"To hell with you!" Belial roared to the top of his lungs. His resentment towards Darius soared high in the sky in a form of thousands meters tall of dark pillar.
Thus, Belial opted to burn his Demonic Core in spite of gaining more power albeit the huge risk of dying once his core was completely depleted.
Sensing the imminent danger, Mathilda retracted the Black Scythe to its original form before Belial's transformation broke her magic wand. For mages, losing a magic wand was akin to losing half of their soul. The physical and mental backlash was so severe that it could render their mind and soul into a complete imbecile.
"Darius! Get back!" Mathilda exclaimed.
"Hahaha!" The demon warchief laughed menacingly in the air as his transformation was completed.
A pair of horns elongated from the temple of his head, his blackened skin emitting foul miasma that wilt even the soil. The power level was spiked from a Warchief to Warlord which was equivalent to an Early Stage Rank 3 Mage in human's terms.
"Arise, my servants and fetch his heart for me!"
Belial's dark Miasma seeped into the Lesser Demons below him, turning them into zombie-like demons by controlling their mind with his miasma as the catalysts. The process was almost instantaneously, Mathilda couldn't react in time since she had to recuperate after battling Belial non-stop.
"Oh no! Darius!"
Undaunted, Darius unsheathed his Anti-Mage sword and started mowing the Lesser Demons who came at him like a bunch of grass and met a sickle.
"I got this! Just focus on that wretched bastard!" Darius exclaimed while swinging his sword.
"Waahhh!"
The clamors ensued, as Darius decapitates the heads of those Lesser Demons, he also obtained a lot of Arcane Cells by destroying the demons Corrupted Demon Core. The putrid stench of blood and visceral organs battered his body, but Darius didn't fall into insanity and remained calm.
'Even if their Demon Cores are corrupted by the miasma, they had a considerable amount of Arcane Cells once Alexa purified it. Good job, Alexa! I am counting on you!'
Alexa chimed jovially. [Yes, Master!]
On the other hand, Mathilda changed her fighting style from Close Combat Mage to AoE Mage and cast her spell from a distance. Aerial battle against a demon who has air advantages would deplete her mana since she had to focus on flying and fighting at the same time.
"I must bring that wretched demon down before he completes the transformation. If he reached the General Demon Stage, I'd be done for!"
With that in mind, Mathilda casted a large formation scale; Graviton. This devastating Advanced Spell would pull anything within 100 meters radius onto the ground with thousands tons of force.
With just a flick of her wrist, the Magic Circle was drawn on the ground, and thus, activating the spell below the Demon Warlord's feet.
"Graviton."
The sheer gravitational pull made the miasma concentrated into one spot, the controlled Lesser Zombies were experiencing a massive backlash from it and exploded like confetti.
Belial mustered every once of his strength to fly away from the spell's AoE but his attempt was futile. Belial might win against ordinary Mage, however, his opponent was the Black Witch Mathilda who had been in demon hunting business for at least 300 hundred years!
Belial's body landed on the ground with a velocity that exceeded the speed of sound. The impact was so powerful, the ground shook violently and a humongous crater was formed as if a meteor had landed on the ground.
However, the demon has a very tough body, this kind of impact was nowhere near the killing zone since every fiber in Belial's body was enforced by Mana. Nothing could possibly pierce his skin except the Lunarian Steel that could cut through any magic.
And Darius was the wielder of the last Anti-Mage sword in existence!
"Darius! Now!"
The silver after image flashed on the battlefield, slicing through the obstacles like a hot knife cutting through the battle. Darius jumped in the air and delivered the last blow.
Mathilda undid the spell just when Darius entered the spell's AoE so he wouldn't get crushed by the gravitational force.
Stab!
Darius' sword pierced straight to Belial's Corrupted Demon Core instead of his heart. For a demon, losing their core was't a big deal since they could reconstruct it again as long as their brain and heart were still working.
"Die! You demon!" Mathilda came from nowhere with the huge Black Scythe held high above her head.
Darius, however, acted by his instinct and waylaid Mathilda's path who was coming in full speed.
'This fucking idiot! I can't stop my momentum!'
Mathilda closed her eyes just before the tip of her Black Scythe sliced through Darius' body in twain. However, what she witnessed next was something beyond her wildest imagination.
The blinding bright light emitted from the crystal on Darius' chest, sending the whole pseudo-dimension into a plain white realm as far as eyes could see.
"Darius, what happened? Where are we?"
Darius was still in his usual expression, stoic and unbothered by anything. Mathilda then noticed the grimoire with a dark leather cover in Darius' hand.
"I-impossible! Could it be…" Mathilda gasped. "Darius, may I see the cover?"
"Sure," Darius said, handing over the grimoire toward Mathilda.
However, the grimoire refused to be touched by anyone but its Master, Darius.
"Can you read the letter?" Mathilda inquired further.
"Emm… Demonicon."
Mathilda's heart almost fell into her stomach as she heard it from Darius. She would never have thought that one of the five Cursed Weapons according to the Heavenly Church was in this Undine Village after a century of searching.
'How in the seven worlds this grimoire ended up in this remote village? Wait, did Arthur deliberately stored the grimoire in this dungeon knowing that his son would inherit someday?'
All kinds of catastrophic outcome churned in Mathilda's mind. Darius, the once magicless boy, now has heaven defying talent and possesses two out of five Cursed Weapons.
"Let's go, I have obtained what I wanted."
Mathilda finally returned to her senses.
"Wait, Darius, before we go back, I need to talk with you."
Darius was a smart and cunning young man. He immediately knew what her questions were beforehand.
"About the grimoire and the sword, I suppose? Yes, I know, these weapons are very dangerous. I will use them responsibly. Let's get back or Maria's ladle will land straight on my head."
Mathilda shook her head. "My God, that's not the case, but you are right. Let's worry about this matter for later. It's around midday on the surface, I could already imagine Maria's angry face even from here."