Chapter 75: Pride (I)
To a devil, what is a pride?
Or perhaps it'd be more accurate to ask what a devil was without it?
Bloodline. Nobility. Achievements. Personal Strength.
These four components made up the crux of a devil's ego. If your last name was inferior to one, they'd look down on you. If the rank of your house is lower than another's, they'd look down on you. If the praise people attached to your name was less significant than another's, they'd look down on you.
And if your personal strength was weaker than another's, they'd trample on you.
A devil cannot live without their pride, whether they're a devil who takes pride in a shallow sense of superiority, or a devil who takes pride in the fact that they uphold their morals despite the actions and behaviour of their kin.
Without their pride, a devil cannot strive for anything. Without their pride, a devil can hardly be called a devil... and right now, the pride of five devils were having their pride put to the test.
"Lord Lucifer, will all due respect, I'm going to request you repeat what you just said."
Bedeze Abaddon, the blond-haired #4 of the Rating Games stepped forward. His eyes attempting to burn a hole through the Satan's impenetrable calm as his demonic power flared with rage.
"It's simple, if the five you wish to keep your King Pieces. All you have to do is beat young Alduin here, an Ultimate-Class Devil, in a one-on-one. It should be easy enough, no? You all possess Satan-Class strength after all."
A loud snort erupted from the lineup of five.
"And if we refuse?"
The #6, Gragg Forneus, a strange-looking devil whose head was that of an anglerfish, couldn't seem to help but snort at the Satan. Sirzechs' knowledge about the King Piece was hardly a surprise when he was the creator's closest friend. Zekram himself openly acknowledged it when he handed him the piece.
At the same time, Zekram also acknowledged that Sirzechs couldn't, or rather, wouldn't do anything about it. For fear of breaking the fragile 'peace' between the Four Great Satans and Great King Faction.
Gragg took immense comfort in the Bael's words, and despite the Satan's summons and open declaration of intent, he still seemed intent on wearing them like armour.
"If you refuse," Ajuka spoke with a yawn. Not exuding so much as an ounce of intrigue or passion. "I'll take the piece from you forcibly, which will result in your death. Failures ought to be discarded, and devils who depend on such failures as a crutch have even less worth."
The faces of the five rankers whitened in horror. If those words had come from Sirzechs' mouth, they might've sneered and called his bluff.
But Ajuka? That man was an enigma to them, his mind a closed book. With his strength, they couldn't find the courage to gamble on whether he'd actually follow through with his threat or not.
"Listen, I know that sounds grim," Sirzechs continued with a light, eerily friendly chuckle. "But like I said, as long as you beat Alduin over here, you'll be free to go, your pieces still in-tact."
Bedeze narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the ash-haired devil with immense prejudice.
"Hi," Alduin offered him a friendly wave.
His instincts told him that he was without a doubt an Ultimate-Class Devil, as a matter of fact, he didn't even seem to be at the peak of his realm yet.
However, there was still something about Alduin he found deeply unsettling. In a psychological manner, rather than physical.
"I know your face."
Alduin shrugged. "A lot of people do."
How could he not recognize the face of the man responsible for training the insurmountable titan that occupied the Underworld's #1 spot? A face that belonged to a man who could crush him with naught more than breath.
"I wasn't informed he had another son." Bedeze couldn't quite put it into words, but he had a gut-feeling that something was awry.
In terms of pure demonic power, Alduin couldn't even begin to match him. And the same was probably true for the difference in raw experience.
Still, something was off.
Something.
"Few people were."
Bedeze pressed his lips together, his face tightening as she shifted his gaze to the woman standing beside Alduin, one he was familiar with on a much more personal level.
"What happened to you?" They were both users of the King Piece, and both consumed it when they were stuck at the peak of Ultimate-Class.
However, Roygun always managed to hold the edge over him. Surpassing him with her technique and superb control over her family's Crack.
But right now, from Bedeze's perspective, that Roygun was nowhere to be seen.
The Roygun standing before him was weak, far weaker than the one that bested him in a Rating Game.
"I gave up my piece, willingly." She stated flatly, looking straight into her former rival's eyes without any shame or regret whatsoever.
Silence washed over the five rankers. Their eyes blinking with the intense will to reject what they had just heard.
"Lady Belphegor here represents a third option," Sirzechs chimed in. "If you'd rather not fight and wish to give up your King Piece of your own will, that too is an option."
"Roygun!" Bedeze snarled, completely ignoring the Lucifer's words in favour of his own outrage. "Do you have any idea what you've done?! What you've lost?! How do you think Zekram's going to—?!"
