BANNNNG! Another strike landed on my shields, and cracks covered 75% of the shields, and immediately the purple line covered the edge of the shields. The old snake seemed to be expecting that, as the attack had landed at even greater speed and power. I was not able to increase the energy of the shields as much as I needed to; what I was able to achieve had been destroyed by the old snake by increasing the power of its viper's attacks. I want to do something fast as the shields' storages were very close before the spill occurred, but there was no other option than increase the efficiency of the refiners as they would strengthen my shields against it. I am already using my energy for that, but it is not enough, even using external energy won't be enough. It won't help much, even if I use the divine crystals I have. As the thought came to my mind, I stopped immediately. "I may not be able to use the divine energy to strengthen, but I could use it to dilute," I said to myself and immediately knew it would work; I have studied the divine energy of the curse, while it would not look favorably on other divine crystals, but it will merge with them, especially, the neutral divine energy. "You know, what you have to do," I said to my clones, and a moment later, I opened my eyes and looked at the shields, which had cracks covering 85% of their surface, and they were spreading fast. I have to strengthen my shields before the cracks reach 90%, as that is when the spill will begin, dealing me with even greater damage. I hope, what I thought will work, should work. Buzz! 86%, 87%, 88%; just when the shields cracks reached 88%, the formation activated inside my core, and a flood of divine energy came flooding in. It is in huge amounts and fills my armor before beginning to mix with the divine energy of the curse; despite being a neutral element, the divine energy of the curse resisted the merge, but when I released rule-bending power as a catalyst, both energies mixed readily and immediately; the divine energy of the curse diluted it. As the diluted divine energy entered the refineries, it began to refine them at a speed that wined my eyes. It is seven times greater than before, and even though diluted, it is still bringing out processed divine energy at four times more quantity, and all of it goes to the shield. Seeing that, I opened the connection even wider, letting the more divine energy of the curse enter inside me; it is a huge risk, but something I have to do to lessen the strain on the shields. BANNNNG BANNNG BANNNNG The Grimm instantly noticed the slowness of cracks spreading and increased the power, which brought the shields on the cracks to 90%, but after that, it became hard for Grimm to increase cracks on my shields, despite the increase in power. My clones found the perfect formula for the mixture and also began to change the refiners according to it, which helped stop the cracks from spreading further. For over a minute, a tug of war lasted at 90%, with old constantly increasing the power of the viper's attack and me refining my methods with every second when finally, I gained the edge, and the cracks finally began to recede. Seeing that, a small smile couldn't help but crack on my face; I was still scared shitless because the viper continuedly increasing its power, but the cracks were receding, which made little relieved. Though I am still cautious, the viper is dangerous without a doubt, and I don't know how many moves it has remained. 88%...85%...80%...75% Slowly but surely, the cracks receded till they reached 75%, and the viper suddenly stopped attacking; the moment it, the cracks on the shields began to recede fast, faster than they appeared on the shield. "The divine power of curse should have withered your shields to nothing and reduced you to husk, but nothing had happened to you," It said, looking at me with a hint of question "I have to thank you for that because of that curse inside me; I have gained powerful immunity against the curse, especially the ones that came from you," I replied, which is not the truth, the complete truth, but the old snake did not need to know that. "Sentient curse; I have read they do strange things," it said, and suddenly its eyes lit up with greed as it looked at me; the greed him so strong I began to get really scared. "You are a great specimen; the immunity you have against the curses is extremely stronger. It might be beyond above the level of the constitution," "Studying it will help me tremendously, and if I capture you alike, I might be able to harness that immunity to me, which might be in storing the scarlet devil inside me," It said and looked at me with its eyes blazing with greed, such greed I have never seen in the eyes of anyone, but it is greed that scared the shit out of me, it madness than accompanying it. I have heard the old snake being mad, but I rubbished it after fighting earlier; now, seeing the madness blazing in its eyes besides greed, I think I might be wrong about my assessment of it. "Don't look at me like that; I am feeling quite scared," I said as I placed my hand on my chest with an expression of fear on my face. "Well, you should be because you, Zaar, are the greatest treasure I could hope to have; by harnessing you, I will gain the immunity that I had always hoped to again, and with it, I will not even have to fear that bastard, Rhaek," it said with a big smile. "Zaar, now witness the greatest power of my strongest attack," It said, and the divinity of the snake burst out at full force, and I readied myself to face the strongest attack of my life. "Grand Viper of Etaras, consume!" It ordered, and the moment it did, its huge scaly head began to grow unnaturally; within a few seconds, it began to look like an abomination, with a huge head and huge eyes split into nine irises each. 'The bastard is definably going to give me nightmares if I survive!' I thought, this time, there would be no rescue, as everyone was busy with the battles. SHARRRRRR! Its head finally stopped growing, and it screamed, and it screamed so loudly that it broke through all my defenses and crashed into my soul, making me black out for a fraction of a second. When I came out, I saw the mouth of a viper appears, taking half of the sphere of shields into its mouth, and a moment later, I was completely in its mouth, in the darkness; the only source of light I had was my shields, which are healing rapidly that now, less than 10% of the cracks have remained on it. Now that I had entered its mouth, I didn't think I would get a chance to heal them fully; the viper would not give me that chance.