Just trying to move his hand was a task in itself, making Gabriel look up occasionally, wondering just what kind of Barrier it was that hit him. He was already on the weaker side recently, but the barrier sucked even more of his strength as soon as he clashed with it.
Fortunately, he was still able to move his hand eventually, finally placing a Soul Healing Pill in his mouth before lowering his hands again.
He didn't try standing up yet, letting the pill take effect. Moreover, since the Infernal King was already here, that meant things were getting better.
Izen was the worst enemy for him due to his Magical Immunity Numen, but that wasn't the case for the Infernal King who wasn't using magic.
"Careful! There is a barrier around us! As soon as you touch it, you'll be weakened!" Since Gabriel already had a clash with the barrier, he had a rough idea as to how much of an area the barrier was covering. It had become visible for a few minutes right after he hit it.
Unlike him, he believed the Infernal King had no idea about that barrier as the barrier only came into effect when people tried to pass through it and not attack.
Hearing the warning, the Infernal King momentarily stopped, barely a few inches away from the barrier.
"I wonder just what exactly you are... You look like a human, but there's something about you that doesn't add up. That aura which is covering you... It disgusts me." Izen was still quite curious about the identity of the person who arrived here.
The spell formation that was used was slightly different from the summoning formation that he was used to.
The Infernal King didn't answer the man. Instead, he just raised his hand, placing them on the barrier which was right before him. Just as Gabriel had expected, the barrier came into existence and tried to steal the life energy of the Infernal King as well to weaken him just like it did with Gabriel.
The Infernal King just tilted his head, slightly confused. He could feel nothing from the barrier. He wasn't weakened at all. If anything, it was no more than an ordinary banner for him.
The phenomenon even surprised Izen. He didn't realize that it was because the Infernal King had no life energy at all. Because of that, the barrier couldn't take anything from him. It was reduced to an ordinary barrier for him.
Now that the barrier was visible to him, a dark fire started burning around his hand which was on the barrier. Surprisingly, the flame started spreading all around the barrier, as if taking over it. For a moment, Gabriel and Izen were covered in a dome of flames as the fire covered the entire Barrier, destroying it.
Even Izen's Barrier couldn't resist the Infernal King's flames and eventually broke, removing all resistance. There was no restriction anymore. The flames also disappeared along with the barrier, opening up the battlefield.
The Infernal King walked closer to Gabriel, who was still on his knees. Izen didn't try to stop him and just watched his actions. For some reason, he was really intrigued with the identity of this person.
"A mage? No, what he used wasn't magic. A Summoned Being? No, they would've been stopped by the barrier. Then what...?"
In the meantime, the Infernal King stopped before Gabriel, reaching out his hand to help Gabriel come.
"You didn't call me here," he stated, breaking his silence.
"I could've handled it myself. It was all within my control," Gabriel answered, for some reason not accepting that he needed help. However, he couldn't help but tell the real reason as well after a momentary pause. "Also, I promised you I won't. I'm done breaking a promise with you."
He reached out his hand, holding the hands of the Infernal King who helped him up.
Even as Gabriel stood up, he still didn't look like he was at his best. A lot of his life energy was sucked by the barrier, which left him weakened. The Soul Healing Pills only healed his soul, but his life energy was a different matter altogether.
"You are hurt," Infernal King stated, noticing Gabriel covered in blood. Gabriel didn't even have time to heal himself this time.
"This much is nothing. I can still fight." Gabriel responded, not giving in. He knew that with the Infernal King's help, they had a real chance of winning.
The Infernal King didn't listen to him, simply stating, "No you can't. I can sense it... Your life energy is weak. If you don't stop, things might get really bad for you. I'll take care of them."
"I'll be fine. Just letting the Soul Healing Pill take effect," Gabriel answered. He knew just what the reputation of Izen was. With the amount of strength he was supposed to possess, even for the Infernal King, it wasn't easy to defeat him... At least not the real him.
The Clones of Izen could use his strength, but only a small portion of it. They were also weaker than the real one. The only advantages they had was that they shared the effect of Izen's Numens and that they could use the same spell that Izen knew.
"One of them is the real one. All the others are clones. If we kill the real one, others should disappear as well. But finding the real one... That's the problem."
Defeating Izen came later. First, they had to find him and that was the problematic part.
"A problem which isn't a problem at all," The Infernal King raised his right hand. "Why find the real one when we can destroy all of them."
He placed his hand on the ground.
Boom~
Dark blue flames rose from the group, covering his surroundings in an instant.
The battlefield changed to a pit of fire in an instant. The Infernal King made sure that the flames didn't even touch Gabriel. As for himself, his own flames couldn't hurt him.
Gabriel could only see the flames in his surroundings. Even he wondered if this was the right way. Could it actually work?Was Izen really going to be destroyed with this? Everything was going to be revealed soon, but for some reason, he didn't believe it was that simple.
Just as he expected, as the flames disappeared, the scorched battlefield was once again revealed to the naked eye. There were nineteen Izens before, of which eighteen were clones. However, there were only eighteen left now. One was missing...
Gabriel turned to his left, realizing that even the Infernal King wasn't there anymore…
