Chương 728

[Moments Earlier, Thousands of Kilometers Above in the Citadel] Ember still only has a [203] on his palm as he faces the Noble Demon sending a beam of strange black energy his way. The long red-haired human activates his Astral Form. While it is a limited version of the truly massive display he could show off in his dragon form, a dense green divine light expands outward to grow Ember's energy body to over 100 meters tall.

Dense waves of Ether flow into the Astral Form, and he lifts both of his hands in a resolute stance to block the black demonic beam coming out from the unique Soul Weapon. On contact, translucent waves of fire burst out from Ember's palms, and two walls of energy erupt from the collision point. One is dark black where the beam disperses, while the other is made of transparent fire. Both are of similar strength, and they make the entire dueling room's divine air pressure quiver.

Andras continues to awaken the full form of his Noble Bloodline Transformation, growing larger, and the beam of eerie vibrating black energy becomes stronger and stronger as he reaches a staggering 3 kilometers in height. The numbers on Ember's palm begin to tick upward, three at a time, then six at a time, slowly granting him more power, but the Noble Demon's transformation is far faster.

His feet, planted into the ground of the dueling room, lose grip, and he begins sliding backward as the Demon yells out for the entire Citadel to hear.

"The Upper Realm is not meant for bugs like you. The strongest Warlords of the Ellipsia Citadel have grown senile enough to call for a human to help? It's that imitation of an Astral Form that keeps you alive in my presence... Too bad the peak of lower-realm evolution cannot stand up against a Noble Demon. You lower races, and lower-class worlds, bow before us. Know that we allow you to live. Fighting back now only sets your entire race's demise in stone!

I will personally kill them all to set a precedent once I'm done with you!" As the red-haired human, who was the voice of hope for the lower races, is now pushed back, millions of Lords watching the display of pure power on the holograms all around the city begin to second-guess what they saw before in the past duels. They begin to listen to the Demon's words, now shivering in fear. Though, Zashen, who watches this take place up close, knows this is his cue to strike.

The 1st Class Berserker Giant's first two wind blades fell into the growing black fog that surrounded this Demon, and they disappeared without any damage or trace. Now that the dual-bladed warrior is in its fully awakened wind form, it activates its divine-grade berserker skill and a special buff called [Divine Form of the True Berserker King]. From within his blades and the depths of his core, dense red light starts to swirl within his being.

Reinforcing this crimson aura are dense white plumes of Ether it has not used since the war over 12, 000 years ago. Andras senses its surge in power but recognizes this monster's aura to match the Demonic Cyclops Guardian below the Citadel. He has fought this beast many times before and has already gauged this Berserker's power from the measly attacks it absorbed with its Demonic Cloud. The Noble Demon keeps all its focus on crushing the human before him to make a point.

An explosion of red aura and a shift in the Berserker's eye color from green to red grows its body three times in size, breaking a full kilometer in height as its blades cut through the air with dense wind-powered magic. A crescent of red and white light slices through the black beam of energy at its midpoint, disrupting the spear's flow, creating another massive explosion, while the Berserker attacks from behind, sending a second full-powered slash at the Demon's back.

It slices through the black fog, pushing it aside, and colliding with the demonic glossy armor. The red aura that erupts from the clash makes the Demon shiver with fear, as it's never felt such strength come out of a mere 1st Class being. It hasn't even felt this kind of force from their Elite 1st Class Demons. As it attempts to turn, a crack in its armor forms, and a searing hot pain in a long line erupts on its back. It realizes it's been hit, and real damage is being done.

From the corner of its eye, it watches the human's Astral Form speed through the air as well, charging its hands with translucent fireballs and firing them off on the opposite side of its body from where the Berserker attacked. Some of the flames touch its demonic cloud, and it witnesses the darkness start to melt away while the Berserker's attack slices deeper into its skin.

