Episode 674
The sky was ablaze with black flames raining down like a storm, sweeping across the entire beach in a fiery tempest.
“My God…”
From the sand fortress that Zeke had constructed, Elizabeta and the other mages could only stare in speechless awe at the scene unfolding above them.
Never before had they witnessed such a clash of power, even in the demon realm. The collision of two demon lords unleashing their full might was a sight to behold.
In the unstable demon realm, if the demon lords were to truly clash, the very fabric of their domain would crumble. Thus, they had always avoided direct confrontation.
Even Baal and Agares, known for their aggressive natures, had rarely engaged in direct combat with each other.
Yet here, on this forsaken continent, two of the demon realm’s lords were revealing their true power without restraint.
A low rumble echoed as the fiery rain and storm raged on, and an ominous phenomenon began to unfold in the sky.
Suddenly, a flash of light burst from the black clouds, and a massive whirlwind began to churn within.
A deafening roar, as if the heavens themselves were splitting, reverberated all around.
Simultaneously, two enormous fireballs appeared in the sky, descending rapidly toward the ground.
The mages, witnessing this, cried out in panic.
“Take cover!”
“We’re all going to die at this rate!”
But before they could even attempt to flee from the sand fortress, the fireballs crashed down with explosive force.
A colossal shockwave rippled outwards, sweeping over the sand fortress like a tidal wave.
At that moment, a translucent barrier enveloped the fortress.
A low hum resonated as Zeke’s defense mode activated, shielding them from the shockwave.
The mages, watching the wave pass harmlessly through the barrier, wore expressions of disbelief.
Amidst the swirling sandstorm, two figures emerged.
Asmodeus, his body scorched by the abyssal flames Zeke had summoned, glared at Zeke with eyes like those of a beast, breathing heavily with a mix of rage and exhaustion.
Zeke realized that Asmodeus had already expended a significant amount of power upon descending to the mortal realm.
‘Wait, Arthur Draker must have known this would happen. So why did he use the dark sorcerers to summon Asmodeus here?’
In this state, Asmodeus’s soul would only serve to strengthen Zeke’s divine power.
As Zeke pondered, Asmodeus, still not fully in control of his senses, raised his head and let out a long, mournful howl.
And in that moment, Zeke understood why Arthur Draker had forced Asmodeus’s summoning.
The ground began to tremble, and something started to rise from beneath.
‘What is this?’
To Zeke’s astonishment, three massive chimeras, similar in form to Asmodeus, burst forth from the earth.
Each chimera, though dragon-like in base form, was a fusion of different creatures.
The one at the forefront combined a tiger and a snake, the one beside it an eagle and a bear, and the one behind a lion and an ox.
The power emanating from these creatures was unlike any ordinary beast.
Each one possessed strength at least equivalent to a demon realm general.
Zeke recognized what they were.
‘During the Liberation War a thousand years ago, the demon legions descended upon the mortal realm. The highest-ranking demons took on the forms of dragons…’
These chimeras were the generals of Asmodeus’s legion, who had descended during the Liberation War by taking on dragon forms.
Arthur Draker had summoned Asmodeus to the mortal realm to unseal these generals, who had been trapped on this forsaken continent with the demon king.
Realizing this, Zeke also understood the identity of the beasts Elizabeta had mentioned earlier.
‘The demon king’s army that fought in the Liberation War. They remained here on this abandoned continent.’
The most frequently summoned demons during the Liberation War were the bloodthirsty demons of Gehenna.
Asmodeus was their overlord, and through him, many of his subordinates could be summoned.
As Zeke’s eyes gleamed with understanding, the three generals positioned themselves to protect Asmodeus.
They, too, seemed to have lost their reason, driven only by instinct to oppose Zeke with fierce aggression.
A massive tremor echoed from behind.
Turning, Zeke saw the demon legions of Gehenna emerging, just as he had suspected.
Though they might be mistaken for beasts at first glance, Zeke, with his celestial insight, could see their true nature.
These were elite demons, survivors of Gehenna’s harsh environment, possessing formidable physical strength.
They were the most primal and aggressive of all demons, favored by summoning dark sorcerers for their raw power.
Thus, they were often summoned to the mortal realm, and among them were those like Mammon, the “Endless Devourer,” Belial, the “Black Serpent of the Mouth,” and Wirinome, the “Rider of Blood and Madness,” all demons of Gehenna.
Arthur Draker had chosen to summon them as well.
The soldiers of Gehenna, recognizing their master Asmodeus, charged forward with ferocity.
Caligula, who had been controlling the monsters under Zeke’s command, sensed the approaching demons.
He activated his bloodlust, ordering the monsters to attack the oncoming demons.
With a roar, thousands of monsters charged at the soldiers of Gehenna.
A brutal massacre unfolded as the monsters and demons clashed.
The primal soldiers of Gehenna and the instinct-driven monsters collided, creating a scene of carnage that seemed straight out of hell.
Monsters swarmed a demon soldier, biting and tearing at its flesh.
Yet, proving their elite status, the soldiers of Gehenna ripped through the monsters with sharp claws and tore off heads with their teeth.
Asmodeus and his generals remained unmoved by the slaughter.
Zeke sensed something amiss.
