Side Story Chapter 156
Side Story Chapter 156
-Death knights...?
Terbion the Gormandize Demon was just as confused as Valmont, as evinced by his furrowed brow.
-...Wait, I smell something familiar.
Terbion sniffed several times and realized that the smell was coming from a red-haired human. The demon smiled from ear to ear, baring his yellow teeth.
-The Evil Sins\' powers? You have three at least. How can a human possess the abilities of the Demon Kings?
“You talk a lot.” Kireua raised his sword. The death knights and the rest of Joshua’s undead legion rose up, so the enemy undead who had been bowing also released their energies in response.
-A human who can lead tens of thousands of undead... Yes, I guess that that isn’t really impossible with three Evil Sins\' powers. On top of that, one of your three Evil Sins\' powers is Gluttony, so that is no wonder you’re skilled in necromancy. Hehehe. Jackpot!
Terbion glanced back at where the other nine demons were. They hadn’t seemed to have noticed Kireua’s Evil Sins\' powers and weren’t even looking in his direction. Besides, something else had already caught their attention.
-It’s the real Lugia.
-The divine spear which can pierce the moon. He calls this Longin, yes?
-I heard that the Demon Spirit wanted this really badly...
-We’ll also be able to use it, won’t we?
They were busy bickering over a spear. Since Terbion fought with his hands, a stick didn’t intrigue him, but that was different for the other demons.
-Idiots. They missed the real deal over a mere tool. Hehehe.
Terbion cracked his knuckles.
-I’ll get rid of you quickly, human boy, as that seems further delays will disrupt my plan.
“Do you seriously think you can?” Kireua scoffed.
-Do I think I can? Hahahahaha!
Terbion burst into manic laughter for a moment and then raised his fist.
-Let’s see if you have the strength to back up your arrogance.
Everything happened literally in a blink of an eye. Terbion slammed his fist into the ground, seemingly crushing the very fabric of space, but even before it impacted the earth was caving in. The ground buckled and heaved with such torment that birds several kilometers took to the air in surprise. The troops on the ramparts desperately struggled to keep their balance in this sudden earthquake.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Terbion was a walking catastrophe.
“Wh-What in the world...!”
“It’s an earthquake! Everyone, grab onto something and hang on! You’ll die if you fall!”
The earthquake caught them all off guard. The area around Terbion was quiet, but the area below the rampart was crawling with demons. An intense and bloody battle was taking place between people trying to protect their home and those trying to find a new home.
-This is great! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
“Urgh...!” Terbion’s manic laughter made Valmont cover his ears again. The demonic power in Terbion’s voice was beyond Valmont’s expectations. It was safe to say that was a demonic voice itself. If the seventeenth strongest demon was this powerful, how much stronger were the demons ranked above him?
“S... hi... t!” Valmont clenched his fists in anger. He had cooped himself up in the Palace for decades and cultivated his sword skills, but he only got this far. It frustrated him to no end.
Objectively speaking, of course, Valmont was being too greedy. Among the top twenty demons, only one had lived for less than one thousand years. While Valmont had spent decades training his sword skills, the demons had fought for their continued existence every day for hundreds of years at the very least. It was kill or be killed in the Demon Realm—only the strongest survived in the lands of the demons.
“Your Highness...!” Valmont clung to consciousness with every scrap of will he had, but it was already fading away.
Terbion was raising his horrifying fist once again, and Valmont didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if it landed directly on a human. No doubt every bone in their body would be crushed into a fine powder.
“Ru-Run...!” Valmont yelled.
Nothing moved in a ten-meter radius except for Valmont, Kireua, and Terbion, because the demon’s first punch had ended up shattering the nearby undead too. All Terbion had done was hit the ground, but the aftermath was extraordinary. However, Terbion was aiming for Kireua’s head this time.
-Die.
There was no signal this time either—Terbion’s attacks were always near-instantaneous.
“Your Highness!” Valmont desperately screamed, his eyes bloodshot.
And then he blinked, bewildered. It sounded like something had been sliced through, rather than a wet, meaty splat.
-Hehehehe. You dare meet my punch head-on, huh?
Terbion’s laughter answered Valmont’s question. Terbion’s fist and Kireua’s sword met in the air. The black flames rising up from Kireua’s aura were so vivid that he looked like nothing else so much as a black fireball from a distance.
