"Card of Judgement!" Azekiel declared, raising his hand. "Let me see what you're worth!"
He knew it was a make or break moment, and he placed all his faith on the Card of Judgement and his System of Gluttony! He didn't know what his system had planned for him, but he wanted to trust his system here!
As if answering to his trust and faith, the System of Gluttony became active!
Time seemed to have stopped. Michael was also caught in the time, coming to a halt. Everything had stopped moving except for Azekiel.
Unfortunately, Azekiel also couldn't move his feet in the time domain. It was as if he wasn't supposed to move either! Even Raphael couldn't move.
Six Cards! Six beautiful cards appeared before Azekiel. All six of these cards were pitch black. There was nothing written nor drawn on the cards. It was as if the cards were made purely of Darkness.
[Select one Card of Judgement!]
A notification appeared before Azekiel.
"Another Gamble?" Azekiel frowned. "Doesn't matter! I have faith in the cards!"
Azekiel reached out his hands without hesitation and touched the second card in the line. As soon as his fingers touched the card, all the other cards vanished.
The card, which was pitch black, started regaining its color. An image appeared on the card. There appeared to be a young kid who looked barely ten years old. There was a blindfold wrapped around his eyes, making him unable to see anything. It was unclear if he could even see without the blindfold or not.
There were scales in his hand which seemed to be completely balanced. On one side of the scales, there was a beautiful black feather. While on the other end, there was a gold coin which made it really strange. A gold coin was supposed to be heavier, yet the scales were perfectly balanced.
Following the image, some text appeared on top of the Card.
[Scales of Balance]
[Description: Please select any target near you. For the next two minutes, you'll receive half their stats]
Reading the description, a wide grin appeared on Azekiel's face. Even though he had faith in the Cards of Judgement, he hadn't expected to receive something so overpowered! The Cards didn't betray him this time! They gave him precisely what he needed to face Michael!
For the next two minutes, Azekiel could steal half the stats of Michael and use them. That meant Michael's stats were going to be halved when facing him while his were going to increase temporarily!
Azekiel was going to have equal stats to Michael, and on top of all that, he was also going to have his old stats too, so he was at a slight advantage instead!
[Please select the target]
The notification appeared again.
"I have selected!" Azekiel declared as he slowly raised his finger towards the man before him, who was in a slightly tilted position as he was running towards him with the Spear of Pride.
[Target selected: King of Pride]
As soon as a new notification came, something changed. Azekiel felt as if his surroundings had changed.
Everything around him had turned white. As for the young boy in the card, he had appeared for real, and he was a giant! Or rather, they were tiny! Azekiel was only as big as the eye of the young boy.
The boy was still holding the silver scales in his hand. On one side of the scales, Azekiel was standing. While on the other side of the scales, there was Michael! The side of Michael was slightly heavier, but things started changing.
The scales started balancing themselves as the stats of Michael started transferring to Azekiel, who was happily accepting them all.
As Azekiel accepted the stats, he could see his stats on his status screen going up. And the jump wasn't small. He knew there was a big difference between his stats and Michael's stats, but the difference was going to be so big? Even he hadn't expected that!
Even half the stats of Michael were more than five times of the total stats of Azekiel, which stunned him! This gap! It was bigger than he expected!
"There's still so much for me to catch up to..." Azekiel muttered, frowning. He thought his soul snatching stats would have brought him closer to Michael, but the gap was immense! At least now he knew exactly how much the gap was.
As the scales balanced, the surroundings returned to normal. Azekiel appeared back in the library with Michael, who was still unaware of what had happened.
Time started flowing once again as Michael continued running to Azekiel.
He thrust his spear toward the chest of Azekiel. Generally, his speed would've been such that even Azekiel wouldn't have seen how he moved, but now that the difference between stats was gone, Azekiel could see him clearly.
Michael also felt that his speed was slower than usual for some reason. Unfortunately, this wasn't the time to think about it as he continued with the attack. He was in for a real surprise though.
Just as his spear was about to stab Azekiel, Azekiel flashed a cheeky grin as he moved to the side, dodging the attack at the last second. As for his speed... It was not any slower than Michael! In fact, it was only slightly faster, which even Michael could sense.
Michael's expressions twisted in confusion. It was as if he was asking with his expressions, "What?"
Unfortunately, that wasn't even the end of it. Azekiel didn't simply Dodge the spear, but he also spun his body around as he raised his right foot.
The back of his shoes landed on the back of Michael's neck as his spinning kick hit the target, sending Michael flying!
Michael was already running in full force when a kick landed behind him, which only increased his momentum as his body flew ahead, only to land on one of the Bookstacks in the distance!
The book stack came crashing down along with the body of Michael.
"Arghhh! You bastard! You stole my stats! I will kill you!" Michael roared as he realized what had happened.
"This is certainly fun." Azekiel smiled as if taunting Michael even more. "You told me what will happen in the next two minutes. I would've loved to tell you what will happen as well, but I believe in show, not tell."
This time, it was his turn to attack. He only had two minutes of these stats, and he wanted to finish this battle in two minutes.
Unfortunately, despite the temporarily weakened stat, Michael wasn't a weak enemy. When it came to skills, he had way more than what Azekiel had!
The battle of Kings had just begun!
