699
Chapter 699
In the entirely black void world, a being appeared wearing yellow clothes.
When a new immortal power appears, the time of destruction will come and the king in yellow will be resurrected.
It was the king in yellow who appeared in the prophecy as the one who would lead the world to its end.
This being from the prophecy had revealed itself before Mephistopheles.
Not only the ceremonial robe wrapped around its entire body, but even the veil covering its face was yellow.
Mephistopheles greeted him with exaggerated gestures.
"King in yellow. I have prepared a vessel for your incarnation here. Take it and be resurrected as the Demon King. And show that power that will destroy everything!"
Mephistopheles smiled with madness as he watched the king in yellow slowly approach.
He was captivated by the thought that once the king in yellow took possession of Zeke's body, he would control the incarnated Demon King and rule not only the demon realm and the physical world but even the celestial realm.
The king in yellow silently stopped in front of Mephistopheles and the suffering Zeke.
Mephistopheles, who thought the king would immediately devour Zeke, frowned at the unexpected behavior of the king in yellow.
"Why are you doing this, king in yellow? The sacrifice for you is here. Take it now. Now!"
Then the king in yellow turned his veiled face toward Mephistopheles.
Simultaneously, the king in yellow opened his robe and drew his sword.
WOOOOOOONG!
Surprisingly, the sword was the completely merged divine sword that the incarnation Adam had held.
From the divine sword in the hand of the king in yellow, light that illuminated the darkness poured forth.
Behind the king in yellow holding the sword, a halo resembling the sun rose.
Seeing this, Mephistopheles's pupils dilated.
"This is..."
The light emanating from the king in yellow was neither demonic energy nor the power of twisted causality.
Seeing the burning sunlight that brightly illuminated the darkness, Mephistopheles finally realized the true identity of the king in yellow standing before him.
"Apollion...?"
The one who killed the Creator, the primordial light, and usurped the celestial realm.
The strongest constellation with the stellar name ‘The Most Noble One Above Heaven,’ also called the Sun God.
He was the king in yellow.
Mephistopheles, facing Apollion, broke into a cold sweat and stepped back.
He had only tried to summon the Demon King into Zeke's body, he had not expected to face the Sun God Apollion here at all.
"H-how did you...?"
Once, they were both constellations of the celestial realm serving the Creator together, but after he became a fallen constellation and left the celestial realm, they became enemies who hated each other.
The Sun God Apollion existed in the highest place of the celestial realm and was positioned as the leader of all constellations.
Even Mephistopheles, the demon lord of the demon realm, had not faced him for ages.
The king in yellow holding the divine sword spoke while looking at Mephistopheles.
"Azazel. It's been a long time."
Apollion said while looking at Mephistopheles. He continued in an emotionless tone.
"Once, you sympathized with the beings of the physical world, and even gave them fire."
Mephistopheles's expression changed upon hearing his words.
What Apollion just mentioned was a story from eons before the first city of Eden was even created, when the primordial light existed.
The once pure constellation named Azazel had deeply loved the beings of the physical world. Thus, for those in need, he disobeyed the Creator's command and, under the name Prometheus, handed them fire.
But because of this, that world met an unexpected end and was erased.
Over the eons of time as the beings he cherished vanished futilely and the world collapsed, the pure constellation disappeared. In the end, only a corrupted demon remained, with a soul filled solely with greed and scheming.
He opened his mouth while looking at Apollion in the yellow ceremonial robe.
"I don't know how you appeared here, but... this is actually good. My original goal was to invade the celestial realm, make you kneel, and annihilate you."
WOOOONG!
A deep purple energy rippled from Mephistopheles's body.
Looking at such a Mephistopheles, Apollion shook his head.
"Seeing you, who once had a pure and noble heart, fallen to such corruption, makes me sad."
Mephistopheles glared at Apollion with clenched molars, then shouted with anger.
"Shut up!"
He glared at the king in yellow with eyes full of madness and shouted again.
"Tell me where you hid the sealed soul of the Demon King!"
"Azazel, poor fellow. You were always like this. Pretending to know everything, but actually ignorant of what's important. You still know nothing."
"Don't call me Azazel! Just as you lost your true name after killing the primordial light, I too gained a new name when I left the celestial realm!"
WOOOOOONG!
Purple radiance burst from Mephistopheles's body and spread in all directions.
Seeing this, Apollion slowly raised the divine sword.
"You intend to oppose me? Even when you were a celestial constellation, you couldn't match my power. How could you possibly do anything with the filthy power of a demon?"
Mephistopheles reacted hypersensitively to Apollion's words and screamed as if having a seizure.
"SHUT UUUUP! Once I find the Demon King's soul, you'll be nothing! Even the celestial realm will be beneath my feet!"
Soon, the purple energy flowing from his body gathered to form a compressed sphere of demonic power.
The purple sphere rotated several times in place before shooting rapidly toward Apollion.
KWAAAANG!
The demonic sphere flew toward Apollion, causing a powerful wave strong enough to shake the entire void world.
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWA!
Apollion pointed the tip of his sword toward the demonic sphere that was spinning fiercely as it charged forward.
Surprisingly, the sphere was instantly sucked into the divine sword.
KUGUGUGUGUGU!
Mephistopheles's expression twisted as the demonic sphere he had fired was helplessly absorbed into Apollion's divine sword.
He stepped back and said to Apollion.
"...I don't know how you appeared here, but it can't be by normal means. There's no need for me to fight with you right now."
Mephistopheles grabbed the shoulder of Zeke, who had collapsed from the poison, and glared at Apollion while speaking.
