Apotheosis

Just as Zen was about to open his mouth and say something to comfort Dorothy, one of the armors suddenly began making its way towards them.

Zen immediately grabbed Dorothy and threw her to a corner where he knew she'd be safe against the oncoming enemy.

Puff! Puff! Puff!

The armor was fast and the unfortunate Souls of Light that stood in its way were practically ripped to shreds. In a blink of an eye, it was already in front of Zen.

"Stop!" Zen screamed.

He bent down and pounced towards the floor, avoiding the two, rusty, rotating sabers and slamming himself onto one of the armor's feet.

Zen spared no force from his attack, imparting five to six hundred divine megatons of force as he collided with the armor.

Despite the strength and equivalent danger this armor posed, Zen wasn't too worried about it since he figured that he was in equal footing with the enemy.

The collision should've shaken its center of balance, making it fall to the ground. It should give him an advantage and let him obliterate this armor.

Unfortunately, what he expected to happen, did not happen.

Bang!

The impact from hitting the armor rebounded towards Zen and he felt a sharp sting of pain on his shoulder before it went numb. Contrary to his former expectations, this armor was actually far stronger than his own body.

There was no way he could use the Shade Stone to strengthen his body here on the Other Shore.

How in the world were there such strong armors here in Stage Thirteen?

With his shoulder numb, the regret of underestimating his opponent only began to settle in his bones. However, before he could fully immerse himself in his misery, a buzzing sound from above reminded him that he was still in the middle of a fight as a rusty saber headed towards him, ready to chop his head off.

Zen swiftly rolled out of the way and, instead of his head, the saber slashed at the floor and created a long, deep crack.

The floor was of a faint metallic color and Zen knew that the material it was made of wasn't something he could destroy even if he exerted his full strength. Seeing that the rusty saber easily destroyed a part of it let him know that he had greatly underestimated the power of his armor opponent.

Buzz!

The two red spots inside the armor's head flickered. The rusty sabers in its hands continued to come at Zen, getting faster and faster with each slash!

Cre-ka-rack!

It came at him with six to seven strikes in a row and Zen had no other choice but to avoid it by continuously rolling on the floor.

In the end, however, he was still too slow. He felt a sudden, stinging pain on his back as one of the sabers caught up with him, creating a horrible gash.

Buzz!

Despite having

medic to a degree as they watched the two armors smack their bodies onto the wall in an attempt to reach them.

There were two loud thuds as the armors jumped.

However, both fell rather quickly.

Even if they contained great power, these two armors were quite heavy.

They couldn't even manage to lift themselves an inch above the ground, let alone reach Zen and Dorothy from such a high place.

Dorothy, who had previously been scared witless for their lives, found herself laughing. "Ha! They can't catch us!"

Zen nodded in relief. "Yes. They can't touch us now."

The two armors tried to jump a few more times but to no avail. After realizing that they were not going to be able to reach their prey, they finally chose to give up.

A large number of Souls of Light remained in the basement. The two armors' attention had been focused on Zen earlier, giving the souls some time to relax and take a breather. However, Zen was now unreachable and the two armors turned towards them again.

Five minutes passed.

The basement, once filled to the brim with Souls of Light, stood empty.

Dorothy and Zen were the only survivors.

Granted that was mostly because they hung a hundred feet high, away from the dreadful place that was the bottom of the basement.

"Will they leave?" Dorothy asked, looking down at the armors that remained below.

"They will since they won't be able to reach us," Zen assured her with confidence.

However, as soon as he said that, the two armors approached the wall once again.

This time though, instead of trying to jump, they stabbed their sabers onto the wall.

The two armors were attempting to climb up to finally get rid of the remaining survivors.

"Ah, it seems they're more persistent than I thought," Zen said, shaking his head and revealing a wry smile.