The Demon Monarch System

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In addition to Apollo's attack shocking Amduscias momentarily, he was also appalled by the fact that half of his shrine disappeared. After all, he spent quite a lot of resources to claim this place since it was rumored to be highly durable, yet Apollo's strike eviscerated the building within one hit. 

Granted, it was an Annihilation, so the power behind the attack was absurd, especially while the presence of his Stigmata was amplifying his strength and explosive power.

'M-my building…' Amduscias thought while staring wordlessly as half of the building toppled over. It felt like his heart was being crushed as he watched half of the unblemished mirrors shatter as a result of Apollo's attack.

Besides spending countless hours trying to find someone capable of burning away all the impurities inside the glass to create a piece of pristine smoothness, it was challenging for Amduscias to find a piece of glass with the properties needed to conduct the simultaneous transfer of the dark lightning.

Eventually, Amduscias's fury ballooned. The dark lightning surrounding his spear grew out of control as an image of a winged beast with terrifying amounts of dark lightning billowing around its body appeared behind him.

In his rage, Amduscias tapped into his manifestation as well, except his manifestation seemed at least three times clearer than Apollo's. Be that as it may, Apollo remained unperturbed by the worsening situation. 

In fact, Apollo lifted his hands, calmly swinging them together, which caused two huge claws to slam towards Amduscias's trembling body. After reaching his tipping point, Amduscias's blood started to roil, becoming supercharged by the dark lightning as well.

Boom! Boom!

The two claws made direct contact with Amduscias's body, producing a nerve-rattling explosive noise. However, throughout the impact, Apollo merely frowned. While it was confirmed that the attack was a direct hit, Apollo sensed that something was amiss with the impact.

Apollo soon understood the amiss feeling as he watched the debris clear from the collision. The armor surrounding Amduscias underwent a bizarre change! The spear in his hand fused his with the armor, turning both of his arms into spears that crackled with obscene amounts of power. 

Furthermore, the armor seemed to sharpen as what appeared to be numerous spearheads protruded from his elbows, toes, knees, shoulder all of Amduscias's joints were turned in weapons. 

Once this happened, Amduscias looked towards Apollo with a savage gleam in his eyes.

"Kill," Amduscias uttered.

Suddenly, a dangerous burst of dark lightning surged towards Apollo, forcing him to dodge as soon as possible. Apollo's wings unfurled, dripping with sweltering flames as he moved to the side.

However, despite moving, Apollo froze for a moment as he stared at the destruction that followed Amduscias's attack. Whereas his attack left smooth traces due to its unmatched sharpness, Amduscias's attack merely blasted any obstacle apart.

Finally, the last structure to get him was filled with countless holes, as if the lightning blast was created from numerous small lightning spears. 

'Interesting… has he infused his spearmanship into his armor, effectively turning his armor into a terrifying means of attack? If so, I can see why my father chose his lightning over his spear. This effect is absolutely phenomenal,' Apollo thought as an excited grin gradually appeared on his face.

Compared to the other enemies Apollo faced to date, Apollo was confident that Amduscias's power was far more terrifying than the rest.

Sadly, Apollo didn't have any time to marvel at Amduscias's abilities as he dashed towards Apollo once he realized that he managed to dodge the attack without suffering any damage.

Amidst his dash, Amduscias snapped his fingers, which caused tens of lightning spears to detach from his armor and zoom towards Apollo after experiencing a bout of acceleration. This caused Apollo's eyebrows to jump.

After all, these spears appeared to be faster than Amduscias as the point of focus was much smaller, allowing for a higher acceleration rate. Thus, Apollo was forced to weave back and forth, attempting to dodge this set of attacks.

However, just as he successfully dodged the projectiles, a quick succession of three more snaps followed. Needless to say, Apollo's view was deluged by a wall of dark lightning spears converging on his body.

Left without a choice, Apollo inhaled while impaling Gram into the ground. Afterward, two dense collections of Ira appeared on his palm with faint traces of Purgatory's Blood appearing. Once that happened, Apollo slammed his hands together, sending a shockwave of pure Ira hurtling towards the spears.

