Chapter 370
Chapter 370
Chapter 370
KWADEUDEUDEUK!
Bahamut split Viper's body vertically.
'Did I finish him off?'
Zeke had created another self using the division skill absorbed from the Endless Devourer's scythe and Belial's power of 'Deception' to face the monsters Viper created.
Belial's power of deception didn't just end with deceiving others - it had real effects on reality.
It was a terrifying power that, when deceiving based on the property of heat, would make the target actually perceive heat and suffer real burns, making it impossible to distinguish between reality and illusion.
While Zeke's materialized clone dealt with the monsters, he used the spirit manifestation skill to target Viper from behind.
With Dragon slaying skill, golden force field, and the soul technique 'Will of Crushing' all poured into one fatal sword strike, it wouldn't have been strange if Viper had been killed instantly.
Then steam erupted from Viper's split body.
CHWIIIIIK!
Soon the steam gathered and revealed the original Viper.
Viper glared at Zeke while gripping his scythe and turning his neck.
"You arrogant human..."
Zeke rushed at Viper without giving him a chance.
WOOOONG!
After putting away Bahamut and taking out his hammer again, Zeke swung the hammer imbued with powerful force to strike Viper's body.
KWANG!
When the hammer struck, Viper's body scattered like an explosion.
Zeke unleashed the power of freezing toward Viper's scattered body.
JJEOJEOJEOK!
All of Viper's scattered body parts froze at absolute zero temperature.
Zeke picked up the huge scythe that had fallen to the ground while staying alert of his surroundings.
WOOOONG!
The scythe vibrated and rejected Zeke's touch.
'Resisting is pointless.'
Zeke ignored it and tried to absorb the scythe through his shadow.
But then, something flew from behind.
KWANG!
Zeke felt a massive impact on the back plate of his Hersion armor.
When he turned around, surprisingly, Viper had returned to normal and was looking down at Zeke.
Unlike before, Viper was glaring at Zeke with an enraged expression instead of a playful smile.
The scythe Zeke had been holding melted away and reappeared in Viper's hand.
"Damn you! Your weapon! What the hell is it!! How many times has it made my clones..?"
At that moment, Viper realized he had made a slip of the tongue.
Zeke spoke to Viper as if he had expected this.
"As I suspected. You're not the high-rank demon Viper. You're the 'Endless Devourer' himself controlling a clone."
Hearing this, Arataso exclaimed in shock.
[What do you mean he's a constellation! That guy is Viper, his subordinate...]
Zeke shook his head.
"That's what was known. But I told you, didn't I? The Endless Devourer can split and multiply souls."
Zeke pointed at Viper and said.
"The high-rank demon known as Viper. He's actually a clone created by the Endless Devourer's soul splitting and multiplying."
Arataso shook his head in disbelief at Zeke's words.
[That's impossible! Why would he use his own soul to make clones when he could just accept subordinates?!]
To that, Zeke spoke while looking at Viper.
"The Endless Devourer only has greed, with no abilities worth giving to his subordinates."
[What?]
Arataso couldn't believe Zeke's words.
The Endless Devourer he knew was indeed greedy as Zeke said. But he was a constellation with powers as strong as his greed.
Sensing Arataso's confusion, Zeke pointed his hammer at Viper and said.
"He only has the ability to split and multiply souls to create false currency. So when he needs something, he immediately takes his multiplied souls to pay and obtain it. He's used such transactions to disguise his abilities, and instilled fear in demons with his mad clones. All through vicious tricks and lies."
After hearing all of Zeke's words, Viper spun his scythe.
His playful attitude from before had completely disappeared, replaced by a look that suggested he would tear Zeke apart right now.
He opened his mouth toward Zeke.
"You worm of a human, spouting nonsense."
Zeke tapped his hammer with his palm and spoke.
"Let's see if this is nonsense or not. Looking at it, it seems you've put the most effort into Viper among your duplicates. I'm going to test how many more times you can create this duplicate."
