"Try to escape this!" Orpal roared.

"With pleasure!" Derek laughed as his chest and armor turned into a puddle of black metal.

Before Orpal could react, the Void merged back with his lower half and lunged at the Dead King with Ragnarök.

It took Night every ounce of her considerable skill to deflect the much heavier blade out of the line of impact and counterattack but she succeeded.

Night aimed at the Void's right arm wielding Ragnarök, dispelling the darkness of which it was made and sending the angry blade flying.

Derek shrugged off the pain and answered with a solid left punch to the gut that pierced through Orpal's guts and knocked him off Moonlight's back.

"Cut me. Smash me. Blast me into smithereens." The Void said while pulling Orpal close to look him in the eyes while Abomination Touch sucked the Dead King dry. "It doesn't work, brother."

The energy stolen from the mana geyser, Orpal's life force and his equipment had already restored Derek's missing arm and repaired his armor. Ragnarök flew back into his hand, ready to strike.

Yet what hurt the Dead King the most was the word "brother".

'Leech never called me like that, not even to mock me. He used my name only in the presence of our parents otherwise he wouldn't talk to me at all.' Orpal thought.

'So what?' Night asked while blocking the flurry of blade strikes in his stead.

'So Leech really has lost his memory and this is not him. This fight is pointless!' Orpal hurled a jet stream of bright blue Origin Flames, throwing the Void off guard. 'I wanted to humiliate Leech. To make him beg for mercy but this thing is not him!'

Ridden of his anger, inferiority complex, and desire to prove Lith his superiority, the Dead King regained his focus. He turned back into the warrior into whom Night had molded.

The mage who had managed to kill Mirim Distar and even Krishna Manohar, the god of healing. Meln Narchat wasn't a twelve year old boy throwing a tantrum anymore but a ruthless killer.

He relaxed his stance, focusing on defense and waiting for Derek's wild attacks to create an opening. Orpal didn't dare come close to the Void, breathing more Origin Flames and conjuring darkness spells.

"Not bad, but not good enough!" Derek dodged the bright blue Flames with a Blink that brought him right behind the Dead King.

Of course, Night warned him in time and Orpal reacted by activating Wailing Wail. Much to his surprise, this time the Void made no attempt to lessen the blow, letting the Davross spear and the enchantment ravage his darkness body.

"I told you, brother. It doesn't work!" With Thorn trapped inside of him, the Void was free of draining the Davross of both mana and Life Maelstrom.

He used them along with the energy from the mana geyser to mend his wounds and continue his attack as if nothing had happened.

'This guy may not be Leech but he is just as hateful.' Orpal cursed, forced to leave his prized spear behind to avoid being cut asunder. 'I've never fought against an enemy who can laugh deadly blows off. What should I do?'

'Beats me. It's a first for me too.' Night had destroyed many Abominations in the past but had always steered clear of Eldritchs.

Their respective interests would rarely collide and there was no point risking her eternal existence. She had also fought against Guardians and white cores, but that was back when Baba Yaga had Night's back.

They were enemies stronger than the Horsemen that she couldn't kill.

In Derek's case, she could sense that he was weaker than her. With her host and steed, killing something like that was supposed to be easy, yet everything she had tried so far hadn't worked.

"Get over here!" Derek's first diagonal slash missed, but instead of chasing after his prey, he performed another in the opposite direction, forming a black X.

The violence of his movements generated a strong gale that further amplified the effects of his tier four spell, Void Cross. The air element created a vacuum, pulling Orpal toward the mass of darkness element and compensating for its slow speed.

The Dead King Blinked away just for the Void to follow him and punch him right into the Void Cross.

'He's right behind us. The moment the spell hits us in the front, he'll hit us in the back.' Night warned him.

'I know.' Orpal joined hands with Night and unlocked Dusk's crystal.

Doom Tide sucked all the surrounding world energy, compressing it to the extreme before releasing it in an expanding blue energy dome. The Void Cross faded and Derek was caught in the blast from point blank range.

Even by activating all the elemental crystals on the Voidwalker armor, he still lacked the power to resist. His armor shattered and his body was scattered in a thin black mist.

Even Ragnarök broke into countless pieces, but instead of resisting the tide, the cursed blade rode it to escape its area of effect as fast as possible.

Freed from the Abomination's body, Thorne returned to its master who grimaced at the spear's pitiful condition.

'Leech, no, the Abomination sucked all the Life Maelstrom out of Thorn, and its Davross is so worn out that it's not better than Adamant.' Orpal infused the spear with his mana to haste its recovery while also recalling Moonlight. 'This isn't an opponent I can defeat myself.'

'Agreed.' Night stared at the form of the Void reassembling itself like a monster from a nightmare. 'With the sun, the mana geyser, and so many people, we need to hit fast and strong.'

Doom Tide was supposed to deplete the world energy in its surroundings for a while but with the constant flow erupting from the geyser, the effect didn't last more than a few seconds.

"As I told you, destroying my body it's not enough to kill me, brother." Derek laughed as he fed upon the victims of Orpal's latest attack. "I can go on like this all day. Can you?"

"He can't." Orpal's muscular body shapeshifted into a supple, feminine frame. "But I can."

'What do we do now?' Orpal asked.

'First, we put an end to the all-you-can-eat buffet.' Night galloped at the Void as the Voidwalker armor and Ragnarök repaired themselves at the cost of their durability.

Davross could recover from any damage, but just like Thorn, the regeneration process temporarily weakened the mystical metal. Only time would restore Davross to its original might.

Derek had a hard time fighting his conflicting instincts.

On the one hand, the Horseman was bursting with delicious mana, appearing to his Abomination hunger like a prime rib. Also, there was something in the man called Poopie that brought the worst out of Derek.

He was quite sure to have never met such an arrogant fool before but he still wanted to see him cry and suffer.

On the other hand, Derek still had the instincts of a normal man, and standing in the path of a charging horse sounded like a very bad idea.

"Dodge!" Ragnarök's advice broke the stalemate.