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The Main Body of S-rank Demon King Hages is a hellhound, a Three-tailed Hellhound, royalty among hellhounds, a born demon king. Each of its tails represents one of its lives, and after losing a life, it can recover its lifespan after a period of rest.
However, up until now, Hages had never grown reckless just because it had many lives to spare; it always left itself a fallback before doing anything.
For instance, this time the goddess who came to challenge it was only A+ rank, and the strongest member of the hero team was also only A+ rank. Their chances of defeating Hages were quite low.
Yet from the very moment the goddess hero descended, it had been remotely watching their every move.
Due to the rules, Hages' strength would decrease drastically if it left the Demon King's Castle, unless the area corrupted by darkness reached 60% of the total area of the Different World.
So it schemed along the way, forcefully pushing forward the goddess squad's progress.
Fortunately, Hages' scheme ran deep enough — it had assumed Black Dragon Sansas alone would be enough to send them to their deaths. Who could have known that the hero's divine artifact suddenly transformed from the 【Sword in the Stone】 into the 【Dragon Slaying Holy Sword】, and the goddess squad slew the dragon with ease.
Afterward, Hages immediately activated another one of its pieces — that Blade King.
The king couldn't possibly defeat the goddess and heroes, but his words were certain to provoke them.
The goddess and heroes shared one common weakness: justice.
Demon King Hages waved a hand, tightening the invasion of the Water Blue World, hoping to quickly reach 60% — and it would be even better if the goddess squad arrived at the Demon King's Castle early to die.
At the cat meat banquet.
In human form, Hages, weighing a good two hundred-some pounds, enjoyed the delicious food together with his wife and children.
No demon knew that besides cats, it also loved eating rats. This was a secret, not to be spread.
With his mouth dripping with grease, Hages suddenly froze. He licked the bits of meat off his nose with his long tongue, both ears standing straight up, and said, "I think I just heard something terrible."
Hages set down the meat bone and paced back and forth, unable to stop pacing.
"Go, go take a look at whether this king's Teleportation Array is still there!"
The Teleportation Array beneath the rear hall was the fallback Hages had prepared for himself for this campaign.
A wife could be found again, children could be born again — but it could not die.
Even if it only lost one life, it would have to keep its tail tucked and act humble as demon king for the next hundred years.
With three lives on him, he dared to contend with the top-ranked S-ranks. With one life fewer, he'd naturally have to behave himself — his strength still had a considerable gap from the peak of S-rank.
Before long, the demon servant returned. "Reporting, Lord Hages, your array is still there."
The Black Demon King let out a sigh of relief.
"However, it seems to have malfunctioned."
Hages slapped the demon dead with one paw. "Why didn't you say so sooner?!"
Puffing out his big belly, he rushed underground. Sure enough, the array that once shimmered with demonic light had become a pile of discarded demon crystals.
Hages sat on the ground, covering his forehead, not letting any demon come near him, and thought, "Who did this? The Goddess of War?"
"Impossible. That woman doesn't even have breasts, let alone a brain."
"Then who could it be? Which demon king did this?"
……
At the same time.
The War Goddess Squad had already arrived outside the Demon King's Castle.
Their condition was less than perfect, especially War Goddess Ares.
Though the goddess wasn't a Main Combatant, she had barely rested at all since her descent.
The heroes said with concern, "Lord Ares, we've already found the demon king's lair — why don't we?"
Ares, holding her axe in one hand, shook her head. "According to Intelligence, the Demon Race's Army's pollution of the Water Blue World is quite severe. Perhaps in a few days, perhaps tomorrow, Hages will be able to break free of the rules' restriction and leave the Demon King's Castle."
"If that happens, even if we ultimately manage to defeat it, the Water Blue World will need hundreds, even a thousand years, to recover."
"That's not what I want to see."
"Nor is it what you want to see, is it."
Having said that, the heroic Goddess Ares swung her axe and split open the gates of the Demon Fortress!
The squad instantly entered combat mode — the Shield Warrior in front, hero Gangze close behind, while Ares guarded the mage and the little sister priest.
Beyond the gate, the corridor stretched long and silent.
The Goddess Squad proceeded carefully the whole way, encountering no enemies.
"Lord Ares, could it be that Hages sent out even the Demon Fortress's guards, just to speed things up?" hero Gangze asked.
"That's right."
These words were not spoken by Ares.
Nor were they spoken by any of the heroes.
From within the demon king's Great Hall, a fat and burly man slowly walked out.
It was none other than S-rank Demon King Hages!
"Foolish goddess and human heroes, I've tolerated you for quite a while now."
Hages said, "Your Mother Goddess Hera really does look down on me, sending a squad of A-ranks to challenge me. She thinks I'm weak, doesn't she?"
It bared an utterly lecherous grin. "Let me tell you some good news — the space of the Water Blue World has already been sealed off. Goddess, you — yes, you — if you die at my hands, your soul won't be able to return to the God Realm, and you'll truly die."
"Boom boom boom boom boom!"
A dark brown magic array rippled out All Over Hages's body, and in an instant, fierce winds roared and sand and stones flew.
Its fallback — its Teleportation Array — had gone dead due to the spatial seal.
But conversely, because of the spatial seal, the Water Blue World became even more stable, and the power Hages could unleash was at least 30% higher than before.
The Goddess Squad's condition was already less than ideal to begin with — even with the boost of the 【Dragon Slaying Holy Sword】, it wasn't certain they could defeat S-rank Demon King Hages.
Now, with the demon king having gained a 1.3x boost, he transformed into his Main Body, ten stories tall, instantly forming a crushing difference in level.
All four heroes were crushed flat to the ground.
Directly ahead, War Goddess Ares cast a 【Radiant Shield】 to protect everyone from the shockwave caused by the demon king's roar.
Her golden hair flying loose, Ares's arms trembled as she gritted her teeth and said, "Go, go quickly, everyone get out of here!"
Under the crushing pressure, hero Gangze was the only one still able to stand.
"Lord Ares, we can't leave — the demon king just said the Water Blue World has been sealed off. If you die, you simply won't be able to be reborn in the God Realm!"
Ares said, "It's lying to you. Go on ahead, then head back to the city and wait for me. Quick, I can't hold on much longer!"
The massive golden shield illusion held off the attacks of the Three-Tailed Hellhound Demon King, but it truly couldn't hold out much longer.
A goddess would never lie.
So Gangze and the others chose to obey her order.
In truth, Ares had no idea what the actual truth was. She only knew that if her team needed a sacrifice, the first one had to be War Goddess Ares herself!
Just then—
A leisurely sigh drifted over from not far away: "Big-chested and Brainless woman."
Ares felt her vision go dark, and by the time she opened her eyes again, she had already returned to the Blade King's capital.
Cheerful music and cheering filled her ears.
Ares pushed open the window and saw the people of the Different World singing and dancing.
"Wonderful, the War Goddess and her hero team have finally defeated the demon king!"
"Long live the War Goddess!"
"Long live the heroes!"
Ares, by the window: (.)
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