235: Didn't you say you'd remember me?

"Big brother!"

The remaining knight's eyes flashed with grief; he tore off the human skin, revealing a terrifying true form.

Headless, clad in black armor—even so, he stood a full 3.2 meters tall.

He stretched his body; clearly, his strength had been restricted within the human skin, and only now could he exert his true power.

"Die!"

The Headless Knight spoke from an unknown place, his voice as coarse as fingernails scratching a blackboard.

The Angel Phantom charged forward. After clashing for a few rounds, the angel retreated repeatedly, surprisingly unable to match him.

Although the Angel Phantom was just a Clone with about a thousandth of the original's strength, it was clear that the opposing knight was at the Peak of the human realm.

In the first layer of Hell, such a character was almost impossible to find; it was unknown where Satan had lured him from.

Another angel joined the fray. In a two-on-one fight, the Headless Knight swung his greatsword and roared repeatedly, unexpectedly holding his ground without defeat.

His gaze swept around; it was evident he still had strength to spare. His greatsword continuously clashed with the angels' light swords, white light accumulating at the impact points; clearly, they would break before long.

"Now!"

With a roar, the Headless Knight cleaved through an angel's light sword, left the two angels behind, and charged toward Xu Le.

Xu Le shook his head; this trick was called "leaving an opening." He pointed his staff, and the Headless Knight knew it was the "Holy Light Imprisonment Spell" again. However, his momentum was spent and he hadn't yet recovered, making it impossible to change direction.

"It's over!"

The Headless Knight wailed inwardly; even with his powerful body, he couldn't withstand the siege of two Angel Phantoms for half a minute.

[Experience +0]

Xu Le shook his head. Instead of using a teleportation spell to leave immediately, he chanted an incantation, using [Rapid Spellcasting] and [Summon Angel] to summon 10 Angel Phantoms.

Twelve Angel Phantoms carried Xu Le through the air of the first layer of Hell. Many low-level demons sensed the holy aura and stayed far away, not daring to approach.

Xu Le soon reached the spatial node. A somewhat disheveled figure suddenly appeared—it was the Pope.

"Your Highness the Son of God, the mission to Seal Satan has failed!" the Pope said, his face full of pain.

Xu Le: Do you think I'm blind?

The figure before him was identical to the Pope; even if dissected, he would surely be in the Pope's shape.

But inside him was Satan's demonic thought.

Popes throughout history possessed Divine Artifacts like the Orb of Wisdom and the Ring of Holy Light. Theoretically, killing him was difficult, and wanting to use Possession or bewitch him was harder than ascending to heaven.

No!

Xu Le's gaze swept over the other's orb and ring; they turned out to be fakes. The holy emblem around his neck had even been replaced with the "Nightmare Bloodcurse Badge."

"Does the Son of God need these treasures to Seal Satan?" The Pope gritted his teeth and threw all three "Divine Artifacts" over.

[Item] Pseudo-Orb of Wisdom

[Grade] legendary grade

[Item Details] An Orb of Wisdom forged by a Great Master, permeating with a cool and Holy Light aura, sufficient to pass for the real thing.

[Item] Pseudo-Ring of Holy Light

...[Item] Nightmare Bloodcurse Badge

[Grade] mythic-grade

[Item Details] After the King of Nightmares suffered the most terrifying and painful torture in Hell, he sacrificed his entire body's essence, blood, and Soul, mixed it with satans blood, and birthed an illusionary curse capable of affecting gods.

"Good stuff!" Xu Le's eyes lit up. Disregarding whether any gods were watching, he directly stored the items into his Contract Space.

"You..." The Pope's eyes widened. "Aren't you going to wear it on your chest and then go Seal Satan?"

"A mere Satan? I sealed him long ago in passing!" Xu Le clapped his hands with an easy expression, showing no sign of lying.

"But ashes are still drifting in the sky. The notes of past Popes record that after successfully sealing Satan, the ashes would stop."

"It's better to have no notes than to believe them blindly!" Xu Le waved his hand. "This time, Satan almost escaped, spilling blood across the sky. Ashes will continue to drift for seven days. After seven days, the anomalies will vanish, and Satan will remain silent for a hundred years."

The Pope: 'Like Hell I believe you. If I weren't Satan's demonic thought, I might have actually fallen for your nonsense.'

'This kid isn't exposing me now; he must want to go back and get reinforcements.'

He looked around, and after confirming Diis wasn't nearby, he suddenly raised his hand and shot out a beam of black light.

Xu Le easily dodged and waved his hand, sending all 12 Angel Phantoms charging forward.

The Pope activated a gem on his person and appeared 50 meters away. Waving his staff, a Cerberus appeared before him.

"Your Excellency the Pope, your dog is quite nice. It would surely be delicious in a hot pot!"

The twelve Angel Phantoms split into two groups: four pursued the Pope, while the remaining eight besieged the Cerberus.

The Cerberus had three heads, possessing the attributes of wind, fire, and poison respectively.

The three heads opened their mouths simultaneously, and three energy cannons fired from them, aiming at three Angel Phantoms.

The Angel Phantoms were also very fast. As if sensing a fated duel, the light swords in their hands burst with dazzling radiance.

The radiance emitted by the eight light swords converged and collided with the three energy cannons.

The energies neutralized and devoured each other, flickering and unstable, but the white light pillar representing the Holy Light held a slight advantage.

The Pope snorted coldly. Facing the light swords cleaving toward him, he didn't dodge. With a point of his finger, two light swords shattered into countless pieces, and two Angel Phantoms, unable to evade, were crushed.

The remaining two light swords struck the Pope. A moment of clarity flashed in his eyes, followed by confusion. He turned and pointed again, finishing off the two Angel Phantoms.

"Fakes are fakes after all. After years of suppression, even my heart has become timid!"

"Today, I shall return to the human world!"

With a roar from the Pope, demonic light surged from his body, and all the holy radiance vanished and dimmed.

Xu Le was "shocked": "Your Excellency the Pope, you..."

"Stop pretending; you aren't even willing to use the formal 'you'," the Pope shouted with unrestrained arrogance. "Raphael, although this is just a sliver of your Divine Thought, it's far too weak! My true body hasn't seen you for 500 years."

"Last time, when I tested you with my Divine Thought, you actually didn't realize it was me, hahaha..."

"If not for an idiot ruining things, I would have already returned to the human world and ruled it with my demonic palm!"

As he spoke, the Pope's teeth ground together. He had originally prepared 99 drops of Demon God's Blood; while he couldn't say it would destroy the entire Beidian Continent, it could at least help his true body escape.

Unfortunately, he entrusted it to the wrong "demon," and there had been no news since.

"Today, I need not endure any longer. At worst, it's another 800 years of being Sealed. In any case, that despicable fellow, the god of light, cannot kill me!"

Xu Le: "..."

How do you say such humiliating lines in such a lofty tone? You're more miserable than my Brother Monkey!

By the way, didn't you say you'd remember me?

As expected, a Demon God's mouth is full of lies!

Xu Le thought as he finished the last syllable, and another 10 Angel Phantoms appeared.

"A trivial trick!"

"Rather than ruling the human world, I prefer to slaughter the entire Heavenly Kingdom!"

The Pope laughed arrogantly, letting the Angel Phantoms attack his physical shell while he directly controlled his demonic thought to charge into Spu's Sea of Consciousness. Then, he saw Spu's idiot-like Soul and Xu Le's Divine Soul.