"With this level of strength and battle awareness, you call yourself a Hell Lord?" Robert continued to press the attack, landing punch after punch on Satannish, forcing him to retreat. Blood splattered everywhere as Satannish was battered. The more the battle continued, the more Robert's dissatisfaction with Satannish grew.
It wasn't that Robert was overly arrogant, but when he first arrived in the dimensional space, he had no intention of fighting a tough opponent. Especially when Daulte, a not-so-strong Hell Lord, appeared, Robert assumed he wouldn't need to lift a finger.
However, just as Robert thought he wouldn't encounter a worthy adversary, Satannish, the being who had raised Daulte, made his entrance. Satannish's imposing presence had initially stirred Robert's battle spirit.
But who could have predicted that Satannish's strength was so average, and his combat instincts were even worse? Compared to the other Hell Lords Robert had encountered, Satannish's battle sense was embarrassingly poor.
Perhaps Satannish had spent too much time grooming Daulte? But Mephisto had also focused on schemes and contracts, yet his combat instincts had never dulled.
"... I apologize for not giving the Saiyan a good fight!" Satannish, now looking utterly disheveled, was fuming. He hadn't experienced such humiliation in ages.
Since becoming a Hell Lord, there had been conflicts among the lords, but as long as none of them showed weakness or had unforeseen accidents, life-and-death battles were rare.
Satannish couldn't even recall the last time he'd fought someone, let alone a battle where he was completely dominated.
This fight left him feeling suffocated. But the harsh truth was, Satannish lacked the strength to turn the tide. His special techniques couldn't restrict Robert's instant transmission, and his energy and power output were no match for Robert's. Combined with Robert's superior combat skills, Satannish found himself not only unable to defeat Robert but even struggling to escape.
Instant transmission was too much of a cheat. Even if Satannish tried to flee back to his domain in the Hell Dimension, Robert could still lock onto him and follow.
Granted, if Satannish returned to his own territory, he wouldn't have to worry about being killed, but he'd have to bear the cost of Robert potentially destroying his realm. That was something Satannish wanted to avoid.
Meanwhile, Satannish's initial appearance had indeed caused Constantine and Doom great pressure. They had been able to hold off Daulte using the combined power of Kamar-Taj's students, but facing someone as terrifying as Satannish had left them without hope of victory.
To Robert, Satannish wasn't much of a challenge, but to Constantine and Doom, he was an overwhelming threat.
Luckily, Robert had drawn Satannish away, even moving the battlefield far enough so they wouldn't be caught in the crossfire. Now, they only had to deal with Daulte.
With the enhancement from the Reality Stone, Constantine and Doom's strength had reached a level where they could just barely contend with a sub-deity figure. Combining this with the power granted by Kamar-Taj's students, they were able to suppress Daulte, even wounding him several times.
However, despite their advantage, Constantine and Doom soon realized they couldn't kill Daulte. His vitality was simply too strong, and the injuries they inflicted healed rapidly.
Moreover, the energy consumption for Constantine, Doom, and the Kamar-Taj students was massive. Gaining strength didn't mean their power reserves or life force could be elevated indefinitely, especially against a Hell Lord.
"This isn't working! If we keep going like this, we won't kill him, and we might die ourselves!" Constantine muttered to Doom while fighting, sending him a telepathic message. "Do you have any special tricks left? We need to use them now!"
"Special tricks? What special tricks? How long do you think I've been in the supernatural world? I don't have any hidden trump cards!" Doom replied bitterly.
Doom couldn't help but feel helpless. He had only recently stepped into the supernatural world, and yet he was already in a life-or-death battle with a Hell Lord.
Before entering the supernatural world, Doom had been motivated by the likes of Superman and the Avengers, eager to achieve greatness. But once he understood the hierarchy of the supernatural realm and the problems facing the Earth Dimension, his original ambitions had faded, replaced by a pursuit of raw power.
This shift in mindset also led Doom to have a different perspective on the Reality Stone. His ambitions didn't mean he had a hidden ace up his sleeve. At this moment, his current strength was his strongest card.
"Our power grew too fast! Most of my trump cards are useless in this fight..." Constantine admitted. His last major move had been using contract magic to summon the one-eyed dragon, a sub-deity-level entity. But that card was quickly nullified before it could be used effectively.
