583
Chapter 583
Baal and Agares' jaws dropped at Zeke's statement.
It was already shocking that a human openly called their true names, but now he was spouting nonsense about facing both great demons at once.
Provoked by Zeke, Baal and Agares immediately rose from their seats.
"You human wretch, I'll tear you apart!"
"I'll crush you in an instant!"
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
They too had possessed avatar bodies to limit their power while participating in the Demon Lord assembly.
Even though they couldn't utilize their true power properly, an immense energy whirled like a storm strong enough to shake the entire castle.
Zeke stood unwavering on the platform despite facing the energy of two great demons simultaneously.
Mephistopheles, seated in the chief seat, watched this scene with great interest.
That's when Asmodeus, the ‘Master of Unrelenting Passion’ who had his eyes closed, opened them.
Asmodeus flashed his beast-like eyes and spoke to Mephistopheles in a chilling voice.
"Demon Lord, what scheme are you plotting with that human?"
Mephistopheles shook his head at Asmodeus's words and replied.
"Scheme? I've never plotted such things. It's exactly as I told you all. All I want is to see the successor in person and if he’s qualified, acknowledge him as a Demon Lord to create a stable demon realm. Nothing more."
Asmodeus's eyes narrowed at Mephistopheles's words.
Even before falling and becoming a demon, when he was called Azazel as a celestial constellation, he was skilled in scheming.
Asmodeus knew Mephistopheles's tendencies well, so he couldn't easily let his guard down.
As he watched Mephistopheles with suspicious eyes, a massive sound erupted beside them.
BOOM!
Baal and Agares had charged in and completely crushed the stage where Zeke had been standing.
The two great demons tended to become more combative when possessing Tuma clan bodies than in their original forms.
Because of this, red and blue fighting spirit currently whirled around Baal and Agares's bodies respectively.
"Human! I'll kill you!"
"I'll tear you to shreds and devour even that arrogant savior's soul inside you!"
Seeing this, Mephistopheles rose from his seat with a smile.
"It seems those two won't be satisfied until they test the successor themselves. Well then, we'll need a suitable stage."
Mephistopheles, in the form of a noble lady, flashed her mysterious purple eyes and snapped her fingers.
Instantly, the surroundings changed.
BOOM!
The conference room vanished and a traditional demon realm arena appeared.
Mephistopheles, Asmodeus, and the Administrator of the Depths were seated in the spectator seats above the arena, while Zeke, Baal, and Agares faced each other in the arena.
As the environment changed to an arena, Baal and Agares became even more excited and raised their fighting spirit.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
A powerful storm of fighting spirit swept through the surroundings.
Zeke calmly drew out Leviathan while watching them.
Seeing this, Agares stepped forward first.
"I'll crush that impudent one first."
At those words, Baal gnashed his teeth and shouted.
"What nonsense! I'll be the one to kill him!"
Watching the two great demons growling and refusing to yield to each other about who would go first, Zeke said.
"It's troublesome, so both of you come at once."
Baal and Agares's expressions became even more hostile at Zeke's words.
It was a natural reaction since he had touched the pride of the two great demons who had the strongest fighting spirit among the lords.
Breathing out blue breath, Agares spoke to Baal.
"GRRRR! Fine! I'll yield this time! But make sure you kill him completely!"
At his words, Baal stepped forward with a chilling smile.
BOOM!
Baal could be called the great demon who ruled over the Tuma clan that constantly desired conflict.
Looking at his enormously swollen muscles and ominous fighting spirit, even his avatar body seemed to be above top-tier demon class.
Baal took his stance while glaring at Zeke.
In that moment, Baal's muscles bulged up, and he threw a straight punch toward Zeke.
WHOOSH!
Unlike the fighting spirit that had been roughly slashing through the surroundings until now, a very static and quiet fist attack flew toward Zeke.
Zeke instinctively raised Leviathan and took up a defensive stance from the Dragon Slaying technique to block Baal's straight punch.
CRASH!
Baal's fist attack exploded and was offset around Zeke's body.
However, when he raised his head after defending once, he couldn't see Baal's figure on the opposite side.
'I can't sense his presence.'
In that startled moment, Baal's red giant form suddenly sprang out from Zeke's blind spot.
ROAR!
As expected, a refined aura straight punch flew toward Zeke's vital point.
Zeke quickly twisted his body using Wind Storm technique to avoid Baal's fist attack.
CRASH!
The air where Baal's fist attack passed through was torn apart with a thunderous sound.
Stepping back, Zeke analyzed what he felt from Baal's fist attack.
'This isn't a demon clan fighting technique.'
Surprisingly, Baal was attacking Zeke using extreme Martial Arts techniques.
As Zeke realized how to counter him and tried to raise his power, surprisingly, a causality backlash occurred in his body.
CRACKLE!
It seemed he had self-imposed power limitations since he had temporarily stabilized the unstable dimension.
'So there are significant restrictions on using constellation powers.'
Then Mephistopheles's voice reached Zeke's ears.
[You'll need to stay alert. Despite appearances, Baal takes martial arts seriously. Make a mistake and you could die here.]
At Mephistopheles's words, Zeke gripped his sword and drew up chaos energy.
RUMBLE RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
As chaos energy that neutralized constellation power rippled, Baal showed an interested expression and extended his fist forward.
"KUHAHAHA! Just as Gusion said, you're quite interesting!"
Suddenly Baal stopped laughing, brought his arms to his chest, and took a deep breath.
WHOOSH!
With his breath, Baal's body swelled even larger.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
It felt as if Baal's body was becoming as heavy and solid as iron.
