"As much as I would love to teach you a very good lesson right now." Hallan Lamar paused looking at the ant and at the upturned environment.

"There are more important things to take care of." He turned to the large door behind him.

Antares clenched his fist and bowed his head, his shoulders shuddering as though he was laughing, but in actuality, he was shaking with anger.

Serious Anger.

"This son of a bitch, he dares turns his back to me. He dares?!!!!!"

He spread his arms out in disarray, screaming so hard that his screeching voice was like tearing the atmosphere. And then he dashed at Hallan, removing his almost transparent but smoky wings, flying at high speed.

He got to where Hallan was and landed. As he launched his fist forward–

A side of Hallan's lips curled. "Just what I needed."

He disappeared from Antares' view, leaving Antares' punch to break into the hard metal door. As that happened, there was immediately a large explosion that shook the whole castle for a while.

Hallan looked with delight as the white smoke spread everywhere from the room. Who knew that the sneaky demon was planning something so bad?

"My strength would have never been enough to break that thing, even if it was enough. The door was designed to multiply the damage by two and return it immediately. So even if it shattered, the person that shattered it was bound to die."

He walked forward slowly with his hands behind his back.

"I have you to thank for my success." He said to Antares who was nothing but a struggling black flame on the ground.

Having absorbed more strength from Hallan, his power at that moment had grown, not even he was able to withstand times two of such power.

Hallan shook his head, smacking his lip in pity for the monster that died paving the way for him. What he did not know was that for this monster, death was not the end, rather it was the beginning. It was growth.

Shhhh!

Just when he was about to take a step in, that struggling black flame erupted higher and formed an ant humanoid again. It was Antares, he was back better and stronger.

Hallan Lamar turned back his head with a puzzled expression. No matter how good he was keeping a straight face one could still see a prejudice of confusion faintly worn on his face.

"Right from your mother's womb, you must have been a very useless bastard. Perhaps she knew you were not going to amount to anything but a butt-fucking coward. Using me to fill your shortcomings is nothing but a complete show of incompetence. You don't deserve to be killed by me, perhaps something lower will do..."

As Antares finish speaking, black smoke wriggled around his feet.

And like that Kortopi shot out too, standing in between Antares and Hallan, he faced Antares, bowed, and faced Hallan.

With a face that said, 'This is the person you will be fighting

Yes, it was possible for a Major rank to call another death soldier as far as the master's consent was it, a major rank can also come out on their own.

Kortopi was standing opposite Hallan with a sword and a fierce look. Who knows what he and Antares had been doing in that short time?

Kortopi launched at him at the fast spread, a sword carving out of his hand like usual.

Wham!

Wham!

Wham!

Wham!

All of Kortopi's strikes came off as easy-peasy for Hallan, he dodged with a fluid movement of his head and body, weaving away from the end point of every sword strike that Kortopi was trying to slip in.

He finally somersaults into the air and as he came back spinning on Kortopi, he landed a heavy strike on him. One that razed the ground and broke it.

Kortopi had blocked that strike but his hands were shaking.

Hallan was standing with a great sword in his hand. The sword looked like it had been corroded with some green erosive material but that was how it was.

Kortopi struggled to stand up but Antares places his hand on his shoulders.

"It is fine. I shall show him, what comes upon a man when he touches my brother."

Kortopi's eyes gleamed with respect as the ant walked forward glaring at Hallan.

"You dare to hurt my brother."

"You have an identity crisis, look at that thing and look at yourself again–

Wham!

Whoosh!historical

Hallan Lamar's face swung away from Antares' sharp claws in a hair's breadth but the after-effect caused a few scratches to burst open on his cheek.

He was confident in this demonic skin, he was sure of its defenses. But right now it was looking like the ant easily penetrated.

He frowned and touched his cheek.

"How dare you–

Antares lunged at him again, a series of sharp cyclonic kicks that blasted the wind away each time Hallan Lamar dodged. It was impressive that Hallan Lamar was keeping up with such a level of speed. Surely, he was a very strong dude too.

Wham!

His sword wriggled with vibration as Antares leg smashed it. The leg should have been embedded in his chest now if his sword wasn't hella strong.

'How is he so powerful?' Hallan Lamar wondered.

He wondered if it was that the ant he knew had always been this powerful and he was just lucky that day or if it was because he met another man and became this thing that he is yet to understand.

Truth be told, if Raith extracted Antares before he met Hallan Lamar, he might not have been this strong. Surely, Antares back then had eaten a lot of people but it wasn't to the extent at which he ate humans after receiving a name from Hallan Lamar and going to the human world.

It is thanks to the ant's meeting with Hallan Lamar, that Raith now has a soldier this strong.

"I am not done with you."

Antares, swung his hand back, and as he brought it back forward with a tearing speed, a cloak of raging flames enveloped his fist immediately burning so high that it was beginning to burn pink—

Wham!!

GBOOOAAM

CRASH!!

An explosion of force was birthed as that enraged fist connected with Hallan Lamar's said defenses. Both of them were sent flying away from each other– Antares scratched the floor with his toe-claws to come to a stop and walked forward immediately.

By the time he got to where Hallan Lamar–

"He is gone!" He exclaimed.

"That son of a bitch is gone!!!"

***

"The answers you seek are not mine to give." Her soft voice was like gel, almost like it was screaming, handle me carefully.

Raith pocketed his hands, they were clenched right there in his pocket. He was holding out because he respected everything here and especially Pieter. He had not thought about it before but fighting with this knight of oath won't be easy.

He had fought with a lot of monsters but it is a different story when it is a human, strong enough to catch up to Noir's speed.

"Before anything. Can you take that thing away from this place?" She said.

She still had the guts to ask in a commanding tone despite the fact that she could die by Raith's hand at any moment.

Raith looked at Noir and nodded.

"Yes Master" With his thick response the wyvern dematerialized into dark smoke and seeped into Raith.

"So what were you saying? They are not yours to give?"

The Pontifex slowly walked out of the middle of the knights and stood a few feet apart from Raith.

"Raven Raith Dellagado... I don't know what you intend to hear from me but you were chosen by the death archon. Yes, there are a lot of things surrounding this topic but the unchangeable truth is that you were chosen."

Raith nodded with a short chuckle.

"So you are going to lie till the end."

Raith went silent, rubbing his lower lips with his thumb, he was deliberating on what to do since the pontifex was going to keep shitting him.

However, his silence put all the knights on their edge.

"Fel–

Her eyes widened the moment Raith spoke out the name.

The name of the death archon was not common knowledge, no one knew it, except if they did a deep research into history. She grimaced at Raith.

"Judging by your expression, I am beginning to make some sense right? But I have not even started."

Raith placed his hands behind his back like some aged professor.

"Fel died. He died long ago... according to the story that Therut told us, the death archon betrayed the other eight archons in the end– but after his repentance, he offered his life as a sacrifice for our world to stand. But that didn't mean he was forgiven, the sin of betrayal is heavy after all."

Raith continued.

"You claim the other eight archons are sleeping, they choose heroes, that makes a lot of sense. But how come no one ever thought that was it not abnormal for a death archon to choose a hero?

I looked into all the heroes of death archon before me after I got chosen... you know something fascinating, all records of them were lost, except this particular one where their deaths were recorded. Now, I wonder who erased those records."

Raith's eyes gleamed with malice as he looked at her.