Theef whistled, "They sure must have it in for us if the entirety of the realm is out for us."
After witnessing the seemingly endless number of enemies, he let the others know of the situation and they prepared to act.
The rest of the crew wanted to take on a united front, but Edmond remained stern on the idea of dealing with it on his own.
"It has been all I've done since being born. I'll consume every last one of them and bear their sins before ending things with the Devil."
"You sure you can take on all of them? Sooner or later, you'll get tired, no?"
Null wanted to make sure that he was not biting off more than he could chew, but honestly, he was unfazed by the matter.
In his eyes, only the Devil was a foe to be wary of given his high status as the ruler of the Demonic Realm.
All other beings could be taken care of with the sheer might of his reinforced body.
"I gain strength by killing. Trust me, these guys have always been small fry even before your magnificent upgrade."
"By all means then."
"Yeah, let's sit back and enjoy the show!"
"We only got to see a fraction of the gray flame's power. I must say I'm looking forward to witnessing the full brunt of it."
"Time for a massacre! I can't wait, teach!"
'Oh, shut it. You should try and reach his level before glazing him like this.'
'I'm not even gonna entertain that.'
With the pressing army closing in, Edmond stepped outside the ruined city and prepared himself.
The flames burned from his head and body like before, yet they were not as forceful.
As if hiding underneath his flesh, the holy flames burned in his yellow eyes and the purgatory flames coursed through the dark red markings along his body.
Before long, the two flames that met at his neck fused together forming a flaming regal, gray cape that flowed with majesty.
He lifted off the ground under the watchful gazes of the crew and manifested a gray flame in his palm.
"If the yellow flames are holy and the red flames are purgatory, then this gray flame of Harmony will be deemed the Flames of Retribution."
By now, the closest of the army had reached him.
Opposite to how Theef tossed out a gray spark to engulf the imps, Edmond raised his hands and gathered a large number of gray sparks in the air.
Then, he fused them into one!
Since the demonic army was surrounding the entire city, he controlled the giant spark to the front of the army and swept it across their ranks.
Immediately, the majority of the demonic army was eliminated like nothing.
Edmond was not even breaking a sweat as his energy tank was larger than even Barter's Ruler's.
Still, he had yet to experiment with his Universal Rule of Harmony as he was basically copying Theef's utilization of the Flames of Retribution only on a different scale.
'It seems that there are some city leaders among those in the back. Maybe Null could use them to locate the Devil so I can meet him in person.'
And so, he made sure to leave out only the city leaders as they no doubt possessed a greater resistance to the Devil's influence.
This meant that the Devil had to have more of a signature inside them, so Null could better trace it back to its source.
The rest of the process was taken care of seamlessly, and Edmond saw a significant increase in his control and power that the dual-flamed treasure bestowed upon him.
It was even easier to entrap the city leaders with their unique features.
"See if you can locate the Devil with these guys, Null. I'm growing impatient at the thought of finally reaching my beloved."
"Hmm. I'll see what I can do."
Null knew this was the job for Void as he could pinpoint Edmond's location with just the trace of the flame he had.
Without further ado, he had Void materialize outside of his body which shocked Edmond, "What is this?"
"Oh, I forgot to introduce you to my closest companions," Null realized that what he found to be commonplace was a fantastic feat in the eyes of others.
"This is Void," Null pushed him towards Edmond, "Say hi or something."
"Hi or something," Void finally spoke, "Can I have some food now?"
'Geez. The nerve of this guy.'
Ego also manifested themselves with their watery visage, "Greetings. I am Ego."
"Another with the same exact form as you? Tell me, what exactly are these two?"
Null rubbed the back of his neck, "Put simply, they are a manifestation of one of the systems of power I have and a spirit companion who also happens to maintain another system of power I have."
Edmond was even more shocked, "Living beings born from such things? What exactly are you then, you monster?"
Even though he had gotten the basic rundown of the situation of those in the crew, Null kept a lot to himself as even the others were clueless to the interactions he had in his mind space.
"Monster? No. Banana? Yes."
"Haha! I can vouch for that," Theef piped in, "He was just a wee babe not too long ago. I still remember his chubby little self."
Null stared daggers at him, but Theef just laughed it off.
"Whatever the case is, we still need to get out of here to meet with Ms. Florie."
"Right," Edmond refocused on the priority at hand.
"Void. If you can use these guys to find the mastermind behind all of this, I promise to give you some of your favorite Ruler's Greed. What do you say?"
Without a word, Void dived into the first city leader, who writhed around on the ground seemingly in pain.
Just as fast, he returned to the outside and reported his findings, "There is a dark energy inside of them that points that way."
Null smiled at how thorough Void could be with the right motivation and absorbed him back into his body allowing him to absorb some spirit energy which he then turned into the golden yellow energy.
It was not exactly the same as feeding him on the outside, but Null figured he would not mind.
After all, Void was growing with him despite being the swirling vortex most of the time.
"Alright! We've eliminated all of the denizens of the Demonic Realm and located the final Devil. What's say we pay him a visit then?"
The crew cheered and set off towards the Devil's whereabouts.
The one in question had a twisted face as he had felt a foreign force invading the very trace energy that existed in every demon.
'They're coming.'
Deep down he knew what the pervasive force was meant for— especially considering the entirety of the Demonic Realm was handled in an instance.
Alas, he could do naught but wait for the inevitable meeting as he was bound to his throne.
The truth behind the Devil's circumstance was one that the crew would find out about only after they defeated him.
In actuality, the Devil was originally an angel only he was banished after attempting to overthrow the leader of the Angelic Realm!
After his banishment to the corrupted Demonic Realm, the Devil was confined to the space he was in currently, yet with his might and abilities he was able to turn the Demonic Realm into his playground.
The demons born into the world were tainted with his energy becoming a stable food source, but after countless eons he was still incapable of escaping his chains.
'I must take the essence of that imp! And I will make the one who bestowed that pure energy my slave!'
If only he knew his capabilities as even the one who banished him was once a target of his ruthlessness.