The Regent tried to dive into Sora’s mind to see what was going on / read his upcoming attack but was forcefully kicked out. The Regent looked astonished; that wasn't defending the mind move but a proper expulsion.

‘For a weakling to possess enough power to throw me out?’ The Regent thought as he examined Sora. However, this was enough for the Regent to conclude that Sora was still in his senses; he was simply howling mad in anger and pain.

Sorachan began charging towards the Regent like a mad man. The attack was straightforward and easy to avoid. There were too many lapses in Sora’s defences.

The Regent took notice and ruthlessly took advantage.

He hit several of Sora’s vital parts….that is vital parts for a human being.

Sora felt nothing being a slime lacking a nervous system and resumed his charge.

“Tch!” The Regent exclaimed. He kept forgetting Sora was not human. He resembled one and his battle instincts were trained to kill humans….It was unnatural for the Black Butler to be forgetful; he wondered if there was some other influence at play. It could be an outside influence; a likely possibility since the Black Butler was the embodiment of perfection itself.

The Regent changed tactics rather than aiming for pin pointed accuracy he now aimed at splash damage. Since Sora had no specific vital point it was important to break him into tinier parts and do splash damage.

The Regent succeeded in splattering Sora across the street. However, he knew this was not the end. He felt no weight when he punched Sora. It was likely Sora had reduced the damage by jumping backwards….if it was an intentional move the Regent felt Sora was an interesting martial artist. No many martial artists were capable of pretending to take damage. It isn’t a recommended skill to be learnt since there are better ways to defend against the attack. However, to defend like this meant the user had utmost confidence in his skill….what intrigued the Regent was that Sora performed the move unconsciously.

Either ways, the Regent was interested in Sora, however, he did not have the time to deal with Sora. It was likely the explosion had attracted the attention of the Red Cardinal and the Erito forces. The Erito forces wouldn’t be a problem but the Cardinal would be a bother. The relationship between the Cardinals and the Regent was a complex one. It could not be explained by merely master and servant relationship. The world of the Devils was governed by power struggle. The stronger person merely towered over his peers; they owed no loyalty to the stronger one rather they all plotted the stronger individuals downfall sometimes individually and sometimes collectively.

They owed only allegiance to the Emperor of the Old. No one knew why they obeyed him but they just did. It was one of the mysteries that the Alliance was working hard to unfold; for it could be the key that would lead to the fall of the Empire.

Sora began gather his slime as he resumed a humanoid form. The Regent sighed. He could punch but the damage would be minimalistic. From a single punch the Regent could grasp the essence of what Sora was capable of; he was like a jelly completely immune to half-hearted punches. In fact, Sora chose to intentionally break himself into splattered jelly unlike his fight with the Cardinal where he chose to maintain humanoid form and receive damage for the same. The Regent realized he could splatter as much jelly as he wanted on the streets but it would accomplish nothing. He needed to completely destroy Sora. The Regent was completely capable of doing that.

Sora was not an enemy that could beat the Regent. Especially, the current Sora who kept blindly charging at the Regent as though he had no mind of his own….like a zombie? The Regent needed no more than a single punch. He waited patiently for Sora to gather himself. He would kill him in one blow. Why did the Black Butler change his mind? Initially, he planned to let Sora go so why kill him now?

It was nothing more than a matter of honour and pride. Whilst Sora cowered under his feet and power, the Regent didn’t care. However, by directing his killing intent at the Regent and attempting to injure him was something the Regent could not accept.

Does an ant dare challenge God? Kind of a moment for the Regent; his egotistical nature deemed Sora no more than a fly that needed to be killed lest his honour be shamed. Similar to the Victorian era’s sense of honour; slap someone with a glove and it turns into a death duel.

The Regent raised his eyebrows; as Sora gathered himself….he looked larger than before. Since when was the adventurer over two meters in height? It wasn’t something that surprised the Regent.

