Three Demon Lords were inside a castle in the center of a broken city full of fiend corpses. The sky was covered with poison clouds that originated from the energy released by powerful life forms.
One of the Demon Lords was a man with a canine head, four arms that ended in pincers, and a red shell covering his body. He was forty meters tall, and there was a huge hole in his stomach and back.
The other was a woman with pale skin, red hair, cloven hooves instead of feet, and there were three giant tails with poisonous stingers emerging from her back that extended for more than one hundred meters. One of her arms was missing, and you could tell by the wounds in her back that she used to have two more tails, but they were ripped off.
The last Demon Lord was a muscular, pale-skinned, hairless creature with a humanoid shape. His massive arms end in sharp, barbed claws. Two massive bone wings stretched upwards from his shoulders, and there was a third eye in the center of his forehead. One of his arms was missing, his wings were broken, and toxic green energy was infecting his wounds.
"Horuda, how are you planning to pay for the massive losses we just endured. Most of the lesser demons we lend you are gone, and I have personally lost all my Rank 4 subordinates. You told us you could contain Philistos even after he goes berserker, but in the end, that crazy bastard surpassed you. We were forced to save your life, and our bodies are now filled with severe injuries." The Demon Lord with the canine head spoke those words, and his energy began to circulate faster as he looked menacingly at the pale-skinned creature.
"I agree with Leina. We lost too much and saved your life, so the price you will have to pay should double what we originally agreed." The female Demon Lord also circulated her energy after speaking those words.
Horuda looked at the duo with coolness after he heard their demands and sneered.
"Hmph, the only reason you saved me was that Philistos would have killed you two after he was done with me. Leina, Juin, remember who is the strongest of us three and don't think you can threaten me for a second." Horuda's wounds were the most severe, but the moment he unleashed the power of his soul, the entire city began to tremble, and a solemn expression appeared in the duo near him.
The strength of the True Soul of someone at the 2nd Engraving Stage was usually fifty percent higher than that of a life form at the 1st Engraving Stage. Although one's soul power did not perfectly represent an individual's battle power, it was a good estimate for most life forms in the universe.
After seeing that the duo understood they could not push him around, Horuda took a deep breath and spoke.
"I will pay you a thirty percent extra due to the losses you received, but you will have to help me attack Philistos again once our injuries are healed."
Although they wanted more, Leina and Juin understood that this was the best offer they would get, so they nodded after looking at each other.
Helping Harouda deal with Philistos was something they would do even if he did not ask. The duo knew the bulezau's demonic nature very well, and he was certainly going to seek revenge against them, so they needed to join forces and kill him first.
Once they renewed their deal, the trio adopted a meditative position and continued resting. Leina and Juin did not plan to leave the city until they stabilized their condition and expelled the toxic energy inside them. The duo would not risk walking around The Forgotten Lands with their injuries.
They had rested for less than an hour when all of a sudden, the city's alarms warned them of a powerful source of energy heading to them. The group was already on high alert, so they immediately released their Law Avatars and fused with them.
The Demon Lords were about to release their consciousnesses' full power to find their enemy's location when an invisible force attacked their True Souls.
The power in the soul invasion spell was too weak to pull their minds into an illusion, but it numbed their consciousnesses for a second and provoked immense pain.
The trio was trying to locate their enemy using their eyes, and they were surprised as the earth broke apart a couple of meters away from them, revealing three identical figures.
Zatiel and his two Rebirth Incarnation had their Law Avatar, and Doomsday Incarnation activated. The incarnation had golden plasma surrounding their spikes, making them appear like scythes, while Zatiel had it concentrated in his white sword.
They took advantage of the Demon Lords' lapse of concentration to send the first attack.
The Neo-Demon headed for the strongest, Horuda. His golden sword released a blast of golden, blue, and purple superheated plasma that consumed the Demon Lord.
One of the Rebirth Incarnations severed an arm of the Demon Lord with a canine head, and the other cut one of the female Demon Lord's tails.
The Demon Lords were all Rank 5 life forms, and they would have been able to respond to the attack of Zatiel and his incarnation in normal circumstances, but their condition was too deplorable.
The attack generated shock waves and blasts of plasma that destroyed the castle and everything in a thousand meters around it. The space near the group broke, and the next second, the six found themself very high in the sky, where their attacks could not harm The Forgotten Lands.
The Demon Lords realized by the speed at which Zatiel arrived after the alarm was set off that they could not outrun him, and the Neo-Demon would not leave without their souls, so the six began a battle to the death immediately.
The Rebirth Incarnations used their spines covered by golden plasma to fight a melee battle against the Leina and Juin. They completely disregarded defense and focused entirely on offense. Injures accumulated fast in them, but they did not care and would gladly let their bodies be stabbed if they could deal equal damage to their opponents.
Zatiel's battle with Horuda was the most impressive of all.
The Demon Lord did not grow gigantic after fusing with his Law Avatar. He remained five meters tall, but his skin obtained a metallic luster, and his claw grew one size and had a silver aura covering it.
Although Zatiel had his sword and spikes, Horuda matched him despite having only a single arm.
'His main law seems to be the Law of Metal. His attacks have striking severing power, and his body is incredibly resistant. He is physically stronger than me despite his injuries, and it is tough for me to penetrate his metal skin. The energy left by Philistos attacks is still inside him, and I can take advantage of that.' Zatiel analyzed his enemy's battle style, strong points, and weaknesses in a moment.
The Neo-Demon no longer focused on penetrating his enemy's defenses. After each attack, he took advantage of the openings to make cuts in the Demon Lord's metal skin.
Those wounds were barely noticeable, and Horuda kept striking with even more power.
"Stupid foreigner, you thought you could defeat me just because I was injured. Soon, I will flay you alive and devour your body piece by piece." Horuda smiled once he detected that his enemy's attack could not overcome his defenses.
The Demon Lord's attack grew faster and stronger as he used his energy to increase his physical strength, and while the cuts in his body reached the hundreds, they did not bother him at all.
Horuda had just pushed Zatiel's white sword out of his path and planned to cut the Neo-Demon when he saw the eyes of this one glowing.
The next instant, the Demon Lord felt his blood catch fire.
Each one of Zatiel's attack had deposited a tiny amount of purple fire containing the Law of Rebirth that transformed life force into death force, and blue fire charged with the Law of Destruction from Baator.
Those flames gathered and exploded the moment Zatiel sent the signal. Horuda's body was already at his limit containing Philistos's energy, and the blue and purple flames generated a chain reaction.
The Demon Lord's body froze, and he began to cough blood uncontrollably.
Zatiel would not lose that opportunity. He charged all of his power into the white sword and hacked in the direction of Horuda's head.
