Chapter 8

“Moving on to the next match folks! Although I’m not sure if we’re gonna be able to top what we’ve just witnessed. Making his way to the battlefield we have the current head of the Astaroth House, Septhis Astaroth!”

The baldy was looking pretty frightening as he made his way to the centre of the battlefield, some of the women that were behind even winced. I don’t think he expected Cassius to lose to Shiro, I don’t think he had anymore vassals with him either, so he was on his own from here on.

“And introducing the participant from the Seir House, who, I can confirm with 110% certainty and without a shadow of a doubt, cross my heart and hope to die, so help me Lucifer, is NOT in a relationship with anyone, with particular reference to MYSELF! Ladies and gentleman, the rising star of Hell’s eastern provinces, everyone’s new favourite, from rags to riches, cinderella success story...Nero!”

“D-damn it Sitri! That time was on purpose!”

I waved my fist at Sitri who responded with embodying the word “Hmph” by folding her arms and looking the other way. She proceeded to march off the centre of the battlefield and leave me with the scary looking baldy. The second Sitri left, the entire arena became covered in a thick dense fog. Wait, this was exactly like...

Without the match barely starting I felt something sharp slash through the left side of my body, going by the shape and depth of the mark it left it was definitely a dagger. I had no idea where it had come from, the fog was too thick, I had no protection other than my normal clothing too, this wasn’t good.

A few seconds passed and the area that I had been cut started to go purple, the dagger was poisonous...It only made sense, a coward who hides in this thick fog, would without a doubt use poisoned weapons.

It was him, he had the ogre brothers target Mei-Lien and Sitri, I’d bet that the women that were with him were the ones that were ensnared in his trap. Seir said that the Astaroth House had used questionable measures to rise to power, maybe the women that were with him were ladies of lesser known houses, that were taken by the Astaroth House as a means to blackmail their families, or were just the spoils of war...

“Hey Baldy! I know who you are! You’re the creep that was behind those two ogre brothers.”

I detected another incoming dagger slash and narrowly avoided it, it took part of my shirt with it though, how fast was this guy...

“Kekekekekekeke, pathetic commoner! You were the one that stopped me from entrapping that Paimon Princess and that annoying MC. I was so close to seeing her innocent face drowning in tears, as I took my time and licked her raw, I could have finally shut that loud mouthed MC up too! I had initially planned to keep up the straight faced charade, until I was able to blackmail and pillage my way to the top, but both you and that wench that took out my little brother, have pissed me the fuck off!”

The fog became more dense and it felt like his voice was coming from all angles, what kind of familiar or power did this arsehole have.

“You’ve just admitted to everything asshole!”

“Kekekeke, nothing escapes my fog, the only ones that can hear and see us now are you and me, so since you will be dying here, I have nothing to worry about. When I slice you into many pieces, I will clear the fog and everyone on the outside will be non the wiser to what happened here. Then I will do the same to your lord and the wench so…”

“No one can see or hear us in here? Including the cameras right?”

“Kekekekekekeke, you have a lot more to worry about than how you look on camera after I…”

“Ahahahahaha, hey old man, how about it, wanna let loose a little?”

“Wahahahahahahahahaha, I was wondering when you were gonna ask foolish boy.”

I evoked Bahamut’s power like Cassius did with his familiar earlier today, the instant I did, the poison that was in my body disappeared without a trace. There was no way something as weak as that could continue to exist in a body that had now evoked Bahamut’s power, however the wound left by the dagger was still there.

When I evoke Bahamut’s power I can materialise and use parts of his body as my own. The baldy’s dagger just aimed for the same gash it made earlier, Instead of attempting to dodge it, I used some of the old dragon’s talons to intercept it, the dagger bounced of and deformed after colliding with the old man’s talons.

“W-what are you! What kind of familiar do you have? This dagger is made from 100% Tungsten, it’s the metal with the most tensile strength on earth!”

“Wahahahahahaha, foolish upstart, it is nothing compared to my talons!”

Even though I couldn’t see the baldy, I could sense that he was beginning to lose his nerve, no doubt the bloodlust I was releasing now was something he had never come across before, the fog was in fact becoming thicker and more dense.

He switched strategies to using throwing knives that were probably laced with the same poison. With Bahamut’s power invoked, they were coming at me as if they were in slow motion, so it didn’t take much for me to avoid them or swat them away. Just then I felt a huge claw shaped arm coming at me from above, I dashed back and avoided the paw of a lion from slashing my face. I thought I escaped but felt something bite my ankle.