"I'll find the Demon King's soul that you've hidden somewhere, take that power, and crush you."
After finishing his words, Mephistopheles tried to disappear into the darkness with Zeke.
But then.
"...What?"
Mephistopheles, trying to vanish beyond the void world, realized that space wouldn't move according to his will.
Apollion, holding the divine sword, spoke to Mephistopheles.
"Foolish Azazel, you cannot escape from me."
He raised the divine sword and pointed at Zeke.
"Hand over that child. Then I will annihilate your insignificant soul without pain."
Mephistopheles grimaced at Apollion's words and shouted in an angry voice.
"Ha, your arrogance remains the same even after all this time!"
Mephistopheles tightly gripped Zeke's neck as if embracing him and said.
"He is mine. I won't give him to anyone!"
Then a soft whisper sounded in Mephistopheles's ear.
"You're talking nonsense."
Zeke, who had lost consciousness due to the poison spreading from his soul, had somehow regained his senses.
Mephistopheles was startled by Zeke's murmur and tried to step back.
But Zeke's movement was faster.
He grabbed Mephistopheles's arm that was holding his neck.
KWADEUDEUDEUK!
Mephistopheles let out a painful groan at Zeke's unbelievably strong grip on his arm.
"KUGHK!"
Zeke didn't stop there and took out Solomon's chain to wrap around Mephistopheles.
CHWARALALALAK!
Instantly wrapped in chains, Mephistopheles was caught by Zeke and rendered immobile.
Zeke forced the restrained Mephistopheles to kneel, then slowly stood up.
"Finally caught you."
He had finally captured Mephistopheles, who had been difficult to trace after hiding in the abyss.
Bound by Solomon's chain, Mephistopheles glared at Zeke and shouted.
"H-how can you move?!"
Zeke calmly replied to Mephistopheles.
"A demon among demons like you wouldn't quietly let yourself be absorbed by me. I was expecting you to stab me in the back eventually."
"E-even so, you couldn't have done anything about the poison flowing from deep within your soul. Just how..."
To those words, Zeke pulled the chains tighter and said.
"You seem to have forgotten my constellation name. No pain is of use against me."
The other constellation name Zeke obtained when he became the Demon lord was "The Guide of Fair Pain."
Mephistopheles had only released enough poison to incapacitate Zeke with pain.
But for Zeke, pain was not a major problem as long as he became accustomed to it.
So he endured the pain and simply waited to get used to the poison Mephistopheles had released.
Then, at the decisive moment, he snatched Mephistopheles and reversed the situation.
Realizing his mistake, Mephistopheles finally struggled to break free from the chains.
But Solomon's chain, flowing with Zeke's divine power, only dug deeper into Mephistopheles's body.
"KUUUUUUGHK!"
Zeke's pupils glowed eerily as he looked at Mephistopheles.
"This ends our ill-fated connection, Mephistopheles."
With those words, Leviathan pierced through the restrained Mephistopheles's back.
"N-no!"
Purple energy rippled from Mephistopheles's body as he was stabbed by Leviathan.
WOOOOOOOONG!
A great demon could absorb another great demon's power by subduing them.
While Mephistopheles couldn't absorb all powers because he had subjugated other great demons through contracts, Zeke was different.
Since Mephistopheles had originally been absorbed by Zeke and only separated the core of his soul to hide in the abyss, all his power was now being transferred to Zeke.
WOOOOOONG!
Soon, purple energy enveloped Zeke's body.
The power of Mephistopheles, the Great Sovereign and demon lord of the demon realm, had been absorbed by Zeke.
"KUHEEEEOOOGHK"
Mephistopheles's spirit body, stripped of all power by Zeke, turned white and hardened, then crumbled to ashes.
Simultaneously, messages appeared before Zeke's eyes.
[You have completely absorbed the soul of ‘Master of Unbreakable Contracts’.]
[All powers of ‘Master of Unbreakable Contracts’ are transferred to the user.]
[The unique domain Kaleidoscope of ‘Master of Unbreakable Contracts’ is transferred.]
[The unique power 'Unequal Exchange' of ‘Master of Unbreakable Contracts’ is transferred.]
[The unique power 'Darkness of the Abyss' of ‘Arrogant Savior’ owned by ‘Master of Unbreakable Contracts’ is transferred.]
Zeke felt his soul power instantly rising not just through the consecutive messages but throughout his entire body.
WOOOOOONG!
It seemed possible now to summon transcendent god-class power without using Overclock.
After fully feeling that power, he looked at Apollion holding the divine sword and spoke.
"When a new immortal power appears, the time of destruction will come and the king in yellow will be resurrected... But the king in yellow was not the Demon King but the Sun God Apollion. Since you also intend to bring about destruction, I suppose the prophecy wasn't wrong."
Zeke finally understood what it meant that the divine sword formed by the combination of shadow swords was Apollion himself.
The Sun God Apollion wasn't trying to dominate the physical world through his incarnation Adam.
He had transformed himself into a sword to control the entire physical world through Adam's body and move the stage according to his will.
With this intention, the divine sword containing the Sun God's power held strength more powerful than any holy artifact.
"Now I understand why you sought that sword so desperately, even at the cost of your own soul."
Zeke spoke with sunken eyes and launched a sword strike toward Apollion.
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWA!
Zeke's sword strike, empowered by his elevated divinity after absorbing the demon lord's soul, broke through the Sun God's power and grazed his veil.
The veil covering the face of the king in yellow slipped away as the sword strike swept past it.
Zeke faced the face that had been hidden behind the veil and frowned as he spoke.
"So it was you who was the king in yellow all this time, Arthur Draker."