Chapter 162: Chapter 157

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“Where am I?!”

Henrietta suddenly opened her eyes, finding herself within a strange, blank space. It was not larger than a small, completely white room.

There was nobody there, and she was completely alone, isolated from everything. It was unnerving how she could even hear her own heart and her breathing with ease.

“Was I trapped here?”

Henrietta started to recall what had happened just a few minutes ago. A Demon named Jeremias had appeared and teleported everyone away.

“It seems that the ones behind this knew that we would be too much of a threat together…”

The moment everyone was separated, Beelzebub took extra care with Henrietta.

He knew of the powers she held and how dangerous she could be if let loose, even if she fought a vessel for a Death Apostle, there was no guarantee they would win.

After all, she had managed to kill Agares back then by herself. Therefore, in the end, he decided to seal her within a pocket dimension inside the demonic castle.

“I need to get out of this place…”

She quickly summoned her Golden Sword and imbued her Celestial Energies into it.

Anna wasn’t the only one capable of unleashing this energy; Henrietta, although not physically an Angel, had received the blessings of Gabriel, one of the strongest Archangels.

She was slowly shaping to become his Incarnation, and therefore, her physique had already been forged by his divine light.

Not only could she create angelic wings at will and reinforce her body with an armor of divine light, but she could even summon a divine golden sword at will at any time.

Wielding this sword, her eyes shone with golden light.

“HAAAH!”

With a precise attack, her sword vertically slashed the empty air and attempted to cut through the pocket dimension!

SLAAASH!

For a split second, the incarnation of the Archangel’s eyes lit up, and she thought she had just damaged the dimensional wall as a large slashing wound appeared on its ethereal construction.

However…

Crackle!

CRASH!

Seconds later, the space itself distorted and released sparks of Anti-Mana, hitting Henrietta and electrifying her entire body. She fell head-first into the ground, agonizing.

“Urgh…?! AAAGGH…!”

She felt her Mana Veins around her entire body beginning to burn. Desperately, Henrietta imbued her body with Celestial Energy, slowly healing herself.

“Hahh… Ugh… What the hell was that?”

She looked at the wall again, it was as good as new!

“Fuck… This isn’t going to be easy, huh?”

Beelzebub’s fly-like eyes squinted as he glanced at Henrietta struggle pointlessly against his amazing creation. A pocket dimension using Jeremias's powers sealed Henrietta shut!

Her connection with her Constellation was also greatly weakened, and the entire dimensional cube’s construction was made of the very hard-to-control Anti-Magic.

Anti Magic was a special type of energy created by reversing the laws of Mana and creating a destructive energy that negated it.

Even Death Apostles had difficulty wielding it, but thanks to Jeremias’ Dimensional-shifting abilities, he was able to do this.

“Jeremias was sure a good investment! Creating someone like him for the Demonic Spirit of my Demonic Castle was ideal! All thanks to my amazing intellect.”

Beelzebub praised himself as he saw Henrietta struggle, constantly fighting the dimensional cube, sealing her away, and every time getting electrified by the Anti-Mana, frying her body from the inside out.

“If you keep trying, you’ll eventually fry up all your Mana Veins, and you won’t be able to wield Mana ever again, foolish human!”

As he laughed while seeing her struggle, Henrietta kept fighting. She never gave up; to minimize damage, she conjured a Holy Light Armor around her body and constantly released long-ranged slashes with her sword.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

She kept attacking it and evading the sparks of Anti-Mana. Over time, she got good at evading and attacking, and the wound on the dimensional wall was not closing in time as she kept attacking it.

Beelzebub wasn’t paying attention until he realized the wall was already almost about to break. His giant eyes opened wide open as he waved his hands.

“These humans… They’re really tenacious!”

FLASH!

In front of Henrietta, the wall suddenly strengthened. She felt an urge to attack it before that was to happen, her rage fueling her attack power.

“Stop! NOOO!”

She cried in desperation; her attacks only released more Anti-Mana toward her, damaging her and pulling her to the ground.

“FUCK!”

She immediately stood back up, her Celestial Energy healing her once more. Beelzebub was beginning to realize how boundless this human was!

“RAAAH!”

With a furious and beastly roar, Henrietta attacked the walls over and over again while tanking the Anti-Mana electric sparks.

Each attack hurt her, but she kept healing herself. The Death Apostle hoped she would eventually tire herself out and die.

But that wasn’t the case.

Eventually, as Henrietta kept hacking at the wall with different techniques, her powers started to give a sudden rise.

“I have to channel my powers, and— Ugh?”

Suddenly, she felt something flowing through her body; gray-colored sparks of electricity were being temporarily contained.