A contest of power took place as the shockwave of Ira and the wall of lightning spear clashed against one another. Unfortunately, Apollo estimated that his attack wouldn't hold for a long, especially after sensing Amduscias transfer another set of supercharged Superbia into this attack.

Therefore, Apollo moved first, generating a cluster of Ira atop Gram. Before releasing an attack, Apollo leaned towards the blade and whispered. "I know you're incomplete, but I believe you have the makings to become an excellent weapon. So, I need you to prove to me that your assistance is above all.'

Almost as if the sword reacted to Apollo's words, the runes on the blade trembled as a message appeared before Apollo.

〈System: Congratulations, your weapon, «Gram, The Sword of Fury» is experiencing its first cleansing with the help of your Purgatory's Bloodline. In return, a temporary effect has appeared.〉

〈System: The consumption of «Gram, The Sword of Fury» has been halved while the increase of your attack power has increased to 200% for two minutes.〉

Although the change wasn't permanent, Apollo was satisfied by the notifications that appeared. After all, he found it strange that a weapon formed from Ira didn't sap his Purgatory's Blood. At first, he thought his Purgatory's Blood quality was inadequate, but then he recalled how Fuhrer cherished Brynhildr and realized there was no bond between him and his weapon.

If he continued down that road, then it would take forever for Gram to generate a soul. First, the material needed to be primed for the presence of a soul. Once that happened, the runes needed to attune with his soul in order to be in the state required to receive a fragmented soul. 

Meanwhile, Apollo understood that his Ira was at an all-time low. At most, he felt his Ira would suffice to launch three more strikes even after the consumption of Gram was halved. The constant use of his fused form and the stigmata put a considerable strain on his vessel.

Therefore, Apollo cleared his throat and looked towards Amduscias. "Let's settle this now. We'll declare the winner with these next set of attacks."

"There's no need to speculate. The winner of this scuffle will be me, but I have no desire to kill you. I will just let you know that I'm the one who's still superior," Amduscias responded.

A moment later, he took a step forward, turning into a stream of dark lightning that bounced around the shrine room unpredictably. Due to the speed of Amduscias's movement, Apollo was unable to catch a trace of Amduscias's presence even after fusing the power of Languished Perception and Unbound Eyes.

  However, Apollo didn't focus on Amduscias. Instead, he first sacrificed all of his Gula to form an immense Devouring Nebula in the center of the room. Its attractive force was so strong that everything in the room was pulled towards the center of the room.

Even Ouroboros was forced to form a small space utilizing an opposite attractive force. 'Master's Gula is slowly growing stronger than mine. Whoa!'

At times, Amduscias's body stopped moving when he grew too close to the Devouring Nebula in the center of the room. He even entertained the thought of blowing up the large orb but decided against it after recalling the incidents centered around demons who traveled the path of Gula in the past.

Destroying a nebula yielded one of two results: either the nebula collapsed and resulted in a burst of energy the devouring in an expanding ring, or the destroyed nebula enveloped a huge radius in a mysterious power linked to nothingness, which inevitably trapped the absorbed contents in an unreachable space.

Amduscias wished to experience neither of these outcomes, but he also knew that these two scenarios required a high purity to accomplish. Thus, he aimed his attention at Apollo while gathering his energy for the last attack when suddenly his expression fell.

'There's no way this is all the dark lightning I can muster. I just refilled a large portion of it!' Amduscias thought to himself. Despite wielding a large amount of dark lightning, Amduscias felt it was inadequate when compared against the healing ability of Apollo.

Recalling the events that led up to this moment, Amduscias shook his head. 'I took on too many battles. Or rather, I expended needless energy. It seems I'll have to do that.'

All of a sudden, Amduscias' expression grew calm and sharp as the armor covering his body receded. Within seconds all of the dark lightning was channeled into his spear, creating a terrifying scene.

On the other hand, Apollo's sword blazed with black and red flames rampaging through the skies. Each side had prepared one of their ultimate strikes to deal with their opponent!