The World Is Mine For The Taking

"Raaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!"

Satania let out a furious roar as she dashed straight toward me without the slightest bit of hesitation, her expression twisted with rage and her eyes locked entirely on me.

Her speed was unbelievable, but I still managed to react in time and raised both of my blades, blocking her attack just before it could connect with my body.

She immediately followed that attack with another, throwing punch after punch without giving me even a second to breathe. Every blow that crashed against my blades carried enough force to make my entire body tremble, and for a brief moment, it honestly felt like I was about to be blown apart from the sheer impact alone. Getting hit by her directly was definitely not something I wanted to experience.

Asmodeus, who had apparently recovered from the kick I landed on her earlier, didn’t waste any time before jumping right back into the fight alongside Satania.

I pulled Samui back to my body, then reached forward with my free hand and grabbed Asmodeus tightly by the neck.

"Ack!"

The instant Satania saw that happen, she immediately treated it as an opening and rushed in with even greater determination.

Unfortunately for her, that wasn’t an opening at all.

With Beelzebub, the one who had been giving me the biggest headache out of everyone here, already heavily injured and unable to interfere for the time being, I finally had enough room to breathe and enough time to properly think several steps ahead instead of constantly reacting to everything being thrown at me.

Because of that, the moment Satania charged in to capitalize on what she believed was my mistake, I immediately stepped farther away from her, all while keeping my grip firmly wrapped around Asmodeus’ neck.

I slowly tightened my hold just enough to cut off her breathing and force her to lose consciousness, making absolutely sure that I wouldn’t accidentally kill her in the process.

She immediately began struggling with everything she had, desperately clawing at my arm while kicking wildly in an attempt to free herself. After several long moments of resistance, her movements gradually weakened, and before long, her fingers finally loosened around the handle of her broadsword until it slipped completely out of her grasp and clattered onto the ground.

While all of that was happening right in front of her, Satania finally realized what I was actually trying to accomplish.

Her eyes widened noticeably from the realization.

Pure anger immediately replaced that brief moment of surprise.

Without wasting another second, she threw herself at me once more. Compared to earlier, though, I wasn’t nearly as cornered as I had been while fighting four of them simultaneously. One of them was restrained, another was temporarily out of commission, and that gave me more than enough room to avoid her attacks without forcing myself into a desperate situation again.

"LILITH!!!!"

She screamed Lilith’s name once again with enough force to shake the battlefield around us.

"Like I’ve already told you, I’m not Lilith, and I never will be," I answered firmly while refusing to look away from her.

At the same time, I continued tightening my grip around Asmodeus’ neck without showing the slightest hesitation.

Her eyes slowly began rolling toward the back of her head as consciousness started slipping away from her. Saliva trickled from the corner of her mouth before dripping onto the ground beneath her, making it painfully obvious how close she was to blacking out completely.

"S-She’s going to... she’s going to die!"

Belphegor, who had spent the entire fight focusing on strengthening Satania, finally realized what was happening before her eyes.

She quickly looked over at Beelzebub, only to find her still lying motionless on the ground after taking my earlier attack. Then she turned back toward Satania and realized that, even with all of the support she was giving her, Satania still wasn’t fast enough to catch me anymore.

"She’s going to die, Satania!" Belphegor shouted again, and this time the panic in her voice was impossible to miss.

She wasn’t exaggerating about the situation.

Asmodeus had already reached the point where she was dangerously close to dying right in front of them.

Her windpipe was being compressed by my grip, making it almost impossible for her to breathe properly, and every second that passed only pushed her closer to losing consciousness for good.

That was the exact moment Belphegor made the biggest mistake she could have made during this fight.

She abandoned Satania without thinking twice.

That tiny opening was all I needed to completely shift the momentum of the battle.

I released my grip on Asmodeus before letting her collapse heavily onto the ground beneath us.

She immediately sucked in a massive breath of air as soon as she was free, desperately trying to fill her lungs again after nearly suffocating. Even so, she couldn’t recover right away. She continued gasping over and over, her body visibly weakened as she remained sprawled across the ground, barely conscious and unable to properly stand.

At the exact same time, I dashed straight toward Belphegor, who genuinely believed that leaving Satania’s side would be enough to save Asmodeus.

I swung the back of Ayuru directly into the nape of her neck with enough force to completely stop her from moving.

The impact alone was more than enough to leave her completely immobilized where she stood.

After dealing with her, I slowly shifted my attention back toward Satania once again.

She continued glaring at me with nothing but pure fury burning inside her eyes.

Even after watching everything fall apart around her, she still couldn’t seem to accept that she was actually about to lose this battle. That stubborn confidence of hers was honestly impressive, even if it was becoming a little ridiculous at this point.

"You are going to pay for this..." she growled through clenched teeth, her voice filled with hatred.

Just as those words left her mouth, something suddenly sprang up directly in front of me without any warning at all.

It was another copy of Beelzebub that had been hiding beneath the ground this entire time, patiently waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack me.

The creature was nothing more than a mass of slime covered in razor-sharp spikes that would’ve skewered me on the spot if I hadn’t noticed it beforehand.

Luckily for me, I already knew something had been hidden there from the very beginning.

Using both Samui and Ayuru together, I immediately cut through the creature without giving it any chance to react.

I continued slashing it apart again and again until literally nothing remained of it anymore.

That finally seemed to be the last straw for Beelzebub herself.

The moment I destroyed her final hidden copy, she collapsed face-first onto the ground and didn’t get back up again.

"Looks like it’s just you and me now," I said while staring directly into Satania’s eyes.

What had originally started as one against six slowly became two against six after Lucielle joined me in the fight.

Eventually, that overwhelming disadvantage turned into two against three as we steadily wore them down.

With Lucielle keeping the remaining two occupied without letting them interfere, the battle had finally become a true one-on-one between Satania and me.

Neither of us looked away from the other for even a single second as the tension between us continued to rise.

Almost at the exact same moment, we both dashed toward each other once again, determined to settle everything with this final exchange.

This time, the outcome was much easier to see than before, and neither of us needed long to realize it.

I crossed both Ayuru and Samui across her side in one clean, decisive motion before following through with the attack.

The twin slashes landed perfectly across her body, forcing her entire posture to collapse from the damage.

Satania staggered several steps before finally dropping onto one knee, immediately pressing one hand against the wound in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding while struggling to steady her breathing.

I slowly raised Ayuru before pointing its tip directly at her chest without showing the slightest trace of sympathy.

"You lost," I said quietly while looking down at her with as much coldness as I could possibly show.