Chapter 743: Showdown Devil VS Demon (part 15)
Chapter 743: Showdown Devil VS Demon (part 15)
"What the hell do you mean by that you bastard!", exclaimed Marcus, to which surprisingly the ghost-like administrator girl Lezabel actually explained.
"The previous energies only had conditions to be triggered, past that he becomes able to do as he pleases with them, within the limits of his current manipulation abilities of course, but this one is different, this one is both conditioned to be unlocked and also conditioned to be used, what’s more there is more than one condition for using it", she said.
"In that case, his luck for a chance might be worse than mine, even I don’t have to fulfill so many requirements, besides being forced to go in order...", before Marcus could finish his sentence, Lezabel directly interrupted him.
"As if, the ability granted by that energy is terrifying, if he was able to fully control it, just with that he could directly crush you in the seven hellscape state with a single punch, without the need to use a martial art".
This was probably the first time that Lezabel actually took the initiative to explain something to Marcus, which made the devil ruler system user frown.
"Why are you suddenly getting talkative, telling me something that is actually useful to me?", he asked, this time it was Daimon the one that answered him.
"Because knowing about is useless, it’s not like you can suddenly stop being a piece of trash, besides, having it seen through is one of the conditions as well", he casually said, making Marcus stare daggers at Lezabel who was giggling.
In case you haven’t realized it by now, the energy Daimon just obtained is Badr’s one and its functionality is based in the royal ability that the scarred nethereal inherited from his father "Pledge", which means that per each condition that is met, Daimon’s power will double.
Of course, as it has been seen, the versions of the energies from teammates that Daimon obtains are not only different in terms of their execution, but also much more basic, which is normal as they weren’t his to begin with, for example unlike Badr who has eight conditions in total, Daimon can only set up four of them, so arguably you could say that his version of Badr’s energy is weaker.
Of course, this is if he were to be limited to use a single type of energy at the time, but Daimon follows a different path, he can combine them, therefore in terms of strength he doesn’t lose when compared to Arianna and the others, especially because among them some really complement each other, like Tessa and Femi’s or Arianna and Dana’s ones, though all seem compatible between themselves.
Badr’s energy in fact had both great requirements to be used but at the same time, it’s compatible with everything, depending on the amount of energy Daimon is willing to spend, he can double his physical strength, any of the energies he commands in specific, the power of a martial art or... all of the previous.
Another advantage is that the difficulty of the requirements doesn’t affect the resulting power of his version of Badr’s energy, so he set up conditions that are relatively easy to be met.
That being said, like it was stated during Badr’s fight, the strain on the body exponentially increases with each multiplier that is applied, as of current with only his physical body Daimon can only withstand up to the second condition, but that is more than enough.
"You damn bitch!", Marcus nearly lost it, just when he thought that his administrator was finally willing to cooperate with him on her own, it turned out that she did so because she found the enemy’s power interesting and wanted to see it firsthand, at his expense no less.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have the time to lash out at Lezabel as much as he wanted, because an impending sensation of doom suddenly came from the masked silver-haired youth.
"Storm Breaking Palm", Daimon pointed his right palm at Marcus and a thirty-meter energy palm clad in lightning was shot towards the devil ruler system user, if it was only that, the danger he felt wouldn’t make sense, but then all of a sudden, the ethereal-looking palm seemed to turn solid and the lightning cladding it grew thicker, that was the result of twice boosted energies, basically, Femi’s energy became solider and Dana’s lightning grew fiercer
’Fucking bastard, he can control when to apply the boosting effect!’, inwardly screamed Marcus, he knew the backslash of trying to clash his own spell against that martial art would actually hurt him, so with a mental order the domain appeared in front of him.
"Black Devil Shadow Barrier!", a large shadow dome was manifested around those two, to then be condensed until there was barely any space to move.
"Crack!", the lightning clad hand collided with the armor and instantly shattered it.
"No way!", the domain managed to shout before Daimon’s martial art reached it, the domain’s surprise was to be expected, after all, the portal to the shadow world was open so the impact, explosion and everything else should have been sent there, but that wasn’t the case this time.
"Boooom!", the domain was hit head on by Daimon’s energy palm which sent it flying into the distance, heavily landing on the ground a few hundreds of meters away from the battlefield.
’He made it so that the energy contained in his martial art surpassed the transportation limit of the gate to the shadow realm used by that improvised bodyguard, what a "devilish" way to fight~’, thought the ghost-like administrator as she giggled to herself while looking at Daimon who couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow behind his mask.
’She’s been really paying a lot of attention, earlier she actually looked at my shadow so it’s safe to assume that she knows there is "something" inside of it, though she doesn’t know Rita’s specific existence nor her actual location, she also saw through the second condition of Badr’s energy and I have zero doubts that she knows how I bypassed that annoying defense’, thought Daimon.
In a rare occasion, the angel girl who has remained silent since that last encounter with Adam happened, took the initiative to speak.
’I doubt it will change the result of the fight if she did, but don’t worry she won’t be telling anything to that guy, she just finds you interesting so she is putting all her focus in your every movement’, said Ariel to then add.
