Villscha launched forward, fingers outstretched. His long hands wrapped around Ezra’s throat and slammed against a tree.

Ezra gasped for air and threw a kick. The kick was easily blocked with a contemptuous brush from Villscha. Ezra glared at Villscha.

“How the hell did you make your pop-up disappear—?” Ezra coughed.

“Well, you did kill me,” Villscha said. “I was dead. It just so happened that the [Parasite] was able to bring me back.”

His eyes glowed and Ezra could see the wing he’d ripped off starting to grow back. Ezra lifted his hands and tried to tug at Villscha’s grip. Nothing happened. It was like Idia all over again.

Ezra’s breath increased until [Calm] activated and the thoughts cleared away. What were his options? [Restrain] and [Entangle] were the ones that came to mind at first. But, well, he’d had something in mind ever since he messed around with the density of the air.

Filamenta tumbled to the ground. Now, [Telekinesis] needed to kick in without Villscha noticing—he couldn’t speak the words aloud.

He clenched his fist and focused on [Telekinesis]. He felt nothing happen.

“You always were such a pain,” Villscha punched him into the ground. Ezra fell over and tried his best to absorb the punch.

He glanced over at Filamenta on the soil. He narrowed his eyes at her. He focused on the sensation that occurred whenever he used [Telekinesis].

Filamenta quivered and floated.

Villscha kicked Ezra in the side and sent him flying into the air. Ezra gritted his teeth and resisted the instinctive cry on the edge of his voice. He fell into the ground.

“Why did you even get involved in all this?” Villscha said. “What was in it for you? You had no connection to this town. You were just some damn outsider!”

Ezra spat out a glob of blood. “You made it my business as soon as you sent that hit squad after me.”

Villscha’s fingers twitched. “Well, it doesn’t matter. You’ll be dead in a few moments, and then I’ll be able to rally the monsters. From there, we’ll sweep over the kingdom of Cortia and the Demon Lord will reward me.”

Ezra passed Filamenta through the air. He’d never tried this either, but if it worked…

He focused on the atoms that he’d (hopefully) passed through. The atoms were ‘seperate’ from the other atoms, unable to bond with them for whatever reason.

What happened if he applied this property of seperation to the molecules that were floating around in the air? Every single nitrogen molecule that he’d bonded to, what if they suddenly split into their base components?

Well, Ezra knew what would happen. After all, in 1941, the U.S. Government had achieved what Ezra was trying to do—a fission reaction. They put this knowledge to the test during World War II.

There was a pop from behind Villscha.

Villscha froze and turned around. Ezra dived backward, shut his eyes, and slammed his hands against his ears. A moment later, a blast of air knocked Ezra into the air for several seconds. Sound slammed into Ezra’s ears even though he had them covered. A wave of fire blasted out, ripping through the forest like a dragon.

Ezra remained on the ground for several seconds before he opened his eyes and unclasped his ears. Threads that had shot up around him—Filamenta’s work?—disippated, revealing what happened.

The forest was on fire. A blackened, charred branch above Ezra’s side fell to the ground. The ground closest to the explosion had been completely cleansed of any impurities. It was nothing but soil.

He glanced around his vision for a blue box. Looked like he hadn’t gotten radiation poisoning—he was fairly certain that wouldn’t happen because the way he was ‘separating’ the molecules wasn’t quite the same as how it was done in his world, but it was still good to know. It would’ve sucked big time if he died because of his ability, even if he won the fight.

There was a conspicuous area where the damage wasn’t as bad—where Villscha had been standing. Ezra was there. Villscha had acted as Ezra’s unwitting shield.

Ezra stood up and wandered over to where Villscha’s charred body was.

Villscha - Demon (Ascended I) - Phase 2/3 - Lv. 62

Villscha popped out of the ground. His skin was the same texture as charcoal. One of his eyes was bloody while his other eye was gone entirely. His clothes had melted into his skin.

“What did you do?” Villscha’s head snapped back into place. “How the hell did you do that?”

“How did you survive?” Ezra recalled Filamenta back to his hand. “That’s my question.”

Villscha growled and got all fours. His back was arched like a feral cat’s. Ezra got into a combat stance. Villscha dived forward, claws grown back and outstretched.

Ezra ducked underneath and stabbed Villscha, then tossed him into the ground using Filamenta as leverage. Villscha slammed into the ground and scurried to get on his feet.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Ezra took the opportunity to smash Villscha’s head with the heel of his foot, popping his skull like a watermelon.

569/2500

Villscha’s arm reached out with its claws. Ezra jumped back, and Villscha got back to his feet. The sinews of his head started to weave back together.

609/2500

643/2500

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“Didn’t I tell you?” Villscha said. “You can’t kill me. My healing rate is too high, and I have no weak spots!”

“So that just means I have to overwhelm your healing rate?” Filamenta weaved through the air in front of him, then returned to his hand. “Sounds simple enough.”

Villscha eyed the air. “What did you do?”

“Nothing at all,” Ezra said. “Feel free to walk forward if you feel like it.”

Villscha scooted over to the left. Filamenta dived in that direction and set up another [Bind] reaction, waiting to explode.

Villscha growled. Ezra raised an eyebrow.

“What? I thought your healing reaction makes you invincible?”

