Lancelot stabbed both swords into the ground and folded his arms. His posture relaxed and the overwhelming power from before vanished as if it was never there.

That was what Arnold wanted.

Lancelot’s eyes widened when he realized it.

Arnold grinned. “Never let your guard down in front of your opponent!”

Using all the aura in the Aura Sword’s reserves, Arnold charged like a missile towards Lancelot. The air whistled as the tip of the sword cut through it.

“You!!!” Lancelot hurriedly tried to dodge, however, the sword managed to graze his side and cut a chunk of his flesh. Since he spat blood, Arnold judged that his kidney was probably damaged as well.

“Kuahahahaahaha!” Arnold laughed triumphantly even though it was a cowardly move. “What a noob! Never talk to your opponent whilst in combat! Are you that stupid!?”

Gwahaha, Arnold continued laughing.

Even if he was at his last, he wouldn’t die without inflicting a bit of damage on his enemy.

“I see.”

“…Eh?”

As Arnold was celebrating his cowardly move, he heard an icy cold voice followed by the same pressure from before.

‘How is he still able to use this much power!?’

It was a known fact in the game that if a large chunk of your health was depleted then you wouldn’t be able to use a lot of your full strength.

‘Are you telling me that strike only scratched him!? How strong is this bastard!?’

Despair etched onto Arnold’s heart when he realized that his loss was already decided the moment he was trapped in this barrier.

‘Barrier…’

Arnold’s eyebrows creased as he realized what the use of the barrier was for.

‘No…way…’

All of Lancelot’s wounds were in the process of healing. Sensing his impending demise yet again, Arnold collapsed against a cliff. His back felt the hard surface of the granite rock formation.

Meanwhile, Lancelot was already fully healed. He wielded his two swords again and approached Arnold.

The green menacing power made its way to Arnold. With a blank expression on his face, Arnold gazed upwards.

“Huh…?”

Above his head, he could see something….

Command received from player, Lufulur. Star Draw is ready to roll.

“In the name of the almighty goddess who rules over all and shall for eternity; the demons and evil gods shalt not disturb this ruling of Melis, the Mother of this world. I hereby commence this execution…”

When Lancelot was about to continue his Scripture, he noticed Arnold staring blankly into the sky.

“While you may not end up in the God Realm with the rest of the pure souls, I pray that you shall find peace in your next life.”

He wordlessly swung the two swords. It was a slow motion. It was slow because the power behind it was simply too strong so reality itself was delaying the attack.

He was intent on crushing Arnold and erasing all evidence that he was here.

Not minding his demise, Arnold smiled. Light filled his eyes as he tapped empty air.

[Class change from Knight to Demon Lord Factor]

[Do you accept: Y/N]

Arnold swallowed hard and nodded.

‘Yes…’

Almost a moment later he saw a dark void before him. It was like the void was beckoning him over. Since he wasn’t approaching it, the void expanded and engulfed Arnold.

The void blocked the powerful strike from the two swords in Lancelot’s hands. Not only that, Lancelot was sent flying into the side of a mountain.

Demon Lord’s Armor, Uranus, will be blessed upon thy body.

“Uwaah! What is this!?” Pain spread over his entire body as the black energy surrounded him.

His bones cracked.

His organs exploded and rearranged themselves.

His brain was clinging onto its free will while being consumed by the void of darkness.

Lancelot stood up and clicked his tongue. His attacks were halted yet again.

Meanwhile, Arnold was screaming at the top of his lungs as he was literally buried alive in the overwhelming void. His Aura Sword lost its manifested form and disappeared into blue sparkles.

“Huh?” That exclamation came from Lancelot. He looked at his right hand—which held a sword just moments before—in confusion.

One of Lancelot’s holy swords suddenly flew towards Arnold. He was taken aback because he hadn’t given it any commands, yet it moved.

As it neared as the void was clearing, it attained its previous form. A jet black blade with an ominous design. There was an eyeball of a demon on the hilt of the sword. It was gazing at its new master in bliss.

