My mom is waiting for treatment, and you're summoning me to be a hero?

Click, click, click.

Explosions echoed from within the Pope's body.

That was the sound of his dislocated bones realigning, exceptionally clear in the darkness of the arena where he died.

The Pope slowly straightened his back, his shoulders spread out to the sides, and the figure under his white robe gradually transformed from the slender outline of a seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy into the perfectly proportioned, sharply defined physique of an adult warrior.

His originally delicate features were slightly widened by the rearranged muscle structure under his skin.

The youthful charm has largely faded, replaced by a cold and precise killing intent.

"drink!"

With a low shout, a red light barrier spread out from his body.

The light curtain was viscous like blood, and its scarlet color was dazzling.

It was Lin Mo's Holy Revelation, the Killing Domain.

Lin Mo frowned.

I never expected that even my own Holy Revelation ability could be copied.

The Pope didn't rush to make a move. Instead, he looked up at the entire space and slowly curved his lips into a smile.

"I know this is the Arena of Death."

The voice was unhurried, as if the speaker were appraising a collectible item about to be acquired.

"A very special talent. Those who possess both Holy Enlightenment and innate talent are already rare, but this talent is even rarer. The winner will obtain this talent, am I right?"

Lin Mo did not answer.

The Pope did not need his answer.

"It seems I should accept this generous gift."

As he spoke, he held his holy armor of light, along with the glowing book, horizontally in front of him.

Lin Mo looked at him, her expression returning from a frown to calm.

"You really think you can figure out my strength just by watching those few moves?"

The Pope shook his head.

The golden holy book in his hand suddenly shone with a dazzling light.

The pages turned on their own without any wind, the holy runes on each page lighting up and then going out in turn.

Then the whole book began to deform, the cover stretched, the spine twisted, and a metallic scraping sound burst from between the pages.

The sacred book transformed into a sword of light in his hands.

The sword was formed purely of holy light, without a guard or a hilt cord; only a straight, dazzling golden beam of light extended from the hilt.

"You're right."

The Pope raised his lightsaber, the tip aimed at Lin Mo's throat.

"It's impossible for me to completely replicate your full strength after only watching a few moves, but I can gradually adjust in the subsequent battles."

As soon as he finished speaking, he moved.

Two killing domains collided violently in the dark space.

Two completely identical fields collided in the most direct way.

Crimson lights clashed and tore at each other, exploding into countless fine, dark red lightning bolts in the air.

As for Lin Mo and the Pope, their figures intertwined the moment their domains collided.

The black sword clashed with the lightsaber.

Sizzle—!

Without the crisp sound of metal clashing, the eerie light of the black sword and the golden gleam of the lightsaber devoured each other at the point of contact, emitting an extremely piercing buzz.

The sound was like two saws sawing against each other.

The Pope's swordsmanship was excellent.

Chop, thrust, flick, slash, parry—every movement was so precise it was as if measured with a ruler.

His sword moves were devoid of any superfluous movements; each change of technique was precisely timed to coincide with the moment when Lin Mo's black sword had just exhausted its old power and had not yet generated new power.

Lin Mo blocked three of his sword strikes, then swung his sword horizontally in a backhand motion.

The Pope took a half step back to avoid the attack, her left foot creating a golden ripple in the darkness. She then used the momentum to propel herself forward, her lightsaber aimed straight at Lin Mo's chest.

Lin Mo parried with his sword, the tip of the lightsaber touching the blade of the black sword. As the two forces collided, both of them slid back several steps at the same time.

A brief separation, followed by an even more violent collision.

The Pope's lightsaber unleashed the sword technique of the thirty-second generation of the Demon Kings, the Thirteen Swords of Devil's Cry.

Thirteen sword shadows simultaneously split off from the lightsaber, each carrying a different sword energy attribute. Some were as hot as fire, some as cold as ice, and some twisted and turned in mid-air, attacking Lin Mo's back from behind.

Lin Mo did not turn around.

The black sword in his hand exploded with a ring of eerie blue soul shockwaves, and the aftershocks of the soul-corroding force shattered the several meandering sword shadows behind him.

Then he stepped forward, raised his black sword high above his head, and slashed down.

There are no move names, no fancy special effects, it's just a straightforward slash.

The Pope raised his sword to parry.

when--!!

This time the sound was more intense than any before.

A visible white ring was shaken out of the air in the dark space.

The Pope's feet carved two deep furrows into the dark ground beneath his feet, and he slid back five steps before coming to a stop.

A very fine crack appeared on the blade of the lightsaber in his hand.

The Pope glanced down at the crack and frowned slightly.

"That shouldn't be the case."

His tone was not angry, but confused.

"Your physical strength is noticeably stronger than before, though not by much, but enough to determine the winner."

Lin Mo slung the black sword back over his shoulder, and the crimson killing aura slowly rotated around him.

He looked at the Pope's bewildered face and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"I told you, you can't imagine my strength."

In fact, Lin Mo just did something very simple.

He allocated 1000 of his 119450 free attribute points to physical attributes.

A 1000-point attribute increase is less than one-thousandth.

It was precisely this slight advantage of less than one-thousandth that allowed him to land that one decisive blow.

The Pope obviously couldn't possibly know this.

He fell silent.

A few breaths later, he raised his head again.

The lingering image of the boy's face completely disappeared from his own, replaced by an almost mechanical, precise calmness.

"You are indeed stronger than I thought."

His voice returned to its previous calmness, but beneath that calmness lay something new.

It wasn't murderous intent, nor anger, but a stirred, serious competitive spirit.

"But as I've said before, I can continue to adjust during the battle."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Pope's body underwent another change.

He only closed and opened his eyes for a moment, but in that instant, the fluctuations of the laws within his body suddenly surged.

It's not the kind of expansion and reorganization we saw before, but a more refined fine-tuning.

His muscle density increased, his bone strength was adjusted, and the efficiency of the laws operating was optimized.

He had previously replicated the data Lin Mo displayed when slaying past Demon Kings, but now he had raised that data by half a level.

Seeing the Pope's strength continue to increase, Lin Mo shook his head: "Was that attack I just unleashed truly my full power?"

The Pope's lips twitched, but he didn't think much of it.

This is the abnormal aspect of his divine perception ability.

He doesn't need to know why Lin Mo became stronger; he just needs to become as strong as Lin Mo.

Before long, the Pope raised his lightsaber again, and the cracks on the blade healed themselves as his aura increased.

The two killing domains collided once again with a deafening roar, and countless dark red arcs of law-based electricity exploded at the junction of the blood-red light curtains.

As the two exerted their strength simultaneously, the dark ground beneath their feet shattered inch by inch, and spiderweb-like cracks spread in all directions from their feet.

The black sword and the lightsaber clashed once again.

This time, the Pope's sword has changed.

His moves are no longer a precise copy of the Devil May Cry Thirteen Swords template, but rather incorporate real-time adjustments based on the template.

Lin Mo's black sword slashed at a half-degree angle, and his parry was also off by half a degree.

Lin Mo's sword speed was half a beat faster, so his dodge was initiated half a beat earlier.

He continuously observed, corrected, and pushed Lin Mo's true limits during the battle.

Two figures crisscrossed wildly in the overlapping area of ​​the two killing fields.

Each collision sent the edge of the arena reverberating.

Shockwaves exploded one after another in the dark space, lifting the rubble beneath their feet into the air and crushing it into dust.

The Pope's sword became faster and more accurate.

But Lin Mo's black sword was still a step ahead of his, and his expression remained as calm as ever.

This made the Pope even more uncertain: "Just how strong is your true power...?"