Return of the Calamity-Class Death Knight - Chapter 343

Chapter 343: The Final Battle (2)

***

As the sun was setting, the sky turned red, and darkness slowly began to creep over the land.

However, the encroaching darkness was suddenly obliterated.

A burst of light had erased all the shadows in an instant.

The light wasn’t coming from the sky, but emanating from Damien.

“…”

Dorugo felt a sense of déjà vu from the overwhelming aura Damien Haksen was radiating.

It reminded her of the distant past, on a continent filled with monsters.

This was exactly how Ruin had appeared out of nowhere back then, exuding an aura that could shake the entire world as he faced his enemies.

“How dare you…!”

Dorugo shouted and gritted her teeth.

“You, who just happened to inherit Ruin’s talents!”

Dorugo’s eyes blazed with fury, feeling as if something precious had been defiled.

Darkness exploded from her body and spread in all directions like a viscous swamp.

From within the darkness, a terrifying massive creature arose.

It had two legs with reverse joints and four arms.

Unlike its lower body, which was covered in fur, its upper body was smooth.

On its chest and abdomen were two shriveled heads, like mummies.

The face on its neck had melted like candle wax, making its features indistinguishable.

“Grooooah!”

“Urrrrrgh!”

The heads on the torso emitted horrifying sounds. As if annoyed by the noise, Dorugo shouted.

“Shut up!”

At Dorugo’s command, the two heads closed their mouths but continued to grumble inaudibly.

Dorugo shifted her gaze back to Damien.

“You’re not the only one who’s grown!”

While Damien was making his way to Mount Carion, Dorugo focused on absorbing the bodies of the Demon Lords.

“I won’t kill you! You’re still too useful!”

As her reverse-jointed legs kicked off the ground, the solid earth shattered like thin ice. In an instant, Dorugo soared high into the sky like an eagle.

She raised her four arms high.

Suddenly, the sky turned black.

It wasn’t the sudden arrival of night. The sky was filled with Dorugo’s demonic energy.

The demonic energy blanketing the sky gathered at a single point. A black sun appeared in the sky.

Dorugo grasped it and plummeted downward. The massive concentration of demonic energy fell towards Damien.

Just before impact, a flash of light appeared. A red slash rising from the ground split the black sun in half.

The black sun lost its core and dispersed. The red slash transformed into flower petals and scattered.

“…”

Dorugo stared at the scene with a bewildered expression.

She had absorbed the demonic energy of three Demon Lords despite the fact that they were corpses.

It was on a completely different level in both quality and quantity.

She had condensed it into a single point to maximize its destructive power.

How could he cut through it so easily? She felt the same insurmountable wall as when she first met Ruin…

“This can’t be real!”

Shouting at no one in particular, Dorugo extended her four arms towards Damien.

Darkness seeped out of the ground where Damien stood. The darkness soon swelled like eyelids.

Dorugo raised her arms upward. The darkness covering the ground rose like a tidal wave.

Dorugo brought her raised arms down. The risen darkness came crashing down and crushed Damien beneath it.

At that moment, the sound of air being sliced was heard.

It was a crisp sound that made one’s ears tingle.

Soon after, lines appeared in the darkness covering the prairie.

Countless lines overlaid the darkness, which then shattered into pieces and dissipated.

Damien emerged completely unscathed from the attack.

“…”

Despite unleashing such immense demonic energy, Dorugo couldn’t even touch a hair on Damien’s head.

She trembled at this terrifying reality.

“It seems you have nothing more to show.”

Damien’s knees bent slightly. His head lowered.

He’s coming.

By the time she thought this, it had already begun.

I must block it.

By the time she made this judgment, it was already too late.

Red petals filled her vision. In the next instant, one of Dorugo’s arms vanished.

Dorugo reflexively turned around. Damien was already standing behind her.

He was holding a blood-stained sword.

“Gaaaah!”

Dorugo created swords out of her demonic energy.

She grasped them with her three remaining arms and swung them at Damien.

The three swords plunged into the ground. But Damien was already gone.

With a sharp pain, another arm flew off.

Dorugo suppressed the pain and turned her body.

But Damien was nowhere to be seen. That’s not to say he had vanished.

The third arm flying high into the sky proved Damien’s presence.

“Damien… Damien Haksen!”

Dorugo frantically moved her eyes, trying to locate Damien.

But she couldn’t even catch a glimpse of him, let alone track his afterimages.

“Gah!”

