Chapter 288: Two Sides of the Same Coin

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As Apollo and the rest followed the directions of his Locator, Apollo noticed something off about the surrounding demons. Half of them wore derisive sneers while the other half presented an indifferent attitude. Upon noticing this, he glanced in Furcas' direction.

"Is there something amiss here?" Apollo asked. At the same time, he prepared for battle at any moment based on the looks he was receiving. Not only had he received a large boon to his strength, but he was also enthused to test it out. In his eyes, another Demon would suffice.

However, there was also the matter of whether or not a Demon from this Ring would even reward him any experience. After all, as far as he knew, he didn't possess anything to contain the Sin known as Superbia.

"That's just the bearing of the Demons who reside here. They're two sides of the same coin. Their pride either makes them extremely confrontational and hostile to newcomers, especially those who don't emit the same signature. Meanwhile, the other type is the non-confrontational one. It isn't because they are weak, but rather because their pride is greater than the former," Furcas replied after huffing on his pipe.

"I see, so the latter looks down upon us so greatly that we don't even enter their eyes," Apollo nodded while replying with a meaningful expression. After a short pause, he continued, "Interesting enough. It should make our journey rather easy then."

When everyone heard this, they were surprised. Based on his previous actions, they expected him to feel some type of disrespect from this way of thinking. Yet, his response was the exact opposite. It appeared he knew how to separate what mattered away from what didn't.

As of now, finding and obtaining Valac would present the most benefits. Anything besides that would simply be additional strife at this point. Not to mention, he also took into account the fact that both Fuhrer and Furcas admitted to Valac being a known hassle.

All of a sudden, Fuhrer's eye narrowed. A moment later, his ears twitched, 'Hoh? Quite the audacious fellows they are,' he thought to himself. Instinctively, his hand crept to the hilt of his blade as a small smile appeared on his face.

"It appears we have some company. We are being followed. And, I'm not mistaken, they're all Greater Demons. Prepare yourself for battle," Fuhrer announced before performing an abrupt turn. He lashed out his sword, creating a powerful wave of dark energy that billowed forth. 

Although it didn't seem to be aimed at anything, a ripple of energy took place before a collective of over 10 Demons dispersed from a single point.

One of them wore a frown, "A distasteful loach from another Ring has extremely sharp senses. It seems our ambush has failed."

Another one of the demons joined in and nodded along, "True, maybe we should have tailed them from farther away. Even though we cloaked ourselves with the help of the atmosphere, they still found us."

"No, someone amongst them must be familiar with this Sin. If not, they wouldn't retain the ability to differentiate between us and the Sin's own fluctuations. That knight-looking fellow should be the most dangerous of the bunch. As for the rest, their threat is minimal."

Once another Demon uttered these words, it was clear he was the leader of this small faction as he performed hand signals to give directions. Without another word, half of the 10 Demons split off and headed directly towards Fuhrer. As for the other five, they split up even further.

One demon dashed towards Apollo while three dashed towards and the last one was keen on doing away with Typhir. As a result, Apollo's expression fell. Truth be told, none of the three had returned to their peak states. Thus, entering a battle right now would only leave them in a precarious position.

Unfortunately, they weren't in a position to run away. They had to prepare themselves for battle as best as possible. This time, Apollo didn't conjure any type of Hellfire weaponry. Instead, he focused all of his attention on the sealed bladed knuckles around his hands.

'Come on, you've awakened once before do it again,' Apollo thought. At the same time, he leaned back dodging the slash of the demon's arm. Now that he took a closer look, he realized this demon's arms were extremely long and its body overly thin. To him, it looked like he was facing a dark skeleton.

While leaning back, Apollo performed a backflip accompanied by a kick aimed at the demon's elbow. However, the demon reacted quickly and grabbed his ankle. With a dark grin, he tossed Apollo aside causing him to slam into a large slab of stone.

Be that as it may, Apollo popped out of the debris without pause. There was a tinge of cold fury in his eyes as he looked at the demon. Concurrently, the appearance of the claws around his hands slowly revealed them. It then dawned upon Apollo that it wasn't his desire to awaken the weapon that made it activate, it was the desire to destroy.

'These must be weapons of destruction. If I can train my mind far enough to where destruction can take place at a mere thought, this weapon wouldn't need to fall dormant again,' Apollo thought. 

All of a sudden, Apollo's eyes widened. The demon disappeared before his eyes, but it wasn't due to cloaking. The demon moved so fast that he caused the ground to tremble. While he couldn't see the strike, Apollo was able to dodge albeit incompletely.

A portion of Apollo's shoulder was ripped to shreds as the claws of the opponent grazed it. As he sucked in sharply, Apollo glanced at the battle taking place on Fuhrer's end. Unlike his fight, the strongest five immediately confronted Fuhrer.

Yet, what Apollo saw seemed more like a dance than a battle. Despite all 5 of them attacking at once, Fuhrer used their limbs as platforms and often sprang off of them before weaving through the next strike. Until now, he was simply toying with them.

"As I said, slippery as a loach. You aren't moving fast enough to overwhelm us, yet we can't seem to touch you. Is this a mere game to you? You're playing with your life!" the demon leader bellowed. A large amount of dark energy then collected in his palm. There was also a small portion of golden energy inside.

But, Fuhrer still didn't react in the slightest, "You have walked into your own demise. It's truly a shame. A demon of the lesser orientation always seems to fall victim to their own temptation. When will we learn to separate our desires from the grasp of the sources?" Fuhrer sighed. He then dropped his sword vertically.

A large fissure spanning hundreds of meters appeared behind the demon. Furthermore, the collection of energy in his palm was split in half. When this happened he was left stunned. 

"What did you just do? Where did my control over my energy disappear to?" the demon leader muttered in shock.

"It has been a while since I've used this sword. Since you've presented yourself, you might as well become my test subject," Fuhrer said. All of a sudden, the blade of his weapon disappeared and was replaced by a seemingly invisible blade. "Let's play a game. Let's see how sharp your senses are; try to dodge this."

Without delay, Fuhrer swung his arm slowly. In fact, it looked like his arm was barely moving, but a sense of danger continued to grow in the demon's mind. Even if he tried to create space between them, the sensation became more drastic.

"What mind games are you getting at?" The demon spat. But, he didn't receive an answer. In return, the other 4 demons started to feel the same sensation. A moment later, all of them started to move around haphazardly.

"Not bad, you all are dodging them. But, what happens if I pick up the pace?" Fuhrer chuckled. He then stopped moving altogether. However, all of the demons' pupils constricted to the size of needles. They couldn't believe what was happening right now.

Small lacerations started to appear on their bodies. This remained true even if they thought they had escaped the scope of the dangerous feeling.

"Tenebrous Sword: Phantom Millenia," Fuhrer uttered before turning his back away from all of them. In the matter of that small time frame, their bodies were diced up into numerous tiny pieces. 

He then turned his attention to the difficult battle everyone else was facing. 'My grasp of the sword hasn't fallen, but my realm of influence has. I intended to kill every last one but only those around me were affected,' Fuhrer thought. 

Of course, this didn't matter all that much. Therefore, he simply brandished his sword and provided aid to the others.