Keiichi smiled as he felt Alad's aura.

'He appears to be stronger than Virzarod (before consuming the blood essence). He's weaker than I thought, however…'

Keiichi looked at all the leaders of the various sects kneeling on the ground.

"This guy is enough to make them all tremble."

Ayaka was watching everything with an anxious expression. Alad is stronger than that demon, but something comforted her.

'Why is he so calm?' She thought as she watched Keiichi. Seeing Keiichi's indifferent expression, Alad became even more enraged.

"Brat-"

Seeing the impending battle, Takahiro was about to use his teleportation artefact on Ayaka to get her out of the mess. However, when Alad was about to attack, he felt his arm being grabbed. When he looked to the side, he saw Dion.

"Control yourself. We don't have time for childish fights." Dion said with a serious look.

…

"Tsk!" Alad returned to his throne with an annoyed expression. He knew he couldn't beat Dion, so he decided to back off… for now.

"..." Dion looked at Keiichi briefly and spoke again.

"Rylla will use her ability to locate the demon. After that, we will kill him. Unfortunately, it appears that the leader of the assassins' organization did not come to the meeting, so we will have to act personally."

Rylla, who was watching everything with a smile, stood up. She was a bit curious about Keiichi, as she couldn't feel spirit energy in his body either. Well, even if Takahiro was lying, she didn't care.

"Alright." Rylla closed her eyes. Her awareness/presence began to "wander" aimlessly. Her clairvoyance was limited, she couldn't know everything, but it was still possible to get information about Virzarod.

'Focus.' She thought of Virzarod. His powers, appearance, personality, etc. She needed a rough image of Virzarod in her mind. After 1 minute, her presence was projected at a specific location, and she saw the demon. 

The demon seemed to be sleeping, and crimson energy surrounded its body. The place felt underground.

'So it's him?' Rylla thought. 'I can't pinpoint the exact location… Maybe-'

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw Virzarod smiling.

"Hahaha. Looks like that guy was right."

"!!!"

'What- How?!'

"Hmm, you must wonder how I knew you'd be here? Well, you're not the only one with supernatural perception. My instincts say that, and they've never been wrong."

-

Keiichi watched Rylla, who appeared to be in a trance-like state.

"Hey, is it just me, or is something wrong?" Keiichi noticed the strange expression that appeared on Rylla's face.

"While using the skill, Rylla goes into a trance state. We don't know what she's seeing, but it doesn't look pleasant." Takahiro replied.

"...Keiichi-"

-

"I thought this world was weak like the others I've destroyed, but it seems there are some interesting people here. Mostly that boy. I wonder how he got that flame." Virzarod muttered.

Rylla was perplexed. An instinctive fear surged through her heart.

'I need to get out of here!'

She automatically cancelled her ability, but before that, she managed to hear a mocking laugh from the demon.

-

Rylla came out of her trance state with a startled expression.

"DION-"

Slash!

…

…

The entire room was silent at this point. Everyone looked in disbelief at Rylla, who had been impaled by a red blade. Rylla's eyes, which were losing focus, turned to Dion. Her expression was one of apology and regret.

"You can't run away from me," Virzarod said.

"RYLLA!!!"

BOOOMMM!

Furious lightning erupted across the room. Everyone was thrown by the enormous pressure emanating from Dion's body.

"You bastard!!" Dion disappeared from where she was and scooped Rylla into her arms.

"Fuck, what the hell happened?!" Keiichi hadn't sensed the demon's presence in the room. How did he get here?

Dion tried to use a healing artefact on Rylla, but she was already dead. After using her skill, her body was very weak, so she couldn't resist.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I will kill you!" Dion, covered in thunder, dashed towards Virzarod. At speed no one could keep up, he punched Virzarod in the face, who hurled him across the room.

BOOMMM!

"Hahahaha! As I expected, you are much stronger than them. Fortunately, this body is just a clone."