But that was all. Thin cracks spread all through the blade of Kireua’s sword in less than three seconds, meaning the level of the demonic power enveloping Terbion’s fist was extraordinary, and ending the standoff.
-Disappear into dust.
Terbion threw a straight punch at Kireua’s head, eager to see it explode. He was rewarded with a mighty bang!
-Hahahahahahahahahaha!
“Are you having fun?”
Terbion flinched. His opponent should have died. He should have been reduced to a fine mist, but Terbion could hear his supposedly deceased opponent’s voice from behind him.
-What in the world have you done?
Terbion was expressionless for the first time.
“Don’t turn around unless you want to lose your head,” Kireua warned Terbion.
-I never imagined a human would threaten me.
“I’ll ask you two questions. Your life will be spared if you answer them.”
Terbion scoffed.
-Can you even kill me?
Blood dripped out of the exceedingly thick skin of Terbion’s neck, succinctly answering for Kireua. The blood burned in Kireua’s ebon flame.
“You said earlier that you were going to turn me into dust, yes?” Kireua asked sarcastically. “If you want, I’ll go a step further and destroy the dust too.”.
Terbion stopped talking back to Kireua and shrugged.
-Yes, I’ve heard about it. The power of Gluttony is specialized in controlling hordes of undead, but the power of Greed has the most amazing abilities among the Seven Evil Sins\' powers, although many aspects of it remain a mystery.
Terbion had managed to discern two of Kireua’s Evil Sins\' powers. Like Terbion said, it was only the power of Greed that enabled him to control such large numbers of undead. In addition, he had already heard about the power of Lust showing up in Avalon, however, he never imagined the remaining Evil Sin power to be the Greed.
-How surprising. No one owned the power of Greed for a long time even in the Demon Realm... But its newest owner is a human boy.
“Is that my turn to ask questions?” Kireua coldly pressed his blade against Terbion’s neck. “Have you heard of a person named Bel?”
-...”Bel”?
“He’s a human, just like me. Well, he looks like one at least.”
-A human? Why would I know a human...
Terbion stopped talking halfway.
-......Yes, you don’t consider this Bel person to be a human.
“Answer the question,” Kireua demanded.
-Even if you say that, how should I know?
Terbion held up his hands with a grin.
-I don’t have any information...
“He possesses an ability similar to yours,” Kireua interrupted.
-...Huh? Similar to me?
“Yes, he said that he ate living dragons, just like you, and used the dragons’ power as his own.”
Terbion’s eyes widened as he listened.
-He ate dragons? And he made the dragons’ powers his own?
“Do you have any idea who he actually is?”
-No way. Even in the entire history of the Demon Realm, only Abel could have done that...
“Abel?” Kireua tilted his head in confusion. Terbion smiled and glanced back at him.
-If Abel has really returned, then you should run now, boy. However hard you people try, you’ll never be able to win.
“I told you not to be arrogant,” Kireua said, his brows furrowed.
Fresh blood dripped from the wound on Terbion’s neck.
“Who is this Abel?” Kireua asked.
-Is that the second question?
“What?”
-You told me earlier that you’ll only ask me two questions.
Kireua’s face twisted in irritation. “Hey, I think you’re misunderstanding something here. We aren’t negotiating—this is an interrogation.”
-Ahahaha! This is going to be interesting. So Abel showed up in the Human Realm, huh? I do so wonder how those guys over there will respond when they hear the news.
“Answer—”
-My answer is this.
Terbion delivered a backward kick like a horse. Unsurprisingly, his kicks were multiple times stronger than his punches. The shockwave alone wiped away the undead in a long line behind him.
“You’re begging to be killed.”
Terbion flinched. He’d missed again. Kireua emerged out of the shadows in front of Terbion and looked the demon in the eyes. They were only a stone’s throw from each other, but Terbion couldn’t even lift a finger.
-What kind of a human has eyes like yours...?
“Are you done talking?”
-What...?
“Then die now,” Kireua flatly declared.
The next thing Terbion saw was a headless corpse. It took him a moment, but he realized who it belonged to.
-Is that... mine?
Terbion’s head tumbled chaotically through the air, and that was the last thing that Terbion saw in this world.