Chapter 155: Dragonlord Ivanov 6
Carnelian's ego was already showing signs of fragmentation.
Ivanov had tortured her extremely harshly as she was a dragon, the strongest creature on the continent.
'We won’t get anywhere simply through conversation.'
There was also a time limit, so Woohyuk decided to subdue her and try to persuade her another time, after they took her with them for rehabilitation.
Woohyuk used the power of the Demon God to restrain Carnelian's consciousness.
“Urgh…!”
Carnelian struggled and resisted with all her energy.
But that was the extent of it.
As she was still a young dragon, she couldn't resist for long and passed out.
Thump.
When Carnelian dropped to the floor, Woohyuk released the absolute space and held her in his arms.
'It was a lot easier than expected to secure her.'
If he had confronted Ivanov head-on outside the ruins, a lot of troublesome variables would have interfered.
Woohyuk was extremely lucky for coming across these two inside the White Ghost King’s Sand Temple.
When Woohyuk glance at Carnelian sleeping in his arms,
“Kuuuh! Arrrghhhhhhhhh! Ugh...”
The screaming Ivanov who was rolling around in pain suddenly stopped moving.
Silence ensued, and Woohyuk gave instructions to the three demon kings.
“Dantalion, you will confuse Ivanov from the front with your illusion skills. Amii, continue doing surprise attacks with your pet like earlier. Volak, strike him down with lightning bolts from a distance and support Amii’s attacks.”
In truth, they didn’t need to strategize as the three of them were more than powerful enough.
However, the objective of Woohyuk’s orders was to get them used to cooperating with each other during battles.
A day would come in the future where they would have to fight against a stronger foe alongside each other.
When the three demon kings stood in positions according to their respective roles,
Swoosh!
A purple mist covered the battlefield in an instant.
Ivanov had successfully awakened.
Woohyuk squinted and stared at the large black figure within the fog.
'As I thought, he had a big physical mutation.'
Awakeners differed in appearance from the kazaks of the Queen of Thorn, Alice.
Their first impression was that of a grotesque monster that reminded people the monsters of the abyss.
For the kazaks, the physical shape and aspect of the original host remained to a certain extent, and they simply had a few additional features, such as red eyes, gray skin, and thin wings.
But awakeners changed so much that it was difficult to find traces of their old appearances.
Moreover, in terms of ferocity and battles, awakeners were a lot more dangerous.
They were strong enough that Rosenkreuz called them the Angels of the Abyss, and they could easily neutralize most divine magic.
They constantly evolved as they predated both humans and demons randomly.
“Kuhuhuhuhu...”
As he observed his new appearance, Ivanov laughed in satisfaction.
He looked like a mixture of alien creatures, fallen angels, and monsters.
His number of limbs had doubled, and a single horn had grown on his forehead like a unicorn, while huge bat wings had sprouted from his back.
“Now, let's begin.”
"Yes!"
At Woohyuk's words, Dantalion opened up Arbatel and changed a spell.
Afterwards, dozens of clones appeared and surrounded Ivanov.
However...
“I will kill… every last one of you!”
Drunk on his new demonic powers, his purple eyes flashed and he swiped his four arms in all directions.
His nails were now sharp and shaped like a rake, so they were more than enough to use as weapons.
However, Dantalion would not let himself be defeated so easily.
“Your movements are slow… Must be due to your large body. Can’t you be slightly more active to make this fun?”
Even though he was the weakest of the 72 Demon Kings, he was still a bona fide Demon King.
That title was not given to any demon.
As Dantalion continued to lead Ivanov around by the nose, Ivanov opened his eyes wide and cast an analysis spell.
[Dantalion, 72nd Demon King]
-Class: Demon King (Baron)
-Traits: Leadership (10,000 people), Arbatel (Exclusive weapon, reads the mind of an opponent weaker than oneself and predicts actions. Can continuously generate clones and move the main body to one of them), Improvisation (Intelligence increases up to 50% during life-threatening crises. Percentage of increase depends on the threat-level). Mobilization (Can open abyssal gates and summon the monsters from his territory) Demon King’s Dignity (Immune against B-grade or lower weapons, as well as low or intermediate magic. Increases immunity to debuffs by 35%), Master/Slave Contract (As a demon king, can accept vassals)
-Stats
Strength 212
Vitality 207
Agility 224
Intelligence 403
Spirit 241
“No wonder I couldn’t hit a single clone...!”
Dantalion's exclusive weapon, Arbatel, could not only create countless clones, but also made it possible to read the minds of opponents weaker than its master and predict their actions.
Therefore, although it looked like a simple magic book, it was an artifact that could not be underestimated.
Realizing the cause of the problem, Ivanov extended his arms and concentrated his demonic energy on his fingertips.
The rake-shaped nails soon turned red, and several purple rays shot out from them.
Booooom!
Many of Dantalion's clones vanished as they were in the attacks’ pathways.
Ivanov was trying to break through using brute force.
Ivanov fired rays in any and all directions without determining a proper target in his mind, so Dantalion's mind-reading ability was no longer useful in this situation.
Dantalion got offended and tried to cast an attack spell, but...
“Drop dead, you mongrel!”
A magic circle of flames spread on the floor, and Amii suddenly appeared behind Ivanov.
As she swung Ignis through the air, the Hound of the Baskervilles jumped out and rushed to Ivanov.
“Tsk!”
Feeling a sense of crisis, Ivanov flapped his wings and flew into the air.
But Volak had been waiting for this perfect opportunity.
He used Thunderspear Negima and dropped countless purple lightning bolts on Ivanov in succession.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!
Boom boom boom boom boom!
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!
Black smoke obscured everyone’s view of Ivanov as the thunderous sounds resounded.
