Chapter 737: Showdown Devil VS Demon (part 9)

The black lioness though surprised didn’t delve into the sudden comfortable and protective feeling that enveloped her paw, instead she focused in the powerful sensation on her claws as she slashed the empowered spell casted at her by Marcus.

"Boooom!", as a result her reinforced claws after clashing against Marcus’s spell for a moment, ultimately destroying it which though forced the lioness to retreat due to the explosion, left her completely unscathed.

"What!", witnessing the previous Marcus nearly lost it, one must know that after breaking out of Marcus’s control, the lioness completely lost her capacity to use shadow mana and as a blood specter physical strength isn’t her strong point.

So, she had dropped all the way from having strong early-stage Arch rank combat prowess, to barely middle Lord rank one and yet she didn’t suffer any wound when directly clashing against that black flame sphere which was enhanced by the golden imp.

What’s more, as her creator, Marcus’s black flame darkness mana has an absolute suppression effect on the lioness, which is why he was completely outraged at the result of the previous.

Perhaps if Marcus’s had known that Daimon’s silver energy is what allowed Reyna to completely escape from his grasp at the end of her fight with Dana, he wouldn’t be at so much of a loss, though in that he case the devil ruler system user would then be confused as to how that was possible.

"...", understanding that the masked silver haired youth had protected her a moment ago, the black lioness turned towards Daimon as she slightly bowed her head to thank him, apparently, she had lost her ability to speak due to the recess of her realm.

"You don’t need to worry, his black flames no longer can suppress you, unfortunately your realm plummeted after you severed your connection to that colosseum, but all his subordinates are dead so feel free to leave as he won’t be able to chase after you", said Daimon to the lioness, only to be surprised at the lioness walking until she was standing next to him.

"Mmm, you should know that there is "someone" waiting for you, right?", said Daimon as he saw the lioness at his side.

"Grrrr", in response the black lioness softly growled as she glared at Marcus with clear hostility in her eyes, though she couldn’t directly communicate, it was easy to understand what she meant, she clearly wanted to get back at Marcus before going in the direction where her instincts were guiding her.

Seeing that his black sea emblem wasn’t objecting to the lioness joining him to fight against Marcus, while Dana’s lightning which was crackling around the energy constructions covering his fists and feet, seemed quite excited over the idea, Daimon inwardly shrugged to then snap his fingers.

"Clang!", continuous clinking sounds echoed through the sky as the reinforced energy shield which had transformed from the sword energy construction, blocked in front of the lioness preventing countless invisible arrows to reach her.

"Crack!", at the same time brown-red energy armor covered the lioness body, before bright yellow electricity arcs started revolving around her, the pressure she exuded made the ground below her crack.

Though she only radiated power akin to the peak of the Lord rank, because unfortunately the lioness was only compatible with two out of the three energies that can enhance strength either direct or indirectly since Tessa’s energy appeared to have no effect on the lioness and Daimon’s silver one only severed her connection with Marcus, she wasn’t the trump card of a hellscape especially prepared to fight against Adam for nothing.

"Sorry at my current stage, among the three energies that can be used for direct combat which I command, only two can be applied to you", said Daimon to the lioness who was returned to the real world after listening to the previous while inspecting her body with great interest.

"Grrr!", with a soft growl and a slight nod, the lioness then glared at Marcus as if she couldn’t wait to personally tear him apart with her claws, but ultimately changed to look in a different direction.

’Without spells she falls short when it comes to causing actual damage to Marcus, but since her focus is maneuverability and explosive short-lived bursts of power, fighting against the locust tree general is perfectly within her current capacity’, thought Daimon as he saw the once again armored lioness, changing her target.

It’s worth mentioning that despite having lost her capacity to talk and use spells, which can be traced to losing the "wisdom" that magic beasts gain by advancing in their respective path, the lioness was still fully self-conscious which indeed caught Daimon’s interest.

