We both shared a fearless grin. The moment our eyes met—our fists collided.
A thunderous cr-ack echoed through the hall as space itself groaned. The sound of the wind being sliced, then the sound of something exploding… the sounds reached my ears out of sync.
There was only one reason for it: the world couldn't keep up with the speed of our exchange.
"HRAAAH!"
I threw a straight right, the force of it shattering the surrounding space as it barreled toward Asem. He deflected my fist with his palm and countered with a palm strike aimed at my gut. His strike, too, tore through reality. It looked like a standard blow, but it carried an absurd level of destructive power.
I blocked the palm strike with my left arm, slamming his hand down to parry it, and transitioned into a left elbow aimed at his jaw—but Asem caught it effortlessly with his left hand.
"Ooh, dangerous!"
"Like hell it was! You didn't even flinch!"
I gathered a burst of energy in my palm and fired it point-blank. Asem, as if he had anticipated it, slammed a mass of his own aura against it to neutralize the blast.
The collision of two massive energies triggered a titanic explosion. We both used the shockwave to leap backward.
The moment my feet touched the ground, a presence appeared behind me.
I ducked instinctively. If I had been a millisecond slower, it would have been over. Asem's hand-blade sliced through the space where my head had been, cleaving everything in front of him in two.
"That's some terrifying sharpness! My head almost said goodbye to my body!"
"Now, now, your fists are just as bad. How many gods would have died in that opening exchange? But we're still in the early stages of this fight, right?"
Asem spread his wings—butterfly wings made of that same malevolent, iridescent aura. They were the same wings that had blocked my strongest attack during the Underworld investigation. In terms of defense, he was likely the sturdiest opponent I had ever faced—surpassing the Evil Dragons and perhaps even Rosward.
But those wings weren't just for show.
Asem spread them wide, and countless small, spear-like projectiles of the same dark light materialized. With a snap of his fingers, they rained down on me like a storm.
"Tch, I hate these kinds of attacks!"
I performed a high-speed backflip to retreat, then kicked off the stone floor to launch myself into the air. When I looked back at the spot I'd just left—it was gone.
The floor wasn't just broken; it had been erased. It looked less like an explosion and more like it had been carved out of existence—similar to the Power of Destruction used by Rias and Sirzechs-san.
"If you touch those, you'll vanish completely," Asem explained. "Everything will. Matter, space—everything is snuffed out. It's a dimension above the magic of destruction. Shall we call it the Power of Ruin?"
The Power of Ruin! The name alone sounded like a nightmare.
Worse yet, the spears were homing! No matter how I dodged, they stayed on my tail. I kicked off pillars and changed my trajectory mid-air, but they just pulled U-turns and kept coming.
Fine. I'll just have to shoot them all down!
"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"
I gathered rainbow aura in both hands and unleashed a rapid-fire barrage of energy bullets. My "machine-gun" fire collided with the falling spears of Ruin.
I thought I'd neutralized them all, but Asem lunged through the resulting smoke, his eyes glowing with a dangerous light.
『Here he comes, Partner!』
"I know!"
Responding to Ddraig's warning, I leaped to the side. Asem's kick slammed into the floor, triggering a storm of destruction that caved in the entire area and tore a massive rift in space.
The suction from the spatial rift was immense; a gale-force wind threatened to pull me in. I was pinned down for a split second!
"Do you really have time to stand still? —You're wide open."
Asem's voice came from directly below me. Somehow, he had already closed the gap. He was winding up a punch shrouded in the aura of Ruin.
In the heartbeat before his fist pierced my chest—
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!"
"...?!"
I let out a roar and exploded my rainbow aura in every direction! The expanding shockwave blocked Asem's fist and blew him back.
Asem performed a mid-air somersault and landed gracefully, but I didn't give him a moment to breathe. I lunged forward.
"I can't believe you can react at this timing," I grunted.
"And I thought I had you for sure," Asem replied.
Our fists passed each other, inches from our faces. At the moment I had swung, Asem had counter-attacked without hesitation. We both narrowly avoided a direct hit, but…
I felt a trickle of warmth on my cheek. Asem's fist had grazed me, cutting the skin. A similar line of blood was running down Asem's cheek.
"Fufu… this is going to be even more fun than I thought."
"Hah! We're still in the early stages, right? I'll show you exactly what we're capable of!"
The battle between the Hero and the Demon King intensified, shaking the very foundations of the world.
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