The sword finally reached Arnold—no, its hand.

What grabbed the sword was an armored hand. The armor was the same jet black color as the sword.

The mist cleared, revealing a figure cladded in dark armor. Horns sprouted out of the side of its head.

Dark purple aura leaked out of the helm of the armored being.

“This….is…” Lancelot took off his mask. An expression of disbelief was etched on his face.

“This can’t be…A Demon Lord factor?”

Arnold’s suddenly realized what had happened. He looked at his hands.

On one hand was the mysterious demon sword that was surrounded in divinity when it was in Lancelot’s grasp. His hand was gauntleted by a black armor.

‘I…became a demon lord factor?’

The system named this form [Demon Lord Seed]. Arnold’s class wasn’t Knight anymore but Demon Lord(temporary).

Demon Lord. They were the direct subordinates of the Demon King. There were currently three serving him in the demon world. They demonstrated the second highest authority in the Demon King’s army.

Being the highest specie of their race, they had the strongest abilities and bodies built for battle.

Arnold wasn’t certain why they were idle but he knew one thing:

If they did decide to come to this world then few could stop them.

Of course, even Luke would be in danger as he was now. The world’s will and the blessings from thousands of gods would not matter when faced with an antigod’s creation.

Arnold exhaled. His breath sounded like that of a beast through his helm.

“Status”

As if an electric shock went through him, multiple notifications appeared within his view.

Name: Arnold von Berkley(Seir Factor) Class: Demon Lord(temp) Race: Demon-human STR: SSS+ AG: SS DEF: SS AP:EX

Equipment:

Demon Armor(Damaged)—Uranus(Star). It is the lost artifact that went missing after the death of the supreme demon lord who slayed the last hero. The armor now lies in the deepest dungeon in the world, the World Labyrinth. It awaits its new master. Demon Sword(unstable)—Creation of the underworld’s most renowned blacksmith, Serak. It is infused with the blood of the demon king and can create a portal to the underworld.

‘I have a status.’

He grinned.

“Kuahahahaha!!!!”

Arnold’s laughter shook the entire mountains. It bellowed in one’s stomach and created an echo.

Arnold took off his helmet.

His hair wasn’t dark blue as before but was now completely white. His eyes were a similar color. There were strange white veins that came out of the side of his head.

‘The notifications disappeared, huh? As I thought. It’s only because I’m wearing this armor that I can see the status. Something’s telling me that I don’t have a lot of time so I better finish this.’

The armor was most likely from the game because he recognized it somewhat. The form was different but he remembered seeing it during an event in the game to hunt demons.

“What? Are you scared? Do you fear my might?”

Arnold grinned.

Lancelot closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Instantly, the air froze over and his green energy thickened.

‘Kuh. Despite leveling up this much, he’s still so powerful…Is this guy invincible under this barrier?’

Arnold took a step back involuntarily. He gritted his teeth.

‘Why am I still cowering when my body is brimming with power!?’

He swung down the Demon Sword. A giant arc of purple aura shot out towards the green dome.

An explosion followed by a loud rumble occurred. When the smoke faded, Arnold saw that the dome was damaged immensely.

‘As I thought, it’s divinity. Is this bastard using an item from the game to make this barrier?’

Since his aura was now in its demonic form, it could now damage the barrier. Of course, if he didn’t find that item soon or kill the wielder then there was no stopping that barrier. It was most likely infinite.

That meant that it was either a Semi-Star or Star class item.

“So you have truly become a demon. I feel that I may fail this mission of retrieving information from your corpse. I might obliterate your entire existence.”

Lancelot went into a stance without a hint of fear on his face.

“Stop acting cocky, you bastard!” Arnold charged with lightning speeds and swung the blood red demon sword. His speed was unlike the heavy armour he was wearing.

