When they entered the castle's hall, they were directly guided to the King's room. Apparently, Raal ordered them to do so when he heard it was Arima.

 

When they reached the room, they spotted Raal who was waiting for them along with his wife. They were chatting at a table and invited Arima's group to join in. Night jumped on the room's bed and laid down on the pillow. He had found the best way to use that small body.

 

"Welcome," Raal said with an unnatural smile.

 

Arima tilted his head. "Is something wrong?"

 

"No, of course not, don't worry," the Demon King answered. He glanced at his wife and noticed that she was conversing with Lanya and Lilis. He sighed in relief. "{Let's just continue with telepathy. Sorry, she can be extremely scary. I don't know what she would do if she learned that I want a match with you.}"

 

Arima smiled. "{Sure, no problem. When do you want to do it? I have all the time in the world. I'm going to the Main Land after this.}"

 

"{Well, what about today? Just help me, saying to my wife that it is a friendly spar to improve ourselves and it should be good,}" Raal answered and Arima nodded in return.

 

"What are you talking about?" The Demon Queen in question suddenly raised her voice.

 

Raal shuddered and looked at her with a smile. "Nothing much. By the way, I want to set a spar with Arimane here. Today would be good, after all, he leaves to the Main Land soon," he said and distorted a bit the fact that Arima had all the time he wanted.

 

The Queen studied Arima from head to toe. "You actually want to accept that spar?"

 

Arima smiled. "Of course, it should be exciting to fight the man said to be the strongest on the continent."

 

The Queen was a bit surprised. "Are you saying that you are qualified to fight my husband?"

 

‘Aaah, that's what you meant… Arima wryly exclaimed in his mind.

 

"Ratia, don't be rude like that. Arima is strong. I would even say that he is a level above me," Raal intervened.

 

Ratia glanced at him and looked back at Arima. "Did you set a sort of bet?"

 

"A bet?" Arima and Raal exclaimed at the same time.

 

"You're not saying that you're really just fighting for fun, right?"

 

The Demon King's expression stiffened while Arima wore a pensive expression. "What about this? If you win, I will serve your country."

 

"What?" Raal was shocked. "Then what if you win?"

 

"Well, before that, I have to ask you something. Do you have a prison in this country or a place where you lock up criminals?"

 

Raal strangely looked at him. "Yes, we have one, of course. We should have around ten thousand locked up just in our city."

 

Arima grinned. "If I win, I want the permission to destroy the life force of all of them. Obviously, the reason is a secret. That shouldn't be an unreasonable request, right?"

 

Raal's eyes widened. "Of course, it isn't. If you can destroy the life force of all of those criminals then you're welcome. Well, we'd lose some labor force, but as long as you don't kill them, it should be fine."

 

"Then it's decided, let's start then," Arima declared and stood up. He then pointed to the east. "Let's do it around twenty thousand miles in that direction."

 

"The sea, huh? It's not a bad idea. At our level, no terrain can make a difference anyway," Raal agreed and stood up as well. Night opened his eyes and jumped on Arima's shoulder. On the other side, a two meters tall bull appeared beside Raal. The four stared at each other and the entire castle was already shaking.

 

"Hey! Don’t tell me you’re-!" Ratia tried to say something but was interrupted by her husband.

 

"Sorry, can't go back on it now. Can you safeguard the continent?"

 

"You two as well, Lanya, Lilis. Help her protect the coast."

 

The two fighters smirked and disappeared at the same time along with their soul beasts. The three girls that were left looked at each other.

 

The Demon Queen clicked her tongue. “Who said they could go all out? They even brought their soul beasts.”

 

"What do they meant by protecting the continent?" Lanya asked.

 

"They meant that their fight would cause many repercussions. Devastating tides is one of them. We need to look out," Lilis casually shrugged and stood up. 

 

"We should hurry. Just a single punch from them could produce a tsunami," she added and teleported. Lanya and Ratia soon followed her. The former was nearly at the ninth level and had learned how to teleport and manipulate space from Arima and the Demon Queen was already at the late ninth level and didn’t need any help whatsoever.

 

***

 

Far away, in the middle of the ocean, Arima and Raal stood on water. Night changed form and the same thing occurred with the bull.

 

Night transformed into a fifteen-meter-tall dragon while the bull simply changed into a ten-meter-tall beast. Raal whistled as he observed Night.

 

"So, that cub really was your soul beast, huh? I actually heard that your soul beast was a dragon but I never imagined that he was able to transform into a small wolf like that. That's impressive. I guessed it was just a tamed wolf at first."