“Kekekekekekekeke, I got you! My Chimera’s tail just bit you, the venom from that snake is lethal! As the seconds pass you will slowly and painfully die…”

I did feel like something had bitten my ankle, I wasn’t able to evoke some of the old dragon’s hide when it bit me, so there was definitely a mark left by the bite. However, The poison didn’t even make it into my body, the old man’s demonic energy instantly devoured it. Instead of letting the baldy think that his familiar’s snake bite did nothing, I went to one knee and lowered the amount of bloodlust I was releasing gradually.

“W-what...my b-body is g-going numb!”

“Kekekekekekeke, it’s kicking in, soon you won’t be able to move at all, when that happens I will swoop in and finish you off to an inch of your life and then let the poison, painfully do the rest.”

I began beginning to pant and appear to be in pain and collapsed face forward on to the ground. I stopped moving entirely and after a few moments, I spotted a huge lion shaped creature making its way toward me. As it approached I lowered my demonic energy and bloodlust level to near bottom and waited…

Soon after I saw the baldy making his way toward my now limp body. He was holding another one of his daggers and was making a face as hideous as Cassius’s. He didn’t move outside of the striking distance of his familiar though, when he was finally about to reach his hand toward me to pick me up and finish the job, I evoked Bahamut’s power to the limit that my body would allow and delivered a swipe with my now dragon dyed right hand.

The baldy instantly threw his familiar in the way but it made no difference, my Bahamut claws sliced through his familiar and then cleaved straight into the baldy’s chest like butter. Blood gushed from the claw marks that were now on the baldy’s chest and he fell backwards and no longer made a sound.

“Wahahahahahahaha, that felt good, To think your body could handle outputting that much of my strength foolish boy.”

“Quiet old man! Go back to your hiding place, the fog is beginning to clear.”

“Wahahahahaha, bring me some better competition next time, and Shiko says…”

“Just go already!”

I repressed the old man back into the realm where my familiars dwell and waited for the fog to clear. I was drained after using the old man’s power in a real fight for the first time but other than the gash on my side from the baldy’s dagger and the bite mark from his now deceased familiar, I was unharmed.

I took one last look at the baldy’s body before the fog finished clearing and shivered at the extent of my power...The claw marks were so deep and to top it all off I could see cracks on his ribs. He was still breathing but he must have been in a lot of pain.

I turned around and started making my way back to Seir and the others, Just when I was about to start walking I stopped and waited for the fog to fully clear. When it finally did, it showed me standing with my hands in my pockets and the baldy almost mutilated on the floor surrounded by his drying blood. Sitri looked a little concerned but brightened up when she saw me unharmed, she must have realised that this fog was the same from back when she was about to fall victim to the baldy’s trap.

“L-ladies and gentleman, Unfortunately due to the loss of the audio and video feed, we will never know what actually happened in that dense fog. However, going by what the naked eye can see now, it appears as if Ne...Kuro has defeated the head of the Astaroth House, which means that the victorious household in today’s summit clash is the Seir House! Just how many more surprises does this no name House have left to show us? Stay tuned for further coverage from DTV and me, Sabrina Sitri!”

The crowd burst into applause and cheers, there were even parts that were chanting “Nero, Nero, Nero!” Damn it! I was gonna correct them but then I looked over at the women of the Astaroth Household. They had the same empty and vacant expression, it was the complete opposite of how the Earl’s Household reacted after I defeated their lord. I looked toward them.

“I-I have no idea what those two brothers did to you and your families...In fact, I don’t think I wanna know...The accumulated territory of the Astaroth House now belongs to my Lord Seir and I’m sure he will make good on stripping the Astaroth House of it’s nobility and wealth. He may not look like much, but he will treat you with more kindness than any other lord in Hell...I don’t really know where I’m going with this...But I hope that we, the Seir Household were able to get at least a little justice and retribution for you.”

I took one last look at the women of the Astaroth House, They all remained expressionless, however, some were actually shedding a tear or two after what I had just said. I turned around and began making my way toward Seir and the others. I glanced at Seir who was showing the same goofy grin and looked at Shiro who was giving me a bright smile.

Alice came toward me and applied some Caladrius tears on my two wounds and for a split second I saw a smile from her too.

We all made our way through the tunnel and toward the warmth of our home and the curtain fell on the battle against the Astaroth House.