A sudden outburst of intense demonic power traveled all the way from the central arena to where Melfina and Edward were watching the battle from.
"Wh-What the hell is that Elvis doing?!" Melfina cried.
In this duel, it was stated that the two are to fight without using their demonic powers too much. The most that was allowed was to enhance their physical abilities. But, Elvis was clearly about to breach it. The amount of demonic power he was emanating was clearly unrestrained. He coated his sword with his surging powers and slashed it at Vanitas.
A mass of black particles shot out of his sword towards Vanitas. It traveled at a very high speed and Melfina was worried about what was going to happen for a moment however, Vanitas looked completely unfazed as he cut the black particles in half with his sword, with ease. The whole stadium shook because of the impact. The tremors even traveled all the way to where Melfina and Edward were.
Then, it hit Melfina that, according to Edward, he was stronger than or at the very least equal in strength to Edward.
After his attacks failed, Elvis did something that wasn't allowed on the training grounds.
"Overtake me, Phthonos!" He screamed.
"He is allowing the demon to overtake him?!"
This was bad.
Elvis was fairly strong and Melfina had seen him allowing his demon to take over him momentarily before in the fight before against some fairly powerful demons. It allowed him to bring out more of the demon's true powers however, it was still risky as there was a possibility that the demon might completely consume the user. That possibility was even higher now that Elvis was in a state of emotional instability which gave the wicked demons a chance to feed on such strong emotions and overtake them completely.
Because of that reason, Melfina was about to interfere but someone grabbed her hand as she was about to walk off.
"General?"
"Wait a minute there, Melfina." He said in a calm manner as if he didn't care about what was happening right now.
"Why are you stopping me, General?! You clearly know that it's dangerous and we need to stop Elvis right now."
"I know. But remember the words that I said. Vanitas has a demon that is more powerful than any I have met so far. I want to know what exactly this demon does. And how powerful it is with my own eyes. So, wait for just a bit longer, Melfina." He said that in an authoritarian voice so as not to allow any complaints to be voiced or heard.
With a feeling of apprehension, Melfina watched anxiously as she gritted her teeth.
Elvis, with his demon overtaking him, launched at Vanitas.
Edward had been hoping that Vanitas would also bring out his demon but he didn't. He did increase the output of his powers but that was all. He didn't seem to bring the true power of his demons out although the situation more than demanded it. That was puzzling.
Was he...
Edward put her thoughts into words.
"That's interesting. He is clearly hesitating."
Despite being pushed into such a tight situation, he wasn't bringing out the true power of his demons. He was refusing to use its power to the fullest. Why? That question crossed Melfina's mind. If he doesn't use it, he is going to die.
He wasn't using his powers even in this dire situation. That means he is going to fight with the demon itself while being at a clear disadvantage. He would die or at least suffer from heavy and life-altering casualties. Melfina had to prevent that from happening at any cost.
Just as she realized the meaning of her words, Edward let go of her hand, seemingly aware of the direness of the current situation, and then she immediately launched herself up into the air from where she was.
Then, after reaching directly above Elvis, she brought herself down to the arena and kicked Elvis on the head squarely, without holding back, and knocked him out completely. The ground caved him and she stood on the broad back of Elvis while heaving a sigh of relief. 'I made it in time.'
She looked at the boy in front of her.
Black eyes, black hair, and a good-looking face. He stood there, looking at Melfina with bewildered eyes, and then heaved a sigh of relief himself. Melfina realized that he clearly was in a hard situation.
She then felt that all the eyes in the crowd were now trained on her.
Then she realized what was going on in this arena. She slightly cleared her throat and announced it for everyone to hear.
"Since Elvis used the power of his demon beyond the rules and breached it, the winner is Vanitas!"
The crowd went silent for a moment then erupted at once. There were all sorts of voices and emotions mixed in. Thrill, excitement, surprise, shock, disbelief - all such emotions coalesced and reached them all the way to the center arena. Having heard all of this, Vanitas looked confused for a while but after a while, he gave a genuine smile.
Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
Whose heart was it that was beating so loudly right now? Melfina wondered.
From the entrance to the arena, Edward slowly walked to the center point. Everyone in the crowd stood up at once and paid their respect to their esteemed General. Edward nodded once and they all sat back down.
Two members of the Corp came and carried Elvis away for treatment.
Edward stood at the center and beckoned Vanitas over to him. Melfina followed after Vanitas.
Edward then raised his voice a little so that it would carry to everyone present in the crowd.
"As you have all seen it with your own eyes, this newcomer, Vanitas, is clearly strong. He is strong enough to go head-to-head against one of the four Lieutenants and even emerge victorious. As such, there is no doubt he is one of the strongest we have here."
He looked over at the crowd.
Edward's lips then curled up into a smile as he continued on to his main purpose in addressing the whole crowd here at this moment.
"Therefore, keeping in mind his overwhelming strength and his abilities in a battle, I want to appoint Vanitas as the fifth Lieutenant of the Demon Extermination Corp!" He declared.
The crowd took some time to process the words of their General. Even Melfina, who had heard of his plans beforehand, looked surprised at how fast he was going through with his plans.
Before the crowd could stir, Edward spoke again.
"If any of you have any objections or any of you think he is not fit for being a Lieutenant, then please raise your hand."
He paused for a second after that.
That small window of time was more than enough for many in the crowd to think to raise their hand in objection.
But, Edward didn't allow that to happen.
"Those of you who object shall have to prove that he is not worthy by fighting him and defeating him. Just like how Vanitas proved he is worthy by fighting and defeating one of the Lieutenants."
Those who were about to raise their hands dropped them in an instant.
They had clearly seen Vanitas fight against Elvis and they had seen that he had managed to overwhelm him.
If it was just raising hands and objecting, many hands would have been in the air by now but now that they needed to fight and defeat Vanitas in order for their objection to be taken seriously, no one had the guts anymore. They more than knew that the newcomer was not your ordinary person and they couldn't win against him when even Elvis, who was a Lieutenant, could only manage a small scratch.
Melina could see Edward looking at the Captains in the crowd and taunting them with their eyes.
'How about it? You want to give it a shot?' Those eyes said. But clearly, he knew there would come no objections from them who had all lost by the hands of Elvis once before.
Edward stood for a while but there was no objection.
Thus, spreading his arms wide, he declared in a sonorous tone.
"As of today, I hereby appoint Vanitas as the fifth Lieutenant of the Demon Extermination Corps!"
The crowd could only applaud in silence and shock at how fast things had proceeded.
Not to mention, the boy in question, Vanitas himself, was also shocked beyond words.
Melfina found the expression on the boy amusing.
Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
Really, whose heart was this? Melfina wondered again.