Chapter 607: The Demon King of Destruction (6)
Eugene naturally tried to recall any beast or monster that resembled the creature before him.
It had a massive body and a wide-open mouth revealing dense, sharp teeth. Its limbs sprouted irregularly and touched the ground. Some nails and claws curved like hooks, while others jutted out like knives. There were further additional limbs sprouting randomly on its back, as well as wings.
Try as he might, Eugene couldn’t think of any monsters like the one in front of him. While individual parts might resemble something familiar to him, no beast or monster was similar in appearance to the one standing in front of him. It was a monster formed on its own, but it was fundamentally different from a chimera. In other words, it wasn’t a forced union of different things. Rather, it was a creature in its own right — a monster shaped from dark and dreadful power. Eugene felt a chill run down his spine as he clenched his fist.
Most of the Demon Kings or similar beings Eugene had faced looked somewhat human, but this one did not. But, it was precisely because of that Eugene could strongly sense that what he faced was suited to be called a Demon King.
‘Should I say it’s an efficient form... free of waste?’ Eugene wondered in amazement.
This was the being that had brought about the end of the world several times, and as such, Eugene could sense evil dark power that was suited for the destroyer of the world, emanating fully from this monster. They were inside the belly of Destruction, but what they faced now could truly be called the essence of Destruction.
Eugene was certain of one thing as he clenched his sweat-soaked hands: killing this creature meant killing the Demon King of Destruction.
“Stop spouting nonsense and think of helping, okay?” Eugene asked.
“Help?” The Demon King of Incarceration shrugged, showing his frayed hands. “I’ve burnt up my life keeping Destruction at bay until you arrived. Isn’t that enough?”
“It’s just a life on the highway for death anyway,” retorted Eugene.
“Haha... I do welcome death, but to openly say such a thing is truly shameless,” the Demon King of Incarceration said, shaking his head and chuckling dryly. “Unfortunately, I can’t be of any help in this fight. My dark power was depleted long ago. I have nothing left to draw upon.”
“I’m not asking for help in battle,” said Eugene.
The Demon King of Incarceration blinked several times in response to the earnest gaze directed at him.
“Haha!” Soon, the Demon King of Incarceration burst out laughing. This time, the laughter was not hollow. He laughed genuinely. He felt surprise and delight at Eugene’s words.
“Indeed, Eugene Lionheart,” he said, still chucking.
Without wasting any more time gazing at the Demon King of Incarceration, Eugene turned his head. He considered the emotions mixed in that laughter a sufficient response. Besides, he no longer had the luxury of conversing with the Demon King of Incarceration. The massive mouth of the monster had opened wide towards him.
“You’re a remarkable glutton,” the Demon King of Incarceration murmured from behind.
As Eugene thought, there was a definitive answer mixed in the laughter. Eugene smirked and raised his hand. With a woosh, a gigantic Divine Sword appeared.
The Demon King of Incarceration slowly dragged his feet backward, though they barely moved according to his will. His body was destined for death. He wanted to witness the end of this battle before dying, but if the situation demanded — though he might not see the end, he thought it wouldn’t be bad to devote his last moments to the future .
His stores of dark power had been long depleted. He wasn’t able to fight any longer. That was the truth. Yet the soul of the Great Demon King, having lived through the ages, possessed a will strong enough to push back the dark power of Destruction for one fleeting moment, if need be, if he had to. The Demon King of Incarceration was willing to let himself burn for the sake of taking Destruction down.
But now, that was no longer possible. Dying that way could provide a fine self-satisfaction, but it wouldn’t meet Eugene’s ambitious expectations.
“Do you truly want to create a miracle?” the Demon King of Incarceration asked with a chuckle and lifted his head.
A miracle? He laughed again at the word he had muttered. The term seemed almost quaint. Everything up to now, and this moment here, was the miracle Eugene Lionheart had wrought. What the Demon King of Incarceration had to observe until the end was whether all these miracles could culminate into a myth.
‘I can feel it,’ Eugene thought to himself.
His heart was racing, painfully so. His senses were so heightened he could feel every flow of his heated blood. Eugene steadied his breath and fixed his gaze on the monster.
Its enormous maw seemed capable of swallowing entire cities and was agape. Yet, despite its vast openness, the inside remained obscured, housing nothing but impenetrable, pitch-black darkness. Destruction’s dark power was bubbling furiously within.
‘The blood knows,’ Eugene thought earnestly.
