Aside from the roar of Heracles, not a sound could be heard on the terrace where the two men had settled.
Jack remained silent for a moment, his heterochromatic eyes locking onto Doma's multicolored ones.
Finally, he let out a sigh laden with complex emotions and slowly shook his head.
"Sorry, but I'm not interested," he said in a polite tone.
The man rejected by all of humanity refused to abandon that same humanity, despite the tempting offer to save his own skin.
The crowd's reaction was immediate.
"T-that man… did he really refuse to save his life for us?" asked a spectator dressed as a detective, his face marked with shock.
"Don't be ridiculous, he probably just wants to gut a god out of curiosity," retorted another, clad in a judge's robe.
"Indeed, a twisted man like him couldn't possibly show a shred of altruism," declared a third, wearing a police uniform.
"Shut up! What do you even know about Jack?!" a voice suddenly shouted from the human stands, cutting off the criticisms from both divine and mortal spectators.
A woman in a revealing outfit, which betrayed her true profession without effort, silenced everyone around her.
(Image)
"And who are you to give us orders?" asked the man in the police uniform, his gaze shamelessly drifting to the woman's cleavage.
'I'm sure I've seen that pair of breasts somewhere before…' he thought, but his memory failed him.
"You'd better shut your mouth, or I'll tell your wife about your Saturday nights with me on Earth," the prostitute shot back.
Immediately, the man fell silent and cast a nervous glance toward his wife sitting nearby.
Fortunately for him, she hadn't heard the woman's words over the renewed clamor in the amphitheater.
'Jack… show them how incredible you are,' thought Mary's friend, watching the innocent child she had once known.
Doma was neither aware of nor concerned by the events in the stands.
All his attention was focused on Jack and controlling the Miko facing Heracles.
'I understand… you bear the name Jack the Ripper to atone for the sin of killing your mother. You want to wash away your past guilt by winning this fight,' the demon analyzed in a fraction of a second after the refusal.
Yet, he flashed a fake, sorrowful smile and shook his head, feigning disappointment.
Jack's refusal didn't surprise Doma, but he had to try his luck. Otherwise, how would he know he'd fail?
However, Jack was the one most likely to accept his offer, far more than Heracles.
Unfortunately, he had chosen to chain himself to morality rather than seize the selfish happiness within his grasp.
A choice Doma could understand, but still found regrettable.
Thus, he let a false sense of disappointment seep into his aura before calmly speaking again:
"Pity, but I must admit two things, my dear Jack," Doma declared after a final sip of tea.
"What's that?" asked Jack, subtly slipping his hand into his voluminous coat.
Both men knew what this meant.
The moment Jack refused Doma's olive branch, they became enemies.
"Hmm… nothing much. You're truly a respectable man, one I admire~," Doma replied in a teasing yet almost sincere tone, deliberately ignoring the latent hostility in the air.
"I'm flattered… but why didn't you ask for my autograph? Isn't that what you do with those you admire?" Jack shot back with an ironic smile, drawing a few laughs from the crowd—and catching the attention of Hermes and the other gods present.
"Not wrong, but you're a bit different. You see, you hurt someone I intend to keep by my side for eternity," Doma replied nonchalantly, not bothering to hide the truth.
'Keep for eternity? And he's not saying it as a proposal to Hlökk, but as an undeniable fact,' Jack thought, unaware that his thoughts were making the valkyrie in his mind blush even more.
Finally, the loli had had enough and unleashed her tsundere fury in the poor gentleman's mind.
Jack suddenly grimaced in pain, from the perspective of the spectators and Doma.
Yet, the demon hadn't made a single move against him.
This situation was caused by Hlökk's scream, frantically talking to him in his mind.
'STOP IT!!! I HAVEN'T ACCEPTED HIS STUPID OFFER YET, AND NO ONE WILL FORCE ME TO… BAKA… BAKA!' Hlökk's outburst was no joke.
