[In that case, allow me to join in.]

Woohyuk’s shadow expanded behind him, and Nakron emerged from it with the lichs under his command.

Astaroth stopped his endless a.s.sault on Woohyuk and stepped back.

“Nakron… So you are still alive.”

“No, I am dead. Unfortunately, I challenged the Death G.o.d’s Throne and failed.

The Death G.o.d was one of the seven G.o.ds wors.h.i.+pped on the Eeth Continent.

In return for his challenge, Nakron had to become a spirit of the system and sponsor someone.

In the end, Woohyuk was the only person to clear his rigorous standards.

Astaroth tilted his head at Nakron's words.

“A Demon King is trying to challenge the seats of the G.o.ds?”

“You’re quite slow on the uptake. This person is the human who inherited the former Demon G.o.d’s name.”

"Are… Are you saying that a human can step into the abyss that even we fear?”

Astaroth stared in confusion.

His reaction was natural since that was the reason he was seeking the Sangreal Chronicles himself.

Nakron chuckled in amus.e.m.e.nt.

“You don’t know anything about the 72 Demon Kings. Just be the stepping stone for the birth of the new Demon G.o.d.”

“No, I must find out. I must learn the secrets of this world.”

In order to do that, he had to steal the Sangreal Chronicles from Eteria Rodinus.

As Astaroth recited a spell, a dark blue demonic energy covered the ground of the large Colosseum and swayed like waves.

It was the Land of Grief.

The other demon kings were doing fine since the spell was of darkness attribute, but the members of Eteria Rodinus and Catsy suffered from severe headaches.

“Arghhhhhhh!”

“Urgh…!”

The sage-level wizards didn’t get their life force deprived, but still suffered considerable mental damage.

Astaroth grinned smugly and pointed to the humans who were groaning in pain.

“Is it fine to keep fighting me like this? They look like they need help...”

“…”

Instead of answering, Woohyuk summoned his undead army.

Because of the undeads’ nature, they were able to fight without taking any damage from the Land of Grief.

As the elite undeads began to slaughter the monsters Astaroth had summoned, he watched and sighed.

“I was expecting something like this, but didn’t think there’d be so many powerful individuals among your undeads. Now I can’t even use those humans as hostages.”

“It’s because I have a hobby of collecting elite undeads.”

Woohyuk shrugged with a smug face.

He had collected quite a few elite undeads so far.

“Anyways, let’s end this fight. I want to keep talking to you and mess around too, but the system won’t let us be.”

Nakron lifted his staff and started chanting with the Lichs.

After a while, a jet-black magic circle was drawn in the air, and a large bone dragon emerged from it.

“…It’s been a while since I last saw a Bone Dragon.”

“It’s my dear little dragon. Would you like to play with it?”

The dragon’s eyes flashed and took on a red hue, and it ran towards Astaroth.

At first glance, it was only composed of bare bones and looked feeble, but it had been reinforced by Nakron.

Most weapons wouldn’t be able to leave even a scratch on the bones.

“Ugh…!”

Astaroth groaned as he blocked the dragon's sharp claws.

His opponent wasn’t just an evil necromancer as he was known to the general public.

He was a Lich King, a Lich King that was once powerful enough to become the Death G.o.d.

“You don't like my pet, Astaroth?”

As Astaroth struggled, Nakron appeared next to him and ridiculed him.

Immediately, the other lichs joined forces and surrounded Astaroth.

“...”

Finding himself cornered, Astaroth tried to use Meteor Storm by lifting Regius with both hands.

At that moment, Woohyuk appeared behind Astaroth and swung his sword at his opponent’s side.

Clang!

Sparks flew, and Grandia and Regius cross blades.

Woohyuk and Astaroth were facing each other.

"I don't think this is the proper moment to use magic, Astaroth."

“…You keep getting in my way, Asura.”

From Astaroth's point of view, the situation was bad.

The three demon kings of Ars Nova had almost incapacitated Orobas by overpowering him, and Eteria Rodinus was also effectively stopping the monsters and demons with the help of the undeads.

Since things couldn’t continue like this, Astaroth gave an order to all his va.s.sals.

[Leave them be! Come protect me now!]

The orders of a demon monarch were absolute.

The high-ranking demons immediately brandished their weapons and flew towards him, but the lichs stopped their advances.

All of the lichs who followed Nakron were wizards who had made quite a name during their lifetime.

They did not get pushed back against the high-ranking demons.

Due to these sequences of events, Woohyuk, Nakron, and the Bone Dragon were the only ones left to face Astaroth.

The Demon King slightly cut his own thigh with Regius.

As Regius drank some of his blood, the blade began to glow in a dark red s.h.i.+ne.

“What are you scheming this time?”

"Who knows?.”

Astaroth still had a trump card he had not used yet.

The three skills that Regius had absorbed from other people.

They were some of the factors that Woohyuk considered to be important variables.

With his gut feeling warning him, Nakron lifted his staff and spoke aloud.

“Since you’re using the power of blood, it must be a skill related to vampires. Most probably a very ancient skill..”

“Someone’s quick on the uptake. Indeed, this ability belongs to Nosferatu.”

Nosferatu was a Vampire Lord from ancient mythology.

He had tried to protect his kingdom, but ended up becoming a pile of ashes due to the G.o.d of Light’s powers.

Nakron couldn’t figure out how Regius had absorbed the Vampire Lord’s ability.

