Became a Demon with Pregnancy System-Chapter 116: Weaklings

Apollo’s pupils vanished into blackish-green sclera, his limbs elongated, and his aura ballooned to something immeasurably more nightmarish. "Parthenon..." the voice rasped. "I want that soul."

Luke watched in alarm as the cardinal’s entire figure turned a pulsing, dark jade color.

A wave of force blasted outward, sending shards of the snail’s shell tumbling.

Even the Totem Serpent let out a rumble of disquiet, jerking back from the sudden onslaught.

At that moment, a lithe figure dropped from the serpent’s flank.

Tanya Reed, clad in damp, weather-stained garments, landed nimbly on Luke’s broad shoulder. Despite the swirling chaos, she managed a wry smile.

"Looks like you needed some backup," she said, voice breathless. "I brought the Totem Serpent—hope that helps."

"Tanya," Luke rumbled, relief in his tone. "Good timing. With the serpent’s help, we might actually stand a chance."

Yet his eyes flicked back to the spectacle in the center of the snail’s shell.

The possessed Apollo now stared up at the serpent with utter contempt. The serpent hissed, rearing up for a direct confrontation.

Then, in a flash, a wave of seething energy erupted from Apollo’s twisted form, smashing the serpent like a catapult stone.

BOOM!

The serpent, enormous though it was, crashed into a fragment of the city, sending an avalanche of rubble downward. The impact quaked through the snail’s entire shell, nearly toppling Luke and Tanya from their perch.

Tanya Reed clung to Luke’s fur, eyes widening. "It knocked the Totem Serpent from the air in one hit?" she exclaimed, disbelief warring with fear in her voice. "That can’t be—Apollo wasn’t even that strong a minute ago!"

"He’s not just Apollo anymore," Luke responded, swallowing hard. "The so-called Plague God has taken over his body...which means that thing might be as strong as a top-tier being, at least for a short time."

All around them, the rain battered the cracked shell. Toxic fumes churned from the wounded snail.

The sub-monarch Headless Horseman still clashed with the Sun and Moon Twin Wolf below, but the entire battlefield was overshadowed by the awakened Plague God’s presence.

A hush of dread fell across the battered scene.

Suddenly, a warm glow radiated from behind Luke’s shoulder. Tanya, startled, looked over at Hazel Ross.

Despite being half-unconscious, Hazel’s form was bathed in a golden radiance—a faint silhouette of a Holy Soul emerging around her. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The gentle brilliance cut through the oppressive gloom like a lighthouse in a storm.

Luke rumbled softly in reassurance. "She’s merging with her latent power. That might be our one real chance to stand against whatever Apollo’s become. I just hope she can endure the strain."

Thunder cracked overhead again, reflecting the tumult of the clash below.

The fortress snail moaned with an otherworldly wail, its massive body battered on all sides by serpentine poison and demon-like energies.

And now, a monster far more deadly than any cardinal had seized the reins, eager to claim Hazel’s soul and unleash an unholy plague upon the entire plane.

A single hopeful spark glimmered: Hazel’s radiant golden aura, flickering at first, but gradually growing steadier, perhaps an echo of the Parthenon’s fabled healing might.

While the possessed Apollo readied his next destructive blow, Luke, Tanya, and the battered Totem Serpent steeled themselves for a final stand, ready or not.

A torrent of wind and rain surged across the fractured shell of the Fort Snail, which still hung suspended in the storm-shrouded sky.

Its once-pristine surface was marred by creeping veins of corrosion and large fissures, evidence of the bitter struggle raging upon its colossal back.

Even in this chaotic setting, Luke’s attention was fixed squarely on the eerie figure hovering a short distance away.

The figure’s face and physique vaguely resembled Apollo—the cardinal of the Black Sect—but it had taken on a sickly, dark-green hue, and a vicious aura rolled off it in palpable waves.

The eyes, in particular, glowed with an unearthly light, conveying a sense of malice that went far beyond Apollo’s former arrogance.

Here, it seemed, was the "Plague God" in partial manifestation, controlling the body like a puppet.

"Hmph. Weaklings, all of you."

The Plague God’s lips curled into a scornful sneer, baring jagged teeth. Its gaze shifted imperiously across the battered battlefield, from the wounded Totem Serpent lying coiled some distance away to Luke’s towering, wolf-like silhouette.

"A mere serpent from this mortal plane, you say? It claims dominion over poison, yet you stand before one whose power originates in the darkest recesses. Dare you challenge me?"

Luke growled softly, planting his clawed feet more firmly on the snail’s shell. He spared a glance at the Totem Serpent, which had been violently slammed into the snail’s carapace just moments ago.

Its enormous serpentine body bore deep grooves and bruises, and droplets of corrosive green fluid hissed wherever they made contact with the rain.

Even so, the serpent was rising again, intense fury burning in its reptilian eyes.

"Who is that...thing?" asked Tanya Reed, perched near Luke’s flank. Her face, usually composed, showed naked alarm.

"The serpent never loses like this," she added in disbelief, remembering how invincible the serpent had always seemed in her life. "Does that Plague God outrank even a Forbidden Mage?"

Luke exhaled, his breath swirling in the damp air.

"He’s a king from the Dark Plane, or at least a fragment of one. Not his full strength," he replied, recalling the times he’d read about other half-possessed individuals—like the case of a man named Len Graves who had once tried to channel the power of an Evil Horn God.

"Thankfully, Apollo’s mortal body can’t contain all that power for long. We just need to hold out until it collapses."

Tanya pursed her lips. "Hold out? That monster struck down the Totem Serpent like it was a toy."

They exchanged tense glances. Indeed, the serpent was no ordinary foe; it was a primordial beast older than most records, famed for its mastery of poison.

But the Plague God’s aura, even diluted through Apollo’s body, seemed to eclipse the serpent’s might.