The sky, which was seemingly clear when Azekiel had entered the town, was now much darker. Clouds that were similar to the clouds in the rainforest had covered the town.
The only difference was that there was no rain, at least not yet.
The atmosphere was tense as two battlefields had taken shape in the town. One was between Raphael and the Soul Demon, who was using the stolen strength, while the other was between Avila and Azekiel.
Avila had almost finished her countdown. She even pulled out her sword from the ground.
As soon as her countdown reached 'one', her Sword was finally out of the ground.
Unfortunately for her, it was right then that Azekiel used the Cards of Judgement. Time appeared to have stopped as soon as Azekiel used the unpredictable skill.
Moreover, the freezing of time was powerful enough even to freeze Avila. Nothing moved, not even wind.
Four pitch black cards appeared before Azekiel, floating before him. All the cards seemed to be the same. There was no way to differentiate between the cards or to see what advantage or disaster hid behind those cards.
It was a massive gamble for Azekiel, but the lack of any other options forced him to take this gamble.
There were four cards, each having an entirely identical aura behind them.
There was no logic behind the cards to help make an educated guess. It was all just about blind guess selection, and that's what Azekiel did.
He glanced at Avila, who was frozen in time. It was evident that she was about to move before the time stopped.
"If I don't get anything good, I'll have a really hard time against her with her speed, defense, and strength. Help me once more... Don't give me a bad card!"
Azekiel grabbed the second card out of the four, taking his random pick.
As soon as his fingers touched the second card, all the other cards slowly disappeared, returning back to where they came from to wait for the next time they were called.
As for the card which was selected, it turned into a real card. Azekiel held the card and slowly turned around, really hoping for it to not be as bad as what the Lord of Greed received.
"Huh?"
As soon as he looked at the front of the card, his eyes widened. His lips parted as a smile slowly crept up his lips.
There were only three words written on the top of the card, and under the name, there was a depiction of a sword passing through a shield. At the bottom, there was a description written in small characters.
*****************
Absolute Defense Breaker
Description: Break any defense, pass through any protection. For the next one minute, all defenses become useless before your attacks.
******************
A small timer also appeared before Azekiel with one minute on the clock.
The timer started moving as the time freeze was over.
"Your time is up," Avila grimly stated. The time she had given to Azekiel was over.
Her figure disappeared into the winds before appearing right in front of Azekiel again, covering the distance between the two instantly as if she had teleported.
Unfortunately, she froze... Her Sword stopped mere inches away from touching Azekiel's neck.
She lowered her head. If her face could be seen now, only absolute shock could've been seen as she saw what had happened.
The sharp claws of Azekiel had passed through her Armor, impaling her stomach. She couldn't believe it. Her defense was broken, and her armor was penetrated, which should've been impossible for Azekiel.
"You're right. Your time is up."
Avila's figure disappeared. When she made an appearance, she was standing over ten meters away from Azekiel. There was a five-inch wide hole in her stomach.
There was only one question in her head. 'How?!'
It was after a really long time when she had bled, and the wound wasn't minor. It wasn't as if Azekiel wasn't surprised either since he could see that the woman's Armor was slowly healing itself.
It was a self-healing Armor that healed itself. Within seconds, her Armor was healed, and only a couple of new scratches could be seen where the Armor was penetrated. However, it couldn't heal Avila. Her Armor had healed, yet her body was still hurt.
Avila staggered where she stood, appearing to be somewhat dizzy.
Azekiel didn't have time to be amazed at her Armor's self-healing quality. He was on the clock, and there were only fifty seconds left for him.
[00:49]
It was time to go on the Assault since Avila wasn't his end goal. His end goal was the Soul Demon, and he wanted to have some of this skill left when he fought with him.
Avila stood on her ground, seemingly dizzy. Her vision was also blurry. Despite looking absolutely fine because of her Armor, she had lost a lot of blood. Moreover, as the attack was from the Gauntlet of Gluttony, it also managed to suck some of her strength while leaving some poison in her bloodstream.
Her vision was so blurry that she could see three Azekiel flying toward her, and her condition was only becoming worse with each passing second.
If she had considered the possibility of her Armor failing her, she could've never been in this situation since she would've been careful, but it came so unexpectedly.
"Argh!" Avila roared, using her last bit of strength. She held her sword with both hands, stabbing it at the ground.
The strange characters that were carved on the Sword started shining in a blinding light.
Boom~
An energy blast spread everywhere with the sword at the core, destroying everything in its path.
Azekiel brought his Gauntlets together, protecting his face as the explosion sent him flying back, even burning some of his clothes.
At the same time, the explosion also destroyed the only house that was in the village.
A massive crater was left where Avila stood with the support of her Sword. Her vision had started turning even darker. The blood loss was making things worse for her.
The sword was still shining, but now that light also spread under her feet on the ground as a formation circle appeared under her.
"I won't forget this..." she weakly stated before a blinding light surrounded her.
By the time the light disappeared, there was no trace of that woman left behind. Only the crater was left empty.
Azekiel didn't have time to think about Avila or her threat. All he knew was that she seemed to have escaped for now.
"Fuck!" he cursed at the missed opportunity. This was such a perfect time to kill her when he could pass through her defense. He wasn't sure if he was going to have this opportunity again since this card was used already.
He was already worried about how he was going to face that woman if she survived and returned in the future. Without this strange skill, her Armor was invincible! Could he even face her in the future?
Unfortunately, there were more problems for now.
[00:30]
He could see that he had only thirty seconds left for now. Despite many burn marks on his body, he was more concerned about the Timer. Now that he had this passive skill, he wanted to use it to the fullest for as long as he had it.
He located Raphael before dashing to him.
****
The sudden explosion of energy waves didn't just hurt Azekiel. They spread far and wide, even reaching Raphael and Soul Demon.
Raphael covered his body with his wings to protect himself as he braced for the impact. At the same time, the Soul Demon used some kind of Mysterious energy, which cast a shield before him, protecting him.