"It looks like you've run out of tricks!" Daulte, almost as if he had overheard their conversation, smirked. Though still under pressure from their combined assault, Daulte's mood had improved as he observed the battle between Robert and Satannish.
Seeing Satannish completely overpowered by Robert had filled Daulte with hope—hope that he might escape Satannish's control.
Daulte wasn't sure if Satannish would die at Robert's hands, but even though Robert had the upper hand, Daulte knew it wouldn't be easy to kill a Hell Lord like Satannish.
However, if the battle dragged on, Constantine, Doom, and the Kamar-Taj students would be exhausted long before it ended. Once their power was depleted, Daulte would be able to eliminate them and escape while Satannish was too preoccupied to stop him. He could then try to gain recognition from the Hell Dimension's source power, becoming a true Hell Lord with his own territory.
Even a small domain would be acceptable. With the source power of the Hell Dimension backing him, Daulte wouldn't have to fear Satannish anymore. The restrictions Satannish had placed on him could gradually be lifted with the help of the dimension's core energy.
Before gaining his own territory, Daulte's life and power belonged to Satannish. But once he became a true Hell Lord, his allegiance would shift to the Hell Dimension itself. At that point, Satannish could no longer control him.
As Daulte entertained thoughts of his future freedom, he was so distracted that a blow from Doom and Constantine made him cough up blood. Yet his mood only improved, as he could see his path forward clearly.
"This guy knows we won't last much longer. What should we do?" Doom frowned, noticing Daulte's increasingly crazed expression. "He's fighting recklessly, even willing to get hurt just to wear us down. What's he planning?"
"How would I know?" Constantine sighed, frustrated that he couldn't read the mind of a Hell Lord. After a moment of thought, his expression grew serious. "We've only got one option left—use all of our remaining power to severely injure him, then take the chance to get out of here."
"You mean run? And what about him?" Doom asked, startled by Constantine's suggestion.
"What's that got to do with us? Is he going to be crazy enough to go after the Saiyan? He'll have no choice but to return to the Hell Dimension," Constantine responded bluntly. "Besides, if he does go after Robert, wouldn't that be a good thing? We can't kill him, but Robert might."
"What if he follows us back to the Earth Dimension?" Doom pressed.
"Even if we're drained, we still have the sanctum's defenses. If he tries to enter Earth, the sanctum will hold him off until Robert notices and finishes him," Constantine assured him.
Constantine's plan was simple—retreat and leave the hard part to Robert. Had Doom and the Kamar-Taj students known Constantine longer, they would have realized this was his usual strategy before meeting Robert.
In the past, Constantine's escape tactics had gotten many of his companions killed, but he never felt any guilt. It was only after encountering Robert, someone too powerful to betray, that Constantine had started curbing his behavior. Now, in this life-or-death situation, Constantine had returned to his old ways.
"Fine, we'll do it your way!" Feeling the diminishing flow of energy from the Kamar-Taj students, Doom agreed to Constantine's plan. The two of them unleashed a final surge of magic.
With a crack, thick frost quickly enveloped Daulte's body, freezing him in place.
At the same time, snake-like creatures appeared from Constantine's hands, slithering across the ice without breaking it, drawing Daulte's blood from within the frozen shell.
Visibly, Daulte's face grew paler. It wasn't just the frost gnawing at him, but the continuous loss of his blood and strength.
Yet even in this state, Daulte's eyes still twinkled with amusement and anticipation. He seemed to have guessed Doom and Constantine's intentions and was more than happy to go along with their plan.
With a flash, a fiery portal opened. Pale and exhausted, Doom and Constantine stepped through, returning to Kamar-Taj. There, they began restoring their magic while keeping a close watch on the sanctum's defenses, worried that Daulte might still come after the Earth Dimension.
"We might have made a mistake earlier, dealing with the Saiyan..." Wang, also pale and drained, murmured as he sat down with the rest of the Kamar-Taj students. His power depleted, he started reflecting on their recent actions.
"The Reality Stone doesn't corrupt, but immense
power can sway the heart. We were indeed lost in our desire for strength. Now that our power has run out, I feel like I'm finally waking up..." Baron Mordo nodded in agreement, speaking softly.
"No wonder the Saiyan wanted us to exhaust our power. When strength grows too quickly, it really can cloud the mind," Kaecilius sighed, a hint of self-mockery in his voice. "We must never become slaves to power again."
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