Hell trembled under the Sin of Gluttony, Beelzebub's pressure.
Surrounding lesser demons roared and wailed.
In the clash between Kaiser and Beelzebub, lesser demons were mere fodder.
"Roar!"
Beelzebub opened its maw, demonic flames raging.
The flames surged toward Kaiser with blinding speed.
He dodged sideways.
His right shoulder plate vaporized in Gluttony's flames, even as a Golden Cloth, unable to withstand the sinful fire.
Burning pain seared his shoulder.
Hell's corrosive energy invaded through the wound.
Kaiser knelt on the boiling lava sea, his Cloth's surface glowing with golden runes resisting the law's erosion.
"See? This is the gap between god and mortal!"
Beelzebub's six demonic arms formed seals, warping hell's dimensional space.
The lava sea roared with kilometer-high waves, thousands of gluttonous demon insects emerging, their mandibles gleaming with purple-black devouring law light.
Kaiser wiped golden blood from his lips, star trails swirling in his divine vision.
The lava beneath him solidified into a twelve-sided golden star chart, Cosmo-forged weapons humming like dragon roars.
"You think the Zodiac's power stops here?"
"Galaxian Explosion!"
Hell's sky tore open, starlight piercing dimensional barriers.
Gluttonous insects were shredded by the exploding starlight.
"Parlor tricks!"
Beelzebub's true demonic form swelled to a kilometer tall, its abdomen splitting into a toothed abyss.
Scarlet Gluttony laws formed chains, dragging the Galaxian Explosion's energy into its maw.
Hell's rock layers collapsed, sulfur clouds torn into vortexes of chaotic energy.
"Let's see you devour this!"
Kaiser's eyes sharpened.
His thoughtform and Cloth split, forming a trinity battle array.
"Athena Exclamation!"
Radiant light illuminated the dimension.
Hell groaned under the Athena Exclamation's explosion, Beelzebub's demonic arms shattering.
Beelzebub roared, its abyssal maw spewing devouring black light.
At the collision's epicenter, dimensional barriers shattered like glass.
Beelzebub staggered back.
Not fully revived, its demonic form was less than a tenth of its peak.
Kaiser saw the opening.
His thoughtform and Cloth merged back, transforming into a golden meteor piercing the energy storm.
"Die!"
His right hand condensed his mid-Eighth Sense Cosmo, the holy sword's blade dancing with runes.
The sword's arc briefly severed hell's time river.
All Hundred Weapons Arsenal arms compressed into the sword.
"Excaliber!"
A cross-shaped star crack appeared on Beelzebub's chest, its devouring black light recoiling.
The massive demonic form retreated under the sword's impact.
Hell's outpost began collapsing, countless demons reduced to dust.
"So tough."
Kaiser glanced at his self-repairing Cloth.
Even as a Golden Cloth, it was too fragile for this battle.
"Mortal!"
Beelzebub tore apart the sword light on its chest.
Scattered light sank into the earth and walls.
Hell's rock layers wailed, sulfur clouds shredded into wisps by the rampant sword light.
Man and demon god clashed as streaks of light.
Kaiser's holy sword struck Beelzebub's arm, erupting in stellar annihilation light.
Gluttony's true form disintegrated, reforming as billions of amethyst locusts.
"Enjoy this gluttonous feast!"
The locust swarm buzzed, each insect's mandible etched with devouring runes.
They consumed space itself, depleting hell's contents visibly.
Even demons couldn't escape.
Kaiser leaped from a collapsing rock pillar, Libra's Cloth blazing with twelve star trails.
Holy spear and shield crossed, forming a half-kilometer golden matrix.
"Hundred Weapons Arsenal!"
With a roar, countless weapon phantoms poured from the matrix, pinning locusts to the boiling lava sea.
Pierced locusts exploded, corrosive poison mist enveloping the battlefield.
Kaiser's Cloth sizzled, Zodiac light repairing slower than the damage.
"Sekishiki Konso Ha!"
The poison mist burned away, clearing Kaiser's vision.
