Considered devastating. Even a slight mistake could turn the whole situation upside-down, delving one into a difficult situation.
The shock waves coming from the clashing of our swords were enough to attract everyone's attention towards us.
They all could feel it... the sheer intensity of the battle that was taking place above their heads.
They shuddered in fear; each wave of gust that emerged from our swords clanging with each other was enough to equal the magic attack of a high-ranking mage.
After going through hundreds of clashes, we both were pushed back.
Our strength was almost equal, almost... physically, she was more powerful than me.
I was only holding on because of my demonic body and all the support magic that I had put on me.
But I can tell, she isn't going all out yet.
"Are you taking pity on me? Or stalling for more time?" I asked.
She was still cold and unwavering.
"You are a mage, so it will be considered bullying if I go all out to fight you physically when you are not even using your magic."
"So you are really pitying me? Quite laughable... both I am not in the mood t-..."
I stopped...
This mana, so they have come, huh?
"So this was what you were after? I never thought you could plan something like this. If you all are here, why are you feeling shy now? It's not like it's the first time we have met... show yourself you all."
I said, closing my eyes.
I could feel a lot of powerful mana around me.
"Quite a keen sense of smell you got there. You mustn't have forgotten about this old man yet, right Demon King?"
An old man with white hair and a rusty voice appeared beside me. One of the high-ranking elders of the dragon race.
He was quiet; no, he was too old. The mouth has been over thousands of years since he has lived.
"How can I forget you? That scar on your face looks quite good. It suits you even more now." Smirking at him, I opened my mouth.
But he wasn't the only one here.
"Sigh... the pinnacle of the world. The behemoths who are at the peak of the rank 8, yet you all are afraid to come in front of me. Am I too tough for you all? If yes, I am even willing to fight with my right hand behind my back. If not enough, I will just use my sword and not my magic. If that helps that is."
My provoking was enough to anger them all. All of them, hiding till now, began to show themselves.
The dragon emperor, elf queen, dragon monarchs or elders, and the ancestors of those millennium-old kingdoms and some were... probably people in do not know.
These were the people who weren't present in the palace in that meeting.
All of them were old monsters who had been waiting for the path of ascension to open.
They all have cut their ties with the mortal realm long ago. The emergence of her was the reason all of them came out of their seclusion.
They amount to a total of 34... 35, if we include the hero as well.
35... all of them at the peak of existence. Just how desperate must they be to kill me?
"Is my existence that much a threat to you all?"
"Do not take it in wrong way, friend. This is just for our safety. You are not a threat just to us but to the whole world. As a benevolent old people, we have to clear such nuisance from the Earth."
A man with a slit eye said with a mocking grin.
Benevolent? Don't make me laugh... in a world where strength ranges supreme, if you are at its peak, there is no way you have followed a path of benevolence.
"Why are we even chatting with him? Just finish him off immediately and be done with it. At that time, our dragon king wasn't with us, but now he is here. There is no way you can win against us all today; why don't you just kill yourself? It will save a lot of our time, and you will also die peacefully." The dragon elder said, his voice filled with loathing and disdain for me.
As his words fell, all. Of them began casting their spells, except the hero. She wasn't doing anything and from the look on her face, I can derive that she had no idea of what was happening right now. It was all the plan of someone else and it wasn't anything hard for me to deduce who that was.
After that, an even more devastating battle took place. I wasn't scared to face them all at once. But the truth cannot be changed...
Fighting them all... my loss was inevitable.
It was a fierce battle, even a slight error was enough to kill me.
They all fought jointly, and I was alone, 3ven among my soldiers. None of them was a match for the ones I was fighting against, and the only one who could have was engaged against those inside that palace.
Even at such a disadvantage, I was able to take down 13 of them with me and now I was getting exhausted.
"Are you finally on your last, rope? Took you,u so long; I was getting quite worried that I would die without seeing your burial." The motherfucthat ker spoke again.
It was getting quite annoying at this point.
"You fucking lizard... did you forget what my abilities are? A battleground is my domain... and you expect me to lose while I am surrounded by so many fresh corpses? Your old age has made you too senile."
My breathing was ragged but my words were clear... all of them felt that fear in their heart.
The reason I was able to take 'her' away that time was because of my ability...
"Absorb."
As the words escaped from my mouth, all of the surrounding corpses, either those of those 13 or the ones who died fighting my undead army, began to tremble, and many dark tendrils emerged from their body.