The Endless Devourer was using multiplied souls to deceive karma and control duplicates that possessed his power.
If all the paid souls disappeared, he would be subject to karma's sanctions again.
WHEEEEEE!
Viper swung his scythe around and then stuck it into the ground.
TSS! TSS! TSS!
As the blade of the scythe was stuck in the ground, an eerie energy seeped into it.
CRACK!
The ground split open and from within, knights in red armor, skeleton knights in black armor, and massive beast-warrior types began crawling out.
Arataso was shocked to see the demon realm's minions crawling out from the ground.
[Good heavens! Those are Blood Keep's Blood Knights, Abaddon's Knights of the Abyss... and even beast warriors who only follow 'The Lord of the Lowest Place'?]
Arataso couldn't help but be terrified seeing the prominent minions of the demon realm crawling up from underground.
Dozens of minions that crawled out from the ground revealed their killing intent toward Zeke.
Viper kept glaring at Zeke while keeping his scythe stuck in the ground.
He spoke while looking at Viper.
"Looking at these strong minions, you couldn't copy them completely and instead traded for the right to borrow them. That scythe must be the symbol of the trade."
The Endless Devourer controlling the duplicate Viper gritted his teeth at Zeke's words.
Despite being human, he knew the principles and nature of demon trades too well. Each word he spoke felt like his inner thoughts were being completely exposed.
He shouted toward the minions he borrowed.
"Tear him to pieces right now!"
GRRRR!
First, a beast warrior resembling a three-headed werewolf charged toward Zeke.
The beast warrior who served 'The Lord of the Lowest Place' - the same master as Griesmodal whose 999 beasts had part of their souls absorbed by Zeke before - possessed strength as fierce as they were brutal.
However, even the beast warrior's ferocity was useless before Zeke's hammer.
BANG!
With one hammer strike imbued with golden power, the beast warrior was deeply embedded into the ground.
GRRRRRR!
Other beast warriors bared their teeth and charged threateningly toward Zeke.
Zeke also immediately rushed toward the beast warriors with his hammer raised.
BANG!
Every time the hammer swung, beast warriors' bones shattered and sharp teeth broke and scattered everywhere.
Zeke demonstrated his demon hunting techniques without reservation, unhesitatingly crushing the beast warriors' skulls in one breath.
If the Battle God Tyr saw Zeke's movements now, he would have nodded in satisfaction.
Whoosh!
When Zeke's hammer stopped, there were only piles of beast warrior corpses beaten to a pulp around him.
Zeke took a moment to catch his breath while moving his shadow to absorb the beast warriors' corpses.
After recovering his strength back to how it was at first, Zeke tapped his hammer covered in beast warriors' blood and spoke to Viper who was behind.
"I don't know how much you paid to borrow these guys, but it seems they weren't worth the price."
At Zeke's sarcasm, Viper gritted his teeth and shouted.
"What are you doing?! Hurry up and kill him!"
The playful tone from earlier was long gone.
This time, the Blood Knights and Knights of the Abyss who were lined up behind charged toward Zeke.
WHOOSH!
The Blood Knights spread their domain while creating red mist around them, and the Knights of the Abyss similarly sprayed black smoke.
TSS! TSS! TSS! TSS!
The red mist and black smoke began to wrap around Zeke.
He remembered struggling with this red mist when facing Garin, a Royal Vampire, previously in the Inverted Tower.
Zeke grabbed his green sword and quietly spoke to Arataso.
"I've faced Blood Knights before, but what are these Knights of the Abyss?"
Arataso answered Zeke's question.
[One of the six strongest demons among the fallen constellations is the 'Ruler of the Abyss'. They are the Dark Knights who guard his domain, Abaddon. The darkness they emit is a barrier that recreates the abyss itself. Any attack is swallowed by the darkness of the abyss.]
Hearing this, the darkness barrier emitted by the Knights of the Abyss seemed more troublesome.
'The darkness of the abyss.'
Zeke tried to sense any presence while looking into the darkness where he couldn't see an inch ahead.
