Martial Arts Worlds
Chapter 498 - 498: Hateful Ceremony

Kiernan rubbed his water-drenched hands, making them all slippery, and then moved into a grappling stance.

"Your techniques versus my power."

Zachary said, just scoffed in ridicule, and punched at Kiernan—he let the punch hit him, and it just slid off him as if he was coated in oil.

"Tricks, nothing else."

Zachary swung left and punched Kiernan across his face—it landed with power, and he stumbled to the side—but then Kiernan sprang off the wall and kicked him in the face.

SMACK!

The kick's powerful force sent Zachary flying through the air, crashing into the wall with a loud thud.

The kicks usually had more strength than the punches because of the fundamental fact about the human body's structure and leverage.

It was the only way Kiernan could combat Zachary's overwhelming strength difference—and that was with the help of his kicks!

"Uff…"

Zachary stumbled out of the wall, clutching the side of his face in pain, and looked at the window—he punched at it.

The window shattered, he grabbed the broken glass pieces, and threw them towards Kiernan.

Cowardly Tactics!

"Will your slippery skin help against these?"

Kiernan hid behind his bed, and the glass shards just flew over him—then Zachary lifted his bed and slammed it into him.

Boom!

Kiernan flew through the wall and smashed into the kitchen refrigerator—Imperius was sipping on the coffee next to him, and he then saw Zachary stomp through the broken wall.

"Ah…"

Zachary stopped and looked at Imperius—a sense of fear struck him—he didn't want to bother him in case he got mad about it and decided to kill him!

"Urgh…"

Kiernan wiped the blood off his mouth and moved to the living room to have more space—in the kitchen, he wouldn't be able to dodge as well.

Zachary followed after him, kept his arms close to his chest, and rained a few punches—but Kiernan weaved through them with void steps.

"…"

Kiernan stayed silent, looked towards Zachary's neck, and then backstepped to avoid his dangerous punches.

'He can't move his head around like I planned. I am done with this. Time to end this fight.'

Kiernan said and jumped forward—he fearlessly entered Zachary's range of attack—it looked like suicide!

Everyone else would've backed away, but not Kiernan.

'This void-stepping technique of his is quite interesting. A misdirection to trick the opponent's eyes. It needs great understanding of how the eye works.'

Imperius thought as he watched from the sidelines and just took a sip of the coffee, but after taking a sip, he looked at it and said.

'The fresh flavor is already diminishing. I suppose this will be my last coffee for this year.'

Zachary hacked his arm down at Kiernan, but he immediately sidestepped it and stabbed his finger into Zachary's chest.

The finger that had been trained every day since his memories came to his reincarnated body barely managed to stab through.

The blood spewed slightly.

"Tch!"

Zachary kept smacking his arms down towards Kiernan, but all of them missed, as he kept using his void step at every moment.

He zipped around Zachary and kept stabbing his finger into his chest, each time getting closer to his heart.

Zachary couldn't see where Kiernan was moving because he kept moving behind him, and he couldn't turn his head to look.

So he turned his entire body, but when he did that, Kiernan had already moved behind his back and just stabbed his finger through the muscle.

"Argh!"

Zachary stomped the ground and broke the floor below his foot—it stopped Kiernan for a moment—and Zachary immediately punched towards him.

"Strike Tactics!"

"Sea Fall!"

Kiernan turned into a sea creature—looking like a legless fish with human arms but made out of purely of water—and tackled Zachary's legs.

However, the tackle wasn't capable of pushing Zachary back, and he whipped his arm down towards Kiernan's back.

'The arm is coming down. It's the perfect time!'

Kiernan thought and circled behind Zachary, then lifted his entire 300 kg body with every strength that he had.

"Aaaaaaaaah!"

"Shit!"

Zachary's expression turned ugly, and then Kiernan slammed him into the ground—when his heavy body crashed into the floor, the house shook slightly.

The pedestrians moving by on the street looked over with puzzled looks—they were hearing strange sounds from there.

"You didn't hear anything."

Imperius looked out of the window with his green eyes, and the eyes of the pedestrians also turned green, like lime.

"We didn't hear anything…"

They said robotically, and their bodies began moving in unison, leaving the street without a single word spoken.

"Sigh…"

Imperius sighed and looked over to the match.

'The fight is over.'

Kiernan put Zachary under another chokehold and pulled his head back—it brought agonizing pain to Zachary.

"Aaaaaah! You piece of shit!"

At that moment, his dark purple soul deep inside his body started to beat like a drum, and Zachary's eyes began to glow with an otherworldly light.

"You motherfucker!"

Zachary stood back up, and tossed him off him as if he were light as a feather—Kiernan smashed through walls and would've flown outside, but Imperius stopped him before he did.

"…Argh?"

Kiernan stumbled back to his feet, and looked at Imperius with a frown.

"Shit… shit…"

He muttered under painful breath.

"Ahh! Ahh! Argh!"

Zachary breathed angrily and cracked his knuckles so loudly that they echoed through the room.

"Your opponent is a unique kind, young Revenant. It looks like he has undergone the Hateful Ceremony and acquired a new soul for himself."

"Hateful Ceremony?"

Kiernan asked with cold sweat dripping off his face.

"When one's soul is destroyed, that's not the end of it all. One can always acquire a new one, but those ceremonies are dangerous.

"One of those ceremonies is called Hateful Ceremony. With that, you can acquire a new, powerful soul made out of pure hatred.

"However, that soul corrupts the mind and consumes the person from within. Sure, to successfully complete Hateful Ceremony, the person already has to be evil of heart and hateful.

"No one willingly goes through that ceremony even though it gives a soul stronger than a normal one. It is just so difficult to complete, and the first requirement is to destroy your soul to even attempt it.

"The hatred will keep making him stronger and stronger. He might be a Martial Grandmaster now, but if you make him even angrier now, he might advance to Martial King."