And with that, the world suddenly seemed both smaller and larger all at once. With Karlos now a true Demon Lord, there was nothing that could stop us from reshaping the very fabric of reality itself.
I smirked, stretching out my arms and cracking my knuckles. The sound echoed through the now quiet throne room like the prelude to a storm.
"So, Karlos… wanna test your newfound powers?" I asked, the excitement bubbling in my voice. "I mean, it's not every day I get to spar with a walking catastrophe-class danger."
Karlos, ever composed, bowed slightly. "If that is your command, my lord, then I shall comply. But I must warn you…" He looked up, and for the first time, there was a glint of genuine thrill in his eyes. "I am not the same servant you once knew."
Golden magicules began to radiate around me, my magicules flaring in response to the pressure Karlos now exuded. In contrast, a creeping void swirled around him — shadows bent unnaturally at his feet, space itself quivering.
"Let's take it outside," I said, grinning. "Wouldn't want to level the throne room... yet."
Karlos gave a slight chuckle. "Of course, my lord. After all, Solara still needs its palace... for now."
then all three of us used teleportation magic to go to an empty and far-off region away from Solara — a vast plateau scarred by time, with shattered stone and wind that howled like ancient spirits. It was a place where even the sky seemed to hold its breath.
"Alright, let's see what ya got, Karlos," I said, smirking as I cracked my knuckles, my magicule aura sparking just from my excitement.
Karlos stepped forward, his ever-composed smile on his face. "As you wish, my lord."
But just before the battle could begin, a new voice cut in like a blade through silk.
"Wait," Zalario stepped forward, his tone cool and unreadable. "Velsun, let me fight Karlos instead."
I blinked and turned. "You sure?"
"I am," Zalario said, drawing his obsidian blade in one smooth motion. "One of the Seven Primordial Angels versus the first Awakened Demon Lord.... I want to see what the daemon puppy you raised is truly capable of."
Karlos chuckled softly, brushing his gloved fingers through the midnight mist that curled around his form. "Puppy, you say? I suppose it's time I stopped wagging my tail for anyone but my lord."
His smile grew ever so slightly wider — still polite, but now laced with a dark, imperial arrogance that rolled off him in waves. The ground beneath him cracked slightly as his aura surged — the passive curse from [Abyss King Nox] leaking into the air. Villains in old tales would kneel before such pressure. This was a king of shadows cloaked in civility.
I could barely contain myself — grinning like a lunatic, practically vibrating in place.
On one side stood Karlos, now a Catastrophe-Class Daemon Emperor, wielding dominion over void and death.On the other, Zalario, an angelic blade forged by celestial laws, silent and absolute, one of the Seven Primordial Angels.
This... this was going to be insane.
They stood across from one another. The clouds above twisted unnaturally, light and shadow clashing before a single move was made.
I watched intently, my arms crossed, heart thumping with excitement. "This isn't just a fight. This is a clash between catastrophe-class beings."
Then it began.
A deep, oppressive aura radiated from Karlos—an invisible wave of malice and majesty, thick like black ink. His very presence distorted the ground beneath his feet, and tendrils of darkness curled around him, crackling like storm clouds.
Demon Lord Haki.
It was the pressure of someone who had evolved beyond calamity. Not just raw power—but a declaration of absolute control.
At the same time, Zalario exhaled softly.
A radiant, golden pressure surged outward—his form glowing with pure divinity. His Angelic Haki shone like sunlight through stained glass, cleansing and overwhelming. The earth beneath him didn't break—it froze, purified to crystal-like stone under the weight of his holy dominance.
The two auras met—and the sky cracked.
Not a single strike had been thrown, but the entire battlefield was shaking. Birds fled. Trees wilted. The clouds split open above as a dome of divine light and dark void surrounded the two titans.
BOOM!
Their clash sent shockwaves that split the earth like a divine hammer strike.
Zalario moved with the elegance of judgment itself, his blade glowing with condensed holy law. Each swing split space, each step left a ripple in time. Karlos countered with shadow and distortion — spears of darkness burst from the void, and spatial rifts blinked in and out, trying to trap Zalario's form.