Waves of boiling dark power rippled and leaked out of the gaping maw. Countless teeth were coated with the dark power. Eugene sensed the emanating tension from Sienna and Molon as they drew closer. Anise and Kristina, too, had forgotten their prayers in front of the overwhelming monster.
‘Vermouth,’ Eugene called out inwardly.
The blood of the Lionhearts flowed in his veins. It remained undiluted even after three hundred years. This body was a descendant of Vermouth. Though it did not contain dark power, the blood of the Lionhearts originated from the Demon King of Destruction. That was why Eugene could feel it so intensely now. The boiling blood informed him.
It informed him that Vermouth was inside the heart at the center of the monster. He had been sucked into the heart but had not lost consciousness. Eugene could have blocked him from being dragged in if he had wanted, but he had let him go because that was Vermouth’s wish.
Vermouth had escaped despair. He had not given up on life, deciding to die with Destruction. Just as Eugene and his companions had hoped, Vermouth Lionheart had decided to fight as himself, not as a mere fragment of Destruction. Even now, Vermouth was awakening and resisting at the center of that dreadful and ominous dark power.
“You should have done that earlier,” Eugene muttered.
Despite standing in front of the monster’s vast, gaping maw, there was a smirk on his face. The overflowing dark power was converging into a single point, but Eugene’s eyes were fixed straight at its center. Although it appeared to be impenetrable darkness, a tiny spark could be seen in its midst.
The tiny spark was burning brightly.
Roar!
The monster unleashed the dark power from its maw. The clumps of dark power rushed forward, and it felt as if thousands of dragons had unleashed their breath simultaneously. No, even that seemed trivial in comparison. Eugene could no longer gaze at the spark. He swallowed his breath and clutched his Divine Sword tightly.
“Light,” he whispered softly.
The Light seated far across the sea rose up. All the divine power amassed in anticipation of this very day was now linked to Eugene. It was so immense it could shake even his spirit, but the prayers of the two Saints made this boundless power more malleable and available.
Levantein was imbued into the Divine Sword. The burning flames swelled massively along with the light.
Rumble!
The Divine Sword cleaved through the dark power, but it could not incinerate all the severed fragments of it. The remaining, unburned dark power was drawn back into the monster and recycled.
"Time is not on our side. You know that, right?" Sienna stated briskly.
Eugene nodded as he passed the Divine Sword to Molon.
"Even breathing here is lethal,” she said.
Not that going outside would improve their situation. Attacking from within Destruction’s heart allowed them direct strikes at the heart, but if they fled outside — it would be extremely difficult to reach the heart once more.
“The fight with a Demon King has always been like this. We just need to kill it before we die,” Molon muttered gruffly while transforming the Divine Sword into an axe.
Boom!
With its countless limbs scraping the floor, the monster advanced towards them. Eugene eyed its many limbs that were reminiscent of a centipede before speaking up, "Molon, cut off those bastard’s limbs. If possible, slice through the torso as well."
"Yeah,” he answered.
"Sienna, aim for its back. Stop it from circulating its dark power,” instructed Eugene.
"Easier said than done,” Sienna responded.
Unlike Molon, who nodded solemnly, Sienna grimaced and grumbled. Despite her words, she immediately soared upwards.
"What about you, Hamel?" Molon asked while crouching low with the axe in both hands.
Gripping a Divine Sword in each hand, Eugene replied, "I’ll rip that bastard’s mouth apart."
Sienna had voiced her concerns and Eugene had also acknowledged them. He was keenly aware that the fight wouldn't be easy.
The oppressive aura from the giant monster was even more formidable than that of the Demon King of Incarceration. But Eugene had defeated the Demon King of Incarceration, so he was not overwhelmed by the Demon King of Destruction. But just not being overwhelmed didn’t mean he could take its power lightly. Everyone — Eugene, Molon, Sienna, Anise, and Kristina — knew they couldn’t underestimate Destruction.
Yet no one hesitated. They all advanced towards the monster. There was nowhere else to retreat, and they just needed to bring it down. That was reason enough to stand against Destruction.
The same was true outside. Many people had died. As many of the Nur had fallen as the dead allies, yet it had little impact on the battle's progress. The enemy relied solely on swarm tactics and was not swayed by morale.
"Block them!" Lovellian shouted in front of a giant gate suspended in the sky.
Pantheon was fully opened and had already unleashed all its summoned creatures, yet the front line was still being pushed back.
