Chapter 631: Zepar’s Trump Card

"I’ll take the initiative. You support me," Shin said, tightening his grip around Kaiku.

Malachi nodded, shifting his stance as the Weeping Tom dagger settled into his palm. His body still ached from the previous exchange, and the demonic force that had blasted them across the corridor left his limbs heavy.

Before either of them could move, a cold voice boomed across the hallway.

"YOU WILL DO NO SUCH THING!"

The words struck the corridor with such force that the remaining dust trembled along the floor. Shin and Malachi immediately turned towards the staircase, their expressions changing from grim determination to astonishment.

Damian descended the stairs in his night robes, the black fabric loosely worn over his tall frame. His long hair cascaded down his shoulders, dishevelled from having sex with Elsa, and his expression carried the quiet irritation of a man who had been dragged from his bed by an inconvenience he had not asked for.

"Master!" Malachi muttered.

"Teacher!" Shin gasped, his grip on Kaiku loosening for a fraction of a second.

"You two are not ready to fight a Duke. He’s just playing with you," Damian said calmly.

Zepar’s scythe tilted slightly in his hand. Beneath his hood, his gaze shifted towards the new arrival, and the oppressive atmosphere in the corridor seemed to tighten. The Prince of Lust stood before him without a trace of urgency, as though the destruction outside and the battle within his mansion were little more than an interruption to his evening.

Damian stopped beside his disciples. "You have done enough. Get behind me."

Neither Shin nor Malachi had time to answer.

The moment those words left Damian’s mouth, he vanished.

There was no burst of demonic energy, no visible preparation, and no sound of footsteps accelerating across the floor. One instant, Damian stood beside his disciples. In the next, he appeared directly in front of them, his right hand raised, his fingers casually catching the scythe that had been aimed at their necks.

Peng!

The metallic impact rang through the corridor.

Shin and Malachi blinked, struggling to comprehend what had just happened. Zepar had crossed the distance between them with a speed neither disciple had been able to follow, yet Damian had intercepted the strike with two fingers. More startling still, the Duke’s movement had been at least three times faster than anything he had displayed during their earlier exchange.

The difference was so immense that Shin finally understood what Damian had meant. Zepar had not been fighting them seriously. He had been measuring their abilities, testing their reactions, and forcing them to reveal their techniques while keeping his own strength concealed.

Damian’s expression darkened.

"Trying to kill my students in my presence?" he asked, his voice dropping into a dangerous growl. "You will not die a pretty death."

He pressed down on the tip of the scythe.

Crack!

The weapon snapped beneath his fingers.

Zepar did not hesitate. He released the broken shaft, spun in the opposite direction, and drew another scythe from the folds of his cloak. Its crimson blade swept towards Damian’s neck with enough force to cleave through steel.

Damian made no attempt to dodgen and the blade passed through his throat.

For a brief instant, Zepar’s expression remained unchanged. Then Damian’s body burst into smoke, and the Duke’s scythe cut through empty air. The smoke twisted around the weapon before dispersing, leaving no trace of the man who had stood there.

Damian had never been struck.

He maintained an empty expression as he stared across the corridor at the real Zepar, who stood dozens of metres away with a frown concealed beneath his armour and cloak. The Duke’s attempt had been swift, precise, and executed with enough conviction to deceive almost anyone watching. Unfortunately for him, his opponent was the Sin of Lust.

"Did you really attempt to use illusions on the Sin of Lust?" Damian asked. "It seems everyone in this capital is cocky."

Zepar’s fingers tightened around his scythe. He had spent centuries refining his art, deceiving enemies who possessed greater strength than him and dismantling opponents who believed raw power made them untouchable. He had even served Asmodeus, the former Demon Lord whose name still commanded reverence throughout the Underworld.

To have his technique dismissed so casually was insulting.

"Foolish human," Zepar said, his voice carrying a sharp edge. "I once served Asmodeus, and even he praised my skill in the art of misdirection!"

"Clearly, he was lying," Damian sneered coldly, rolling his shoulders.

A brief laugh escaped Shin before he could stop himself. Malachi followed, quickly covering his mouth with one hand and turning his head away as though the wall had suddenly become fascinating. Neither disciple had forgotten the danger they were in, but watching their master insult a Duke to his face was difficult to resist.

Damian and Zepar paid them no heed. Their attention remained fixed on each other.

