"No need, I can handle this alone."
Green light burst forth from Wayne’s eyes, and under Ker’s incredulous gaze, he blocked the Divine Power summoned by Dunn with his tremendous Magic Power.
The quality and quantity of his Magic Power far exceeded the limits of a Silver Mage, and it could even overwhelm an average Golden Mage.
If it weren’t for Dunn inviting the Divine Power of a Proxy, he would have been toppled in a single assault.
Ker was dumbfounded, seriously suspecting that The Holy See sent Mona to get close to Wayne in an attempt to topple the Naturalism Church.
If they couldn’t win him over, they’d just take a hostage back. It wasn’t a loss!
An ambiguous murmur sounded, low and horrifying, filled with extreme omens. The Death Essence surged in an instant, and the walls of rotten vines charged towards Wayne.
The dense Death Essence tightly entwined around Wayne, and then...
Nothing happened next; the effect was very average.
To Ker, the onlooker, the Death Essence couldn’t touch Wayne, who was green from head to toe. No matter how the Death Essence assaulted him, it couldn’t break through the thin film of light covering him.
"Heretic, happy anniversary of your damnation!"
An anguished roar mixed with anger and pain came from the mine, echoing through the night sky.
Dunn’s body swelled even more. White Bone Spikes emerged, and a burst of blood mist bloomed, tearing the epidermis and muscles to form a visually shocking, blood-soaked monster that occupied the entire mine tunnel.
Terrible air currents whirled around him, and with a heart-wrenching wail, the White Bone Spikes converged and grew seamlessly into one another, forming a massive Knight’s Spear that charged forth from the mouth of the mine.
The Death Essence converged, disturbing the airflow and entwining around the tip of the Knight’s Spear, turning into a vigorously spiraling and raging tempest.
Ker yelled, and in his haste, he only managed to erect a white wall in front of Wayne with a spell.
The Holy Light Wall crumbled instantly upon contact with the spiraling Death Essence.
Wayne neither dodged nor avoided, spreading his legs in a horse stance, his fist retracted to his abdomen then shot out in a blur.
As he threw his punch, his work clothes on his arms ripped apart, and as his fist surged forward, the air compressed and caved, erupting with a cracking sound like a whip.
The unrestrained force hit the gray spiral spear tip dead on.
At the moment of impact, the recoil made Wayne’s feet sink, cracking open the ground with snapping fissures.
His fist met the breath of death, abruptly halting the spiral’s momentum and dissipating in an instant. Then, with undiminished force, it slammed into the White Bone Knight’s Spear, and the terrifying power could smash a deep fist imprint even into steel.
The ground shook, and Ker’s eardrums roared as if he had momentarily gone deaf. Although he couldn’t hear anything, it was so noisy in his head.
The sound wave forced him to retreat step by step, and the wind rushed into the mine, dislodging a large amount of rubble and dirt.
The Knight’s Spear’s momentum faltered, and its surface cracked open with a large number of fractures. As the raging winds pulverized the area, the cracks spread from the spear tip, with chunks of white bone falling off. The White Bone Knight’s Spear shattered, scattering in all directions.
With his Bones shattered, his Divine Power drained, and his blood-soaked, mutilated body. Dunn stood there foolishly, mumbling about the impossibility.
Death crumbled before nature, shaking his faith to its core. He was unable to accept it for a moment.
If it were just his Death magic, it wouldn’t matter much; being unable to defeat Wayne was just that. But this was Divine Power bestowed by a Proxy...
"If you’re weak, just train more. There’s no such thing as impossible!"
Wayne’s expressionless face withdrew his fist, rubbing it behind his back repeatedly. He had been overconfident; the Death Essence might not have hurt him, and even made him as happy as if he were going home, but bones were truly hard.
Ker recovered from his shock and peeked at Wayne’s back, "Oh, you got a scrape. That hurts. You’re hurt."
Where did this imbecile come from!
Wayne couldn’t be bothered with him and waved his hand, rolling up the vines to wrap around Dunn, who was covered in filth with no strength left to fight back. As the rolling green vines approached, a sinister smile hooked at the corner of Dunn’s mouth.
Bloodied, he smiled in a particularly ferocious manner.
Flesh exploded, with Death Essence-laden chunks splattering everywhere. Amidst the thick scent of Death, a malevolence named curse lingered persistently.
Pieces of white bone drilled out from the flesh and, guided by the Death Essence, coalesced into a three-meter-tall Giant made of bone.
The white skeletal frame, bereft of flesh, whirled with ominous energy, holding a White Bone Longsword in one hand and a White Bone Shield in the other. Its skull pulsed with two points of white light, and a gray cloak of Death Essence trailed behind it, a vision of martial valor.
"It’s the curse of Death. He’s cursed himself to never tire, to feel no pain, to never fall."
Ker frowned and said, "Maybe I should take this one. It’s a bit tricky, and my Holy Light can effectively suppress..."
Mid-sentence, Wayne had already approached the Skeleton Infantry, and with one punch, he dispersed the Death Essence, shattering the bone structure into pieces all over the ground. The white skull rolled for a few turns before the lights in its eye sockets flickered out.
"What were you saying about the Holy Light being able to suppress something?" Wayne asked, looking back.
He had been careless, misreading the magic formula entirely. It wasn’t a persistent curse at all but just a bluff.
Damn death devotees, always trying to play one last trick even in the face of death.
Wayne rubbed his fist on his lower back and said casually, "Ker, stop standing there daydreaming. Come over and see if this guy can still be saved."
Ker hummed twice, "As long as I am one of the Seven Angels governing the Golden Rule, and as long as his soul has returned to Heaven, these two conditions are met, then he can be saved."