"You disappoint me, angel," Karlos said with a grin, voice calm but cold, deflecting a barrage of light with a twisting vortex of void energy. "You call yourself a primordial… yet you hesitate."
Zalario didn't respond — instead, he shifted forward like lightning, cutting through one of the void rifts, slicing across Karlos's cheek. A fine line of black blood appeared, sizzled — and evaporated.
"Oh?" Karlos touched the cut, blinked, then grinned. "You actually hurt me. Now you've done it."
The temperature plummeted. A curtain of darkness exploded around him — his true aura no longer hidden, no longer polite. It twisted with intent. Every creature within a hundred kilometers would drop dead if exposed to this.
Even I had to raise a barrier of sunlight just to avoid the effects.
Karlos' eyes gleamed crimson as he uttered:
"Void Rapture — Null Grave."
Zalario vanished into a torrent of collapsing space.
But the angel wasn't done. "Celestial Judgment — Edenfall."
A giant ethereal sword descended from the heavens, like the wrath of the gods, cleaving through Karlos' dimensional rift with divine fury.
BOOM!!
Light and darkness collided. The entire plateau trembled — the sky fractured like a mirror under divine and infernal pressure.
And I — sitting at the edge with my arms crossed and grinning ear to ear — could only mutter:
"Damn. This is better than any anime I've ever seen."
The battlefield was devastation incarnate.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the shattered land as the aftershock of their clash rippled outward, turning mountain ridges into dust. I stood at the edge, protected by layers of enchanted barriers, unable to wipe the manic grin off my face.
In the center of that chaos — Zalario floated, wings wide and blade glowing with cascading divine circuits. His presence was no longer restrained.
He had released it.
Ultimate Skill: Israfel — Lord of JudgmentThe Absolute Axis of Divine Law.
From where I stood, I could feel it — not just see it. A field had formed, invisible to the naked eye but absolute in effect. Every particle, every wavelength, every molecule of magicule or light was dancing to Zalario's will. Time and space became order. Even sound seemed purified.
"This field is mine," Zalario declared. His voice wasn't loud, but it echoed — like law being written in reality. "Every atom, every frequency... bends to judgment now."
Karlos, still smiling arrogantly, cracked his neck. The cut on his cheek was gone. "Controlling matter and wavelengths, hmm? Such neat, sterile power. Let's see if your little sandbox can handle the abyss."
He extended his hand.
"Void Breach — Oblivion Maw."
A rift tore open behind him, shrieking like a dying star. It pulsed — not with power, but with absence. A black hole of unmaking. It devoured light. Even the holy blade's gleam dimmed.
But Zalario remained unmoved.
"Reverse compression," he whispered, and a ring of glowing sigils formed around the rift. In seconds, it began to collapse — not just being sealed, but rewritten.
I gasped.
He wasn't just countering. He was rewriting the fundamental rules of Karlos' attack on the fly.
But Karlos laughed.
"Oh? You are good."
Suddenly—Karlos vanished.
Then reappeared behind Zalario. A blade of liquid shadow, forged from compressed void, stabbed forward.
Zalario spun, intercepting it — but the impact still hurled him across the sky. A crater miles wide formed where he landed.
"Judging me?" Karlos said, floating after him with cruel grace. "Try surviving me first."
His aura flared — and from behind him, a dark army formed.
Hundreds of silhouettes. Semi-corporeal Daemon Generals — his new army, born from his Unique Skill: Authority of Subjugation.
Zalario stood up, his divine armor cracked, his lips bleeding slightly.
He raised one hand.
"Mass recalibration: zero point containment."
With a pulse of Israfel, the battlefield turned silent.
Every single Daemon General froze.
Then disintegrated into dust.
Zalario stared at Karlos, his eyes alight with a sacred fury. "You created an army. I unmade it. Order, Karlos. You cannot beat it."
But Karlos… just smiled.
"A king does not bow to order."
"A king is the order."
Then both surged at each other.
Karlos's scythe of void screamed through the air as Zalario's blade of divine code carved reality itself. Skills collided. Realms buckled. Laws broke.
And I watched from afar, heart pounding.
Two existences on the verge of divinity, dancing between annihilation and supremacy.
_______
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