Avila tapped the chin portion of her helmet. There was not even a little dent on it, despite the full force attack of Azekiel’s hammer.

Even Azekiel was surprised, noticing how strong the lady’s godly armor was. The attack he had just used should’ve been able to crush anything, yet this didn’t even leave a scratch on the woman’s Armor.

That made him even more amazed at all the scratches that were left on her Armor. Just how strong must those attacks be, to leave behind the scratches on that Armor which was a feat even he couldn’t achieve. This lady… She was in a different league altogether. Unfortunately, he couldn’t avoid this battle now.

But first, he needed to help Raphael. His Hammer once again changed into the Gauntlets. He swung his claws toward the Soul Demon, despite having hundreds of meters of distance between them.

Many dark energy bullets left his claws, shooting straight to Azekiel. He was sure the Woman wasn’t going to let him get to Raphael, so he did what he could to help him for now. Raphael was his main concern for now.

Just as he had expected, Avila appeared once again before him, covering over fifty meters of distance in the blink of an eye.

The woman stabbed the tip of her sword into the ground before her and placed both her hands on the hilt as she stood before Azekiel, looking down at him.

“It’s a pity… Really a pity how these Gauntlets have such a pitiful owner now. Something over which even gods and demons fought is now in such a pitiful condition. You’re so pitiful that it isn’t even worth killing you.”

“Since you’re the reason we were free, I will give you an opportunity. Hand over the Gauntlets out of your own volition, and I’ll let you and your friends go.”

“And if I don’t?” Azekiel frowned. These were a gift from his system. They were his strongest weapon and his biggest advantage in this Tower of Sins. He couldn’t just give them away because he was scared of death!

“Then you will all die… First, that man you just helped. Then the girl who is trying to get in position to attack and lastly you.”

****

Raphael didn’t understand what was happening to him. It was as if his strength was being sucked by the man, and he couldn’t do anything.

“Heh, it feels so good to steal some strength once again. I must say, you have quite a lot of it. I should really thank you.”

“Hmm?” The blind man appeared to notice the energy bullets that came straight to him.

“Heh. Child.” He tapped his foot on the ground, jumping high up, avoiding all the energy bullets.

A simple tap of his had so much power hidden in it that a deep crater was left behind as his body shot up, going up to a hundred-meter height before he started coming down. The bullets missed him entirely.

The sudden distraction helped shift the Soul Demon’s focus away from Raphael, making Raphael feel as if the force which was restricting his movement was gone.

He didn’t waste the opportunity at all. He didn’t know how long he had. It could even be the freedom of one second or less.

Boom~

Raphael clenched his left fist, attacking with his entire force behind it. The fist landed on the chest of the Soul Demon. A cracking sound resounded in the air as the Soul Demon’s body shot back with a booming sound.

Raphael was finally free of the man’s grasp. He felt a bit weakened, but it was still better than being trapped. His two wings spread wide open, helping him stay in the air.

“He thanked me for touching him last time. That means he can only use that mysterious paralysis when I’m touching him directly. And that distraction got rid of the paralysis. It appears he needs constant focus to keep that restriction.”

Now that Raphael was free, he analyzed everything he had noticed so that he wouldn’t fall into the same trap again by making the same mistake.

“So I can’t touch him. However, he couldn’t use it on Azekiel when he had attacked. It seems the contact needs to be with his skin directly for it to work, or it needs to be a longer contact than a brief moment. I’ll consider both to be true, just to be safe. That should mean that I would be fine if I just…”

Raphael grabbed his robe and tore a decent amount of cloth from it. He further split that section into two equal parts.

“If it’s about direct skin contact, then the answer is simple. I wouldn’t let my hands contact his skin directly.”

He wrapped the piece of cloth around both his hands, covering his skin. It was as if he had made temporary gloves from his robe.

The next possibility he considered was that the contact needed to be for longer than a small instance. That was even easier to handle since that meant he just needed to be careful about it.

After preparing himself, he flew straight to the wooden house where the Soul Demon had crashed. “You won’t have the opportunity this time!”

Just as Raphael was about to get close to the hut, the man came out. His fists were clenched, and his face looked angry.

He raised his head, facing Raphael. “I will kill you. Five minutes… Survive if you can.”

Swiss~

Two dark wings appeared around his back as well, which were no different than the wings on Raphael’s back.

Seeing those wings on the man’s back was shocking. How could he have the same wings? He definitely couldn’t fly before! If he could, he wouldn’t have jumped. Did that mean he received his wings just now?

“You are using the strength you stole from me!” Raphael raged.

This wasn’t just the simple stealth of his strength but also the stealth of his skills from what it appeared. The only difference was that it was the strength of theft that wasn’t permanent for him.

****

“You have one minute to decide.” Avila stood before Azekiel, issuing him an ultimatum. “Either you give me those Gauntlets, or you watch your friends die.”

“Both the options are bad. I’m afraid I’ll have to decline both.” Azekiel straight refused. It was better for him to die than give away his gauntlets.

He knew if he gave away those Gauntlets, he couldn’t even have a fighting chance here. Moreover, the lady was going to leave with the Soul Demon. And because of the system’s quest that he accepted, he couldn’t leave this place unless he killed the Soul Demon.

He was going to stay here forever, at least for the next seven days when the Blood Oath was going to kill him for failing. So giving away those Gauntlets was no different than giving his life away.

Even though the woman gave him two options, for him, both those options were the same as both meant death. The only difference was that the second option at least gave him a fighting chance.

“There’s no declining both. That’s accepting the second option. You still have twenty seconds left. I’ll give you time to think. The moment your time is up, your head will be lying at your feet.” The woman grabbed the sword but didn’t pull it out of the ground.

“Since the choice is between death and death, I select life, even if it requires me to take some risk. I really hoped I wouldn’t have to use this.”

Avila’s brows raised, wondering what Azekiel was talking about.

“Ten seconds left…”

“Nine seconds…”

“Eight seconds….”

Azekiel only smiled in response, watching Avila countdown.

“Please don’t disappoint me today. Give me a good card!” He raised his right hand. “Cards of Judgment!”