"Die! Die! DIE!!"
Shalltear Bloodfallen screamed, swinging the [Spuit Lance] in her hands in a blinding frenzy, constantly clashing with the Demon Sword in Meliodas's grip.
Fighting until now, the two were caught in a brutal, high-speed stalemate. However, to be precise, Meliodas was actually at a tactical disadvantage.
The divine ability of the Spuit Lance was highly reminiscent of Ban's innate magic. It absorbed the opponent's kinetic impact, stamina, and life force with every single strike, using it to heal and restore the wielder. The longer the battle stalled, the more the hope of victory leaned toward the True Vampire.
'I can't let this go on,' Meliodas thought, panting slightly as he blocked a heavy overhead swing.
Sensing his stamina constantly draining while the enemy only grew more excited and ferocious, Meliodas had already deduced the gimmick of Shalltear's divine weapon.
'Is it the same as Ban's Snatch?' Meliodas analyzed, leaping backward out of the immediate combat circle. 'This is a bit troublesome.'
His stamina was continuously slipping away. If a pure war of attrition continued like this, his clone's reduced power pool might actually run dry.
'That won't do.' Meliodas muttered silently in his heart.
Only a fraction of a second had passed in the outside world, but Meliodas had already made his decision.
The suffocating, pitch-black demonic energy began to seep from his body, and thick clumps of dark Hellblaze mist wrapped around his arms. The Mark of the Demon materialized on his forehead. In just an instant, Meliodas seemed like a completely different, horrifying entity.
Almost simultaneously, the Meliodas clones on both active battlefields made the exact same decision.
"Round Two, begin!"
Meliodas, having fully activated his demonic state, operated on a completely different dimensional level than before.
Shalltear, who just moments ago had been able to fight the blonde boy evenly... was now being utterly, overwhelmingly crushed.
"Impossible! How can this be?!"
Every time their weapons clashed, the overwhelming kinetic force sent Shalltear violently skidding backward through the air. Inside the crimson, God-tier armor of the Blood Valkyrie, Shalltear let out a shriek of absolute disbelief.
However, such was the brutal reality of the Demon Clan. Under the razor-sharp, magically enhanced blade of [Lostvayne], Shalltear's invincible red armor was carved with numerous, deep gashes. Despite her desperate resistance, a massive, unbridgeable gap in their combat power had now appeared.
The bat-like wings on Shalltear's back flapped violently, and she instantly disengaged from the melee, putting distance between them.
Looking down at the brutal scars on her pristine armor, and thinking about how this very same human had just effortlessly slaughtered Albedo... a tsunami of apocalyptic rage welled up in Shalltear's undead heart.
"Bastard! Damned trash!" Shalltear screeched, her eyes glowing like blood-red moons. "I'll kill you!!"
Floating high in mid-air, Shalltear once again activated her absolute strongest ultimate skills.
"[Einherjar]!"
"[Summon Household]!"
A blinding white orb of light surged in front of her, rapidly expanding and solidifying into a perfect, ethereal clone that looked exactly like Shalltear's Valkyrie form—the Soul of the Brave.
Simultaneously, the shadows below them boiled. Countless dark creatures leaped out from the abyss. High-tier vampiric wolves, monstrous bats, and other shadow creatures began to launch a frenzied, swarming attack toward Meliodas.
Shalltear, hovering behind her army, did not stop her casting.
"[Maximize Magic: Brilliant Radiance]!"
A massive, holy magic circle shining with blinding white light expanded in the palm of her hand. A colossal pillar of holy light descended directly from the heavens, completely engulfing and suppressing Meliodas. Inside the pillar of light was an extremely powerful, high-tier holy energy designed to obliterate evil.
'So familiar,' Meliodas thought casually, standing in the center of the holy fire. 'It feels just like Elizabeth's Ark magic.'
Although he was actively being suppressed by the holy power within the light pillar, Meliodas showed absolutely no signs of panic. High-tier light energy does indeed heavily counter demonic energy, but that specific elemental rule only applied to ordinary demons. For an entity like Meliodas, who possessed the power to overthrow the Demon King himself, this so-called "holy counter" was little more than a warm sunbeam.
The duration of [Brilliant Radiance] was not very long. Meliodas didn't even feel a sting of pain before the light pillar dissipated into the wind.
But the exact moment the pillar of light vanished, two crimson figures appeared right in front of him.
Maintaining perfectly synchronized, lethal movements, Shalltear and her [Einherjar] clone lunged forward, thrusting their divine lances at his heart simultaneously.
"Die, trash!" Shalltear roared. "This is the final blow!"
Shalltear used every single ounce of her Level 100 strength, diving down from above with a whistling sonic boom.
Hearing her declaration of victory, the corners of Meliodas's mouth curled up slightly. Looking up at the two lethal lance tips screaming toward him... his lips moved.
