Return of the Calamity-Class Death Knight

-----------------

Chapter 284: The Four Great Demon Kings (2)

***

The power emanating from the dragon heart spread throughout Iota\'s entire body.

Crack.

With the sound of bones twisting, Iota\'s physique began to change.

His previously narrow shoulders broadened, and his chest muscles expanded. His once-skinny limbs became unbelievably thick.

What had looked like a fragile body that might break with a strong wind now appeared muscular enough to withstand a hurricane.

"Ahhh, it\'s been a while since I\'ve turned into this form."

Even his voice changed.

The previously childish, impish tone transformed into a deep and serious one.

It wasn\'t just his appearance that had altered.

Now, Iota radiated an immense vitality. It was like watching a volcano on the verge of eruption.

Normally, undead couldn\'t possess vitality. What was happening before Damien was unbelievable.

"Damien Haksen, from now on, I\'ll crush you."

Iota slowly raised both hands. He lifted them to his face and curled his fingers, starting with his pinky.

A fist.

As soon as the fist was formed, Iota pushed off the ground with both feet.

Iota shot forward in a straight line and threw a punch at Damien.

Damien twisted his waist to dodge the strike. The debris behind him was blasted away.

Even without the punch landing, it happened. It was a phenomenon caused by the air pressure of the fist.

Iota withdrew his outstretched fist and stepped toward Damien.

The attacks continued.

Every time Iota threw a punch, the pressure of his fists destroyed nearby buildings.

These were not mindless, instinct-driven attacks like a monster. They were disciplined and refined.

Amazingly, Iota was using a martial art.

"Surprised? People always think I\'m just a dumb brute!"

Iota spoke in an excited voice.

"I\'m not just some fool relying on raw strength! I\'ve mastered techniques that no one else can follow, ones even Master Class warriors would fear!"

At Iota\'s words, Damien recalled memories from his past.

- Damien, my knight, do you see? These are my greatest creations.

During his time as a Death Knight, Dorugo had summoned Damien and introduced the Four Great Demon Kings.

- Of course, they pale compared to you! But still, these four are worthy of being called the strongest.

As he said, the Four Great Demon Kings had achieved incredible feats.

In every battle, they slaughtered tens of thousands of knights. They piled their corpses into mountains and feasted on their souls with glee.

The sheer brutality of the scene was nauseating, almost unbearable for Damien, who had to suppress his urge to retch.

- Over the past few centuries, I\'ve struggled to perfect these creatures but failed. I couldn\'t create a soul worthy of their body. But recently, I succeeded. Do you know the secret?

Damien had no interest in knowing. However, at that time, his will was sealed by Dorugo, leaving him trapped in his own body, forced to listen to Dorugo\'s chatter.

- It\'s thanks to you.

- These beings were created by imitating your soul. Thanks to you, they inherited a fraction of your genius, even if just a crumb.

How could Damien possibly describe the disgust he felt upon hearing that?

He had already been a slave to Dorugo, forced to massacre innocent people, kill noble knights, and desecrate their corpses.

To think that those monstrous creatures were born because of him.

- In other words, you could say these beings are our children.

As that memory surfaced, a surge of intense emotion welled up from deep within Damien.

Being overtaken by emotions during a fight was something only amateurs did.

But this time, he couldn\'t hold back. Damien\'s eyes turned blood-red.

"How long do you plan to keep running away?

Iota shouted while throwing a punch aimed at Damien\'s face.

In that instant, the scenery blurred, and Iota\'s head was slammed into the ground.

"Wha…?"

Iota looked bewildered.

It was understandable. He had been the one throwing the punch, so why?

Iota lifted his head. Soil was falling from his face and he saw Damien was holding his fist.

"It\'s truly fascinating"

Damien said as he put Dawn back into the subspace.

"Every time I see you, I feel filthy. And each time, it sets a new record."

A swordsman letting go of his sword in the middle of battle?

Perplexed by this inexplicable act, Iota tilted his head.

"Damien Haksen, are you insane?"

Damien ignored Iota\'s words. Instead, he began to weave the mana within his body.

He had studied countless secret techniques from the Church\'s archives, leading him to a minor achievement.

He succeeded in combining various mana cultivation techniques he had learned, creating a unified system.

These included techniques like Supreme Absorption Technique, Cotton-Lined Forbidden Needle, Art of Sacrificial Raging Demon Manifestation, and Combined Infinity Cycle.

