Zeke furrowed his brow as he gazed at the black mass of flesh, which still writhed without taking proper form.
"I can sense the power of an angel, but it's not an angel."
It seemed Arthur Draker had tampered with something using the angel's cocoon.
Zeke looked beyond the writhing mass toward Baron and spoke.
"Ingel must have known she couldn't handle me, so why aren't you making a move?" Baron offered no response to Zeke's words.
Zeke stared at him silently for a moment before nodding and saying,
"You're not choosing not to move—you can't move. Are you waiting for something?" If Baron had stepped in, the High Table members would already have been gone.
Yet Baron remained motionless even after Ingel had fallen to Zeke's hand.
Moreover, the Black Stage operatives positioned around him weren't standing by; they were protecting him.
Zeke raised his sword, pointing it at Baron, and said,
"I don't know what you're scheming, but you should have finished it before I got here." Woooong!
A powerful vibration emanated from Zeke's sword.
"Today, I'll clean up all of you."
As Zeke assumed the stance of the Dragon Slaying Technique, intense lightning surged from his entire body.
Crackle! Crackle!
Brilliant bolts of lightning infused with the energy of Holy Spirit Qi raced along Zeke's sword.
He charged forward, about to unleash a sword strike toward Baron and the Black Stage operatives.
At that moment, the black mass of flesh, not yet fully formed, blocked Zeke's path.
Crunch—
Immediately, a sharp-clawed arm burst forth from the mass, attacking Zeke.
Crackle!
Zeke's sword strike, wrapped in radiant lightning, collided with the arm protruding from the mass.
Splash!
The arm, engulfed in lightning, shattered in an instant, its fragments scattering in all directions.
But from the spot where the arm had vanished, two identical arms sprouted.
The new arms writhed as they extended toward Zeke once more, swinging their sharp claws.
Clang!
Zeke swung his sword to block the claws and unleashed another bolt of lightning toward the arms.
Crackle!
The arms shattered again from the lightning, but once more, new ones grew from the same spot.
Zeke frowned at the sight.
"It's using the angel's power to keep regenerating and multiplying."
Zeke realized that the black substance Ingel had used was extracted from the angel's cocoon.
He had no idea how she had created such a thing, but with the power of an angel infused with a constellation's authority, simple attacks wouldn't subdue it.
Moreover, now that he knew Baron was buying time while waiting for something from behind, Zeke couldn't afford to take it easy.
He stepped back, spreading his shadows and summoning a familiar from within.
Shhh—
Guardian Ashvin, transformed into a shadow avatar after absorbing the angel of the Gemini Palace, emerged.
Zeke issued a command to Ashvin.
"It's a fragment with the power of an angel. Eliminate it."
At Zeke's order, Ashvin immediately spread his wings and took to the air.
Black feathers erupted from his wings, flying toward the black mass sprouting arms in various places.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Hundreds of feathers pierced into the black mass.
Woooong!
The feathers didn't stop at embedding themselves; they vibrated as they burrowed deeper into the mass.
The black mass began to break apart under the vibrational waves, soon tearing into several chunks.
Splash! Splash! Splash!
The scattered black chunks flew outward and collapsed onto the floor.
Baron, standing behind the Black Stage operatives, watched silently without a word.
Zeke slowly approached him.
"Baron, I'll give you one chance. Where is Arthur Draker?" But just like before, Baron gave no reply.
Zeke, as if he hadn't expected one, immediately raised his sword and said, "I figured as much." Woooong!
An aura blade surged from Zeke's sword.
"I'll find out myself. But you'll pay for making me go through this trouble." With those words, Zeke swung his sword strike directly at Baron.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The fierce sword strike flew toward Baron and the Black Stage operatives.
Yet before it could reach them, it veered off as if blocked by something invisible, altering its trajectory and crashing into the wall.
Boom!
Zeke frowned as the sword strike collided with the wall, causing a massive explosion.
"A defensive barrier."
Realizing something, Zeke activated both his Third Eye authority and the Eye of the Sage.
Shhh—
His vision pierced beyond the Dragon Eye, peering into the hidden inner world.
In an instant, something previously invisible came into view.
"This is...?"
It was a densely woven magic circuit centered on Baron Draker, connecting through the floor and walls to the door concealing the Book of the Lion.
While Zeke had been fighting Ingel, Baron had stood silently in place, working to open the door behind him.
Zeke now understood why Baron had been unable to move and kept stalling for time.
"I won't let you have your way."
He immediately crouched and placed his hand on the floor.
A mandala rose around Zeke's body.
Woooong—
Having absorbed all of Blood King Caligula's power and knowledge, creating a mandala was no difficult task for Zeke.
He linked the mandala on the floor to the Kabbalah System, forcibly connecting to the magic circuit Baron had set up.
Crackle—
In the unseen inner world, the power of the Blood Eye connected to Zeke's mandala began eroding into Baron's circuit.
Sizzle—
Moments later, red lightning crackled from the magic circuit linked to Baron.
Sensing an external force invading his barrier, Baron's expression changed.
Though he had maintained a composed demeanor, with Zeke detecting the unlocking barrier and interfering, Baron had no choice but to shift his approach.
With a hardened expression, Baron spoke.
"Stop Zeke Draker."
The Black Stage operatives guarding him nodded at his command.
As they advanced, the space seemed to ripple like a cracked, transparent membrane.
As the Black Stage operatives charged to attack him, Zeke maintained the mandala while reverse-summoning Ashvin and calling forth another familiar.
