Chapter 26: Deadlock

-Astral Mibran-

-Week 5, Day 31/Tuesday, 72nd Demon Palace Of The End-

-Time: 12:55 A.M.-

"Even still, nothing brings me more joy than to witness your pain." A hand from the darkness stabbed Nivril's chest and sent a wave of pain through him as a wide vicious smile and glowing red eyes also emerged from it.

From within the shadows emerged a tall figure at around 3 meters(9'10 feet), his skin red from his shoulders to his wrists and white for the rest, of his muscular frame. Whitish blue long hair that went along his back, red eyes, and a serrated grin. Two horns going from his eyebrows to way beyond his head. Finally, black symbols all throughout his body and from his back wing like metal plates sprouted out.

Around him floated a red liquid moving around like a sort of snake. He wore pitch-black pants.

(Image Here)

Looking at this creature Nivril grabbed its arm and pushed himself out of its black sharp claw-like fingers.

Landing with his feet on the ground, he did his best to stop himself from falling despite the 5 holes in his chest and took a fighting stance, ready to go at it.

(I don't understand this place, there is no running away, in that case, I'm not one to die without fighting.) Nivril concluded as he looked at the creature before him ready.

"Would you look at that? It seems some things don't change. You want to fight me after I effortlessly stabbed through you with my bare fingers? Hahahaha, it's you, without a doubt." The creature replied very clearly amused by Nivril's reaction.

"You never introduced yourself." He pointed out as he looked at the being.

"Come on, I was your worst enemy for the better part of thousands of years… Then again, I'm not one to refuse to talk about something that matters.

"I'm Lorus Might Demonicuos, The 72nd Demon Lord Of Mibran, Last Descendant Of Solomon and the Chaos of Ages. Were it not for your incessant meddling, I would long since have ascended from my mortal state, instead here I am having to wait before I can be resurrected again!" Lorus introduced himself with a wide and sharp smile reminiscent of that of a shark.

"That's all fine and dandy, but why am I here… no more importantly, how did you bring me here?" Nivril did not let his guard down as he asked.

"It's almost funny how you just ask me, but telling you makes no difference. So, why not? During our last fight, I managed to link our souls to before I died.

"It's a pretty simple thing, now I can just eat your soul and take your body for myself rather than wait another millennium for a resurrection. The only problem was the possibility of you never entering the Astral world, but I guess that fear was unfounded as you did, and so soon too.

"The best is you did so, weaker than ever, I didn't expect someone as powerful as you to have such a lacking soul, truly disappointing, I hoped for a rematch, but I'll be satisfied with a one-sided massacre, I guess our roles got inverted from what they were in the physical world." Lorus circled around Nivril smiling as he did.

"So that's it? You want to take over my body after you kill me? Honestly, I don't recommend that right now, I mean you are free to try and take the body for yourself if you really want it that bad." Nivril was amused by the idea considering the state his body found itself in at the moment.

"What?!… You can not fool me with false resignation, I'm sure you plan to use something to seal or destroy me once and for all. I am well awere of your games." At first, Lorus was shocked but immediately it turned to anger as he remembered who he was dealing with.

"It's not a game or anything. I just legitimately don't think you'll be able to handle my body as it stands right now." Nivril continued speaking honestly.

"Hmph! Pleasantries! You believe I could not handle a state you are able to deal with?! You might have defeated me in combat, but your will is far from reaching mine!" Lorus was offended by the notion that he would crumble under pressure his nemesis could take.

"Then by all means go, I invite you to take over my body. You won't even last 30 seconds and I'm being generous." Nivril added more fuel to the fire.

At that time, Lorus attacked him and began punching the Lust Ruler Candidate into a plump, beating his Astral form being recognition, each punch breaking the environment around them until a gigantic crater was present below them.

"Now, I'm ready. I had to make sure you didn't have enough energy to pull any sneaky ones on me, plus it's very fun to make you suffer." Lorus lifted the beat-up Nivril by a finger through his stomach as he talked to him.

