Within seconds, Agaroth activated six or seven world-boundary-breaking abilities as if they were nothing ..
all while the massive mouths surrounding the battlefield continued their relentless bombardment.
"I don’t understand," Agaroth roared.
"Did you not come here today with the intention of killing me?!"
BOOOOOOM!!
Agaroth shattered the ground beneath him, expanding his shadow.
This was the King’s Shadow ..
But he did not stop there.
The shadow ignited with black flames, multiplying its power severalfold.
Blazing shadows rose from the earth like spears forged to impale anyone who dared stand before the Demon King.
Agaroth fused world-breaking abilities together with effortless mastery.
Even with all their transcendent power, defending against Agaroth’s assaults was pure hell for the Great Ones.
"Who do you think you’re facing right now?"
BOOOOOOM!!
Agaroth obliterated another Great One, tearing through him effortlessly as he continued his advance.
"If this is all you have to offer ..
then why did you come here at all?"
"Do you desire death that badly?!
Answer me, Great Ones!!"
His roar shook the world like an earthquake ..
And in response, a colossal pillar of light descended from the heavens, slamming directly into him.
The one who unleashed it resembled a blazing sun.
A Great One of the Light Bearers.
"Demon King," the being spoke,
"you are considered one of the Great Ones, just like us. Yet you dare stand against His will. We are not the ones seeking death—it is you, by opposing Him."
As the overwhelming attack of the Light Bearer Great One descended ..
The remaining Great Ones unleashed their full power simultaneously, driving Agaroth deep into the earth under the sheer pressure.
They surrounded him on all sides, attacking relentlessly—having finally managed to deal with the grotesque mouths Agaroth had unleashed earlier.
The Light Bearer’s power was antithetical to demons, its effect nearly identical to the Light Soul ..
a force capable of inflicting severe damage upon the Demon King.
Combined with the attacks of all the other Great Ones, the assault was absolute.
Yet even under that crushing pressure ..
The Demon King walked forward calmly, stepping through the beam of light, enduring it head-on.
"His will?" Agaroth scoffed.
"Don’t make me laugh."
A shroud of darkness coiled around his body as he advanced, the ground beneath him exploding entirely.
The Great Ones intensified their attacks upon witnessing his resistance .. but it was futile.
Agaroth continued advancing toward them, step by step.
"You are nothing but slaves ..
slaves to a filthy entity that clings to life in the most pathetic way imaginable."
Amid the converging pillars of light from the Great Ones’ combined assault, Agaroth’s body twisted as he summoned an overwhelming torrent of power.
The Demon King’s laughter struck terror into the hearts of the Great Ones ..
creatures who could not comprehend how this monster continued moving despite enduring their united attack.
"You said earlier that I am a Great One, just like you," Agaroth continued, his voice cold and amused.
"So tell me ..
does that mean you believe you and I stand on the same level?"
Agaroth clenched his fist, then surged forward .. shattering the pillar of light.
"Then let us see the answer!"
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
Before the eyes of the remaining Great Ones, Agaroth pierced straight through the body of the Light-Bearer Great One, obliterating him in a single, overwhelming strike.
Then, without pause, he moved at insane speed .. destroying them one after another.
"If this is all you have, then your end is near!!"
Explosions followed in relentless succession as darkness and fire devoured everything.
The Great Ones rushed toward Agaroth one after another .. but the Demon King overwhelmed them one by one.
"Today... you will learn the true meaning of terror."
Agaroth was like a ghost ..
impossible to perceive, impossible to see, impossible to defend against.
No matter what they hurled at him, no matter how they attacked ..
they could not stop him.
That body of his was not natural.
Even light that was antithetical to demons failed to affect him.
The current Demon King stood at the absolute peak of his power ..
the summit he had reached after his battle with Nameless in the distant past.
This version of Agaroth was something whose strength could not be measured ..
logic itself did not apply to him.
As Agaroth slaughtered them one after another, he finally halted when one of them managed to block him.
