Chapter 67.2 - Tower of God: Demon God Arena

Xiu took out Old John and everyone began to look around. This arena should be the tower’s first trial. Du Ze stared at a pattern on the ground. It looked like an artistic design of some sort, but it was actually language-based because he could read it. It simply meant “72.”

Alice was also staring at the ground and she looked as though she had remembered something. She looked up; in the dim light of the torches, she could see that above them was a circular shape of roughly the same size as the arena.

“I think I know where we are…”

Everyone looked at her. Alice tugged in Violet’s clothes, revealing a shy smile.

“I read in some ancient books that the demon race once had a very famous architectural complex. It was called the Demon God Arena.”

When Alice said the name of the place, the flames on all the torches flared up. A demon holding a large serpent appeared. His face was cold and his eyes seemed empty. When he saw Du Ze and the others, he attacked without saying a word.

Xiu’s reaction was the fastest, he quickly drew his sword and cut the demon in half at the waist together with the snake. Du Ze thought that the battle ended as quickly as it had started. The defeated demon turned into ash and was blown away by the wind. A rune formed in the air that transformed into a magical teleportation array leading to the top. They all looked at this, puzzled.

Xiu shook off the blood on his sword and looked at Alice. “Go on.”

Alice composed herself then pointed to the top of the teleportation array: “If I am right, this is the same arena. In the first era, the demons built this place for strength rankings. There was only one at first, but once Bael showed his strength no one dared to challenge him. So the demons built the second arena under the first one but it was soon occupied by Agares… In the end the demons built 72 arenas. According to legend, the 72 demon gods are ranked in the same order as these arenas. Later on, the arenas were collectively known as the Demon God Arena.”

Du Ze looked up at the teleportation array and saw that it really does lead to another circular arena.

Alice nodded at the pattern on the floor, explaining: “This is ‘72’ in the ancient demon language, which means that this arena is guarded by the 72nd demon god – just now that man who appeared must have been the demon god Andromalius.”

“He was very weak,” said Xiu. He was a demon god but was only on the level of a Sword Master.

“This … I don’t know,” Alice replied with some uneasiness.

The demon god Andromalius fell early on during the second era. The demon with the snake looked sluggish, like a puppet. He was clearly a virtual shadow of the real demon god made by the tower. Xiu looked at the teleportation formation and asked Alice: “Who is up there?”

“If this is the magic arena, it should be the 71st demon god Dantalion.”

Du ze almost coughed up blood. They just met Dan outside the tower but now they must “meet” him again. Some silly, cute person was impatient to see “demon god Dantalion.” Xiu was aware of Du Ze’s excitement. The corners of his mouth curved up as he pulled Du Ze towards the teleportation array.

“Let’s go.”

The teleportation array sent Du Ze and the others to the next location. They arrived at an arena that was built in the same style. Opposite them was a demon god holding a book. “Dan” stood there blankly.

The moment everyone had been teleported in, “Dan” launched an attack at them. Even though his name was called, “Dan” didn’t seem to hear and just continued to attack mechanically. Like the previous arena, the “Dan” here was just a shadow of the real demon god, with no intelligence and low strength. Even the demon sisters can stop him. This was the first time that Du Ze saw Dan’s real demon form. Compared with the green-clothed businessman, the armor-wearing version was really a bit more majestic in appearance.

Violet and Alice are fire and water attribute demons at the Sword Master level, but when they fought together their strength became far higher than a Grand Sword Master. Their joint attacks were so fast that Du Ze could hardly follow their moves. “Dan” was completely overwhelmed with no chance of fighting back. Du Ze had to admit that even though he knew it wasn’t that bas***d Dan, it was so cool to see the sisters beating him like that.

It’s really hilarious.

Because it was not a real person, “Dantalion” was easily defeated and transformed into a rune. The situation is now clear; the Tower of God must want them to move up step by step. Du Ze thought that this was the Tower of God making up for the fact that Xiu had skipped over the 72 demon cities story arc in the novel. Therefore the tower deliberately placed the 72 demon gods to let the Moe Lord have fun.

The next two demon gods were also easily defeated; there was no problem until they came to the 68th arena. In front of them appeared the beautiful demon god with two bodies – Belial. In order to save them from the god of light, the demon god chose to sacrifice herself. The two demon sisters looked across them at the beautiful demon god who was driving her chariot of fire and their voices trembled as they said: “Lord Belial.”

Compared to the other demon gods they had fought, it wasn’t only emotionally difficult to fight her but her strength was also different. Xiu can feel that Belial and the shadows of the other demons gods were completely different, probably because Belial’s body had been absorbed by “the rules.” Right in front of them was a true demon god.

“Alice, Violet?” Unexpectedly, Belial spoke and did not immediately attack like the previous demon gods. Belial looked at them calmly and smiled when she saw the demon sisters. “You are here, too.”

The demon sisters were so moved that their tears started falling. Xiu relaxed his grip on his sword. Belial is clearly intelligent, perhaps they can negotiate.

“I don’t want to fight you.” Xiu said: “Can you let us pass?”

“Unfortunately, there is no way to enter the next arena except to kill me.” Belial took out her weapon. “That’s the rule.”

When Belial drew her sword, the atmosphere tensed up. The demon sisters looked at Xiu then at Belial, their expressions filled with helplessness. Belial turned from Xiu and looked at the demon sisters; her eyes were very gentle.

“So we must obey it.”

Belial plunged her sword into her own heart without hesitation. Violet and Alice’s eyes widened and they burst into tears. They cried out but couldn’t fully express the grief in their hearts.

“… Lord … Belial…”

Belial’s body was turning into ashes, feet first. She looked at the crying sisters and whispered comfortingly: “Don’t be sad, this is not death – I am here, caught between life and death.”

Her body was almost completely grey when she spoke of a curse that was like a fairytale.

“I’ll appear again when another person shows up here.”

All of them stared in silence as the beautiful demon god turned to ashes then turned into a rune that transformed into a teleportation array leading up to the next level. Du Ze felt the cruelty of “the rules” for the first time. The mindless shadow clones are alright but the ones that have consciousness like Belial are imprisoned in this tower almost for eternity, killing or being killed by the people climbing the tower, endlessly reincarnated.

Du Ze suddenly felt very dejected. The Tower of God was built using the corpses of the dead gods. Therefore, when they reached the top of the Demon God Arena, the BOSS they will meet will surely be…

Demon God Bael.