"Full Counter."
The triumphant rage on Shalltear's face instantly froze. A magical, kinetic force several times stronger than her own ultimate strike surged violently back from the point of impact.
Her arms trembled uncontrollably; she desperately wanted to grip the Spuit Lance tightly, but it was to no avail. The divine weapon was violently ripped from her hands, spinning wildly in the air before stabbing firmly into the concrete street far below.
Beside her, the [Einherjar] she had just summoned instantly shattered into white mist, entirely unable to withstand the rebounding catastrophic force.
Shalltear's body was thrown backward, completely defenseless.
Just then, Meliodas flashed past her side, his speed breaking the boundaries of sound. At the exact same microsecond, Meliodas's cold whisper reached her ears.
"[Kami Chigiri]." (Divine Thousand Slashes)
The moment the words fell, Shalltear's body shook violently.
A thousand blinding, imperceptible sword gashes appeared simultaneously all over her crimson armor and flesh. With just one fluid, devastating motion, Shalltear Bloodfallen shattered into countless, bloody pieces.
"It's over," Meliodas said softly.
He flicked the Demon Sword [Lostvayne], shaking off the undead blood staining the blade, and smoothly sheathed the sword over his shoulder.
"Round Two, begin."
On the other side of the skyline, the second round of the battle between Meliodas's clone and Demiurge also officially commenced.
Meliodas, having fully activated his Demonic Mark, similarly displayed a crushing, overwhelming dominance. With just a single, casual swing of the magic sword, Demiurge's [Aspect of the Devil: Razor Claws] truly became severed claws.
His metal talons were cleanly chopped off.
Raising his bleeding hands, Demiurge placed them defensively in front of his chest. Behind his round lenses, his gaze was incredibly solemn. He waved a hand to regenerate his fingers and dispel the demonic aspect, looking up at the terrifying blonde boy.
'With the raw power he is showing now...' Demiurge analyzed rapidly, his tactical mind running millions of calculations. 'In a direct, physical confrontation, I am undoubtedly at a lethal disadvantage.'
Demiurge adjusted his glasses, blood dripping from his cuff.
'In that case...'
"Come forth! My Evil Lords!"
A massive cloud of suffocating, sulfurous smoke erupted in front of Demiurge.
Three towering, Level 80+ demonic entities—the Evil Lord of Wrath, the Evil Lord of Envy, and the Evil Lord of Greed—emerged from the abyss. The Evil Lord of Wrath was the largest, a terrifying, flaming beast resembling a legendary Balrog. The Evil Lords of Envy and Greed took the forms of a twisted man and a horrifyingly beautiful woman, respectively.
After the three commanders of Hell appeared, they consciously moved to form an absolute defensive wall in front of Demiurge.
"Hold him off for me," Demiurge commanded.
Hearing the absolute order of their creator, the three Evil Lords instantly launched a suicidal charge toward Meliodas.
Meanwhile, Demiurge retreated to the rear, taking the desperately needed opportunity to transform into his true, final form. His tailored suit ripped apart as his body swelled grotesquely, transforming into a massive, muscular demon with the terrifying, bloated head of a giant toad—Jaldabaoth.
"[Maximize Magic: Echolocation]!"
"[Maximize Magic: Mass Teleportation]!"
"[Maximize Magic: Mass Dominate Person]!"
The sudden appearance of the three Evil Lords only managed to hold Meliodas back for a grand total of three seconds.
However, for a brilliant, monstrous tactician like Demiurge, those three seconds were entirely sufficient to change the rules of the war.
After the lives of the three Evil Lords were effortlessly extinguished by the swing of [Lostvayne], Meliodas lowered his sword and looked toward Demiurge's position.
The current situation at that spot caused Meliodas's green pupils to shrink to pinpricks.
"You bastard!"
A terrifying hint of pure, unadulterated anger appeared on Meliodas's usually expressionless, demonic face.
Hovering in the air around Demiurge's monstrous true form were hundreds of terrified, weeping human civilians. Men, women, and children.
"Do you wish to protect the humans, hero?" Demiurge's voice was now a deep, wet, horrifying croak, laced with sadistic amusement. "Then drop the weapon in your hand."
Demiurge raised a massive, clawed finger, and the dominated civilians all simultaneously stepped forward, dangling precariously over the thousand-foot drop.
"Otherwise... they will all die."
In just three seconds, Demiurge had executed a flawless, purely evil tactical maneuver. [Echolocation] had allowed him to instantly scan the positions of all the surviving, hiding humans across the entire city sector. [Mass Teleportation] had forcefully ripped those humans from their bunkers and moved them directly to his side in the sky. And [Mass Dominate Person] had put every single one of those hostages under his absolute mental control.
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