Poor Jack endured it in his mind, having unintentionally teased a tsundere.
"Besides that… I absolutely hate the taste of poison," Doma added calmly, dropping a bombshell in the middle of the conversation.
Jack understood immediately.
The demon was referring to the poison he had slipped into the tea he'd offered him.
Ignoring Hlökk's protests in his mind, the killer lunged at Doma.
Clang.
A kitchen knife struck the demon's temple… but was immediately deflected back toward Jack.
'Blood Demon Art: Vector.'
This power had never stopped working since he entered the arena.
Since drinking Beelzebub's blood, Doma had transcended the state of a mere demon and strengthened his control over it.
An example of his current control was his use of the three Miko, after the destruction of the other three by Heracles, all while using vectors to manage the sun and defend.
What? Hasn't he already conquered the sun like a divine being? Doma had indeed done so.
He could withstand the sun, but…
'For some reason, exposure to that star displeases me,' the demon thought as he charged at Jack.
The man had quickly put distance between them after the knife was deflected back at him.
Jack had slightly cut his cheek but remained unfazed by Doma's counterattack.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Doma is taking damage against the human… no… t-that's impossible!" Heimdall and the crowd were stunned.
At first, they thought their eyes were playing tricks, but this phenomenon couldn't be imaginary for everyone.
Doma wasn't harmed by any attack directly targeting his body; on the contrary, he was slowly gaining the upper hand.
"Hermes… you're the god of speed, do you see what's happening?" At Ares' question, the messenger god remained silent for a moment.
Yet, the expression etched on his face caught his brother's attention. Finally, the god spoke.
"I don't know how, but Doma seems capable of deflecting the force applied to him… no, the more accurate term would be manipulating the flow of force," Hermes explained in a grave tone.
"W-what?! If that's true, then… he's untouchable and, by extension, invincible!" At first, his tone was loud, but it quickly softened.
"No… this ability seems to rely on rules; otherwise, this demon wouldn't have feared facing Heracles and the human together. The question is, what are they?" he said seriously.
Hermes' merchant instincts pushed him to uncover Doma's secret, knowing this information was undoubtedly valuable.
While the spectators speculated on the fight's outcome, the two men exchanged a series of violent, lethal blows.
Jack was terrifying from Doma's perspective.
Every move from the middle-aged man targeted a vital point without a hint of hesitation, yet the result was failure and severe injuries in return.
Doma could see it was futile, but…
"What persistence… the will of humans is truly frightening," he mused as Jack's blood stained the snow-covered ground.
The killer was bloodied.
His breathing was ragged from the fan strikes and the poison in the snow, which had broken his ribs and damaged his internal organs.
Yet, Jack stood tall in the middle of the London street.
"London… *cough*… B… bridge is falling down, F… falling down, f… falling down. L… London Bridge is faL…ling down, My fair lady," he muttered as he staggered toward a fence in the street, but Doma immediately repelled him with a kick.
Jack couldn't wield his makeshift spear, as it slipped from his hands.
"Abandoned… I didn't let you use your environment throughout the fight, at the cost of exposing my vector manipulation. Why do you think that is?" Doma asked, grabbing Jack's head to bring his face to his level.
Unfortunately, he didn't see Jack the Ripper at that moment. Before him was only a half-dead gentleman, fighting alone for a humanity that rejected him.
It was simply a man on the brink of death, gazing at the London sky and the magnificent Big Ben.
"B… *cough*… build it up w… with wood and clay, Wo… wood and clay, w… wood and clay," Jack mumbled as Doma fixed his gaze on him.
"I see… this fight is now—" Doma didn't finish his sentence before a sharp pain shot through his abdomen.
"Interesting… haha, you got me, but…" Doma pierced Jack's heart and tore the organ from his chest.
"You figured out my 'current' weakness, but it was a bit too late, mate," he said, eating his opponent's heart in front of the spectators and Jack himself.
