Chapter 127: Battling the Heroes!

The next week went mostly the exact same as the prior week. Jax and his soldiers would consistently take down various bases of the Merchant Foundation and collect their resources for himself.

The Demon Kingdom’s resources had multiplied by over 3x in this short space of time, and Jax had all of his administrative workers on full-time to assess just how much they had gained and what the most efficient way of using these resources would be.

As all of this was going on, Jax suddenly sensed something, and the world around him seemed to sharpen.

It wasn’t a sudden spike of hostility or a careless flare of power. No, this was intent, honed and focused, threaded with divine authority and familiar signatures that had once clashed with his own not long ago.

The Heroes.

After everything Jax was doing the past weeks, they had finally moved.

Jax stood atop a fractured sky-route junction, one of the Merchant Foundation’s remaining fortified relay bases, watching demonic strike teams dismantle defensive pylons with practiced efficiency. Hydra stood beside him in her human form, emerald hair drifting in the high-altitude winds, her eyes narrowing as she sensed the same thing he did.

“…They’re here,” she said quietly.

“Yes,” Jax replied, a slow smile forming, “It’s finally time huh,”

Far across the horizon, the sky split.

Golden radiance tore through the cloud layers as a massive teleportation gate forced itself into existence, brute-forced through spatial resistance by divine authority alone. Holy runes burned into the air, struggling against the sealed space Jax had imposed.

They pushed through anyway.

One by one, figures emerged.

Killian stepped forward first, golden armor reforged and layered with new divine inscriptions, his presence far heavier than before. The holy blade at his side screamed, reacting violently to Jax’s proximity.

Behind him came Touka, her paladin armor darker, etched with oath-runes that bled light with every breath she took.

Alicia landed silently on a floating platform, eyes sharp, aura tightly controlled. Alexi followed, mana swirling around her in complex elemental harmonics that hadn’t existed the last time they met.

And Lizzy descended last.

Her staff radiated blinding intensity, faith compressed into something dangerously unstable, her gaze locked onto Jax with raw hatred.

Hydra clicked her tongue, “Wow. They really did get stronger.”

Jax nodded, genuinely impressed as the Demon Emperor Combat Set wrapped around him.

“At least threefold,” he said calmly, “Likely more for some of them.”

He stepped forward, and the air buckled. The Merchant Foundation base trembled as if recognizing something far more dangerous than a siege.

Killian pointed his blade at Jax, voice echoing with divine amplification, “Demon King. This ends now.”

Jax tilted his head, “You’re late.”’

“WHERE’S NATASHA?” Lizzy asked.

“Beat me and I’ll tell you,” Jax said with a smug smile under his helmet.

The first strike came without warning.

Alexi moved her hands in a blur, weaving a multi-layered elemental formation, fire compressed with lightning, reinforced by wind and stabilized with earth. The spell detonated mid-flight into a converging storm, powerful enough to level a city district.

Jax didn’t move. The storm slammed into an invisible barrier inches from his body, dispersing like mist against glass.

Hydra laughed.

Then she transformed.

Emerald light exploded outward as her human form tore apart into draconic majesty. Scales erupted, wings unfurled, and the sky itself recoiled as Hydra returned to her true form, her roar shaking the upper atmosphere.

Touka charged.

Holy energy wrapped her like a comet as she leapt across shattered platforms, blade raised, oath-runes igniting. She struck Hydra’s foreleg with a blow that would have cleaved mountains.

Hydra staggered half a step.

Her eyes lit up with delight.

“Oh, that actually hurt.”

She retaliated instantly, tail whipping through space, forcing Touka to block with both hands as shockwaves detonated outward, shattering defensive wards and ripping merchant structures apart.

Alicia loosed arrows, spatially folded kill-zones that bent trajectory mid-flight, targeting Jax from multiple impossible angles.

Jax raised a single finger, and instantly, the arrows froze, soon shattering into harmless light.

Killian roared and charged, divine wings erupting from his back as he closed the distance in a blink, blade crashing down with enough force to fracture space itself.

Jax caught it with just his hand.

~BOOM!~

The impact shattered the floating base beneath them, debris spiraling into the clouds below. Divine energy screamed against demonic authority, sparks tearing through the air.

Killian’s eyes widened.

“You!”

Jax smiled. “You’re stronger.”

He twisted his wrist.

Killian was flung backward like a meteor, crashing through three reinforced platforms before stabilizing himself mid-air, armor cracked but regenerating under divine blessing.

Lizzy screamed an incantation, staff slamming into the air as massive holy sigils manifested, chains of pure light erupting toward Jax, each one inscribed with purification scripture meant to annihilate demons utterly.

Hydra inhaled.

Emerald mana condensed and she exhaled a torrent of pure draconic force, shredding the chains mid-formation, the backlash detonating Lizzy’s spell array and forcing her to her knees.

Alexi and Alicia moved together now.

Elemental suppression fields locked Hydra’s wings while Alicia fired a volley timed precisely with Alexi’s gravity inversion, forcing Hydra downward,

Only for Jax to step into the air itself and push.

The gravity spell inverted instead, crushing the platform beneath the Heroes while Hydra ripped free, laughing as she tore through the suppression field.

Still… they didn’t stop.

They were losing. They knew they were losing, but they were confident their improvements would eventually work, than the longer they fought, they’d do better and better against the Demon King.

And Jax could certainly sense it. Compared to their prior battle, not only were all of them far stronger individually, but they had better coordination.

“Come on, attack me,” Jax said, voice carrying across shattered skies as he looked down on the Heroes holding their own, hatred in their eyes towards him, “Show me how far you’ve come.”

“CHARGE!” Killian said angrily, and the Heroes answered with everything they had, eager to take Jax down.

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