"DRAVEN! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"
'Yes, prince Athena, except a few broken ribs and blood flowing through my mouth, I am alright.'
'Watching you still have the strength to pull a joke, it looks like you are just fine captain Draven.'
'I have a plan. But for it to take place, I want you to distract the mage as long as you can with the remaining soldiers of the Black order. Can you do that for me, captain Draven?'
'It's not like I have a choice left, prince Athena. We will try our very best to distract the enemy, but don't take too long prince Athena, the moral of my soldiers is already very low.'
'Do not worry captain Draven, all I need is three minutes and then you can leave the rest to me.'
Draven, with his eyes full of vengeance for his already gone soldiers, shouted at the top of his voice,
"EVERYONE, PRINCE ATHENA HAS A PLAN WHICH WILL FAIL WITHOUT OUR SUPPORT. DISTRACT THE ENEMY AS LONG AS YOU CAN."
Everyone, watching their captain shout at the top of his lungs even though he had just been hit with a devastating blow, decided to pour their every last drop of strength in distracting the mage.
Meanwhile, Athena sitting in a lotus position was concentrating on something else. Black had just given him the mana flow for the demonic eyes, one of the best vision related techniques from his era. Surprisingly, the mana flow of the demonic eyes was very much similar to the all-knowing eyes, he had mastered in his previous life.
With no time to waste Athena was concentrating his all towards obtaining the first stage of demonic eyes. The first stage of demonic eyes, allowed the user to find the critical spots of the enemies by concentrating towards the flow of energy, rather than focusing on the flow of mana. The place where the concentration of energy was the highest, was the most likely place where the enemy was vulnerable. But it was not the case for every enemy. Some intelligent beings hid their core or vulnerable spots by concentrating their energy at more than one parts of their body.
It would have been the same for the mage if he was in a steady state. But die to his rage towards the name Asmodeus, the mage lost all his senses and was now just like s troll, with immense strength but no was to utilize it.
Meanwhile, the second black order soldiers were struggling to even distract the enemy anymore. Draven had also reached his limits. The adrenaline boost which had kept the soldiers going till now was coming to an end.
'Prince Athena, we cannot hold on any longer.'
The attacks of the enemy were getting more and more disastrous. Just as the fight was nearing its end, a pitch-black demonic aura, incomparable to anything Draven or his soldiers had seen in the past, was surrounding the entire area where the fight was taking place.
'Incredible, even I took almost 2 months before my demonic eyes reached the first stage. This guy,, is a serious monster.'
Black whispered to himself with a sense of pride as well as awe. The aura Athena was emitting was not something that was possible upon reaching the first stage of the demonic eyes. Due to the strange unknown power Athena had in his body, and the pitch-black aura he obtained as a result of training in the SDBT, Athena had reached a new level of strength. His strength was almost the same as it was before this fight, but the understanding of the techniques he had learned had reached an entire new level.
Due to the sudden emission of the aura of Athena, the dark mage instinctively rushed towards Athena, considering him the most dangerous among everyone else.
'Prince Athena, be careful!!' Draven shouted with voice almost void of any emotions.
The dark mage was now right in front of Athena. He waved his hand, full of brute strength. At that time,
*SWOOSH*
A swift sound of swinging a sword emerged near the black mage. It was Athena. His sword, faster than it had ever been, slashed the hand of the mage which was coming towards him as if running a hot knife through butter.
The mage was now at the wits of his end, but so was Athena. The sword slash he had just performed with all the accumulated fatigue, had taken a toll towards his body.
With energy worth only one last strike left within the both of them, a powerful gust of wind went across the area as soon as the both of them launched their last attack. But the deciding factor of the fight came out to be the edge Athena had over the berserk dark mage. And just like that, the head of the dark mage, with a clean sword cut across his neck fell towards the ground. It was Athena's victory.
*THUD*
As the sound of the head of the dark mage echoed throughout the entire forest, the soldiers with joy all over their faces, screamed at the top of their lungs.
"WE WON!!!! LONG LIVE PRINCE ATHENA! LONG LIVE PRINCE ATHENA."
'You did good' Black expressed his happiness with a voice full of pride and joy.
It was like they were brought back to life. With thoughts of returning alive surged throughout everyone's mind, the entirety of soldiers fell towards the ground with not enough strength to even take a single step.
'Prince Athena, you did it. You just saved the lives of my entire order including me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.' Draven, expressed his gratitude with a straight bow towards Athena.
"WE THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS, PRINCE ATHENA!" the second black order repeated after their captain.
The black mage was dead. He should be, his head was cut from his body and its body had stopped showing any signs of movement. But at the very moment, a thick black fog swallowed the entirety of people present there including. When the fog was lifted, Athena found himself in front of a pathway that led towards a string of light. As soon as Athena started to walk towards the pathway, Athena noticed something. Black, who was with him till the black fog suddenly appeared and took him away, was now nowhere to be seen.
Athena tried to call for Black, but with no response from the other end, he decided to focus on the things in front of him. After walking across the pathway, Athena found himself at an altar of a certain demonic being. The statue of the being Infront of Athena, reminded him of someone. After a few moments, Athena had reached a conclusion.
Mc's Pov
'I feel like I had seen him somewhere before.'
Just then, a sudden thought struck me at the back of my head. It was none other than Black, or should I call him Luo. The statue in front of me was nothing like the demon Black who was with. The presence of his statue was enough to send shivers down my spine. The presence of him was almost on par with the Demon god Asmodeus. Or even greater than him.
Just as I was admiring the altar, a slow, withered voice similar to that of the dark mage echoed in the altar. 'Welcome prince Athena, I welcome you to the altar of one of the strongest but long forgotten demon of the demonic realm, Demon God Lou.'
The voice of the dark mage made me turn up my guard, but as I had not yet recovered from the previous battle my body, a completely a mess was not listening to my command anymore.
'You don't have to be on your guard, Athena.' The dark mage you fought was just a mere vassal of mine which was eroded by a tainted spirit.'
Just then, it him me. The level at which the dark mage was, it was almost impossible for him to have gone berserk as unlike warriors, mages are someone who would constantly strengthen their mind and their will as casting a spell, mostly took toll towards their mental strength.
'Then who are you, why have you bought me here?' Athena questioned with a voice full of confusion and exhaustion. As soon as the dark mage was about to reply to Athena's queries,
*THUD*
Athena, with exhaustion taking over him fell towards the ground.'