Chapter 1452

Those who met death lost their souls. The same was true for the imps, mindless monsters born only for destruction, as well as for the mutated monsters. Of course, if anyone asked whether they possessed whole souls, the truth was that they were mere dregs of condensed souls from a dimensional rift, not proper souls.

If imps were decapitated or suffered a fatal injury, they would of course die and become motionless.

Yet, watching those dead imps and mutated monsters rise again was enough to send chills down everyone’s spines.

“Grrrrr...” The Imp Lord, a being of immense power worthy of being called the King of Destruction, staggered back as if it couldn't comprehend what was happening right in front of it. After all, its minions, who had just fought to the death to protect it, were slowly rising and glaring at it.

Aris, staggering, approached Davey and asked with a bewildered look, “Davey... What’s going on?”

Instead of responding to her, he simply sneered at the Imp Lord and taunted, “Why are you backing off? Scared?”

“Grrrrr...”

It grew angrier and angrier with his taunts.

Davey threw out one more line for good measure to provoke it, saying, “Yo, your subordinates are awesome.”

“Krrrrr...” The Imp Lord, recognizing him as a serious threat, could only seethe in anger, unable to attack rashly.

“Oh! Looks like someone’s getting real heated, huh?”

“KIYAAAHHH!!!”

Judging by its ability to understand human words, the Imp Lord seemed to have a certain level of intelligence, unlike the other imps.

Watching it charge forward in a fit of rage, Davey activated the devil magic he had prepared.

[Bone Wall]

[Soul Prison]

[Lower Resist]

[Guard Break]

A wall of bone spikes instantly erupted from the cracked ground, blocking its charge.

Even though the bones were tough, it was too tall an order to expect them to be tougher than the Imp Lord at their core. Nonetheless, the white bones, reinforced with Davey’s magic and a curse that lowered the opponent's defense, not only stopped its reckless charge, but also pierced into various parts of its body.

“KIYAAAH!!!”

The Imp Lord stumbled, letting out a horrific, painful shriek. It squirmed and staggered back, trying desperately to create distance again.

Davey only provoked it further, turning to the risen imps and loudly saying, “Looks like your former master is pretty mad. What’re you all waiting for? Go tear it apart.”

‘I’ll give you high marks for this insubordination.’

“Go sink all your teeth into it, or don’t even bother coming back. If any of you still have teeth left by the time you return, I’ll pull them out myself.”

“Kraaaah!!!”

As soon as the soulless assault of the dead began, the imps, led by the mutated monsters, charged madly at the Imp Lord.

The Imp Lord quickly regenerated its body, ignoring the bones digging into its skin. Instead of removal, the stark white bones were then absorbed into the creature's body.

‘It seriously absorbed those?’

It swung its stone-hard wings and tail, tearing through the imps who had revolted against it. It showed no mercy, as if declaring that traitors deserved no forgiveness.

Meanwhile, Davey just cheered on the hordes of charging undead without personally assisting them, thoroughly getting under the Imp Lord's skin. He continued cheering, “Way to go! You're crushing it!”

Driven to extreme rage, its movements became simple and barbaric, yet it displayed an astonishing reserve of strength.

It had already been deeply cut and had its arms severed twice, only to regenerate them.

Its tail had also exploded, with its wings having been torn apart as well. Even though it must’ve burned through an enormous amount of energy by regenerating, it was still unleashing the same degree of overwhelming power it had at the start.

Even while doing all this, it kept roaring and glaring at Davey, recognizing that things had only reversed against it upon his arrival. It continued to launch sharp blades of energy toward him whenever it found an opening.

Of course, Davey wasn’t about to just stand there and let himself get hit.

Boom!!

Aris, standing next to Davey, shrieked, “Heek!!”

Some of the imps, resurrected as corpses, had thrown themselves in the way of the fierce incoming attack, getting torn to pieces.

Some were separated in half, while others had their heads outright blasted off.

“Well, would ya look at that! I can’t even imagine how much they hated you to throw themselves in front of me like this?”

“Grrrrrrrr...”

“You should've treated them better, I guess.”

“KIYAAAH!!!”

If the monster could speak, it would’ve been cursing Davey out with every profanity imaginable. The more enraged it became, the more ferocious its movements and aggression grew.

Girul and Mary, who had their curses lifted in the sanctuary, stumbled as they tried to move.

“The number of undead is dwindling! We must get it right now, while we still have forces left!! I need to join the fight... Ugh.”

“As expected of the Imp Lord... I still don't understand the situation, but it’s terrifyingly strong.”

“Could I have stopped that...?” Aris's expression darkened as she realized her trump card would've been useless. Even so, she gripped her sword again and took a deep breath, steeling her resolve.

