Chapter 236 - Manifestation

"Hahahahahahahaha."

Discovering that he possessed both saint type mana and arcane stage magic, Grim once again realized just how much better he was compared to everyone else.

'Heh, so what if you've got two grimoires.'

*Excitedly clenches fists*

'I'll crush you all the same!'

Now that the battle between Yuno and Zenon had come to its end, there was no longer a need for him to remain in this world any further.

Underworld, here I come!

***

*Brrrrr*

Walking through the snow covered fields and leaving footsteps in his wake, goosebumps covered Yami's skin as he carried an unconscious William over his shoulder.

"Dammit!" He complained. "Why couldn't the end of the world happen on a tropical island or something?!"

Walking beside him with a orange hue surrounding his body, Grim couldn't help but tease his captain.

"Maybe if you changed out of that "I have a pitbull on a chain lesh" wife beater and wore some normal clothes, you wouldn't have to suffer through this cold."

"Oi you little shit." He squinted. "I was being rhetorical."

Stopping in his tracks, Grim's eyes suddenly opened wide in shock.

"You know what that means?!"

This brat!

***

***

***

"Did they think that this would stop me!"

In the centre of the destroyed ritual room, the venomous voice of the devil king once again echoed out of Morris's lifeless like body.

*Crack*

"My ascension cannot be slowed!"

*Crack* *Crack*

"It cannot be stopped!"

*CRACK!!* *CRACK!!* *CRACK!!*

"I WILL END YOU ALL!"

As the terrifying voice of Lucifero echoed out, the ritual room begun to rumble and shake violently.

"To the one who tried to deny me!"

*CRAAAAAAACK!!*

"You Will Be The First To Face My Wrath- GRIM!!"

And with that, space completely shattered.

***

"No..."

Sensing it before anyone else, with trembling eyes Grim stopped in his tracks and spun back towards the castle.

"Huh? Whats wron-

*Screeeeeeeech!!*

Not even a second later, hundreds - No! Thousands of devils burst through the top of the castle.

"GRRIIMMMMMMM!!!"

The rage in Lucifero's voice rung out as everyone from Yami and Grim to Mereoleona and the Spade resistance watched in horror as those devils smushed together and merged into a monstrous mass of flesh.

'Devils from the second layer!'

Despite not witnessing it himself, Grim instinctively knew Lucifero's game.

Instead of using the remnants of Qilphoth mana to tear through space and travel to the underworld like he had planned. Lucifero used the Qilphoth's mana to forcefully create a crack in space that existed between the living world and underworld.

"GRRIMMMMM!!!"

*SMASH!!*

*SMASH!!*

*SMASH!!*

In the face of the manifesting devil king, Grim couldn't hide his grin as the humans around him fell like flies.

"You came all this way for me? *Grins* I'm FLATTERED!"

*FWOOM!!*

Resisting the gravity and clenching his fists tightly, he flexed his mana to grab Lucifero's attention.

"Hey!" Yami yelled seeing provocative actions. "What the hell do you think you're doing!"

Without looking back at him and with hints of madness in his eyes, Grim simply smiled and said-

"Can't you tell? *Summons Beast Swords* I'm about to kill a king."

***

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***

Meanwhile on a hill far away...

"Phew, looks like we made it just in time."

"Hey Asta." Liebe called out. "I know you can't tell, but that thing over there... Its Lucifero."

"Lucifero?... Didn't mister Nacht say that it would be bad if he entered our world?"

"Mmm." Liebe nodded as they stood on a small hill overlooking the Spade Castle.

"It looks like he's still in the midst of manifesting. If we attack now we can stop his manifestation and destroy him."

"Right!" Asta nodded.

Holding his hand out, his grimoire appeared in front of him and snapped open.

[Demon Slasher]

Grabbing hold of the katana's hilt, he pulled the sword out with both hands and aimed it at the far away devil king.

[Devil Union]

!!!

Holding onto the katana, the appearance of Asta's Devil Union took on a slightly different look.

We'll end this in one attack.

Inhaling deeply and raising the katana high above his head, his grip tightened up.

'This is the end LUCFIERO!'

[Demon-Slasher: Infinite Slash Equinox]

Bringing the sword down in one smooth motion, a large slash of compressed anti-magic travelled several miles in an instant! and sliced through the manifesting Lucifero.

*SLASH!!*

"GYAAAAAAAAAAH!!"

An earth shattering scream escaped from Lucifero's mouth as a vertical beam of concentrated anti-magic split him straight down middle.

Distracted by Grim's overflowing mana and unable to detect a being without magic, there was no way for him to evade the attack.

"What the fuck?!" Grim gawked.

Watching as a random black beam appeared out of nowhere and split Lucifero in half, Grim stood thoroughly confused.

What the hell was that!

Ignoring the two halves of Lucifero that were falling in opposite directions. He followed the direction the slash had appeared from.

Closing his eyes and using his [Hyper Focus], his perception travelled the distance.

'Asta!'

He gasped upon seeing his new appearance.

Even without being able to sense anti-magic, he could tell that the Asta in front of him was vastly stronger than before. Just like Yuno- No! Surpassing Yuno, whatever this form was - it might actually be capable of swapping blows with him at full power!

*Grins*

Interesting.

Now the death of Lucifero no longer seemed so bad.

Bursting out from the distance and covering the distance between them, the Black Bull base (now in ship form) flew through the air at an incredible speed.

"CAPTAIN!!"

Standing on top of the bull's head, the black bulls who didn't participate in the fight looked towards Yami with tears in their eyes.

"Heh." Yami smiled and turned to face them. "Took you long enough to get here ya idiots."

"WE'RE SORRY!!"

"Haha. I forgive ya."

'Is it... really over?'

Standing on the destroyed battlefield, Nacht who had managed to escape the battle between Grim and Megicula along with the others looked at the corpse of Lucifero.

Unable to hide it, a small smile crept onto his face.

Those kids... They actually did it.

Defeating three supreme devils, a Zenon on par with supreme devils and the manifesting Lucifero.

Asta... Grim... Yuno...

As long as those three are around, the future of this world... I don't need to wor-

"What are you standing around for?"

!!!

Hearing an unfamiliar voice sound out right next to his ear, Nacht's head snapped to the left.

Appearing out of nowhere and scratching the back of his neck, an edgy looking devil with a teenage appearance and ram-like horns looked at Nacht like he was looking at a dead man.

'A Supreme Devil from the second layer!'

'When did he get here?!'

'I didn't even sense him!'

Ignoring the look of shock on his face, the devil looked at the celebrating humans with a vacant expression on his face.

"Is now really the time to be celebrating?"

As he spoke, the leftover pieces of Lucifero's corpse suddenly swirled together and rose into the air.

"After all-

'This... what is this!'

"Lucifero's manifestation... It's is half complete."

As the corpse twisted and mangled itself, it eventually compressed into a sphere. And from within it emerged, Lucifero.