Magic circles appeared on the floor. Crimson energy gathered around the circles, creating ten Imps. This time, the Imps had a black colour, and their wings were much larger. The Imps immediately rushed to attack Alad, Adolph, and everyone else in the room.

Alad immediately drew his sword with a serious expression. "Hey, old man, looks like things got out of hand."

Adolph's expression was serious. He didn't expect things to turn this way.

Slash!

Alad tried to slash one of the Imps with his sword, but his blow was blocked by the Imp's tail.

"What?!" Alad looked at the Imp in shock.

'Didn't they say these things were weak?!'

BOOMMM!

The imp spewed a gigantic fireball that completely destroyed the room. The flames were about to burn them all.

"Keiichi!" Ayaka called.

"I know." Keiichi created a protective barrier around the sect leaders.

'These Imps are much stronger than the previous ones…' Keiichi's expression was severe.

'Virzarod's clone seems to have surpassed Alad, so his real body must have become much stronger…'

BOOMM!

Dion threw a punch at Virzarod, piercing the ceiling of the room and sending him flying toward the surface. After that, an insane amount of water began to invade the entire space.

"Fuck! Their base is at the bottom of the sea?!" Keiichi exclaimed. "Let's go out now!"

-

Above the ocean, Dion and Virzarod continued their fight. Dion's sense was clouded with anger. All he wanted was to exterminate the demon in front of him.

'He is very fast! I can barely see him…' Virzarod thought. Dion's blows caused some of his body to be destroyed, but he was still able to regenerate.

-

"Are we in the northern ocean?" Keiichi wondered after reaching the surface. Takahiro, Ayaka, and the others also climbed up, but the Imps followed.

"Ayaka, I'll take care of the Imps. You all better get out of this place." Keiichi said solemnly.

"No! That demon is in front of me now! How can I let him get away after all he's done?!" Ayaka clenched her fists with an expression of hate.

"Ayaka, that's a clone. Even if you destroyed it, Virzarod wouldn't be affected." Keiichi replied as he watched the Imps.

'I'll finish this quickly.'

"But-"

The Imps went into a frenzy. Alad, Adolph and Takahiro tried to suppress them, but they were under a lot of pressure.

Keiichi's body was covered in flames when suddenly a strong wind happened. The wind gathered around his body, amplifying the power of the fire. The next moment, Keiichi charged towards the Imps, hitting five of them with a blow to the chest.

BOOMMM!

The Imps screamed in pain as they were scorched by the flames. In just a moment, half of them were killed.

'Elemental combination is really something.'

Alad, Adolph and the other leaders were perplexed to see Keiichi killing five Imps quickly.

-

'That guy should already be here… if the boy enters the fight, things are going to get really problematic.' Virzarod thought as he tried to block Dion's blows.

Dion's speed was the main problem. His offensive means were not strong enough to completely destroy him. However, he was still being pressured.

"Bloody monster! How can you kill her?!" Dion screamed as he punched Virzarod's body.

"Hahahahaha! You're funny, human. Sometimes I forget how hypocritical you guys can be! If an ordinary person had been killed by one of you, you would have said it was the consequence of being weak. What now?"

Dion didn't care about Virzarod's words. He just kept punching him.

"You don't have to worry. I'll send you to the same place as her."

-

Ayaka watched Keiichi kill the Imps with a blank expression. She felt weak, too weak. She couldn't even beat an Imp, let alone Virzarod's clone. Could she avenge Azumi like this?

"Huh?" She suddenly saw a hooded person watching Keiichi from the sky. She felt a terrible feeling. That person wasn't here before.

The unknown person pulled a black sword from her waist.

"KEIICHI!"

"Huh?"

Slash!

-

Keiichi felt a shiver down his spine. He turned around and saw a bar of black energy coming toward her. He immediately made a mana shield to block the attack but was still thrown hundreds of meters due to the impact.

"You are late," Virzarod said upon seeing the hooded person.

"Well, a job well done takes time. Now, let the fun begin, shall we?"