Anti-Magic was gathered in her body, and as she moved her muscles forcefully, she was able to control their trajectory outside of her body.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“T-This…?!”

Henrietta quickly pointed her sword at the dimensional walls again.

This time, she channeled the gray energy and let it all out of her body through the sword.

It was agonizing, but she gritted her teeth.

She could recall having gone through equally worse pains before, even before the awakening.

She could bear with it; she knew she could.

She had to.

“I have to do it for Kevin…!” She thought. “Where might he be right now?!”

The feeling of all her strength being sapped away, of all her force being taken from her, the feeling that she couldn’t even hold onto her legs and stand up.

She gritted her teeth and resisted that same pain, but perhaps amplified it a hundred times. By thinking about her beloved brother, the only family she had, she went all out.

“{Anti-Mana Slash}!”

She named the technique with a simple name; a huge slash of pure gray energy was released, and the impact hit the dimensional wall in a split second.

SLAAASH!

CLASH!

Spark, crackle!

The dimensional wall shook, and a huge wound was left. Henrietta smiled at the scene, and the gray energy quickly began to attack her body.

“I have to keep at it! For Kevin… And Jack, and Anna! And everyone else…!”

She simply gritted her teeth again while tightly clenching her sword’s handle. She mediated while absorbing this agonizing power.

And made it her own!

“W-What is she doing?!”

The Death Apostle watching her, Beelzebub, was left speechless.

Henrietta was surpassing her limits through this arduous trial and was breaking through and obtaining a new power.

“I need to go help them!”

She absorbed all the Anti-Mana power she could wield into her body and then began to crystalize it into her chest.

“I need to go save them!”

A strange, gray crystal was then formed in her chest; she kept absorbing the powers of the dimensional wall while attacking it.

“Just wait for me; I’m coming!”

Eventually, not even the great reinforcement that Beelzebub conjured was enough!

“Now…!” Henrietta said, releasing the tension from her body as she focused entirely on her sword. All her Anti-Mana Energy sparked out of her sword.

“{Anti-Mana Swordsmanship}: {Dimensional Slice}!”

SLAAASH!

A huge slice of gray and dark matter was released from her sword, cleanly slicing through the cube-shaped dimension she had been sealed within and making it collapse!

BOOOM!!

Henrietta escaped barely, falling onto the floor where the dimension was deposited, gasping for air as she was now wielding a new power!

“I-I did it!” She celebrated triumphantly, quickly calming herself down.

[The Cosmic Throne {Divine Judge of Flames} is relieved you’re alright!]

[He says he was unable to detect your presence at all while you were isolated in that place.]

[Your Sponsor has immediately gifted a [Divine Restoration Potion (S Rank)] x!]

Suddenly, a beautiful vial decorated with gold and filled with a deep red liquid materialized in Henrietta’s hands.

She didn’t expect her sponsor to send something so luxurious to her just because he was so worried.

Henrietta and most adventurers already had small spatial bags where they saved potions and other items, and she was just going to drink one of those when she felt it was necessary.

[The Cosmic Throne {Divine Judge of Flames} asks you to drink it right away!]

“Sorry for being unable to contact you, but I won’t drink this yet! It is too precious, Gabriel.”

Henrietta saved the potion inside her inventory, quickly making her sponsor even more angry.

[The Cosmic Throne {Divine Judge of Flames} says that you MUST drink it!]

[He cannot tolerate seeing his incarnation be all tattered and wounded like this!]

[And he wants to spoil you a bit too.]

“You’re as honest as ever; don’t worry. I’ll drink it when I really need to.”

Henrietta then released sparks of gray energy from her body. She had done something incredible, even for herself.

She was able to crystalize Anti-Mana into her body due to her incredible resistance to pain, toughness, and insane self-regeneration abilities.

Using this power was still agonizing and also caused pain and damage to her body.

But she felt that the more she used it, the more her body got used to this power, and the more it would become “refined” by it.

Eventually, her body could become impervious to most magic damage.

Her Constellation was quick to realize what had just happened!

[The Cosmic Throne {Divine Judge of Flames} is shocked!]

[He can’t believe you’ve channeled Anti-Mana into your body and even turned it into a new source of power.]

[But he wonders if that doesn’t hurt. He asks if you’re truly okay with this!]

“I’m fine… I’ll eventually get used to this."

Henrietta started walking through the corridors she found herself in, her senses quickly setting an alarm as she rushed towards the room to the northwest.

In there, she found an enormous manifestation of pure darkness, with two enormous, round, crimson-colored eyeballs.

“Y-You…! How were you able to free yourself from my dimensional seal?! Agh! Was it Jeremias's death?!”

The entity made of darkness was inside a room filled with several magic arrays, artifacts, and materials of all kinds, forming a specific Demonic Magic Array that kept the dimension stable.

