Chapter 927: Fools Never Have Self-Awareness
"Oh ho! To identify the opponent's greatest weakness without any prompting? Is he the type who thinks strategically during battle, or does he simply possess exceptionally strong intuition? Regardless, that man truly cannot be underestimated!"
Barnier shielded his eyes with his hand, clicking his tongue in amazement as he watched the distant scene.
"What? What's happening now?"
Even after activating Clairvoyance, Kazuma felt as blind as someone with their eyes wide open. The surrounding black mist blurred the entire world, making the boundary between dream and reality ambiguous. Megumin was even more clueless.
"In short, after a period of entanglement, the new Demon King now holds the overwhelming advantage."
Out of appreciation for the five billion creativity idea, Barnier found Kazuma particularly endearing today and kindly explained the situation to them.
The gate connecting to hell had been shattered.
Asmodeus had lost her energy source. From this point on, the battle could only rely on her own magical power and the dream energy of the unconscious demon soldiers and adventurers around her.
Her power had plummeted from infinite to finite, and her face was terrifyingly dark.
A Grand Duke of Hell only possesses their complete form while in hell. As long as they remain in hell, empowered by its infinite energy, they can almost be considered immortal!
In other words, Grand Dukes of Hell who die are all fools who enjoy wandering into the outside world!
She was now becoming one of those fools!
"Swish!"
Without any warning, Eiji closed in, gripping the radiant holy sword.
In the blink of an eye, he crossed over twenty meters, appearing before her as if frames had been skipped.
Asmodeus instantly tensed every nerve in her body!
So fast!
Though she had sensed it earlier, she was still startled!
This guy's physical prowess was astonishing, completely surpassing her neural reaction speed. She couldn't even see how he moved—it was almost like teleportation!
As a succubus, she wasn't adept at close-quarters combat on the battlefield, so she instinctively retreated backward while conjuring a thick layer of dark flames in front of her.
Before colliding with the flames, Eiji's figure abruptly halted.
He stomped the ground fiercely, his body soaring into the air like an elegant gymnast, clearing the flames. While mid-air, he swung his sword down at Asmodeus!
A dark shadow flashed before her eyes, and a intense sense of crisis surged within Asmodeus. She hastily manipulated her domain, freezing everything in front of her!
Pure white ice erupted in an instant, blooming like snowflakes. Even the air seemed to freeze, with dense curses spreading through it like a murky swamp.
"Curse Crystal Prison?"
Eiji recognized that move—the strongest water-attribute offensive magic, one that Wiz was particularly skilled with.
However, his movements didn't falter in the slightest. With a swing of his sword, a golden blade of light roared forth!
The sword light sliced through the frozen air, advancing irresistibly toward the cursed ice.
Asmodeus felt slightly reassured. As long as she continuously deployed her strongest ice, even the power of a divine artifact shouldn't be able to break through—
In the blink of an eye, the golden sword light, like a swimming fish, seemed to gain a will of its own as it shifted its trajectory, skimming along the edge of the cursed ice layer and striking forward. In an instant, it pierced right through the middle of her body!
"What?"
Asuk was instantly shocked.
She couldn't comprehend what had just happened at all!
Why did the opponent's attack suddenly change its path, automatically bypassing the defensive layer and striking her?
Her expression shifted rapidly, her gaze darting around before she abruptly dashed toward the direction of the square.
Eiji narrowed his eyes.
The square was filled with adventurers who had fallen unconscious after being struck by the black mist, and Darkness was among them.
"Trying to use hostages to threaten me again?"
Eiji's gaze turned cold as he immediately unleashed a Sacred Heavenly Thunder.
Golden divine lightning descended from the sky, sharp as the spears of a great god, striking toward Asuk with unparalleled precision, one after another.
In an instant, the golden lightning enveloped her entire body, causing her to tremble violently.
"Why did every single one hit me?"
Asuk gritted her teeth tightly, her enchanting eyes filled with shock and fury.
No matter how she dodged, those heavenly thunderbolts seemed to have eyes, relentlessly pursuing her!
Wasn't this supposed to be a large-scale area-of-effect attack?
Why could every strike accurately target her?
"You've started dodging now."
Eiji caught up from behind, a meaningful smile curling on his lips.
"So what?"
"If you were still the immortal being you were before, there would be no need to dodge—these attacks wouldn't harm you in the slightest. But now that you're dodging, it means my attacks are starting to hurt you, right?"
Asuk's eyes flickered.
This was proof that Eiji had hit the mark.
The reason she had remained unscathed and pain-free was that, the moment she was injured, she used the boundary between dreams and reality to erase the wounds, turning the reality of injury into an illusory dream!
But each time she used this ability, it consumed a significant amount of magical power!
Without the infinite energy provided by Hell, she was no longer immortal. If her injuries accumulated too much and her power was exhausted, it would be over!
"But you're getting too carried away!"
Asuk raised her head, her eyes filled with vigilance.
With a "whoosh," scorching black flames erupted, engulfing more than half of the square!
In an instant, over a hundred adventurers, including Darkness, fell under Asuk's control!
"Can you ignore them and attack me?"
Asuk revealed a triumphant smile.
She didn't care whether her methods were despicable or not—if she had cared about such trivialities, she wouldn't have willingly reincarnated as a succubus hundreds of years ago!
"Among them, there must be someone you care about, right? This is the inconvenient part of being a righteous character. If you're willing to submit to me now, I still wouldn't mind taking you in!"
Asuk's tone grew cheerful.
From the way he had actively intercepted her attacks earlier, she had already deduced that Eiji deeply cared about those around him. Even for insignificant subordinates, he was willing to expose himself to protect them. There was no way he could ignore so many people and attack her!
It was practically no different from winning—time to pop the champagne!
"Fools never realize their own foolishness."
An expression of utmost mockery spread across Eiji's face.
Without hesitation, he swung the holy sword, and divine thunder rained down, enveloping Asuk entirely.
"You—!"
With a fierce glare in her eyes, Asuk immediately summoned hellfire, directing it toward the adventurers in the square.
Burn a few first, and if they still refuse to obey, burn a few more—
"Ugh!"
But the golden thunder arrived a step ahead, drenching her like pouring water.
Thinking she had simply been too slow, Asuk paid it no mind and summoned hellfire once more—
"Argh!"
Yet again, the golden thunder outpaced her, inflicting even more injuries upon her!