Chapter 256 - The God Of This World For A Reason
"Master look ou-" Before Asuka's cries could reach Haruki's ears, a storm of clouds began thundering over the Colosseum's arena.
Distracted by the sudden change, Inferno stopped the trajectory of his blade to glance up into the skies. The rest of the demon lords, the audience, and even Haruki were curious much the same as they raised their heads to the spiraling storm clouds.
"What the hell?" Peering up with a sense of dread, Asmodia felt a familiar presence.
"It's him, isn't it?" Drawing deep breaths, Klaus got off his seat and turned to look at the other demon lords around him. "Don't just sit there, get ready!"
The sight of the clouds tearing apart, and a giant bloodied eye jittering about while looking down, terrified Reya, the most as her portal of sight turned a ghostly pale. Breathing heavenly, she felt her heart seizing up from the fear upon catching sight of the last true angel.
"M-Melicia, what is she doing here?!" She screamed, getting ready to teleport away from the threat.
"How t-the fuck would we know?" Merciella replied, trying her hardest not to stutter.
Watching the eye move away from the tear in the clouds, they witnessed it bring its skinned hand down toward the ground. Riding on the palms of the angel who was once a witch, Atlas was brought right into the arena not too far away from Inferno and Haruki. Extending his hands outward, Atlas closed his eyes for a moment and all of a sudden the surprised gasps from the demon all died down.
"Been a while since we met, has it not?" Opening his eyes back up, he looked right at Haruki.
''What? Who is this guy even?' Seeing Atlas for the very first time, that too in the beggar's cloak, it took a moment for him to remember bumping into him once in the streets of the Marquis kingdom. 'No way...'
"I suppose so," Inferno replied, thinking he was the one being referred to. "But I suppose we can't keep running away from each other forever."
Directing his flaming sword toward Atlas, Inferno lowered himself on his left knee and slid the right leg back to stay ready to deflect any attacks. Despite his preparations, Atlas casually walked off the bloody palm and fanned his hands to Melicia so she could retreat back into the clouds.
In the meantime, the other demon lords, except Reya, jumped into the arena. Although lost without any direct commands, Haruki's companions rushed to his side by their intrinsic desire to protect their master. Now that everyone important had gathered up, Atlas raised his left hand and snapped his finger to get rid of the rest.
"Gospel: Die," following those commands, the demonic audience began to cry out in screams of agony, as their very body went against their wills and tried to kill themselves in all kinds of ways.
Some slashed their own throats to bleed to death, some ripped out their heart and ate away at them with the last few breaths they had left. The more extreme of the bunch, the ones who enjoyed to torture started to skin their bodies with their claws and even tore off their limbs and organs one after the other.
Witnessing the power of a god's words, the angels weren't the least bothered, but the rest of the group felt heavily unnerved. Having never seen such hysteria, they couldn't figure out if they were standing in front of a god or a demon disguised as one. Even more concerning was the fact that he stood before them all without a hint of fear or doubt, which in turn terrified them even more.
"I'm only here for lust and her puppet," speaking once again, Atlas began moving right toward Inferno's blade. "The rest of you might still pose useful after all."
Stopping in front of the flaming sword, he pinched its blade with his fingers, and the flames were drawn into Atlas's body as if he was simply inhaling it all in. Once the fire had died down, the blade crumbled to dust, and Inferno's transformation into the giant shogun was swiftly undone by a sudden glow in Atlas's gaze.
"Gospel: Move aside," Atlas commanded, scanning through Haruki's companions.
As the power of his words tried to make them step away and leave Haruki's side, they all tried their best to stand their ground, but were then flung far away by an invisible force. Hitting the walls like a zooming arrow, not even one of them could keep themselves from falling unconscious.
"Atlas..." Looking back at his companions falling down on the ground, Haruki gradually turned his head to look back at Atlas. "How fucking dare you hurt them!"
