Sebas's form shifted once more, the full, terrifying majesty of his Dragonoid body manifesting.
Raising a massive, scaled fist, he smashed it brutally toward Ban's cheek.
In truth, despite the overwhelming kinetic force of his strikes, Sebas knew his life had entered its final countdown. Today, he would surely die at this human's hands. Previously, with Aureole's high-tier magical support, he had been able to maintain a tactical upper hand. But now, he could clearly feel that even in his ultimate Dragonoid form... his strength and speed could no longer keep up with Ban's.
Due to [Snatch], this gap was actively widening as time passed and the two exchanged blows. It was growing larger and larger, a death sentence written in stolen stamina.
Downtown New York, originally a metropolis built of steel and concrete, had now been forcefully replaced by a dense, suffocating magical jungle.
Inside the canopy, three identical Meliodas clones were constantly dodging rapid-fire attacks from massive, whipping tree trunks. After Mare swung the [Shadow of Yggdrasil] to cast his druidic magic, the surrounding environment had changed completely. The steel jungle had transformed into a primeval, carnivorous forest in an instant.
Countless thick vines and colossal trees drilled violently out from underground, growing into giants while relentlessly launching coordinated attacks at the clones.
The baseline defense and attack power of the trees weren't overwhelmingly strong, but their regeneration and growth speeds were astonishing. As soon as the three clones swung their swords to cut down one section of vines, an even larger, thicker section would immediately grow back to replace it.
"This is getting a bit uncomfortable," one Meliodas said, slashing a trunk in half.
"We can't even get close to the opponent through this thicket," the second Meliodas grunted, dodging a spiked root.
"How about breaking out upwards?" the third Meliodas suggested.
The three clones were calmly discussing how to resolve their current predicament. Continuing to blindly flee under the endless assault of the trees did not suit their aggressive character.
The three of them looked up at the dense, overlapping canopy of the forest simultaneously.
The Demon Swords in their hands were raised, and three massive blades of demonic light flew directly upwards, shredding the foliage. Sunlight finally broke through the forest's cover, shining down on the three below.
"There's an opening!"
"Charge!"
With cheerful smiles on their faces, the three clones crouched and launched themselves straight up like rockets, getting closer and closer to the gap in the canopy.
However, their sprinting figures suddenly jerked to a violent halt in mid-air.
Without them noticing, several thick, magical branches had already tightly coiled around their ankles like iron cables.
"Oh, no!"
The three clones glanced at each other as the branches wrapped around them like giant spirit snakes and lashed downward. Instantly, like cannonballs fired from a barrel, the three were smashed brutally back into the soil below, creating deep craters in the roots.
"This won't work," the first clone groaned, sitting up.
"After splitting our power into five, whether it's our physical strength or speed..." the second analyzed.
"...we are just a bit too weak to break through" the third finished. "And the main body is nearby fighting the leader."
"In that case..."
Moving in perfect, eerie synchronization, the three clones reversed their grips and plunged their Demon Swords straight into their own chests.
The fourth clone—the one that had just finished executing Demiurge—was currently rocketing back toward the city center.
He suddenly stopped his flight in mid-air, hovering as if he had sensed a profound shift in the atmosphere. The Demon Sword **[Lostvayne]** in his hand flipped around, performing the exact same suicidal action.
"Ah, they're all back."
The true, original Meliodas hovered in mid-air above the canopy, stretching his arms and cracking his neck. The four clones had committed suicide in perfect unison, and all of their divided power, stamina, and magical reserves had instantly returned to his core.
The sudden influx of overwhelming demonic power made Meliodas feel a bit unaccustomed for a fraction of a second, his muscles bulging slightly before settling.
With his strength fully restored to maximum capacity, he cut directly through the sky, flying up to confront Ainz Ooal Gown. As long as he didn't descend into the foliage, Mare's carnivorous forest couldn't block the flying Dragon Sin at all.
"It seems your subordinates are all dead," Meliodas said calmly, his green eyes locked onto the Overlord. "Do you still want to persist with this war?"
Meliodas tilted his head, noticing the skeleton didn't seem panicked.
"Between you and your companions, who is stronger?"
The complete, brutal deaths of the Guardians under his command didn't seem to cause any visible emotional fluctuations in Ainz. Facing Meliodas's inquiry, the Overlord didn't respond to the threat. Instead, he asked Meliodas a very specific question in return.
"Who is stronger?" Meliodas smirked arrogantly, resting his sword on his shoulder. "That's obviously me. I am the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins."
"Is that so..." Ainz murmured, a cold, calculating light glowing in his empty eye sockets.
The Overlord's majestic robes fluttered in the wind. The grotesque, floating pink entity he had been holding protectively in his arms—Victim—was suddenly tossed out into the open air.
