Chapter 68
The giant Asmodeus slowly reached out his hand to grab Mammon.
Mammon pushed Asmodeus away, spewing anger at the sight.
It was an unexpectedly strong power.
But not enough to defeat him.
[You dare try to harm me inside me? You who's not even a year old borrowing a human body?]
Mammon's body started growing again.
In an instant, Mammon grew to a similar size as Asmodeus and roared.
[I'm the one who fought on the frontlines more than anyone during the celestial war! Do you think you can defeat me? There's a limit to arrogance!!]
Mammon threw a punch.
All Asmodeus did during the celestial war was cunningly hide and backstab.
In contrast, Mammon was a being who had directly fought gods on the frontlines.
In a one-on-one frontal battle, he was more confident than anyone.
Just as he was about to quickly conclude the obvious fight.
Along with a brilliant burst of light from Asmodeus' hand, the sensation in Mammon's right hand that was powerfully stretching out disappeared.
[Uuuugh!!!! Aaaagh!!!]
Mammon screamed and stepped back, clutching his right arm.
His right arm had been cut off and fallen to the ground.
The light in Asmodeus' hand had taken the form of a clear sword.
Divine power.
Dazzlingly pure divine power was held in the Demon King's hand as if it were natural.
[That's right. I'm not even a year old. Even though I sucked up tremendous faith for half a year, I'm still much weaker compared to you who've been building power for 300 years. But you know. You seem to have forgotten what kind of power I've been absorbing for the past half year.]
Asmodeus chuckles and picks up Mammon's fallen arm from the ground.
The intense resentment and divinity lingering in Mammon's arm was absorbed into Asmodeus' body and disappeared.
[It's faith, Mammon. I don't care, but for you, it's pure faith that will hurt terribly even if you're simply stabbed. It's true that I'm weaker than you, but even if an adult is stabbed by a child's knife, they die, don’t they?]
[You...!! You parasite!!]
Asmodeus bursts into laughter while listening to Mammon's screams.
[Moreover, the place we're fighting is the worst for you.]
Lust holding the sword rushed towards Greed with his arm cut off.
As the severed arm regenerated instantly, Mammon roared as if he wouldn't lose and charged towards Asmodeus.
[Don't look down on me!! How many times do you think I've fought the gods of the Pantheon!! Do you think I'll fear that mere divine power...!]
And the next moment.
Asmodeus disappeared.
The brilliantly shining sword of divine power.
Asmodeus' overwhelming divine presence.
They couldn't be felt anywhere.
While Mammon was bewildered.
[Where did he go… Aagh!!]
With a sour feeling, this time his left leg was cut off and fell to the ground.
Asmodeus, who had appeared suddenly, quickly picked up the fallen leg and absorbed it again.
[Did you forget? I can disguise myself more perfectly than anyone. And we're fighting inside your divinity right now. If I perfectly imitate your divinity, you have no way to detect me.]
[You!! You dog…!!]
Enraged by Asmodeus's words as he mockingly twirled the sword of light, Mammon regenerated his left leg and took a fighting stance again.
[Moreover, there's no reason for me to fight a frontal battle where it's obvious I'll lose, is there?]
But Asmodeus vanished again at that sight.
He couldn’t be seen.
No matter where he looked, he could only sense his own divinity.
Forget frontal battle, the opponent couldn’t be seen in the first place.
[W-where are you. Where are you…? Gaaagh!!]
This time it was his left arm.
The fallen arm was recovered by Asmodeus before it even touched the ground and swallowed whole.
[Such pure and intense resentments. Your divinity is truly delicious. Thank you, Mammon. Thanks to you, I'm getting stronger more quickly.]
[N-no!! No!! It's mine!! It's what I gathered!! It's my divinity that I gathered!! You can't just take it so easily...!]
Asmodeus disappeared once again.
He couldn't be seen anywhere.
Mammon felt fear.
There was no way to win this fight.
But it wasn't that there was no chance of victory yet.
Mammon's eyes turned to the soul of Saint Amael lying quietly on the ground far away.
A small and insignificant soul, but one with Asmodeus's power dwelling in it.
If he destroyed that, he could win.
As soon as the judgment was made, Mammon started running at a terrifying speed.
He intended not to stop even if his arms and legs were cut off.
He had to hurry and take that guy hostage to drive out Asmodeus.
But the situation didn't flow as Mammon wanted.
[I was wondering when you'd rush in.]
With a slicing sound, Mammon's body was cut into dozens of pieces and poured onto the ground as if decomposing.
He couldn't even scream properly from the terrible pain.
As Mammon looked back slowly while in pieces, dozens of threads made of divine power were tightly stretched, filling the air.
It was a trap.
Of course his body would be cut up after rushing in at full speed to such a place.
[It was too obvious that you'd aim for my sweetie pie. I set up traps around in advance.]
[You b-bitch...]
[You should have chosen the place to fight your opponent well. Your downfall is that arrogance of thinking you could obviously devour me, and that greed that wanted my divinity and power.]
Asmodeus quickly began to absorb Mammon's divinities and resentments that had fallen to the ground in pieces.
Along with that, Asmodeus, who had a muscular and angular face, slowly began to change his appearance.
He began to reveal his original form while absorbing the intense powers Mammon had gathered for 300 years intact.
The muscular body began to slim down.
