Ren Kuroda's sudden action clearly startled the other Demon Lords.
None of them had expected him to attack so abruptly.
To be fair, many of them actually agreed with what Ren had said earlier—about how in the world of living beings, the strong devour the weak.
However, some of the older Demon Lords still found his attitude irritating.
Even if Clayman really was nothing more than a clown…
Ren was still a newly risen Demon Lord.
Wasn't his arrogance a little too excessive?
Did he really not consider the long-established Demon Lords here to be Demon Lords at all?
Of course, irritation was one thing—but seeing Clayman get beaten was another matter entirely.
And at this moment, not a single Demon Lord stepped in to interfere.
"Bastard! I'm going to kill you right now!"
Clayman roared furiously.
"MILIM! I order you—kill this man immediately!"
A moment ago, Clayman had been passionately delivering his speech.
Now he had been blindsided by Ren's punch.
His body was still embedded in the wall, and his neck had been twisted nearly one hundred and eighty degrees from the impact.
If it had been an ordinary person, their neck bent at such an angle would have meant instant death.
But although Clayman was weak by Demon Lord standards, he still possessed High-Speed Regeneration.
The damage Ren had inflicted looked horrific, but it wasn't fatal.
Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, Clayman glared at the other Demon Lords while Milim slowly stepped forward.
"Everyone, you've seen it for yourselves!"
"That demonkin dared to launch a sneak attack during the Demon Lords' Banquet, and he speaks with such outrageous arrogance!"
"Are you truly going to allow a mere demonkin to behave so recklessly at the gathering of Demon Lords?"
Clayman attempted to drag the other Demon Lords into the conflict.
Unfortunately for him, the results were… disappointing.
Guy Crimson and Leon Cromwell remained completely expressionless, calmly watching the scene unfold.
Dino was still asleep.
Frey looked between Ren and Milim with a complicated expression, clearly having no intention of involving herself.
Ramiris, who was obviously on Ren and Rimuru's side, was loudly cheering them on from the sidelines.
As for Dagruel and Valentine, although Ren's earlier tone had annoyed them slightly, neither showed any sign of acting immediately.
Among them, Demon Lord Valentine, a proud-looking middle-aged man, cast a sharp gaze toward Ren and Rimuru.
He verbally supported Clayman for a few sentences.
But interestingly…
The target of his interest was not Ren, who had been speaking so boldly.
It was Rimuru, who had remained silent the entire time.
Because Demon Lord Valentine's true identity was actually the Holy Emperor of the Sacred Western Church.
And not long ago, Rimuru had wiped out a large portion of the church's forces along with several armies from the Western Nations.
Meanwhile, the fight between Ren and Milim had already begun.
The very first clash of their fists made the ground beneath everyone's feet shake violently.
Fortunately, the location of the Demon Lords' Banquet was Guy Crimson's castle, and the structure had clearly been reinforced with powerful magic.
Because of that, despite the ferocity of their battle, the building itself wasn't collapsing.
However, every time their fists or legs collided, the shockwaves produced were enough to make the spectators' hearts tremble.
Their movements were unbelievably fast.
The Demon Lords present could still barely track them.
But the attendants who had accompanied them couldn't even see their figures anymore.
All they could do was judge their approximate positions based on the constant shockwaves and the deafening sonic booms echoing through the hall.
As the scale of Ren and Milim's battle continued to escalate, the host of the banquet—Guy Crimson—finally snapped his fingers.
A barrier instantly formed around the battlefield.
It separated the combatants inside from the spectators outside, preventing the shockwaves from injuring anyone nearby.
"Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain Style—Swift as the Wind: Army-Breaker!"
A gale of divine wind gathered into a massive crescent-shaped slash that expanded as it flew toward Milim.
But just before the attack reached her—
Milim brought her palms together in a motion resembling a child praying before a statue.
She caught the crescent slash between her hands.
Then, with terrifying strength—
CRACK.
The attack shattered like fragile glass under the pressure of her grip.
The fragmented energy then transformed into Milim's own magical power, gathering into countless beams of light that shot toward Ren.
"Damn it! That move again—Dragon Star Scatter Bomb, right?!"
"Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain Style—Immovable as the Mountain: Great Gate!"
Ren swung his blade at incredible speed.
A perfectly sealed curtain of sword light formed around him.
Behind him, the phantom image of a towering mountain appeared.
At the same time, Milim's Dragon Star Scatter Bomb descended like a rain of meteors, slamming directly into the mountain phantom behind Ren.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
Explosions rang out in rapid succession.
A thick cloud of smoke erupted.
From within the smoke, Ren's figure was blasted backward, slamming violently against the surrounding barrier.
"Rimuru! Have you figured it out yet?!"
Ren shouted irritably.
"Your opponent might be some third-rate Demon Lord, but I'm fighting for my life over here!"
Inside the barrier, the battle wasn't just between Ren and Milim.
Rimuru and Clayman were fighting as well, along with their subordinates.
However, unlike Ren's brutal clash with Milim, Rimuru's fight with Clayman was essentially a complete one-sided beatdown.
If Rimuru hadn't been worried that killing Clayman might prevent Milim's control from being lifted—and if he hadn't been distracted by using Raphael, Lord of Wisdom to analyze Milim's condition—Clayman would have already been dead.
"It's not working!" Rimuru shouted back.
"The analysis says Milim isn't under any kind of mind-control skill… and her mental state is completely stable!"
Even as he said it, Rimuru sounded like he didn't believe his own words.
But that was exactly what Raphael's analysis indicated.
"Damn it! At this rate I'm going to die because of you, you stupid jelly!"
Ren groaned.
"Didn't you guarantee everything would be fine?!"
"That so-called Lord of Wisdom of yours—don't tell me it came from the same factory as my crappy system!"
"Both of them must be cheap knockoff products!"
Looking at Milim—whose eyes were empty while her magicule output kept climbing each time Clayman shouted commands—Ren felt a surge of dread.
With a frustrated roar, he finally unleashed all of his power.
"Half-Oni Transformation!"
"Blade Spirit Release!"
"Bottomless Drinker!"
The Demon Lords watching from their seats first saw a dense, almost solid mass of magicules envelop Ren.
Inside that storm of energy, his body gradually changed—becoming a half-human, half-oni form.
Then his long blade began to glow with a radiant light, clearly entering a state of perfect resonance with its wielder.
Finally—
Ren lifted his gourd of sake and took a deep swig.
The already terrifying magical energy surrounding him began rising again at an astonishing rate.
Three enhancement skills activated simultaneously.
Within mere seconds, Ren's magicule output multiplied geometrically, surging upward like an unstoppable tide.