Blinded by the sight, he shifted into the dragon form and flew at him at the speed of sound. Ready to unleash his fury, he created countless clones in the fleeting moment. Equipping himself and the clones with Shadow ice claws he was inches away from swinging at Atlas, but that's when the flow of time stopped altogether.
"Don't be an idiot," after hearing those words, Haruki blinked his eyes as he tried to look at Asmodia, but the moment they opened back up, he was back in time and standing in the same place where he stood a few seconds ago.
His transformation undone as well, he felt slightly drained as if he was stripped of a huge chunk of his mana. Turning to Asmodia who was standing before him, he wondered exactly what she'd done to him.
"You should thank your master, she saved your life just now," Atlas muttered, looking at Haruki.
Confused by his words, the other demon lords looked at Asmodia from the edge of their eyes. Unlike Atlas or even Haruki, they had no affinity for time; thus, everything that had transpired within those few seconds had completely slipped their minds.
"Fuck this," reaching for his katana, Inferno was once again ready to intercept Atlas.
Following his lead, the others lined up before him as well. Growing out a staff made of slithering vines and a lotus on top, Klaus held it towards Atlas with a beam of light charging up on the flower's open mouth. Stomping her left foot forward, Merciella moved her fists into a fighting stance. Appearing out of her sleeves, an inscribed roll of paper flew out of her sleeves and turned her fists into giant origami gloves.
"I thought we had time, but..." Reaching into a glowing storage portal, Deus took out a pair of holographic guns infused with every basic elemental affinity. "I guess it's gonna be game over for at least some of us today."
In all this, as Asmodia stood silent without saying a word or preparing for the fight that was to come, the other demon lords as well as Haruki turned to look at her with a bit of a puzzled look. Atlas too kept his eyes fixed on the mistress of lust, as he knew better than any exactly what must've been going on in her head.
"You seem youthful," Asmodia finally broke her silence. "The curse of mortality, it was supposed to hasten up your death, but you seem youthful, almost as if-"
"As if its effects have been undone?" Looking at Asmodia with a grim look, Atlas confirmed her suspicion. "I got some help from another god, she burned off the curse. Do not worry though, you can still try to kill me since I'm still a mortal, bound in soul and body by the creator himself. The only thing that has changed is that your curse isn't keeping me on death's door."
"And is that all that she did? Purge the curse I put on you?" Furrowing her eyes with contempt, she could almost smell the hint of the so-called goddess on Atlas's body. Taking a step forward, she unleashed her claws like a feline before rushing towards him with time slowed down to the smallest possible frame of a second.
"For the sake of the world, I did what I had to," Atlas replied as Asmodia was inches from taking out his eye. Moving his head away with great fluidity, he wrapped his hands around her and moved his lips by her ears to whisper. "Now's your turn to do the same."
Feeling a punch in her stomach, Asmodia's eyes widened as pain took over her body for the first time since the partition of her body and soul. Her grip on time loosened up as she was forced down to her knees trying to recover from the hurt. And even though her abilities used pain to recover from injuries, the attack infused with true holy magic deterred that from happening.
"What the fuck happened?!" Mad at Atlas for hurting his sister, while also furious toward Asmodia for slowing down time so frequently, Inferno couldn't control his rage any longer and just jumped forward to land an attack from his flaming katana.
"Inferno stop!" Stretching his hands forward, Klaus tried to stop him.
Ignoring his brother, Inferno kept bloating forward and turned into a flaming dragon about to consume Atlas whole. Sighing at the oncoming attack, Atlas fanned his hand towards Inferno and the flaming dragon around him turned into a solid statue of ice. However, breaking through the ice tomb, Inferno jumped up high and produced a quiver of fire. Drawing an arrow he quickly unleashed it as a giant phoenix with flames that couldn't be extinguished.
Before the phoenix could even make contact with Atlas, the others decided to join the fight even though rushing without thinking was a moronic idea.
'Not like we have a choice!' Following the lead of the demon lords, Haruki got ready to unleash Asmodia's pets which were specially designed to kill gods.
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