“Davey, controlling this many imps must’ve drained a massive amount of your power, right? From now on, I'll—”

“What are you talking about, idiot?” he immediately replied, cutting her off.

‘Does she think my power’s running out because the number of imps is rapidly decreasing?’

Aris seemed to have judged that they needed to move before all the undead imps vanished. The Great Saintess and the Sword Saint seemed to be equally confused about the situation.

“There's no time! We need to kill it before they're all torn apart by the Imp Lord!”

“Thanks to this incredible domain, I’m overflowing with power... I’m not sure what's going on, but this is our chance!”

Davey didn't bother to point out what the clueless people had misunderstood, instead just commanding, “Quiet.”

“Huh?”

The surroundings immediately fell silent. Of course, the Imp Lord seemed to have thought the same thing as the expedition. The Imp Lord saw the decreasing numbers of undead under Davey’s control and shot a sinister smile toward him.

It was hard to imagine a grotesque monster smiling, but the expression in particular was irking.

‘Is this jerk actually smiling?’

“You think you've won? You think you can take me now?”

In response to his question, the Imp Lord roughly crushed the head of the imp leader it held in its hand and strode toward him.

Slaap!!

However, it quickly froze.

[By the Name of the Death Lord, I command.]

[It is not your time.]

The Death Lord's command wasn't spell cancellation or some lengthy incantation. It was a command backed by overwhelming will. In other words, he simply voiced whatever he pleased, and in reality, it manifested according to his will.

Ssss.

The torn-apart imps rose again.

“W-what?!”

As the horde of the dead, which everyone thought was mostly finished, rose again as if nothing had happened, everyone looked at Davey with ashen faces. Even the Imp Lord backed away, its mouth agape.

“What's wrong?” Davey asked with a smirk. “You were grinning like a jackass just a second ago. Does it feel like something's off now that they're back for round two?”

The Imp Lord trembled at his taunt.

“Alright, undead losers, time for your encore.”

Excluding the completely shredded corpses, the severed pieces clung together and began to move as if alive once more.

Overwhelmed by the arrival of the horrific assault, the Imp Lord flinched and took another step back.

The expedition members were shocked as well.

“Oh my goodness... He can raise those things again?! Wasn't he exhausted just a second ago?!”

Davey shot back, “When did I ever say I was exhausted?”

Aris spoke up to ask, “T-then why didn't you resurrect them until now?”

He nonchalantly gave her the cruel truth. “To make that punk fall into despair.”

Despair, after all, only truly blossomed when hope was given and then snatched away.

“Seriously... I can’t tell who’s the monster here anymore...”

Someone muttered something, but Davey couldn't have cared less. If someone asked if he was the Demon King, he would simply say yes with confidence.

If he had messed with human bodies the same way as the imps, Death Lord Rho Aias would’ve been furious, but they were nothing more than lumps of flesh formed from scraps.

“No living being would ever treat its own life so lightly, but the undead are a different story.”

The undead never tired; they ignored the physical consequences of their bodies; and they were driven purely by orders. They were basically dolls that moved on command. Their power was thus directly dependent on the necromancer who controlled them.

When the necromancer was an existence on the level of a Death Lord? It was over for the enemy.

When a Death Lord, who controlled tidal wave-like armies, only commanded a few dozen, their dominance and influence were bound to be much stronger. The only drawback facing the Imp Lord was that the undead's influence was weaker than expected due to the Saint Sanctuary domain keeping everyone safe.

That was also the reason why Davey couldn't instantly crush the Imp Lord despite leading an army of the dead on the level of a Death Lord.

The Imp Lord was undeniably strong. However, it had no way to fundamentally sever the power that moved its subordinates. The imps were torn apart, but they simply kept resurrecting and charging ahead regardless.

“At least its power is simple enough that this kind of brain-dead strategy works.”

Aris, speechless, stared at Davey.

Noticing the gaze, he said, “I promised, didn't I? To let you make it out alive. I always keep my promises.”

Troy was simply a dimension he had come to for refuge. Yet, after seeing the people there and their kindness, he wanted them to live.

The one who touched him the most was Aris, who had taken up a sword to protect the world despite her young age.

“Davey... y-you...” she stammered, seeming to be contemplating something.

Davey, in response, diverted her attention elsewhere, asking, “Aris, how much have you gathered?”

“What are...” She momentarily blanked in the middle of her sentence before finally muttering, “Huh?”

“I asked how much power you've gathered,” he repeated.

After a brief moment of thought, she said, “Enough.”

“Yeah? Then start getting ready. I’ll suppress that guy, and you deal the final blow.”

