"How strong are they?"
"It depends on who they are. They are not a unified faction, you can compare them to another race. There is variety among them. Strong, weak, good, evil, stupid, intelligent... bold" he said the last word while looking toward the arena, surprised that someone would dare to enter a place protected by the strongest of the entire demonic race.
"Lucifer" Sirzechs interrupted from the side, drawing the attention of the other three.
And noticing the confusion in two of them, he explained.
"Lucifer is a Lord from a faction isolated even among the Lords. Apparently, he has enough strength that he doesn't need to act as part of a group.
His greatest achievement so far is killing Kokabiel, so his strength is unknown. Besides, we have no idea what his objective is"
"Your sister really got us into a big problem" Ajuka said ironically, having roughly reconstructed the current situation based on previous knowledge.
Sirzechs could only nod helplessly.
"I'll give her a good scolding once we deal with the situation" Sirzechs said apologetically.
"And then? What does he want?" Finally, the fourth of them, Falbium Asmodeus, who until now had only been listening with a sleepy and lazy expression, joined the conversation.
"You didn't listen before? I have no idea" Sirzechs said.
"I was too lazy to listen to you" Falbium said with a yawn before speaking again lazily. "Anyway, you guys take care of testing him and I'll think about how to counter him."
"Falbium, I feel like you just don't want to stand up" Serafall joked, as cheerful as always despite the situation.
Falbium simply looked at her without responding, deciding that it was an unnecessary waste of energy.
While they were talking, the tiny, almost invisible black dot in the center of the arena rose into the sky and reached a barrier.
Although the field was enormous, this was because there was a barrier separating the playing field from the stands, which not only protected the audience but also allowed the space inside it to be changed both in appearance and size to create different terrains to use during the Rating Game.
"What is he doing?" Serafall asked in confusion upon seeing Kaito approach the barrier from inside.
She didn't need an answer because Kaito immediately began to act. He closed one fist and pulled his arm back before punching the barrier with force.
Ajuka watched the scene with interest.
It was not a magical attack but a normal punch, nothing more than simple physical strength that could not break a magical barrier unless the difference in power was too great. However, at the last moment, the fist became completely covered in magic. It was not a simple coating, it passed through every part of his fist, basically turning his fist into a magical attack itself.
Ajuka watched the scene with equal parts surprise and interest. This was not only difficult but almost impossible. To do something like this, you needed incredible magical control, being able to basically fuse with your own magic and become one with it. Something so difficult that even a Maou considered it impossible.
Of course, there was another way to do it without having that much control, and that was for the magic itself to have its own consciousness and help you, but no one would guess that this was the actual situation.
As soon as the punch connected, the barrier trembled as an energy wave spread through all of it like a wave.
"Supreme level" Sirzechs analyzed based on the punch. "Almost Maou"
"That shouldn't give him the confidence to come here, he can't even break the barrier at that level"
"I know" Sirzechs nodded, feeling that something was wrong.
While they were talking, Kaito performed the same action again, but it was nowhere near as dramatic or flashy as the previous time. In fact, it was such a fast punch that many didn't even manage to see it.
Then another, and another, and another. Thousands of Supreme-level punches landed on the Maou-level barrier of the playing field until, exactly 731,000 punches and three seconds later, the barrier shattered into millions of tiny fragments of magic that disappeared into the air.
The field inside also changed at that moment, transforming from the city that had previously been waiting for the game to begin into just a small, completely normal and empty field.
And Kaito, who had previously been barely a black dot in the distance, was now perfectly visible to everyone present, even those who hadn't noticed what was happening before.
"I think it's time to stop watching and act, don't you?" Falbium asked, looking at his companions.
"Haha, look who's saying that" Serafall smiled before preparing to act.
Sirzechs and Ajuka did the same.
But before they could act, someone moved first.
Surrounded by fire, Riser rose into the air until he reached Kaito.
"Hey, you, who are you? How dare you interrupt my game?!"
With the barrier destroyed and the field returned to normal, all the participants who were preparing in the arena ended up almost face to face with each other due to the limited size, so it was no surprise that they noticed the situation.
"I'm somewhat busy right now, can you come later?"
Kaito not only didn't take him seriously, he even dismissed him with disdain, which only enraged him further.
Riser burned with fury and the flames of the Phoenix surrounding him burned even more intensely, raising the temperature of the entire place by several degrees and making many people begin to sweat.
"Damned!" Furiously, he delivered a direct punch to Kaito's face.
