Immediately, the entire dungeon began to quake. The dark mist around Soul Devouring Demon King's body billowed crazily as it transformed into a giant wave of darkness energy and surged toward Beel and Erza.
Absolute darkness and extreme cold engulfed the two youths like a boundless, inescapable abyss. In front of this wave of darkness energy, Erza felt her body becoming rigid and she felt like dust in front of a tidal wave that reached the heavens.
She was not able to attack with the black lightnings and the red flames she had gathered up as every cell in her body screamed for her to escape! If she dared to face it head on, it would only end in her complete and total destruction.
This was the first time that an attack caused her very soul to tremble in fear before it even neared her body.
Erza abruptly bit the tip of her tongue as she activated her Eyes of Chronos and entered her Black Lightning Flame Form at the same time as she darted backwards, quick like a lightning. She did not forget to cast 'Double Acceleration' on herself and 'Time Stop' to the incoming attack.
In addition, she did not have time to see how Beel reacted against the attack since she needed to fully concentrate on herself.
As she was making her swift escape, she felt her back smash heavily against a wall that she had no way of seeing.
*Boom!!*
The place shook again as the wave of darkness exploded at the place where Erza had been standing earlier. The exploding darkness energy seemed to spread out like a horde of evil spirits.
Even though Erza had not been caught by the devil's exploding darkness profound energy, the icy cold aftershocks caused her whole body to be wracked by unbearable pain. Her brows knitted together tightly as she took big gasps of breath.
After facing the Soul Devouring Demon King's first attack, her heart instantly sank to the bottom of her stomach.
Even though the Soul Devouring Demon King was currently stuck at the peak of King realm due to his injury, it was still a devil from ancient times! Its true strength even surpassed an early level Human Emperor.
"Erza, Beel, you better listen up and listen good!" Ash yelled in an extremely serious tone, "This Illusory Devil Night Sovereign! No matter what tactics or trump cards you have to use, you must use all your strengths to kill him, even if you have to put your lives on the line!"
"Only you two are present in this place! So you two are the only persons who can kill him on this world! Otherwise, the day he fully recover is the day the entire Northern Continent and all the living creatures on this world experience a catastrophe beyond imagination!"
"Heh, right now, I have no time to care about a catastrophe." Beel's hands tightened into fists as he barked out a miserable laugh filled with self-mockery, "If I'm unable to kill him, then I'm dead meat. So I have no choice but to put everything on the line anyways… It's only that this time, there really isn't any chance of victory."
Because the monster he was facing was a devil from ancient times!
In the million years since the fall of the true gods and the true devils, Beel and Erza were probably the very first persons who had crossed arms with a true devil in all of the Three Realms!
"If it was just you alone, then you'd indeed be as good as dead, as you wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of beating him." Ash said in a deep voice, "But if we add in Erza… then we might just have a chance!"
"Hmph, what a pitiful struggle!" The Soul Devouring Demon King stretched out a pitch-black arm as a cluster of dark mist coalesced in front of him. After that, it started to pulsate like an enormous living organ. After the Demon King stretched out his finger, the dark mist fiercely tore itself apart as it shot out a thousand bolts of black lightning that stormed in Erza's and Beel's locations.
Every single bolt of dark lightning was as slender as a needle but the might contained within each bolt of lightning caused all the hairs on Erza's body to stand on end as she instantly went pale.
"Don't even think of trying to break that attack, dodge all of them! If you are hit by any one of them, the darkness energy contained within will directly harm your soul!" Ash yelled out an urgent warning.
Erza did not even stop to think about it. She jumped to the side of the walls as she tried to escape from this attack at the fastest speed possible.
*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*
The dark lightning tore a thousand holes in the air before it collided against the stone wall with an ear-splitting wail. At the same time, vicious currents of dark energy spilled from the dark lightning uncontrollably. Many stone walls were scattered within the dungeon.
"Hah… hah…" Erza gasped violently as she leaned heavily against a stone wall, her forehead was covered in cold sweat.
"This can't continue…" Erza mumbled through gritted teeth as she stared in the direction of the Soul Devouring Demon King, "Merely escaping is completely meaningless in this place… I'll just have to put it all on the line, no matter what!"
"Ah, this has truly shocked this king! To think that a pathetically weak and inferior lifeforms such as yourselves could escape this king's punishment twice in a row. But it is such a pity, because you are not qualified to become a plaything for this king. So this time, even if you have ten more lives, even if you are ten times faster, you will disappear forever! Not even a single bone will be left behind!"
The Soul Devouring Demon King's voice seemed near and far as it rang out from within the boundless darkness, making it hard for Erza and Beel to get a lock on his position. Erza gritted her teeth hard as she suppressed the terror that was welling up in her heart.
'Purgatory!!'
With a low roar, all of the profound energy in Erza's body explosively swelled up as the pupils of her eyes and the surrounding profound energy instantly turned a dull red. This was one of the ultimate skills from the Heavenly Flame Sword. Erza did not have time to think about the aftereffects to both her and Ash. She was putting everything on the line.
'Demonic Decree!!'
Erza's black lightnings abruptly entered her body and mixed with her blood as she quickly transformed to her demon form. Curved horns grew on the top of her head and a cute tail appeared on her back. Moreover, some parts of her body were covered by exquisite demonic scales.
Erza darted out from behind the stone wall as blazing red flames frantically ignited and exploded with full force towards the onrushing Soul Devouring Demon King.
*Boom!!*
When the onrushing Soul Devouring Demon King was still sixty meters away, the red flames abruptly ruptured, but these rupturing flames of destruction did not release the power which would reduce everything to nothingness.
Instead, the flames were quickly extinguished within the darkness as they faded away. Within the short span of a single breath, everything was plunged into pitch-black stillness once again.
"Wh...at!" Erza said as she gritted her teeth fiercely. She was starting to feel hopeless.
She knew that as an early level Knight, she stood almost no chance defeating a peak King realm expert. However, she was still hanging on a sliver of hope. Unfortunately, there was no miracle for her. It was a sad truth that an attack which contained all of her profound energy was nothing in front of her opponent.
Soon after that, Erza began to lose her consciousness as the aftereffects started to kick in.
"This is truly a meaningless struggle." The Soul Devouring Demon King said with icy contempt and mockery, "If it was the flames of a True Phoenix, this king may feel the slightest hints of trepidation. But these lowly imitations are merely a pitiful joke!"
However, at this moment, the Soul Devouring Demon King's aura abruptly grew thick and heavy as the expression in his eyes fiercely changed as well. He quickly turned his attention to Beel because he had felt the change in Beel's profound energy and he had also noticed the strange profound blue light which glowed around him.
"Beelzebub Emperor Art!!" The Soul Devouring Demon King said in a voice that trembled suddenly.