The Lich is shattered by the hammer.
The tattered ends of the black robe are purified by the Holy, and the skeleton’s body is completely destroyed without any chance of regeneration.
Nonetheless, I immediately retrieved the hammer and stepped back.
Kwahahaha!
“Ts!”
A beat too late, hundreds of thorny bones as large as my forearm surge up from the castle floor.
Eventually, familiar bone fragments coalesce between the thorns, forming the Lich.
It’s the Demon King of the Three.
The purified and entirely lost Demon King of the Three reappears.
“Pretty good, but pointless.”
“It’s the Life Vessel.”
If the Celestial Race possesses a special power called ‘Resurrection’ when their soul and body are in one place, the Demon Race has ‘Life Vessel.’
Hiding the soul in a special jar or artifact means that as long as the artifact isn’t destroyed, it will never perish.
“No matter how much you kill the body, the soul itself remains intact.”
The surviving soul merely creates a new body to continue living.
Therefore, while it might be easy to kill a demon, erasing them completely is quite tricky.
Most Life Vessels are usually hidden in the Demon Realm.
Invading the Demon Realm is incredibly impossible, and even if you did, there’s no guarantee you could easily find it.
Of course, you could destroy the circuitry of the Vessel itself or trace its position back to break it, but that’s only a story when the rank differences are serious.
If the levels are equal or slightly higher, you can never obliterate them.
Purple magic flows from the skeleton staff held by the Demon King of the Three.
“Angel, you’ve underestimated the name of this Demon King of the Three.”
“I’m not an angel.”
“What are you then, if not an angel?”
Clatter, clatter!
Skeleton hounds are summoned around him.
A puppy that looks at least 10 meters long with six heads.
Is it about twice the size of Cerberus?
But that’s not all.
Hundreds, thousands of purple-armored Skeleton Soldiers rise around the puppy.
They are soldiers of a different rank than the regular corpses caught outside.
Each one is comparable to a low-class World Boss.
The skeleton of the Demon King of the Three, standing atop them, grins.
“Are you confident in a fight against many? Then, taste it.”
An eternal battle, that is!
“Kwahaha!! Hound! Tear them apart!”
Craaaanng!!
The skeletons surge forward.
The puppy called Hound leads the charge, followed by the Skeleton Soldiers.
As always, I was about to use my spear or hammer but suddenly paused.
Sure, a hammer is good against skeletons, but as he said, as long as there’s a Life Vessel, this fight won’t end.
So, I have to use techniques that are as little-consuming and simple as possible…
“…What?”
Coincidentally, I recently saw something interesting.
I take my stance.
I clench my fists with both hands, lift my right foot, and balance my body.
Is this right? Well, it should be.
‘That’s how footwork is.’
The steps of the approaching hound slow down.
It feels like I’m being sucked in, and the surrounding magic is stirring. Amid this, the holy power within my body swirls around me.
Even without internal energy, I can naturally feel it.
I bring down the lifted foot.
“Heavenly Horse’s Dominance.”
KABOOM!!!
The hound and skeleton soldiers crumble.
The skeleton soldiers rise again, receiving the power of the Demon King of the Three, but they crumble again with every step they take.
With every step, the castle of the Demon King shakes, and the lich’s body cracks and crumbles.
“Grahhh!! You brat!”
The lich reassembles its broken hand and rises into the sky.
Just barely out of the attack range, but already his soldiers are facing continuous resurrection and death.
It’s a relatively good decision.
Heavenly Horse’s Dominance provides tremendous pressure and power to anyone on the ground.
‘But that’s the story of the Heavenly Horse.’
I’ve added a bit of variation here.
Why is it called Heavenly Horse’s Dominance if it must only be used on the ground?
Shouldn’t it have a greater impact from the sky, just like its name suggests?
The stance remains the same. But the direction is different.
‘Circulation from internal energy. And the energy discharge due to that circulation.’
Here, I amplify the discharge in all directions.
I compensate for his burden and effects with 24 magic formulas and replace the physical burdens with holy power.
There’s enough holy power to substitute.
I lift my right foot again.
Crushing the sky.
“Heavenly Horse’s Dominance.”
CRACKKK!!!
“…!!!”
The lich plunges into the ground, and the castle collapses.
I lightly maneuver my body to avoid the rain of fragments falling down.
In the blink of an eye, the castle of the Demon King became a grave for skeletons.
What a remarkable technique.
It’s not quite at the level of techniques from the Celestial Race or Demon Race, but it’s on par with those of the ‘Dragon Race.’
“A human can do this much… No, wait.”
It’s a technique devised by the Heavenly Horse, but she only imitated the techniques from many other media.
Even if it was truly realized by the Heavenly Horse, she’s still influenced by the System.
Though he is a Heavenly Horse, she is also influenced by the System.
