The Devouring Dragon-Chapter 76: Winner Take All

It's so nice when everything goes as planned, isn't it?

As I stood in the arena, watching the sequence of events go smoothly, I felt a bit proud. I wasn't sure if it was because of my high LUK stat or if I was selling myself short in the intelligence department and really had created a perfect plan, but it didn't matter either way.

My plan had worked, and it was working perfectly.

I stood casually in the arena, watching as Sirzechs looked into the sky in confusion. Serafall's voice came through the entire stadium, saying words that she didn't really want to, but had to because of our contract.

I felt a bit bad making her do this, as I genuinely liked the cheerful woman and considered us friends at this point, but I knew that no matter how much she liked me, she wouldn't help me take over her entire race willingly. I'd spare her family from the fate many of the other pillars were about to suffer, so hopefully she wouldn't hold it against me too much.

Katerea appeared in the sky above the arena, just as planned. There wasn't an anti-teleportation barrier set up in the stadium, but there didn't need to be because of the runes.

My [Runecraft] skill had reached level 45 because of how much time I'd spent slaving away with my cyclops soldiers to create enough runes to fill the entire floor of the stands, but it had been worth it.

It turned out that it was actually pretty difficult to create magic-absorbing runes, which was why the task had been so difficult. Combine that with making them subtle enough that no one would notice? Considering most powerful runes shone bright enough to look like a miniature sun when they activated, it was quite a struggle.

It was even more annoying considering Ajuka had been sniffing around the arena during its construction. I had to keep the runes under wraps until I sealed him, and then had my troops and Zekrel's servants working overtime to install them the night before the duel.

However, the difficulty that came with using runes actually benefited me here. Most devils didn't care for them at all, as their demonic power was much easier to use than learning how to program runes, so none of the noble devils in attendance knew what to do as their powers were suddenly made useless.

Most devils even tended to look down upon human mages with low power who had to use runes, but I bet they were regretting that now.

As Katerea's body glowed with a mixture of colors, looking almost like a rainbow from all the succubi buffing her, I bet she felt on top of the world. I felt a surge of power from even just one succubus using buffing skills on me, and she was getting thousands right now.

As a result of all the buffs, it was child's play for Katerea to put the finishing touches on the opening act. She raised her staff, and thousands of Leviathan-themed magic circles filled the stands.

In the next second, Sirzechs watched in horror across from me as the stadium erupted in an explosion of light.

Well, not the entire stadium, but a good portion of it. After all, I didn't need to kill every noble family - just the ones I couldn't control.

Right now, my succubus soldiers had already made enough strides to take control of close to half the pillars, as exactly 11 family heads were charmed. That number had actually been higher only just a few days ago, but Ajuka wasn't a supergenius for nothing.

While he had kept good on his promise of not directly stopping my succubi or distributing a device to find them easily, that didn't mean he just let them run wild. A few of the charmed heads had 'randomly' broken through the charm over the past week, and the overall knowledge of the succubi being active had led to family heads being more careful overall.

Ironically, those heads would've been better off if they had just stayed charmed. I had 11 pillars I could control, and another five in the form of the Gremory, Sitri, Astaroth, Agares, and Phenex that I would leave unharmed, which left the remaining 16 to die.

I genuinely cared about Rias, so I obviously would let her family live, and for similar reasons, I was sparing the Sitri for Serafall and the Phenex for Ravel. The Astaroth clan was just Latia, so I didn't need to take action there, and I was sparing the Agares because Rias was childhood friends with their Heiress - and, of course, because Seekvaira Agares was gorgeous.

When you were the King, sparing a beautiful woman just for her looks was a benefit that came with the position. I was sure none of the devils I'd grown close with recently would appreciate me killing so many of their kind, so I was being extra nice in sparing anyone they cared about to make up for it.

In the end, instead of the entire stadium, it would be more specific to say 16 of the 32 sections were engulfed in a ball of light. The stadium had been split in half for a reason, and I'd carefully positioned those I was sparing on one side while the rest were on the other.

That made Katerea's job easy, and half of the arena was disintegrated into a ball of light. I'd told Katerea to leave a couple from each family alive so I could use [Devour] for the skills, but I imagined that she wasn't used to controlling so much power from the buffs than her actually going against me.

It wasn't entirely her fault either - to overpower the runes, she needed to use a lot of power. The runes were made to be strong enough to make it difficult for even Zekram Bael to overpower them, so Katerea couldn't be lazy with her attack.

