Episode 607
Zeke frowned as he observed the amorphous mass of writhing black flesh.
“It feels like an angel’s power, but it’s not an angel.”
It seemed Arthur Draker had been meddling with an angel’s cocoon, twisting it into something else.
Zeke glanced past the squirming mass to Baron and spoke.
“Ingel must have known he couldn’t stop me. So why isn’t he moving?”
Baron remained silent.
Zeke studied him for a moment, then nodded as if understanding.
“Not that he won’t move, but that he can’t. Is he waiting for something?”
If Baron had intervened, the High Table would have been obliterated by now. Yet, even after Ingel fell to Zeke, Baron remained still, surrounded by his Black Guard, not as a threat but as his protectors.
Zeke raised his sword, pointing it at Baron.
“Whatever you’re planning, you should have finished it before I got here.”
A powerful vibration resonated from Zeke’s sword.
“Today, I’ll put an end to all of you.”
As Zeke assumed a dragon-slaying stance, a surge of electric energy coursed through his body.
Crackling with radiant light, the energy traveled along his sword as he charged forward, ready to strike at Baron and the Black Guard.
But before he could, the shapeless black mass blocked his path.
With a sudden lurch, a clawed arm shot out from the mass, attacking Zeke.
The brilliant electric charge in Zeke’s sword clashed with the arm, shattering it into fragments that scattered in all directions.
Yet, from the spot where the arm had been severed, two identical arms sprouted, reaching out with sharp claws once more.
Zeke swung his sword, deflecting the claws and unleashing another electric strike at the arms.
Again, the arms shattered, only to regrow from the same spot.
Zeke frowned, realizing the nature of his opponent.
“Is it regenerating and multiplying with angelic power?”
He understood that the black substance Ingel wielded was extracted from an angel’s cocoon. With the power of a celestial being, simple attacks wouldn’t suffice.
Knowing Baron was stalling for time, Zeke couldn’t afford to be complacent. He stepped back, summoning a shadowy figure from the darkness.
The Guardian Ashvin, a shadow avatar created by absorbing the Twin-Winged Angel, emerged.
Zeke commanded Ashvin, “It’s a fragment with angelic power. Eliminate it.”
Ashvin spread its wings and took to the air, launching black feathers at the mass of arms.
The feathers embedded themselves into the black flesh, vibrating as they burrowed deeper.
The mass began to disintegrate under the vibrations, tearing apart into pieces that scattered across the floor.
Baron, standing behind his Black Guard, watched silently as Zeke approached him.
“Baron, I’ll give you one chance. Where is Arthur Draker?”
Baron remained silent, just as before.
Zeke, unsurprised, raised his sword.
“I thought as much.”
An aura blade erupted from Zeke’s sword.
“I’ll find out myself. But you’ll pay for making me go through the trouble.”
With that, Zeke swung his sword at Baron and the Black Guard.
Before the attack could reach them, it veered off course, as if deflected by an unseen force, crashing into the wall with a loud explosion.
“A barrier,” Zeke muttered, realizing what had happened.
He activated his powers, the Tri-Eye and the Sage’s Eye, to peer beyond the visible world.
In that moment, something previously hidden came into view.
“A magic circuit,” he realized, intricately woven around Baron Draker, connecting to a hidden door in the floor and walls.
While Zeke had been fighting Ingel, Baron had been quietly working to open the door behind him.
Understanding why Baron hadn’t moved, Zeke knew he couldn’t let things proceed as planned.
He crouched, placing his hand on the floor, and a mandala appeared around him.
With the power and knowledge of the Blood King Caligula, creating a mandala was no challenge for Zeke.
He connected the mandala to the Kabbalah system, forcibly accessing Baron’s magic circuit.
A red current sparked from the circuit, indicating Zeke’s intrusion.
Baron’s expression changed as he sensed the external force breaching his barrier.
Though he had maintained his composure, Zeke’s interference forced Baron to act.
“Stop Zeke Draker,” Baron commanded, his Black Guard nodding in response.
As they advanced, a transparent barrier shimmered, distorting the space around them.
Zeke, maintaining the mandala, summoned another creature from the shadows.
Lilith emerged, a demon of terrifying allure, known as the Consort of the Arrogant Savior and the Great Temptress of Babel.