A slime had the ability to compact itself; all that Sora did was probably expand that compactness. Sora had been gathering rain water since it began raining; it was also the reason why the Cardinal could feel the marginal difference in Sora’s weight. Sora had been consciously gathering water and converting it to slime and compacting the slime to strengthen his body.

From a thick wall Sora was now more like paper thin; in ninety nine of hundred fights this would be considered a bad move however in this particular fight, it wasn’t.

“Tch…” The Regent was not happy. Intentionally or not, Sora had reduced the possibility of a one hit KO by expanding himself to the limit. Originally the plan was to hit Sora and have him vaporize….now only a part of Sora would vaporize….the move wasn’t going to be as effective as planned.

Furthermore, given the other limitations (explained below), the Regent could only use this move once.

If the Regent met Sora on any other day, the fight would have favoured the Regent. However, The Regent used two of his crucial moves earlier. He had already used limit break and was now reeling under its penalties. He also accessed the ‘Gate System’ and was no longer able to access it for another whole day. So instantaneous revival was no longer possible. To sum up, the Regent was no longer the scary Devil he used to be; at least he wasn’t infinitely times stronger than Sora. He was strong beyond measure but not as strong as he used to be. Even the blood lust he released didn't seem to affect Sora....

Now the question is begged to be asked.

Why didn’t Devil-san use fire magic?

If Sora, at the moment, could think for himself he would have realized that the Devil was incapable of using magic. Not once did the Devil use magical abilities. He could manipulate a bit of his internal mana to influence the external like the time he reverted Sora’s humanoid form back into a blob of slime at their first encounter but he could no longer even do that since his mana manipulation had been blocked under the penalty system.

This was another reason why the Regent wanted to avoid the Cardinal. Right now, the Regent was at his weakest; it would be impossible for Sora to kill him but the Cardinal wouldn’t miss an opportunity like this.

The Regent clicked his tongue. There were other people now within the range of his presence; they were the Erito forces….it was only a matter of time before the Cardinal made his appearance.

The Regent looked at Sora disdainfully. This was the first time the Devil had to retreat….although Sora was not responsible for it…but Sora was the Master of the Guardian; Maylon who severely injured him.

The Regent faced a question which everyone faced when they fought Sora….did they underestimate the person who stood in front of him?

The Regent wanted to denounce the very idea that Sora may have planned everything till this moment….but everything played out to such perfection….it was an unrealistically good situation for Sora. There was also someone hiding in the shadows waiting to move in at the right time…the Regent had high sensory perception but the hidden person was better. At best, the Regent could only sense the person was hiding …. In Sora? It made no sense. The adventurer in front of him was nothing more than a mere slime. The presence quickly disappeared and reappeared in the sky.

The Regent frowned. This was a high level ability; instant presence transfer - for Sora to possess abilities that far surpassed his own was not a good sign.

The Regent concluded this was a trap; from the very start he had been fooled into believing Sora was a weakling and so were his Guardians….especially that girl and boy. While the girl turned out to be a hidden Gold class Aura user, the child turned out to be one of the Garzal Tribe; a griffin. One forced him to access the Gate System and the other shut it down. A deadly combination. Finally there was Sora….on the surface he appears to be weak but very very resilient. If the Regent were drawn into his pace, he was certain he would die not by Sora’s hands but the Cardinals. All too well planned.

The Regent vowed to learn more about this new enemy before avenging his broken pride.

“Sora. You are truly entertaining, I take back my words. You are indeed a worthy enemy.” The Regent said that much before disappearing into a puff of black smoke.

The Sora he spoke to was nothing more than a made slime that was wiggling around like crazy and destroying houses and buildings….anything and everything in the vicinity.

***

[Captain!]

[Speak Ramona!]

[I received word of an explosion in the inner city....and...reports of an odd squiggly, block of rampaging tofu....I think the residents mean slime...]

Vanessa who was in the midst of her search for the adventurer changed directions.

She just received news that a slime towering four meters (and growing) had destroyed 5% of Feladonia.

First an immortal adventurer and now a four meter high raging slime. This day sucks.