671
Chapter 671
Zeke's eyes widened at the Arrogant Savior's words.
'If one becomes a perfect Adam, they can become the Sun God himself?'
Until now, Zeke thought Arthur Draker was simply moving according to the Sun God Apollion's will.
But the Arrogant Savior said the opposite - that Arthur Draker aims to become the Sun God himself.
Zeke glared at the Arrogant Savior's spirit form and said,
"Isn’t Arthur Draker just a puppet of the Sun God?"
At those words, the Arrogant Savior turned his head towards Mephistopheles.
Mephistopheles wore a disgruntled expression and huffed before finally speaking.
"I can't say that's wrong. However, he deliberately became the Sun God's puppet to overcome his own limitations."
Hearing Mephistopheles's words, Zeke recalled a scene from his past memories.
He had witnessed Arthur going to the ancient temple, dying to an external beast, then being revived through twisted causality.
And when Arthur Draker awakened again, he had become a different person than before.
"Are you saying Arthur Draker deliberately went there to obtain the Sun's essence?"
At his words, Mephistopheles pulled at the corners of his mouth and sneered,
"How else could that talentless guy have become the head of the Draker family?"
Zeke detected something strange in Mephistopheles's words.
One of the unresolved questions from before.
It was about how Arthur Draker knew about and found that ancient temple. And in this moment, Zeke realized the reason.
"It was you, Mephistopheles. You were the one who told Arthur Draker about that place."
The killing intent Zeke emitted wrapped around Mephistopheles's body.
Despite the pressure of the strong killing intent, Mephistopheles smiled madly and said,
"Yes, Arthur Draker had the qualities of a good sacrifice. Though lacking in talent, he was full of desire. There's no better contractor for a demon!"
Mephistopheles had approached Arthur Draker while hiding his true identity, helping him find what he wanted.
A place where one could be reborn through death and create a completely new self.
Arthur Draker, whose life was threatened within the Draker family, was desperately looking for a way to survive.
Even if it was a method conveyed by a demon.
The unresolved questions in Zeke's mind started fitting together.
The reason why Mephistopheles told Arthur Draker about the ancient temple was clear.
"You were planning to use Arthur Draker as the vessel for the Demon King instead of me. To resurrect the Demon King through him and destroy the heavenly realm."
At Zeke's words, Mephistopheles laughed maniacally.
When Arthur Draker broke free from his control while trying to resurrect the Demon King through him, Mephistopheles had chosen Zeke as another chess piece.
Zeke glared at Mephistopheles and continued speaking.
"So you're the root cause of all this, Mephistopheles."
At his words, Mephistopheles abruptly stopped laughing and shook his head.
"Zeke Draker, that's not true. I merely probed Arthur Draker's desires. Everything that happened afterward is his responsibility."
Zeke gripped Leviathan tightly at Mephistopheles's irresponsible words.
It was an extremely demonic way of thinking, achieving one's goals regardless of what happens to the material world.
'The romance of a demon with good intentions was impossible from the start.'
Although he never trusted demons to begin with, learning the truth made his anger surge even more.
Mephistopheles looked at the angry Zeke and said,
"Don't hate me that much. The heavenly realm was trying to destroy the demon realm, so we were just trying to find a way to survive."
At those words, Zeke made a disgusted expression and said,
"You also tried to attack the heavenly realm by resurrecting the Demon King. The constellations and demons are all the same, just in different positions."
WOONG!
Radiant light emanated out from Zeke's sword.
Seeing this, Mephistopheles shrugged while looking at the Arrogant Savior's spirit form.
"Satan, are you satisfied now that things went according to your plan?"
The Arrogant Savior watched this with interest, arms crossed.
-Mephi, seeing your flustered expression after thousands of years must be considered a great harvest.
Mephistopheles shook his head and spoke to Zeke who was approaching him.
"My mood is completely ruined. Zeke Draker, I'll leave for today. But remember this. Our contract is still valid."
Mephistopheles finished speaking and snapped his fingers.
But surprisingly, nothing changed.
"This, this is?"
He was supposed to leave Anastasia's body and return to the demon realm, but he had become fixed in this domain that Zeke had summoned.
CHWARAARAK!
Zeke approached him with Solomon's chains and sword imbued with brilliant light.
Mephistopheles cried out in terror,
"Damn it, Zeke Draker! What kind of trick is this?!"
Even constellations couldn't escape the influence of Zeke's unique domain 'Vanished Stage'.
Zeke spoke while watching the thrashing Mephistopheles,
"First the constellations, and now demons seem to lack learning ability too."
He extended Solomon's ring on his finger and said,
"Raziel, Samael, Raguel, Ramiel, Azrael. Did you learn nothing from seeing these constellations sealed?"
Mephistopheles knew about how Zeke had dealt with the Thirteen Zodiac constellations.
But demonic arrogance had led to carelessness.
He unleashed his power with a scream toward the approaching Zeke.
"KAAAAAAK!"
KUGUUGUUGU!
The Archdemon’s powerful force shook the entire unique domain.
The summoned Babel began to collapse from that power.
Then Zeke snapped his fingers.
HWARARARARUK!
The collapsing Babel was engulfed in flames.
The Arrogant Savior's unique domain, Purgatory, had been overlaid on top.
The flames of burning Babel rushed toward Mephistopheles.
HWARARARARUK!
