Kairo was uncertain about the details of the project Limit Breaker. But he knew that those who attempted to eat cards all ended up dead in horrible suffering.
Yet few among those people had managed to survive, and Corry was one of them. What he found disturbing was that Corry managed to survive after eating three cards. A single one more and the project Limit Breaker would have succeeded. If that had been the case, what kind of monstrous strength would he have gotten?
"The last time I used Devour was to escape the Card Mage Police after eating my partner. Tsk… at that time, I was too sentimental and got caught. This time around, Kairo, you'll feel all the strength of those who attempted to break the limits," Corry said.
Kairo's face darkened. He had no idea what Devour could do, and in his state, it was a real miracle he could still stand straight. From his belt pocket, Kairo picked up one of the healing boosters he obtained from Danzan.
Breaking the little bottle between his fingers, the liquid was cold—almost like it came from the ocean. Slowly, his body was washed over by a warm and soothing feeling while his wounds stopped bleeding entirely. "This should be enough for now. If Corry is still standing, then Nyx is still not out of danger. I can't fall now," Kairo said.
Kairo could definitely not fall now. The dead mark on him was growing at a rapid rate, and although the healing booster healed his wounds, the one on which the dead mark was did not close. Far from it—it increased. This simply meant Nyx too was bleeding, and at this rate, she would die before him.
'Chaos must have spread all through the submarine. I need to hurry up. Nyx, hold a little longer,' Kairo thought, scanning his gaze over the battlefield. Kairo noticed that the girl was not there. She had vanished.
This only confirmed his guess. Something was definitely going on in another part of the submarine. But he was here, stuck in this fight with Corry. 'Had Danzan failed to hold the Inquisitor?' Kairo could not be certain. Danzan was anything but weak.
Furthermore, even if he could not hold the Inquisitor, why would Nyx be wounded? She had gone to protect Camila. Hence activate the emergency controls that were supposed to seal all the cells and ensure what Kairo was facing right now with Corry never happened. The prisoners would have had no way to get out of their cells.
'Could she have failed? No—she gave me her word.' Kairo shook his head. He felt his heartbeat increase. He wasn't sure what was going on with Danzan or Nyx, but the submarine was in total chaos.
"What is it, Kairo? Are you paralyzed by fear in front of Devour so much that you can't even talk anymore? No, this can't be. You almost cut off my head. I want you to feel more than just despair, Kairo. I want you to regret… I want you to regret missing your chance," Corry said, and waved out his palm. Devour hummed to life, the dark and abysmal miasma smiling with teeth so huge they felt like old guillotines.
Then it bolted out like thunder striking from above—razor-like teeth ready to tear Kairo into pieces. Kairo, although clouded by all sorts of thoughts, had not forgotten how dangerous his opponent was.
Sliding to the side, Kairo evaded the grotesque attack. Devour's teeth sank into the weights in the corner. A clear breaking sound followed when the metal was split into two like it was nothing. Devour chewed through everything with disturbing ease.
'His teeth are frightening,' Kairo thought, keeping the pace. His only chance right now was to avoid being static. Thus, he ran all over the place, moving around his opponent to evade the restless attack. "Sand Paladin, let's do it," he called out.
His summon rose back to its feet, reassembling its destroyed body into particles of sand once more. Lance in hand, he was like a newborn fighter ready for a second round.
"This is useless—you can't escape this!" Corry yelled. Pulling his left arm forward, he made a grappling motion toward Kairo.
Alarmed, Kairo took a step backward. The Sand Paladin was very swift this time, appearing in front of Kairo like a bolt of lightning, ready to protect him from the next wave of Diamond Glory. However, Kairo waited long because there was no burst of diamond like he expected.
The ground instead began trembling under their feet, almost causing him to lose balance, as if the earth would split at any moment. "These…" Kairo's face was complex. On both sides of them, diamond began rising like living mountains, moving to heights that towered over the entire submarine gym.
With a loud bang, Kairo was sealed in some sort of corridor made entirely of diamond. The only thing in his field of vision was the mocking Corry and Devour. "We can't run away," Kairo said.
Corry had used the corridor to seal them into a tight space such that Kairo could not move backward unless he wanted to end up against the wall's end. The only way out was to face Corry standing at the entrance of the corridor.