Seven bell tolls echoed from hell's depths, Beelzebub's true form reassembling in the lava sea.
Its new form was terrifying.
Three thousand compound eyes covered its torso, each tentacle tipped with snapping mouths.
Space spiraled around it, demon corpses surging from rifts to fill battle losses.
"See this food?"
"These are fools who defied Gluttony's law for millennia."
Beelzebub's voice shook rock layers.
Its tentacles coiled hundreds of struggling demon souls, crunching them like candy.
Kaiser's pupils shrank, spotting Saint constellation crests among the souls.
"You deserve death!"
Athena's warning exploded in his mind: "Don't let anger consume you! He's provoking you!"
Gluttony's abyssal maw expanded, preserved Saint souls wailing.
Kaiser's heart clenched, his Eighth Sense Cosmo fluctuating.
The souls' screams carried a psychic assault.
Seizing the moment, three tentacles broke time-space, wrapping Kaiser's waist.
"Got you…"
The tentacles' mouths greedily sucked the Cloth's starforce and divinity, mold-like corrosion spreading.
Kaiser roared, grabbing the tentacles, compressing a Galaxian Explosion into a blazing white orb: "Let go!"
The dimension collapsed in the blast, space between them caving into a black hole.
Beelzebub's severed tentacles regenerated, spewing not blood but viscous dark matter.
Touched rock layers morphed into writhing flesh, hell becoming a living entity.
Kaiser retreated, panting, black fungal threads invading his Cloth's seams.
Feeding on divine blood, they spread toward his heart.
"This is a Seven Deadly Sins demon god?"
"Not just formidable in direct combat."
"It can assault the soul mid-battle."
"Zodiac Radiance!"
The Zodiac Array's projection appeared, twelve golden constellations casting purifying light pillars.
The light became blazing solar fire.
Hell's canopy burned through, flesh reduced to ash.
Beelzebub opened all its mouths, swallowing the solar fire and space itself.
Its body swelled to mountain size, golden flame wounds bursting across its surface.
"This guy!"
Kaiser's pupils contracted.
"Feel Gluttony's flames!"
Beelzebub's roars layered, swallowed solar power morphing into black fallen fire.
Hell's temperature soared, the lava sea boiling with million-meter waves.
"Smart or foolish?"
"I wasn't ready before, but now you dare devour?"
Beelzebub sensed dread at Kaiser's words.
A golden sun descended.
Kaiser pulled the earth's mythical sun into hell's dimension.
Beelzebub screamed, its three thousand eyes bursting.
Its severed tentacles pierced hell's rock, inverting the battlefield's gravity.
Caught off guard, Kaiser was flung toward the lava sea but shattered space, flipping upright.
"Mortal!"
"Die!"
Beelzebub's broken body became blood rain, each drop morphing into independent entities.
Some became toothed clouds, others acid-dripping beasts, some mimicked Kaiser's form.
Facing thousands of demons, Kaiser retracted his Cosmo.
As attacks closed in, his eyes blazed with galactic spirals: "Against a Saint, the same trick won't work!"
"Starlight Another Dimension!"
Countless starlight threads emerged from the void, slicing the battlefield into a chessboard grid.
Each Gluttony clone was trapped in its own cell, while the true body…
Kaiser's divine eyes scanned the earth, seeking Beelzebub's core.
"Found you!"
Kaiser appeared beside an unremarkable rock, thrusting his holy sword into seemingly empty space.
Spatial folds tore open, revealing Beelzebub's slime-dripping true form stumbling out.
The demon god's face showed shock and rage: "A mere mortal! How could you find me…"
A piercing holy sword answered, stabbing through its chest.
But the wound morphed into a maw, biting the golden weapon and Kaiser's right arm.
Locked in a bizarre standoff, fallen Gluttony power clashed with holy Cosmo in close quarters.
Hell revealed its true terror.
The ravaged space collapsed fully, exposing a boiling sea of sin below.
Countless pale arms rose from the black water, dragging at both combatants' legs.
