Chapter 257 257 - A Deal For A Deal A Life For A Life
"Holy summon: Choir of angels!" Standing still with his eyes closed, Atlas raised his hands to the sky as the demon lords were inches from hitting him, and Haruki was almost done summoning void eater as well. Opening his eyes back up, a gentle smile crept over his face. "Don't kill them."
Following his command, the sky opened into countless slits of realm tears. Opening up like eyes, those very slits turned into the golden gaze of countless angels peering down at everyone trying to attack Atlas. In a fraction of a second, their eyes turned bloodshot and beams of bright light coming from their irises turned the night sky into a bright summer day.
"Fuck!" With time slowed by Atlas, Inferno felt as though he was stuck in the sky with his sword never to reach the enemy.
"Reya! Get us out!" Right on time as those lower angels shot a scorching beam of holy magic, Klaus yelled out loud to the only person capable of getting them out of the range of attacks.
Still lagging behind in the special section of the colosseum seats, Reya was as pale as a ghost and the portal she was peeking through had taken the same hint of her skin. Yet, drawing a deep breath, she opened up portals behind the demon lords and managed to quickly suck them in before the beams could hit them.
"Dungeon portal!" Not in Reya's list of generosity, Haruki abandoned his plan to summon void eater and jumped into a dungeon portal, and even dropped the rest of his companions in with him.
'Goblin queen, I need you here!' Dropping right into the log cabin, he called out to the goblin queen even before the portal to the place was shut.
"Gospel: Come back here!" Right after the beams of holy magic burned up all the metal tiles of the arena, Atlas used the power of the word to pull Haruki back into the colosseum through the closing portal.
'What?!' Unable to control his body, Haruki reached into the arena and started pulling himself back up into the death trap that it had turned to. His attempts to fight Atlas's command were overshadowed by the sheer tyranny of a god's will. In the end, as he stepped foot into the arena with metal bubbling up all around him, he closed the portal back up in the short time that he did get back control of his body. 'Dammit…I guess, at least they'll be safe.'
With Moriyana amongst the crew now trapped in the dungeon, Haruki was somewhat relieved that he wouldn't have to worry about his companion's safety at the moment. Quickly glancing around, he couldn't find the demon lords. Only Asmodia was left behind as she was too close to Atlas for scaredy Reya to grab in through a portal.
Shifting his gaze to Atlas, Haruki noticed his eyes wandering through the cluster of angelic eyes covering the whole night sky. Beaming a bright golden, their gazes were split between looking at him and Asmodia and appeared more than ready to unleash yet attack.
"You…" Hearing the mistress wallow out in sorrow, Haruki turned to look at her as she began propping herself back on her feet. "You made a pact with Destinia, didn't you? A pact bound with the sacrifice of the flesh, your morals, and you-no, our love!"
Screaming right at Atlas's face, she couldn't help the tears from trailing down her cheeks. For once, the angle of modesty was more visible in her than the false title of the demon lord of lust and depravity.
"I did what I had to," Atlas replied, his gaze dejected and his fists curled tight.
Taken aback, Asmodia stepped away from the man whom she once called her lover. Smiling nervously, her hands began to clap on their own at the emperor's ridiculous proposition. Not in a million years the god would have convinced her that he'd done what he'd done for anyone, but himself.
"Of course, because you always know what's best for the mess your father left behind!" Insulting even her own creator, she stared at him with deep contempt.
'God-tier summon: Blood chalice!' Taking advantage of them quarreling amongst each other, Haruki decided to bring down the creator's poisoned blood to end it all at once. And although the two felt and even noticed the otherworld portal opening right above them, neither the mistress nor her lover acknowledged it with a direct gaze.
"Don't kill him," giving the command to the angels, Atlas turned to Asmodia to bring an end to their romance. "I'm sorry, but you have to die."
While Atlas continued to talk with the mistress, Haruki was surrounded by oncoming beams of pure holy magic, moments away from incinerating him.
