The Wicked Spear Arts was strong enough to cut through the Undead Pharaoh's corrupted domain. The Undead Pharaoh did not see that coming. It was certain that Michael would overestimate his technique's strength and fall victim to his baseless confidence. That was exactly what happened with the Undead Pharaoh instead.
He was too confident in the corrupted curse power and didn't expect that a Lesser Lifeform could cut through it. Not even Higher Lifeforms were capable of such a feat without the perfect Soultrait and Soul Technique. Yet, that was exactly what Michael did. The Aethyr Spear cut through the corrupted domain and struck the Undead Pharaoh's core.
The Undead Pharaoh responded quickly after noticing that Michael wasn't corrupted. He swung the Staff of Epos at Michael, only to see the corner of the youthful Awakened's lips curl upward. Michael smiled at the Undead Pharaoh as the Aethyr Spear impacted.
The Undead Pharaoh's core didn't shatter, but the Aethyr Spear, amplified by the Wicked Spear Arts, was powerful enough to scratch the core.
That made it considerably harder for the Undead Pharaoh to maintain perfect control of everything. He was forced to check on his core before his focus returned to the Staff of Epos, the corrupted domain, and the millions of Undead he had to control simultaneously.
The World Serpent and the Curse used the small opening to attack. A huge serpent head emerged from the Living Image, which had coiled around Michael's neck. However, there wasn't only one serpent. There was one large serpent with a head as large as Michael's, but dozens of smaller serpents shot simultaneously out of the World Serpent's Living Image.
They all lunged for the Staff of Epos alongside the dozens of Cursed Extraction tendrils that burst out of the Cursed Seals. Each Cursed Extraction tendril transformed into a small canine-shaped head, crunched on the serpentine staff in the Undead Pharaoh's hands, trying to crush it with force.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})The World Serpent's serpents coiled around the serpentine staff before lunging at it with razor-sharp fangs. They sapped the Staff of Epos' power without hesitation. There was no time to hesitate, after all. All the Curse and the World Serpent had was a small opening. They had to make as much use of it as possible.
Some of the serpentine staff's power was drained in the quarter of a second they had before the Undead Pharaoh could react. However, that time was also enough to remove the seal blocking Michael's Soultraits. Michael regained full control over his Soultraits for a moment.
It was just enough to use Insert with Enhancement on the World Serpent and his Curse. In response to the Enhancement layers, both the World Serpent and the Curse managed to drain even more power of the Staff of Epos. Simultaneously, Michael used the Enhancement Layers on his body.
His body was already cracking and breaking apart from using too many techniques that artificially increased his physical prowess. Fortunately, the World Serpent took care of some of Michael's problems. Michael was momentarily strengthened by both the Curse and the World Serpent. The World Serpent used its power to grow onyx-like scales all over Michael's body. The scales intertwined with one another, creating a perfect armor for Michael while also forcefully ensuring that his body would stay intact.
Even if Michael's body threatened to tear apart, his body parts wouldn't be ripped out of his body. Everything was forcefully kept together, after all.
The World Serpent kept Michael's body intact, whereas the Curse ensured that his mind and soul wouldn't be torn apart as an aftereffect of overheat. Michael was using his Soultraits and other powers to an extent his body, soul, and mind shouldn't be able to handle. The Curse and the World Serpent were partially at fault for that. After all, they unleashed their power to push a Tier-3 Lesser Lifeform to face a crippled Divine Lifeform head-on. There was no way that there wouldn't be an issue.
Fortunately, the Curse and the World Serpent didn't leave him to die. They tried to salvage as much as possible while Michael gave his utmost to fight like a suicidal maniac against the Undead Pharaoh.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})He regained control of the Elemental Spheres and communicated with Zeroa once again. That was all Michael needed to summon the purgatory flames and use their strongest form, with 10 Enhancement layers alongside Soul Tears and True Extraction.
The white flames washed over the ground, spilling in all directions and burning every Curse in their path, including Michael's Curse. At least, that would have happened if the Cursed Extraction Tendrils had not used extraction in their immediate surroundings, extracting the oxygen and energy within the purgatory flames that would have touched them otherwise.
It was easy to extinguish the purgatory flames because Michael split his mind seemingly naturally, allowing the Cursed Extraction tendrils to do something while the Undead Pharaoh could not.
The purgatory flames destroyed the corruption and bits and pieces of the cursed power before pushing closer to the Undead Pharaoh. It was interesting to note that the purgatory flames were not only used by Bloodhound to wash away Michael's Curses. Michael also used them to burn the Undead to cinder. It had a significant effect on both Curses and Undead.
The Undead Pharaoh was both.
He was still a formed Divine Lifeform and a being at the 5th Tier but struggled against the World Serpent, the Canine Curse, and Michael's tremendous power. For a few seconds, Michael possessed enough strength to fight the Undead Pharaoh head-
on. And he wasn't even alone.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})He was constantly on the verge of death, but Michael could also use Archangel's Grace again. That was exactly what he did to avoid dying.
It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was more than enough to unleash every power he had accumulated within his body. Michael struck the Undead Pharaoh several times with his enhanced purgatory flames, the Wicked Spear Arts, and his terrifying physical prowess. It was barely enough to give his Curses another opportunity to strike.
The World Serpent continued draining the Staff of Epos, but the Canine Curse changed its target.
Michael felt his Cursed Seals move through his entire being. They moved to his chest, where they combined temporarily.
A huge head burst through the World Serpent's scale armor. It was another golden head of a canine. However, this time, the golden head was more detailed than before. Michael lost access to True Extraction for a moment and the Soul Power accumulated within the Soultrait Symbol was drained instantaneously. However, that was not all.
Several thousand SoulStar Fragments disappeared into Extraction's Soultrait Symbol. They transformed into Soul Power, which the Curse utilized to empower the Extraction Wolf Head, which persisted expanding. It barred its fangs at the Undead Pharaoh as it grew into a massive head, which snapped at the Undead Pharaoh.
The Extraction Wolf Head ignored the enhanced purgatory flames shrouding the Undead Pharaoh and crushed the crippled Divine Lifeform.
A sudden rush of strength swept through Michael. The chains of miniature seals manifested all over Michael's body again at last. They trembled violently and showed signs of cracking. However, instead of shattering the seal on one of the Canine Curse's seals, all components of the miniature curse chains trembled violently.
More SoulStar Fragments were sucked out of Michael's War Rune, granting the Canine Curse enough power to sustain the Extraction Wolf Head and strengthen it.
The golden glimmering cranium changed into a majestic wolf's head that sucked the strength out of the Undead Pharaoh.
