It appeared Belos' ears stood deaf to his sister's words. A cold silence followed. A silence during which Belos eyed Selene from head to toe, lingering on her icy-blue eyes and the glaring change in the bloodline signature she should have possessed.
"Ungrateful wretch."
Belos stated and raised his right hand, causing nine crimson suns to appear at his back as he summoned his ancestral glory. Though his gaze remained locked on Selene's, no warmth lay in his eyes. Instead, it was the suppressed glint of a battle-frenzy that hid beneath the composed exterior.
"Feed a dog and he will guard your door. When even beasts know to repay kindness, you betray your benefactor and side with the enemy, yet have the nerve to call me brother?
No, you're not qualified."
Belos replied, tilting his head to the left while still maintaining eye contact. If the words stung, Selene showed no sign of it. Better, her lips curled into a smirk.
"The so-called Benefactor only needed cheap batteries. We've repaid what we owed by doing our assigned duties. Since it was merely a relationship of mutual use, why call it betrayal? I find that slightly…excessive."
Selene retorted, undisturbed by Belos' oral inquisition.
"I am a simple-minded person. – Help those you like, harm those you dislike has always – been my motto. Regretless, I dislike, Konrad, I like. It is that simple."
Selene pursued. But when the name "Regretless" left her lips, Belos' eyes widened with a feral surge of fury.
"Bold creature. How dare you speak the given name of his excellency?! At first, for the sake of our blood ties and grandfather's heart, I considered giving you one last chance. But since you're so dead-set on offending those you ought to serve, there…is no need for leniency!"
Belos snarled, and with every word, his outward composure collapsed, making way for a full-blown battle-lust. Maddened frenzy filled his eyes, with the golden hues and sclera turning into crimson flames while the nine suns at his back blazed with a blinding, crushing light!
Seeing this, Verena was forced to admit that the strength of a half-step Overgod was indeed staggering. Although it only was half a level more the gap was as vast as the difference between an early-stage and a peak-stage Legendary God! Moreover, unlike the past Overlord and Warden, Belos was the real deal, backed by not only a formidable bloodline but Truth Embodiment and Wielding in other Primal Laws.
If he'd appeared a month before, Verena wouldn't have had any confidence in handling him. Now, however, it was a whole other story. Selene, Verena, and the Valkyrie unleashed their cultivation bases, releasing Devil Force that now stood at the early-stage of the Prime Devil Realm. Although in pure cultivation level they were only equal to peak-stage Legendary Gods, the overpowered Devil Road ensured Belos was bound to suffer miseries.
Stretching out his hands, Belos summoned Fell Judgment, his lineage weapon, and turned into 10,000 afterimages as he shot toward the three. Or so the onlookers initially thought. The three consorts, however, could see that those were no mere afterimages but perfect replicas created by Truth Laws.
Every time Belos landed in a spot in space, a Truth Mirror would anchor that present to produce a Truth Clone. Though Time Embodiments could use a similar trick, theirs was hundreds of times weaker. But since Belos could do it, how could the ladies not? Selene's form blurred, and she too produced 10,000 identical versions as she shot toward Belos, summoning her glaive which now possessed an icy hue.
In a collision of sweeping glaives, the two Truth armies clashed against one another. Kaleidoscope light from the Law Revolution Creed burst from Selene's form as she met her brother in a battle of glaives. However, as they exchanged hundreds of moves, his advantage became evident. Belos' cultivation method and bloodline strength might be inferior to Selene's but the horrendous gap of that half-step allowed it to more than make up for it, making her recoil with every swing, if only for a step.
But as the clangs of their glaives echoed, the Valkyrie made her move. Truth, Fate, Life and Death Embodiment erupted from her form as she hurtled at Belos!
*BANG*
As the Belos Truth army clashed with Selene's the Valkyrie's sword cleft the air, shredding all of Belos' Truth clones in a single slash! Battered by the surge of Devil Force, he flew backward and somersaulted on several rounds before finally steadying himself.
"Interesting."
Belos muttered with a smirk. Clearly, he could see that the Valkyrie wasn't just one person, but an amalgam of thousands whose combined strength sufficed to overpower him. But even then, he didn't lose his composure.
Selene and the Valkyrie turned into dark-purple meteors as they streaked toward Belos. But before their blades could reach him, his smirk became a fiendish grin!
From the Titan Domain, on mountain-sized fist descended, expanding across an impossible distance as it tumbled onto the battlefield! From that fist, a soul-rending force that completely transcended the Legendary God sphere erupted, locking all where they stood as it crashed into Selene and the Valkyrie.
An Overgod's punch!
*BANG*
Blasted by the punch, Selene and the Valkyrie flew backward with a massive eruption of blood. Their forms dropped from the sky, tumbling until they cratered down below and burst into a blood fog. But instantly, the blood fog gathered, reforming into their two, outwardly unharmed, but inwardly weakened form.
Although Primal Law Embodiments typically couldn't kill one another, inflicting pain and suffering didn't require much effort. Faced with the blow of an Overgod, even they couldn't come out unscathed.
"Did you really think I came alone? Since our task is to force out the Chthonian Primogen, we naturally brought reliable manpower."
Belos sneered, and the gargantuan fists pulled back, replaced by ten white-robed old men with the bindi-like Titan Mark on their foreheads…or almost. Instead of the usual circular shape, theirs looked more like diamonds, red diamonds from which inconceivable power rippled.
As those ten men surrounded him, Belos adopted a respectful stance and cupped his hands in greetings.
"Immemorial Titan elders, thank you for your assistance."
Belos said with a polite bow.
"No need to stand on ceremonies. Since Sakra entrusted you to us, we naturally won't let you fall into harm's way."
The leader of those elders replied while sweeping the Valkyrie, Selene, and Verena with his oppressive glance. But though on the outside the three appeared riddled with fright, inwardly they felt no surprise.
If within the three Realms Titans were the apex of the human race, beyond, the situation was vastly different.
In the primordial era of the six realms, the Empyrean Dragons and other Divine Beasts populated the Empyrean Realm. The Nature Spirits inhabited the Nature Realm, the Dao Spirits for the Dao Realm, the Tribulation Spirits for the Tribulation Realm and the Nether Spirits for the Nether Realm.
But as for the Demonic Realm, contrarily to what one might expect, it was inhabited by…humans!
The first denizens of the Demonic Realm were ordinary humans without any bloodline abilities. However, the terrible conditions of the Demonic Realm's various worlds ensured that the human race couldn't survive. In some, it was fire and brimstone, in others, unending storms, stifling deserts and so on.
Of the initial humans, trillions perished, but others evolved, survived and thrived, creating new bloodlines to survive their worlds. Rejecting the traditional cultivation path, they took their bodies as their Heaven and the world as their food, siphoning and bending it to their will to become known as…demons!
Flame Demons, Storm Demons, Beast Demons, Titans and many other bloodlines appeared with some perishing and others rising to replace them. In the end, three bloodlines lorded over the Demonic Realm, the Titans were one of them.
Those were the True Demons!
The demons of this era had nothing to do with those past entities. Rather, they were offshoots of the Nether Spirits. Following Regretless' worldwide purge, many bloodlines vanished while others rose further and enjoyed eternal glory. Evidently, the Titans stood within the lot.
As for Immemorial Titans, only those whose bloodline strength rivaled that of the primordial Titan race were qualified for that title, and in the current era, stood as the true summit of the human race!
Cloud and Night, were both Immemorial Titans. And thanks to Regretless' graces, Sakra also joined their ranks!
But though she knew the opponent's battle-power stood in a completely different realm, Verena held no fear.
