Chapter 575: The Duke’s Might
Daniel scoffed coldly, "And so what if I have? What are you going to do about it?"
The Duke replied in a ruthless tone, "I will kill you, just like I should have done a long time ago."
His figure slowly floated higher until he stood at equal height with both his enemies. The duke briefly glanced at the demon who was oozing with overwhelming power. Allen’s gaze was wary.
He declared in a thunderous voice, "Daniel Nomrad, as you have joined hands with the enemy of humanity, in accordance with the imperial law, I shall execute you and the Demon Osiris immediately on the spot."
And right in that moment, the demon spoke up for the first time, his tone containing an unflinching certainty that could not be denied, "Allen Dusker, the ones who shall be executed on this day are only the members of the Dusker household."
"And unlike the Vex family head, you will not have the luxury of surviving," concluded Axel in a condescending tone.
Without waiting for the Duke’s response, he dashed forward at unbelievable speed; the demon hurled his right fist forward with all of his 10,000 stat points’ power imbued in it.
But the Duke remained calm and collected, gently forwarding his palm to grab the incoming fist and not attack back.
And....
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!
The sheer aerial shockwave that spread from the point of impact just from that physical punch caused everything within a mile to get knocked away far beyond.
However, in that clash, the Duke’s body did not even move a millimetre backwards, though his hand did move back slightly and tremble for a moment.
Axel frowned beneath his mask and looked at his bruised fist; he sighed to himself, ’As expected, even with all of this, it’s still not enough.’
Allen Dusker spoke aloud, his tone mocking, "Demon, you’re much weaker than I expected. But then again..."
"If you truly thought that I was similar to that trash of a runecaster named Mason Vex, you are sorely mistaken, Demon."
What Axel had been worrying about had indeed come true.
Then the Dusker powerhouse revealed with a cold smile, "Because excluding Simon Vanelis, Chancellor Helen and Alric Stragoy, I am the strongest 5th phase seeker."
The reason no one below the 5th phase can fight anyone at the 5th phase is that, until the peak of the 4th phase, one can only achieve a maximum of 5000 to 7000 stats across all categories on average.
For those below the 5th phase, the difference in major rank is only a difference of one to two thousand stats at most, but once a seeker crosses the threshold of the 5th phase, all their stats double.
Meaning, any 5th phase seeker would easily have about 10,000 to 15,000 in all stats, depending on where one is within the 5th phase.
And from what Axel could tell from that physical clash, the Duke’s stats should be around 13,000 to 14,000.
So, there was still a massive gap in his stats from the Duke’s stats, of course, but that’s only one part of the story.
Because there are hundreds of additional reasons that make a 5th-phase powerhouse untouchable by those below that threshold.
But in the face of that adversity, Axel did not feel any panic, nor did he smile as he normally would; there was an unsettling calm in his mind that had never existed before.
And that calmness was born from experiencing and absorbing all the worst of the worst experiences from all of humanity, from almost all walks of life.
That endless ocean of despair which now existed in his mind was so heavy, so dense in its density, so endless in its expanse, that his own mind had become anchored to it as a result. Thus, his mind could not be shaken, despite the expressions he tried to emulate.
In that moment, the silver-armoured Daniel did not stay still; he flapped the silver wings, and metal spikes shot out towards the duke. But the duke deflected that attack with a wave of his hands.
Daniel brought out a Rune sword and dashed forward to meet Allen in a direct close combat.
Axel did not immediately intervene; rather, he observed the duke’s power with cold, analytical eyes. The man was a mage branch specialist.
He was an Arcane Spellcaster.
What made Duke of Dusker especially dangerous was his invisible, untraceable form of psychic power that he developed with his own genius, which he could use in any free-flowing manner.
The Duke could use that invisible wavelength of power as a shield, a weapon, an arrow, a shock absorber, turning into the density of mercury.
Or use it as a weight or pressure on top of the enemies.
If Axel remembered it correctly, the correct term for it should be Psychic Construction.
It was similar to Sophia’s ability to materialise her All-Encompassing darkness through the Saint force, yet both were remarkably different due to differences in their energy properties.
Whosh!!!
An invisible arrow shot right past his cheeks, causing a small cut to form, something that Axel, even in his current form, could barely sense. He chuckled, and the minuscule cut healed swiftly.
With a swift mental command, his mutated Runic Eyes overlapped with his Black demonic eyes, and for the first time, his Runic eyes did not shimmer golden; rather, they synchronised with his current demonic form and manifested in a whitish hue.
And the moment his Runic eyes activated, he could finally see through the pattern of magic waves being used by the mighty duke overwhelming his father.
Axel instantly brought out a pitch-black sword in his hand along with two ring-shaped rune artefacts on the fingers of both his hands.
The Demon whispered, "Sin of Despair, Flames of Decay."
The black relic sword lit up with pitch-black flames, but the despair flames were different from before; now, apart from the blackness of the flames, there was a barely noticeable whitish glow within them, which seemed to amplify the blackness, like a paradoxical contradiction that highlighted each other in their opposition.
An overwhelming, threatening power oozed out from those black flames, and the Duke’s eyes instantly turned to Osiris; he had not been attacking either of the two with any of his big moves because, in all honesty, he was very much wary of the Demon.
So, he was rather inclined to see what powers the Demon would use and then, with that analysis in mind, he would try and swiftly end the demon. As for Daniel?
Allen was not taking him seriously, though the Nomrad patriarch now had the power of a 5th-phase being; in his eyes, Daniel did not truly understand how to use that might, and his combat prowess was also quite lacking.
WHOSH!!!
Axel performed a mighty downward horizontal slash; a 500-meter-long crescent arc of black flames shot out towards the Duke, who barely dodged it in the last moment, but a part of his foot was still caught in the fire by those black flames.
The trail of flames continued on its path until it hit the mountain range in the distance, shattering it right in the middle.
The earth quaked as a result of that; meanwhile, the Duke hurriedly put out the black flames with a lot of effort.
But the skin on his leg wherever that flame had touched it showed signs of obvious decay. It also seemed not to heal naturally on his powerful body as it was supposed to.
In that moment of slight distraction, Daniel smashed both his palms together, sending a concentrated shockwave that suddenly struck the Duke, and his figure shot backwards a few hundred meters.
At the same time, the Demon’s head immediately turned towards the Dusker mansion far below, which was being besieged by the forces he brought. But the barrier seemed exceptionally strong and could not be broken quickly enough.
Axel’s jaws opened wide in a monstrous pattern, and he let out a concentrated sundering roar at the strong barrier protecting the mansion below.
Graaaaaaaaargghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
The Duke screamed in fury, "DEMOOOOONNNN!!!!"
And that roar alone was enough to make the whole barrier crumble as if it were made of thin glass.
Axel’s Demonic Thralls, the forces of the Nomrad family, and the assassins rained hell upon Dusker mansion, which was now open to attack; of course, a Ducal family naturally had its own immense reservoir of powerhouses, as another brutal wave of battle began.
One party defending to protect and preserve, while the other attacking to destroy and kill.
For the first time since the battle, the Duke felt a sudden sense of urgency and anger towards his two adversaries; just as he was about to use his Psychic Construction to materialise the barrier once more, Daniel shot out hundreds of piercing metal spikes from the silver wings of his rune armour.
And this time, they were not just mere powerful shooting projectiles; rather, once each of the metal spikes neared a certain distance from the Duke, they lit up in various runic patterns and a chaotic sonic wave spread out. It was a bizarre and insidious frequency that could even harm the minds of powerful 5th phase existences.