GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

Chapter 253 A Race Against Time.

?10 bolts of chaotic energy materialized around him in the blink of an eye and shot toward Alkazhi. It might be chaos energy that he is manipulating not mana, and it may be difficult to make intricate spells with it but he can dish it out a lot quicker. He has a powerful soul and a chaotic power rating of 189 which is enough to overcome Alkazhi's magical defense.

Alkazhi paled when he saw the attacks. He sensed that they were very dangerous. Even looking at them felt like his eyes were being stabbed by black spikes. The bolts of chaos overwhelmed the number of lances of fire he had. He had only 2 fully formed ones. One of them had shot towards Aeternus while another had fully formed. More were still forming but he needed time.

He understood that he wouldn't be given that time. He had to do something about the incoming attacks, so he stopped attempting to levitate and switched to another strategy. He also stopped trying to create more lances of fire and instead focused all of his mental prowess on creating a shield barrier. A rectangular barrier of fire appeared in front of him that continued to thicken as time passed. The bolts fell on the barrier and were stopped one after the other. He had succeeded in blocking the attack.

The barrier of fire also became wobbly and unstable but Alkahzhi had faith in his barrier. The barrier would thicken then he would morph it into a dome that covered him. With him safely ensconced within the dome, he will morph the outer layer of the barrier to create whips and tentacles of flame. He would be able to defend and attack at the same time which would buy him enough time for the barrier to transform into a giant fire octopus monster.

If the fire monster that he creates isn't resolved early and he is allowed time to boost his magical power then more attacks can be brought into play. Even if the fire monster is resolved, he still has another strategy locked and loaded that he can easily switch to.

The fire monster is capable of exploding to cause massive destruction that will boost its power again. Alkazhi will make it explode before it is breached if there is a way to resolve it. The explosion will also clear the immediate surroundings of enemies. It will give Alkahzhi enough time to use the dregs of the spell to form fire lances while he tries to ascend into the sky again and begin raining down destruction.

High-rank demons are like that. They have had time and the necessary intelligence to figure out their strength and weaknesses and to create a fighting style. Their most powerful tools are their skills not their upgrades from evolution and the most powerful high-rank demons are the ones with enough intelligence to utilize their skills effectively. All Alkazhi needs to win a fight is time.

Too bad that he is facing an entity of chaos. His barrier of fire truly stopped the chaotic flames but they paid a price for it. The chaotic flames began to burn on the shield and created small holes within it. The barrier couldn't grow and thicken. It was snuffed out instead and it caused significant damage to his psyche that stunned him.

He didn't get time to recover because Aeternus had already shot out several more chaotic bolts at Alkazhi. Alkazhi had lost his composure. His mind was in a mess and his plans have gone off-track. Still, his instincts kicked in. He began creating shields to stop the bolts.

While Alkazhi was focused on the bolts, Aeternus was preparing something else. He had been focusing on his claymore since the fight started, and now he swung it at Alkazhi a few meters away. A blade of flaming chaos shot out of his claymore and streaked toward Alkazhi.

During his time practicing chaos energy, he found out that he can enhance his chaos energy with his soul force by using his chaos vessel as a conduit. The process is more like compression. His chaos power has a stat higher than what a mid-rank demon should have, adding his soul force to it increases its rank and its power rating. Chaos energy resists changes to it but he can compress it within his chaos vessel and shoot it out.

The blade of flaming chaos tore through the impromptu shields that Alkazhi put up and cleaved his body into two. The blade went through his body and also split the ground behind him to create a deep gorge. Aeternus rushed to save the grimoire while chaos set about to destroy Alkazhi's body.

He nodded his head appreciatively at the effect of the attack. Theoretically, he can boost his chaos energy power rating up to the limit that is the addition of both his Magical and Spirit attack rating. The more time he spends focusing on the compression, the higher his attack will be, but it can never reach a power rating of 486. The problem is his conduit.

His chaos vessel likes to absorb both chaos energy and soul force. He needs to hold off its appetite which consumes more soul force from him. It won't be efficient to try and reach the limit of compression because of the prohibitive cost in energy and in time.

In a way, he and Alkazhi are similar in that they can boost their power rating over the norm if given time. The one that will win in such a fight is the one that reaches the boost the fastest. His chaos vessel gives him an edge in that regard. Alkazhi's boost might last longer while Aeternus can only boost each individual attack. He can boost the attacks the quickest and so he won.

He put the grimoire away into his inventory before turning his attention to the surroundings. His divine sense reached out to the high-rank demons hiding around him.

"Are you going to come out or what?" He asked.

Several high-rank demons came out from various hiding places. They are about 14 in number and they are also part of the reason why he had to kill Alkazhi quickly. If they joined in, then Alkazhi will have more time to accumulate his power which will be bad.

This group of high-rank demons had been waiting here for Aeternus even before Alkazhi came. Alkazhi was right to suspect that some high-rank demon had approached him without him being aware. They aren't the only ones watching him but the rest aren't hostile. Even the powerful divine sense watching him isn't hostile to him, yet. This particular divine sense has been watching him since his ambush.

They approached him and stood less than 3 meters away from him. One of the demons stepped forward.

"You're strong. That much is true. But you're outnumbered. That is also true. The entire plane is boiling over because of the spatial artifact. You will only face more and more danger. You can't keep the artifact. That is a fact."

Aeternus snickered. How is it a fact that he can't keep it? It is more of a fact that he can't give his inventory away. The thing is bound to the system which is attached to him. He doesn't have any power over the system.

"So what do you suggest? That I should give you?" He asked as if he was interested.

"No. We want you to join us. We intend to use the artifact as a bargaining chip to negotiate with a demon noble or the demon Lord himself. If you join us, you will get our strength and support. We will also split the gains into 16 portions. You will take two portions while we will each take one. It is reasonable right? We can form a contract for it. What do you say?"

Not all high-rank demons have fortresses. A fortress can only be built around an abyss altar. There is a limited amount of abyss altars per plane. You can build anything anywhere but it won't be relevant if it isn't built around an abyss altar.

There are only 666 abyss altars and thousands of high-rank demons. That means that there are many high-rank demons without a relevant fortress. These 14 are among the unlucky many. Without a fortress, there's no way to invade worlds and harvest resources to grow stronger. They can't fight other high-rank demons because they aren't strong. If they were so strong, they would be among the 666 high-rank demons with a fortress.

Their stats didn't look impressive for high-rank demons.

ATTACK RATING: Physique:165. Spirit:145. MAGIC:140.

DEFENSE RATING: Physique:150. Spirit:140. MAGIC:84.

A normal high-rank demon's power rating ranges from 140-180. These demons are average and to top it off they don't have impressive boosts from their sin ability. It is not a wonder why they are the bottom feeders of the domain of high-rank demons.