They had to stop it. If the endlessly pouring waves of Nur finally eroded the divine army's ranks and the concepts of front and rear lines lost their meaning on this battlefield, then a wanton massacre would begin.
'We can hold them off... but for how long?’ Lovellian wondered as he took a deep breath and fixed his gaze on the front line.
An army like none other in history had gathered here. They faced the last Demon King humanity had not conquered, a Demon King who had brought about the end of the world multiple times. Those gathered here were individuals wanting to leave their names in history, legend, and myth. They were enchanted by the noble cause of saving the world.
Despite the overwhelming enemy numbers, there was still faith in their eyes. It was because the divine sun shining brightly in the sky did not let them feel fear. Even as allies fell dead beside them, even as the teeth and claws of unknown monsters pierced them, everyone bellowed while marching forward.
From the outset, retreat wasn’t an option, even if they wanted to. The exact details weren’t known to the divine army, but everyone who had witnessed the Demon King of Destruction instinctively understood one thing: If they didn’t bring down Destruction, everything would be over.
"Fire Punch!" shouted Melkith.
She swung her fists wildly after taking on a giant form using Omega Force. She would become the Archwizard who saved the world against Destruction! Melkith reveled in that glory. Balzac Ludbeth had become a legend by betraying the Demon King of Incarceration and delivering him a fatal blow, but Melkith was confident that the renown she would achieve today would surpass even that.
This was the center of mythology. If she survived today, she would become an eternal legend, the greatest Archwizard of all time. There would be no other Archwizard greater than Melkith El-Hayah in the future or for eternity.
"Thunderbolt Kick!" she yelled.
The monsters known as Nur kept pouring out endlessly, swarming toward Melkith.
She had faced them before in Hauria. Melkith possessed overwhelming firepower, and the Nur were no more than moths drawn to the flame. But even so, if enough moths flew into the fire, they could eventually snuff it out. Melkith bit her lip nervously.
‘The oxidation of mana is troubling...!’ she thought in concern.
She burned, crushed, and tore apart the Nur that clung to her, killing them all. In the process, the scattered dark power burned through Melkith's mana and disrupted her resonance with the spirits. She could withstand it for now, but if this continued, she wouldn’t be able to maintain Omega Force for much longer.
‘This is poison,’ Melkith thought.
The fumes of dark power released by the dead Nur were spreading like a miasma. The more corpses piled up, the stronger the toxic energy would become.
Melkith glanced up at the sky, wondering, ‘If I get farther from the ground, could I avoid the poison?’
Roar!
Near the sun, Raimira and the battleships unleashed their breath attacks and bombardments. Raphael’s airborne forces were steadily advancing while fending off the Nur.
Melkith swallowed hard and clenched her fists. Her destination wasn’t the sky but ahead, the source of these grotesque monsters. That was where the Demon King of Destruction was standing. If she attacked that unmoving, mysterious mass of colors....
The thought crossed her mind, but realizing it wasn’t easy. Though they had come here under the noble pretext of saving the world, charging directly at the Demon King who had brought about the end of the world countless times was not something one could do without extraordinary resolve.
"...Huh?" But just as she was trying to steel herself to move forward, Melkith’s eyes widened in surprise.
Above the tightly packed heads of the Nurs, areas of darkness began to manifest repeatedly. It was the power of the Demoneye of Darkness. Ciel was using the Demoneye in succession to close in on the Demon King of Destruction.
“No!” cried Melkith.
Ciel wasn’t the only one traversing the darkness. Carmen led the elite forces of the Lionhearts as they approached Destruction.
“I’m coming too!” Melkith screamed in determination as she ran across the Nurs’ bodies.
“Blood,” said Carmen.
She stood at the forefront and clutched her chest as she glared at the Demon King of Destruction.
“This blood, born of evil, seeks justice,” Carmen announced.
It was a cryptic statement, but every member of the Lionheart clan who stood before Destruction felt the same pounding in their hearts as Carmen. Inside that monstrosity was Eugene Lionheart. And alongside him, the progenitor of the Lionhearts, Vermouth Lionheart.
Flames engulfed Carmen’s Heaven Genocide. This strike wouldn’t be enough to deliver a fatal blow to the Demon King of Destruction. It might not even qualify as a proper attack, let alone leave a scratch. Even so, Carmen threw her punch at Destruction. She struck, ensuring the blow would resonate deep within the twisted mass of colors.