Chapter 325 Chapter 325 - Death's A Cruel Mistress
"You're here," muttered Asmodia, pulling her teacup away from her shimmering new lips.
The others have already told Haruki about the changes in her body, yet seeing it with his own eyes was something else entirely. With her soul hosted inside a demi-god body, the Asmodia everyone knew was far from the one seated before Haruki. Her dark hair was riddled with numerous flocks of golden hair that gave her pure dark eyes an even more mystifying look. Her body was just another extension of the absurdity with her skin a translucent dark with bursting stars glistering underneath.
Pushing open the door to the cloning lab completely, Haruki took a single step inside. Fay, Serena, and the queen of goblins soon followed right behind him. Being just made aware of Haruki's one-sided battle against the other demon lords, the girls were expecting a similar fate for Asmodia, thus their anxiety was raised through the roofs.
"You already know, don't you?" Standing before her, Haruki glared down at Asmodia.
Smiling in response, the mistress raised her sight to meet him before replying.
"You've grown…" Seeming uncharacteristically somber, she picked the tea cup back from the desk beside her and brought it closer to her lips. "In the worst way imaginable."
"The last thing I need is a lecture from another monster," Haruki retorted, claiming himself and her as monsters on a lone path walking towards each other. And now that they stood inches close, the only thing left to do was for one of them to push the other and continue their journey forward.
Taking but a light sip from the cup, yet another smile came over Asmodia's translucent azure lips. Shifting her golden gaze up at Haruki, she made the cup disappear and spoke against him once again.
"And yet I never killed one of yours, did I? I never left a scar on your girl, and despite that, you've killed the only family I had left…" Her smile was swiftly washed away as a look of scorn took over her face.
"I only rid the world of its tyrants, and according to our contract, as long as I am the only tyrant left, your time in the world of the living has finally come to an end," saying it all with a straight face, Haruki expected some form of retaliation from the mistress of lust, instead, however, she simply rose to her feet and threw her arms around her shoulders.
Looking right into Haruki's eyes she whispered.
"You've come to take my strength, haven't you?" Smiling once more, she managed to throw Haruki off his guard. "Then take it, I've been done with life for plenty of centuries already!"
Pressing her glassy cold lips against his, Asmodia began force-feeding her powers to Haruki. Although surprised by the progression, Haruki didn't pull away and let her have her last kiss. To further his shock, however...Inches from his face, her eyes began glowing a golden glow. Reflected in it were the stars from the night skies, glistering at their full strength. Feeling his corneas burning, he tried to pull away from Asmodia.
"Not so quick…" He heard her say as Asmodia's tongue elongated and slithered down into his organs.
And as if having his insides torn apart so her tongue to coil his heart wasn't enough, a sharp shard of dark matter conjured by Asmodia stabbed not only Haruki but her as well. Unlike the power of darkness, whatever dark matter touched it consumed to the point where nothing was left behind, not flesh, not bones, not organs, and most importantly no soul would ever inhabit that part of that vessel.
Realizing what exactly was happening, Fay, Serena, and the goblin queen moved forward and tried to get Haruki off of Asmodia. But no matter how hard they pulled, Haruki's body was kept held in place by an invisible miasma.
'Haruki Shin.' Stabbing his heart with her tongue, Asmodia ran her hand down his face. 'My woeful warrior…Perhaps, it's time for us to part, I just wish we could've ended things on different terms.'
"Moriyana, I'll be joining you soon," she muttered, tears rolling down her eyes.
Having broken her part of the contract by retaliating when Haruki tries to kill her, Asmodia knew well enough that her soul was to be extinguished and her existence be snuffed out just like her only daughter.
"Wh-what?" Feeling her pulling away from him, Haruki had no clue what Asmodia was trying to do.
Taking a step away from him herself, she could feel her heart being squeezed by the prince of hell since he was the devil responsible for overseeing all blood contracts in Atlas. Suddenly, a dark portal with black flames burst out underneath Asmodia. Standing in the very middle of the thing, she knew that she didn't have much time to spare.
