Alan saw only eerie silence from the fading debris in the direction King Roiran spoke to until the air began to clear, revealing Armis's golden-black armor embedded in the large crater of the wall.
Even from such a thrashing blow, Armis was unscathed, holding the same twisted expression as King Roiran. He replied with equal vigor, laced with his evident lunacy,
"No! No!! NO!!! You still don't get it, do you? Arrogance still clouding your mind, you foolish King!!!"
Armis pulled his hands out, holding onto either side of the crater debris. He continued, widening his grin even more with added lunacy,
"You can't kill me, YOU NEED ME!!!!!"
Suddenly, he used the rocks as resistance, propelling himself out of the crater toward King Roiran at wind-breaking speed. In turn, King Roiran poised his fist toward the charging Armis, speaking with twisted confidence,
"Who said anything about killing? I AM GONNA BREAK YOUR BONES UNTIL YOU CAN'T STAND!!!!!!!!"
With a battle cry, he lunged back at Armis. Alan could only watch with a shivering, blood-hazed gaze as the two demons collided with erupting force, sending literal dark destructive shockwaves through the temple.
The crackling shockwaves traveled from the air to the walls, almost sending Alan off the platform. As his half-body hung on the ledge, he grabbed onto the ground with his only safe, bloodied hand, before the ground trembled again.
Through the rising shockwaves and dust storm, Alan somehow discerned that after taking King Roiran's punch head-on, Armis, with a maniacal visage, spun and hurled King Roiran down to the ground in a devastating crash before landing strongly himself.
"Ohh?!!! You really think you can do that?!! You really haven't learned anything, have you?!!" Armis bellowed with his persistent grin, striding towards King Roiran, his loud voice dripping with mockery.
"You really are blind, aren't you? Stubborn as well? Look at me, LOOK AT ME, DAMN IT!!!!" Armis stomped hard on the ground, causing it to tremble beneath his feet, emphasizing his words meant for the man lying in the crater ahead, surrounded by the dusty mist, residual from his
devastating crash.
"I am not a human, not a demon, I AM A WEAPON!!!! The most powerful weapon, made for only one goal—your annihilation, and to claim the power and title meant for me and me alone!!!!"
"Yeah?…well, how about we ask that from your creator…?" King Roiran's stern yet loud words cut through Armis's prideful bellowing. Walking through the dust cloud, he closed the distance, holding his hand high, which burned with dark, vile flames.
The same sternness remained on his face as he clenched his fiery fist, sending out a mocking grin while he materialized a dark figure before Armis. The figure's whole features—tall stature, hair, beard, and a mighty sword—were all covered in darkness yet vivid as the real person, Goliath.
"Ha!!! Haha Hahahah!!! Ha!!" King Roiran rejoiced in the scene he conjured up before Armis. He reveled in finally putting a stop to Armis's words, bringing emotions out of him, stunning him in his steps, "Weapon? Annihilation?! Let's see you moving past your own father, without killing him, or getting sliced apart by his sword."
An eerie silence enveloped the temple. Armis remained stunned, wide-eyed before the dark form of his father, who poised his sword at him, holding ferocity in his eyes. While King Roiran savored the moment, mocking Armis in his dilemma,
"Call yourself whatever you want, take joy in my silence, mock me all you want, but your words, your laughter does nothing to my power. YOU ARE JUST A MAN!!! And what is a man to a King…?"
———swishh!!!—Thhuddhhaaaalkkkl!!!!!!!!!——-
Suddenly, the still, silent air exploded apart by a reverberating, gushing strike, even ripping the mocking, joyous look from King Roiran's face when he saw the head of the conjured, dark form of Goliath, gored through by a golden-armored hand of Armis.
Armis didn't even wait for the conjured body of his father to go limp before brutally shoving his other arm through its head.
With his persistent lunatic expression, he began tearing apart its body from the middle. Although no blood or screams came from the dark form, Armis's brutality still stunned King Roiran.
The air of life drained from his face, leaving only dread and coldness until, unable to bear the gore, he quickly clenched his fist again, turning the torn-apart body of Goliath into black mist that instantly dissipated, almost causing Armis to stumble. Yet the sinister look didn't leave his face as he smiled at King Roiran, his eyes reflecting pure madness as he slowly moved his head right and left, speaking in an eerie tone,
"You foolish, foolish King. Why do you refuse to understand?!!!" Armis raised his voice, moving step by step towards King Roiran, who clenched his jaw in disgust and dread as Armis continued,
"Every word, each line, the whole tale, everything that I told you suggests only one thing—that this….! Is destiny."
