Devouring Their Own Corpses to Strengthen Themselves

"Even this was kept hidden? Did they think what they were given would be so easy to take?"

The sponsor was not worried about those thirteen being completely controlled by Beelzebub. In the end, whether Beelzebub was willing to hand them over or not, they would belong to him.

He narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at the other person in the image—Solomon.

That guy had truly been unexpected.

A mere human had developed Magic and directly touched the source of all creation.

This was no longer something that could be described as intelligence. He truly wanted to study that man's brain, his soul.

Perhaps there was still a chance to do so.

Silence—!

The arena stands fell quiet for a moment as everyone stared at the scene before them in shock.

The Seventy-two Pillars of Demons, who had just been ravaging Beelzebub's side, were now being ravaged in turn by thirteen Sixth Heaven Demon Kings called Papiyas.

As for why the spectators knew these things were called Sixth Heaven Demon Kings, it was because they had announced their own names.

They had even tried to resist their master, Beelzebub—to kill their master—but their bodies had suddenly gone rigid, leaving them unable to move.

The reason was obvious: Beelzebub had done something to them as well, forcing them to obey his orders and attack the Seventy-two Pillars of Demons.

Their strength immediately left everyone dumbfounded.

The weaker Demon Gods could not withstand even three or four moves.

The stronger Demon Gods lasted around ten moves.

As for the Supreme Four Pillars Gods, Demon God Baal, ranked first among them, held on for nearly a hundred exchanges before—

"Pfft—!"

The blade in Demon King Papiyas's hand broke through his defenses and pierced his chest.

The instant the blade was pulled out, a barb emerged from its tip and hooked out his heart.

There had clearly been no barb when it stabbed in. The reason it could do such a thing was that Demon King Papiyas could freely alter parts of his body. He could make bone swords emerge from the backs of his hands or turn them into weapons like blades and axes.

And while nearly a hundred exchanges sounded like a lot and seemed to have taken quite some time, to ordinary humans, it had only lasted a few breaths.

Thus, to the humans, the weaker Demon Gods had seemed to be instantly killed.

The defeat of the Seventy-two Pillars of Demons had therefore exceeded everyone's expectations.

Not only the humans—even the gods were stunned.

After all, some Main Gods might not even have been able to defeat the Seventy-two Pillars of Demons, yet they had been overwhelmingly slaughtered like this?

At that thought, the god-side spectators felt their scalps go numb.

What exactly had Beelzebub created? These things had tried to kill their master from the very beginning. If they ever went out of control one day, the consequences would be unimaginable.

"How boring."

"How boring."

"How boring..."

The thirteen Demon King Papiyas spoke in a string of repeated voices.

Under those words, Demon God Baal's body shattered into specks of light and vanished.

With the disappearance of the final Demon God as the signal, the ground of the sandbox world cracked apart, and terrifying energy surged forth from below.

"Boom—!"

The entire world was annihilated, releasing an aurora pillar that swallowed the entire arena platform and shot into the heavens as though it would punch a hole through the sky.

The spectators at the edge of the arena platform were so frightened that their hearts nearly leaped out of their chests, because the transparent wall before them was making ominous sounds.

In other words, had that suddenly deployed transparent wall not blocked the aurora pillar, the entire arena would likely have been swallowed.

So this was one of the Seventy-two Pillars of Demons' trump cards? A move meant to perish together with their enemy?

But King Solomon should have been caught in it as well.

Everyone watched nervously as the aurora pillar gradually shrank.

When it disappeared, the arena platform revealed before them left everyone astonished...

A huge portion of the entire arena platform had been sheared away, sinking forty or fifty meters down.

A forty- or fifty-meter-deep crater might be easily created by gods, but that was assuming ordinary ground.

Yet this arena platform—no, the entire arena itself—could be called an extraordinarily special creation, perhaps even a divine artifact.

To damage it on such a scale, perhaps only a Main God like Zeus could manage it.

However, not the entire arena platform had been sheared away.

King Solomon's location had not been affected. Thus, a ten-meter radius centered around him remained intact, leaving him standing atop a forty- or fifty-meter pillar.

The same was true on Beelzebub's side. There was still ground beneath his feet, even more than on King Solomon's side, and thirteen Demon Kings surrounded him.

Although those thirteen Demon Kings appeared to have survived, they looked miserable. Their bodies were like candles, warped in a horrifying way by intense heat.

Suddenly, countless people sucked in a breath.

The bodies of the thirteen Demon Kings were repairing themselves. Regenerating?

"They ran away. Only you remain!"

The Papiyas spoke at the same time, staring at one person—King Solomon—with the eyes of large predators watching prey.

When they said the others had run away, it meant that the Seventy-two Pillars of Demons had not truly been killed.