"My wife is currently laying waste to your allies and subordinates," Damian continued. "There is no one coming to save you."

Outside the mansion, the distant sounds of battle rolled through the night. The faint tremor beneath their feet suggested that the fighting had spread beyond the estate’s outer walls. Elsa was not the sort of woman who required Damian’s protection to deal with a group of enemies, and anyone who had mistaken her presence for a weakness was likely discovering the error of their judgment.

Zepar scoffed. "If I needed allies to kill you, I wouldn’t have come here alone."

Damian nodded as though the answer made perfect sense. "And that’s what I’m curious about. I already killed a God and fought another a few days ago. So I’m wondering what gives a mere demigod the courage to approach me alone."

Zepar chuckled, though there was little amusement in the sound. His name carried weight throughout the Underworld, and his accomplishments had earned him a place among the most dangerous Dukes of his generation. Listening to a demigod speak down to him as though he were an insignificant insect was an insult in itself.

Yet he could not complain.

Damian had killed Lazarus, a True God who had spent thousands of years accumulating wealth and power. He had survived battles that should have ended the lives of beings far greater than himself. Whatever Zepar thought of the Prince’s attitude, Damian had earned the right to be arrogant.

"Of course, I didn’t come empty-handed," Zepar replied. "I went through a great deal of trouble to steal this. If I don’t take your life and claim your Sin, gaining the political immunity of a Prince, I will be executed for what I have done."

Damian’s expression changed slightly.

"Shin. Malachi."

Both disciples straightened.

"Get out of here. Things are about to get ugly."

They did not argue. Shin seized Malachi’s shoulder, and the two hurried up the staircase without hesitation. They knew better than to mistake Damian’s calm tone for a lack of seriousness. Whatever Zepar had brought with him, their master clearly considered it dangerous enough to keep them away from the coming battle.

Once their footsteps faded, Damian returned his attention to the Duke.

Only then did he notice the object in Zepar’s hand.

It was a sealed fist-sized box, dark in colour and covered in intricate patterns that seemed to shift whenever Damian tried to focus on them. The craftsmanship was unlike anything produced by ordinary demon artisans. The surface carried an ancient quality, as though the object had existed long before the current hierarchy of the Underworld was established.

At its centre rested a closed eyelid.

Damian’s brows drew together.

Something about the box felt familiar. Not merely similar to an artifact he had encountered before, but connected to something buried deep within his own existence. The sensation was faint at first, like the memory of a voice heard in childhood, yet the longer he stared at it, the more difficult it became to ignore.

Zepar noticed the change in his expression and began to laugh.

"Don’t even think of running now!" he shouted. "It’s too late!"

The eyelid at the centre of the box opened and darkness poured out.

It did not spread like ordinary smoke or spill across the floor like liquid. It erupted from the box in thick, twisting veins, swallowing the corridor’s light and crawling across the walls. The lamps lining the hallway dimmed one after another, their flames extinguished without a sound. Shadows stretched unnaturally along the ceiling, and the air grew so heavy that even the surrounding space seemed to recoil.

Damian’s eyes widened.

The darkness gathered in the centre of the corridor, coiling around itself until it formed the outline of a towering humanoid figure. Its body stood nearly twenty feet tall, composed entirely of blackness so complete that it seemed to absorb the light around it. No armour covered its frame. No clothing concealed its shape. It possessed only a vague, imposing silhouette, with long limbs and a head that lacked any distinguishable features.

Except for one.

A lone crimson eye stared from the centre of its abdomen.

Damian remained still.

The entity’s presence should have been oppressive. Something ancient and powerful had just emerged from a sealed artifact, bringing with it a pressure that could make ordinary demons collapse to their knees. Yet Damian did not feel the instinctive hostility he expected.

Instead, he felt something far more unsettling.

Familiarity.

The darkness surrounding the entity carried the same strange quality as the power that lived within him. It was not demonic energy, nor divine energy, nor any ordinary force he had encountered during his time in the Underworld. It felt like standing before a reflection of something that existed inside his soul.

His expression slowly hardened.

"Abyss..." Damian muttered.

Zepar threw his head back and laughed.

"This is a sealed artifact created by Majin himself!" he declared, raising the box as the crimson eye burned brighter. "It contains the last remnants of his power, alongside a fragment of his consciousness, sealed away in the Demon Lord’s Armory. This is probably one of the most important items in the entire collection!"

Sealed Artifact: Majin’s Shadow!