"Zekram?" She scoffed, her eyes mocking the Abaddon as if he were a child throwing a tantrum. "What about him? He's a mere relic desperately clinging onto the remains of forlorn strength and influence that long since slipped through his fingers. A stubborn old man who can't accept that those who succeeded him have left him in the dust."
Roygun's expression intensified with disgust. "Bedeze, tell me, what possible reason could there be for me to continue to subject myself to his whims? Why bother playing to the tune of a deluded, senile musician?"
"You—!"
"The answer is there isn't one." She continued, cutting him off with no real interest in hearing his rebuttal. "First and foremost, I am a devil. I'm ashamed it took me this long to realize it, but without my own autonomy, all my actions, achievements, and aspirations have no meaning. I'd much rather struggle with my own freedom than be content with subservience."
Bedeze's face maddened with fury. Was she seriously looking down on him? She, who had lost her strength? She, who was no longer qualified nor capable of standing above him?
"You speak as if anything's changed!" Bedeze's voice was laced with venom. "All you've done is trade one master for another! The only thing that's changed is your strength! Other than that, you're still a mere pawn! Freedom? Autonomy? Don't make me laugh! You still have nothing, Roygun!"
Unphazed, Roygun snicker. "Oh please, we both know for a fact Lord Lucifer isn't the puppermaster type. It's the exact reason we had the audacity to act so brazenly in front of him in the first place." She wore a coy smile, leaning towards Alduin. "Besides, who's to say I haven't gained anything?"
A faint blush appeared across Alduin's face as she parked her lips on his, unashamed to demonstrate her passion in the presence of company.
Bedeze's pupils dilated in shock. "Y-You're…"
"Engaged, yep." She affirmed with a bright smile as her hands wandered freely around her fiancé's torso. "Zekram decided he wanted to put his bony little hands in between us, so we decided it was about time someone put him in his place."
Just then, it clicked for the #4 ranker.
His eyes darted towards the Satan Lucifer. "Is that what this is about? A ploy to get at Zekram's influence?"
"What else would it be?" Ajuka groaned, trying to speed up all the chit-chat so everyone could hurry up and leave him be. "The five of you have three options. Fight for the right to keep the piece, have it taken by force, or have it taken by your own volition. I'm giving you all ten seconds to decide before I lose what remains of my patience."
Sirzechs scratched his cheek with a nervous chuckle, just having one person around him was enough to make Ajuka angsty, it wasn't surprising to see how irritable he had become with seven others present excluding Sirzechs.
The five rankers all exchanged glances with one another, their instincts warning them that the Beelzebub was dead serious about his threat.
"If Sebastian's pipsqueak wants to be battered so badly, then we're happy to oblige." Bedeze replied as the group's mouthpiece. "If we're doing one-on-one battles, then how about we do it in ascending order by rank?"
Alduin couldn't help but smile inwardly, Bedeze seemed like a blockhead on the surface, but deep down he appeared to have realized that he had to have some kind of basis for his confidence in challenging the five Satan-Class Devils.
By being the last to fight Alduin, Bedeze would be able to observe the four preceding battles and learn whatever he could about the young devil, assuming he even made it past them.
"Very well, ascending order it is." Alduin nodded.
///
.
With the snap of his fingers, Ajuka had summoned a Rating Game field for Alduin to battle the rankers in without damaging his property, the battlefield itself bearing a striking resemblance to a roman colosseum.
The first ranker to be facing was Tephos Beur, the devil holding the #10 position.
His hair was a dim silver with black tints scattered here and there, the surface of which seemed to drink in the very light around him. His eyes were violet in color, only a shade darker than that of House Bael's clansmen.
"Aren't you going to say anything?" Alduin queried. A little perplexed by the Beur's oddly blank nature.
In all honesty, he was expecting him to be a bit more 'Bedeze-like'. Though in hindsight, it wasn't exactly wise to assume all the rankers would be the same just because they each possessed a King Piece.
By that logic, even Roygun would be no different.
"..."
The Beur simply stared at him, no visible expression, thoughts, or the desire to converse in any manner made known.
"Not much of a talker, eh? Fair enough." Alduin acted in an aloof manner, but in truth, he was taking advantage of the Beur's passiveness to observe the ranker in detail. For a Senjutsu user, there was a lot one could learn from a mere glance.
The first thing that caught his attention was Tephos' shadow. For some reason, it was unnaturally sharp, even under the Underworld's dim purple sky. And upon inspecting it with his Ki, Alduin was met with a harrowing realization.
'It's alive!'
"You noticed."
A distorted, hollow voice echoed through the atmosphere.
A pair of eyes blinked into existence on the shadow's surface, its two-dimensional form blitzing towards Alduin in half a second and wrapping around the Buné's ankle. The shadow effortlessly hoisted him up into the air before slamming him head-first into the ground with enough force to shatter his skull like a dry twig.