‘Could it be?’
He opened his blood vision to scan the battlefield once more.
Then he saw it—something he hadn’t noticed before.
The entire area was suffused with a red aura.
The generals were channeling the death energy from the massacre to Asmodeus.
Zeke recalled witnessing a similar scene before.
‘Wirinome, the Rider of Blood and Madness.’
Wirinome empowered his orc legions, inciting endless slaughter to harvest the negative energy and karma from the battlefield.
Asmodeus, a demon of higher rank than Wirinome, was also recovering his spent karma through the death energy from the brutal scene.
As the slaughter intensified, Asmodeus’s eyes began to regain their vitality.
Seeing this, Zeke focused on the three generals transferring death energy to Asmodeus and raised his sword, Ascalon.
“Such petty tricks.”
A radiant aura emanated from his sword, bathing the surroundings in brilliant light.
The red aura from the battlefield began to wane under the light of his divine energy.
The generals, who had been focused solely on empowering Asmodeus, turned their gaze to Zeke, who was now shining brightly.
Their primary objective was to restore their master, and Zeke, who was interfering, had to be eliminated.
White lightning crackled around Zeke.
He shouted at the approaching generals.
“Specters of a lost war! You have no place here! Begone at once!”
With his words, the radiant swords Levatein and Ascalon soared into the air.
The two swords flew freely, targeting the generals.
The corrupted dragon-bodied generals of Gehenna opened their mouths, unleashing dragon breaths at the incoming swords.
Each general possessed a different breath: acidic, molten, and petrifying.
The petrifying breath struck first, enveloping Levatein and Ascalon, turning their surfaces to stone and dimming their light.
The acidic breath followed, wrapping around the petrified swords, and then the molten breath consumed them.
Molten lava dripped to the ground, solidifying into stone pillars.
Levatein and Ascalon, the swords Zeke had sent forth, were trapped within these pillars.
Despite their lack of reason, the generals, seeing Zeke without his swords, approached with a confident air, as if victory was assured.
Zeke looked at the advancing generals and spoke.
“Fools.”
With his words, the solid stone pillar began to tremble.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—
Moments later, brilliant beams of light shot out from the shaking pillar. As the pillar cracked and crumbled, two swords, engulfed in a dark aura, emerged and flew straight toward the legion commanders.
Screeeech!
The commanders, who never expected the swords to emerge unscathed, recoiled in shock. But the swords moved far faster than they anticipated.
Thud!
With a deafening sound, the swords pierced through the commanders’ bodies.
Aaaaargh!
The commanders, impaled by the swords, screamed in agony, struggling to regain their balance. Staggering, they turned their heads to glare at Zeke, who controlled the swords. Then, in unison, they opened their mouths and unleashed the three breaths they had used earlier, aiming them at Zeke.
Boom, boom, boom!
Acid, lava, and petrifying breath engulfed Zeke. Yet, he endured the onslaught with nothing but his bare body, smirking as he spoke.
“Is this really the extent of the Gehenna commanders’ power?”
He then reached out toward the breaths surrounding him, unleashing the power of the Great Purification.
Ooooooh—
A golden aura enveloped him, and the three breaths were instantly purified, transforming into clear droplets that fell like rain. Simultaneously, the malevolent energy seeping from the battlefield was also cleansed by the aura.
Crrrrr—
Asmodeus, who had been regenerating through the corrupt energy, recoiled from the purifying power Zeke wielded. The commanders, too, found the purifying force unsettling, as they thrived on madness and slaughter. The power of the Great Purification had a profound effect on the demons of Gehenna.
Zeke, observing the fear in the commanders’ eyes, drew Solomon’s Chains from his hand.
“Did you not know my title as a Grand Duke?”
As they slowly regained their senses by absorbing the chaos and slaughter from the battlefield, they recalled the time they invaded the mortal realm a thousand years ago. They remembered a human knight wielding such weapons and a woman with golden power, both riding winged horses. Those two had been formidable, but they paled in comparison to the human-like figure before them now.
They felt an instinctive fear of this human, who exuded a presence even more overwhelming than their lord, Asmodeus.
Screeeech!
Though demons of Gehenna knew no fear or retreat, they simultaneously turned to flee from Zeke.
Clang, clang, clang!
But it was too late to escape. Solomon’s Chains, imbued with the golden aura, had already ensnared the three commanders.
Zeke peered into the souls of the demons possessing the dragon’s body and spoke.
“Feel the pain that pierces the soul.”
Sssssss—
The golden aura traveled through the chains, directly reaching their souls. The commanders, who had never experienced such agony in their long lives, screamed in soul-wrenching torment.
Ignoring their cries, Zeke summoned shadows to envelop their souls.
Sssssss—
The souls of the commanders, long bound to the forsaken continent, were absorbed into Zeke’s shadow. He fed their corrupted souls to the shadow spirits, refusing to make them guardians after they had defiled the dragon’s body and invaded the mortal realm.
The shadow spirits, having consumed the commanders’ souls, grew stronger. Having swiftly dealt with the commanders, Zeke, still cloaked in the golden aura, turned his gaze to Asmodeus.
He spoke to him, “Asmodeus, drop the act of feigned madness.”