As a shadow avatar, Lilith began to sing, her voice not a melody but a mental wave that directly influenced the minds of those who heard it.
The Black Guard, charging at Zeke, halted in agony, unable to proceed.
“Ugh!”
They clutched their heads, writhing in pain as black energy seeped from their bodies.
But Lilith’s song had already ensnared their minds, leaving them immobilized.
Having gained control, Lilith shifted her song, commanding the Black Guard to end their own lives.
Slowly, they raised their clawed hands to their chests.
“Argh!”
Despite their resistance, it was futile.
They plunged their claws into their hearts, kneeling to offer them to Lilith.
Zeke, observing while disrupting Baron’s barrier, marveled at Lilith’s power.
“No wonder even demons feared her.”
The Black Guard, having offered their hearts, stood lifeless.
Then, with a snap of Baron’s fingers, the scattered black fragments rose.
The pieces moved, merging with the empty bodies of the Black Guard.
Their forms twisted, mouths with sharp teeth gaping open, limbs growing erratically.
Roaring, they discarded their hearts, trampling them underfoot.
Lilith’s song held no sway over soulless beings.
Realizing the situation, Lilith ceased her song and raised her hand.
A black portal opened, and from it emerged a beast with crimson skin and seven heads, each crowned with ten horn-like crowns.
Lilith mounted the beast, pointing at the formless creatures.
The beast with ten heads opened its mouth wide, aiming at them.
Rumble!
A crimson mist poured out from the beast’s maw.
Hissss—
The acidic red mist engulfed the bodies of the monsters.
Sizzle!
Though their bodies melted into the mist, the monsters regenerated and multiplied even faster.
Some sprouted five arms from their backs, others grew massive mouths on their bellies, and they pushed through the red haze, advancing toward Zeke.
Then Lilith charged at them, dragging the beast along to attack directly.
Roar!
The beast extended its ten necks, attacking the monsters made from angelic fragments.
Its sharp teeth tore through the monsters’ bodies in an instant.
The problem was that the flesh inside the beast’s mouth began to multiply as well.
Crunch!
The expanding flesh overcame the beast’s powerful jaws, shattering them.
Screech!
As the beast’s jaw broke, blue blood dripped down.
The beast’s acidic blue blood hit the stone floor, corroding it instantly.
Yet even this potent acid couldn’t dissolve the multiplying black flesh.
Instead, the flesh began to consume the beast, trying to make its ten heads part of itself.
Realizing this, Lilith intervened, severing the beast’s head with her claws.
Thud!
The contaminated head fell to the ground, and astonishingly, other pieces of flesh began to gather around it.
Crunch!
Soon, the fallen head and the unformed flesh merged, taking shape.
It quickly resembled the demonic beast Lilith rode.
Crunch!
The creature, now complete with ten heads, opened its mouth wide, drooling thick, black acidic saliva as it advanced.
Lilith’s crimson beast, bleeding blue acid from its severed neck, retreated.
The creature made of black flesh was larger and more menacing than the original beast.
Lilith reached out toward the creature, casting a spell.
“Beast, I am your mother. Obey me.”
For a moment, it seemed to work—the creature halted, its ten heads swaying in confusion.
Just as Lilith was about to issue another command, the creature’s heads split open, revealing tentacles with eyes.
Growl—
The original eyes vanished, replaced by the grotesque, moving eyes on the tentacles, scanning Lilith and Zeke.
Ignoring Lilith’s command, it opened its mouth wide and let out a monstrous roar.
Roar!
The foul stench of its roar forced Lilith and her beast to retreat.
Sensing an opportunity, the creature’s neck elongated, lunging at Lilith and her beast, biting into its neck.
Crunch!
The crimson beast couldn’t withstand the attack, and Lilith transformed into a shadow, retreating through a reverse summoning.
Hissss—
The creature, passing through the shadowy remnants of Lilith, extended its ten heads toward Zeke.
Zeke, maintaining the mandala with his hands on the ground, was completely defenseless.
Roar!
As the creature charged at Zeke, ready to strike—
Crackle!
The beast’s head stopped as if hitting an invisible barrier.
Before Zeke stood Nabu with a book and Ivan with one arm.
Nabu shouted at the creature.
“Thanks for the break! Let’s start again, you monster!”