Shhh—
Lilith emerged from the shadows.
The consort of the Arrogant Savior and the Great Whore of Babylon, Lilith was a demon possessing the fearsome authority of seduction.
Now a shadow avatar, Lilith began to sing toward the approaching Black Stage operatives.
Aaaaaah—
Not a song of sound, but one woven from psychic waves, Lilith's melody directly invaded the minds of those who heard it, compelling brainwashing.
The Black Stage operatives charging at Zeke halted in agony upon hearing Lilith's song, unable to advance further.
"Ugh!"
The Black Stage operatives clutched their heads, writhing in torment.
Black energy seeped from their bodies.
But with Lilith's song already penetrating their minds, they remained immobilized.
Sensing she had fully seized them, Lilith shifted to a slightly different melody. This one delved into their psyches, commanding them to end their own lives.
The Black Stage operatives slowly brought the black claws protruding from their hands toward their own hearts.
"Ugh!"
They trembled, desperately resisting.
But it was futile.
Soon, the Black Stage operatives plunged their claws into their own chests, extracted their hearts, knelt, and offered them to Lilith.
While maintaining the mandala to disrupt Baron's barrier and observing the situation, Zeke marveled anew at Lilith's power.
"No wonder even demons shuddered at her."
The Black Stage operatives who had ripped out their hearts and presented them to Lilith had already lost the light in their eyes.
But then— Snap!
Baron, upholding the barrier, snapped his fingers, sending a signal.
In that instant, the fragments of the black mass scattered on the floor began to stir.
Shhh—
The fragments moved, burrowing into the bodies of the Black Stage operatives who had extracted their hearts.
Crunch—
The bodies of the Black Stage operatives, who had offered their souls encased in their hearts to Lilith's song, were effectively hollow shells.
The black substance and fragments claimed those empty vessels.
Crunch—
The Black Stage operatives' bodies writhed and morphed into amorphous matter, with jagged-toothed mouths gaping open or arms sprouting uncontrollably from within.
Roooar!
Discarding and trampling the hearts they held, they rose with monstrous roars.
Lilith's song held no power over those without souls.
Realizing this, Lilith ceased her melody and raised her hand.
Woooong!
A black hole formed before her, and something soon stepped out from within.
A beast of the Demon Realm with a crimson body and seven heads, each crowned with ten horns resembling a king's diadem.
Lilith mounted the beast's back and pointed at the formless monsters.
The seven-headed beast then opened its maw wide toward them.
Groooar!
Red mist poured from the beast's mouth.
Hiss—
The acidic red mist engulfed the monsters' bodies.
Sizzle!
Though their forms melted into the mist, the monsters regenerated and multiplied even faster.
Monsters with five arms jutting from their backs or massive mouths opening on their stomachs broke through the red mist, advancing toward Zeke.
Lilith urged the beast forward, engaging them directly.
Roooar!
The beast extended its seven necks long, attacking the angel-fragment monsters.
It bit into their bodies with its razor-sharp teeth in a single snap.
The problem was that the chunks of monster flesh filling the beast's mouth began to multiply within it.
Crunch!
The mass swelled, overpowering the beast's jaws and shattering its jawbone.
Crack!
The beast's jaw broke, blue blood dripping from the wound.
The beast's highly acidic blue blood corroded the stone floor upon contact.
Yet even that acid couldn't dissolve all of the multiplying black mass.
Instead, the mass eroded the beast's body, attempting to claim its seven heads as their own.
Lilith, perceiving this, stepped in and severed the corrupted heads with her claws.
Thud!
The beast's heads, tainted by the black mass, fell to the floor.
Surprisingly, other fragments of the mass began converging on the fallen heads.
Crunch!
The severed beast heads fused with the unformed masses, soon taking shape as one.
It rapidly formed a body similar to the Demon Realm beast Lilith rode.
Crunch!
The monster, raising its ten heads, fully manifested, its maw gaping wide as viscous black acidic saliva dripped, advancing forward.
Lilith's crimson beast, bleeding blue acid from its severed necks, recoiled step by step.
The black mass monster was larger than the original beast, appearing far more menacing.
Lilith extended her hand toward the monster baring its teeth at her and invoked a true word.
[Beast, I am your mother. Obey me.]
It seemed to work; the monster's movements halted momentarily.
Its ten heads twisted in confusion, staggering.
As Lilith prepared to command it again—
The monster's heads split open, and tentacles studded with eyes burst forth.
Grrr—
The original eyes vanished, replaced by the grotesque writhing of the eye-studded tentacles, which scanned Lilith and Zeke behind her.
Ignoring Lilith's true word, it roared wide-mouthed.
Roooar!
The foul roar forced Lilith and her Demon Realm beast to retreat.
Seizing the moment, the monster's necks elongated, lunging to bite the crimson beast's nape.
Crunch!
Tearing into the crimson beast savagely, the overwhelmed Lilith dissolved into shadows and reverse-summoned.
Shhh—
The monster passed through Lilith's dispersing shadow form, extending its ten heads toward Zeke.
Zeke was in a completely defenseless state, his hand pressed to the floor to maintain the mandala.
Roooar!
As the monster roared and charged at Zeke— Crackle!
The monster's head halted, blocked by an invisible membrane as it tried to advance.
By then, Nabu with his book and one-armed Ivan stood before Zeke.
Nabu shouted at the monster.
"Thanks to you, I got some good rest! Time to start again, you monster!"