The battle between the Overlord and the True Phoenix continued to rage on, with each warrior moving at unbelievable speeds and smashing their fists into one another that caused great shock waves to occur. The resulting wind swept everywhere, lifting debris into the air and sending it flying in all directions. The people watching this battle had to take care from time to time in order to avoid getting hit by it.

The other members of the Nine Heroes of Legends, Alestor, and Bolten watched in alarm.

“This battle is… insane!” Commented Vikram, who was watching from the side with a look of amazement on his face while Martin nodded in agreement while shaking slightly from the fear.

“No kidding!” Maxwell remarked, looking shocked.

“I… I can’t even follow them,” admitted Fred in awe.

“How can they move so fast without getting dizzy?!” William exclaimed in shock.

“Truly, this is an inhumane battle,” commented Bolten with narrowed eyebrows.

Alestor watched in silence with a worried look on his face as his vision of the destruction was coming true. That part of the land had already been destroyed, and was only getting even more destroyed as the battle raged on between the warriors from other worlds.

“I just hope their battle doesn’t change the shape of our world,” he muttered weakly.

While every one of them was feeling excited, awe, surprised, Gram stared at the battle with a horrified look on his face. He could not believe that there were individuals with such immense power out that moved at such incredible speeds.

“How can they be so fast? How can their bodies possess so much power?! What the hell makes them so powerful and me this… this… weak!!” He thought to himself in an infuriated voice.

They watched the battle rage on, with them moving at an incredible speed with engaging in close combat and energy blasts at other times.

“You really think a mere mortal could defeat me?!” The Overlord exclaimed in a loud voice as they separated from their next exchange of fists.

“I don’t think; I know I can,” stated Lakshman in a firm voice with a confident smile on his face.

“Vermin!” The Overlord shouted, and he fired off a round of mega destructive blasts at his enemy.

Lakshman used Force Control with his hand to make them rise into the air and collide against each other, which resulted in their explosion. Then he ducked to evade his enemy’s next attack, which came as he tried to kick him in the chest. As time seemed to slow down, Lakshman grabbed his enemy’s leg and spun him around before slamming him down on the ground.

Startled by the blow, his enemy quickly aimed his hand up at him and fired off a powerful energy wave. Lakshman evaded the attack at the last moment by disappearing and reappearing standing several meters away. As he did, his enemy vanished and appeared right before him before they engaged in close combat, with them throwing fists and kicks at one another while blocking the other’s attacks.

The Overlord suddenly leaped away, aimed his hand at him and shouted, “Time Stall!”

In an instant, Lakshman felt like his entire movement had come to a standstill. He tried with all his might to move his body, but all he managed to do was shake and quiver as his enemy landed and leered at him.

“Can’t get away now!” He said with an evil smile.

He lunged forward and smashed his fist straight into Lakshman’s face, causing him to remain in the same spot despite the heavy impact. From there, his enemy continued to dish out fist after fist and kick after kick mercilessly at him without any kind of holding back or remorse.

“Hahaha! Stupid! Idiot! Bastard! Foolish! Mortal! You’re so confident, what happened to it now?!” The Overlord kept shouting with each blow he delivered against his enemy.

While he received the blows, Lakshman heard Asura shout inside his mind, “What are you doing, Lakshman?! Fight back!”

“I’m… trying…!” Lakshman thought back in a frustrated voice.

Even while he received the blows from his enemy, he focused his energy and channelled it throughout his entire body. Then, much to his enemy’s surprise, he activated Force Control that caused his energy to suddenly explode from where he stood.

“What?!” The Overlord exclaimed, shocked by this, and he leaped away at the last second.

As his energy swarmed around him, he further applied Force Control over his mouth and made him mutter, “Maga Distrab.”

In an instant, there was a sound of breaking glass as the magic binding him was released, and he was freed from it. He sighed and looked at his enemy, who stared at him in disbelief before he formed a small smile.

“I see. So, you’ve found a way to break through my time stopping magic. Very interesting. Maybe I underestimated you,” he commented, and Lakshman did not reply as he straightened up and faced him once more. “However, I’ve seen your weakness and it will be your downfall.”

Lakshman was surprised and began asking, “What do you—?”

Before he could finish his sentence, the Overlord clapped his hands in front of him and shouted, “Flash Flare!”

There was a sudden blinding flash of light that occurred in the area, causing everyone to close their eyes and turn away. Under normal circumstances, Lakshman would have closed his eyes, but with his transformation, he had no difficulty seeing through the blinding light from his Phoenix Eyes. As such, he could see through the blinding light and saw his enemy’s movement even if he could not see his enemy properly.

“This trickery won’t work on me!” He said and smiled as he dashed towards him.

As he reached his enemy, the light dimmed and brought the view back to normal. That was when he was shocked to see that the other person was no the Overlord, but in fact his wife, Emilia.

He came to a halt as fast as possible and landed in front of her, blinking in surprise as he could not believe that she was there.

“Emilia? What’re you doing here?” He asked, looking alarmed.

She did not say anything as she wore an expressionless look on her face. Then she suddenly aimed both of her hands at him and unleashed a powerful blast that shocked him as it sent him flying through the air. He landed several meters away and groaned softly from the pain, but he stood upright and stared at her in shock.

