Chapter 247: Presence of the Almighty

Moby had seen this sight on Avilia many times before, but this is the first time she had a hint of excitement in her voice along with all of the other emotions, which Moby found quite odd in his still shaky, bewildered state trying to make out who it was in the distance.

'Avilia! What is it!? Did you notice something!?'

'THAT'S THE DEMON LANGUAGE!'

She blurted in his head, making his eyes grow wide, realizing what that meant for her.

Of course, Moby was not ignorant enough to believe that demons spoke English but he did not imagine it to sound like what he heard which seemed very mystical in nature beyond his wildest dreams.

'Is it a demon!? Do you sense demon energy coming from it?'

'He's too far away for me to tell, but if he somehow knows demon language, then I can find more answers about my people! Maybe he's an ally!'

Moby inwardly cursed, the realization of what just happened and who it was that had just landed hitting him in the face like a bullet.

'You idiot! Get out of your fantasies! If it knows demon tongue then it must be strong as fuck!'

Avilia inwardly took a mental step back and shook her mind, Moby's words shaking her to her very core as she took a deep breath and contained the excitement that could not help but burst out of her heart back where it belonged. She indeed felt like an idiot. She could not let her thirst for knowledge and answers cloud her judgement in such a serious situation. 

'Sorry, you're right! Shit! I'm not sure how it would be even possible. But, that over there might actually be a greater demon, and if it is then you might as well kiss earth and everyone you knew and loved goodbye… Now that I think about it, that is most likely Villanova's lord, now that the contract is null and she died, there would be nothing holding him back from arriving as well…'

'Yeah! I'm well aware! This is fucked! FUCKED! We should have gotten away sooner! But I'm not even sure if that would have even been possible to get the teleporter out of Abby's inventory that fast when she is not willing! FUCK THAT VILLANOVA! Even in death! She had it all planned! I was too careless!'

Moby inwardly cursed, his mind delving deep into a self-loathing pit of despair as he realized his major flaw of not asking for the teleporter to be stored in Emilia's storage ring so he could easily access it when he defeated her, not in the still mind-controlled Abby's inventory that was far harder to access. 

"Jayden! The contract is over! Quick! Call your father! Call the military! I have a bad feeling coming from that spaceship and man in the distance!" Moby shouted, his expression turning a complete 180 degrees as he switched into a mixture of seriousness and panic as he tried to save all that he could. 

"B-but I can't! The connection is too far away! Even if I were to cut off my watch arm now, the school wouldn't be notified…"

The horrified look on Jayden's face made his heart crack, a memory of her dying, being impaled by a sword playing in his mind before he inwardly cursed and shook those thoughts away, his hand grasping his heart.

"FUCK!"

Moby roared, realizing once again that it must have been part of the reason that Villanova had chosen this planet.

« AVILIA! QUEEN OF ALL DEMONS! AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF SEARCHING! I FOUND YOU! I REALLY FOUND YOU! HAHAHA! FINALLY! MY LIFE GOAL IS COMPLETE AT LAST! THIS IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE! TRULY TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!»

He spoke more in an incomprehensible tongue, immense purple energy exuding and exploding from his body completely purple, unlike anything he had ever witnessed before in his life, that despite his distance, when Moby activated his energy sense, his energy was thick and clear as day, completely engulfing his vision.

Earthquakes and the sound of the earth shaking was heard in the distance as he stomped his feet on the ground, looking straight in their direction as he prepared to dash towards them, even more energy in the air exuding from him than before...

The man in the distance was strong… Extremely strong beyond his wildest dreams… They were all dead… Dead if he came towards them and there would be nothing that he could do…

Nothing... Absolutely nothing...

Moby stared ahead of him, a cold chill running down his spine as he watched the personification of his demise readying himself to charge straight at him… 

Along with the fear he usually felt, he also now, for the first time in a very long time, felt another fear… Fear, unlike any fear he had previously felt… Fear for his own life, not stemming from the fear of losing a family member… The feeling of absolute power that he knew he could not topple no matter whatever trick he used...

There was no way to get out of it… His trump card was not ready to use, and even if he used it, he doubted that it would serve him much help against an opponent such as who he saw in front of him.

"Abby! Give me the teleporter now! Or we are all dead! Do it if you want to live! Do it if you still want your revenge on me!"

Moby yelled his heart out, Abby now being his final chance at saving all of them, only for her to respond with a wicked smile and a crazy chuckle, no care in the world as it seemed like she wanted to see the world burn, for some reason rather excited to see everything that had just happened… 

"Big brother… What's happening… What's wrong… I'm scared…" He heard a soft, gentle, female voice and a tug on his pants, turning around only to see Hikari, a mixture of horror and confusion on her face, her entire body shaking which staggered him even more than he already was.