If Diamond Glory is released in here, we will be done for good. We need to change tactics, Kairo thought, his mind spinning to find a solution. Should I try a daring sprint to catch Corry before he launches his attack? Kairo hesitated. If it had been the start of the fight, he could definitely pull something like this off, but right now, with the wound on his shoulder and the others, Kairo was uncertain.
Corry kept his sadistic smile when launching his attack. "Go," he ordered.
His plan was even crueler than what Kairo anticipated. At the front of the corridor, Devour was charging forward, covering the entire space with its guillotine-like teeth. And behind them, the corridor had started moving forward with terrifyingly sharp shards of diamond aiming at their backs. There was no way out for them.
"This ends here, Kairo. It was my pleasure to entertain you."
"He's trying to sandwich us in between," Kairo's face darkened. Glancing backward and forward, there was no way for him to escape. The walls of the corridor were too thick for the Sand Paladin to try to break them, and at this speed, Devour would catch up with them first.
Despite the urgency of the situation, the Sand Paladin was calm as ever. Standing in front of Kairo, he appeared ready to give his life for him without a second thought. He placed his lance upward in front of him, joining his two hands in a strange sign as if he was making some sort of farewell ritual.
Kairo's face was unexplainable. With every cracking sound, Devour got closer, and so did the shards of diamond. Observing the Sand Paladin, Kairo wondered why his lance was pointed upward. Tilting his head above, his eyes widened in surprise.
Actually, the corridor's walls were massive—but not enough to touch the ceiling.
That is our way out, Kairo's mind illuminated. "Sand Paladin. Ready for some climbing?" he asked.
The Sand Paladin snatched his lance out of the ritual, his eyes lighting up with newborn vigour. Kairo then leaned forward slightly and propelled himself towards the corridor wall. Stepping on it for the first time, he pivoted and pushed upward, stepping on it in the opposite direction.
One step after another, he was climbing upward at incredible speed, the Sand Paladin only mimicking his actions. The duo formed zigzagging lights that shot toward the sky.
"Incredible, Kairo. Even a cockroach isn't this hard to kill. But don't underestimate me," Corry said. Pulling his palms outward, he commanded Diamond Glory and propelled himself upward. Like a flying jet, he moved through the air and landed on the walls just as Kairo arrived.
"You aren't going to escape me, Kairo," Corry said.
Kairo saw Corry lift his almost severed arm upward as if he was going to use it to release his next wave of Diamond Glory. Something is off. The arm should be useless by now, Kairo thought. Corry's arm was linked to his body only by a single tissue that was threatening to break with his sudden movement.
"Can you feel it, Kairo?" Corry asked, severing the arm himself with no hint of fear nor pain. Kairo's heart wavered an instant, because the arm began a free fall down the corridor wall before landing with a thud on the ground.
"So this is the real power of Devour," Kairo mused at the scene. Corry then waved his half arm outward, and out of nowhere a new arm popped from the severed one, pushing with itself the rest of the tissue and the accumulated blood.
Kairo felt a wave of disgust rise in his stomach. Corry waved the arm back and forth as if testing a new gadget. "It doesn't work for the head, otherwise I would have changed it too. That's why I'm so pissed off you tried to chop it off, Kairo. Do you understand that for each body part I regenerate, I need to use stocks of people Devour got in his stomach?" he said with an abnormally calm voice—as if for him it was just normal to stockpile people in Devour.
For the first time, Kairo fully understood the extent of Corry's abilities. Devour was not only a summon that had incredible speed and sharp teeth. Its main ability was this—regenerating any body part of Corry instantly. But for that, he needed to use people Devour had 'eaten.'
This explained why he ate his classmates instead of just killing them for revenge. Having learned this much about him, Kairo made a new decision: no matter what, Corry could not leave this place alive. This kind of ability wasn't even supposed to exist. There was no way Kairo would let him roam free after that. And although Corry could regenerate all his body parts, it was clear his head was the weak spot—otherwise, he wouldn't have fought so hard to prevent Kairo from chopping it.
"I have one more reason to take you down for good. This time, there will be no way out for you," Kairo warned.