Not taking the initiative to block it, Lancelot parried the sword which made Arnold almost lose his balance. Before he lost it completely, Arnold did a side-step to regain his balance and jump back.

The spot which he stood on before was destroyed by Lancelot’s sword. A holy cross symbol shone in that spot.

It was a sealing type divination magic that could even entrap S class monsters.

‘Although I’m wearing this armour, it feels like I’m wearing ordinary clothes. Is it because of the magic functions of the armour that makes it so light?’

Arnold manifested black flames in his hand which didn’t hold the sword. He used that flame and ran it along the blade’s edge.

Almost immediately, an ominous blaze of fury emerged on the sword.

“You really have a lot of tricks. [Judgement Spear]”

Four spears of light manifested around Lancelot. He took the initiative to approach this time. The spears followed close behind.

“Haaah!” Lancelot swung down the sword, Arnold tried to block but then he realized why Lancelot summoned those spears.

“You think I’ll fall for that!? I used to use this trick too!”

The spears were intended to disturb his movements and make him unable to block Lancelot’s attacks. His sole attention would be focused on trying to get rid of the spears of light that could inevitably damage him.

Instead of swinging his sword to block the blow, Arnold used a short range teleportation skill to appear by Lancelot’s side.

Putting all his strength into his gauntleted hand, Arnold punched. Straining his muscles, the punch connected and the shockwave did considerable damage to the ground they stood on. In fact, the mountain rumbled. Multiple huge cracks emerged on the cliff of the mountain.

Arnold’s punch sent Lancelot flying. However, the spears still aimed for him.

“Tch!” He realized that the spears would definitely injure him if they touched him.

‘I have the advantage right now but for how long, I wonder?’

His question was answered immediately after. One of the light spears suddenly switched places with Lancelot.

“Shit!”

An arc of light embraced Lancelot’s sword as he swung it.

Boom, an explosion shook the mountains, followed by a strong rumble. A few pieces of the Demon Lord armour broke off Arnold’s body after he narrowly escaped.

“Goddammit.”

Arnold could feel his body slowly giving in to the overwhelming power he now held. If he was a player then he could simply look at his status screen to view his stats.

The armour didn’t show his original stats but its own stats that came with the armour.

Not even getting a breather in, Arnold blocked another one of Lancelot’s Level 5 [Holy Strikes].

A Holy Strike referred to a secret martial skill known only to paladins and warriors who fight for the church, namely, the “inquisitors”. The usual inquisitor could only perform one strike at a time since there was a delay in the amount of times it could be used. It severely strains the body so people will only use it as a trump card.

Since Lancelot had both a strong body and was adept at using two swords at once, he could double the attack power and perform three strikes a minute. However, since he only had one sword left, that wasn’t so this time.

An explosion rang out after Arnold managed to parry the arc of light by a thin margin.

“Ugh…!” However, Arnold never considered that this monster could perform three in under a minute. It was literally only a twenty seconds delay.

The second holy strike was much larger and fearsome than the first one.

“Haaaah!” Before the Holy Strike managed to injure Arnold, a dark purple aura embraced his body which filled it with power.

He roared like a beast as he lifted both his arms to do two-handed strike.

Seemingly sensing the danger, Lancelot retreated backwards after sending that attack towards Arnold.

The sky, no, rather the entire dome was embraced in darkness before a red light came from Arnold’s Demon Sword.

“[Wrath of the Demon]!”

The dome cracked, the mountain range rumbled and the trees bent over from the sheer shockwaves. The large amount of power from the demon sword was so intense that even Lancelot had to click his tongue.

He surrounded himself in golden light. An avatar appeared around him acting as a summon. It was a giant woman with her eyes bandaged and a Holy Bible in its hands.

It was a level 10-[Avatar Angel] that was a pure defensive summon. Four wings protruded from its back and covered Lancelot.

But that’s useless against demon energy, thought Arnold.

“Die! You fucking lunatic!”

Then he swing down his last—probably—strike.