Armis stopped, changing his expression to stern grimness, with his mouth half open as he looked at King Roiran,
"I am no man, I am not even human, I am DEMON!!!! A Demon GOD!!!!" Armis bellowed, raising his gaze, his head, and his hand up in the air before slowly coming back down, with the same eerie smile, speaking softly with a pang of mockery,
"And what is a king before a GOD."
"You are no God, YOU ARE AN ANIMAL!!!" King Roiran matched Armis's intensity, his voice laced with disgust, continuing through gritted teeth, "You felt no shred of feelings while killing your own father?!!"
"Do not try to fool me…" Armis replied, momentarily returning to his stern demeanor before his smile crept back, "He was just an imitation. And feelings?!! What are they to a God?!!! No, I feel no compassion, I have no love, I don't feel sadness, and I certainly don't have any mercy. And do you know why..?" Armis's words thickened the atmosphere with a tense dread and horror that his presence exuded.
"Because they make one weak…!" Then chaos rained, "Just Like YOU!!!!!!!" Armis suddenly lunged at King Roiran like a beast. King Roiran quickly moved, evading his charge and creating distance with swift strides. He clasped his hands together, calling forth larger, darker flames that engulfed his hands as he yelled out,
"Well, if you are that strong, try handling THIS!!!!"
From the fire, many dark apparitions seeped out, flying towards Armis and transforming into armed warriors of all shapes and sizes mid-air, attacking Armis altogether.
But no shadowy figure stood a chance before Armis. Like a tornado of powerful strikes, he mercilessly tore through them without a second look or thought, leaving behind only dark maimed bodies and ripped limbs that turned back into dark mist upon touching the ground.
"Try all you want, struggle as much as you can, but this is all in vain!!!" Armis bellowed, tearing through the conjured horde of raider souls. He instantly reached King Roiran, who jumped just in time before Armis's devastating punch shattered the temple floor, creating an expanding crater with hurling debris and an explosive sound.
"Oh really?!! Well, this is not the only trick I HAVE!!!!" King Roiran bellowed mid-air. Reaching to his shoulders, he pulled out a dark long sword and whip, swiftly hurling the whip towards Armis, binding his body in an instant before pulling him up with wind-breaking force.
He leapt ahead in the air, letting go of the whip and swinging the sword with both hands, slashing and burning through the air before striking Armis in the gut with explosive force, making minimal sound.
It appeared as though they remained frozen in the air for a moment—a mere fraction of time—until the wind burst open with King Roiran completing his slash, sending Armis hurling at blurring speed, crashing into one of the carved heads of a god. The impact not only destroyed the head but also shattered its entire body into another explosion of debris.
King Roiran heaved as he began to descend from the air slowly, keeping his eyes fixed ahead for any movement from Armis. Suddenly, he stilled. The air around him seemed to crawl, and his movements became sluggish. He couldn't even move his gaze as he heard a grim whisper in his ear, "Nice move… now my turn…!"
Without seeing, King Roiran recognized the voice. Armis hovered behind him with a sinister smile and suddenly spun into a back kick, striking King Roiran's lower back. The impact brought time back to its normal pace, hurling King Roiran into another carved statue of a god, shattering it entirely with a resounding explosion of debris and sound.
"Yyahhhhhhhhh!!!!!" King Roiran bellowed in pain and fury, pulling himself out of the crater. His eyes wide with rage, he gritted his teeth. But before he could speak or move, he saw Armis's twisted smile hovering below him.
Armis whispered grimly, filling King Roiran with shock and apprehension. Before he could react, Armis climbed up and delivered a jaw-shattering punch, burying King Roiran deeper into the wall with explosive force. Armis placed his feet on the wall, gripping King Roiran's head, and began dashing across the wall, shattering through each divine statue using King Roiran's head.
With each impact, Armis's amused, lunatic words pierced King Roiran's mind, accentuated by the destruction:
"Look!!! Look!!!"
——-bbdhhhhhammmm!!!!——-
"Finally, your wish is COMING TRUE!!!!"
——-bbdhhhhhammmm!!!!——-
"You are finally destroying the Gods!!!"
——-bbdhhhhhammmm!!!!——-
"Gods that made a FOOL OUT OF YOU!!!!"
——-bbdhhhhhammmm!!!!——-
"Gods who took your everything!!!!!!"
——-bbdhhhhhammmm!!!!——-
"Gods who made sure that even in this HELL, Your Agony Never Dies!!!!!!!"
——-bbdhhhhhammmm!!!!——-
Armis filled the temple with destruction, dust, and debris. His voice and the sound of chaos reverberated through the air as he made sure each carved stone turned to dust and debris by King Roiran's head.
