Chapter seventy-six - Avatar of Malphas

[Atention! The avatar of a superior demon has been detected! The host's current spell level is enough to survive the battle, a special quest has been created!]

[Special Quest: Survive!]

[Survive the battle against Malphas avatar, the rewards will vary based on battle results!]

'It's been a while since I've been given a quest beyond the daily quests...' Locke commented on the mental link, he knew what it meant, since he started to grow stronger it was rare to find something strong enough to be recognized by the system, but what really worried him was the mission specifications, the system didn't ask him to win, it asked him to survive.

'Locke, this guy is no joke, his magic is on Rudra's level, but Rudra was just an *sshole who depended on his lightning nature, this guy is not going to be easy like him!' Tia answered through the mental link.

The raven demon's wings began to shrink and fade. Coming into his back, his bird-shaped face and muscular body also underwent a transformation, and soon Locke was facing a middle-aged, immaculately dressed man who was watching him with a strange smile on his face.

"Look at you, even incomplete I can still clearly see the image of your father, so that stupid savage really destroyed his own soul for nothing after all..." The demon spoke, his voice was husky and deep.

"It wasn't for nothing after all, it was his fault my mother died!" Locke responded with visible anger.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, young man! But killing your mother was a act of a fool! Because of her your father broke into hell, because of it he destroyed many demons, most of them were just worms but some of them were quite decent, your father even manages to kill one of the four kings! Do you have any idea how much it took to stop him? Hell will never recover from the damage he's done, and all this and that savage couldn't even slay the correct target! We all assumed that your father was getting revenge for you, so we celebrate that we managed to get rid of the dragon of the prophecy, all the hell will go crazy when they hears you're alive!" Malphas replied.

"Dragon of the prophecy?" Locke questioned.

"Oh! You do not know!" The demon laughed. "Well, I won't be the one to tell you!"

Locke gritted his teeth angrily, "I thought demons couldn't cross to earth!" Locke responded as he gathered his mana and prepared for battle.

"And we can't, thanks to your father's stupid seal, the most we can do is send aspects or avatars, but the stronger they are the less time they can last here, this form for example..." The demon held out his hand , Locke could see a series of thin black lines that were slowly appearing, like cracks. "With the power I sent I can only hold it for about 15 minutes..."

"So should we start?" Locke replied, he didn't believe in the demon for a second, but he hoped his Dragon force would last longer than the time this demon managed to sustain itself in this world.

"Don't be in such a hurry to die, young man! I want to enjoy the feeling of being a hero for saving all hell, it's good to know I can put an end to you before you can grow stronger!" Malphas replied, despite the veiled threat his tone was strangely calm. "Before starting, there's something I have to do first!" The demon turned to the priest. "Matthias, you called me into this world again and for that I'm grateful, but you also hid the existence of this young man, I believe the time has passed to do you favors, next time you call me or my shadows, I will charge your soul as a price!"

"Damn devil! My immortal soul will never be yours! My soul belongs to God and to Him alone!" Matthias yelled. "I will never call you again!"

"AHAHAHAHAHA! Do you believe this fool? He really thinks he's going to cross the gates of heaven after everything he's done... Do you know? We have a special place in Hell for people like that…" The demon joked.

Locke didn't respond.

"You're not funny..." The demon complained. "I am Malphas, the wise raven! A President demon of Hell! Builder and destroyer of towers and castles! Now proclaim your name and titles, boy!"

[A demon challenged you to a formal duel, if you proclaims your name and titles and wins the duel, more rewards will be added to main quest!]

'Watch out Locke, if he wins the duel he'll have a claim on your soul!' Tia warned.

"What if I run away in the middle of the fight?" Locke questioned.

'He'll be able to sense you wherever you go and he'll chase you, but it's not like he won't do it in the first place! Besides, if you escape long enough until he breaks the duel will be cancelled, he can only claim your soul if he kills you himself.' the fairy replied.

'Then I have no choice!' "I am Locke Driscoll, a half-dragon! The Thunder breaker! Friend of the Dryad! Hero of the lizardkins and hero of the people!"

The demon smiled and raised his cane, hitting it hard on the floor, waves of magic began to spread through the room as it transformed, instead of a huge room with the appearance of an urban warehouse, the environment became a empty and endless plain, with a strange violet sky, sunless and starless, with the whole ground made up of blocks of stone, soon a tower began to rise above the devil's feet and he stretched upward.

"Where I am?" Locke questioned.

'I have two news for you, one good and one bad, the bad one is that this cheater dragged you into his territory, here he can exercise his skills to the fullest, the good news is that he doesn't know you can jump dimensions and he can escape if things get bad!' Tia replied. 'He also shortened his time when he taked this path!'

"Get ready boy!" The demon screamed, thousands of crows appeared around him and flew towards Locke.

Locke was about to take the attack with his claws when he felt a sense of danger, he used the ethereal steps to vanish from his original position and the crows hit the ground and started to explode.

