As power filled Anderson’s body, he emitted a strange purple glow. His eyes landed on two homunculi. He clearly felt he had only about 2 hours, he have to save everyone in two hours. Anderson frowned.

That’s hard. Even if I had a whole day, my mana is still limited, it’s impossible to kill every dark puppet. On other hand, these two only get stronger after killing them.

-I have an offer to you. I’ll not kill you, but you have to help me destroy every dark puppet and save people.

-What if we don’t want to? -One of them asked

Without answer, Anderson send his spirit to pierce his chest, which he barely dodged.

-I hope you will agree.

They looked at each other, then one of them said

-Alright.

Oldman nodded, and without thinking a lot conjured a little cloud and sat on it. Under his command, it floated toward the horde.

Homunculi after a short talk decided to help him, yet, they will try to kill him as they find a chance.

At the same time, while nobody was seeing, a little portal appeared in front of a mutated dark puppet, dark hand dragged it into a portal

One of the 7 Dukes of The Abyss, Olsursul, looked at it with interest.

-I just wanted to take a look, at who sold his soul this time, but I never expected to meet such a strange mutated dark puppet. Even more, it is so competitive with my powers. -Olsursul muttered. After carefully inspecting, he decided to encumber the world with one more disaster

-Be grateful to me, a lot of mortals can only dream about getting from me new, clear Immortal Serum. -Saying that Olsursul dropped a drop of dark blood on the dark puppet when it consumed a drop, he immediately opened a portal and send it back.

After landing on the ground, the mutated puppet’s aura makes another dark puppet, no matter mutated they are or not, start fusing with him. Just in a couple of minutes, a new giant puppet appeared.

…

PoV Seventh

-What the hell is happening? - I muttered to myself. Everything gets too weird. Mutated dark puppets, and Anderson

Thinking about it, I couldn’t help but look at Anderson. He was sitting on the cloud, holding hands like praying, while his spirits cutting dark puppets like they were cabbage.

Will he run out of mana? Should we wait any longer?

I couldn’t get rid of these thoughts. Suddenly, someone touched me, it was Fifth

-I think we should start already, otherwise, there will be only a big guy and us, who you think he will kill first?

I nodded.

-Should we attack right now?

-Take a better position, attack after me.

-Alright.

I climbed onto the building and looked at Anderson. Fifth jump right from Anderson’s blind spot, and swing his yari, intending to kill him at once. Anderson immediately jumped from a cloud, while his spirits protected him.

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He didn’t show any surprise, didn’t even say a single word. Just cast bounce curse on gloves. Fifth desperately dodged attacks. Without looking at it anymore, I jumped on him, but when my leg is about to reach his head, his body suddenly turned ghost-like. He moved from us.

-Hmph, you’re too inexperienced. It’s have been impossible for you to kill me even when I used to be a blind old man. -As he said sword appeared in his hand -But now, I have more power than I had at my best times. You should have run long ago.

He suddenly moved toward us, this time he was too fast for us, we barely managed to dodge the most dangerous attacks, yet, our bodies still had a lot of wounds. Our attacks didn’t even reach him. It felts like all of it is in vain.

After 5 minutes of battle, my body felt filled with lead. Fifth already gets too tired, just by looking at his face, I can see his exhausted and painful expression. He couldn’t already keep fighting with an old man.

Anderson’s sword flashed, one moment, and Fifth’s heart is pierced. He won’t live long. I felt how my heart stirred. I immediately attacked him, completely neglecting defense.

Anderson kicked him, and his body flight dozens of meters, right into a giant mutated puppet.

-Are you enraged? Believe me, I’m enraged even more than you, you killed a lot of citizens. For saving the rest, I sold my soul. But even it's not enough. It will be too hard to kill a big mutated puppet.

When we were about to continue the fight, we heard a strange sound, Anderson looked in the sound’s direction and frowned. I curiously looked there and turned speechless.

A big mutated dark puppet starts making sounds, which reminded a heartbeat, sound becomes more and more intensive, and its body emitted red light. When I thought it might explode, a loud sound almost deafens me

-*BOOM!* -The big puppet’s body exploded just like a watermelon, at the same time a figure appeared in front of Anderson, a figure hit his chest, but Anderson protected himself at the last moment. However, the impact of the strike threw him a few dozens of meters away.

-Fate is so an interesting thing. I’m curious, what were the chances of my birth? There are so many circumstances, if even one single detail wouldn’t exist, I wouldn't stand here. If you haven’t sent the Fifth body to me at the key moment, I might not become myself. If Seventh never conjured High Demon, if that dark puppet wouldn’t consumed him and mutated, I would never born. If someone didn’t make that one change, I would never get consciousness. -The figure is black, with red glowing eyes. His aura resembled demons.

-Who are you -I asked.

-I? I don’t know. I have memories of a lot of people, yet, only Fifth' memories feel related to me, but I’m not him. I’m Dark Lord. The one who was never meant to be born in this world!

-*Cough* You'd better run away right now, otherwise, you will find there nothing but death.

-Funny word of yours. I'm sure, you had the ability to kill me, but not now.

-Let's figure it out! -Anderson's figure flashed as he appeared in front of The Dark Lord. One swing and his head get chopped off. -Hmph, you're too arrogant.

-Do you think so? -Suddenly, head on the ground replied. -It's useless.

The Dark Lord's body grabbed his head and stick it in its place. He looked absolutely fine. -I suppose it's my turn. Dark Spirits.

Little black balls came out of the Dark Lord's body. There are 4 dark spirits. When Anderson saw it, he frowned.

-Are you surprised? That's right, this power came from you, I should thank you.

-There's no need. -Anderson attacked again, but this time, The Dark Lord blocked his sword. His spirit attached to his hands, forming a rapier.

-The Thunder Lord! -The Dark Lord cast. The figure appeared near him. He looked like a cloud-man. His figure floated above the ground, he held his weapon with two hands, while sparks dance on the tip. His face looked somewhat familiar, when I take a close look, I widely opened my eyes

-Fifth!? Is it you?

-No, your brother is already one with me, however, this spell was made thanks to his immortal soul.

While he was speaking, Fifth raised his yari. Sparks ferociously danced on the tip. After the strike is done, just like a snake sparks wrap around a target.

Anderson expected it, so he desperately dodged attacks. Dark Lord seemed to be relaxed, he stood still. On the other hand, Anderson seemed to have a hard time. He tried to attack Fifth, but every strike just go through as if he was a ghost.

-I think playtime is over. Thank you, Anderson, now I know my power a bit better. -Dark Lord slightly bowed. He held one of the spirits in his hands. It was pulsing. He throws it to the Anderson. When it was about to reach him, a spirit blew like a bomb. Once the dust settled, I saw a corpse.

Anderson is dead, his body was burned to black.

Dark Lord raised his hands and cast something, but soon frowned.

-I can't grab the soul.

-Because it belongs to me -A mirror appeared in front of the corpse. As the figure inside waved his hand, the purple glow fog came out of the body and entered the mirror. -Never expected to see there someone with such special spells. It's a pity you already belong to the other duke. *Crack!*

After saying that, the mirror shattered into thousand pieces.

-I see, so there's the abyss duke's influence. Well, never mind. Seventh, I have an offer to you. Follow me. -Dark Lord held out his hand.