After taking a few more steps, the swordsman abruptly turned around and jumped into one of the narrow passages. There was a wriggling mass of disgusting worms there, and suddenly a naked human body appeared from that mass. White hair flickered, sky-blue eyes, an angelic face... and then it became clear that instead of legs and arms, Griffith now had worm-like appendages growing out of him. Only upon seeing Guts, the "Falcon of Light" instantly darted to the side, avoiding the sword strike. Surprisingly, the new limbs made Griffith extremely fast, allowing him to dodge and... escape.
With a wild cry, Guts chased after him, shooting a dozen "harpoons", but none of them even managed to graze the target. I would have suspected probability magic, but there was something else going on here. Rather, the very fabric of reality denied the possibility of "throwing" weapons hitting this target. It resembled a divine blessing, except in the manifestation of this power, I saw distinct traces of Chaos, which intrigued me even more.
A second later, the apostle disappeared into a narrow burrow, squeezing into it like a rat. Guts was clearly larger than this passage in size, so he roared and began to crush the wall with his sword, trying to break through it.
"Idiot! Just crawl in there. If your sword can pass through, then so can you" - I gave advice.
The swordsman immediately followed advice and also "squeezed" into the burrow. The passage turned out to be short enough, and soon we emerged into a large circular hall, with numerous corridors leading to it. In the center of the room, we saw a large demon and Griffith. The apostle cast a quick glance at his "sacrifice" and recklessly fled. Guts ran after him, but a demon stood in his way.
A single strike sent the swordsman flying and literally smeared him against the wall, which was twenty meters away from the demon.
"Not so fast" - smirked the new opponent.
“Get out of the way!” - Guts roared, who had almost reached his goal but encountered another obstacle. He rushed forward again, and another blow threw him back. However, this time the full force of the blow was absorbed by Vritras' body, so the swordsman was only thrown back a few meters, landing on his feet.
“You won't be able to leave this hall while I'm alive.” - The demon enlightened us, after which the walls of the hall lit up, and a veil of a barrier covered them.
“Then, you will die.” - Guts pronounced a grim prophecy and rushed forward, this time fully focused on destroying the enemy.
The demon before us had four legs and two arms, resembling a praying mantis in some way. He met the sword strike with his 'paw', which was able to withstand the collision without any damage. At the moment of impact, another explosion occurred, and the shockwave pushed Guts away, but he had already adapted to this strange form of attack, and it only slightly staggered him. In a couple of seconds, the 'monsters' exchanged a couple of dozen blows, which did not reveal a winner. Despite all his speed, Guts could not hit the demon's body once, as each of his strikes hit the demon's armored 'arms'.
This duel ended with a harpoon flying out of Guts' left leg, which penetrated the demon's 'soft' abdomen despite its defense. The demon immediately cut the rope extending towards the tip and jumped away, not allowing this success to develop.
“This Femto promised to give me ten pregnant women for your death. But judging by your abilities, he should owe me at least a hundred victims now.” - The demon grumbled discontentedly, fending off the enemy's attacks.
In response to this speech, Guts only roared even louder and started falling into a battle frenzy once again. I have long noticed that every time hatred overwhelms his consciousness, he becomes much stronger. And this time, his strikes intensified, and notches began to appear on the enemy's armor. Moreover, Guts started using the magic available to him, trying to restrain the enemy and not let him escape. Spells of freezing, lightning strikes, and force fields that stood in the way of the retreating demon.
With each passing second, the strength of the Black Swordsman increased, and it soon became clear that the demon's chances of survival were dwindling at the same pace. The barrier around us shattered, and the demon snarled:
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“Fine, I've decided not to kill you and not to help Femto. You can go after him.”
“And I've decided to kill you, you vile creature.” - Guts roared. – “No human will ever be your prey again.”
The demon immediately tried to escape, but the long blade swiftly pierced its back, severing the spine. The monster swung its bloodied limbs, trying to throw the enemy off its back, but another swing of the sword severed its head. In just a few seconds, the swordsman tore the corpse into pieces, and then he set off after Griffith, racing through the labyrinth of the spirit world like a meteor.
