Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead
Chapter 978 - 978: Decision

Sonnenträger was scorched, the stream of flames pushing him downward as his flesh was once again destroyed, his golden bones exposed, unlike the rest of his body, his skeleton held up against all sorts of damage remarkably well, but even then, the flames were causing cracks and burnt marks to appear upon the surface of many bones.

The golden one and tightly united with his energy however, and even as the heat reduced his flesh to ash, destroyed his organs and caused his brain to cook inside of the skull, he remained capable of thinking and taking in the surroundings, gnashing his teeth together, Sonnenträger emitted a pulse of gold that completely torn apart the chain binding him alongside the stream of infernal flames being spewed by Loimos, so potent that it actually cancelled the attack entirely.

Like a bolt of lightning, the hero surged forward, and struck the giant snake with an uppercut, several of the beast's teeth shattering as its jaw was forced shut, vile, black blood flowed out, enough to cause several lakes to overflow and be forever corrupted.

With another swift movement, Sonnenträger soared through the air, rising high into the sky into a mere instant, consuming his gold like never before, but the results were showing, the sudden increase in expenditure translated into a truly enormous leap in strength and speed- This time, the man truly seemed to become a golden meteor, as soon as he reached as high as he could, he fell back down in an instant, both feet smashing into the serpent's skull, the sheer force enough to cause all of the purple eyes to explode, the wave of gold that followed turned countless black scales to nothingness and the skull of the beast shattered.

Loimos was sent right down toward the ocean, but the speed and power with which he was struck was simply so great, that he impacted the water like it was solid, crashing into it with such force that a wide area of the ocean began to boil, the gold that spread out was so aggressive, that it seemed to go beyond its already incredibly powerful capabilities.

Sonnenträger did not allow the dark serpent to sink into the waters however, continuing to burn through his reserves of gold like crazy, he picked the massive beast up, and chucked it through, the air, flying right after it, every second, he would move in and deliver a devastating Golden Glow, keeping the serpent airborne, striking dozens of time before Loimos crashing into something.

The golden hero stopped for a moment, since gold acted like life force for him, using so much without stopping in a short amount of time left him in a state that he had not known for several decades, if not more.

He was actually feeling out of breath, his muscles sore and sweat pouring through every pore, he needed some time to stabilise himself, this was actually the first time he had ever needed to do such a thing ever since he had become one with the gold, he hadn't even known that he too, could run out of breath.

"You damned monster, that should have erased you a dozen times over…" Sonnenträger scowled as he watched Loimos rise from beneath the rubbles and earth that had buried him after being launched straight through land, the two had travelled so far, they had actually struck Dragonnerie, the floating continent.

Not only was he rising back up after taking several hits that would have slaughtered several True Void beings or Abyss creatures of the highest orders each, but he was already recovering too, but now, the hero was seeing more clearly just how it was that Loimos had become so damned resilient and powerful all of sudden, it was hard to see as he had been subtle and probably timing it perfectly, but his festering death was actually going back up, and not by a little, it was simply going back to its highest levels.

Sonnenträger had no clue how the pure undead was doing that, but if he could recover death force on a whim, then empowering attacks and creating such a powerful transformation would be as easy as stealing candy from a newborn baby.

The hero would have liked to receive an explanation, but alas, the undead was not the talkative sort, perhaps he could know if Loimos was willing to sacrifice the benefit of leaving his opponent in the unknown for another boost, but it seemed like whatever it was that he was doing was already plenty enough for his taste.

Dust and rubbles fell of his back as he rose fully, due to the distance they had travelled, they had left the territory of the undead empire, and now, a bright sun was casting down a bright light upon them both, from the ground, bone spikes and ribs bursted out, extending high to the air in an attempt skewer the golden one, who although still feeling spent, was able to dodge with ease, but they kept following him, more spikes and ribs emerging from one another whilst more were rising from the floating continent.

'He can't possibly keep whatever it is that he is doing up forever, there has to be some sort of sacrifice somewhere… Otherwise he wouldn't have bothered sizing me up before using that sort of power' the hero was not a fool, if Loimos was actually capable of manifesting such devastating attacks at will and without having to bother with needing time or even to stand still, then he would have just started with that, there was no reason for the undead to hold back in the beginning unless what he was doing right now was something costly and limited in usage.

Only then would it make sense for Loimos to want to get a good grasp of the hero's capabilities beforehand.

But Sonnenträger seemed powerless to actually stop the skeleton in that regard, the only way seemed to simply be to destroy him, but even that appeared to be impossible as he had endured a slew of Golden Glows in quick succession and was still standing.

'Should I risk putting everything I have left into a final Golden Glow?' the thought crossed his mind, but then, Loimos would probably also be able to simply pour everything into resisting it, and after that, the undead would still be able to stand and fight without problem.

'I can't see a better way than this though…'

'...I'll keep a bit of gold in reserve, and if I fail to defeat him with that Golden Glow, then I'll just resort to using it…' evading a blast of holy death fired from the serpents maw, Sonnenträger locked eyes with Loimos.