Chapter 152: The Lion Pillar and the Rise of the Demon God King
Was it possible that Rias had already anticipated Akeno and the others wouldn't be able to hold the perimeter? Had she discreetly relocated the two mysterious inhabitants of the villa beforehand?
It was a possibility Sona couldn't dismiss.
Yet speculation wasn't enough. They had to see it with their own eyes.
With cautious steps and sharpened awareness, Sona and Shinra Tsubaki slipped into the villa grounds. The night was quiet, unnaturally so. Entering the hallway, a strange light flickered at the far end. It was coming from the living room—but this was no ordinary electrical illumination. It pulsed with magical intensity, like arcane plasma born of rituals not meant for mortal sight.
Sona gestured subtly—Tsubaki nodded, immediately prepared to defend against a surprise assault.
They crept forward and turned the corner.
Inside the grand hall knelt a young girl—Asia Argento, a devout nun once cast out by the church.
She was praying feverishly, trembling, as if on the edge of sacrifice. Beside her stood a young man clad in otherworldly robes. Dozens of glowing cards hovered around him, orbiting like celestial bodies. The air thickened with tension—each card exuded a foreboding presence that made Sona's skin prickle.
Was this a summoning? A curse? Or something worse—a divine offering cloaked in infernal power?
She couldn't just watch.
Drawing upon her affinity for water, Sona silently directed moisture to seep into the wooden floorboards, sending rippling streams toward the sorcerer. One heartbeat later, tendrils of water burst upward, wrapping around his legs like enchanted ropes.
At that moment, Sona and Tsubaki dashed into the room, ready to subdue him—
And then it happened.
A sharp cry. A thud.
"Tsubaki!"
Sona halted in shock.
Tsubaki had stumbled—utterly inexplicable. She was the last person to falter in a combat scenario. As Sona turned to help, she noticed a sudden flare from a ring on the sorcerer's hand.
It glowed with the brilliance of command.
Simultaneously, Sona herself felt something—a flicker of submission buried in her mind. It was subtle. Alien. Like a whispered command she almost followed without realizing.
Submit?
"Restrain her."
The young man spoke. His voice was quiet, yet absolute.
In a flash, Tsubaki lunged toward Sona with unnatural speed—her body no longer her own.
Sona dodged just in time, narrowly avoiding a tackle.
"Tsubaki—no!"
She was being controlled. It was too swift, too precise. Something arcane had seized her will.
Sona gritted her teeth, shifting her attention away from Asia and the ritual. She couldn't prevent the ceremony now. All she could do was fend off her possessed companion and pray the girl could be saved.
"Tsubaki! Fight it!" she pleaded.
But the ritual had begun.
Above the sorcerer—whose name now rang out as Hakutsuki—floated the seventy-two cards, humming with energy. One drifted down, landing lightly in his palm.
He flicked it toward Asia.
The card grew rapidly, enlarging to the size of a doorway before hovering above the kneeling girl.
The magic intensified. Demonic energy surged—different from ordinary infernal forces. It carried authority. Age. Blood.
And then the lion appeared.
Not a painted symbol, not an illusion—but a living image burned into the glowing card—a beast that radiated ancestral power.
Sona's breath caught.
Among the demons of the old world, one family bore the lion as its sigil: the Marbas bloodline, ranked fifth among the original seventy-two demon pillars.
Marbas was a rarity—an origin demon whose powers unsettled even the mightiest houses.
One power revealed truth, stripping away deception and schemes.
The other—miraculous healing. With it, Marbas could restore injured demons mid-battle, altering tides of war.
It was for these reasons Marbas was hunted relentlessly during the great Triumvirate War. His bloodline was believed extinct.
And yet…
That card. That lion. That aura.
Was it possible Asia was his descendant?
"Asia Argento," the young man declared, his voice ringing with unnatural authority. "From this moment forth, you may claim the name Asia Argento Marbas. You shall stand as one of the seventy-two demon pillars."
Sona froze.
Had she heard correctly?
This girl—expelled by the church, marked by healing power and innocence—was being named a demon of ancient lineage?
No… something didn't add up.
Sona had interacted with Asia before. There had been no trace of demonic essence in her.
A faithful nun could never survive within the church if tainted by infernal heritage. That would be torture—no, a death sentence.
And yet… this man—this stranger—declared her a demon pillar.
More than that… a demon god?
Only origin demons bore that title.
So who was this man?
Asia, nervous and wide-eyed, finally responded. "Y-yes, King Solomon."
Sona felt the blood drain from her face.
Solomon?
That couldn't be.
Solomon had died three millennia ago. A mortal king, long buried and sanctified.
Yet the clues began to fall into place.
Rias's panicked behavior. The rumors of sacred relics being desecrated. The destruction of Solomon's casket held by the church.
And this man—wearing ten radiant rings. Rings said to bear the seal of Solomon's command, capable of bending demons to his will.
Tsubaki had fallen in seconds beneath their glow.
The cards flared once more, the lion's image dissipating into radiant specks. The light flowed into Asia's body, flooding her with magic.
It was silent at first.
But then Sona felt it—her mana signature transformed. Within moments, Asia had become a mid-tier demon.
Then her power surged higher.
Intermediate class… then elite.
And still rising.
Could it be—was she ascending toward the highest tier of demonkind?
Sona watched in awe and horror.
Asia, still untrained, knew nothing of combat. But the essence now saturating her could rival even nobility. The aura she radiated was purer than anything Sona had felt, perhaps even surpassing her own bloodline.
The implications were staggering.
Raw power alone didn't guarantee supremacy—but once mastered, Asia might become a demon of unprecedented scale.
"President!"
Tsubaki had broken free of the enchantment, staggering back to Sona's side.
They locked eyes—both understanding the gravity of what they'd witnessed.
Tsubaki stood ready to protect Sona, even to die for her, if necessary.
But as the remaining cards swirled and returned to Solomon's hands, a realization swept through them like icewater.
He had seventy-one cards left.
Each capable of elevating a recipient to demon nobility.
If granted to the skilled… the powerful… the strategic…
It was possible he could build an army of seventy-one demons, each equal to or surpassing the old elite. A force to rival even the Demon Kings.
And if Asia's transformation was but the beginning…
Then Solomon's plan was clear.
The shattered seventy-two houses of demonkind would be remade.
He would appoint new demon gods.
And he himself would ascend as their sovereign—the Demon God King of the Underworld.
The implications burned across Sona's mind like a prophecy of doom.
Was this divine will?
Or the rebirth of war?