However, all three demon kings could sense Ivanov's condition through the smoke.
“He’s tougher than I expected.”
“He must have used all his energy and strength towards defense to protect himself.”
“Well, he seems to have suffered quite a bit, though.”
Ivanov’s skin was charred and he did not move from his spot.
He was using demonic energy to heal all his wounds.
When Amii attempted to leap towards him and swing Ignis,
“I’ll deal with him now.”
Woohyuk stopped her by grabbing her shoulder from behind.
Amii looked at him with a puzzled look.
"What? You don't really have to. We can deal with him on our own…”
“I have to repay him myself.”
Woohyuk had never forgotten about Ivanov's raid on Ravenhill in the northwest province during his past life. Many of his best and most trusted vassals had perished during that battle.
When he handed Carnelian over to her, Amii silently bowed and stepped backwards.
Unfortunately, she couldn't go against her master’s will.
The other demon kings also retreated and moved to a corner.
“Asura…”
Meanwhile, Ivanov had healed all his wounds, and was staring at the approaching human.
He suddenly felt great pressure that he had never felt before
Ivanov instinctively realized that Woohyuk was stronger than the three demon kings through his newly acquired cognitive abilities.
“A monarch must never get tangled up with his personal feelings. They must always judge the situation cold-heartedly and sacrifice their own vassals if needed.”
“…”
“But exceptions always exist. Just like right now.”
“… What are you talking about?”
“At that time, my mistake turned Ravenhill to ashes. I was paying too much attention to the Holy Aperian Empire. I never thought that you would cross the Karlheinz Mountains on top of Carnelian.”
Woohyuk was also human. He had erred and gone through trial and error several times.
Moreover, he would most likely continue making mistakes in the future.
Although he had retained the memories of the past, the future had changed accordingly due to the butterfly effect.
Currently, the group Eteria Rodinus had appeared and was trying to control him.
What he needed most in this life and in these circumstances was motivation.
He could only keep moving forward by constantly aiming for his goal, the goal of saving all those precious to him as well as mankind, and returning to their original world.
That was why he could continue pushing forward despite all the adversity he had to face.
And in order to satisfy his feelings and continue acting like a cold-hearted monarch, he had to show his fiery rage and emotions in situations like this.
“Ravenhill? I don't remember attacking such a place.”
“Of course you don’t. But I still have to deal with you personally. Otherwise, I won’t be able to face my vassals who were killed in that battle again.”
They had understood him and his goal, and had decided to follow him until the very end despite all the hardships.
Therefore, he had to work just as hard, if not harder, in this life to meet the expectations of the dead from his previous life.
With a renewed determination, Woohyuk spread his abyssal wings.
He showed a dignity that reminded one of the former Demon God.
The nervous Ivanov concentrated demonic energy on his fingertips and fired a preemptive strike, and continued attacking like crazy.
succession.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!
Boom boom boom boom boom!
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!
Purple rays hit the transparent shield in front of Woohyuk, creating deafening noises.
Soon the attacks ceased, and the battlefield covered in gray dust was silenced.
“Huff… Huff...”
Ivanov stared ahead as he gasped for breath.
Even though he had attacked continuously with his full power, the opponent stood in place as casually as before.
“Is that everything you can do?”
Woohyuk asked in a dry voice.
He then lifted Verserios and flew towards Ivanov who was hovering in the air.
“I won’t go down so easily!”
He had finally gained great power, so Ivanov didn’t want to die such a vain death.
He grinded his teeth and launched a ranged attack at Woohyuk again.
Boooom!
Boom!
Booooooom!
This time, it wasn't multiple rays of light, but a large beam concentrating towards a single point.
But he still couldn't break through Woohyuk's shield.
Woohyuk has already crossed his limits twice, and as a result, he was slowly reaching the full power of the Demon God.
Eventually, Ivanov allowed Woohyuk to approach him.
"I'll cut your breath, you skinheaded bastard."
Woohyuk’s eyes flashed and he swung Verserios.
Ivanov saw the blade approaching and felt chills run down his spine.
he hurriedly took a defensive position.
Clang!
Sparks flew, and an updraft blew between the two of them.
Woohyuk was overwhelming his opponent.
Ivanov focused only on defending, but was still being pushed back.
Thump!
Woohyuk made use of a gap in Ivanov’s guard and punched him in the side.
The awakener curled up as he spat purple blood.
“Cough!”
“This is the end, Ivanov.”
As Woohyuk said his farewell, Verserios penetrated his ribcage and pierced Ivanov's heart.
Afterwards, the purple energy in Ivanov’s body flowed to the wound and got absorbed by Verserios.
“Arrrggghhhh!”
Unable to bear the extreme pain, Ivanov screamed as he agonized.
He struggled and tried to escape... to no avail.
The game has already been set.
Woohyuk would not allow his escape.
Slash!
Having absorbed enough energy, Verserios separated itself from Ivanov’s chest, and then immediately slit his neck horizontally.
His windpipe had been cut for sure.
Soon enough, Ivanov's large body began to glow red and emitted searing heat.
“Amii, deal with it.”
“Yes, Lord Asura.”
Amii swung Ignis, and the Hound of the Baskervilles leaped out and swallowed Ivanov’s corpse.
After some time,
Boooooooooooooom!
As an explosion resounded from its body, the Hound spat out large flames from its mouth.
The flames and the heat were generated by Ivanov's self-destruction.
The power was enormous and considerably dangerous, but did not take any damage because the explosion was made of flames.
The Hound landed on the ground as it burped, and Woohyuk gave a thumbs-up to Amii.
"Good job."
The remaining time was 3 minutes.
The tournament match had ended with Woohyuk's victory.