This time it was not wandering through the labyrinth but a chase, so Guts had to push himself to the limit, simultaneously straining all his senses to guess the right direction. Gradually, the number of small demons around us began to decrease, and the corridors started taking on rectangular shapes. In this part of the spirit world, there were numerous narrow corridors, staircases, and wells.
Flying into one of the wells, we 'fell' from the ceiling of a huge hall, the walls of which were constructed from numerous cubic and rectangular blocks, forming stairs, gaps, corridors, and some incomprehensible transitions.
“Ho-ho-ho, who do we have here? Has the little bug managed to bite its master?” - A repulsive voice sounded, and a hovering figure of a demon appeared ahead. It resembled a nearly spherical fat man with a bald head covered in greasy skin. Its two hands were clasped together on its belly and did not move, seemingly serving as a decorative element.
“Apostle!” - Guts growled, instantly changing his direction and rushing towards the new target.
“Yes, come to me, little bug. Hee-hee-hee. I won't kill you, but my little children will play with you.”
With these words, the apostle's body gave birth to thousands of leeches, each the size of a dachshund. All this filth immediately rushed towards Guts, trying to bury him under a river of flesh. But the Sacrifice was not about to give up. This time, my protege was already prepared to face the apostle.
Guts swung his sword, and a wave of magical energy surged forward, sweeping away everything in its path. He was still far from the level of mastery I demonstrated in the forest during our first encounter, but it was enough to destroy all the demons rushing towards him. However, the stream of creatures did not diminish, but only increased. Now the repulsive insects were flying towards him, over each other's heads, literally in ten layers.
The apostle watched this scene from above, naively thinking he was safe. That's when Guts caught him off guard. Just as it seemed that the wave of demons was about to engulf him, he leaped into the air like a grasshopper, soaring to a height of several dozen meters. And in an instant, Guts' cloak soared like wings, propelling him even higher. Before the apostle could even blink, the swordsman was near him. At such a close range, it was difficult to miss, so the apostle's repulsive face immediately split in half, splattering blood, guts, and some chitinous legs.
As soon as the commander of the countless leech hordes perished, his entire army scattered in all directions, trying to escape the inevitable doom that was falling upon them. In just a dozen sword swings, Guts destroyed a large portion of the demons, and then he rushed away again, trying to catch up with Griffith. Over time, I had gained some understanding of the structure of the Brand of Sacrifice on his soul, so I could also use it to determine the direction in which the fugitive was heading.
After fifteen minutes, we suddenly emerged into open terrain and saw a trio of apostles from the God Hand ahead of us. As far as I remembered, the slain demoness was called Slan, Guts had recently killed Conrad, and before us stood Ubik, Void, and Femto. The latter, of course, was our target.
This trio arrogantly reveled in the heavens, emanating waves of overwhelming superiority. Unfortunately, such tricks did not work on us. I had full control over the functioning of Guts' physical and astral bodies, so I simply 'turned off' the parts of his consciousness that were supposed to be responsible for worship, reverence, respect, and submission. On the contrary, any attempt to influence him in such a way only fueled his rage. And it was precisely this rage that was the Black Swordsman's most powerful weapon. Knowing this, I, of course, intensified this emotion to its peak power, turning the Sacrifice into a wild, bloodthirsty Berserker.
Feeling the death of their comrade, the apostles could no longer afford to be careless. They summoned a horde of lesser apostles, as well as countless crowds of demons of all kinds. And now, this entire horde pounced on the lone Guts. Or rather, it could be said that he pounced on them, turning them into a bloody mess.
No matter how hard Guts tried to reach Griffith first, hundreds and thousands of demons constantly stood in his way. It seemed that the apostles intended to wear down their opponent with battle. But all they managed to do was further enrage this monster. I once again began to observe signs of the merging of demon energy and psionics. Moreover, now demons were dying in droves around Guts, and the energy they dispersed was immediately absorbed by the swordsman himself and his sword. And since the demons dying here were not small fry, but the elite, the strength of the demon slayer was growing exponentially.
Apparently, the apostles had no other plans than to overwhelm Guts with sheer numbers. Because when, after half an hour, the stream of monsters had almost dwindled, and the opponent didn't look even slightly out of breath, they continued to mock him, calling him a sacrifice, food, and a pitiful mortal.