A punch that Kaito easily caught, much to his surprise, but his surprise only lasted a second before he smiled confidently.
"Touching Phoenix fire directly? I don't know if you're stupid or suicidal" he mocked disdainfully.
Kaito looked at his hand and frowned with slight annoyance.
'I'm burning' he thought as he watched his hand burn faster than he could even regenerate it. 'Looks like I need to improve my defense more'
Seeing Kaito's face, Riser felt deep satisfaction.
"Phoenix fire is not only the hottest and deadliest, but it is also under my control. As long as I don't want it to, it will never go out.
I don't know who you are or what your objective is, but you should have chosen a day when Riser Phenex wasn't here to act, or at least... not interrupt my game" he said disdainfully.
However, instead of the desperation he expected, he was met only with an amused smile from Kaito.
"Is that so?" Kaito asked with a smile before looking at his hand, which was still burning.
"Stop" he said in a deep voice. All the powerful beings in the place knew that it was not just a word. As soon as he said it, the fire stopped and ceased burning before the burned skin on his hand rapidly regenerated.
After that, he looked at Riser with an almost grateful smile. "So my skin doesn't count as 'inside me.' I discovered two weaknesses I need to correct thanks to you, so I suppose I should thank you"
"N-no, my fire, the Phoenix fire, what did you do?!" he asked in surprise. Without thinking, he attacked again.
But this time Kaito didn't let him touch him. He appeared almost instantly behind him and extended a hand toward his shoulder before repeating his previous words.
"Stop"
"What...?"
Riser didn't finish speaking before he began falling toward the ground in complete disbelief. He could feel it, his body remained exactly the same, his magical energy was still there, his power was still there, but whenever he tried to move it to perform any kind of magic, it wouldn't move, as if obeying him wasn't the priority but rather following the orders of the person in the air whom he was getting farther and farther away from as he fell toward the ground.
Stunned, he didn't even try to move his wings to stop his fall.
"My son!"
Upon seeing this, a man whose appearance shared three quarters of its similarities with Riser but was more mature flew out from the stands toward Kaito.
"Ufff" Kaito sighed and, once he reached him, he didn't dodge. He caught his punch and repeated the same thing he had done before.
'Strange. Even though Riser is considered a villain in the original work, I didn't give him that much importance, but somehow they managed to become my enemies. Is it fate or something that makes them villains?' Kaito wondered mentally.
Once Riser's father began falling just like his son, although he was able to keep himself stable through his physical strength alone, unlike his son, who depended completely on magic and had almost no physical training, Kaito turned toward the Maous' box with annoyance. He could already hear them from there.
"Alright, it seems it's time to stop watching" Serafall said, finally taking the situation seriously.
The rest didn't respond, they simply nodded, prepared to move together.
They didn't even deploy their wings, they simply moved directly. Their immense strength and speed made them disappear in the blink of an eye and reach Kaito before he could even react.
Fortunately, he didn't need to react if he already knew their objective.
"Everyone stay still" Kaito said as he spread his control over Motion throughout the arena. Everyone's movement fell under his complete control regardless of their power.
Around him, four demons stopped in midair, all less than a meter away from him.
"You can talk, don't worry" Kaito said. An action that seemed pointless but was actually meant to reduce the effect, and also the cost, of his domain.
"Conceptual control?" Ajuka murmured in surprise.
"What? Huh? I can't move?" Serafall said, equally surprised before observing her pose in the air embarrassed. "Haha, I look kind of funny"
'What could someone like this want from us?' Ajuka began thinking at full speed, trying to find a way out of the current situation. Having 90% of the race immobilized was equivalent to being able to carry out a total genocide against the demonic race without anyone being able to stop it.
But his thoughts were interrupted by Falbium's following words.
"Control" he said with complete certainty, knowing what Ajuka was thinking.
"What?"
"Although he could have appeared outside the barrier, he didn't. Instead, he appeared inside and destroyed it with punches, then deliberately received attacks backed by one of the most powerful methods in the Underworld, and finally, he stopped everyone using conceptual methods that he could have used from the beginning. Besides, of course, talking as if everything were easy and merely a nuisance.
You understand now, don't you?"
"He was imposing his presence" Ajuka said, understanding.
"That's right. I imagine you've already noticed that he's a Demon as well. But above all, don't forget his title, a Lord. You don't get that title for nothing" Falbium explained with an ironic smile before summarizing everything in one simple and short revelation. "It seems we've encountered a Demon who wants to subordinate the entire demonic race"
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)