Her attack wasn't the only thing killing the families either - as the runes were flooded with too much power, they flashed with bright lights and exploded under the very feet of the devils in the stands.

It wasn't a big deal anyway - there would be extra branch devils from each family I could track down later for skill XP, and the pillar quests would give me the actual skills.

"What..." Sirzechs trailed off across from me, the man staring with wide, horrified eyes at the sight.

In a split second, the 32 remaining pillars had dropped to 16.

Well, 17 would be more accurate, as I knew that Zekram Bael was certainly alive within the smoke that was rising from Katerea's attack. He wouldn't let the Bael bloodline die out so easily, and there was actually probably a survivor or two from a couple of the other families.

Luckily, that's why Shalba Beelzebub and Katerea were here. They'd enjoy cleaning up whoever remained.

"If you want to blame someone, then blame Ajuka," I grinned, calling out to Sirzechs as he stared at the destruction with wide eyes, "If he had just let my succubi do what they wanted, then those families could've lived."

"You..." Sirzechs obviously didn't agree with my 'blame Ajuka' angle, as his head slowly, robotically, turned to look at me. A dark red aura started to surround him, the air grew thick, and his eyes seemed to glow red as he stared me down.

The ground under me started to shake as his aura spread out wider, and I was getting the first-hand view of an absolutely furious Sirzechs Lucifer. I just grinned in response, reaching back and unsheathing my sword.

"Who would've thought I'd get a chance like this?!" Shalba shouted far above us, the man looking greedily over at the box with Falbium, Serafall, and Tiamat in it, "Let's kill those fakes, Katerea!"

"Only one of them!" Katerea countered with a hiss, "And the rest of the survivors!"

Katerea had meant the survivors on the destroyed side of the stadium, but her words snapped Sirzechs would of his rage-filled glare at me for a moment. He glanced to the side, taking in the pandemonium that was forming on the unharmed side of the stadium.

The heads of the families were charmed, but that didn't mean the entire families were. Devils were desperately trying to use their magic - most of them to try and escape - while Lord Gremory was blatantly trying to smash through the barrier surrounding the arena to get to Sirzechs.

Rias and her peerage were also with her family in the stands as the gorgeous woman looked at me shakily, but I ignored her for now. I didn't owe the woman an explanation, but I'd still give her one after this was over.

Sirzechs slowly raised his hand, and an orb of pure black power formed in the air. It shrouded his hand, growing bigger as the air around him seemed to shake and shimmer from his Power of Destruction.

I held my sword in front of me, but I quickly realized the attack wasn't for me. Sirzechs' sound mind won over his rage, and he flung the massive orb of power at the barrier as he realized he needed to prioritize protecting the remaining devils - and his family - over getting revenge on me.

Unfortunately for Sirzechs, I had suspected he would do something like this. I had hoped that he'd become so furious that he'd ignore what was happening around us and try to kill me, but he wasn't an idiot.

As Sirzechs' orb of destruction shot toward the barrier, a large crashing noise came from above. The box that Serafall, Falbium, and Tiamat had been standing in crumpled - or, more specifically, was blown open from the inside.

Serafall and Falbium both shot to the side, floating in the air as Tiamat's massive dragon form appeared and smashed through the small room easily, as she was far too big to fit in it. Her eyes glowed, and a notification appeared in the corner of my vision.

[Familiar] [Tiamat] has used [Karma Control]

[Calculating Karma...]

While Tiamat was certainly powerful and had grown even stronger since my fight with her, there was no chance her barrier could contain Sirzechs. She would've been hard-pressed to contain even the aftershocks of me and Sirzechs fighting, and the barrier would have been destroyed by Sirzechs as he put genuine effort into breaking it.

However, that was just her base form.

[Calculating Good Karma...]

[Calculating Bad Karma...]

Tiamat's eyes stared down toward the arena, but they weren't looking at Sirzechs - they were looking past him.

[Zekram Bael]'s Karma Value: -5,175,552

In the destroyed section of the stadium, floating amongst the smoke and destruction, was a bruised and burnt but not-dead Zekram Bael.

This had been a decision I had made, as Tiamat's two potential targets for [Karma Control] were Sirzechs or Zekram. Sirzechs was who I initially thought she should use the skill on, as the man had been responsible for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of deaths as the biggest player in the Devil Civil War.

However, he was young. Not young in same way Rias or Sona were considered young, as he wasn't a part of the newest generation of devils, but he was still considered young as far as devil standards go.

And, despite being my opponent right now, he was actually a pretty good guy. Compared to most devils, Sirzechs was practically a saint. He wanted peace, he cared for his family, and he didn't look down on others because of their class or ranking.