Kaiser saw familiar Cloth crests on the arms, nearly consumed by dark emotions.
His soul took a heavy blow.
"Beware! Those are the grudges of fallen warriors!"
Athena's divine will formed golden threads around his wrist.
In the critical moment, Athena intervened, shielding Kaiser's body.
Beelzebub seized the chance, tearing a spatial rift to channel sinful black water toward the Zodiac Array, hammering the barrier.
Kaiser diverted focus to cleanse the sin, allowing Beelzebub to break free and slip into a dimensional crevice.
As the last wisp of demonic qi faded, hell lay in ruins, only their battle's residual energy burning in the void.
"Mortal, I look forward to our next meeting."
Beelzebub's whisper drifted with the spatial turbulence.
"It escaped!"
Kaiser watched Beelzebub's form vanish into hell's depths.
He dared not pursue into hell's core.
Even Athena's true form wouldn't venture there.
Satisfied with the outcome, Kaiser had delayed Beelzebub's recovery by centuries.
Half-kneeling at the sea of sin's edge, his Cloth bore self-repairing cracks.
The Zodiac Array's radiance shone from behind, illuminating hell's ruins.
The battle's commotion drew attention from hell's denizens.
"Beelzebub, how pathetic."
"Repelled by a mortal."
Mocking voices reveled in the demon god's defeat.
"A mortal? Hardly."
"That one has the potential to ascend to godhood."
Mephistopheles, Lucifer's dark sorcerer, eyed Kaiser warily, sensing his power.
"The Sanctuary's ambitions are vast."
"Does Athena truly aim to dominate the earth?"
"The earth's secrets…"
"Has Athena uncovered them?"
A demon god muttered.
"Damn gods."
They had glimpsed freedom.
Gluttony, fueled by human desire, had formed a demonic body.
With time, the seal could have broken.
But Kaiser ruined it.
They'd sleep in the seal again.
"Sooner or later, we'll have our chance."
A voice from hell's depths faded.
Kaiser, bathed in the Zodiac Array's light, returned to the hell tunnel.
"527"
Golden light threads began stitching the tunnel shut.
The light swept over Kaiser, a burning sensation rising.
The prolonged battle in hell had affected him.
But the mythical sun's radiance evaporated the toxins and evil god's power.
Kaiser spat black blood.
"Nearly lost it there."
He wiped blood from his lips.
Even divine blood struggled against hell's toxins.
"You were too reckless."
"We only needed to guard the entrance."
Athena's phantom appeared beside him.
She had warned him before the battle.
"Cough… got carried away."
Kaiser grinned sheepishly.
"But it wasn't without gain."
"My surged power is fully harmonized now."
"I'm at least twice as strong as when I left the Sanctuary."
"Battle is the best catalyst."
The sluggishness was gone.
Power coursed through him.
"Mid-Eighth Sense, you're closer to godhood."
Athena could only congratulate him.
"I'll be more careful."
Kaiser smiled at her eye-roll.
"Kairos has reincarnated."
"My plan is proceeding smoothly."
Athena shifted topics, mentioning Kairos.
"The God-Slaying Power?"
"I'm eager to see it."
"How strong will it be?"
Kaiser anticipated the God-Slaying Power.
Though he felt for Pegasus, his soul, unbound by this world, held greater potential than Pegasus or Seiya.
"I'm reminding you again!"
"Protect yourself."
Athena's exasperated voice cut through his thoughts.
"Got it, got it…"
Kaiser sighed.
Athena's exchanges felt less divine, more like a friend's.
Hell was temporarily pacified.
Kaiser had no plans to leave yet.
The Sanctuary and earth were the same to him.
Guarding here, he could respond to earthly crises instantly.
The Zodiac Array's duration was limited.
Kaiser's task was to extend it.
If evil gods breached the array, it would shatter faster.
Even Odin's power might not sustain it long.
"Hm?"
Meditating cross-legged, Kaiser sensed something off.
"This is?"
"Odin's power?"
Athena felt it too…
"Odin…"
***
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