Chapter 34: Last Stand

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The feeling of weightlessness didn't last very long as his body felt the sharp wind. He was flying so fast his brain barely had the time to register the demon had risen back before he crashed into the ground, rebounding off of it like a pebble on a lake, travelling hundreds of meters as he crashed several times before finally stopping moving.

As for Thor, he didn't go as far as he was stopped by a small mountain. Rubble fell on top of him, but he raised his fist into the sky, calling down a beam of lightning, which turned the rocks into ash.

As an Asgardian, and one of the strongest at that, Thor had a great resistance to blows, but even he had felt that one. He looked at the demon, and saw it back on it's feet. One of it's arm was limp, but it seemed even stronger than before as it struck everything in it's surroundings, and it had stopped eating the bodies of the dead to regenerate.

Thor said to himself "Looks like it's brain was really destroyed, and yet it still lives… only dumber. How did it become stronger though?"

He looked around, half expecting Edward to be there to answer his question, but he saw the trail left by him, and knew he was sent flying quite far away, and was possibly dead.

As the possibility came to his mind, Thor gritted his teeth as he roared at the demon, earning it's attention, and jumped at it to fight.

Meanwhile, about a kilometer away, was Edward. Unlike what Thor thought, he wasn't dead, courtesy of the Armor of the Ancients and his Chi. He had the time to recover a little Chi, and apply it to his body to protect it a little.

It was only a little, but it seemed to matter as he was still alive. His body however, was in a bad state. Most of the bones in his body were broken, several of his organs were partly crushed or cut open, and he was covered in blood under his armor.

But even then, even amongst the incredible pain, he remained away. Edward believed it was thanks to his strengthened mind, but it did not really matter.

Edward's body sucked in Chi from his surroundings at a crazy speed as it worked to fix his body. Any normal human would have died from that, and there wouldn't be much of them left, but his strengthened body managed to survive.

He was currently on top of a small hill, and he could see the ongoing fight a kilometer away. Thor was struggling against the demon, who seemed to have become stronger than before.

He tried to move, but his body was unable to, so he could only wait for his body to recover well enough.

And as he waited, he couldn't help but recall something his master, Dragon, had told him about while he watched the demon fight.

Before learning how to gather Chi and become a Chi Master, Edward had trained Internal Training, which had for a goal to utilize all the strength in his body.

He had reached the peak of that art, becoming an Internal Master, just like his master, but he had once wondered if there was anything above this, as even as an Internal Master, he always felt there was a part of his strength he couldn't use.

Dragon had an answer for him, and it was yes. The body was much stronger than most people thought, but most of it's strength was limited by the brain, so they wouldn't hurt themselves. While very strong, the body wasn't very durable.

An Internal Master learned to use all the strength available to them, but this extra strength was unavailable, hidden away by the brain, by something Dragon called a Limiter.

This Limiter could sometimes be broken by people in extreme situations, the most known example being the mother lifting a car to save their child. In this case, the mother would break the Limiter for a short period, allowing them to lift the car. However, they would also injure themselves most of the time, tearing their muscles and tendons apart.

That's also why, despite the great power removing the Limiter granted, most people didn't search for a way to break it at will. Dragon wasn't one such person though, and he had searched for his life how to break this Limiter.

Although it would hurt the user, in a moment of great peril, it was best to be injured than die.

And now, Edward suspected the demon had this Limiter removed because he exploded it's brain. Not having a brain was a good way to remove the Limiter, but for obvious reasons Edward or Dragon couldn't do that.

The demon still standing was an enigma, but Edward was sure he had succeeded in destroying it's brain as while removing the Limiter, the demon had also turned Berserk, and was only attacking Thor because he was there.

This meant the demon had another organ that kept it's body standing, and it had switched to it when it's brain exploded, so all they had to do now was to find and destroy it.

But seeing the demon not losing any strength or energy as the seconds passed, it got Edward thinking. While removing the Limiter would damage normal people, the demon had a strong recovery, and it seemed to heal it's body as fast it was being damaged.

Edward too had a strong regeneration, and so he thought that maybe thanks to his ADC, he could resist the damage from removing the Limiter, if he managed to remove it at will. This added one more thing he had to train in, although he was fairly confidant he would manage to break the Limiter pretty quickly.

After all, it was a barrier put by the brain, and thanks to his Spiritual Energy, he could manipulate and use much more of his brain.

As the minutes passed, Edward recovered enough to stand up and start moving. His body aching a lot, and he felt his muscles that were recovering tear open as he forced his body to move, but he didn't care, Thor was not on the winning end.