Only magic beasts with really high ranked lineages are capable of such awareness, while below the Arch rank, not to mention that the lioness is a blood specter which is a not even a complete magic beast, but some kind of lineage energy being containing the memories of a dead magic beast.

Long story short, the lioness when she was alive should have been an incredibly talented magic beast with high potential, that probably only died because she had no time to develop before the war came to her planet.

"Roaaar!", with renewed fighting spirit, and as if knowing what Daimon was thinking, the lioness immediately flashed towards the haunted locust tree general, turning into a black, brown-red and bright yellow flash that instantly crossed the battlefield towards an "empty" spot.

"Damn it!", Marcus saw the lioness charge towards the area where the real body of his rear support was and he cursed, naturally the locust tree general that everyone could see was but a mere illusion casted by the wraiths, the real one was lurking and waiting for an opening to shot his bow.

Unfortunately, as previously shown by Daimon, the illusions of the wraiths while able to alter perception they can’t trick "instincts", since they are focused in the mind aspect and the previous comes from the body instead, so even without the help of a special mean like the green energy wood mask, the lioness could more or less pinpoint the real location of the locust tree general.

As Marcus proposed to intercept her with the help of the domain of the lioness which gave him a larger operation range, a sensation of danger prevented him from advancing.

"Shattering Thrust", not even a second later, a bright yellow line of light passed in front of Marcus who was inside of the now permanent giant lioness shaped domain, making his expression become twisted if he had taken a single extra step he would have been hit by the previous attack.

Though he was sure that the domain was strong enough to prevent the enemy’s attack from directly reaching his body, he would have still ben flown due to the impact.

"As I thought, all that boasting about having obtained a perfect permanent copy of her abilities was nonsense, that domain can’t open the portal to the shadow world by itself but requires you to give the order now", casually said Daimon who appeared in front of Marcus with his reinforced energy spear still covered in lightning.

He pushed the martial art to be a bit faster than normal, both to intercept Marcus and to confirm if the ability to send incoming attacks to the shadow world could be directly activated by the lioness shaped domain or if Marcus had to activate it by himself, and he fell for it.

Knowing that with Daimon blocking his path, he couldn’t spare any attention to deal with the lioness, Marcus gritted his teeth as he shouted.

"She is not even at the level of a hellscape’s final technique now and you have the bow, if you lose to her, I’ll personally turn you into nourishment for the living hell jungle!", naturally that was directed at the locust tree general whose body trembled to then have his eyes become bloodshot at the incoming lioness.

"Ding!", continuous clinking sounds could be heard as the armored lioness advanced through a stream of countless invisible arrows which had their once time ethereal transition triggered due to the lightning arcs that were crackling around the lioness, before the arrows landed on her body to then be ignored since they couldn’t pierce the brown-red energy armor, she was basically imitating what Daimon did earlier.

"Clang!", next, the lioness pounced at the locust tree general and her reinforced claws which aimed to slice the chest of the enemy were blocked by the bow producing the sound of metals colliding.

Don’t forget that the trump card of the burning mind hell, in other words that bow was a magic treasure not an energy condensation.

"Boooom!", feeling danger, the locust tree general made the bow release a powerful wave of black-pink flames which were met with a thunderous lightning energy explosion that engulfed both the lioness and the general for a couple of seconds before both retreated.

The lioness claws were perfectly fine and while the bow was the same, the locust tree general had a slightly pained expression, exposure to Dana’s lightning hurt as Marcus very well knew.

"Shattering Thrust!".

"Black Devil Hell Shredding Claws!".

At the same time as those two finished their first clash, a martial art and a spell consisting in a bright yellow lightning stream and five black flaming slashed collided on the air not to far from the lioness and the locust tree general.

"Booooom!", surprisingly Daimon’s martial art which now had the increased attack power outburst of Dana’s lightning since he had helped the lioness, as its default output, ended up tying with Marcus’s spell instead of obliterating it to then continue towards him, like one would have expected.