"Hahahaha…" Nivril laughed.

(Man, this prick… I can't bear him at all in my current state, I can't even see him move, and he's way too strong... If he wanted he could kill me at any moment, I'm sure of it.) Despite the pain from the beating, it was nothing he couldn't handle a million times over, what mattered was getting rid of this demon.

"Now let us move to your body… you're in a whole other universe… So, that's where you went, interesting." Lorus focused on Nivril and then spoke, as the scenery around them changed just like when he was pulled here by the strange force, at first they moved slowly, and he could see the world around them, but soon the speed was such that they blinked back into his bathroom.

"Hey… how does this whole pulling force work?" Nivril asked curious.

"You really know nothing about souls. If I knew that I could have easily beaten you before… What a waste." Lorus threw him to the side and walked into the body that was just there, sitting in the middle of the bathroom.

Just like that, Nivril's body got up, and Lorus had successfully taken over.

"How weak…. This is the body you're using now? So pitiful, I almost can't believe you're the same human who killed me and all my brethren alone. I used to respect you, but now I don't know about that. Also, is this body poisoned? Is this the pain I couldn't handle? Please this isn't… Eeeerghhh!" Lorus was moving the body without any problems and even began thinking he won before he vomited a mouth full of blood and fell to his knees as the pain overtook him.

"You were saying?" Nivril who was still in Astral form walked to him and asked.

"*Cough!* *Cough!*… What did you do to this body?! Are you a lunatic?!?! Why would you use such a thing?!?!" Lorus was furious as he fell to the ground completely coughing up blood as the body was slowly dying on him.

"The body is too weak for you to do anything, I'm sure you can't even escape by taking soul form in that state, what a pity. I didn't even need to have you unlock my energy cultivation so that you could feel the poison in full potency. You're weaker than I expected." Nivril talked calmly as he walked his body in such a pitiful state.

"That's no problem, I can still escape once this body dies just like I did with mine! You'll be done once I escape! This was the last straw, I'll kill you the moment this body dies! Hahahaha!" Lorus proclaimed assured that in the end, he would triumph over his nemesis.

"That's..." Nivril hadn't counted on that, since he was not proficient in any of these soul-related affairs yet.

(What now? This was my last bet… I can't actually let my body die, but I don't have anything to leverage over him anymore... Damn it!) He found himself in a corner, but what now?

"Who exactly is this demon? And why is he in your body? I told you to deal with him, not let him into your body, but I guess the other one can deal with this one." Ishmaya said as she looked down at what was happening.

"… That's Lorus and he's an enemy of the past, who apparently marked my soul so he could eventually take over my body." Nivril was confused by her words but still answered.

"I see, so that's why he's connected to your soul, that old man won't like that. Oh well, he's a nobody so it doesn't matter." Ishmaya commented upon hearing his response.

"Old man? The original Lust Ruler?" Nivril questioned as nothing else came to him.

"No, as a Lust Ruler Candidate possession is something that could easily jeopardize the whole process, so a measure against it was put in place. That horny b*tch's ancestor's soul resides in you. I thought he was the one calling you, not this nobody." Ishmaya explained.

"Who are you calling a nobody?! I'm the descendant of Solomon! Known as the Chaos Of Ages! A mere fairy dares to call me a nobody! I have eaten hundreds of your kin by the time I was an infant!

"You have no right to c-… What's going on? No! No! N-… I'll be back, and when that happens, I swear I'll destroy your life before I kill you!" Lorus swore as his voice weakened until it disappeared and the body was rendered unmoving again.

(Solomon? That dangerous guy has descendants in this low-tier plane, it can't be that one, right?… No, it can't be.) Ishmaya was surprised but soon brushed it off.

"So… he's gone?" Nivril asked.