*BAM* 

Suddenly, an ear-piercing sound was heard in the distance, which was followed up by a massive gust of cold wind, blowing in his direction, an ominous feeling warping around his heart as he turned around, only to see the figure of boundless death itself standing and breathing on top of him, his energy so close that he could barely breathe from the thin air, his already weak legs growing even weaker as he struggled to stay standing on his two feet and keep his face looking somewhat calm looking at his visage… 

Luckily, if he could even call it luck, the person in front of him was no demon, but a shalker instead… A shalker with the demon tongue which heavily confused Avilia, so many things appearing in her mind that she tried to make sense of...

Towering over him, standing at 8 feet tall, his bloody, crimson eyes fixated directly on him, 3 red lines going from under his eyes down to his neck, disappearing under his magnificent set of black and red armour that looked to both fit a barbarian and a monarch, the outlines of his armour clearly bulging out, wearing no helmet which showed his face to all and his decently long white hair. The horn on his head had some sort of weird energy flowing out of it with what seemed like scratches, a smile on his rough-looking face, a deep slash mark scar on his closed right eye, effectively blinding him from there, something that Moby found rather odd considering that healing abilities and technology were a thing.

At his arrival, everyone instinctively took a step back out of pure fear and instinct, their entire bodies quivering as they struggled to breathe in their shaky state, teeth clattering as they could all sense their impending doom. The only two people that managed to keep their ground were Moby and Hikari who was trembling and closing her eyes, hugging Moby by the leg even harder to the point that he thought it was going to explode, yet he endured it all and did not stop her from hugging what seemed like her only comfort.

Moby needed to stand his ground as their leader, show no weakness despite the critical state he was in to possibly put some calmness in everyone else… That was all he could do now as their leader despite how impossible and excruciating it felt to do it...

With an oppressing, dominant air, the man pointed directly at Moby and spoke.

« You… You have Avilia don't you? You think you could be the next demon lord? Lucky son of a bitch! I can guarantee that she did not choose you! You are quite pathetic! I'm surprised that you were even able to defeat Villanova! I guess she grew weak after assuming a human body! »

He laughed, almost like it was the best day in his life, no regard for his subordinate who had died to make this all possible.

« Who are you? Why are you here? What is your name? What do you want? And how do you know the demon tongue? » 

Moby spoke random gibberish that he could not understand, making everyone look at him in shock, Avilia translating the shalker's words into English and translating Moby's words into demon for him to speak back to him.

« Oh… a puny human wanna-be demon can actually talk in the demon tongue? Impressive… Or is it Avilia speaking? That doesn't matter… All that matters is that I've finally found you… I am Arksha the great! A former member of the council of 12, and I am going to be your new master…  That's all you need to know… Now… All you unneeded ants die… You are all worthless to me… All I need is Avilia...»

He spoke, forming a ball of unknown red energy from his hands, making them inwardly curse as it seemed to be another shalker that somehow possessed an ability. The energy itself was something that he did not recognize yet something that also felt oddly familiar, the entire ground shaking and eroding from its wake, dying the ground colour as his energy that seemed more than enough to take all of them out, a smile on his face like it was the best time of his life seeing tiny little insects' horrified faces of despair, the only thing that would have made it better to him was if they were crying and begging to be spared, yet that would be asking for too much considering his current mood, he might have died from pure satisfaction.

Moby gritted his teeth and inwardly gulped his saliva, sweat running down his face. He wondered if what he was feeling now was how all of his inferior opponents felt like when he came out on top… It made him actually imagine how it seemed like from their points of view, pure despair looking up knowing of their impending doom. 

He tightly held his hands into a fist and looked behind him at all of his family member's faces, a searing pain in his heart seeing their faces… Even Hikari who was still tightly hugging his leg. The only person that seemed completely amused out of the ordinary was Abby who bore a smile on her face which also added on to Moby's pain, before he turned around to see his opponent still charging his crackling ball of red energy with pleasure on his face.

He could not bear it anymore… He didn't want to see his friends dead… What was the point in all of this? Was it all for nothing?

There was only one thing that he could do… 1 possible way that he saw to save everyone… 

« STOP! » 

He yelled, his voice shaking the ground and causing ripples in the sky, making the shalker look at him, still amused, yet now with his eyebrows raised in slight confusion as he lessened the power of his ball of energy.

« Stop all of this! All you want is me right!? Just spare them! They don't have anything to do with this! Just take me! I will submit without any resistance if you spare them! »