Right now, it was all a mess, as Henrietta destroyed everything and freed herself from it, now pointing her golden sword at the culprit behind her entrapment.

“So it was you, Beelzebub, right?”

Henrietta looked at the Demonic Being with Celestial Energy flowing from her eyes.

[The Cosmic Throne {Divine Judge of Flames} has confirmed your thoughts; he is indeed Beelzebub, one of the Death Apostles that had come to your world to bring chaos and destruction!]

[If you can defeat him, he will reward you handsomely.]

“Say no more, Gabriel... Even without a reward, I would never let go of a monster such as him.”

Henrietta’s entire body erupted with Celestial Energy, her powerful Aura covered her entire body and enhanced her physical abilities to her limits.

In a split second, she turned into a ray of light and reached Beelzebub with her divine sword!

“It had to be an incarnation of those damn Celestials!”

With a furious roar, Beelzebub defended himself from the incoming attack, waving his insectoid claws from the shadow-like body he possessed, and blocking Henrietta’s swordsmanship techniques!

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

“He’s tough…!” She thought. “But slow!”

Henrietta kept fighting Beelzebub, suddenly growing a pair of angelic wings and moving around him at lightning speed.

Beelzebub was barely able to catch up to her movement speed, attacking her frantically but failing to land a hit on her.

His body kept transforming and becoming larger, but that did little to catch up with Henrietta’s incredible movement speed.

Thanks to her [Herald of Light] Skill, Henrietta was able to temporarily become light and, therefore, could move at near the speed of light through short intervals.

This made her the fastest hunter, perhaps in the whole world!

Her sword kept damaging Beelzebub, and the Death Apostle kept moving back, firing beams of darkness and demonic energy, but such attacks were dodged with ease.

“RAAAH!”

Suddenly, Henrietta appeared right above him, her sword glowing bright gold!

SLAAASH!

With a mighty arch-shaped slash, Henrietta cut through his many insectoid limbs, blood splattering out everywhere.

“GRYAAGH!”

Beelzebub stepped back and then conjured a deadly spell to counterattack her, now that he had her at point blank.

“{Demonic Pestilence Arts}: {Corrupt Crucifixion}!”

A wave of pure darkness imbued with the Element of Death emerged out of Beelzebub, hitting Henrietta with a tremendous force.

BAAAAMM!!

She fell to the ground, suddenly realizing there was a gigantic black cross stamped over her entire body, sapping away her life and holy light energies!

“Urgh…!”

She felt incredibly weak, barely able to hold her own weight; she was on her knees!

“Hahahaha! Did you not expect that, you pitiful human?!” Beelzebub laughed. “This is the power I’ve developed to fight you damned Celestials! I’ve now sealed your divine celestial powers! Without them, you’re nothing but a mere human! DIE!”

Beelzebub materialized a huge scythe made out of millions of flies made of darkness as he swung it vertically towards Henrietta’s neck!

“Not yet!”

However, with a mighty roar, gray sparks of electricity emerged out of Henrietta’s body; her sword clashed against Beelzebub’s scythe and then destroyed it!

Crack, crack…!

CRASH!

“W-What…?!”

The Death Apostle was left utterly speechless as he saw Henrietta destroy his magic weapon, realizing her attack was fully charged with Anti-Mana!

“Anti-Mana?!”

“Thank you for helping me grow past my limits.”

Henrietta mercilessly pierced Beelzebub’s chest with her sword, devouring the black cross in her chest with her Anti-Mana and then using her freed celestial energy to purify the demon’s body!

“{Exorcizing Blade}!”

FLASH!

Beelzebub gave out an agonizing scream; his entire body burned into ashes and disappeared.

“Hahh…”

Henrietta fell to her knees, barely keeping herself alive. She felt even more exhausted, quickly drinking the potion Gabriel gave her at the end.

[The Cosmic Throne {Divine Judge of Flames} sighs]

[He reveals to you that the Beelzebub you fought was merely a Manifestation of his {Radiance}’s powers.]

“I know… There was no way it would have gone down so fast.” Henrietta sighed. “So he can make clones, huh? This is going to get even more annoying.”

After feeling fully refreshed, she stood back up, looking at the watch in her right hand. There was the presence of someone nearby—in fact, two of them!

“It looks like some companions are nearby. It would be better to get to them first before anything else.”

She quickly kicked the floor and broke it open, leaping into the middle of a battle right away!

“GROOOAAARR!”

A gigantic black wolf was tearing apart countless crimson snakes, while black chains surging from its body were wrapped around a half-snake human controlling them.

“What…?!”

Henrietta was left speechless at the scene she was watching.

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