Those eyes made me wary, but I couldn't escape anyway. I pounced at him with another fist, but right before it connected, his fist reached my face first. As I was thrown back with a broken nose, I quickly recovered and returned my feet to the ground. The Demon King did not pursue as he had begun transforming.
"Grrr!!!"
With a loud roar, his markings shined like rubies, his muscles bulged out and his horns grew to stand taller than the top of his head. His eyes also glowed red and his teeth broke out from the containment of his mouth. When I first saw him, he didn't look much different from the average man, but now he truly embodied the image of a Demon King. Tall, red-tipped horns, scorching red hair that flow unhindered to his back, two red eyes that induced fear in any who faced him, fangs that could chomp down on his prey, a dark-toned body that exuded intimidation, this was the form he took.
There were many skills that could give one the power to transform, but I knew that the one responsible for this change only made him transform as a side-effect. It was one of seven skills that was part of a series only granted to Demon Kings. The Demonic skill, Wrath.
It was one of the Seven Deadly Sins skills that a Demon King could attain after ascending to the position. Every one of these skills were unbelievably powerful, but this power came with serious drawbacks. Take Wrath for example. Thanks to Wrath, the Demon King would continuously get stronger the more damage he took, making it a simple but effective skill. No matter what injury I gave him, as long as he didn't die he would just keep getting stronger like some sort of fiction protagonist. However, there was a consequence to that great power.
As the holder of Wrath, the Demon King was tormented by the desire for unrestrained violence. Although I hated that he wanted to drag the Demon Lands into his desire, I knew that he would eventually go insane from this desire just like the previous Demon King of Wrath, Tarmas.
He was the most recent Demon King to wage war on humanity and be defeated by a hero, but majority of those who were alive in those times were secretly thankful to the hero. Near the end of his life, Demon King Tarmas lost control of himself and would occasionally slaughter his fellow demons at the drop of a hat. Even strength-worshipping demons couldn't endure his reign of terror at that point so some suspected that the nobles that were supposed to guard the Demon King, slackened on the security and allowed the hero to pass through easily. However, that would be very dishonourable if proven true so such rumours were rarely spread in public lest one attract the ire of a noble house involved with that event.
Basically, the Demonic skill was a dangerous double-edged sword, but in battle it gave a single demon the power to stand above all others.
Once he finished his transformation, he threw off the scraps of the jacket he wore and clenched his fist. I also prepared myself to handle that fist, but his response seemed to mock my preparation.
Like he used Blink without any spatial interference, the Demon King appeared right in front of me with his fist homing in on my face. My first thought was to dodge, but my movements were slow as if my body wouldn't listen to my commands. I instantly knew that he finally took off the training wheels and was facing me with his full power. Instead of only using his Transcendental rights to cancel mine, he used one to attack.
It was the absolute right to move first that was gained by a Transcendent of Agility. Thanks to my quick thinking, I evaded by a hair's breadth with wind magic, but for the first time he was several steps ahead of me.
When I saw how easily he retracted his punch, I knew that it had been a feint to bait me into this unstable position I was in after a forced dodge. I used Laplace to predict his next move, but surprisingly, I failed. Be reminded that, Laplace was never a talent to read the future, I could only predict it based on the trends I observed. However, it didn't work this time.
Laplace definitely still activated and I could run simulations to see his next move but there were too many routes. Let's say I did one hundred simulations but he used a different attack in each simulation, then I wouldn't be able to find the most frequent route and so I couldn't predict it.
This was the effect of the reflex absolute right. The Demon King would react differently based on the slightest change so it was impossible for me to predict his movements, therefore, I couldn't dodge this time.
Like I was a ball, he flung me away with a kick, breaking a couple ribs in the process. I got knocked back like a pebble on the sidewalk, but before I got a moment to catch my breath, he appeared with his fist ramming into my face. Considering the pain I had to endure with Chaos, a bloody nose was nothing special, but it was just the beginning.
Like what I did to him, the Demon King pummelled me with overwhelming force. I kept healing myself only to get more pain as thanks. Even so, I never stopped looking for a way out.
At one point, the Demon King grabbed me by my head and started beating me in that same position. My regeneration was constant so rather than damage I only endured the pain of my limbs being ripped off, crushed, cut, eaten, yeah, simple but cruel torture. Similar to Berserk, Wrath robbed him of rationality so he was only a little better than a beast. As I was repeatedly reminded of his strength, I finally spotted the chance I was waiting for. He tried to scratch my face with his sharp fingernails, but I opened my mouth and clamped down on his hand.
"Ahh!"
The deranged Demon King hastily tried to retract his hand, but I only let him take back up to his wrist. Fighting against my disgust, I swallowed his hand to regain some of my energy and spat a blast of chaos from my mouth. On the bright side I was able to knock him back, but I lost my lower jaw in exchange. However, as I couldn't scream anyways I quickly shifted gears. Although the Demon King was without a doubt my most formidable opponent, and could even grow during battle, I still had two more methods left to boost my power. The first was something that I came up with in the midst of battle so I only tested it with Laplace without any research, but it would have to do.
I took a firm stance and a deep breath before concentrating on controlling my mana.
"Fire. Water. Wind. Earth. Nature. Light. Darkness."
Every time I said the name of an element, I created a small orb comprised of that elemental attribute with magic. Then, I had the orbs spin around my head at an increasingly fast pace while balancing them with Divine Will. I couldn't force it like with Chaos, I had to find the exact combination where the elements could exist together in harmony. If I tried to do my calculations now, the Demon King would likely interfere, but thankfully Laplace helped me shorten the process. As if I was trying to grab the blade of a supersonic fan, I waited for the precise moment when harmony had been achieved and stopped increasing the speed of the rotating elements.
"Imbue: Full Element."
[A new skill has been unlocked.]
[A new title has been unlocked.]
Like a halo, the ring of rainbow light shined down on my body, pushing me far above my limits. However, at the same time, I felt a strange prickly sensation that tormented my body as if it was being ripped and compressed at the same time. I looked at my trembling body with a grave expression while gritting my teeth, but the time I had bought ran out.
"Hah!"
The Demon King was suddenly a few feet away from me, but now I knew exactly how to overcome his abilities. With this rainbow light blessing me, I could briefly ignore the laws of the world, temporarily freeing me from his absolute rights. I then shifted myself to his right and patted his side.
"Sit down and wait."
By transferring a portion of the weight of the earth to my hand, I sent him flying so that I could move on to my final idea. I remembered my roots and relied on the power of my bloodline. I used the higher form of Nature Magic, Life Magic and invigorated my bloodline.
[Dragon factor has been energized. Temporary access to Dragon Form (Demi) has been unlocked.]
My wings grew larger along with the rest of my body and a thick tail sprouted from around my hip. I wasn't at the same size of a real dragon like Aura, but I was now a match for the Demon King.
"Rawr!!!!!"