"So, what if I have to manually open the portal now, there is no need to focus in defense anymore", coldly said Marcus as he saw the result of the previous clash.

What happened is simple, he didn’t change his spells, that was his clawing spell reinforced by the golden imp, the difference is that he casted it through the claws of the lioness’s domain which increased its strength enough to match with Daimon’s martial art.

"Black Devil Hell Step!", with a fierce light in his eyes due to having been pressured by Daimon too much, black flames exploded on the lioness shaped domain’s legs as Marcus used his movement spell through it.

"Swift Step", of course Marcus isn’t the only one with a high-speed movement technique, lightning crackled around Daimon’s feet as he flashed from his previous position, however he didn’t take any long detour but simply charged forward to meet with Marcus who was doing the same, apparently the game of cat and mouse was over.

"Clang!", Daimon’s lightning cladded energy spear collided with the domain lioness’s claws which had black flames and golden sparks in them, making metallic collision sounds to echo through the sky.

"Crack!", surprisingly, both the domain’s claws and the energy spear cracked after clashing for a few seconds, both exploding the next second.

"Booooom!", a cloud of black flames and fierce bright yellow lightning expanded in every direction, but it was ignored by both Daimon and Marcus who once again used their movement techniques to flash, appearing up in the sky.

"Black Devil Hell Canon!", black flames gathered in front of the domain’s mouth to then be released in the form of a burning black flame sphere that flew towards Daimon the next second.

"Shattering Arrow", in response, Daimon used his own long-range attack by condensing a reinforced bow and pulling on its string with all his strength to then release a shooting-star like lightning clad energy arrow.

"Boooom", both attacks met in the air and destroyed each other, exploding on the spot causing a massive energy explosion, with a "swoosh", both Daimon and Marcus retreated, landing on the ground the next second.

The difference is that while Daimon was calm and didn’t bother in dividing his attention, Marcus was looking into the distance since the locust tree general was being suppressed by the lioness.

’Damn it, it’s only small loses as of current but if they keep accumulating it might be dangerous, I can’t afford to lose another proxy so fast’, thought Marcus as he gritted his teeth.

Though the bow could withstand the assault of the armored lioness’s claws, it’s not a magic weapon meant to be used for close combat, under constant attacks it might break and while the bow can be repaired by using the mana of the burning mind hell it would need Marcus to cast the spell which would take at least a few seconds in which without anything to block the sharp claws of the lioness, the general could be killed.

"Beast Colosseum Hell, Devil Shadow Slave Beast!", with an unwilling light in his eyes, Marcus shouted casting a spell.

In response, the ground of the shadow colosseum, which had remained even after Daimon destroyed everything else with Dana’s lightning to free the lioness, trembled to then open letting out a blurry four-legged animal shaped shadow.

"Neeigh!", with a pained sound, the four main pillars of the colosseum which had half regenerated produced black chains that restrained the shadow from earlier, making a way less imposing and weaker when compared to the black flame war horse that the locust tree general used to ride, horse, appear in the battlefield.

Apparently, Marcus could change the target of the colosseum’s special ability, but it wasn’t as simple as it looked, for example the horse which was created based with the shadow of the black flame horse that Daimon killed earlier, was obviously way weaker than the lioness that used to occupy that spot.

As if that wasn’t enough, when the spell was used with the lioness, she was summoned with the words "Devil Shadow Lioness Queen", while the horse wasn’t even called with its name but simply as "slave beast", which was only at the peak of the Lord rank unlike the lioness who used to be at the early Arch rank.

The previous also revealed the last peculiarity of the colosseum hell, which is that its trump card could be used more than one time like the one from the golden mountain hellscape.

’As expected from a hellscape that guy prepared specifically to defend against Adam, on the other hand that should be the sole time he can replace the target for colosseum’, thought Daimon.