"A fake?" The shadow hummed, finding itself holding onto a shattered wooden version of Alduin rather than a real thing.
'Phew, that was close!'
The shadow's conscious state and the existence of its emotions made it possible for Alduin to read its aura with his Ki, allowing him to predict when it would move to attack, and carry out his classic substitution technique with a combination of a Wood Clone and Partial Hypnosis.
Alduin wasted no time, seizing the brief window of opportunity and positioning himself right behind his unresponsive opponent, grasping a wood-spear with the full intent to jam it right through the ranker's spine.
He wasn't worried about killing his opponent, Ajuka would be able to mend any injury, no matter how severe, once the battle was over.
"How dare you try to hurt my master!"
'There's two?!'
Taken aback, Alduin was forced to halt his offensive, watching in sheer disbelief as another shadow formed around Tephor's feet with ice-cold blue eyes. With how close the second shadow was, he had no time to go for a second substitution, he could only try to escape with raw speed.
Utilizing the full strength of his Touki, Alduin wrapped his feet in a thick layer of white Ki and dashed backwards. His eyes widening in horror upon noticing that the shadow was still managing to keep up.
Until it couldn't.
'There's a limit!'
Once Alduin was ten meters apart from Tephos, the shadow came to a grinding halt, the line connecting it to the ranker as thin as a pencil.
"You're still standing? That's surprising." Finally, Tephos broke his silence. His lifeless, gloomy voice resounding with detachment. "The blue one's name is Speculum. The red one's Umbra."
His Clan Trait was known as Shadow Reflection. Each member of his house that successfully awakened their bloodline were granted a semi-autonomous shadow with their own unique personalities, capable of interacting with three-dimensional objects despite being two-dimensional.
Normally, a Beur clansman would only receive one shadow. But Tephos was fortunate enough to have been born with a mutation, granting him an additional shadow that could be used simultaneously with his first one.
"Don't tell me you're about to start explaining your technique?" Alduin spoke solely for the sake of stalling, racking his brain to come up with a way to defeat the devil before him despite the immense gap in power and speed between them.
"Did I give off that impression? I merely told you their names." Mildly impressed by Alduin's movements, Tephos decided it was time to put some elbow grease into the battle.
Tephos teleported, swapping places with Speculum and positioning himself right in front of Alduin, and making it possible for Umbra to go on the attack.
"You overestimate yourself, child."
At its distance, Umbra would only need 0.3 seconds to catch up to Alduin, and if it managed to latch onto him, Speculum would be free to rip him to shreds while the Buné was left helpless in the clutches of its partner.
'A shadow's weakness is always light. I don't know if his shadows are affected by the same law for a fact, but if I don't switch up my strategy soon he's bound to get me!'
Calling upon Fafnir's strength, Alduin allowed the Dragon King's Golden Aura to burst forth from his body, allowing it to expand throughout the coliseum with reckless abandon as his body shone with the intensity of the sun.
Immediately, Umbra retreated back towards its master. It's aura teeming with annoyance as it stared Alduin down, unsure how to get around the regal light protecting him.
Tephos hummed thoughtfully, quickly realizing how much of a threat the aura was. If Alduin rushed him now, his shadows wouldn't be able to defend him.
Sure, Tephos' demonic power was a realm above Alduin's. But Tephos wasn't much of a physical combatant, in fact, he had barely ever put any effort into his own conditioning.
His fighting style had always revolved around using his shadows to corner, bind, and eliminate his opponent. Usually, that alone was enough. So he had never bothered to account for a scenario in which it wouldn't be.
If Tephos and Alduin exchanged blows in hand-to-hand, the latter had a 100% chance of winning.
Therefore, he decided to just play it safe.
Alduin's raw speed might exceed his, but as long as Tephos kept sending his shadow behind him and swapping places, there was no way for the Buné to catch up.
Was it cowardly?
Maybe.
Was it effective?
Absolutely.
Tephos could tell that Alduin was eating up his stamina reserves like crazy, and with the Beur's base demonic power reserves being that much more abundant than his, there was physically no way for him to lose in a war of attrition.
'I had a feeling you'd go for that.'
Surprisingly, Alduin didn't bother trying to chase Tephos down at all. Now that the Beur had been so kind as to put so much distance between himself and Alduin, he was free to disable his Golden Aura and conserve his stamina.
Before Tephos could even think about dashing towards him, Alduin arched his arm back as far as he could and conjured a bright-gold trident constructed purely from Fafnir's essence.
With all the strength he could muster, he catapulted it towards Tephos. The Beur creasing his brow without the slightest hint of danger palpable on his face.
"How futile."
