A demon horde was traveling through The Forgotten Lands. It became evident by the severe injuries in all of their members that they had just participated in a great battle.
The Demon Lord leading the horde was four meters tall and looked like a minotaur, but a skinny one, to the point of seeming skeletal. Rather than bull horns, he had curved horns like those of a ram, and his feet ended in claws instead of hooves. He also had a serpentine tail that ended in a tangled clump of steel-like spines, and all of them secreted extremely deadly toxins.
Of the entire horde, the Demon Lord was the one with the worst injuries. His left leg was missing, as did his right eye, and there were holes all over his body contaminated by poison.
The most severe damage was in his back. There were four lacerations coated by a silver aura, and they were so deep that they had managed to cut his spine in several parts.
Despite his terrible condition, there was no sign of pain in Demon Lord's face, only endless wrath.
He was a bulezau, a type of demon known for their violent and irrational behavior. They would start fights to the death and wars for the most minimal altercation.
Usually, foolish individuals who only know how to charge ahead die very fast, but bulezau were known for their extraordinary battle power. Their bloodline granted them the ability known as Baphomet's Rage, which multiplied their strength for a few minutes before leaving them exhausted and weakened.
"Those bastards. The moment my injuries heal, I will kill them all!" The Demon Lord's eyes burned with fury as he spoke those words, and the Rank 4 Demons near him did not dare to look in his direction.
They are well aware of the bestial savagery of their leader. Another Rank 4 Demon was able to survive the battle and escape with them, but he made the mistake of staring at the enraged bulezau and was devoured.
As he talked to himself and promised to kill every one of his enemies, the Demon Lord felt his instinct warning him about an immense danger. However, before he could fuse with his Law Avatar, an invisible and undodgeable force struck his True Soul.
The Demon Lord saw a purple portal trying to draw his consciousness into a nightmare dimension. He was a Rank 5 life form at the peak of the 2nd Engraving Stage, but the power in the soul invasion spell was overwhelming him.
As he felt his consciousness about to succumb, pure and wild rage filled his heart and soul.
Demons may be foolish and stupid, but that did not mean they had weak spirit defenses. The best way to fight against a soul invasion spell is by having a pure mind, and that of the bulezau only had ferocity and slaughter intent.
The Demon Lord was able to fight back the purple portal and perceive reality again. Unfortunately, his opponent took advantage of the fraction of a second he was unconscious and buried his white sword in his back, cutting his heart in two.
'Impossible!. My body is as hard as a Rank 5 Artifact. How could he pierce it with such speed and without using his Law Avatar?.' The Demon Lord was shocked, but he soon realized that the sword took advantage of the cuts on his back to overcome his body's defenses.
As a Law Engraving existence, having his heart cut in half was not the end for his body. Still, the combined damage of this new injury and the old ones paralyzed him, and he could not defend from his opponent's index finger that penetrated his skull and filled his soul dimension with purple fire.
The purple fire burned his consciousness like if it was paper and severely harmed his True Soul, and before this one could escape, Zatiel put a Sealing Rune in the Demon Lord's body.
Everything, from the moment Zatiel used his Rebirth Nightmare to attack the Demon Lord's consciousness until he put the rune on his body, took less than a second. The Neo-Demon was able to hide his presence until the last moment by using the Law of Death and not activating his Law Avatar.
The horde was only now able to notice the Neo-Demon's presence and saw how he stored their mighty leader's broken body in his spatial ring.
The Rank 4 Demons were shocked, and without hesitation, they prepared to escape. Demons may be chaotic killing machines, but those that have awoken their True Soul can reason, and they understood fear very well.
The four Soul Forging existences activated their Law Avatar and flashed away immediately.
When Zatiel saw the group trying to run away, he sneered.
"Useless." The Neo-Demon activated his Law Avatar and waved his sword, releasing two arcs of blue and purple fire.
The Rank 4 Demons targeted by those arcs felt terror and even burned their life force to increase their speed, but they still were caught by the flames and destroyed in body and soul.
Zatiel focused on the last two Rank 4 Demons, and his Rebirth Eye glowed. Without warning, the duo lost consciousness and fell to the ground.
The Neo-Demon's right eye began to bleed after that. The Rebirth Eye's power was almost all used up after attacking the Demon Lord's True Souls and these two Rank 4 Demons.
After getting rid of the only ones who could fight against him, Zatiel deactivated his Law Avatar and focused on the lesser demons beneath him.
These lesser demons could not form memories due to the power of The Forgotten Lands, and without their leaders' orders, they did not know what to do. They roared to the Neo-Demon but did not dare to get near him.
Zatiel saw some manes in the horde, and his eyes filled with coldness. The memories of his time as a lesser demon, a slave to other powerful fiends, were the ones he hated the most.
He opened his mouth and released a gravitational force that affected all the lesser demons. The creatures attempted to resist, but it was futile, and in a matter of seconds, they were all swallowed.
The Neo-Demon regained all the lost energy he used in this battle. He waved his hand and brought the two unconscious Rank 4 Demons to him before reading their minds. The duo was too busy enduring unimaginable torture to put any resistance.
The Demon Lord he had defeated was named Philistos. He was a Count and was lured out of his city by another Demon Lord called Horuda.
Philistos heard how this Count was spreading rumors about him. Being a short-tempered individual, he immediately led his army to Horuda's city to seek revenge.
Unfortunately for Philistos, Horuda had allied with two other Counts, and they ganged up against him.
The trio was sure they would win, but they underestimated the bulezau. Philistos used all of his weapons and trump cards and was able to equal his enemies.
In the end, neither party was able to achieve victory, and Philistos left the battlefield with what little remained of his army.
'The only reason I was able to win so easily against this bulezau was due to his severe injuries and weakened condition. My Rebirth Eye has almost no energy left, but if I let the trio rest, it will be tough to defeat them, not to mention I will have to fight them one by one. Although one of them is at the 2nd Engraving Stage, the other two seem to be at the 1st Engraving Stage, and their current condition is deplorable.' After some thinking, Zatiel's eyes glowed with determination and looked in the direction of Count Horuda's city.
It took a moment, but soon a broken city that had witnessed a massive battle appeared in the Neo-Demon view. The fight between the Demon Lords had destroyed the city's walls and the runic formations in them.
In the center of the city, Zatiel could feel three powerful presences.
'The city's runic formation lost their offensive and defensive properties, but their scanning abilities seem to be active.' A plan appeared in the Neo-Demon mind.
Without wasting time, he used the Law of Death to hide his presence and obtain an intangible body before submerging into the ground and flashing to the city.