"Victim," Ainz commanded, his voice devoid of all mercy. "It is time for you to play your part!"
"Understood... Ainz-sama."
The pink, fetus-like creature flew through the air toward Meliodas and then instantly, violently exploded.
A self-destruct attack.
However, it wasn't meant to deal physical damage. After Victim's life was extinguished, the sacrifice triggered its unique, absolute skill. The explosion turned into a massive, expanding pink halo of light, completely engulfing and locking Meliodas inside its radius.
"Mare! Aura! Protect me!" Ainz roared.
"Yes! Ainz-sama!"
Hearing the absolute command, the two dark elves flew instantly to Ainz's side, raising their weapons to form a vanguard defensive line.
As for Ainz himself, he reached into his spatial inventory and took out the World Item he had just exchanged his vast reserves of emotional currency for.
[World Item: Downfall of Castle and Country]
A brilliant, overwhelming golden divine dragon manifested as a projection from the item, swirling around Ainz's skeletal body before slowly breaking free of its restraints and soaring high into the sky.
"Heed my absolute command!" Ainz's voice echoed with the undeniable weight of a god. "Meliodas!"
Upon hearing this, a sudden, primal surge of trepidation rose in Meliodas's heart. Looking at the soaring golden dragon of pure mental magic, an ominous premonition seized him.
He struggled desperately to move, to dodge, to unleash Hellblaze. However, under the absolute, world-class movement restriction debuff triggered by Victim's death, no matter how hard the Dragon Sin struggled, his body refused to move a single inch. It was to no avail.
After circling twice in the air, the golden dragon charged straight downward, plunging directly into Meliodas's chest.
It entered his mind in an instant.
The pink imprisonment halo immediately snapped open, turning back into the grotesque, floating form of Victim as the resurrection protocols engaged. However, the sacrificial death caused Victim's already low level to drop by yet another level.
Ainz floated forward, looking into the eyes of the boy who had slaughtered his Guardians.
"Go," Ainz commanded, altering the very fabric of Meliodas's free will. "Go and destroy all human cities."
After giving the absolute, overriding command to the now vacant-eyed Meliodas, Ainz turned his back. The Overlord gathered the few remaining Guardians—Aura, Mare, and Victim—around him.
As a massive flash of black teleportation light erupted, the entire vanguard of the Great Tomb of Nazarick successfully withdrew from the battlefield.
"Hmm? What's going on?"
Inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Nick Fury looked at the main tactical screen in front of him, deeply confused.
The drone satellites only transmitted high-resolution images, no audio. Therefore, Fury could only see the skeletal Overlord suddenly make a move after a brief confrontation with Meliodas. But it didn't seem to cause any physical damage to the boy or trigger an explosion.
Then came the miraculous scene where the Overlord gathered his remaining forces and teleported away directly.
High above the ruins of New York, only Meliodas's figure remained, floating quietly and lonely in the sky.
In other cities across the globe, seeing the terrifying skeleton mage on their screens retreat directly... the terrified citizens were so happy they wept. Applause slowly began to ring out in public squares and living rooms in various places.
[Hero!]
[He did it! This is a true superhero!]
[He saved us! He saved the United States!]
Inside the subterranean bunker of the Capitol Building, after seeing Ainz Ooal Gown's complete withdrawal, a scattered, relieved round of applause also rang out among the politicians. Although Meliodas was not a registered U.S. asset, he was fighting for them. A proxy victory is always better than a defeat.
"Stark!" Nick Fury barked into his comms. "What's the tactical situation at the scene? I saw that the target, Ainz Ooal Gown, has withdrawn from the airspace. Did Meliodas persuade the other party to stand down?"
Inside the battered Mark VII armor, Tony Stark hovered high above the city.
As the ultimate King of Spies, it was naturally impossible for Fury to draft an official report and claim a victory based on just a silent satellite feed. At the very least, he had to wait until he fully understood the situation on the ground before he had a reason to swindle a good sum of operational funds from the Council.
"I advise you not to be too happy just yet, Fury," Tony's voice crackled through the earpiece, entirely devoid of his usual snark.
"What do you mean?"
"Meliodas's situation... is a bit off." The Iron Man armor floated far off in the sky, zooming in and scanning Meliodas through its advanced optical sensors.
Looking at the high-definition feed of Meliodas projected inside his helmet's HUD, Tony Stark's expression turned incredibly grave.
In the optical feed, Meliodas was hovering perfectly still. His vibrant green eyes were now completely dull and vacant, completely devoid of life or personality, and his head was hanging low.
His mouth was moving, incessantly repeating a single, horrifying sentence over and over again.
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