Lucifer felt hope when he saw the universal queen descending from the sky.
She looked as horrifying as Lucifer had imagined to be and then some.
It was only because of her promise of assistance and the allure of getting to pick any 3 items from the universal warehouse without any restrictions, that Lucifer had decided to stay back and fight Shakuni instead of running away.
By this point, he had understood exactly how strong Shakuni was, however, he had faith that no matter how strong he was, under the combined assault of the queen and himself, he could be eliminated.
When the queen's lower body descended, Lucifer could feel his plan coming to fruition, however, right at that second a pink barrier suddenly enveloped the space he was in, trapping him within a pink barrier space, while the queen was left outside.
Lucifer felt his heart falter for a second as this scene gave him a deja-vu.
Not long ago, he was trapped within a pink barrier alone with Shakuni, after having been given a quest by the queen and today again he was in the same situation, however, in the previous situation he had the queen short-circuiting the A.I. implanted in Shakuni's brain to incapacitate him, while this time she was locked outside unable to provide help.
Glancing backwards, Lucifer saw Max Rajput, the boy who he had kept in his watchlist as he was shocked to realise that it was this tier6 boy who had managed to cast the barrier spell that was known only by the universal queen.
" No it can't be the real deal… " Lucifer murmured as he grabbed his sword tightly and used it to slash at the barrier at full strength, however, he wasn't even able to scratch the barrier with his attack as it repelled him and sent him crashing towards the ground.
*CRASH*
" @##$#@*** " Lucifer cursed as he stood back up and gave a nasty glare towards Max.
If he survived this ordeal, he was kidnapping the boy and torturing him to get the spell formula of this move.
" HELP ME! " He shouted as he looked towards the queen who was standing atop the barrier as she was channelling an absurd amount of divine essence.
[ Divine Piercer ]
The queen channelled divine essence strong enough to cast a tier8 attack as she used it to create a sharp lance that could break apart the barrier.
Lucifer was hopeful, if there was ever going to be an attack that could break the barrier it would have been this one, but much to his dismay even the queen's attack bounced harmlessly off this tier10 barrier.
As Lucifer lowered his eyes, he saw Shakuni giving him the creepiest of smiles as he calmly flew towards him with both his sword arms extended.
Looking at his face, Lucifer forgot as to who amongst the duo was supposed to be the devil as he cursed his luck and decided to bet it all on his seed of darkness.
" YOU THINK YOU'RE SO STRONG? YOU THINK YOU CAN FURTHER YOUR LEGEND BY KILLING THE DEVIL?
WELL THINK AGAIN SHAKUNI, BECAUSE I'M WAYY OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE.
IF YOU DARE, GIVE ME THIRTY SECONDS TO CONJURE MY STRONGEST MOVE AND TRY TO SURVIVE IT.
IF YOU SURVIVE IT, I SWEAR BY THE CELESTIAL GOD'S WHO BEAR WITNESS TO THIS BATTLE THAT, I WILL SURRENDER MY SWORD TO YOU.
ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm SO TELL ME, DO YOU DARE? " Lucifer said in a panicky voice as he was unsure if such a childish trick would work or not.
But it seemed like Shakuni was more vain and dumb than he had thought he would be, as he actually stopped moving towards him and landed on the ground below as he said " Come- "
Meanwhile, the queen seemed to be constantly hammering at the barrier above, but it wasn't clear if she was making any progress, as Lucifer who had now made an oath by the celestials was forced to prepare his ultimate move.
***********
( Meanwhile on Radiance )
The queen was a stone cold A.I. and she knew how to exploit Shakuni's weaknesses not only in terms of battle IQ, but also in terms of emotional exploitation.
The moment she realised that she could not breach the barrier, she had sent one of her manifestations to capture Shakuni's immediate family, as the netizens of radiance saw the horrific descent of the universal queen inside the Rajput mansion.
With both Augustus and Patricia Won Knight not present on the planet, there was no single individual who dared approach her as the queen had gained free and unimpeded access to the household.
According to her information, she should have found players Naomi Rajput, Ruby Rajput, Kartikeya Rajput, Jake Rajput and Amy Rajput in the house, however, to her surprise although her information showed that they were inside the house, in practice she could not find them.
When she searched the area more, she found the reason behind her scanners making a mistake being a talisman that was duplicating the energy signatures of the players, while they weren't actually present.
Some entity who had perfect knowledge about the workings of the queen and how she tracked individuals had created this talisman and used it to get the Rajput family to safety and it only took the queen a total of five seconds to determine exactly who it was.
It was the unnamed god Odin who was behind this event as somehow he had been a step ahead of the queen and beaten her at her own game.
By now he had taken the Rajput family out of the controlled universe entirely and there was not a damn thing the queen could do about it.
Enraged, the queen left Radiance empty handed, as she recalibrated her approach to the situation and began working on the next best outcome, making the next target of hers, the caster of the barrier spell, Max Rajput himself.
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/// A/N - This bonus chapter has been sponsored by patron MagNum932. Please thank him in the comments for this one ///
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