‘She should count herself lucky. I rarely let people steal my kills. ’

Looking directly at the Imp Lord, he became certain of one thing. The Imp Lord had already surpassed the level that the living beings of the dimension could handle. Something that was already faltering had simply gone berserk when stimulated with a slight catalyst, cascading into disaster before he even became involved.

The reason behind its actions was simple. It believed it had to be strong to protect the living beings within it. Yet, the internal living beings were stronger than expected.

Then Davey had to trust the ones in the dimension and gather even more power to make them into a mightier dimension. He had already heard of this judgment.

Although drawing in immense power didn't offer many benefits to the living beings of the dimension, the Imp Lord, who shared some connection with it, was growing stronger beyond usual bounds.

Davey no longer believed the goddess's initial statement that the natives could overcome the crisis without his interference. That was because the moment he arrived in the dimension and exerted his influence, the flow was highly likely to have been disrupted.

Even in that situation, he didn’t know why the goddess had said such a thing to him. Yet, that was why he couldn’t help but think about something.

If the dimension was so arbitrarily sucking in power, he couldn’t imagine what judgment it would make when the internal living beings endured far beyond the level it had initially set.

If it followed a grand set of rules as a single, mindless energy entity, then regulations based on its set threshold must certainly exist. And if it surpassed that threshold, the dimension would fall into confusion.

It would think that the standards, the same ones it assumed were acceptable, might actually be wrong.

After all, Troy was still an immature dimension. It was early enough in its development cycle that the dimension itself could intervene.

Finally, the Imp Lord, whose rage had peaked, burst out in fury. “KRRRAHHH!!”

It effectively became a cyclone, sucking in all the energy in the surrounding area. Every bit of energy blanketing the entire extreme region poured into it and began to compress within.

“KIYAAA!!!”

A shining eye emblem then rose above its head, and it began to exert influence over everyone there.

“Guh!”

“Aargh!”

Excluding Aris, everyone else’s limbs began to stiffen as if turning to stone just by making eye contact.

“T-the Evil Eye of Petrification!”

“We've never even heard of anything this strong!”

The Sword Saint and the Great Saintess, beings of transcendent power with immense resistance, turned deathly pale as they watched even their own bodies solidify.

“W-was the Imp Lord... Always this strong?”

“Aris! Hero Aris! Are you alright?”

“Uh... yes! I think I'm okay!”

She nodded with an awkward expression. Even she probably didn't know she had this level of resistance.

“Davey... did you do this?”

“Snap out of it.”

Immediately after he spoke, the halo above the Imp Lord's head frantically gathered light and then discharged it directly at Aris.

Targeting Aris, who possessed power with the potential to kill it, was the right decision. However, the creature seemed to have overlooked the fact that Davey would obviously catch on to its shallow scheme.

As the compressed energy, which defied imagination, flew toward her, Aris instinctively flinched.

Boom!!!

However, Davey casually raised one hand in front of her and blocked its attack.

“Davey! Smoke!! Smoke’s coming from your hand!” Hearing the hissing sound, she urgently grabbed his hand to check it. But seeing his perfectly fine hand, she looked at him as if he were a monster.

Meanwhile, the Imp Lord, who instinctively sensed its power had grown stronger, sent a gaze that seemed to ask how he liked its newest move.

In response, Davey looked at Aris and said indifferently, “I’ll tell you what you need to do, we just have two steps. First, I’ll bind and suppress that weakling. Second, you smash all your power into the creature's core that I’ll pull out. That's it. Simple, right?”

She was skeptical. “Me? Do you think I can do it?”

“You're a hero. If you say you can't, does your duty as a hero go away?”

They were still missing a finishing blow.

While Aris was gathering her strength, and until the Troy dimension, which was recording the situation, made its move, Davey was determined to completely mess with the Imp Lord.

The Imp Lord despaired and raged at the fact that he was playing with it.

‘But hey, if it feels cheated, it should’ve asked to be born earlier and gather more power teehee.’

If Davey ended things too quickly, he figured it’d actually interfere with the dimension's judgment.

So, he calmly threw out another taunt. “Hey punk!”

At his call, the Imp Lord, who was crushing the heads of the imp leaders, fixed its gaze on him.

“I bet you’re bored, huh?”

The creature instinctively spread its massive wings and gathered violet lightning, but Davey was faster to respond. “Let's turn up the heat.”

[5th Circle Devil Magic]

[Legion Reinforcement]

[Massive Physical Reinforcement]

[Magic Resistance]

[Impact Absorption]

The others didn't seem to realize that Davey had used reinforcement magic on the undead, but the Imp Lord, having caught on, raged and let out a wild shriek.