When he reached the last one, he jumped into the air with King Roiran's limp body, spinning at blurring speed before throwing him into the ground with a reverberating crash, creating an even deeper crater followed by an explosion of dust and sound.
"King... oh King... writhe all you want, ———Dttdhhhhaaaamm!!!!——- You can never hope to scale to a G—"
As Armis mocked, jumping down with force, his words suddenly halted. Frozen mid-movement, he experienced the same freezing of time and air. From the stilled yet fading dust emerged King Roiran, his expression a mix of grim fury and disgust, replying to Armis's arrogance.
"Words don't make one a God…! It's a title, an honor given and earned through loyal subjects, things…THAT YOU DISGUSTINGLY LACK!!!!!!!"
King Roiran quickened his pace towards the still Armis, spinning into a punch aimed at Armis's gut. Holding destructive power behind it, but before it could touch Armis's body, time crawled even slower. King Roiran shockingly felt the same sluggishness, his eyes widening in apprehension as Armis's still visage twisted into a grin. Armis's raised arm was aimed directly at King Roiran's slowly approaching face. Then, like coming out of an icy hold, Armis pulled his head from the slowed time and spoke,
"It's not the subjects nor the loyalty a God needs. All that is essential is enough might to bend anyone BEFORE HIM!!!!!"
As soon as both warriors struck each other, like a glacier of time exploding into a million invisible pieces, time resumed to its normal pace with wind-breaking sounds. Without wasting any time, both lunged back at each other. Armis turned into a back kick, countered by King Roiran spinning, catching Armis's kick before delivering his own to Armis's face, sending him hurling back.
Armis vaulted back on his feet in mid-air, skidding on the ground before, with blurring speed and a resounding clash, defending King Roiran's punch with his forearms.
But King Roiran quickly swept him off his feet, jumping into a high knee aimed at Armis. Armis dodged, taking the strike on his hands, and swiftly spun into a roll kick. The first strike was dodged by King Roiran, the second deflected.
King Roiran then jumped into the air, using Armis's mid-air body as a propeller, executing a backflip dropkick that smashed into Armis's face, shoving his head into the ground with destructive force, creating a crater and hurling debris and dust into the air.
He was used to such speed, discerning through it easily, because he himself was capable of similar feats. But now, with blood-ridden eyes, wounds, and broken bones tearing out of his body, climbing back from the brink of death seemed like a life-and-death effort for Alan. He looked down, seeing the two monsters clashing, though it was more like flashes, explosions, trembling ground, dust, and debris to his eyes.
Alan felt the shivers as he saw the explosion and King Roiran appearing out of thin air, standing tall and forcefully on Armis's face. Roiran jumped, grabbing Armis by the leg and spinning his body like a rag doll, slamming it back and forth on the ground, expanding the crater and intensifying the dust clouds with each devastating impact. With a final spin, King Roiran hurled Armis's gold and black body into the air. He stood still before jolting into a stance, his body glowing and becoming more massive as he spoke calmly, breaking the wind with his voice,
"Artes Inferni…..SALTATIO DEI!!!"
As Armis's body fell within King Roiran's range, he began showering it with continuous, devastating punches and bone-crushing kicks.
First came a punch to the gut, followed by a spinning elbow, then a rising uppercut that sent Armis upwards. King Roiran pulled him back with a devastating back kick, hurling him backwards in the air, and then delivered a straight punch to Armis's head.
With Armis's armoured neck exposed, King Roiran followed with a back straight jab and a tall kick to the chin, raising Armis before delivering a high jump kick to his gut.
This final blow sent Armis crashing into the already destroyed temple wall, burying him deeper into the debris with a resounding explosion of dust, which overshadowed King Roiran's words as he leaned down on his toes, his body bulking up even more and sending out immense waves of dark pulses with his voice,
"Artes Inferni….DIABOLI RUUNT!!!!!"
With these words, King Roiran vanished into thin air without any movement, leaving behind a wind-breaking force that echoed and destroyed the ground and air where he stood.
The scene grew pale until King Roiran reappeared mystically above the debris where Armis was buried. His body was straight as an arrow, holding the might of a hundred mountains. He remained still for a fraction before slamming into the debris, thrashing it into dust and sending destructive tremors throughout the temple. With even more destructive force, he tore through the divine walls of the temple, hurling debris, dust, and explosive air with him and Armis outside.