True to his title of Archdemon, Mephistopheles's purple energy dispersed all of Purgatory's flames.
But Mephistopheles, possessing Anastasia's body, was breathing heavily while sweating.
Zeke said while looking at him,
"As expected, you haven't fully recovered from your wounds from fighting Baal and Agares. Since your contract traps wouldn't have worked well on those two, you had no choice but to face them directly."
As the demon of contracts, Mephistopheles's schemes required some level of communication to work.
But Baal and Agares were rulers obsessed with battle, far removed from such things.
Therefore, to subdue them, Mephistopheles also had to show matching power.
Although Mephistopheles usually disliked using force, this was his only chance to subjugate the lords of the Abyss - now that he had made Asmodeus submit through contract and allied with the powerful Beelzebub.
Moreover, in such circumstances, Mephistopheles had recklessly descended to the material world.
To shake Zeke and make him move according to his will, he made an extreme move despite knowing it was excessive.
Zeke noticed Mephistopheles's situation midway and pushed even harder, and that plan worked perfectly.
Mephistopheles, breathing heavily under the pressure of flames closing in from all directions, spoke to Zeke.
"Zeke Draker, how about calming down and resolving this through dialogue?"
Zeke shook his head at Mephistopheles's words.
"I think we've had enough dialogue. From now on, let's share something other than words."
WOONG!
Radiant light poured from Zeke's sword and flew toward Mephistopheles.
KWAKWAKWAKWA!
Mephistopheles hastily gathered energy to create a shield against Zeke's sword light.
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWANG!
In the demon realm, he would have easily blocked such attacks, but now he struggled just to maintain his energy.
'Damn it. How did things get so twisted?'
Mephistopheles admitted he had underestimated Zeke too much.
Even with the position of Demon lord, he had thought a human like Zeke was far too inadequate to face him and treated him merely as a pawn.
Mephistopheles acknowledged his mistake and tried to find a way to escape from here.
Then the Arrogant Savior's spirit form spoke to him.
-Need help, Mephi?
"Shut up! This mess happened because of you!"
-My, I'm sorry then. Demons tend to get into trouble because of the seeds they sow. Just like me.
Ignoring the Arrogant Savior who was grating on his nerves, Mephistopheles sighed and readjusted his stance. He had decided to unleash his power even though it meant consuming massive karma and taking damage to his soul.
KUGUUGUUGU!
When Mephistopheles unleashed his true power, a different pressure than before emanated from him.
KUDUDUDUK!
The space around him distorted as Mephistopheles's unique domain slowly began to erode the surroundings.
Simultaneously, Anastasia's vessel body rapidly matured from a girl into an adult.
With Anastasia's body now fully transformed into a mature demoness, Mephistopheles glared at Zeke with glowing purple eyes.
[The games end here, Zeke Draker. Next time, I won't be caught like this.]
When he snapped his fingers, the Purgatory domain began fading, trying to transform back into Mephistopheles's domain.
But as the domains eroded each other, dimensional holes formed, spewing plasma.
PAJIJIJIJIK!
A plasma storm erupted, destabilizing the surrounding domain.
Mephistopheles, who was trying to open his domain to return to the demon realm, glared at Zeke in confusion at this sudden anomaly.
[You! What are you doing…?]
In that moment, Zeke's body rippled and vanished.
Appearing right in front of Mephistopheles, Zeke pierced Anastasia's chest with his light-wrapped sword.
PUEOK!
[KUHEK!]
When struck by the sword, Mephistopheles's spirit form was forced out of Anastasia's body.
Zeke smiled cruelly at Mephistopheles's spirit form.
"Got you."
At his whisper, Solomon's chains moved to wrap around Mephistopheles.
[You, you!]
Zeke began absorbing the chained Mephistopheles into Solomon's ring.
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWA!
Even while being pulled into the ring in chains, Mephistopheles struggled fiercely.
[This won't go as you planned!]
Gritting his teeth as he shouted, he changed direction and jumped into Zeke's body instead of the ring.
KUGUUGUUGU!
Before Zeke could react, Mephistopheles's spirit form was absorbed into his body rather than the ring.
As Zeke frowned and looked up, the still-floating Arrogant Savior spoke with an amused smile.
-The sealed Mephi's soul has hidden somewhere in your abyss.
When faced with being sealed in Solomon's ring, Mephistopheles had hidden in Zeke's abyss instead.
Zeke made an incredulous expression, then unbuttoned and examined his chest to find Mephistopheles's crest engraved there.
'He's definitely sealed, so he won't be able to cause trouble in between.'
The Arrogant Savior's spirit form spoke while watching Zeke shake his head.
-Though I'm not sure if we'll meet again, I look forward to your journey. This was fun. You who has crossed walls.
After speaking, the spirit form vanished like smoke.
Zeke stared silently at where he disappeared, then grabbed the unconscious Anastasia in the plasma storm domain and snapped his fingers.
CHUCHUCHUCHU!
When the unique domain was released, the space around Zeke and Anastasia changed, revealing the interior of the moving fortress.
"Demon lord."
Then, the First Princess Elizabeth appeared before Zeke who had crossed through space.
She showed a brief surprised expression at seeing Zeke and the unconscious Anastasia, then bowed her head and said.
"I'll ask about what happened later."
Raising her head, Elizabeth pointed ahead and continued.
"We'll soon arrive at the Abandoned Continent."