He seemed to have entered a berserk state, which strengthened him, but made him dumber, quite like the demon actually. However, the demon was too powerful, and it's gas was getting thicker and thicker, to the point it was starting to affect Thor too.

However, as Edward entered the region of the black fog, and narrowly dodged a black beam of darkness from the demon, his body started recovering even faster as he absorbed even more Chi than usual.

The demon dealt a tail strike, and sent flying Thor, who glided to the ground, reaching Edward's feet. The strike was so powerful it seemed to have awakened Thor from his rage, and as he saw Edward looking down at him, he laughed "You aren't dead!"

Edward snorted and said "Have you found it's weak point?" Thor nodded as he got up, an obvious limp on his left leg as he replied "Where it's heart should be, there seems to be a black core. Even in it's berserk state, it protects this spot. I managed to hit it once, and it hurt the beast."

Edward looked at the demon, who was in mid air, jumping toward them, and saw a gash on it's chest, and a cracked ebony ball. It was about half a meter in radius, so it was quite big.

Edward and Thor moved away from the spot, and Edward said "Can you still fight?" Thor laughed and replied "I could fight for days!"

Thor sounded confidant and happy go lucky, but Edward could feel he was secretly worried. Edward didn't say anything though, as he knew the young god had a pride. Everyone did after all.

There wasn't time for more chatter though as the demon landed near them, and attacked ferociously. Edward and Thor forced their injured bodies to dodge the attack as they attacked the demon.

Edward's Chi Sense have him quite the advantage, but his injured body was slowing him down, so much that he was barely dodging the blows of the demon. And even though he wasn't being hit, his body was tearing up as it was put under too much stress while healing.

As for Thor, he was tanking blows from the demon, and he wasn't doing very good. Overall, as the minutes passed, while more and more injuries stacked onto the demon, both Thor and Edward were getting worse too.

As Thor dealt a particularly heavy blow to the demon, stunning it, he said to Edward "This can't continue, it seems to be getting stronger every second! We must deal with it now!"

Edward coughed out a mouthful of blood through his mask as he replied angrily "If only I could reach it's core, a single strike shall suffice!"

Thor frowned, and asked "You sure of that? If I can keep it immobile for a second, are you confidant in killing it?"

Edward raised an eyebrow, but quickly replied "Yes. How are you going to do this?" Thor grinned with a hint of craziness as he replied "By holding it down of course… You will have to pierce your sword through me though."

Edward opened his eyes wide as he shouted "Are you fucking crazy? I'll kill you!" It was very rare for Edward to lose his composure and show his emotions while he was Serenity, it was his name after all. However, Thor's plan was too crazy.

Thor sounded much more serious than usual as he said "If this thing isn't killed now, then it will only keep getting stronger. And if one of the dark entities powering it takes it back, then they would gain a powerful demon they can send into this dimension any time they wish."

Edward was about to reply, but Thor grunted "Now is not the time to debate! Incoming!"

The demon was once again charging their way, and Thor rushed toward it without any semblance of fear. As for Edward, after a lot of hesitation and reluctance, he stayed behind, getting ready for the final strike.

The demon didn't show any sign of worry at the planning of the two though, and only focused on destroying whatever was in it's path.

Thor ducked under one of the demon's attacks before jumping toward it's torso. The demon tried to slap him between it's two palms, it's injured arm having recovered enough to attack, but Thor elbowed both palms with all his might, breaking both of his arms but also the demon's palms.

As it wailed, Thor reached it's torso, where the core laid, and call forth a bolt of lightning from the sky as he tightened his grip onto the demon with his legs.

The demon was immune to the damage from the lightning, but it was still slowed down for a moment.

During this moment, Edward sprinted toward them, with each step feeling his leg muscles tear open, but even as his legs became too injured to properly move, he used his spiritual energy to force his body to continue moving as he jumped too.

The Ebony Blade shone with a dark glow as it moved toward Thor and the demon, and as it neared them, Edward gave one last push as he pierced his sword through Thor, reaching for the demon's core.

The demon tried to stop him, but Thor was somehow still holding it down with his broken arms, and his legs were constricting so hard the demon found it impossible to move away.

The incomparably hard core, which had been cracked before by Thor, was cut in two by the sword, and it was cut an explosion of dark energy was released, sending both Thor and Edward flying away.

As he flew through the air, Edward could feel Thor's weakening vitality, but he could also see the demon being consumed by the very dark energy strengthening it, before finally disappearing from this world, dead for real this time.