Chapter 388: Demon Lord

The demon strolled toward Julius nonchalantly. Unlike the demons from before, it didn’t come off as too haughty or conceited. It felt more assured and came from actual confidence in his own strength. Perhaps that was why it was considered a lord compared to the other demons. Furthermore, he was confused because, from what he was able to gather from the guild, monster lords were normally only called that when they were really strong.

Typically, they were Tier 5 at the very least, which begged the question of why this demon was called a lord by the rift and by the Words of the World.

It was possible that this demon actually existed, and the rift had taken a copy of the demon to incorporate it into the rift. Thus, maybe it had been a Tier 5 before, and it was downgraded as part of the condition. It would also explain why it had gotten so much stronger in such a short period of time.

At the beginning, before the weird energy fluctuation, the demon had appeared to be a decently strong Tier 4. He would have estimated that the demon lord was around the level of the assassins from Clan Genshen. However, the demon felt much stronger now that it had absorbed whatever energy from the rift. Not only that, but the empowerment felt very natural.

Which further supported the idea that the demon had been stronger in the past.

The demon lord stood in front of Julius with relaxed arms. The black halo above its head was spinning gently but Julius didn’t stray his attention from it. He had no idea what this halo was, but his instincts were telling him that it was a dangerous object.

There was an enormous amount of profundity coming from it. It was as if the demon’s pure Authority had been condensed into it. Just the pressure coming off it would have incapacitated weaker opponents.

He had no idea how other participants would handle a monster like this. It was no wonder nobody had gotten past the eighth floor. The demon commanders would have been a challenge enough as is. They were toward the top of Tier 3, and taking down five of them at the same time would be a feat worthy of an elite fighter.

However, defeating a Tier 4, even if his version of this floor was unique, was not a feat normally accomplishable by anyone at Tier 3.

In the end, it was the demon who made the first move. Julius was barely able to react in time as a lance of pitch black mana pierced the air and headed right toward his face. His body was already completely loaded with mana, aura, and kinetic energy, which gave him enough speed to sidestep the attack.

The energy grazed him, and he felt it as the attack still tore his flesh despite not connecting directly. He didn’t bother trying to maintain his distance; he immediately decided to dash closer. The soles of his shoes disintegrated as the force of kinetic energy rippling from his feet tore them apart.

A plate of black mana appeared before Julius, but he didn’t care as he continued his charge. He used his shoulder to slam against this barrier, using his aura to destabilize the structure of the barrier. It worked out pretty well because, despite its sturdy nature, he was able to blast through it.

He saw the demon’s eyes widen in surprise as Julius broke through without much issue. This surprise allowed Julius to close the distance and slam a fist at the demon’s face. However, just before he was able to make contact, the demon moved with alarming speed. He grabbed Julius’s wrist tightly and swung him across the room in one fluid motion.

Julius smashed into the wall, creating a Julius-sized indent in the stone.

Julius didn’t have any time to recover as a barrage of black lances of mana attacked his position. He evaded most of the attacks, but there were some he wasn’t able to and was forced to bring up the aura-woven construct in front of his face to block them.

The aura-woven construct held up pretty well, and he used this time to heal his fractured spine.

As he was healing, the demon stalked toward him with that same assured confidence.

“You have a healing skill, huh?” The demon lord said to him with a light chuckle. “And you say that you aren’t talented.”

“I’m just lucky,” he said with a shrug.

“Sure, if you say so. Still, let’s see how far that luck extends, yeah?” The demon responded before disappearing in a blur.

It was only because he had [Absolute Spatial Perception] that he was able to react in time. He used some kinetic energy to blast himself off the wall and could only shake his head in amazement as the demon destroyed the rest of the wall with a single punch.

Julius used this time to send several spikes of mana at the demon. His Sharpness Concept had been infused into these spikes, and the demon must have noticed that because he actually paid attention to them.

Julius could sense the demon using some kind of destabilizing skill to rip apart the spikes before it could reach him. Unfortunately for the demon, it hadn’t yet realized that willpower was one of Julius’s biggest strengths. That, on top of the natural tendency of his ruinous aura, meant that the demon could not destroy the constructs fast enough.

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Julius watched as the demon quickly formed a barrier in front of his face just in time. The spikes exploded against this barrier. The Sharpness Concept had been quite effective against the barrier, but Julius felt the demon do something before the spikes were able to pierce the protective piece of mana.

The halo around the demon’s head acted like a conduit for his Authority and nullified the Concept before it was able to hurt him.

However, this only seemed to be a trigger for the demon to start taking things more seriously. The black halo pulsed a single time and Julius widened his eyes in shock as a wave of Authority rippled outward.