Wings began to sprout from the back that had nothing before.
The short hair grew long and the hand holding the sword changed softly.
And before long.
Asmodeus had changed into a form familiar to Mammon.
A beautiful angel with 4 pairs of wings.
2 pairs of left wings more hideously twisted than anything, and 2 pairs of right wings more brilliant than anything.
Looking down at Mammon who was looking up at her trembling, Asmodeus bursts into laughter mixed with ecstasy.
[It looks good. Greed. Crawling around like that like a bug. It's really funny.]
[Why are you doing this!? Why? With that much power, you could return to Pandemonium and have plenty left over! Is it ambition? Are you doing this because of ambition to surpass Lucifer too?]
[No. I told you. It's because you touched my sweetie pie... Amael.]
A bewildered laugh burst from Mammon's mouth.
[You're doing all this just for that guy? Do you think Pandemonium will leave you alone?]
[Threaten all you want. Do you think that will change the future of you being devoured by me?]
Asmodeus had already absorbed most of Mammon's divinity on the ground.
Now only a tiny amount remained.
[You shouldn't have touched him in the first place.]
[Negotiation!! Let's negotiate! There's no need to go this far! Lust! Let's carry out my plan together! I'll give you half of the resentment that falls from it!]
[No. I've already decided to eat you. Moreover, Amael doesn't like the world burning. I can't help with that.]
Asmodeus waved her hand playfully.
[Goodbye, Mammon. I won't miss you.]
[No!! This can't be! No!!]
Before the last remaining small amount of divinity was absorbed, Mammon attempted to escape.
Scraping together the last remaining resentments and divinities, Mammon hurriedly opened a hole in the air and desperately crawled through it.
[Where do you think you're going?]
Of course, he didn't get far before being caught by Asmodeus.
She quickly begins to absorb Mammon's last remaining divinity.
[Damn it!! Fuck!]
The Demon King of Greed had no choice but to make the choice he ultimately didn't want to make.
At the cost of giving up all the remaining resentments and divinities, Mammon was finally able to escape from the mental world.
[Kuuugh!! Aagh!!]
The human realm welcomed Mammon.
The basement where time was stopped.
Inside, the flesh body formed by combining the bodies of three followers writhed and screamed.
[My, my divinity!!! My resentments!! No!! No!! This can't be! This can't be happening!!]
Is this how it feels to lose all your assets accumulated over 300 years to a scam at once?
While Mammon was screaming in tears from the resentment, anger, and despair that had crossed the critical point.
The Time Stop applied to the whole world was released.
And.
[No... No, you bitch!! Aaaaaaagh!!]
Light bursts from Amael's body.
A huge pillar of light rose from his body, reaching up to who knows how high in the sky.
The pillar of light that pierced through the basement where the laborists were hiding and through the building soon became so huge that all the people in the entire city could see it.
"Don't give up! Don't fear the police!! We have the Saint!"
"Whether we die beaten by the police or return alive, there's no difference anyway! We must fight and win!!"
"Arrest all these reactionaries!! They're laborists!! I'll give permission to fire!"
"Shoot right now...!"
The police and workers who were fighting.
"Suppress them right now! Why did I make you the police chief!!"
“B-but Congressman. The number of workers isn't just one or two. If blood is spilled here, there's a possibility the strike rally could turn into a riot.”
"That's not my business!! Can't you see our factories are stopped? Use harsh measures if necessary and suppress them right now...!"
The city councilman and police chief who were shouting.
"W-what is this…?"
"Comrade Renaro!!! Step back!!"
The laborists gathered in the basement too.
Everyone stopped their actions and lost their words while looking at the pillar of light.
The gentle and warm light was shining on every part of Scrap Yard equally without discrimination.
No wall could stop the light from shining on humans.
The rich and the poor.
The sick and the healthy.
The sad and the happy all looked at the pillar of light equally.
The pillar of light soon slowly began to engrave one sentence in the air.
A sentence depicting an eye shedding tears.
The emblem of Lilia, Goddess of Grace, was clearly engraved in the air of Scrap Yard.
And seeing that sight.
Mammon and his followers screamed.
[Anathema!! Anathema!! My, my body is burning!! Aaaaaaagh!!]
Mammon's flesh began to crumble.
As it crumbled, he let out terrible screams.
[You bitch!! You bitch!! I won't forget this!! I will never forget…!!]
With that death cry as the last, Mammon's flesh collapsed and crumbled.
Karl Renaro and the laborists collapsed at the terrible screams let out by the divinity.
After writhing on the ground for a long time, they were barely able to come to their senses and get up after about 10 minutes had passed.
They looked at each other.
They looked at Mammon's melted flesh on the ground.
And they looked at Amael emitting light from his body.
The deliberation didn't last long.
Even though the laborists hated capitalists and resented those with power, they knew what the right judgment was in the current situation.
"Contact the capital! Contact the White Order and Black Fortress!!" Karl Renaro shouted as if screaming.
"There are demon followers in the city!! Request troops to be dispatched immediately!!"
And around the same time.
"It's demon followers!!"
"Contact the White Order right now!! There are demon followers and black mages in the city!!"
The factory owners living in luxurious mansions were also shouting the same thing.
Perhaps for the first time.
It was a moment when the opinions of Scrap Yard's workers and capitalists aligned.
[Massive experience gained!]
[Skill level up complete!!]