The World Token of the human continues to tick upward, and the Noble Demon grits its teeth, activating Shadowstep to disappear and reappear in a demonic cloud of darkness dozens of kilometers away using its dragon's shadow as a bounce point. Zashen grins ear to ear, showing off his hundreds of sharpened teeth while trailing with a red streak of light behind him, and Ember follows behind in graceful footsteps, examining the damage done to the dueling room floor and analyzing the situation for what it is.

Andras' attack was strong, but he knows Noble Demons are far more formidable than what he's seeing here, so Ember stays cautious as lightning strikes and unique earth magic is summoned in the skies above. – Torvak lights up the sky with thousands of powerful lightning bolts, all aimed at the demonic dragon that flaps its wings and descends toward the battle. A menacing attack forms within its mouth, building with power, draining divine energy from the air, and pulling darkness from its Demonic Core.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. The attack is aimed directly at Torvak, as the waves of electricity speed through the air far faster than anything, striking the monstrous beast before it can even open its mouth. At the same rate as the demon below, its body grows in size, breaching a wingspan of 3 kilometers, but its growth is slowed by the static that runs through and over its being in the process.

Portions of demonic energy covering its body are zapped away, and the density of the refined Ether within Torvak's attacks is stronger than the automatic defenses in singular areas on this scaled creature. However, with Torvak's attacks spread so thin, once they make it through its demonic energy and Ether defenses, the only real damage being done to the monster's insides feels like a light tingling shock.

To show its superiority, the demonic dragon releases a wave of black and purple energy from its mouth, sent directly down at the Blue Ogre that is limiting its growth and full output of demonic energy. If Torvak tries to block or move out of the way, this dragon will use the energy it's conserving to deliver a deadly blow into the fight with Zashen and Ember, with double its current output.

Torvak grins and doesn't even attempt to block the incoming strike, using his full focus to continue shocking every one of the monster's scales with an all-out lightning attack. Asic finishes unleashing his greater form, which makes him appear as a dark, bloody knight. His silent, dark figure flies upward faster than Torvak, straight toward the blast of demonic energy.

He summons a wall of dark brown stone infused with the blood of many fallen enemies he's killed over the millennia in both the Lower and Upper Realms. The massive shield looks like a boulder, growing larger and larger, clearly draining Ether and unrestorable power from the High Orc. The blood boulder grows to over a kilometer in diameter, and the demonic dragon lets out a battle roar as its wave of energy collides with the stone.

The Citadel outside watches in awe as an explosion of rock and demonic energy fills the entire top half of the dueling room, demolishing the High Orc's defensive technique. Both Torvak and Asic grin, still moving forward with resolute stares, as this is exactly what they had planned. Thousands of shards of bloodstone move upward, all infused with dense mental and physical Ether, refined within the High Orc's consciousness, waiting to be used for tens of thousands of years, along with the lifeforce of his enemies.

All these smaller sharpened shards of stone separated by the dragon's attack travel upward, controlled by Asic's spear, and surround the dragon that used its demonic energy on an attack meant to obliterate these 1st Class bugs in its way in a single strike. It should have worked, and the dragon's defenses should be enough to even block a full-on beam from its Noble Demon's spear; but the culmination of the seemingly random last few moves have put it in a hopeless situation.

Torvak's constant, full-powered lightning strikes may seem harmless, but thousands of shards of bloodstone pierce the dragon's defenses with ease, stabbing through the chinks in its scales and bypassing the Ether defenses that have been nullified by the high-powered electric shockwaves. Another loud, agony-filled roar echoes through the air as the dragon becomes paralyzed in the sky and starts to fall toward the dueling room floor. – While this occurs, the Noble Demon retreats beneath its dragon's shadow.

Confusion races through its mind as it feels the intensity of the Berserker's attack seeping into its avatar and the dense mental waves pounding against its custom Premium Avatar's defenses. The triple-layered mind and body shielding put in place come straight from the family head, and with over 1 million low-quality Ether stored in its Avatar bank, there should be enough volume of defenses to withstand hundreds of full-on attacks even from the demonic guardian below in the exile zones.

