Present-day hell.
The outer grounds of the white castle.
"Whew..."
Having finished the battle, Corne prepared to take flight again as the curse [Blanc] had placed on him nearly wore off.
He could still feel Obera's magic power in the sky above, where she was enduring [Blanc]'s attacks alone, and that made him hurry all the more.
But there was still one more problem he needed to deal with.
"......I wasted far too much time on a trickster who had nothing but cheap little moves..."
Glancing at the demon Adelio, collapsed and embedded in the ground, Corne compressed magic power into his palm and stretched out his arm to erase him completely.
'He had already surpassed an [Arch Demon]...... He must be one of those who overcame the limit of growth through evolution. Better to finish him now, for the future.'
Adelio was still a woefully lacking brat for now, but Corne instinctively knew that in the distant future, he would become an enemy capable of obstructing their long-cherished goal.
After all, even if Corne was only a split body, there were very few monsters who could put up such a fight against one of the [Seven Angels of Origin].
And on top of that, he simply did not like the fact that Adelio had fought him on nearly equal footing, even if only for a moment.
As one of the [Seven Angels of Origin], his pride in believing himself superior to any other race had been stained.
"Soon enough, I'll send [Blanc] to your side as well!!!"
However—
...!!!
The chance to restore that pride never came.
KABOOOOOM!!!!!
In an instant, a golden aura burst from Adelio's body.
The anti-demonic power that suppressed a monster's magic power began binding Corne's body like a restraining barrier.
"!!... This is...... a [Hero]'s—?!"
The source of that aura was the [Hero's Egg].
The exclusive mark of the champion chosen by the world itself had, at this very moment, fully hatched.
"Haaah—"
From the soul of a demon that had achieved [Evolution] once more.
**
Awakening from the [Mindscape], the demon opened his blue eyes wide. Casting aside every stray thought, he moved his lips in the silent battlefield as if delivering a sentence.
"....[Answerer]...... no, [Odin]."
"Yes."
"Activate [Demon Lord's Haki] and [Heroic Aura], all of it."
"Understood."
In the next instant, now able to freely use his latent power, he harmonized the two opposing forces of haki into one.
It had been impossible before, but now, after amassing such achievements, it was possible.
He had already surpassed the wall called evolution.
The common sense the [Seraphim] knew no longer meant anything.
Fwaaaaaah...!!!
The demon's magic power and haki surged like crashing waves, so much stronger than before that anyone could tell at a glance.
"!!"
The golden haki crushed down the aura of the fiend,
and the ash-gray haki broke the angel's wings.
They were two powers that stood at opposite extremes, yet they suppressed Corne perfectly, as though they had always been one from the beginning.
That was because Adelio could wield those forces, which even Demon Lords could not easily control, as simply as if they were his own hands and feet.
"...Impossible...... There can't be a soul in this world capable of containing both of those powers at once......!"
It was overwhelming martial talent, the kind even a [Seraphim] would not dare try to imitate.
Faced with that absurd talent, something no less than a contradiction made flesh, Corne tried to deny Adelio's very existence.
He did not want to believe Adelio's talent surpassed his own by such a vast margin.
But at that moment, a certain memory surfaced, and Corne could not finish his words.
"Once you arrive in hell, shake off the [Primordial Demons] and find the soul. It is a peculiar soul, close to a True Dragon, so you should find it quickly."
It was an order from his superior.
The command left behind by Feldway, the pinnacle of all fiends, rose in his mind.
"No way...... The one Feldway was searching for was... you?!"
It was a question filled with shock.
But Adelio did not open his mouth.
"......"
A sword strike alone was answer enough for an invader.
Sssshhhk!!!
"Kgh...!!"
The battle that followed—
—was nothing but one-sided annihilation.
Bound by golden and ash-gray haki, Corne raged like a bird trapped in a cage, but that level of resistance was nowhere near enough to make Adelio retreat.
Each time [Overlord Black Star] swung, the flashing magic power along its blade warped space and shaved away Corne's armor.
"Ghk...... You rat-like bastard!!"
The armor, so easily broken that the title of God-grade equipment granted by Veldanava felt wasted on it.
And the reason it shattered so easily lay with Corne himself.
Weapons and armor that had reached God-grade originally possessed a trait: the stronger their owner's will, the sturdier they became. Overwhelmed by Adelio's talent, Corne's will had no choice but to weaken.
And with that, the armor's performance weakened just the same.
Crackle... crkzzzt......
Meanwhile, Adelio's fighting spirit only grew hotter as the battle continued, never cooling for even a moment.
'[Odin]. I'm going to fully open up the power of [Ru-Lawather] [Sword Emperor Heavenly King] as well, so regulate things and make sure the internal circulation of magic power doesn't break.'
"Understood."
Using even the powers of [Fighter] and [Sword Demon], inherited within [Ru-Lawather] [Sword Emperor Heavenly King], Adelio continued his sword dance with the intent to end this battle.
Before long, his sword danced at his fingertips like a sailboat gliding along the current of a river.
He filled with points the swordsmanship that, in the past, had only let emptiness devour everything.
He split a single exchange into a thousand, ten thousand, dividing and multiplying it more and more.
"Kuh-huhhk?!!"
Like filling a vessel with magic power,
like engraving a soul into a body,
like establishing will within the mind.
As he felt the points gradually filling his swordsmanship become lines, then letters, then a picture, Adelio smiled faintly.
Because he was writing the letters that suited [her], the one he had never forgotten for even a single moment,
and drawing the spark of the boy he had seen in the [Mindscape].
Creak... grip!!!
At last, the demon clasped his sword with both hands, holding those letters and that image within them.
'Right. The name of this sword is—'
[Arts]
'—[White Lotus Flame Thunder] will do.'
[White Lotus Flame Thunder].
With all his strength, he used the tip of his sword as a brush and placed a final period upon the white canvas called an angel.
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