Inside the Demon Kingâs artificial realm, True Paradise.
"You used to look disgusting like a rotting corpse before but at least had the guts to fight me head-on..."
"But look at you now; you have become a coward... so much so that even your world authority has evolved in the direction of deception..."
Standing atop a broken hill, Ashtel smiled at the demon king mockingly.
Dozens of injuries were piled up on Ashtelâs body, and the realm that seemed to be connected to his soul was visibly more damaged than before.
All those injuries were actually made on Ashtelâs body because he himself damaged the artificial realm and thus in turn injured his own body and soul.
As for the demon king, he was only missing an arm; aside from that, he was still in good shape.
"Say whatever you want to say, Ashtel Rex, but I will not be swayed by your words."
"All I can say to you, is that you are a brave person who dares to keep attacking me despite knowing that you are harming yourself too..."
"Well then, stop chattering; come, show me your determination, Ashtel Rex. I want to see who will be the first one to fall today..."
The demon king smiled as he spoke in a mocking tone.
"Letâs see if you would manage to kill me before you shatter your soul or not..."
Ignoring the demon kingsâ words, Ashtel looked at the broken fragment of the realm that he had grabbed earlier when he shattered a hole in the space-time fabric with a deep frown on his face.
âItâs fragile... itâs made extremely fragile on purpose; this is also to target me specifically...â
As one of the most famous people in the world, almost everyone knew that Ashtelâs world authority was âShockwave,â and it was capable of unleashing immense destruction!
This reputation helped Ashtel keep crimes and evil individuals suppressed, but, just like a double-edged sword, it also gave his opponents a chance to understand his capabilities.
Knowing a personâs world authority beforehand is a huge advantage, as you can make preparations to deal with it beforehand and can try various schemes to suppress the power of the world authority.
Suppressing powerful world authorities like Ashtelâs has always been extremely difficult.
Thatâs why Ashtel has never cared about people knowing his world authority, as nobody had managed to find a weakness in it.
But that was not true anymore, as the Demon King had managed to find a weakness in Ashtelâs world authority.
âHeâs purposely targeting the overly destructive nature of my authority to deal heavy damage to me...â
The demon king knew exactly how Ashtelâs world authority worked, as the two of them had fought before.
And although the demon kingâs authority had changed in its basic mechanisms after evolving to a higher level, Ashtelâs world authority was still the same, just more destructive than before.
That was mainly because Ashtel hadnât wavered from his âPathâ even once.
He was still walking the same path of being the protector of the nation and the destroyer of his enemies.
But the demon king had wavered in his path, and from a head-on combatant, he had become the type to scheme behind the scenes.
Originally his world authority âTrue Paradiseâ was supposed to grant him immense powers by creating a paradise suited to his own body and hostile to his enemies.
The last time Ashtel was forced to be in a stalemate because this âtrue paradiseâ gave a tremendous boost in physical capabilities to its user and made the user almost omnipotent within the range of the artificial realm!
âMy world authority shockwave is highly destructive in nature and every time I unleash it, the artificial realm suffers and then redirects the damage back to me...â
âAnd if I donât use my world authority, I will not be able to properly damage the other party or defend against his control over the âlawsâ of the âworldâ inside this artificial realm...â
âTrue paradise... this is one of the most sinister world authorities I have ever seen in my life...â
Ashtel shook his head, clenched his fists, and activated his world authority.
[World Authority: Shockwave!]
As if excited by the fact that Ashtel was about to destroy his soul by his own hands, the demon king smiled mockingly.
"HAHAHAHA!!! YES!!! AHAHAHAH!!! YES!!! DESTROY YOURSELF ASHTEL REX!!! AHAHAHAH!!!"
Seeing the demon king mock him, Ashtel remained unaffected, and instead of wasting his time arguing with Dahaka, Ashtel smirked a bit and sat down on the ground.
[Fool Art: New Dream: Absolute Defense!]
In the confused eyes of Dahaka, Ashtel increased the density of the shockwaves covering his body, took a complete defensive posture, and refused to move from his spot.
"W-what are you doing!?"
Seeing that sudden panic on the demon kingâs face, Ashtel knew that he had succeeded.
"The more I attack, the more I will damage my soul. Your world authority is really powerful, but such a powerful world authority must also has some drawbacks to it..."
Just like how the biggest drawback of Ashtelâs own world authority was its overly destructive nature, the demon kingâs world authority, âTrue Paradise,â was not perfectly flawless either.
Every world authority had to have some kind of flaw in it for it to function.
If it didnât have any flaws to it, it wouldnât be called a world authority anymore but something of a much higher level.
"Ever since we entered this artificial realm of yours, you have been mocking me and trying to make me attack you when you yourself hasnât attacked me at all..."
"I was originally not sure why you werenât fighting back and the most weird thing is that you yourself arenât actively trying to destroy this realm when doing so would harm my soul deeply..."
"This all points to one possibility, âInside the true paradise, whoever attacks will hurt themselves first.â You are not attacking because if you did, the attack will rebound back to you..."
A smirk appeared on Ashtelâs face as asked with a grin,
"Or am I wrong? If I am wrong then attack me! Hehe~"