"Shadow form body!" Activating the transformation, Haruki leaped away from the first attack, and while still in the air he turned into a giant beast of shadow. The sound of the screaming lost shadows that constituted his body drowned each word of the conversation that Atlas and Asmodia were having. "Emperor of dark: Giant fucking sword!"
Creating a sword that could easily reach the eyes with his tall frame, Haruki reinforced his body with dark armor and braved the burning beams of pure holy magic. Tearing through the armor, the light forced him to keep wasting more mana by repairing it before the attack made contact with his skin. However, not planning to stick around for much longer, Haruki swung the sword at one of the angel's eyes and cut it in two.
"Finally!" Hearing the angel's cry as its eye was parted in a bloody partition of two, Haruki felt somewhat relieved. Glancing around at the other eyes, however, he wasn't too thrilled about taking them all down. "Clones: Shadow form body!"
Cloning himself in the current form along with the sword, he felt his head getting lighter and his mind about to drift away. Yet, steeling himself, he drew deep breaths and tried to stay conscious until the blood chalice was completely out in the real world and ready to tip over.
'I-I…I can't.' Stripped of all mana, Haruki's own transformation was completely undone. And once the shadow form body was gone, he found himself laying against the melting floor while the rest of his clones kept slaying the angel eyes.
"You wanna kill me?" Holding her hands wide open, Asmodia stood completely defenseless before Atlas. "Then go ahead, I've been aching to die! The only thing stopping me was so that I could stop you from destroying your father's legacy but it seems like you've accomplished that already!"
Hearing bits of the conversation while his mind turned to mush, Haruki raised his head to look at the two. His vision all blurry, the only thing he could make out was Atlas standing in front of Asmodia with a sword of light in his hands.
"R-Rose…" Haruki tried to call the only one he thought could help the situation, however, there was no response from the other end.
'What the hell are you doing?' Noticing Atlas holding the sword by Asmodia's neck, he couldn't help but crawl toward him. 'She's been controlling you all your life. Why do you even want to help here?!'
Being a master of countless demons, he couldn't understand why his body was ready to sacrifice itself in an attempt to save Asmodia who was his master.
"I-I…" Hearing Atlas wheezing out loud as he tried to push the blade against Asmodia's throat, Haruki raised his hand towards him, but couldn't grab him from such a far distance. "I don't-"
"You don't want to kill me, is that it?" Clawing Atlas's face in anger, Asmodia no longer had any care for what was to happen to her or the natural order of the world once she was gone. "Do it you fucking coward!"
Clawing his chest just enough to draw blood, she screamed out in agony for the heartbreak that she'd just gone through. Reacting not in the least, Atlas let her tear his body as much as she could, but after a quick hundred slash or so, she couldn't hurt him anymore either. Walking into his arms, she wailed like a child.
"W-why?" Smacking her chest with her fists, she looked right into his eyes for an answer. "I t-thought you…"
"I do," getting his leg grabbed by Haruki all of a sudden, Atlas glanced down at him while the chalice still lingered over their heads. "I do love you Asmodia, but I've already made a pact."
"B-blood chalice: Overflo-" All of a sudden as Haruki was trying to make the chalice overflow with the little mana he had just recovered, the sword of light fell beside him from Atlas's hand.
"Emperor's curse," Atlas mumbled, his hand looming right above Haruki's head.
Feeling a strange aura surrounding him, Haruki was revitalized with some amount of strength. Taking hold of him further, the curse coiled up around his heart like a hand and squeezed it tight as if to show who was his new master.
"Aghhhh!" His screams terrified Asmodia, and she quickly stepped away from Atlas to check up on Haruki.
"What the hell are you doing to him?!" She screamed, her eyes widened in shock.
"If I can't kill you someone else has to, but since you have a pact with him that would kill him as well, I needed him to be an ever-living immortal," the simple explanation left Asmodia without words, for now, she knew, that the threat to her life was more real than ever.