crusader didn’t get the chance to respond before he was kicked in the ribs. All the air that he had just breathed in was forced right out of him as he rolled back for a little while. The moment he came to a stop was the moment the woman slammed her foot down onto his chest once more.

Once more, a giant crack burst from his chest. Another scream and a torrent of tears came down his face. At the noise, the woman began to cackle out of pure sadistic glee. It was a disgusting, vile noise, one clearly showing how much enjoyment she was deriving from the pure act of torture.

“Hahaha! Squeal some more for me, pig! Let me hear your death throes! Let me see how high I can get your voice, shall we?”

What came was a torrent of strikes and blows that serve to batter and break his body. Bones were broken, flesh was ripped apart, and his being as a whole was ripped and torn. By the end, he was nothing more than a complete mess of a human being, similar to when the woman had been recovering previously.

This was far worse than the disease that had been plaguing his body back before his descent. No, this was something indescribable, a sensation that should be reserved for the cruelest of sinners in hell. He was suffering at a state far beyond what he could handle. At this moment, he was not the almighty Crusader ordained by God to bring justice and salvation to the people of these lands. No, he was back to being the weak, pitiful man bound to the sick bed once more.

A failure of a man that could not do anything to help protect anyone. A broken thing that was unable to help himself, unable to move and dying a slow and painful death.

This–No.

This was not the end. He would not allow this to be how his story ended. He had so many things to do, he needed to–

His train of thought was crushed in an instant as the woman slammed her foot right on top of his head. His helmet, which had been battered and ruined from the multitude of battles throughout his time, gave up. The shattered pieces of metal embedded partly into his face, causing him to howl in pain as the last remnants of his armor scattered all over the ground.

She lifted her foot up, possibly to get ready to stomp down on his head once more and end his life. However, for some strange reason, she hesitated. At that moment, the sheer instance where he was vulnerable and close to giving up, she showed mercy.

He got his answer for her odd behavior in seconds.

“Now that I can see your face properly, you’ve got quite a good visage on you, don’t you?” She snickered as she crouched down and looked eye to eye with him, “Well, besides all the injuries you got, but that can be fixed overtime. If anything, a few scars makes a man much sexier, so don’t worry. You’ll live.”

“You–”

“Shhhh. Shhh.” Her hand lashed out and covered up his mouth, preventing him from being able to get a single word in, “Don’t ruin the moment. It’s been so long since I’ve had the chance to indulge in some flesh. Looking at you all beaten up and broken makes me… hungry.”

With that, she opened her mouth, revealing multiple rows of sharp teeth. Her jaws sank right into his shoulder, and his scream was blocked by the hand covering his mouth. She started biting harder and harder, until finally, his flesh gave way.

Sinew and muscle ripped and tore as she yanked her head away from his body, revealing a giant chunk of flesh in her mouth. She chomped down and chewed even more, taking her time to savor the flavor. Then, she swallowed, before licking her lips.

“Oh goodness, you are delicious. I am going to enjoy feasting on you.”

His eyes widened. No, no, not that! God, anything but that!

He tried to bite, but the grip on his mouth was far too tight. He couldn’t open his jaw, and he was forced to watch as she reared back one of her fists. A look of pure bliss and sheer ecstasy was on her face, blood oozing down her mouth as she opened her mouth once more.

“Bottoms up! Time to dine and–ugh.”

Whatever she was going to say was halted in an instant as blood surged up and splattered out of her mouth. Without a single word, the two of them looked down to what the culprit was.

A single spear that seemed to have pierced her throat.

The Crusader looked up and his eyes widened. Tears of joy came out of his eyes as he looked upon his savior.

The Spartan had come to save him. And he looked furious beyond anything.