"My strength I've handed it over, it's the last thing I can do for you," wearing a smile for one last time, she let the flames crawl up on her flesh. "I'll join my family in nothingness, waiting for you to arrive soon enough…"
The very next moment as Asmodia shut her eyes, her flesh was consumed by the flames, and her soul burned until nothing was left behind. Much like her daughter, she'd been turned to nothing, and thus there was no way for her to ever be revived.
'Dammit…Going out on her own terms, why the hell does she always stay one step ahead of me?' Realizing what had happened just now, Haruki stood there cursing his luck, and the fact that the mistress played him till the very end.
"Ouroboros…" The spell or skill plaguing Haruki's every stat screen and lists healed him back to perfection after detecting what was wrong on its own.
Everyone except for him was still wondering if this was a dream or if the most powerful demon lord in the world had themselves killed over some technicality via their contract with their master. Haruki himself, however, had no time to waste in the lab anymore as there was still the matter of retrieving Asuka and the others from the grasp of Michael and Razor.
"Otherworld portal!" Summoning an otherworld portal to shorten the distance between the dungeon and the obsidian castle, he walked right in without saying a single word to Fay or the others.
***
From Asmodia's death to summoning her pets and even massacring the scanty army gathered by Michael and Razor, Haruki had come far in terms of strength and the two generals felt it the moment he walked in front of them in the obsidian castle's dungeon.
'Get ready, and remember, no summons will be able to help us.' Michael relayed to Razor through his mental link. 'I'll use time magic if needed but remember, I wouldn't last too long after doing that so it's a last resort.'
"Fuck…" Huffed the sharp-tongued general as he drew his fencer.
Stopping before the two, Haruki directed his finger towards Razor, and the ballerinas and void eater pups in his tow began rushing towards the general. Rushed with the otherworldly pets created by a now-dead demi-demon goddess, Razor slipped into a realm tear knowing he wouldn't survive otherwise.
"You!" Completing the curse at last, he appeared behind Haruki and tried to spike him from the back with his fencer.
"Time magic: reversal!" Rewinding time itself for Razor, Haruki sent him back to where he'd been standing before. But this time he was instantly swarmed by the ballerinas and pups the moment he appeared in front of them.
Pushing him to the ground, they stabbed, tore, and ate at his flesh, and the very first thing they lunged at was his mouth, for even they knew well enough that if he used reality alter again, things could get a lot messier.
Watching his companion's mouth being torn apart, and then listening to his muffled screams as the pups dug their way into his throat, even Michael was frozen in fear despite having been at war for countless years of his life.
"Time-" Before Michael could cast his own time magic, Haruki used a spear of dark matter against Michael, something he himself had been hurt by not long before arriving here.
As the spear stabbed through his belly, Michael's very soul was being burned away and he was brought to his knees without much effort. Possessing Asmodia's powers as well as everyone that he commanded, Haruki was near unstoppable at the moment, especially given how overpowered the passive effects of the Ouroboros title were.
"H-how?" Asked Michael, his life draining before his eyes.
Glaring down at him, Haruki said but few words before snuffing his soul with numerous spears more.
"Because I no longer fear doing what needs to be done, even if it's cruel," with those words, he did what had to be done.
Even as he stood there with the generals dealt with, Haruki felt no sense of accomplishment or contentment, as something much more dire was creeping up on him. The ones he'd come to rescue were supposed to be in this dungeon, yet for whatever reason, the only people he could sense a second ago were the generals, and now that they were dead, not even that faint hint of life was left behind.
'Don't tell me…' Expecting the worst, he marched towards the prison cells. 'Not now, not after everything I've done to get here!'
His fingers curled into fists, he tried his best to delude himself from seeing the truth. However, what laid before his eyes, wasn't something he could deny for long.
'Death's a cruel mistress, she creeps up on those you love in the moment you need them the most.' No clue where he'd heard that phrase, but that's what resounded in his mind upon witnessing the cold corpses of his companions stuffed inside that cell.
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