ocean-life Chapter 348: Hero (4)
Chapter 348: Hero (4)
[Translator - Night]
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Chapter 348: Hero (4)
The Demon King swung his fist fiercely, the sheer force threatening to tear the ground apart.
Ketal caught the fist.
BOOOOM!
The shockwave spread, and Ketal's hair scattered wildly.
With his other hand gripping an axe, Ketal swung downward.
The Demon King grabbed Ketal's wrist, and the impact shook the world.
Locked in each other's grips, they exerted their strength.
A quiet yet ferocious clash of power ensued.
Crack. Crrrrrack.
The earth, unable to withstand the pressure, began to sink.
Both their bodies suddenly plunged downward.
Thud.
The Demon King, trying to shake off Ketal's grip on his arm, exerted force but couldn't easily free himself.
Instead of continuing to struggle, the Demon King raised his knee, aiming for Ketal's solar plexus.
Ketal didn't stand idly by.
Anticipating the move, he quickly lifted his leg and stomped on the rising knee.
BAAAAANG!
The force exploded outward.
Hell itself began to crumble.
Both Ketal and the Demon King were blown away, hurtling through the air.
Whoosh.
Ketal immediately stabilized his posture and gripped his axe tightly.
The energy around it—the aura, the grotesque power, and divine force—merged into something so intense it was almost unbearable.
The Demon King, too, gathered power in his arms and charged forward.
THUUUUM!
The axe collided with the Demon King’s arms, and the world seemed to shatter.
Ketal wasn’t the type to wield power delicately.
He used it with instinct and precision.
The Demon King was no different.
Born with overwhelming strength, he preferred to crush his foes with sheer force rather than finesse.
Thus, their battle was exceedingly simple.
It was a clash of raw strength against raw strength.
BOOOOM!
Hell, exposed to such power, could no longer endure.
[...Remarkable.]
From the mortal plane, the Tower Master gazed at the sky, watching the hellish world crumble, and murmured in awe.
Hell was a collapsing realm.
The stars lost their form, shattering into countless asteroids.
Even if the fight ended, Hell would never regain its original state.
[In the past, half the world burned, didn’t it? That was a relatively small loss.]
The Demon King's power was something the mortal world could not contain.
Back then, the gods had desperately shielded the world, managing to limit the damage to only half its surface being scorched.
Now, Ketal was standing against that same power.
[Which one of them is the bigger monster, I can’t tell.]
The Tower Master muttered softly.
Meanwhile, in Hell, the battle raged on.
The axe clashed with the Demon King's fist, and both Ketal and the Demon King were pushed back by equal distances.
Ketal exclaimed with a grin,
“Even now, it's balanced!”
The Demon King was strong.
Even Ketal, empowered by the gods, couldn’t overwhelm him.
His earlier assessment—that he was above the old ones—hadn’t been wrong.
While Ketal marveled at the Demon King’s power, the Demon King, too, was in awe of Ketal.
[...The Pantheon’s power. He’s absorbed all of it.]
The Demon King understood Ketal’s current state perfectly, and because of that, he couldn’t help but feel incredulous.
[And yet, he’s completely fine.]
Dozens of gods.
Ketal had absorbed all their divine power, yet he appeared unaffected.
Even the Demon King would have felt the burden, but Ketal showed no signs of strain.
Narrowing his eyes, the Demon King thought,
[Your essence must far surpass mine.]
Perhaps, long ago, Ketal even exceeded those old ones the Demon King had fought.
Instinctively, the Demon King knew this.
[Though you have countless flaws... you're strong.]
Against the current Ketal, the Demon King couldn’t guarantee victory.
But he declared boldly,
[I will win.]
Simply being a higher existence didn’t mean one couldn’t be defeated by a lower one.
After all, even demons often fell to mortal beings.
The Demon King spoke with conviction,
[Your power, after all, is borrowed from the gods. It isn’t truly your own.]
Even if Ketal had absorbed and refined the power into his own, it was not entirely his by nature.
Borrowed power was quick to deplete.
In fact, Ketal’s strength had visibly diminished since their first encounter.
[In the end, you will lose to me.]
“If things continue as they are, yes,”
Ketal admitted without objection.
The Demon King’s near-limitless demonic energy further compounded this.
“But I’m different.”
Ketal had once been weak.
He had fought desperately against stronger opponents in his frail state.
That never changed, even as time passed.
He knew better than anyone how to manage strength to secure victory.
“You’ve never fought anyone equal to you.”
[......!]
The Demon King swung his fist fiercely.
It was infused with his full power.
Until now, every opponent had been forced to use all their strength merely to block or evade that blow.
But not Ketal.
Clang!
He used only a fraction of his power to respond to the Demon King’s strike.
Then, he poured the strength he had conserved into his next attack.
When one uses overwhelming strength, gaps inevitably appear.
This applied even to the Demon King.
The delay following his full-power attack left him vulnerable, and Ketal capitalized on it.
Crash!
[Urgh!]
The Demon King groaned as the skin on his arm was slightly torn.
Clang! Clang!
Ketal pressed his advantage relentlessly.
The Demon King stomped his foot, unleashing a massive wave of demonic energy that shook the surroundings.
But Ketal didn’t back down.
He poured everything into his axe and struck downward.
The wave of demonic energy split, creating a gap through which Ketal maneuvered his body.
Crash!
The Demon King was forced back again.
He quickly analyzed the situation.
Should he fight like Ketal?
No, that was impossible.
He had spent his entire life crushing everything in his path.
Now wasn’t the time to learn such precise control.
Even if he could, he’d still lose to Ketal in this method.
The solution was simple.
He would use even greater power.
He would crush him without pause.
Boom!
The Demon King’s power exploded, eliminating any openings.
Ketal gave a knowing look.
“As expected.”
Against strength, even greater strength.
By pushing his power to the extreme, he could maintain relentless attacks without gaps, albeit at the cost of immense energy.
He had successfully drawn Ketal into a short, decisive battle.
What remained was a pure contest of power and skill.
Crack.
Ketal pushed off the ground, swinging his axe downward.
The Demon King countered with a fierce punch.
Boom!
The impact neutralized both attacks.
The Demon King immediately stepped forward and threw another punch.
Now, the Demon King could deliver full-powered blows without delay.
Ketal swallowed hard and matched him.
Clang!
Axe and fist collided.
The Demon King followed up with a kick, powerful enough to rupture Ketal’s insides if it connected.
Ketal twisted his body narrowly to evade it, countering with a punch that struck the Demon King.
Boom!
The Demon King didn’t retreat.
Ignoring the impact, he lunged at Ketal, throwing another full-powered punch.
Ketal’s instincts screamed at him to evade.
But he ignored them, stepping forward and meeting the punch head-on with his own.
Boom!
Fist collided with fist, creating a deafening roar that pulverized the ground beneath them.
The immense shock reverberated through their bodies.
“Ha! Hahaha!”
[Come!]
Neither backed down.
Ketal locked eyes with the Demon King, whose gaze was filled with hostility and determination aimed solely at Ketal.
Seeing this, Ketal’s face broke into a wide grin.
Yes.
This was what he had always sought.
Laughing wildly, he kicked off the ground.
The Demon King responded with another ferocious punch.
The fierce battle raged on without pause.
And finally—
Crack.
Ketal’s fist struck the Demon King square in the face.
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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