(Rebecca Storm POV)

Light was being emitted by my sword as me and Diablo swung at each other for the umpteenth time. This trading of blows was occurring for hours.

Occasionally Matthew got some hits, making it so we could fight on even footing. However, the true battle was occurring between the Divine Healer and the Demon King.

They were competing in a battle of medicine. Diablo was trying to create a toxin that could weaken and kill us, while Mitchell was desperately trying to create antidotes to counter the deadly poisons.

Diablo altered the way he used contamination mana property and used it in conjunction with his concept to create a variety of poisons.

The only reason we still had the advantage in this bout was that Diablo was mainly focusing on killing or wounding Mitchell. Yet, with Thomas and Lyra being on the defensive and Mitchell never allowing himself to get in a vulnerable position, he wasn't having any process.

Although, I could tell he was gaining process in the medicine game. I was slowly getting weaker and my senses were dulling.

The others recognised that we were fighting a losing battle so a change of strategy was needed. But with none of us having the telepathic attribute, we couldn't plan.

Nonetheless, we still communicated our intentions through our actions and hoped our years of experience working together could overcome this barrier.

Mitchell moved even further back, his facilitation weakening from a distance. To compensate, Lyra and Thomas went on the offensive.

Without the divine healer, the poison was weakening us steadily. We fiercely attempted to reduce the effects of the poison by exceeding the maximum reinforcement of our bodies.

Meanwhile, Mitchell was preparing a surprise attack to weaken the demon significantly. After 10 minutes of preparation, he arrived at the battlefield.

Those 10 minutes were the longest of my life. In our confrontation with him, we understood that there was a substantial difference in our strength. Without Mitchell, we would have already died.

Noticing that Mitchell was arriving with a great deal of mana concentrated on his spear, I recognised that his preparations were ready.

Diablo was wary of the high concentration of mana on his spear and sought to avoid the attack incoming. Matthew wasn't going to let that happen though.

He put his body in harm's way to ensure the attack landed. Matthew took a sword in his gut to let Mitchell stab his spear in Diablo's side.

Diablo recoiled from the blow and Matthew used {Full Body Regeneration} to recover. With the sword damaging internal organs, the mana cost to recover them was extremely high.

Alongside being the best support mage on the continent, Mitchell was a renowned spearman and was skilled in using a spear. An SS rank support mage couldn't be helpless and needed to know how to hold their own in a fight.

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However, this attack wasn't a regular attack just enhanced by mana. Mitchell also had an attribute that was hidden from all records.

Most thought he didn't use any attributes and only specialised in facilitation. However, he had the elusive soul attribute. He rarely used that attribute in public and only used it in healing others.

The only purpose his soul attribute had was for the technique {Soul Absorption}.

Over a century ago, there was a heinous human criminal mage known as the Plague. He was an SS mage and a sociopath who killed for fun and experimented on humans.

It was estimated over 15 million humans died by his hands. He was eventually captured by the Magic Emperor of the time. He spent decades in Tartarus, a prison that held S rank human criminals.

Mitchell Storm used {Soul Absorption} on him decades after his capture and would eventually gain his abilities. The Plague used the contamination mana property to create viruses that caused pandemics all over the cities he appeared in.

Though the viruses he created were horrendous, this knowledge of this helped Mitchell along his path in medicine. He also gained the ability to create the same viruses, but he rarely if ever used this ability.

Mitchell shivered as soon he stabbed his spear into Diablo.

"I hate using this ability. I know this is for humanity, as a doctor, injecting someone with a deadly virus is something I despise."

The demon visibly recoiled from the effects of the virus. It was a virus specialised to destroy the body from the inside out.

To ensure that the virus would work, we didn't let him focus on getting rid of the virus. Mitchell augmented while we went on the full offensive.

Attack after attack, we swung at him, chipping away at his mana. He was focusing on defence, letting the virus rampage within his body.

"WATCH OUT!"

Mitchell's warning came too late. During our process of launching an attack, Diablo's body disappeared from in front of us and he cut us all simultaneously with his whip sword.

The cuts he dealt didn't spill blood. Instead, a black mist was emanating from it. It was slowly corroding the inside of my body.

'FUCK!'

I bit my lip to stop myself from screaming from the pain. While we were momentarily incapacitated, Diablo attacked Mitchell.

Though he could hold his own in a fight, against an SS rank demon like Diablo he was obviously going to lose. In a split second, there were multiple wounds all across his body leaving the same black mist emanating from them.

*WOOSH*

The only reason Mitchell didn't die right then was that Thomas used his liquid attribute to immobilize Diablo allowing me to launch a power light-based attack on him.

Since his complete focus was on eliminating Mitchell, I was able to slice into him, with the force of my attack blasting him away from the current area.

I could feel this mist rapidly draining my strength. Though this feeling didn't last for long. With one wave of his spear, the Divine Healer cured the curses placed on us. Though the sweat on his face showed that it didn't come without cost.

Diablo walked back to the devasted battlefield. I looked around us and saw that we were far from the Scorchfields. We in were in the centre of the demon territory.

"I didn't think you could completely remove my technique, {Hydra's Blood}. Though it looks like it didn't come without a cost. "

His voice was now eerie. It was raspy and demonic, sounding like we were facing an ancient devil that was unleashed onto the world.

Unlike before when his voice was refined and gentlemanly. He cunning undercurrent in his tone as well. Paired with his evil aura, it made him seem like we were fighting an evil genius. But this was a complete 180. The change was obvious. It felt like we were fighting a different person.

"How?"

Mitchell was in disbelief.

"How did you create antibodies for the virus so quickly? Though you are a specialist in the contamination mana property, you specialised in poisons such as neurotoxins and the such. You used organic poisons. You shouldn't be able to counter a viral infection that easily."

The Demon King gained a wicked smile on his face.

"It is only possible if you were also able to cause viral and bacterial infection. But why didn't you use it? You didn't know I could use contamination, so you should've used it before."

Mitchell squinted at the Demon King as if searching for something and his eyes quickly lit up in surprise.

"Are you still even the Demon King Diablo? No... you aren't."

The confusion on his face was apparent.

"Guys, put your guard up. I think we are facing a completely different monster."