As King Roiran clutched Armis's waist, slamming him through the falling debris, his squinted eyes suddenly widened in apprehension. After crashing through the third section of the temple wall, he heard a chilling incantation:
"Γολιάθ Τέχνες…. σφυρί της κρίσης…!!!"
King Roiran looked up only to find Armis unscathed, with a shallow stream of blood trickling from his lips, which were twisted into a wide, deep grin.
Above him, Armis's armored hands were clasped, ready to swing down with immense speed and force. Before King Roiran could react, he was sent hurtling downward with wind-breaking force, smashing through the falling debris before crashing into the ground.
As the dust and debris began to settle from the explosion, Armis leaped down, landing on King Roiran's face, using it to plow through the hard surface of the floor.
The trail of destruction left behind was halted only when Armis's momentum ceased, but his rampage did not. Vaulting into the air, Armis used all his monstrous strength to crash back down, cracking the floor and causing the surrounding crust to lunge out as debris, bringing King Roiran's limp body along. Armis aimed a spinning back kick at Roiran, sending him hurtling at wind-breaking speed towards the wall and then following at the same speed.
Wondrous as it eerie when the sound that was supposed to come together with the destruction actually came after it, only to sing praises of Armis's speed.
As King Roiran's body almost reached the wall, it was halted by Armis, who appeared out of thin air and slammed his foot into Roiran's back. Grabbing his hands, Armis pulled with bone-crushing force, filling the chamber with the sound of snapping bones. Another explosion followed as Armis released one of King Roiran's arms and spun his limp body before slamming it into the ground, sending debris flying.
"Γολιάθ Τέχνες…. Στόμπα ενός Θεού…!"
Armis intoned again, bringing his foot down on King Roiran's head with the might of a thousand mountains, raising the ground into a giant plateau.
From within the resulting dust explosion Armis hurled King Roiran's body toward it, adding to the cacophony of mounting explosions. The debris from the plateau shot into the air as King Roiran smashed through it, finally coming to a stop against the wall with a large explosion, filling the entire chamber with haze, destruction, and debris.
"A king, destroyed… trapped in destruction!" Armis moved through the clearing dust, his steps echoing after the fading sound of the explosion.
Despite the destructive melee, his tone carried unrelenting mockery, contrasting with King Roiran's buried silence as he continued, "While a supposed mortal… unscathed, tall, and proud. Makes one wonder, who truly is a real god…?"
"ME!!!! ME!!!! IT'S ME!!!!" The debris covering King Roiran exploded into smithereens, his bellowing lungs overshadowing the explosion. Now monstrous, he jumped out of the crater, placing his dark glowing hands on the ground, summoning countless ferocious shadows that had first greeted Armis. "YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A MORTAL, WITH A MARK!!!!"
King Roiran leaped into the air, conjuring an army of shadows. He rolled mid-air, hands on his etchings, and pulled out dark weapons, hurling them at Armis while vaulting continuously, yelling, "NOW FACE THE TRUE WRATH OF A TRUE GOD!!!!"
The army and armory charged towards Armis, who stood calm and silent for a moment. Suddenly, he burst out, charging at blurring speed towards the unending attack. His eyes twisted wide in madness, tongue lolling out as he bellowed a reply laced with mockery and lunacy, "OH REALLY?! THEN TELL ME, OH GOD, CAN A MORTAL—"
Etchings on Armis's armor glowed brighter and brighter as he quickly turned, tearing through tens of shadows, deflecting multiple weapons in one swing. "—DO THIS?!"
King Roiran kept yelling, conjuring more weapons and shadows, sending them at Armis with ferocity. Armis deflected and dodged every weapon, breaking some and using others to slaughter the dark souls, yelling like a lunatic, each exclaim accentuated by a slash, stab, gorge, or slam.
He deflected a spear in mid-air, caught it, snapped it apart, and stabbed both pieces into the heads of two approaching souls. "THIS?!"
He rushed forward, twisting the hand of one soul, snatching its sword before cleaving through it and several others. "THIS?!"
Armis lunged at a titanic soul with a giant hammer. He deflected the hammer with his sword, causing the sword to break in half. Swiftly, he jumped, delivering a dropkick to its face, blasting it away. "THIS?!"
Armis then seized the hammer, swinging it with monstrous power, instantly clearing the area by smashing countless souls. "THIS?!"
He swung again, hurling the hammer ahead, carving a path through the slaughter and chaos, yelling loudly, "THIS?!!!"
Suddenly from the dark crowd, King Roiran lunged down at Armis with a disgust-filled battle cry, swinging a broad sword at Armis,
"YOU ANIMAL! YAHHHHHHHH!"
———-thheddhhhhaammmmmmm!——-