After Cedric had unleashed his flames of decay from above upon the Lord, he noticed that one of his ravens had begun descending towards him.

At first, he didn’t pay it any mind; after all, his ravens moved around the battlefield on their own. Instead, he kept his attention on Lee Lim, who kept narrowly weaving through and avoiding the pillars of flames chasing him.

However, all of a sudden, Cedric got a notification that made his eyes go wide:

[The character Lee Lim has activated the skill: One with the Ravens]

The moment the notification appeared, Cedric watched as the Lord in the distance erupted into feathers before his eyes. His instincts suddenly flared, and his head turned toward the raven that had been descending towards him.

The moment his eyes came into contact with the bird, it burst into Lee Lim, who crashed heavily onto the ground where Cedric stood.

Fortunately, Cedric had many other ravens, so he instinctively swapped with one above just as Lee Lim’s hand swept through the space where his throat had been a millisecond before.

However, barely a second after he landed on the ground, he noticed that it was as if someone was forcefully tearing into his perception.

It was a very invasive feeling.

It was a sensation that made him feel as though someone had locked onto him and that no matter where he went, he would be found.

Looking around, his mind raced, and it didn’t take long for him to realize that the vision of all his ravens had been invaded by Lee Lim.

But that was not all.

In fact, not only were their visions hijacked, but the terrified ravens were suddenly in a state where they were having trouble telling whom they belonged to, or who they should be loyal to, as Lee Lim’s dominance began to overwhelm them.

The only reason Cedric was not kicked out of their vision was that all of the cawing ravens were actively forcing themselves to keep him in their minds out of pure loyalty.

For before Lee Lim, he was One with them.

’Shit.’

At the same time, large feathery black wings had erupted from Lee Lim’s back. He flapped them with violent power and lunged in a blur for Cedric, while also taking out a slim walking cane from his inventory.

Seeing Lee Lim approach with such killing intent, Cedric tried to redirect the pillars of flames to intercept him. However, the man flew so fast that they only pulverized the ground behind him.

Cedric then prepared himself to battle the Lord, and both swords in his hands caught on black flames. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

In the next instant, Lee Lim slammed into him, and after blocking the blow from the Lord, Cedric nearly bit off his own tongue because it suddenly felt like he had been hit by a runaway freight train.

The strength of the man was so insane that Cedric felt his hands go numb, and he even began to wonder if the bones in his forearms had shattered.

"Ack!"

He cursed as he tried to deflect the man’s heavy strikes to the ground rather than block them head-on, and after only a few exchanges, he reached his limit. The man was not only strong but also fast as hell.

And so, he tried to redirect a pillar of flames from one of the magic circles above to intercept Lee Lim. He succeeded, and the pillar slammed into the earth with a concussive roar.

But unfortunately, the pillar had missed Lee Lim because in the final millisecond, he had swapped places with a raven. Cedric’s blood ran cold as he realized the Lord was now behind him. He spun to look back, only for Lee Lim to close the distance in a blur, and his palm clamped over Cedric’s face like a vice.

The sheer momentum of the dive slammed Cedric’s head into the white sand. But it didn’t end there because Lee Lim didn’t slow down and kept charging forward, dragging Cedric along the ground.

Despite having the wind knocked out of him by the initial impact, Cedric struggled to free himself as the grit of the sand grated against his back. After his efforts failed to break the iron grip, he forced his body to scatter into a dozen new ravens, exploding out from beneath Lee Lim’s palm in a flurry of dark feathers.

He thought that he would be able to put distance between himself and the Lord. However, Lee Lim did something at that moment that utterly surprised the shit out of him.

Lee Lim, who had stopped moving, opened his palm toward the ravens. As he slowly began to close his hand into a fist, all the ravens Cedric had turned into began to flock together, forced into a violent coalescence until Cedric’s form returned, staggering in front of him.

’What the actual fuck, man?’

Cedric had barely been forced back to his physical form when Lee Lim threw his cane. It closed the distance in a blur, impaling his chest and tearing through his back.

His eyes widened, and he coughed up blood as he grabbed the cane lodged in his chest.

But Lee Lim didn’t stop there. With his hand still in a fist, he pulled his arm back, preparing to deliver a lethal punch. As he wound his arm back, the force generated a magnetic pull that dragged Cedric toward him.

’What the—’

Before Cedric could fully form the thought, his body reached Lee Lim, who then punched him into the air.

In that instant that Cedric was suspended, Lee Lim lunged into the air and hit him again, driving him back to the ground. Cedric slammed onto the sand and just lay there. He couldn’t see because his vision had gone blurry from the first hit, and he couldn’t move because he was in a world of intense agony.

"You thought you could kill me?" Lee Lim yelled as he landed on top of Cedric, who was already dying.

"How delusional do you have to be to believe that you could kill me? ME?!" He punched Cedric’s face, shattering his menpo mask and teeth. Then he delivered another blow which completely shattered Cedric’s jaw.

"The likes of you CANNOT KILL ME!"

He plunged his hand into Cedric’s chest and dragged out Cedric’s spine, painting his already grotesque form in a fresh coat of crimson.

At that moment, the world felt like it went silent, and all that was left of it was Lee Lim breathing heavily on top of Cedric’s dead body. Unbeknownst to him, Leon had been activating Judgment Time. And at this moment of quietness, Lee Lim had been declared for death!

The Lord slowly turned his head to the side to see the mirage of a towering golden woman holding a sword with both hands, its tip facing down. He arched a brow as he saw her driving the blade into the earth. As she did, a massive sword descended from the sky, crashing into the Lord and splitting him in two.