 

Arima laughed. "If it’s the moment of praises, let me tell you that the bull at your side is the biggest I’ve ever seen," he quipped and Raal grinned.

 

"Let’s go. It has been a while. [Resonance]," Arima intoned and Night turned into a black and red light that shrouded him.

 

"It's time Rayord," Raal said and the bull beside him nodded. "[Resonance]," the same phenomenon occurred and Rayord became a light that merged with Raal’s body.

 

Even before their resonance was completed, their auras had already started fighting. The sky was slowly darkening. The wind blew strongly and the water became agitated.

 

After their transformation; Raal had become bigger by at least a meter. He grew a second pair of horns which were a lot bigger than his natural ones. His skin blackened and hardened. He summoned a huge great sword which he shouldered.

 

Arima grew scales on his arms mainly. They were a lot thinner than before but looked stronger at the same time. His hair grew until the middle of his back this time around. His irises became crimson and his pupils narrowed to a slit. The snow star pattern carrier over and glowed with a silver light. His wings were bigger and his tail seemed to be longer and had a short gray mane on it. Arima summoned Karma and unsheathed it, he broke two seals straightaway and its aura was released.

 

Arima and Raal evaluated each other for a moment then vanished from their position. The water also exploded under their feet and they reappeared in mid-air with their blades colliding. That first strike had already pushed back the water and made the earth quail.

 

At that moment, Arima had suppressed his strength. So, he returned to how he was at the tenth level. It was without saying that the physical strength of Raal was great but the difference of weapon was obvious. Karma was pushing back the great sword without much difficulty.

 

Raal smirked and his sword glowed and suddenly started winning over Karma. Arima then deviated it and used Karma's sheath to hit him. That minor exchange created another shock wave that could destroy a fortress if there was one.

 

"That was unexpected, I never thought you would specialize in Spirit magic," Arima commented once they were apart by a few hundred meters.

 

Raal laughed and waved his sword. A huge gash opened on the water’s surface from that casual move.

 

"Is it that strange? Spirit magic is really useful. You can control every element and even enchant several layers of equipment during a fight."

 

Arima smirked and thunder roared. The sky brightened with purple lightning and Karma was shrouded with black flames and sparks.

 

Raal became serious and the water near him elevated and heated up as it vibrated. A cyclone formed in the sky and pushed the thunder clouds away.

 

On one side, lightning was raging, and on the other, a cyclone was turning the water and the wind into a massive threat.

 

"[Aeterna] (Eternal Night)," Arima swung Karma and a dark energy flew toward Raal.

 

"[Undine's Wrath]," the Demon King hacked with his sword and a two-colored wave clashed with Aeterna.

 

The resulting explosion drained the water until the bottom of the sea. And while that explosion wasn't even finished, Arima and Raal charged at each other in the middle of it and engaged in close combat. Tornadoes also appeared from time to time and clashed with the purple lightning that fell from the sky.

 

"[Fortasse Aeterna Noctem] (Flamboyant Eternal Night)."

 

Karma combined the fire and lightning and condensed a large momentum force. But Arima didn't send it as a flying attack and used it to parry his opponent’s sword.

 

"[Elemental Sentence]," Raal followed his example and infused his weapon with high tier magic that harmonized the four primary elements.

 

The new discharge of magic overtook the precedent that still wasn't finished and transformed more of the sea into a desolate field. Arima and Raal both phased their body and crashed on the ground which was the former sea floor.

 

They soon got up and clashed one more time with a grin on their faces. They continued to fight in that way for almost an hour, without stopping once. They kept clashing with swords and magic.

 

They were in the middle of the ocean but barely any water could be seen on the horizon. Only lightning bolts that were digging craters and tornadoes that were going wild.

 

At some point, the two fighters became separated by a kilometer.

 

"[To Defeat the Strong, the Devil has his Ways.]" the Demon King chanted and started growing taller and bigger. “[A Single Signature is Enough.]”

 

His eyes reddened and he grew sharp fangs. His body became entirely covered with blue fur. His face deformed and his legs bent forward like the hind limbs of a quadrupedal beast. Ultimately, what was left was a six-meter-tall minotaur holding a brand-new great sword even bigger than the last one.

 

"[Agnitio Vultus Unum Centum] (One Hundred Parade)," Arima used his own augmenting magic and his body also grew bigger, although it was a lot less than Raal. At the same time, he discarded his skin and flesh to reveal a skeleton with blazing eyes.

 

"That's quite an evil looking form," Raal commented.

 

"Look who's talking."

 

Raal snickered gripped his sword tightly. It started glowing even stronger than before. Arima also released the third seal of Karma.

 

"It's time for the second round," they both stated and disappeared simultaneously.