“Let’s dance, shall we?”

The fully transformed agent of the demon charged at Eugene again. With a swing of his hands, dozens of spears filled with demonic energy formed in the sky.

Eugene whistled and clenched his fists. His mana shaped an ethereal magic circle on the ground.

“[Stone Execution]”

Rows of stone spears dug out of the ground and matched the spears of demonic energy. The path leading to Eugene was riddled with spears, but it didn’t faze the agent at all. His wings flapped against the wind as he darted around the rising spears like a bullet.

The agent swung his claws at Eugene.

Eugene dodged and parried with his sword with one hand and grabbed the neck of the agent with another. He pulled the agent low and kneed his stomach.

“Futile!” The agent screamed and a haze of black emerged from his body. Eugene raised his eyebrow and backed off from the agent.

“Good instincts, brat!”

The demonic haze grew stronger while more energy wrapped itself around the agent’s arm. With the immense concentration of the demonic energy, he swung his hand to the side.

“Hm?” Eugene’s eyes widened just a tiny bit he smiled again. “[Honeycomb Defense: Hexagon Shields x128]”

A hundred and twenty-eight layers of shields formed in front of Eugene.

And the black beam of demonic energy reached them.

A crackling sound spread through the skies as the two collided. Dust rose from the ground before being completely disintegrated.

The demonic energy completely seeped into the layers of shields one after another disintegrating them completely.

Ten, twenty, fifty, seventy, hundred.

Only three shields were remaining by the time the onslaught of demonic energy ended.

The demon’s agent focused the haze around his eyes to see Eugene beyond the shields, but no one was there.

“Fuck! Where did he go?!”

He urgently looked all around. In every direction, up in the sky. The ground suddenly trembled.

His wings flapped and he tried to escape to the sky.

The ground he stood on was smashed to bits a crater formed with Eugene standing at its center. His sword swung upward, and a ray of purplish projectile Ki came dashing at the agent.

It wasn’t even meters away.

The agent contorted its body and dodged it just barely, but not before it dug at his foot.

It was then, Eugene clenched his fists and pulled his arms down.

A hundred orbs of projectile Ki had merged and were floating up with the rubble that he destroyed.

“Crazy!!”

The agent surrounded himself with his wings and bolted back down into the crater. Many small orbs missed, but dozens of them crashed into the monster, weakening him. The man screamed a silent scream, but Eugene was not listening.

He didn’t care about anything anymore.

Good? bad? Demon? Angel?

None of it mattered.

None at all.

Eugene’s heart only seeked the thrill of a fight, the rush of beating up someone strong. The feeling of subjugation.

Strength.

If becoming the strongest was just a mean.

Using his strength to crush others was Eugene’s goal. His end.

The white-haired boy suddenly darted toward the man and kicked his shin. The demon toppled backward, but not for long.

Eugene twisted his torso. His leg pivoted, and his muscles bulged.

Like the shell of a tank being launched, Eugene swung his arms in a wide punch.

The body of the demon’s agent curved frontward.

“KAHK…”

Black, demonic blood spewed out of his face while organs burst inside his stomach, the punch still digging in.

At last, came a release, the force caught up to his body—

“AAH!!”

—And the demon’s agent flew past the ground. His back dug a path through the crater as he was launched upward. Dozens of trees and boulders were crushed completely as the man flew away, but his eyes, his eyes still held a fight.

He looked at Eugene.

This overpowering monster.

Demon.

That was the only explanation he could think of. Only an immortal demon could be so strong, so evil.

He would kill him. Now and here. For his lord, for the real demon, the Count of Hell, he would kill him.

The agent smashed against a tree and stopped.

Blood flushed out of his mouth like a new-formed river. Gathering his strength, the agent infused his demonic energy into his bleeding body and stood up.

He could see.

In the distance, that man took a glance at his watch.

There was no way his voice would reach two hundred meters away, but it felt as if those words were ringing in his ears.

The words he said with that smiling, innocent, cherubic face of his.

“I have an engagement at seven, so just die before that, ok?”

Eugene rolled his sleeves and dusted his clothes as he made his way toward the demon’s agent.

With thorns in his eyes, and every orifice still bleeding in his body, the demon’s agent watch Eugene with bated breaths. All of his demonic energy escaped him.

Eugene came closer and closer.

Just a few meters away.