’I have never seen her this invested before though, but the fighting between her users and others is just entertainment for her’.
Daimon had no reason to doubt the angel girl’s words, after all her users has faced Lezabel’s users many times in the past, so she knows how the other party thinks, in any case whether she intervened or not, it didn’t change what Daimon had to do, which is, getting rid of Marcus.
"Black Devil Hell Explosive Inferno!", speaking of Marcus, his gauntlets and body were now burning in black flames, but unlike before there was a second element added to his mana, it was some kind of black wind, the devil ruler system user was using a second affinity with his own body this time.
He even chose devil wind mana to further empower his black flame one which was already a combination of darkness and fire.
"Heh, so in the seventh hellscape state you get to use a second affinity, this level of power seems like something you’ll use on Adam only, though", said Daimon which made Marcus grit his teeth.
"Shut up and die!", a wave of black flames which were burning fiercely advanced towards Daimon like a tsunami, only for it to be... stopped in cold by Daimon extending his hand at it.
"Boooom!", the flames made contact with Daimon’s hand but they couldn’t let alone burn him, but even advance a single centimeter from that moment onwards, what’s more outrageous is that with a grabbing motion Daimon actually ripped the black flame tsunami apart.
"My spell, you destroyed it just with your reinforced physical body!", exclaimed Marcus with disbelief, Daimon had only used his hand which was covered in the energy gauntlets created by Tessa and Femi’s power to directly destroy Marcus’s spell.
Now, crushing spells with one’s body is nothing new, however you would need to pay attention to what spell and whose body we are talking about, normally there is a need of a whole major realm of difference for the previous to happen, for example an early-stage Lord rank mage against an Arch ranked knight.
Marcus is using early-stage Arch mage power, so the previous would tell us that for a moment there, Daimon’s physical body crossed the threshold of the Stellar realm.
’That’s fucking impossible, even if he reinforced his body twice, the difference between the Arch rank and the Stellar rank is not linear but exponential, are you telling me that his damn body’s base stat is high enough to make up for that, if that’s the case, wouldn’t he be as strong as us outside of this damn place!’, thought Marcus.
All this time, he has been fighting with the mind setup that he was at disadvantage because the blood prison realm restrained him, while his enemy seemed to benefit from it, but now he realized that might not be the case.
’He must not be allowed to leave this place, if he were to obtain a hero status... I will absolutely die’, concluded the devil ruler system user, despite everything that has happened, Marcus thought that if it came to that, he could escape, the once free from the restrictions of the blood prison realm, he could kill the masked silver haired youth with ease.
However, what if he is in the middle of obtaining the status of a hero, if that was the case, wouldn’t he be the one to die once they fight in a place without restrictions, so Marcus now only had one path, he either killed the enemy in front of him, or he will be killed by him later.
Little did he know that this was that kind of fight to begin with, well, with the difference that there was no later, if he didn’t kill Daimon, Daimon would kill him.
’Damn Adam bastard, why did he have to discover this guy, without his system’s influence, he would only been a mere Stellar rank at most, but now he’s got the potential to keep advancing’, thought Marcus to then disappear from where he was standing, he came out of a shadow portal created by the domain which hadn’t moved from its current position after recovering from the damage it suffered due to Daimon’s attack, this was done on purpose of course, since Marcus wanted to put some distance between himself and Daimon in a single go.
Unfortunately, being side to side with the domain no longer brought Marcus a sense of safety, because its defense could now be bypassed by Daimon’s attacks, their attention was suddenly drawn towards the sky where the clouds were dissipated by a mana wave and an energy wave colliding.
"Black Devil Dragon Breath!", breath is the strongest long range energy type attack that dragon races have, it is actually impressive that a failed dragon such as the snake managed to obtain this innate ability, every scale on the half-dragon lit up and a huge amount of water, earth and darkness mana gathered in front of the dragon’s mouth to then turn into an energy stream, that being said the lioness didn’t care in the slightest.
"Black Sky, Shooting Star!", black mana with white spots radiated out of the lioness’s wings an action that was replicated by the wings of the manticore manifestation, the energy enveloped both the lioness and her manifestation which then charged head on towards the incoming breath attack.
"Booooom!", the lioness and the breath clashed head on, resulting in a loud explosion and a stalemate that didn’t last long though.
"Crack!", the lioness fiercely advanced through the enemy’s attack, ultimately destroying the energy stream while also producing cracks on the manticore manifestation which then crumbled apart.
"Aghhhhh!", still, the lioness didn’t waver in the slightest, her real body which was enveloped in her star energy reached the dragon the next second, before she... blasted a hole through its body, the impact sent the dragon flying towards the ground, while the lioness who remained aloof in the sky took a second to then reform the manticore manifestation.
Marcus saw the large figure of the dragon being smacked against the ground, landing not too far from him, while the lioness glared at him with disdain, this was clearly her way to get back at him.
The worst part of it is that Marcus could see a strange light in the eyes of the domain, it was as if it was regretting having been separated from the lioness who looked like a dazzling black firmament right now, anger, hatred and a bit of regret flashed through Marcus eyes, before only coldness remained.
"M-Master!", the domain who had only taken a peek at the lioness suddenly felt pain and fear invade its body, well it was the artificial spirit that was imbued into it the one that felt it, after all the domain only had some instincts left from the lioness originally, this sudden change happened because Marcus at some point had taken out a black dagger with a red edge and stabbed the domain with it.
"I won’t be betrayed by the same pawn twice, since you with to be a part of a strong being, then become my power", coldly said the devil ruler system user, the domain didn’t even have the time to scream, the dagger lit up in black flames and mouths with spiked teeth appeared out of nowhere, to then eat the domain alive.
’Daimon, I don’t like that dagger’, said Narasha with clear anger in her voice.
’Don’t pay it attention, it might seem like Disaster and your ability, but that’s not the case, that thing is not able to directly consume the power of its target, refine it and use it for itself or for its wielder, it’s more of a shortcut for a ritual so it is in no way even close to be as amazing as you two’, said Daimon, making the sword girl smile.
’Mm~’.
Daimon wasn’t just praising Nasha to content her and to keep her from wanting to come out and rip that dagger to shreds, he was right, earlier Lezabel mentioned a "book" and a "dagger", the book was obviously the grimoire which is a promise level spell/ability of some kind and that dagger is the second object mentioned by the ghost-like administrator, which happens to be a promise level magic weapon.
That being said, they weren’t granted by Marcus system, but created by him, Daimon can tell because they are not as powerful as real promise level rewards granted by a system.
Don’t get it wrong, it’s quite something that Marcus managed to create them, but if you take into account the fact that he probably sacrificed countless lives to make them, then it makes sense, rituals that use lives as sacrifices can allow weak people to make outrageous things.
Just look at the crazy blacksmith and researchers that created Disaster, not a single one of them was let alone a half emperor but even a peak Arch rank and yet Disaster was able to threaten half emperor since the moment of its birth.
The previous took long to explain but it actually ended before Daimon could attack Marcus, so for a change it’s not that Daimon allowed him to power up, but he was fast enough to do it in front of an enemy.
"What do you think, the "Devil Sacrificial Dagger" instantly completes rituals, so, no matter if it’s you or Adam, you can’t interrupt me now", said Marcus, a bloodshot eye appeared on the guard of the dagger which then released a familiar black colored mist.
That wasn’t darkness, but shadow devil mana which covered Marcus body to then condense in an interesting armor, as in it had a lion theme.
"Black Devil Lion Armor", the devil ruler system user fulfilled his promise to the domain and turned it into his own power, in the form of some kind of armor.
"And now, to start the second round, Forbidden Bloodline Temple Hell, Overload".
The ancient building with snake engravings shook, the heads of the engravings exploded and a large amount of viscous red liquid flooded out of them, forming a red sea which drowned the dragon that ended up fainting after taking the lioness’s attack.
"Aghhhh!", a pained scream came from the red sea before it was absorbed by the dragon, well it couldn’t be called that now, as it had become a monstrosity with countless snakes protruding from its body, that being said not only did it recover from the injury the lioness had inflicted on it, but it also grew quite stronger reaching the peak of the Arch rank.
It’s understandable, all the power of the forbidden bloodline temple hellscape was just used, it remained there but it was empty now, Marcus had forced all the lineages of the snakes he had gathered into the body of the dragon, which resulted in its current appearance.
"Don’t you dare be angry at me, if you would have done your job, there wouldn’t be a need to resort to this, in any case so what if you can’t become a real dragon anymore, I can turn you into a hell abomination snake monarch in the future, then you could eat damn dragons if you want to, the premise of all that is that you kill that damn lioness of course", said Marcus as he saw the resentment in the eyes of the snake.
Of course, after having its originally meager dragon lineage contaminated by so many snake race’s blood, there was no way he could advance as a dragon anymore, that being said the power he gained was intoxicating and Marcus just mentioned a race of which he has no knowledge, but if it could eat dragons then it must be something incredibly strong.
"I thank the master for this gift", ultimately the snake bowed his head, at the end of the day while he longed to become a dragon the real reason behind of that was to obtain power, so this worked for him.
Also, this meant that he wasn’t abandoned unlike the domain, the snake still felt a chill running down his back as he was reminded of how the domain was consumed alive.
’Luckily, I didn’t show any signs of betrayal, otherwise I would have been eaten by that dagger’, thought the snake.
"You should have fought seriously from the very beginning, don’t get me wrong I was loving to see you getting beaten black and blue, but a one-sided fight is not entertaining~", said Lezabel as she saw Marcus use the dagger which granted him power without the need to resort to the hellscapes that had to be used in order as per the rules of the system.
Of course, this also meant that he was treating Daimon as a threat on the same level as Adam, which is why he didn’t want to use the dagger as it was the extra mean he had prepared to deal with his fated enemy, but he no longer cared about that.
’I’m going to kill this masked bastard and then I’ll leave this damn place, screw the ultimate fight, if the church of calamity shows the slightest discontent, I’ll kill them all and then look for a way to leave the four galaxies’, thought Marcus as he glared at Daimon.