The crowd froze at Doma's cruelty, but he glanced at the metal wire connected to the fence, recently detached by Jack.
As Doma was about to speak, Jack launched a double attack. One aimed at his abdomen with a knife, the other at his exposed back.
Doma could only react to the rear attack due to his slowness and was pierced by the front attack.
He was too close to Jack at that moment.
A high-risk tactic, but Jack managed to land a fatal blow for any ordinary god.
He had succeeded in gutting Doma!
"Hlökk… you can now join me; you no longer have any obligation to Brunhilde," he said, using the paradise of vanity to force the fission between Jack and the loli.
The London Ripper was currently unconscious due to extreme blood loss from the loss of his heart.
Hlökk was able to leave her partner without issue, thanks to Doma and Jack's condition.
The young girl felt uneasy watching Jack on the ground. Even if she argued with him, Jack was still her first combat partner.
The bond between a valkyrie and her partner is something special, as it ties their fates during battle.
"You heard, didn't you? He refused my offer," Doma said, his "clean" hand resting on the young valkyrie's exposed shoulder.
"W-will you kill me too if I refuse?" she whispered in a small voice. She was trembling slightly, and anyone could tell Hlökk was scared at that moment.
"Never… you can leave if you want, but I'm sincere now. Join me, and let's win this round together!" Doma raised his voice slightly, feeling a strange connection with the girl through their physical contact.
It was odd, but Doma felt like Hlökk had been created for him at that moment.
'Damn, my last Miko just died,' he thought, losing his connection with his ice clone.
"O-okay, I'll be your valkyrie, but you'd better not die like that other idiot," Hlökk declared, extending her hand.
Doma nodded, picked up Jack's glove as a memento, and performed the Völundr.
A brilliant light enveloped him, and Doma stood alone in the London street before turning his gaze to Heracles.
The demigod hadn't intervened during the Völundr, though he had already reached that point.
He simply observed the scene in silence.
"Thanks for waiting, but don't regret it later," Doma said, closing Jack's eyes as he faded away.
Doma hesitated to rip out Jack's eyes but refused to commit such a disrespectful act.
Sure, he didn't abide by human laws or morals, but his will was his only master.
That will refused to be enslaved by a thirst for power on his path to an eternal, chill life.
"I'll never regret acting justly, demon. So… which side will you choose? Will you remain neutral, or will you decide to protect the humans? In either case, we'll be enemies—unless…" Heracles said.
At the demigod's words, a holographic panel appeared before Doma and the last remaining members of the chat group still online.
[ Congratulations… ]
[ You have completed 90% of the quest ]
[ Simply declare your allegiance to the gods' camp, and you will validate the main quest. ]
[ Your rewards are currently being calculated… ]
The System didn't have time to finish before Doma interrupted it.
"I refuse…"
[ E-error … ]
…
Author's Note: Well… I feel like a crook, announcing the arc's end on one date and pushing it back by 24 hours.
Lol, I'm a scumbag.
Still, I refuse to defeat Heracles off-screen, lol.
Yes, I'm overcoming the Gege side and avoiding another Adam.
Aside from that detail, Doma faced Jack using his breathing style.
Unfortunately, Jack still outclassed him.
The reason is simple: I took into account Heracles' strength from the first day he drank Zeus' blood and his evolution afterward.
Yet, Jack managed to hold his own against that monster of raw power (Ares says Heracles has Zeus' physical strength. Okay, he's exaggerating a bit, but the guy killed tons of monsters barehanded).
Thus, the winter breathing and perception manipulation allowed Doma to merely hold his ground.
As for his so-called weakness? He lied about it (Sukuna's watching the match, and Kirei, he's not going to reveal everything, lol).
He could have indeed blocked Jack's final attack, but his last Miko would have died sooner.
Doma just needed to use all the mental strength he had spread across multiple tasks.
He could have activated his ice with his main body through that action, and even his vector power (over his entire body and at maximum strength for a short moment).
In short: Doma is a liar.