Step.

After step.

His eyes, his smile, not fading for a second.

He was standing almost an arm’s reach from the agent. The light of the moon showed his silhouette to the agent, but that dark smile not hiding in the least bit.

“F-fucking… demon…”

“Rude to the end?”

“Just… DIE!!!”

Demonic energy rose from the ground all at once as a giant shiv made it’s way up.

Eugene felt the coalition that was sent far deep into the ground a moment too late. He jumped to his side—

“ARGH!”

—But the shiv had already seared through Eugene’s palm, striking deep through it and stumbling out of the other side.

The demonic energy collapsed as the demon’s agent spat out more blood.

Eugene grabbed his hand while the agent laughed.

“Hah… hahaha! Now… the demonic energy… will eat at your hand completely… you fucker—”

A sizzling hot ball of fire appeared around Eugene, engulfing the giant hole in his arms. The fire struck the demonic energy before it could spread, neutralizing them both.

Eugene was melting away the insides of his hands, his flesh, nerves, veins, bones, blood… all with a smile.

“Y-you…”

“That was quite half-assed,” Eugene said. He snapped his fingers on the other hand and the fire disappeared, taking away all the demonic energy with it. “I hope… you are prepared for the consequences.”

The smile stopped.

The demon’s agent gulped, fear chilling him down to his bones.

“[Honeycomb Defense]”

Eugene whispered.

“[Hexagon Shield…]”

Mana coalesced around the agent’s back and shields formed behind him.

“[x256]”

They were all behind him.

All the shields were formed in a line behind the agent.

Eugene clenched his fists.

“You won’t be running away now.”

And punched.

.

.

.

***

Sophia ran up the mountain. A large surge of Ki and Mana together had emerged from just this place. Thankfully, it was far and faint and only a few of the knights could feel it, in them the most was felt by Sir Keith and Sir Buhini.

It was most likely the demon’s agent.

She wanted to gather up more power, but Keith said ‘it would be fine if my lord is after him.’

She didn’t know what spurred that trust, but that was enough for the others to stop going after the demon’s agent. In the end, Sophia knew she couldn’t leave things be.

As she took a few more steps, the scent of blood hit her.

She dashed up the path.

Her feet came to a sudden stop as she reached the battlefield.

Hundreds, hundreds of meters of ground were completely gouged out.

Trees, stones, not even dirt remained.

Standing in front of a tree was a familiar white-haired man. His pristine suit was speckless, but not he.

Blood smeared his right hand while his left hand was completely charred with a giant hole in the center.

Sophia wanted to rush to him right away, but her feet refused to move.

She saw it.

She saw the euphoric smile on his face. His lips turned up into a toothy grin and his eyes curved in a manic glare.

“Who is it…?” He asked.

His voice rang like the tolls of the devil. One wrong word and she’d be dragged down to damnation.

“L-lord Eugene…? I-it’s I, Sophia…”

Eugene turned to face Sophia. His smile disappeared and was replaced with his usual stony face of his. The air that made him unapproachable, demonic, was replaced by the kind wind he always had about him.

“Lady Sophia…?”

She sighed in relief and looked down.

Her body stiffened again.

At his feet, still pulsating, was a gnarly lump of flesh. Bones, muscles, blood, and veins, all of them had merged in one giant lump.

An eye was rolling around on the ground while intestines were spilling out of the lump.

Sophia was about to retch out—

“Lady Sophia… is it you?”

—Those words made her swallow it up.

She looked up and smiled.

No way.

She knew. It was impossible to think that Lord Eugene would do anything crazy like what she imagined. She was insulting her benefactor.

“I-is your hand hurt… are you ok?” she asked, her voice cracking.

“Oh? I am alright. It’s almost time I came back…” Eugene answered, casually walking toward her. “I am sorry, I couldn’t capture him.”

C-couldn’t capture.

So that thing was something else. Sophia wanted to sigh in relief, but the next words made her swallow it up again.

“That corpse probably can’t do anything, we’ll clean it later.”

He placed a hand on her shoulder and urged her to walk along.

It was the corpse.

It was the demon’s agent.

Her eyes still trembling, Sophia turned and walked back with Eugene.

“Hah… he destroyed all the shields in the end…”

“W-what was that…?” Sophia muttered.

“I was just thinking… I want to grow much stronger.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep