Chapter 85- Devil's Calling
Words : 1241
Updated : Sep 17th, 2025
the ground shook in momentous intervals, as buildings collapsed around two figures fighting in the chaos, battling for domination.
gonzalo, now enlarged and with it, his power had increased two-fold.
his strength and speed increased profusely as he swung and slashed in a rugged frenzy.
raph on the other hand, fought quite differently. there was skill and precision with his strike.
a strike from his sword, with the professionalism of an eight star swordsman illuminated brightly with his movements.
it was a continuous flow, slicing, blocking and counter attacking in successive intervals, each forming a wall for their opponent to break through to get to him.
gonzalo was a shadow berserker with immense strength and skills but as a swordsman, he lacked greatly compared to raph.
raph sliced through the air yet again as their swords clashed, a thundering sonic boom exploding around them.
"how long has it been ?" he asked, his gaze fixed on the frenzied giant.
gonzalo tightened his jaw, as he tried to push the boy away. 'he's not budging even a little bit'.
the force of their collision was causing a crater below them, when raph's aura surged out of his body, and with it a new profound strength.
a mischievous glint sparkled in his eyes and a grin crossed his face when he pushed gonzalo backwards, flinging him towards a rubble.
raph slowly walked out of the crater towards gonzalo as he pulled himself out of the debris.
gonzalo's eyes fixed on raph as he approached, while his thoughts raced through his mind.
'a way...is there a way for me to win ? even with two times the power ?'. he thought to himself, a bitter expression grew on his face as he began to seriously doubt his claim of wanting to kill the boy.
'this is the thing about the twelve great families, all of their direct lineage are monsters...from an early age'.
a sigh escaped his lips.
he was someone that refused to bow down to others, including battles and yet he was someone that would never give up his life for chivalrous or foolish reasons.
once he gouged out the enemy's strength, he planned how to act to either find a way to escape or win.
though, it seemed he was thinking of the former this time. at least he could tell what kind of opponent raph was.
the boy had not used most of his jun swords art simply because he didn't need to.
he also seemed to be mindful of how much we destroyed in the battle and most especially, he had not used any sort of skill.
even if the great families don't possess the system, they at least have their specific abilities or something, but the kid had not used it.
with all this in mind, he would need to escape instead of dragging it on, or he might just end up being the one that dies.
"not going to charge at me again ?". raph's voice rang in his ears like a waking bell. he looked up from the ground he had been staring at to lock eyes with the boy.
'a white haired blind boy....'. he thought to himself as the shadow arms dropped the great swords on the ground.
"i shall remember you". something changed deep within gonzalo, almost like he had received a calling. perhaps an awakening.
a pair of halberds appeared in the palm of the shadow hands while his body exuded with red aura.
the scene caused gonzalo to take a step back, but that wouldn't save him. he needed to dodge and run, and so he did.
dodging an incoming lance that caused an explosion behind him, he twirled and sliced off another that flew too close but the explosion was not cuttable.
the force blew him backwards but he regained his posture, and dodged the rest of incoming lance's, one after the other.
he dodged and turned, when he felt a presence beside him.
his body tensed, turning towards the side when a sudden intrusion of pain grew from his side as a punch shattered his bone and flung him towards a pile of rubble.
in the end, raph may not need to spend as much energy as he thought. it seemed gonzalo was getting weaker with time, or was his transformation taking something from him in return ?
he wasn't sure, but he could tell that something was lacking.
as he approached the debris, a halberd spun towards him, its blade suffused with a red aura but he easily dodged it, causing it to crash into the ground.
gonzalo stood up again, his crimson eyes fading as he heaved greatly.
after all, berserkers boasted a powerful boost in strength but it came with a backlash. gonzalo was aware of this, and prolonging the battle seemed futile.
his gaze hazy with tiredness as he felt his stamina depleting at a quick rate, fell on raph, a murderous glint sparkling in his eyes.
if none of his usual skills worked, then he would proceed to use one of the forbidden skills that was granted to him by the red peacemakers.
every head of a branch was given at least one, and it was a master class skill.
if nothing he had done so far would work, at least that would, but the problem was the backlash.
the words of the executives as they handed the skill book still remained in his head, constantly reminding him of the danger that would befall him but he needed to escape, and he was sure he could bypass the backlash when he really needed to.
raph's footsteps echoed in his ears, muddling his thoughts. there was no point in thinking about it anymore.
he wanted to escape or....at least die by his own hands.
raph took another step when an ominous aura assaulted his senses causing a throbbing sensation to sweep over his body while life returned to gonzalo's gaze in an instant. 'it's now or never' he thought to himself, activating the skill, causing a black viscous energy like a deep void to surge out within him, consuming the sparks of red aura that burnt brightly once.
raph stumbled grunting in pain as he took a step back. the sudden sensation sent a shiver down his spine as a memory flashed before his eyes.
this was similar to what had happened once before in his past life.
the skill that caused so much destruction in his past life, summoning hundreds of greater devils at the same time.
the master skill, devil's calling.
a skill that destroys the body of the caster but, in return, summons a red portal for greater devils. a terribly wicked skill.
a sudden change occurred in raph's body as he charged forward with might and grabbed gonzalo, slamming him into the ground.
"you can not !" he cried out, a state of panic evident in his voice, and a frightening glint in his eyes.
gonzalo had not failed to pick it up and a terribly ugly grin appeared on his face.
"ohhh !! do you know of this skill ? then prepare to die !". a twisted, hideous laughter escaped his lips, his eyes shaking from the fear of losing himself to the unknown.
with no way forward, summoning the devils was his next best choice.nôv(el)b\\jnn
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