Zeke realized this change wasn't constellation authority and admired it.
'To exert such power through martial arts alone without authority.'
Mephistopheles's words about Baal’s dedication to martial arts resonated with Zeke.
In that moment, Baal's form blurred and vanished from sight.
WHOOSH!
Along with afterimages, Baal's fist appeared right in front of Zeke's nose.
Zeke stepped back using Wind Storm technique while deflecting Baal's fist attack to the side, then countered by striking his flank as he passed.
THWACK!
Though he accurately struck the flank with his chaos energy-imbued sword, rather than feeling the attack connect, a rebound force like hitting iron traveled up his arm.
'So chaos energy is useless against non-authority power.'
Baal turned his body again, crouched down as much as possible, then charged straight toward where Zeke was.
CRASH! CRASH!
His solid flesh charging like a mass of iron was threatening in itself.
Zeke released the chaos energy and pointed Leviathan toward the charging Baal.
WHOOSH!
As his sword rang out strongly, a sword appeared in his mind.
TSSS!
A mind sword domain spread out centered on where Zeke stood.
Baal, who had been charging forward, felt the mind sword domain extending from Zeke and suddenly stopped his charge.
WHOOSH!
He cautiously stepped back and took up a breathing stance again.
"KUHEHE, it would seem you didn't come here by mere luck, human youngster."
If Zeke had tried to face him with just the arrogant savior's soul power obtained by chance, Baal had planned to tear his entire body to shreds right there.
But since Zeke was also approaching with the sword matching his martial arts, Baal was pleased to have a high-level battle after a long time.
Since demon clan battles were literally just clashes of power, Baal, who desired to compete through various techniques and capabilities, hadn't been satisfied with battles until now.
Baal continued breathing while extending one fist forward and keeping the other at his waist as he lowered his stance.
Seeing this, Agares shook his head as if disgusted.
"Ha,Show off."
Though he said that, Agares realized Baal had decided to face Zeke seriously and watched their confrontation with interest.
Baal's form as he stood motionless in stance while emanating pressure looked like a demon statue made of burning iron.
Baal approached Zeke's position bit by bit, invading into the mind sword domain he had spread out.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
Zeke realized that Baal's martial arts mastery was beyond imagination as he watched him break down the mind sword domain little by little while digging into it.
Zeke focused all his nerves on maintaining the mind sword domain more firmly while raising his sword toward such a Baal.
Thus the two stared at each other while remaining almost motionless.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
Though the standoff continued without any movement to the point of tedium, none of those gathered here expressed any complaints about it.
This was because they were all transcendents capable of seeing the fierce domain battle occurring in the invisible realm.
CRACKLE!
At some point, dimensional waves rippled and cracked where Zeke and Baal's domains overlapped.
Though it appeared to be empty space on the outside, it was a place where an extremely fierce battle was occurring as they tried to invade each other's domains.
In the end, the dimension couldn't withstand the power of the two transcendents and was torn apart.
In that moment, Zeke and Baal rushed forward instantaneously.
CRASH
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
Zeke's sword and Baal's fist collided at the point of dimensional fracture.
BOOM! BOOM!
CRASH!
As the collision expanded the dimensional crack, a massive plasma storm erupted from within.
CRACKLE!
The entire arena filled with tremendous plasma.
Seeing this, Mephistopheles smiled while caressing his cheek with interest.
"AHH, fighting to the point of tearing dimensions. Excellent."
Beside him, Asmodeus silently watched the arena with beast-like eyes, while the Administrator of the Depths maintained his position without any reaction.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
Soon the plasma subsided, revealing Zeke and Baal in the center of the arena.
TSSS!
Baal's arm blocked Zeke's sword, while Zeke's palm blocked Baal's extended fist below.
They had exchanged attacks.
Baal's eyebrow twitched as he looked down at Zeke, then he quickly stepped back.
THUD!
Baal moved his neck around, clicked his tongue, then raised his head toward Mephistopheles and said.
"Damn, I don't like your plan, Demon Lord, but fine! A promise is a promise. I acknowledge him!"
Having directly clashed with Zeke's sword, Baal surprisingly acknowledged him as the Arrogant Savior's successor.
Baal's body silently vanished from the arena, appearing in the spectator seats with the other Great Demon Lords.
As Mephistopheles snapped her fingers with a smile, a throne fitting Baal's size appeared.
THUD!
Even while sitting, Baal kept his fists clenched, still seemingly excited.
'If we continued, this avatar body I just got would be in tatters. This domain would vanish too.'
Though disappointed, continuing would be foolish. Instead, Baal thought about someday inviting Zeke to his domain for an all-out fight.
Then Agares stepped up to the arena.
THUD!
Agares, who had been watching the fight with Baal from below, spoke to Zeke.
"Enjoyed watching that pathetic fight, human."
Agares, famous as a battle fanatic like Baal, burned with fighting spirit as he smiled cruelly and said to Zeke.
"Unfortunately, unlike Baal, I have no interest in weak human martial arts. As a demon, only power! One proves oneself through overwhelming power alone!"
As he finished speaking, Agares's body began to change.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
His body grew larger and surprisingly, three pairs of wings made of blue flame sprouted from his back. Simultaneously, his limbs lengthened and hard scales began appearing on his skin.
'Hmm?'
Zeke slightly furrowed his brow. Agares's transformed appearance looked like a mix between dragon and human.
A 'Dragon being?'
WHOOSH!
With blue flames rippling across his body, Agares spoke to Zeke.
"Human, I don't know what you're plotting with the Demon Lord, but I'll burn everything along with your pathetic shell."