There was something strange about that sandbox world. It was as if it had given them an extra life.

"He is mine!"

The Papiyas spoke in unison again, but this time, they were speaking to themselves.

Then they all began to laugh, their laughter utterly cruel.

The instant the laughter ceased, thirteen Papiyas appeared beside King Solomon without warning.

For a moment, it looked as though there were twenty-six Papiyas in the arena?

That was not the case. The Main Gods saw through it: Papiyas had moved so quickly that before the afterimages left on people's retinas had faded, they had already moved beside Solomon, creating new images on those retinas.

That was why it seemed as though the number of Demon King Papiyas had doubled.

And so, by the time people saw the additional Papiyas, they also saw that the attacks had already been launched.

For a moment, Humanity's side felt their hearts rise into their throats.

Chapter 77: Devouring Their Own Corpses to Strengthen Themselves

As the sound of flesh being forcibly pierced rang out, blood splattered through the air.

Before everyone's eyes, a large hole appeared in King Solomon's chest, leaving it mangled and ruined.

The thirteen Papiyas surrounding King Solomon had bloodied hands, and one of them held a heart.

"Hehehe, I was the fastest!"

The Papiyas holding the heart let out a delighted voice. Because it had been torn out too quickly, the heart had not immediately realized it had left its host's body and continued to beat a few more times.

The sight instantly drained the color from Humanity's side.

"Why—"

Goll let out a hoarse, trembling sound, tears nearly filling her eyes.

But her voice caught halfway through, because a new change occurred in the arena, transforming her impending grief into excitement.

Brunhilde, who had also been tense, relaxed slightly as well.

"Th-this is truly heart-stopping!"

Heimdallr, the announcer, appeared to have broken into a cold sweat for King Solomon as well.

In the arena, the heart held by one Papiyas underwent a change. It turned black and became bizarre.

Did that mean King Solomon's heart was different from a human heart?

Or had Papiyas transformed King Solomon's heart into this?

Neither!

Because that heart did not belong to King Solomon. It belonged to Papiyas.

And the person trapped in the center, whose chest had been torn open and left mangled by the Papiyas, was not King Solomon either, but a Papiyas.

As though performing a magic trick, King Solomon had switched himself with one Papiyas in an instant.

Correction—Magic could not accomplish that. King Solomon had used Space Magic.

Wait—

"No!"

Heimdallr adjusted his glasses and noticed something strange.

The pillar where King Solomon had originally stood had changed its distance from the wall at the edge of the arena platform.

It was as though that pillar could move.

The next second, the pillar truly moved. More precisely, the space moved, returning it to its original position.

No—!

"No, King Solomon did not switch himself with Papiyas."

King Solomon had never moved from the start. He was still standing in his original position.

And this claim that he had not moved was not based on the stone pillar as a reference point, but on the entire arena.

That stone pillar had not moved either. It was still in its original place.

The reason for the apparent movement just now was an illusion.

King Solomon's original location had been concealed, while an illusion had been projected a short distance in front of him.

"This used the refraction and reflection of light."

"Did he create a scene like a mirage?"

"Not only that, he disguised one of them as himself, ensuring that person stepped right into the position attacked by the other Papiyas. Such visual deception is truly extraordinary!"

"To be precise, it did not merely deceive the Papiyas. It deceived the vision of everyone present."

Several voices of deep admiration came from Humanity's side.

Although most humans were ordinary people, there were still some capable individuals among them. These people had seen through King Solomon's trick.

"When did he do that? I did not notice it at all!"

Ares, God of War, from the Greek side, spoke in disbelief as well.

Since it was merely visual deception, there should have been a momentary sense of incongruity. Yet he had noticed nothing.

"He probably did it when the sandbox world exploded. Or perhaps even earlier. He had already been visually deceiving everyone, and since everyone's attention was focused on the sandbox world at the time, they failed to notice the subtle changes."

Loki explained.

But deceiving the sightlines of people throughout the arena from different angles was not simply a matter of using Magic to turn himself invisible while creating illusions. It was a purely physical illusion, subtly manipulating light's reflection and refraction so that the image reflected from King Solomon onto people's retinas would be distorted.

That technique was truly astonishing.

It was precisely because of that technique that he had successfully deceived Papiyas's vision.

If the illusion had been created through magical power, it might have been seen through instead.

After all, illusions formed from magical power were constructed from magical power, and their concentration would feel somewhat out of place compared with the surroundings.

No, that technique was likely related to magical power as well.

Rather, King Solomon's Magic that manipulated the reflection and refraction of light covered the entire arena, enveloping everyone within it. That was why no one had noticed the difference in magical power within the air.

"Hehehe, how interesting. This is so interesting!"

As the Papiyas spoke, every one of their expressions twisted.