Perhaps the Heavenly Horse’s Dominance itself is a setup by the System.
Yet, the fact that she possesses talents that rival those of Leo and the Sword Saint is certain.
“I’ll have to let her know when we meet later.”
Although I’m currently using magic and holy power to steer things in the direction I want, there’s surely a way to succeed just through my own skills.
If she truly completes the Heavenly Horse’s Dominance with just her strength… perhaps.
“…she may no longer be at the level of a mere User.”
By then, even Leo wouldn’t be able to defeat her.
While Leo wouldn’t just be sitting idle either.
“Graaaar!!”
A Lich that has gone out of control burst forth from the ruins of the Castle, unable to reassemble properly.
Its anger was apparent, as magic poured out through the bones.
“Life Vessel is really nice, isn’t it?”
If a Celestial were to get hit this much, they’d typically retreat or fall, but the Soul’s not even here, so…
When I looked at him with a troubled expression, the Lich’s face changed.
“Hehe… you said you can’t kill me.”
“If you can’t die, I can just keep beating you.”
“I was a bit surprised, but continue forever. After all, what’s left for me is time.”
Creak.
A Skeleton Soldier rose again from the graveyard of remains.
It lifted its foot once more and slammed down.
This time, the area around the Castle turned to powder as the Skeleton Soldiers crumbled once more.
The Lich was destroyed too, but it didn’t matter—it resurrected and raised the soldiers again.
It repeated this maybe five more times, yet the Lich showed no signs of tiring.
“There’s no end to this.”
This is troublesome.
It’s not that the opponent is strong.
The Lich’s main body is worse than the Hound I summoned earlier.
A competent single-digit Ranker could probably win in a one-on-one, giving it their all.
Yet, the guy constantly resurrects.
The Soul contained within the Life Vessel and the magic endlessly revive it and grant enough magic to raise Skeletons.
Usually, by this point, the magic would be all used up, but perhaps it’s specialized like this.
A Demon of near-zero physical ability.
If we think of it in game terms, it’s like an extreme Mage who only raised magic-related stats.
Furthermore, it seems it has caught on to the gap in power between itself and me—deliberately summoning only weak Skeletons that cost less to use.
They aren’t strong enough to dissolve in the holy power flowing around me, but they’re just annoying enough to deal with.
“Hehehe. Didn’t I say? What’s left for me is time.”
It laughed as it resurrected for the nineteenth time.
“The Six, Five, and Four Heavenly Kings won easily without a Vessel. But I am different! As long as I have the Life Vessel, I will never die!”
“Guess I lost. But this body is different! As long as I have the Life Vessel, I will never die!”
“Where’s the Life Vessel?”
“Are you crazy? I’m not telling you.”
“Hmm…”
Normally, when a Life Vessel breaks, it’s almost guaranteed to disappear, so it’s hidden in the safest place possible.
Therefore, I thought it would be hidden inside its castle… but since it’s not coming out even when the castle is destroyed, the chances are high that it’s somewhere else.
Maybe…
“The castle of the Demon King of the One or the East.”
“Keep going until the end. In the end, what remains here is only my aunt… cough!”
I grab the Lich’s neck.
The white Holy Power infused in my hand shines brightly, and the Lich’s neck bones start burning.
Just enough not to break…
I search the circuits.
The target is to understand and destroy the structure of the Life Vessel.
The Holy Magic starts to analyze and read the magical structure of the Life Vessel.
As expected, it’s more complicated than I thought.
“Ugh, haha! It’s useless. Do you really think a Celestial could break through my magic?!”
Unlike the Celestial Race, who excel in physical abilities and cold weapons, the Demon Race is closer to gods of magic.
Even if the Demon Race’s rank is low, breaking through their magic is nearly impossible.
“Honestly, smashing it with brute force would be faster.”
The same goes for the Lich before me.
My magical skills aren’t lacking, but my opponent is already a being more specialized in magic.
It’s impossible to break or modify the magical formula of the Lich’s Life Vessel right now.
But…
“…!”
“I found it.”
The ultimate goal is only destruction.
Finding the location by understanding the direction and structure of the power coming in is easy.
“It’s in the Castle of the Demon King of the One. The owner of the castle probably has it directly.”
“You…!”
“Just sleep for a bit. I’ll break it soon.”
Sensing danger, I stabbed a silver sword into the heart of the Lich, who was trying to escape by abandoning its body.
As the Power of Purification imbued into the masterpiece, the Silver Purifier, pierced it, the Lich fell over instantly.
The Silver Purifier, filled tightly with Holy Power, is going to give the Demon Race a hard time responding, but it won’t last long.
“At most, about three hours?”
In that time, it should manage to pull out the weapon and return to its body, or go back to the Life Vessel.
And three hours is more than enough time to deal with the remaining two.
Next is the Demon King of the East.
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