"Don't use your sword, you imbecile!"
The gray-robed man shouted at his son fighting a few dozen meters away, but Severo, with blood dripping from the corners of his mouth, was in no condition to hear anyone.
In fact, he couldn't hear anything; his energy was so depleted that there was no sound other than a constant ringing in his ears. His long black hair was matted, cut asymmetrically in places; the nobility he possessed when he arrived at the battlefield was long gone.
"We've reached the end of the road, Black Lily bastard!"
The half-orc didn't stop; he charged like lightning at the helpless enemy. Even if he couldn't reach vital points, he was approaching his goal moment by moment with the wounds he inflicted.
"I won't die!"
Severo had no strength to speak of others; he screamed that he did not accept the approaching end. Then he crushed the gray bead that came out of his mouth and mixed the emerging energy into his weapon.
"Run, run immediately!"
When Alyon's axe severed his right arm, the Leader of the Black Lily Clan was shouting at his son; he was blind to the damage his clone took.
Having lost half of his soul essence, Severo accelerated to enter the last turn before death; he could use the escape crystal the moment he got out of the battlefield.
After taking the risk that would completely destroy his remaining life and goals, he moved away, leaving afterimages behind.
The half-orc might be his antidote in battle, but when it came to simply fleeing, catching him was impossible.
Salvation was a few hundred meters ahead, and at this speed, it was very close. Severo's eyes were gleaming, until golden clouds stained with purple appeared in front of him. A whip reached out and grabbed him by the waist. It hurled him back to the place where he had spent his soul essence to escape.
The half-orc's eyes turned to the enemy falling before him, then he lifted his head and looked at the person walking slowly.
Blood God Nafız's direct disciple, Great Orc Alyon's son, and his father, the Karsak City Lord, Kitapkurdu, had come to help.
"Finish what you started!"
The half-orc heard this sentence for the second time; he had turned crimson with shame. He leaped next to Severo with a movement resembling hungry lions pouncing on wounded prey.
First, he made attacks that would cause deep cuts on both legs; he couldn't allow for any other surprises. Then he stabbed him repeatedly in the back and shoulders, widening the wounds horizontally every time he pulled his weapon.
"Severo!"
Along with everyone nearby, the man in the gray robe was witnessing what was happening; his son, whom he couldn't reach because of the orc burning with black flames, was on the brink of death.
"Get out of my way!"
The talisman appearing in the gray-robed man's hand shattered with a dazzling light. With the brightness suppressing Alyon's blackness, the Leader of the Black Lilies had escaped the trap.
His target was the half-orc torturing his son; he reached out to stab the sharp tip of his sword directly into his head.
A moment later, his torso shook violently; as he was hurled back, he could see what happened out of the corner of his eye. A broadsword and a giant war hammer had descended on his torso at the same time; the momentum he gained using his last strength backfired, returning him to the point where he started.
There were two new figures where the struggle continued; it was almost a family reunion. Alyon, firmly grabbing the gray-robed man by the head and pressing him to the ground, his daughter, his son, his grandson, and his son-in-law were all in the same frame.
While one of the two families looked at each other with confidence, the other was experiencing times full of pain and suffering. The tables had turned; individuals who were once mighty were agonizing in the hands of their enemies.
"Let my son go, otherwise I will hunt you down with my entire clan!"
The voice of the gray-robed man shouting in despair was suddenly cut off. Alyon, stepping on the exhausted clone with his knee, slammed him to the ground by the hair he grabbed with one hand.
The Leader of the Black Lilies, whose face was smeared with soil, was unable to open his mouth; he could see his son's condition with one eye.
Unlike him, his son's consciousness was long gone; he had turned into an empty sack swinging in the half-orc's hand. When the soul power he lost without realizing it combined with what he spent to strengthen himself momentarily, Severo had no fighting ability left.
The half-orc slowly grasped his enemy whose resistance was broken; no one knew what the murmuring orc was doing holding him by the top of his head with his right hand.
Some twenty seconds passed like this, then Alyon saw the man he pinned down starting to writhe to escape.
"Stay where you are!"
Alyon slammed the head of the Black Lily Clan's leader to the ground once more; he would not allow the power gathering from an unknown source.
Parrying the last effort, he turned his gaze to his grandson; this action surely had to be related to what he was doing.
He was sure he hadn't experienced what he was seeing before; a silhouette of Severo, resembling himself, was separating from his body.
There was no mistake; his grandson was separating the soul of the Black Lily Clan's heir from his body. Neither Severo nor his father could react. When the body with long hair fell to the ground, his soul was agonizing in the half-orc's hands.
"Die!"
The dagger in the other hand of the orc gripping his enemy with one hand slit the soul's throat from one end to the other. No blood flowed; Severo turned into a gray mist that slowly dispersed.
At the same time, Alyon pressed hard on the back of the man he caught by the hair and pulled with all his might. Even though the clone possessed ten percent power, his physical durability was many times greater than normal humans. Despite this, he couldn't endure.
Alyon ripped the head off the body along with the spinal cord attached like a tail behind it. His children and son-in-law had also come to their side; his lineage was giving its greatest test today.
Decisive victory brought joyful screams and enthusiastic cheers. The man fighting tooth and nail with Nafız heard these too, and even saw the end of the man who appeared with him and his son.
"Maria, wake up!"
Ralph de León called out harshly to his daughter, for he didn't know what to say in the face of the scene before him. Nafız, who previously turned the blood she drew from the battlefield into small needles, had now shaped them into swords, each an arm's length.
The man with golden blond hair had already used his staff; the halo above his head was gone, and there were deep cracks on his shield. When he woke his daughter and took her behind him, he shone like the sun; his shield was repaired once more, and its layers had even increased a few times.
When hundreds of swords descended on the renewed shield, this time Nafız was right behind them, attacking from the center with her two daggers. As the red swords sank into the light, they disappeared; although they seemed to vanish, their slowly fading color seemed to summarize the shield's condition.
Before long, the Blood God shattered the structure that had been an obstacle in front of her for a long time with a hard blow; the father and daughter were openly in front of her.
Two weak balls of light headed towards her; expecting this last resistance, Nafız casually waved her hand and cut off the duo's attack.
"Ralph de León, the Third Elder of the Golden Crown, and Maria de León, the Holy Virgin of the Golden Crown, is this all you can do?"
Father and daughter looked with fearful eyes at the creature panting in front of them; as if they had no room left to move, as if the female orc's hands had grabbed them by their throats.
"Calm down! Killing us would be of no benefit to you?"
Ralph de León spoke pulling his daughter behind him; there was a conciliatory tone in his voice. He stood slightly bent while speaking, as if addressing a person more senior than himself.
"How interesting, spit it out!"
The Blood God dispersed the armor on her; her hair, which had grown to her heels, was slowly pulled back to her waist level. Now they were blood red; although there was not the slightest breeze around, they hadn't stopped waving wildly.
"Place a slave seal inside my daughter and my clone, I'm sure you would want to have men on the Lands of Light!"
Nafız's facial expression was about to change dramatically; she had received an offer she never expected when the most critical point was reached.