Maybe it’s a side effect of his system, but Marcus is really bad at controlling his anger, or well his emotions in general, unlike Adam who was a two-faced bastard, the devil ruler system user can’t maintain a poker face for his life, so based on the unwilling expression from earlier, he really didn’t want to use this on the horse but wanted to put a stronger origin to create the "immortal" magic beast, but had to do with the unrefined shadow of the black flame horse due to the locust tree general being suppressed by the lioness.

Also, with a new restrained origin, the colosseum’s regeneration accelerated, producing walls and a roof in a matter of seconds.

’Even if you have to use your body, block that damn lioness so that the general can kill her at once!’, inwardly shouted Marcus to the horse as a stream of golden sparks landed on it, strengthening it so that he wouldn’t die so easily.

"Neeigh!", unfortunately, under Marcus’s eyes of disbelief, the lioness who had flashed from her previous position appeared next to the horse who had yet to reach the general and casually used her armored claws to tear its body in half.

The horse regenerated and was once again killed by the lioness on the spot, making Marcus see red.

"Good, very good you damn traitor, page 13!", shouted Marcus, making the devil librarian appear and flip through the grimoire’s pages until it reached the one asked by his master.

"Black Devil Contract, Ancient Sea Battlefield Hell!", with a few words, the page of the grimoire shone in a dark blue light as an area of a hundred meters near Marcus was suddenly flooded in black water out of which a towering fifty meter-sized snake peeked out.

Marcus was so angry at the provocation of the lioness that he directly used a new hellscape and even activated its trump card.

"Hisssss!", with a loud hiss, the small black water sea poured frontwards, the thing actually could move alongside the snake as it charged towards the lioness who softly snorted as she killed the horse one last time before flashing away to avoid the black water flood.

"Pathetic", Marcus’s smile after seeing the lioness being chased by the snake, soured as he heard the ghost-like administrator insult him and she didn’t stop there.

"A devil who has to rely on numbers like a hero, how disgusting", added Lezabel, the "devil king" is supposed to overwhelm his enemies alone, while the hero is the one supposed to be forced to form a group to fight the devil king and yet, she was seeing a devil ruler having to resort to swarm tactics.

"Would it kill you to keep your damn mouth shut!", cursed Marcus to then charge at Daimon, not having to worry about the general dying thanks to the support of the snake allowed him to continue the fight where they had left it earlier.

"Booooom!", while Daimon and Marcus clashed in the air, at ground level the lioness nimbly dodged the moving small black ocean alongside the bites of the giant snake.

Her armor and the lightning protected her from the arrows of the locust tree general, but things got harder for her when the horse finally reached the general covering for the latter’s weakness, which was his lack of mobility.

"Clang!", tanking the arrows head on, the lioness clashed her claws against the large fangs of the giant snake, producing metallic sounds and sparks before she used the momentum to retreat.

Naturally her previous large size even when not using her domain was lost when she betrayed Marcus, now she was around twice the size of a normal lioness and she had lost a lot of her physical strength.

After all, the energies she received from Daimon mainly enhanced her defense and explosive elemental damage, so she couldn’t compete with the giant snake like she would have wanted.

The lioness made the lightning travel through the black water that surrounded the giant snake trying to use it to her advantage, but then the snake’s scales suddenly lit up in a dark brown light and a layer of rock covered its body.

"Hsssss!", the lightning fiercely attacked the snake but after making half of the snake’s rock armor crumble apart, the attack was worn out, that was obviously a defense type spell and earth element is naturally strong against lightning, which frustrated the lioness attack.

"Roaar!", with a loud roar, a faint red glow flashed through the lioness’s eyes as she flashed from where she was standing, appearing next to the snake’s head to then slash her claws at it.

"Crack!", the snake covered itself with the rock armor again, but the thing cracked almost on the spot, and more importantly, the snake... was forced a couple of meters to the side due to the impact!