He ordered Umbra and Speculum to extend themselves to his left and right, swapping places with them to avoid Alduin's illuminated trident.
He already knew the Buné would be using the locations of his shadow to predict where he'd teleport to, which is why he spread both shadows out at once and ordered them to move around at random, fully capitalizing on their partial-autonomy to make impossible for Alduin to predict where he'd be.
How could he if not even Tephos himself knew where his shadows would place him?
'Not bad.'
Maintaining an even smile, Alduin continued to chuck tridents at the continuously teleporting ranker with reckless abandon. Seemingly with no care for the futility of his actions or the toll they took on his stamina.
5… 12… 18… 26… no matter how many projectiles were launched his way, Tephos remained concentrated on his shadows. His reflexes sharp as a knife's edge as he timed each teleportation perfectly. A move he had practiced countless times throughout his 200-year-long life and some change.
"Isn't about time you give up? You aren't going to hit me at this rate, if you somehow haven't noticed that already." Tephos grumbled, he just wanted to get this over with so he could get back to the reading he was doing prior to receiving Sirzechs' summon request.
"Who said I was trying to hit you?"
For the first time since the battle began, Tephos' face expressed genuine emotion.
Shock, was all he felt as the ground beneath his feet began to rumble. Roots enhanced by Fafnir's Golden Aura shot out of the ground and tied themselves around his feet, their radiant nature making it impossible for his shadows to set him free. At least quickly enough to stop Alduin from finishing him off while he was vulnerable.
'Impossible, how did I not sense them? At the very least, I should've heard or felt something happening beneath me?'
Thanks to Tephos being so deeply focused on his shadows, and a handy little application of Partial Hypnosis, the sneak attack was made possible.
Like a cheetah, Alduin wasted no time hunting down the entrapped Tephos. Ready to impale him and put an end to the surprisingly troublesome #10 ranker.
"Master!" Umbra cried out.
"You don't have to tell me." Tephos sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "Good grief, I can't believe a mere Ultimate-Class Devil is making me use this. That said, I suppose there's nothing mere about this Ultimate-Class Devil in particular."
Calmly, Tephos stretched his arms outwards and pressed his palms together.
"You're quite impressive, son of Sebastian. More so than I ever could have expected."
He opened his mouth and uttered two words.
///
.
Watching from the spectator standing up above, Bedeze couldn't help but sneer at the battle transpiring beneath them.
Tephos Beur was the #10 ranker, yes, but that wasn't necessarily because he was weaker than those above him and incapable of advancing. Rather, the man simply had no interest in doing so. Ever since he had taken the tenth spot, not once had he issued a challenge to the ninth or above.
He himself had been challenged a great many times, with hopeful rankers of all sorts seeking to get past the gatekeeper of the Top 10, yet none had succeeded.
No, perhaps it'd suffice to say no one even managed to get close to defeating Tephos and his peerage. The combination of his command over Shadow Reflection, his mutation, and of course, the King Piece, was just too much for anyone to handle. Tephos was a man who was just as ambitionless as he was dominant. He had been #10 for fifty years so far, and Bedeze didn't think he'd be leaving that spot anytime soon.
Though he had no way of confirming it, Bedeze suspected he knew why Tephos didn't move up regardless of his power. He believed Zekram had entrusted the Beur with the role of being his 'gatekeeper', the devil who judged who could and couldn't enter 'Zekram Bael's' Top 10 without the Bael's blessing.
In all honesty, Bedeze was grateful that Tephos remained where he was. The Abaddon was confident in his own abilities, but no matter how much of his ego he channeled, he just couldn't claim with absolute confidence that he would defeat Tephos Beur.
And if he couldn't, then there was absolutely no way Sebastian's runt was going to win. Bedeze was impressed that he lasted this long, but now that Tephos was using that technique, the match was decided.
"It looks like he bit off more than he could chew." Bedeze snickered, shooting a cocky side-eye Sirzechs' way.
"I wouldn't jinx it if I were you." The Satan replied with his usual, calm smile. Somehow retaining his faith in Alduin's chances.
Bedeze pressed his lips together, attempting to probe Sirzechs' inner thoughts. Now that he thought about it, he found it odd that the Satan didn't say anything when he suggested Alduin fight the rankers in ascending order. It was impossible for him not to be aware of Tephos' true strength, yet he chose to let Bedeze's suggestion fly anyway.
Did Alduin have some kind of trump card the Satan believed would carry him through the fight?
Bedeze shook his head, letting out a cold snort.
Even if Alduin somehow won, as unthinkable as that was, his stamina would be virtually nonexistant, and there were still three other rankers he needed to battle before getting to him.
The Abaddon had absolutely no intention of letting go of his King Piece, no matter what tactics he needed to use to retain it.
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