He had probably killed far more than Zekram had, but he likely had a lot of good karma to balance it out.

Most importantly, Zekram was old. While Sirzechs was considered a young devil, Zekram was possibly the oldest living devil. He was a man who'd been around since the formation of his very race, and was decidedly not a good person.

He'd been involved in the Great War and was also indirectly responsible for just as many deaths as Sirzechs by manipulating and leading the Devil Civil War.

Where Sirzechs desired peace and cared for his family, Zekram wanted power to put the devils over other factions, and had no qualms about manipulating anyone to get what he wanted.

And, as I glanced up at Tiamat, I felt like I had made the correct choice.

[Enhanced] [Great Dragon King] [Chaos Dragon Karma] [Tiamat] - Level 5,700 (805)

In an instant, a huge aura flooded out from Tiamat. The air seemed to shimmer with a shade of blue, and the air became thick and heavy. Even I felt a weight appear on my shoulders, and I knew it was many times worse for the rest of the stadium's occupants.

All around the stands, devils - be it family heads or reincarnated peerage members - were forced to their knees as Tiamat towered overhead. Her very presence slammed down on them, forcing them to kneel as if she were a Dragon God rather than a Dragon King.

As the dragon grew to over twice the level of Sirzechs, his orb of destruction slammed into the barrier and was absorbed as if it were nothing. Instead of an attack that could've normally gravely injured even a Dragon King, the orb of destruction looked as if a toddler had thrown a ball at a wall.

"Serafall! Why are you doing this?!" I heard Falbium's shout above me, and the man was struggling to dodge an onslaught of ice spears being launched at him by Serafall.

"I don't want to!" Serafall called back apologetically, "But I have to!"

"Don't let him leave!" The voice of Katerea hissed on the other side of the arena, the woman raising her staff as Zekram launched an orb of destruction at her. Next the her, Shalba was grinning as the duo took on the ancient devil.

Finally, someone in the unharmed stands had the balls to stand up. A large male devil's wings shot out from his back, and he shot into the air as he realized magic wouldn't work.

Unfortunately for him, instead of escaping the stadium, he got a huge dragon claw slammed down on his body for his trouble. I was sure Tiamat was trying to be gentle so she didn't kill him, but blood flew from the man's mouth anyway as he was rocketed back down into the stands.

"No one is leaving," Tiamat growled out, her eyes narrowed as her aura pressed down even more oppressively on the remaining devils.

"This is quite the situation, isn't it, Sirzechs Lucifer?" I called out the man, who was launching another orb of destruction at the barrier to no avail, "Trapped in a barrier with me while your faction crumbles around you. Your family is powerless, and you can't even get out to help them. It would seem that you've lost."

I felt a bit bad for the man - the situation truly was hopeless. Half of the pillars he and his fellow Maou tried so hard to please and protect had died in an instant, and now he was helpless as my forces floated above the rest of the powerless devils.

Even his two strongest allies, Serafall and Falbium, were being forced to battle while his race's oldest elder was being killed by Katerea and Shalba. All of this was while Tiamat's massive form floated in the air, staring down at the arena like a god as she ensured nothing went wrong and no one escaped.

"Shut up!" Sirzechs shouted back, turning to me with wide, rage-filled eyes, as another orb of destruction formed around his hand.

"You have two choices," I ignored his words, smirking as I stalked toward him, "Fall to your knees, and I'll spare your life. Or..."

I had considered grinding extra hard to try and get a Nen-related item from the gacha to let me send the Maou to Greed Island, but this was overall better. Both for my reputation, the hold I would have on the remaining devils, and for what would come after the events of today.

Sirzechs' eyes bored into my helmet, his aura expanding even wider as the ground under him started to dissipate from his power. I knew he would never accept the first offer.

"You can fight until your last breath," I said bluntly, raising my sword and pointing it toward him, "If you kill me, then I promise that Tiamat and all my forces will leave peacefully. You can recuperate your losses and take solace in the fact that you haven't lost everything. But..."

I grinned widely, [King's Aura] flaring up. My aura shot outward, shoving Tiamat's out of the arena with ease as my own presence filled the barrier.

"If you lose," I continued, my eyes boring into Sirzechs' as his power flared around him wildly, slashing through the air and forming a crater around him.

"Everything will be mine!"

In that instant, my battle with the strongest devil - with Lucifer himself - began.

The stakes: Everything.

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AN: Thank you for reading! The next Chapter will be out tomorrow!

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