“Emilia?! What’s wrong with you?!” He exclaimed, looking shocked.

Instead of replying to him like she normally did, she spoke in a hollow voice by saying, “You abandoned us.”

Lakshman widened his eyes in shock and exclaimed, “What?! I didn’t abandon you!”

He rose to his feet and rushed towards her, only to get impended when Cantia appeared out of nowhere and punch him in the face that lifted him off his feet. As he soared through the air, Silvera and Tetra appeared above him and swing their swords at him, causing him to bring his arms up to defend himself against their attacks. This resulted in him flying down and smashing into the ground.

As the smoke cleared, Lakshman came into view looking bruised with multiple injuries from their attacks. He got into a sitting position and looked around as he realised all of his wives were there looking down at him with shadows over their faces.

“You abandoned us.”

“You ignored us.”

“You were unfaithful.”

You didn’t return our feelings.”

“You left us alone.”

“You didn’t care for us.”

“You made us suffer.”

“You never understood us.”

“You didn’t return to us.”

He stared around at them in shock as he heard their words, making him feel horrified by their words and felt a heavy sinking feeling in his chest.

“I… I didn’t do any of those!” He said, getting back to his feet. “I just… I…!”

“Even though you returned as a spirit back to our world, you didn’t bother to protect us, to help us, to rescue us, and to care for us.”

“Even when you left, we had to find out you were there only because of the Death Titan.”

“Imagine the shock we felt when we had to find out our husband was there as a spirit from a third person?”

“The sadness we felt at knowing that you were there, watching us suffer without caring about us is immense.”

“No! You’re wrong!” He exclaimed, staring around at them. “I wanted to help you! I wanted to save you, but I was restricted! My energy flow was draining away quickly as I was in another world and—!”

There was a sudden shout of, “Excuses!”

Their expressions slowly changed to that of anger as they began speaking harshly about his failure.

“Excuses, excuses, excuses.”

“You always do that, never once showing care or affection for us.”

“If you did care, even if you had to disappear, you would’ve saved us.”

“You would’ve protected us.”

“You would’ve helped us.”

“The Lucky we knew would’ve done anything within his power to save us from our time of dependence.”

“I… I didn’t…” He began weakly, staring around helplessly at them slowly moving towards him with dark expressions on their faces.

“All in all, you’re a failure of a husband,” they said in unison, and he widened his eyes in shock.

Tears began streaming down his face at the words he did not want to hear finally came out of the nine mouth of the people he deeply loved and cherished. They continued to speak ill about him, but he quickly closed his ears and shut his eyes tightly as he could not longer face this kind of reality.

“No! Stop it! I didn’t mean to do that! I didn’t!” He shouted repeatedly as the shock slowly seeped through him and blanked his mind entirely.

***

“What a fool, letting himself get trapped like that,” said the Overlord with a smile.

He was standing behind Lakshman, whose expression was dull and void of emotion. During the Illusion Flash magic activation, he had made his enemy believe that he was in front of him. However, what really happened was that the Overlord slipped away from that place and moved around as quickly as he could to reach his enemy and place his hand on his back while activating the spell, Fear Factor.

Fear Factor was a magic spell that, once activated, immediately puts the victim in the same location as they were at the time of the activation of the spell. However, the victim would be presented with the things that they fear the most and trap them for eternity in their own mind.

Deep down, despite having a lot of trust and faith in his wives, Lakshman felt fear that his wives might start reconsidering their feelings for him after he failed to properly protect them when he briefly visited their world in his Astral Form. He knew this would not happen as the bond between him and his wives was very strong, but he could not help but feel a lingering sense of fear deep within his heart at the possibility of such a thing happening to him in the future.

“I don’t know what you’re fearing, but you certainly got caught off guard by that,” remarked the Overlord, who removed his hand and smirked at him. He began walking to the front while saying, “You were confident that you could defeat me, and maybe you could’ve. But, even with your mighty power, you were still no match to the fear that lurked deep inside your heart. Too bad, you’re a complete failure.”

He suddenly grinned and said, “I’d rather have strong people on my side, but I know you’re going to be a thorn, and I cannot let you live! So, forgive me, but… you must die, right here, right now.”

As such, he pulled back his fist and gathered an immense amount of energy into it before he unleashed it straight towards Lakshman’s chest as he intended on giving a decisive blow. However, at the last second, a hand suddenly grabbed his fist and stopped it in mid-flight, causing the gathered energy to transform into wind and blow everywhere.

“What?!” The Overlord exclaimed, looking at the hand that stopped his fist and turned to look at its owner.

The hand belonged to Lakshman, but it was not him who was in control of his body anymore. As Lakshman fell into the trap of the illusion, Asura took charge of his body and looked disdainfully down at his enemy.

“Only a coward would trick his enemy and take his life,” he commented in a dull voice.

Then he pulled him forward and slammed his head against his enemy’s head, causing the Overlord to reel back in shock. As he staggered away, Asura rubbed his head and snorted as he looked back at him with an arrogant smile.

“I suppose your cowardice comes from the pride of being a Demigod, I guess. In that case, why don’t we crush that pride for yours, your majesty?” Asura said, and he smiled arrogantly before cracking his fingers ominously.