"Stop him!!!"
That motherfucker yelled again, but it was too late.
My ability helps me to either take the dead as my army or use their mana to help me advance, but right now, I didn't take them as my army. I was planning to devour them.
I knew already before coming here that my end was inevitable. All those talks were meaningless... I was destined to lose this battle, whether these people joined it or not, cause I could feel a power so great that I felt like an ant in front of it from that hero.
It wasn't her power, but of someone else who was behind her.
That means the path of ascension hasn't ended yet; it's just that nobody knew how to ascend to that realm, but maybe if I can get enough mana, then I can pull that off... this might be my only chance to turn the situation in my favour.
In the blink of an eye, all of them turned into dark mana and entered inside my body.
I could feel the man in me starting to churn up. It reached such a height that nobody could imagine.
A thick layer of mana surrounded me as if forming a shield around me. Nobody was able to approach me.
"What's happening with him? His mana is growing at such a rapid pace."
"But he is already at the peak of rank 8, so it doesn't matter how much mana he absorbs from them, right?"
It was natural for them to think of it like that, normally that should have been the case, but...
I was beginning to feel it, the bottleneck that was stopping all of them, including me, from advancing further.
It was slowly opening up.
Only one of them could feel the changes happening within me. That was the spirit queen behind the hero...
'He is about to ascend.'
'What? But the prophecy said that 'she' will be the key in opening the path of ascension.'
'The prophecy never mentioned that 'she' will open the path... all of this is happening because of her. She is the key element.'
'So if he is going to ascend then...'
'Yeah, none of you will survive. We have to do this right now. Accept my powers, otherwise...'
I didn't know what kind of conversation was going on between them or what others were thinking now, I was so engrossed in the power that I was feeling that I even forgot that I was surrounded by my enemies from all sides.
I was reaching closer and closer to that realm.
And then, I opened my eyes and grinned at all of them.
"Do not worry, I will be giving you all a painful death."
Looking up, I was able to see it. The things from the myth which almost everyone believed to be a lie in the current era.
A faint golden light was coming out from the clouds, which turned into stairs.
"The stairs of ascension... so it was real. THE PATH TO ASCENSION HAS OPENED UP."
Another old shit opened his mouth with excitement.
"You think I am gonna just watch and do nothing?"
Truly laughable. Right now, I age half ascended, meaning I am above them all.
Almost rank 9...
Without wasting any moment, I released my mana pressure, which has increased by many folds now, and it was able to affect all of them, including the hero.
They all felt the fear of death.
"It might not be perfect, but how good would it feel if I released a rank 9 magic spell and killed you all while ascending to the higher realm."
Even though I said that I had not seen any rank 9 magic spell, but that wasn't any problem for me. Magic is just your imagination.
I looked at the stairs, and many memories resurfaced in front of me... most of them were worse, and I hardly had any good memories with me.
"You know, in my world, once there happened a major war, much like today's. All the powerhouses of my world were directly or indirectly involved in that one. And the thing that stopped the war was a little boy."
Explaining the story, I began to cast a single spell. It was much bigger than all of the magic circles that I had previously cast.
"Now that history will repeat itself... using all the demonic mana inside me, I will cast a single spell...
... Rank 9 magic, little boy."
The casting was complete. A much more terrifying spell was brewing above their head on the magic circle that was probably the size of a small kingdom.
I already knew where that cunt had captured and imprisoned her; my soldiers had delivered the information to me, so I did not need to worry about harming her. Besides her, I do not care about any of them.
After my ascension, I will personally kill anyone who was able to survive from my spell. Well, that's if anyone survives.
Believing that my victory was certain, I decided to take my first step on the stairs of ascension.
How I so much wanted to see their faces filled with fear and their eyes begging for mercy. But it wasn't important right now.
My focus was on my ascension only.
I was so engrossed in it that I didn't even realise that someone was aiming their attack at me.
And just as I took my first step, I could feel countless eyes prying at me.
"Spirit magic, soul severing."
"God's wrath."
A blinding light filled the sky followed by a sword slash directed at me that cut me into halves.
And an even more terrifying thunder strike burned my already halved body to a roasted corpse.
Without even realising what happened to me, I had died.
The demon king feared by all was now dead.
But his wrath fell down upon them all in the form of his last magic.
***
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