Soon after, her last arm was severed.

Dorugo had lost all means to defend herself.

“In that case…!”

Dorugo summoned her demonic energy.

Using her mighty demonic energy as fuel, she manifested the Authority of Sloth.

There was no need to choose a specific target. Everything in this world was the target.

“Stop!”

With Dorugo’s cry, the entire world came to a halt.

Birds froze in mid-air, and leaves being swept by the wind became fixed in place.

“Hah, huff, hah.”

Dorugo panted heavily and slowly turned around. She saw a blade pressed against her neck.

Following the blade with her eyes, she saw Damien.

Dorugo felt chills run down her spine.

If she had been even a moment slower in manifesting the authority, her head would have been severed.

“You… monster…”

Dorugo concentrated her demonic energy on her wounds. Her severed arms instantly regenerated.

“Urrrgh…”

At that moment, one of the heads on her torso groaned.

Dorugo looked down at the head and said coldly.

“I told you to shut up.”

As she spoke, Dorugo once again used her demonic energy to create weapons.

She grasped them one by one and held them against Damien’s limbs.

“Even you are powerless before the Authority of Sloth.”

Dorugo intended to cut off Damien’s limbs. Even Damien would be helpless if only his torso remained…

Suddenly, Dorugo saw it. Damien’s eyes were staring directly at her.

“What is this…”

Instinctively, Dorugo leaped backward.

In that moment, the frozen Damien moved. He swung his sword towards Dorugo.

Thanks to her preemptive retreat, Dorugo narrowly avoided the slash.

Having put some distance between them, Dorugo looked at Damien and cold sweat breaking out on her skin.

Time had clearly stopped. The world remained frozen in place.

Yet Damien was moving as if nothing had happened.

“H-How…”

“Well.”

With that short word, Damien prepared to charge again.

Dorugo once more manifested the Authority of Sloth. She tried to stop Damien.

In response, Damien slashed the air with the swords in both hands. The authority Dorugo had manifested instantly vanished.

Dorugo’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“You cut through a Demon Lord’s authority…”

Dorugo couldn’t finish her sentence. Damien charged at her again.

Sloth doesn’t work. Lust would likely be the same. In that case…

Dorugo manifested the Authority of Pride. She completely distorted the surrounding space.

Due to the distortion of space, Damien appeared in an unexpected location as he charged towards Dorugo.

Having barely bought some time, Dorugo gathered her demonic energy once more.

She twisted the space around Damien.

No matter where Damien ran, he would return to his original position.

He would be unable to escape from his current location.

She had trapped Damien in a prison made of space.

“I didn’t want to use this!”

Dorugo’s goal wasn’t to kill Damien. It was to capture him alive.

But now wasn’t the time to be sparing with her methods. At this rate, she might be the one to die first.

“Please, just stay alive!”

Space began to compress around Damien.

The compressed space was so complex that not even light could escape.

Pitch-black darkness pressed in on Damien from all sides.

* * *

The abyss created by the compressed space tried to crush Damien.

But the abyss didn’t dare encroach upon Damien’s domain.

It was because of the white sword Damien Haksen held in his hand.

The Divine Sword was pushing back the abyss.

Thanks to this, only the area around Damien remained brightly lit.

But it was uncertain how long the divine sword could hold out. So Damien raised the sword in his other hand.

“Erebos.”

Erebos let out a cry.

However, Erebos’s cry had no effect on the abyss. The twisted space was blocking Erebos’s power.

Damien compressed Erebos’s power. He wrapped it around the blade.

He would cut through it all.

Strength flowed into Damien’s arms. The divine sword and Erebos flashed.

In that moment, the abyss was torn apart and an explosion occurred. The view that had been blocked by darkness became clear again.

In the distance, he could see Dorugo with a shocked expression on her face. Damien immediately kicked off the ground.

“Damn it!”

Dorugo once again used the Authority of Pride to twist space.

But Damien wasn’t naive enough to fall for the same trick twice.

“Erebos, cry out.”

The power compressed in the blade was released. It engulfed the entire world and swallowed Dorugo in the process as well.

The authorities of Pride and Erebos collided. They canceled each other out and disappeared.

There was no longer any shield to protect Dorugo. Damien focused on Dorugo’s chest.

That was Dorugo’s core. That’s where her soul resided.

Damien put strength into his legs.

Red petals scattered. Damien charged forward almost becoming a red flash.

The tip of Erebos pierced through Dorugo’s core.

***