Mordur's perception rose to its peak as he stared at the duo. While the nobleman's soul force put him at the Initial Beyond Limit Stage, for some reason, his instincts were warning him that the young man was the true danger.
Things did not end there as he noticed how the rune formations of his castle in which he spent so much effort and wealth were useless. The young man's steps seemed to carry a strange rhythm that would break the rune lines in his path.
The Rank 8 Archdemon felt his eyes burning as he stared back at the young man. He felt a bloodline force that escaped his understanding and only made him feel extremely threatened.
He did not hesitate to make his energy explode and push its Omega Law to its peak, making his entire body glow with a burning red force. However, he did not immediately attack.
Despite the evident danger, Mordur could keep calm since his True Soul had fused with the 33rd Layer of Abyss' origin, meaning that even if he were to die here, he would return in several thousand years.
Of course, there were severe drawbacks to that, as his cultivation would fall drastically, and other Archdemons would take that opportunity to take control of his possession.
"I am Mordur, Rank 8 Archdemon under Eternal Detachment Archdemon Crisis, the Great Flood!"
Mordur did not waste time and mentioned his backer, the powerful Archdemon known as Crisis, one of the seven Rank 9 existences ruling Abyss.
The name of Crisis would be enough to make almost anyone reconsider their next move, but the young man and the noble just kept walking forward.
The Neo-Demon's steps shook the castle and put even greater pressure on Mordur until this one could not hold it anymore.
Mordur's wisdom may not lose to that of a Magi, but he was still a Demon, and the thirst for violence and chaos was in his blood.
"BOOM!" The Rank 8 Archdemon kicked the ground with so much force that it shattered. He propelled his body forward like a cannonball.
Mordur raised his fist and was about to send a punch toward Zatiel that carried a momentum capable of shattering a Low World's Crystal Wall.
Just as the attack was about to land, Zatiel's eyes glowed, and a monstrous amount of Virtual Force blasted from them.
The Rank 8 Archdemon's eyes widened as he felt an indivisible force strike his mind with so much power that he lost consciousness for a nanosecond.
While that period of time was extremely short, for Rank 8 life forms, it could mean the difference between life and death.
In all fairness, Zatiel's attack was not so powerful that it could overwhelm the Archdemon, but Mordur's True Soul was in a delicate state due to his recent rise in cultivation.
There was also the fact that Zatiel's soul invasion spell took Mordur entirely by surprise.
Once Mordur's consciousness returned, he saw how the Neo-Demon had one hand over his forehead. Utter and absolute shock appeared in the Archdemon's eyes as he felt that his connection with the 33rd Layer of Abyss' origin broke and even more shocking that his True Soul was back in his Inner Universe!
For the first time in millions of years, Mordur felt the threat of true death. That made him react with a shocking speed and connected a powerful punch in Zatiel's chest before this one could send another soul invasion spell.
"¡BOOM!"
A huge red explosion occurred as Zatiel crashed against the castle's walls, shattering them before the pieces buried his body.
Mordur did not dare to relax and immediately turned toward the nobleman a few hundred meters behind him. While the Archdemon was not a Magic Creator, he knew that the black box was the core of the artifact sealing the entire city.
If Mordur wanted to escape, he needed that box, so he would need to defeat the nobleman. The Archdemon did not believe his attack had killed the young man but was sure this one was incapacitated. That should give him more than enough time to escape.
Nevertheless, the next second, Mordur understood that he would not be able to handle the nobleman as he noticed how the young man rose from the debris.
Shock filled Mordur's eyes again, as the young man not only seemed unscathed, his aura had risen tremendously. Energy coated his arms and legs, and a black domain with a sky blue edge materialized.
Things did not end there; a plasma halo with a red heavenly body in the center also enhanced the young man's physical might.
Finally, the young man's skin obtained a violet metallic tone as a tree bark armor wrapped every part of his body except his eyes.
Mordur's eyes narrowed as he felt a new soul aura when that violet bark armor manifested and understood that the young man had fused with a symbiotic life form.
The one responsible for the tree bark armor was non other than Myriad. The World Tree had upgraded the artificial life form's body, replacing the branches that once evolved from the Tree of Massacre with new ones born of his blood and life force.
En's help improved Myriad's body and provided enough energy for the artificial life form to enter Rank 8!
Myriad not only protected the exterior of Zatiel's body. Bark armor also covered the Neo-Demon's inner organs, and its functions did not end there as they would constantly fuel them with vitality and energy.
All those power-ups already allowed Zatiel to kill a Beyond Falsehood Stage life form using nothing else but his body.
However, if Mordur thought that Zatiel's soul would lose in any way to his body, he was severely mistaken.
Zatiel's Virtual Force exploded with even more power than the one he used to knock out the Archdemon.
Of his Paths of Power, the one Zatiel had developed the most was none other than his Virtual Dream Path of Power, which was already at Late Rank 7!
The Virtual Dream Path of Power's core was the Virtual Dream Universe and this one improved daily as trillions of life forms engraved their knowledge about the laws in it. And they also provided a never-ending stream of energy during the creation of the Dream Avatars.
Zatiel's aura already matched Mordur's, but he still had one final card left. His eyes glowed with silver flame as his Will Force poured into his Inner Law Dimension, pushing his soul to the next level.
"BOOM!" A blast of power emerged from the Neo-Demon that blew the castle to smithers.