“It happened long before my existence, so I’m not sure how it happened. I don't have a power that allows me to look into the past.”

“Don’t think about it too much. n.o.body knows the actual truth.”

Astaroth had inherited Regius from his predecessor along with his name.

In other words, he had never met Nosferatu himself.

Nakron nodded at Astaroth’s words.

“There are so many secrets in this world.”

“And I will figure them all out. I will be liberated from the unknown past.”

After ending the talk, Astaroth lifted Regius, which was dyed dark red.

Then, they were engulfed in a vortex of blood and a strong upward current began to form.

Swooooooooos.h.!.+

The skill was similar to the effects of the Blood Queen’s exclusive artifact, the Cursed Princess’s Song.

Woohyuk was also extremely surprised by this vortex.

'I hope it wasn’t Hong Yuri that got defeated by him.'

In actuality, his worries were unfounded as the Cursed Princess’s Song was an artifact and not a skill, so Astaroth wouldn’t be able to use it freely.

This fact was already proven when Astaroth was unable to summon Verserios, Asura’s exclusive weapon.

However, Woohyuk wanted to make sure he was incorrect, and initiated a telepathic conversation with Hong Yuri.

[Hong Yuri, answer me.]

[Hm? What’s wrong?]

[…So you’re okay.]

It was as he had expected.

Her artifact and Astaroth’s skills just happened to use the power of blood in a similar fas.h.i.+on.

Woohyuk came up with a good idea after sorting out the situation in his mind.

'We could block the power of blood with our own version of the power of blood. Fighting fire with fire.'

Since he currently couldn’t use Verserios, this blood vortex was proving to be quite a headache.

The inside of the vortex was similar to an absolute s.p.a.ce, so it was quite advantageous to the caster.

However, if the caster couldn’t monopolize this absolute s.p.a.ce, the story would change.

[Why did you say that? Did something happen?]

[I need you to do something for a moment.]

Woohyuk summoned Hong Yuri without asking for consent.

The Blood Queen appeared before him… in her underwear.

Hong Yuri shrieked and covered her body in confusion.

“Warn me before summoning me! This is humiliating!”

“Stop that guy.”

Woohyuk pointed at Astaroth, who was still holding onto the dark red Regius.

Hong Yuri noticed the blood vortex that was swirling around them and embraced Woohyuk’s arm in terror.

“Mommy! Are there vampires among the 72 demon kings? What do we do…?!!”

“He’s not a vampire. So in terms of control over the power of blood, you’re much stronger than him.”

The Blood Queen was more than strong enough to calm this whirlpool.

Hong Yuri nodded and closed her eyes to focus.

However, Astaroth interrupted them.

“Don't interfere, Blood Queen. I must win this battle.”

He swung Regius and sent a wave of blood at them.

It was the second skill Astaroth was hiding.

However, the attack was completely blocked by the white bone barrier cast by Nakron.

Astaroth grinded his teeth and immediately used his third skill.

Swoos.h.!.+

The sword shot out an enormous flaming blood bird and it flew towards Hong Yuri.

It appeared to be Nosferatu’s ultimate skill.

As Nakron and Woohyuk desperately tried to stop it, Hong Yuri’s eyes shot wide open.

“It worked! The blood vortex is mine now!”

“Then destroy it!”

In this narrow s.p.a.ce, it was difficult to efficiently block the blood bird approaching them.

As Woohyuk urged her, Hong Yuri hurriedly swung her right hand diagonally as if she were slas.h.i.+ng an invisible target.

And soon enough...

Swoosh.

The wild blood vortex disappeared as if it had never existed from the beginning.

Then, the dragon that was waiting outside flew in and struck the blood bird with its claws.

“Kiyaaahhhhhh!”

The blood bird struggled and fought the dragon.

Meanwhile, Woohyuk launched all-out attacks on Astaroth with Nakron's long-range support.

Clang!

Clang clang clang!

Clang clang clang clang!

It is difficult to determine the victor of the battle.

But the duration of the skill Astaroth had first cast on Woohyuk ended, and...

“It’s my victory.”

He summoned Verserios and his surroundings turned into a deep and unending darkness.

Asura's absolute s.p.a.ce had engulfed the Colosseum.

“Thi, this is…?!”

The astonished Astaroth stepped backwards without noticing it himself.

Instinctive fear dominated his mind,

Swooosh.

The demonic energy flowing within his body stiffened like freezing water vapor.

As Astaroth wandered in the dark where nothing could be seen, a strange figure suddenly flew past his head.

“Woooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

It was the undead Charybdis Woohyuk had obtained at the Nelson march.

Originally, it was a monster of the abyss.

Therefore, it was able to exert a formidable power in Asura’s absolute s.p.a.ce, far stronger than what it had shown on the Eeth Continent.

“Ugh…!”

Astaroth groaned and evaded Charybdis's a.s.sault.

At that moment,

Stab!

An object that was hidden within the abyss pierced through Astaroth's abdomen.

Verserios.

Astaroth spat out black blood and stared in shock.

“Cough…!”

He, who had been cruising through the White Ghost King’s games, was currently helpless against Asura.

Astaroth knelt down and his head hung low.

Soon enough, Woohyuk appeared before him.

“You are now my va.s.sal, Astaroth.”

The Demon King ranked 29th.

He was a disc that would play an important role in the upcoming Oth.e.l.lo games against the demon world.

Once Woohyuk opened Lemegeton, Astaroth turned into black smoke and got sucked into it.