It is an upgraded version of the Full Guard model, made to battle other Nobles with power that transcends the Premium Avatars. As sharp pain pierces into its mind, the Noble Demon recalls a single warrior who continued to fight in the Grand Citadel even after the Blue Wyverns were defeated by the family head. It was a rogue Berserker Giant, a warlord who stood above all other Berserker Giants, and held power in the Upper Realm long before he or even the Family head arrived.

But one day, he disappeared, and as centuries and millennia passed, many believed he was accidentally killed by a demon in one of the tournament matches. The red-eyed monster yells, "Don't get too comfortable, Andras! Just because your little guardian has a Berserker skill doesn't mean it's anything close to the real deal... That beast is a pale imitation of my true rage!" Andras remembers this blood-red form and looks up into the air to see a lightning-covered Blue Ogre and a massive dark knight.

The family head conquered the Citadel and always warned against dealing with the old Warlords until they were drained of all their resources. Many of them once held over 100, 000 high grade worlds each, and their followers used to be tens of times larger in numbers and strength. He thought they were certainly weak enough to battle now... Even testing their strength from time to time as the millennia passed. Yet, it must have all been a ruse.

The power they're showing now is overwhelming, making the Citadel Lord shiver with fear when looking at the human who throws two new translucent fireballs his way. He wonders if this mystery man is a being from the past that he doesn't recognize either. Their confidence in arriving today was not just for show... Twisting between the fireballs, two red crescents of wind and Ether travel toward him as well.

The Demon grits its teeth and grasps its staff, charging it to full power and waving it across its body to clash with the four attacks. An explosion of energy sends the Demon skidding backward, but its strange crystal staff disperses the attacks. At the same moment, however, the paralyzed body of its soul-bonded dragon hits the floor behind it with a resounding thud, sending shockwaves through the entire dueling room.

The bright red Berserker comes up behind him again, but this time Andras fears its attack, rotating his body gracefully to block both of its incoming blades with the hot crystal in his spear. Another shockwave erupts from the clash, as demonic energy heals the cracks in the Demon's armor, and an equal force sends the two fighters back. Ember sends another two soul-energy and Ether-imbued fireballs the Demon's way, but it has stopped being arrogant and now takes every attack sent at it seriously.

The momentum from the exchange with Zashen is used to twist its body again and block the two incoming fireballs, exploding them with a beam of black light. Ember dodges the excess radiation from the explosion and flies to find a new angle while Zashen circles in on the other side, charging up his blades again. The High Orc and Blue Ogre come flying down from above.

Torvak charges up his lightning attacks again, and Asic takes the rear, preparing a new attack within his axe, but is quite worn out already from using his ultimate move to melt the dragon's mind and body from the inside. The two would go in for the kill, but that is not part of Ember's plan, so they do as he instructed and leave the dragon alive. The four Warlords surround the Noble Demon, and the entire Citadel watches as a being they feared as a god for thousands of years is somehow overwhelmed...

Andras knows this fact. Even if he wins now, the recordings and memories of this disgrace will live on.

"You've made me do this," the Demon whispers while lifting its spear into the air. Black mist from its aura trails around the spear's tip, making what looks like a black halo above its head. Then, it holds its spear tight in both hands' grasp and slams the butt of its Soul Weapon against the floor of the dueling room. The black mist surrounding the Demon expands quickly, and a strange Noble Vibration emerges from the Demon's glowing light purple eyes.

It is allowing its true noble form to leak out from its Avatar's constraints. A technique forbidden even among Noble Demons, but one that must be done to save this Demon's life and continue controlling the Citadel. The crystal on its spear glows dark black and purple, and the black mist surrounding its body pulses outward so fast that none of the Warlords can track it with their eyes. In an instant, the entire 500-kilometer-wide dueling room becomes dark.

The strange vibrations carry strong natural intimidation waves that grow stronger and stronger. All of the holographic live recordings turn completely black as well, not even sensing Ether signatures anymore. From within the darkness of this Noble Demon's Domain, only a pair of purple demonic eyes can see.