Villscha’s body continued to knit itself back together. It wouldn’t be more than a few more minutes before he was back up to full fighting strength, at this rate.

Ezra snapped his fingers. [Restrain] activated silently. Threads reached out and around Villscha from behind and forced him into the ground. He cried out in shock and struggled frantically.

Ezra rushed forward and passed Filamenta through the air a few times.

“No, no, don’t you dare!” Villscha said.

Ezra ran as far as he could for several seconds before triggering [Bind]’s effect. A massive explosion rocked the ground and sent Ezra to the dirt. After a few seconds of chaos, he dared to turn around. He breathed a sigh. Surely that had to eliminate his body so thoroughly that he wouldn’t have been able to come back, right?

His senses screamed at him and he dived to the right, barely dodging another attack.

Villscha - Demon (Ascended II) - Phase 3/3 - Lv. 62

He’d gotten bigger, and his body was in perfect condition. Tattoos covered him from top to bottom and pulsed with a red glow.

“Oh, for god’s sake, just die!” Ezra shouted at the flying figure.

All he heard back was a cry of pure rage. Ezra growled and brought Filamenta to bear. It was almost over.

----------------------------------------

Ezra activated [Entangle]. The threads wrapped out of the ground and around Villscha. With a single flex of his muscles, Villscha snapped the threads as if they were nothing.

Ezra growled. He wanted to use another fission reaction, but he doubted Villscha would fall for the same trick again.

Villscha swooped back around for another pass at Ezra. Ezra charged forward and stabbed into Villscha’s shoulder. The momentum of Villscha was so strong that swathes of flesh were ripped from his shoulder by Ezra’s needle.

Villscha slashed out with his claws, shredding through the remains of Ezra’s armor.

340/1500

[Regenerative Blood] had managed to get his health a bit higher earlier, but that was all it did. One more shot from Villscha like that would probably take Ezra out.

Ezra sucked in a few slow breaths and stared up at Villscha’s retreating figure. He’d probably come back around for another attack.

Ezra ground his teeth together and squatted his legs. One way or another, this would end.

Villscha flew through the air. Ezra kept his hands ready. Villscha reared his claws back—

Ezra’s hands dived out and grabbed Villscha’s wrists. With a quick twist of his hips, Villscha crashed into the ground and rolled along the dirt.

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Ezra rushed forward and punched Villscha in the chest. He pulled back his fist before Villscha could react and launched another fist. [Titan’s Fist] kicked in and a little more damage hit Villscha.

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Villscha roared and flapped his wings, blowing Ezra back with a gust of wind and propelling himself into a tree. Villscha tensed his legs and jumped forward toward Ezra off the tree.

Ezra ducked down and Villscha passed overhead—then Ezra shot his arms out and grabbed onto his legs. Ezra flew off through the forest, using Villscha like a hang glider. Villscha shook his legs, but Ezra held firm. Villscha dodged out of the way of a tree, then twisted to allow Ezra to smash into it.

Ezra, unable to react, slammed into the tree at full speed. He felt his leg snap instantly.

153/1500

He bit his tongue and crawled closer and closer to Villscha’s face. Villscha slashed out his claws, but was unable to do much damage due to the awkward position.

Ezra reared back his left fist and punched Villscha once, then twice, then thrice.

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Villscha flipped upside down in mid-air. Ezra grabbed onto the man’s wing and launched yet another punch. This time, the bone couldn’t hold anymore and the skull collapsed.

1039/2500

Ezra pulled back and punched again, further exploding the skull.

839/2500

Villscha dived down, apprently intending to throw Ezra into the ground.

Ezra pulled back his fist and punched Villscha through the neck, ripping apart the skin.

712/2500

The ground approached. Only a few seconds till they made landfall. Ezra reared his fist back and slammed it through Villscha’s chest.

553/2500

The ground was about to hit them. Ezra pulled back and punched one more time and ripped through Villscha’s stomach

232/2500

Villscha untensed, his body going limp. Ezra let go of the man’s body.

Filamenta glowed and web-like threads shot out, stretching from tree to tree. Ezra slammed into the web and his body slowed down by just a little bit. The spell dispelled from the force and he crashed onto the ground. Bones snapped. Cuts opened up. He managed to focus at the top right of his vision.

8/1500

Every part of him hurt. He felt completely worn out, like a wet rag that’d been used too many times. He wanted nothing more than to go to sleep.

But the job wasn’t done. He crawled to the body of Villscha.

15/2500

Ezra raised his fist up and slammed it into what remained of Villscha’s chest.

0/2500

There was a cry and something from under Villscha’s skin wiggled. His skin steamed before there was a pop and Villscha’s body seemed to melt into the ground. A half dozen blue boxes appeared around Ezra, but his vision was too blurry to make out what they said.

Ezra tried to stand, then fell to the ground.

His needle glowed and his wounds started to stitch themselves together.

“Hold on a little bit longer,” Filamenta’s voice whispered in his ear. “You’re not allowed to die, not yet.”

His mind was unable to come up with any kind of response.

“Stay awake, Ezra, please. If your body gives out in your sleep, there’s nothing that I’ll be able to do. You have to stay awake.”

The words blurred together into a melty mess. What was the voice saying? He couldn’t tell anymore.

His consciousness left him.