Alongside the myriad secret techniques he had studied from the Church, he synthesized them into a single mana cultivation method.

Five Wheel Harmonious Art.

Damien spun the gathered mana, forming a circulation within his body.

"First Wheel".

This was not merely an illusion; it was a true manifestation.

Unlike the \'Combined Infinity Cycle\', there was no resonance sound this time.

Instead, all the surrounding mana converged towards Damien.

An exchange occurred between the external and internal.

Body and mana cycled together.

Finally, everything united in a single circulation.

"For bringing back such vile memories, I\'ll beat you to death."

Blue flames ignited in Damien\'s eyes.

"It\'s pointless, no matter what..."

Iota\'s face was smashed and sent flying backward. Damien had somehow darted forward and struck him with a punch.

"Kraaaagh!"

Thanks to the dragon scales, the damage wasn\'t severe.

Iota quickly regained his composure and tried to punch Damien.

Or rather, he would have if Damien had been there.

"Where... where are you...?"

Suddenly, an elbow slammed into his solar plexus, doubling him over from the impact.

"I told you, it\'s useless!"

In an attempt to crush Damien, Iota grasped him with the intention of slamming him against the ground.

At that moment, Damien launched another punch, striking Iota\'s solar plexus again.

A loud noise erupted from inside Iota\'s body. He coughed up blood and staggered back.

Damien immediately lunged forward, striking Iota\'s eye with his knee.

The bone around the eye shattered, and the eyeball burst, spraying blood everywhere.

"Kyaaaah!"

A scream tore from Iota\'s mouth. He covered his ruined eye with his hand ans cried out in disbelief.

"This can\'t be happening... How can I... be losing to a mere human?"

Five Wheel Harmonious Art.

The new mana cultivation technique Damien developed granted him explosive speed and power.

So much so that it overwhelmed even Iota, who had awakened the dragon\'s physical strength.

"Don\'t get cocky! I can still become stronger!"

Iota pumped his heart to draw more dragon mana.

His movements became even faster. As he moved, afterimages formed.

Countless afterimages surrounded Damien. They all threw punches simultaneously.

In a situation where it was impossible to distinguish between illusion and reality.

As the punches landed, Iota felt the world turn upside down.

Before he could grasp what was happening, the sky and the earth were turned upside down. At the same time, he was slammed into the ground.

Iota’s body was harder than the ground, so the impact wasn\'t severe. But the subsequent attack was the real issue.

Damien lifted his foot. The energy emanating from the sole was anything but ordinary.

"Damien Haksen...!"

The moment Iota shouted with hatred, Damien slammed his foot down with full force.

Crushing Waves.

Realm that can intensified the impact manifold.

With a thunderous roar, the ground shattered in a chain reaction. A deep pit formed in the center of the fortress.

Dust erupted from the depths of the pit. From within, someone began to emerge.

"Hoo, I’m finally calming down."

Damien brushed the dirt off his clothes and said.

"I’m not usually this irritable. But whenever I get entangled with Dorugo, I just get angrier."

As Damien grumbled briefly, a powerful surge of mana erupted from the pit. The immense mana pierced the sky like a pillar.

Simultaneously, a colossal roar reverberated through the air. The clouds in the sky were shredded and vanished.

From the pit, something enormous began to rise.

It was as massive as a giant’s arm, but unlike a real giant’s arm, this one was covered in scales from wrist to elbow.

It resembled a dragon from legend.

"Damiennnn!"

The voice that emerged from the pit boomed across the world.

"Stay right there and wait! I’ll devour you immediately!"

Something began to rise from the pit, shaking the surrounding ground with its movement.

"Well, you\'re not the type to die easily."

Damien opened a subspace and retrieved Dawn.

The playtime was over. Now it was time to kill for real.

At that moment,

The sky split open and stretched apart to the left and right.

The gap revealed not the fortress but a landscape full of forests.

From within, three figures appeared.

They were all exceptionally handsome and beautiful, but there was something off about them. Most of all, they exuded an unsettling sense of disgust.

Damien muttered softly as he saw them.

"Epsilon, Lambda, Theta."

Few people in the current age would know these names.

After all, they did not originally exist in this era.

The Four Great Demon Lords.

The nightmares of the War of Destruction had came.

***