However, the surrounding darkness interfered with his senses, and nothing could be felt.
At that moment, something occurred to Zeke's mind.
"Raven, come out and earn your keep."
When Zeke looked toward his shoulder and spoke, Raven had already crossed the dimensional boundary and revealed himself.
KURURURURURU!
Having eaten and slept well, Raven had grown significantly compared to when he first hatched from the egg.
Raven looked around at the darkness of the abyss, then spread his wings and took flight.
Then he let out a long cry and released his phoenix cry.
EEEEEEEEENG!
The phoenix cry, inaudible to human ears, spread out, shaking the darkness of the abyss.
And moments later, surprisingly, the darkness of the abyss began to clear from where Raven was.
'Huh?'
Zeke, who had summoned Raven just in case, was shocked when the abyss barrier actually broke from the phoenix cry.
TSUTSUTSUTSU!
As the abyss barrier broke, the surroundings were filled with red mist as if spread by Blood Knights.
Zeke grinned as he drew out Roland.
"I can handle this much."
He raised Roland to the sky and immediately released holy light.
PA-ZI-ZI-ZI-ZIK!
Powerful light lightning fell toward the Blood Knights who were approaching Zeke, along with the red mist.
KWA-KWA-KWANG!
The Blood Knights hit by the holy light lost their strength and fell to the ground.
Then the remaining Blood Knights and Knights of the Abyss behind them approached Zeke.
Just as Zeke was preparing to face them again, Raven, who had been circling in the sky, stopped his phoenix cry and landed on Zeke's helmet.
Zeke pulled out jerky from his inventory and tossed it toward Raven.
Raven caught and ate the jerky with familiarity.
"Good job Raven. Go in and rest for now."
Raven ate the jerky while hiding his form in the dimensional gap.
Zeke connected a chain to the hammer handle while watching the approaching Knights of Hell.
"Let's see how solid your bodies are."
HONG-HONG-HONG-HONG!
A fierce sound cut through the air as Zeke swung the hammer holding the chain.
At some point, he threw the hammer toward the Knights of Hell.
HU-U-U-UNG!
The hammer, charged with powerful force, flew at high speed.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!
One of the Blood Knights at the front was hit by the hammer and fell with their body pierced.
Zeke pulled the chain to change the direction of the flying hammer.
The hammer drew a long circle as the chain wrapped around the minions, and watching this, Zeke channeled holy light through the chain.
PA-ZI-ZI-ZI-ZIK!
As divine thunder activated, dozens of light lightning bolts fell on the minions wrapped in the chain.
The chain surrounding the area became a kind of barrier, reflecting the divine thunder's lightning and dealing double damage to the minions.
KI-E-E-E-EK!
Thanks to this, the minions summoned by Viper disappeared without even being able to properly exert their power.
Viper's expression hardened as he watched this.
Zeke spoke while looking at Viper.
"Seeing your bad expression, there must be penalties when borrowed minions get hurt? I think I might be able to bankrupt you today."
Viper gritted his teeth at Zeke, who irritatingly knew the ins and outs of demon deals.
Viper pulled out a dagger from his chest.
It was a divine item that felt like the power of a constellation other than the Endless Devourer.
Sensing that power, Arataso shouted toward Zeke.
[I sense the power of the 'Judge of Endless Struggle' from that dagger!]
The 'Judge of Endless Struggle' was a powerful demon who was the ruler of the Tuma tribe and master of the Balrogs.
Viper stabbed his heart with that dagger.
TSUTSUTSUTSU!
Surprisingly, when the dagger pierced his heart, Viper's appearance began to change.
While maintaining the jester's mask, horns grew on his head, his hands and feet lengthened, and wings sprouted from his back.
It looked like a combination of a jester and a Balrog.
Looking at Viper who suddenly transformed, Zeke realized something different was happening from before.
It was Viper awakening as an avatar body as the powers of the fallen constellations - the Judge of Endless Struggle and the Endless Devourer - combined.