It was a Great One with a body similar in shape to Agaroth’s ..
ashen-gray flesh wrapped in strange, unknown metal.
"Haha! You blocked my strike?" Agaroth laughed.
"That toughness... you’re a Pantheon Great One, aren’t you?"
Agaroth charged him instantly .. and the Great One responded in kind.
The two exchanged blows at blinding speed, hammering each other with catastrophic force.
Every collision sent out massive shockwaves of destruction that erased everything in their path ..
and were it not for Izalith’s blood walls, Helmond would have already been annihilated.
The Pantheon Great One endured with everything he had against Agaroth.
Yet despite his durability and overwhelming power ..
Agaroth began to overpower him, little by little.
Amid the clash, the Pantheon Great One’s punches struck Agaroth’s body several times ..
yet he never once felt as though he was hitting a living being.
"I don’t understand..." the Pantheon Great One muttered in confusion.
"What exactly is my fist striking?"
As he spoke, Agaroth increased his momentum, crushing him mercilessly.
The Pantheon Great One’s immensely durable body began to fracture ..
and terror seeped into his heart.
He did not feel as though he were striking flesh and blood.
Instead, it felt as though every punch sank into a bottomless abyss.
A realization dawned on him ..
Is this the Demon King? The monster said to devour everything?
Lost in that dread and awe, the Pantheon Great One failed to realize that Agaroth had already destroyed him completely, leaving nothing behind but his head.
Grasping that head, Agaroth tightened his grip ..
and crushed it into nothingness.
"You do not understand, Great Ones," Agaroth spoke coldly,
"you creatures who claim to stand at the apex."
He walked forward through corpses, fire, and blood.
"I told you before ..
you are nothing but slaves to that filthy being. Creatures forged by him, deceived into believing you are the pinnacle of your races."
Agaroth’s body flared with ever-greater, overwhelming power as he charged again.
"Your strength may place you at the top of the world...
but before me, you are nothing more than hollow, insignificant beings ..
without will, without meaning."
Agaroth continued his massacre.
It was a nightmare ..
a one-sided annihilation.
This was not a battle.
It was a slaughter.
Amid all the destruction, Agaroth began to shout.
"ODIN!!!!!"
The Demon King called out to the sovereign of the Great Ones while tearing through more of them.
"I know you’re watching! Come out and face me!"
He roared as he slaughtered the Great Ones with effortless ease.
"Your pathetic followers cannot do anything against me!
No matter how many you send .. the result will be the same!"
BOOOOOOM!!!
Explosions continued as the catastrophe raged on.
"Show yourself!!
Fight me!!"
Agaroth pressed on, calling out to the filthy entity that had watched everything from behind the curtain.
The Great Ones were being defeated miserably before the Demon King ..
their end was near.
From the very beginning, the Great Ones had come to Helmond to accomplish a specific goal ..
and to achieve it, they needed to suppress the Demon King.
But they had made a fatal mistake.
They underestimated him.
They underestimated Agaroth, the Demon King .. and his power far exceeded their expectations... to the point that he was on the verge of eradicating them all.
Such a swift defeat of the Great Ones was never anticipated.
And because of this unprecedented situation ..
Something entirely unexpected occurred.
Agaroth was still slaughtering the Great Ones—
when he suddenly stopped, sensing something.
Standing amid rivers of blood and raging fire, Agaroth slowly turned his gaze toward the sky.
There, a gray cloud of unfamiliar aura began to form ..
an aura unlike anything anyone had ever witnessed before.
An aura felt by every creature across Helmond, forcing them all to raise their heads and stare at the phenomenon.
The Demon King had surpassed expectations.
Thus— his intervention became necessary.
The crimson sky of Helmond began to change.
In a bizarre and incomprehensible manner, it turned pure, radiant white.
Everything in the world trembled, bracing itself for his arrival.
As for Agaroth ..
A terrifying smile spread across his face, delight evident in his eyes.
"Finally."
From within that pale mist, eyes ignited with golden radiance,
announcing the return of an ancient disaster the world had long forgotten.