"Very good boy!" The demon laughed. "Try to dodge this time!" He tripled the number of crows, which flew towards Locke, Locke sped up his paces, moving like a ghost, his figure only visible for seconds and then disappearing, with crows exploding in the place he had been just milliseconds after him. move.

"Damn, this guy is on Rudra's level, but this time I can't count on a miracle solution to save my *ss!" Locke complained.

'Try to hold on as long as you can, look at him, the number of cracks is increasing, you just need to dodge longer!' The fairy advised him.

Locke gritted his teeth angrily, just dodging wasn't his style, he wanted to do as much damage as possible, hell, he wanted to kill this demon the same way he killed the others, he just needed a chance for an attack, that attack.

'Hey! I know what you're thinking! This is not a good idea! When you used this in training your mana and stamina dropped to zero!" Tia warned him.

"But if I get it right I think I can kill him!" Locke replied.

'Maybe?! But then what? What if you miss the mark? What are we going to do with you tired and out of mana afterwards?

"I still have your potions in my inventory, they'll be enough to recover enough to run if necessary, plus I want to know what I'll gain if I win!"

'...be careful!'

Locke started to accumulate mana in his chest, his black armor fell apart in the process, he continued to dodge the raven attacks and explosions by the thickness of a hair.

Malphas' avatar kept up the raven attacks for a while, but when he realized they weren't fast enough he started to get bored. "Looks like my little familiars aren't enough to handle you... It's time to leverage!" The demon raised his cane like a conductor raising his baton in an orchestra, with a single movement, walls made of stone bricks began to rise from the ground trying to surround Locke who flew up, more and more structures appeared, pillars were hurled at Locke trying to crush it, traps were set and thrown at them, walls and roofs, full of sharp spikes came from all directions, debris and pieces of buildings were thrown at it, it was as if Locke was fighting a huge living castle that was always growing, an evil castle that wanted to kill him at any cost.

Locke dodged what he could dodge, whatever he could not he was forced to pass through, he pierced walls and destroyed the structures but it was as if they had regenerated and he felt they were trying to trap him.

The demon looked excited, swinging his cane like a crazed child, causing his infinite castle to attack Locke from all directions. "Very good! Very good! Let's increase the difficultie!" The demon screamed.

The stone walls exploded and hands made of stone started to appear, they tried to grab Locke and hinder his movements and more than once they managed to do it, which cost Locke some damage, especially after being caught by the giant pillars who are trying to transform him in pancake, he was hit and crushed between them, but he tore them apart with his strength, escaping with some bruises.

"A little harder!!" The demon screamed, The stones began to shake with the appearance of gray knights made of stones, they all had weapons made of the same material that they were made of, they attacked Locke but were easily defeated, being crushed to pieces easily, unfortunately for Locke they were slowing him down and seemed infinite, they interfered more than the stone hands on the walls and he began to suffer more and more damage from the structures.

"Young man, what fun you are! Let's make things more interesting!" Malphas' avatar screamed, weapons resembling huge siege crossbows began to appear on the walls in the distance, they began shooting pillar-sized stone arrows at Locke, who was forced to dodge one more thing, all while every of the other attacks continued.

"This is so much fun! Much fun!" The demon screamed, the cracks now filling his face, some places even started to crumble. "Sadly, Playing like this is making my clock run faster, so forgive me for skipping a few levels!" He slammed his cane to the ground, the cracks widening so much that he looked like he was going to break at any moment.

As soon as he struck his cane, thousands of new threats arose before Locke, in addition to the knights, there were now archers and mages made of stone, the number of siege crossbows increased and now there were also catapults and other heavy siege weapons, iron balls with thorns attached by chains were thrown from traps on the walls, as well as darts, flames and all sort of things like that, but Locke found this moment ideal.

While the demon was spending his time playing, Locke made him think he couldn't use his ethereal steps while flying, but the truth is that despite the name, this technique worked even better when someone could fly, Locke disappeared from the attacks and appeared inches away from the demon.

'Finish him!!' the fairy yelled.

What was Locke's strongest attack? He spent some time in training trying to figure it out. In training his mana and his body worked the same as in reality, he even got tired or hurt when he was there, but everything went back to normal when training was over, he took advantage of that to push his limits to the max.

He tested how hot his flames could get, how many lightning bolts he could cast and what size shadow he could control, he found out a lot about himself and how to use his own magic to the fullest, but for his surprise, his most powerful attack was his simplest attack.

Every time Locke used his dragon breath, he accumulated an amount of mana in his chest and released it through his mouth, his breath was nothing more than a piece of his raw natural mana being released in a rough way, in theory it should be weaker than that any power released with his mana converted into an element, but it wasn't, his natural mana was as harmful as the lightning or the flames, he then found himself asked what it would be like if he released all of his mana in one breath of one turn? The result in training was surprising, it was time to test it in reality.