"I don't know, enter the body and find out yourself, the old man is probably waiting for you. He's not very patient." Ishmaya replied.

Nodding his head, he walked to the body and entered it once more.

_________________________________________

-Inner Soul Space-

Instead of being in charge of his body once more, Nivril was pulled deeper, much deeper to a whole new place, one that was the most familiar yet he had never truly been to.

In a grassy mountain sight, there he stood, right in front of the top, where a cherry tree could be found, and below it a human-sized green bubble with the word seal written on it, as well as a humanoid-looking figure with a tail sitting there observing the horizon.

(So, this is the place... How odd.) Nivril thought as he looked around to see the various other mountains in the surroundings plagued by fog and seeming to never end.

Walking up to the tree the light wind hit his face and the fragrance of clean mountain air gave him a bit of strength as he made his way.

Soon, he reached the tree and could see that inside the bubble was a man with dark skin, long white hair, two sets of black wings, and cladded in black armor except for his face.

(Image Here)

"You bastard! You dare come here after you tricked me again! Mark my words, I'll rip out the spine of those you love and force-feed them to you before I kill you too!" The man made threats the moment he saw Nivril even trying to break through the bubble but nothing happened.

However, he did not stop and punched the bubble causing the punch to reflect back in his own face.

(Is this Lorus?) Nivril questioned.

"Do I know you?" Nivril despite having an idea of who it is, had no intention of recognizing him.

"Don't pull this stunt again! You are very well aware of who I am!" With nosebleeding from his own punch, the man complanied to him.

(Yup, it's Lorus.) Nivril smiled and ignored him, walking towards the one under the tree.

"Get back here! I'm not done with you! This is far from over, as the last descent of Solomon, I will not end here! You hear me!" Lorus continued to yell but it fell on deaf ears.

Sitting there, was a young-looking man with white hair, golden eyes, and pale skin. All over his body including his tail thick white fur could be found and various infect-like claw legs all over as well. That however did not take away from his humanoid figure and lean muscle toned body physique, like a Greek God perfectly sculpted and optimized.

(Image Here)

Getting there, Nivril could see that the mountains beyond were not just mountains but these seemingly never-ending monuments of nature were in fact not that, instead piles of treasure, from gold, silver, artifacts, art, and other rare and mysterious things, for as far as the eyes can see and way beyond that.

"You're late, kid." He said as soon as Nivril was close enough, still looking at the mountain sight beyond.

"I didn't know I had a meeting scheduled with you." Nivril stopped and stood there behind him as he replied.

"Even so, it's still rude. Do you even know who I am?" He asked but there was no arrogance or anger in his words, but rather curiosity.

"Not really, I'm typically kept in the dark about system or Lust Ruler-related stuff." Nivril replied.

"It's fair, there are things you would be able to do nothing about even if you knew, so why tell you?" He inquired.

"So that I can work towards becoming someone who can do something about it." Nivril answered.

"Alas, you kids always want to grow up too fast. It would do you good to let the ones who can deal with the matter, but I can see that's not your style. Quite selfish of You, I like it, it sort of reminds me of Darkios, that prick." He nodded his head and slightly smiled.

"You don't seem mad to be here, did you make some deal with him?" Nivril asked.

"No, he imprisoned me with a seal, I'm forced to do this, but something like that is a problem of the past, what concerns you right now is a simple question. Why should I, Lezo Mononutit, The Sovereign Of Hourding, not kill you right now?" As he spoke, he stood up and turned around smiling brightly as he asked the sunlight glistening on his body as he did.

However, those words were not empty as Nivril was overcome and paralyzed by a towering pressure that existed way too far beyond the current him to even describe in mere words. Whatever he said next without a doubt would define whether he lives or dies.

(Again? Why does everyone want to kill me?! Damn it, Darkios you bastard, how could you allow this guy to move freely when he hates you this much?!) Nivril was sweating bullets as the situation seemed to reach a dire and critical point.

What now?