"As you command, Lord Ainz Ooal Gown."
After receiving the Overlord's absolute order, Cocytus exhaled a plume of freezing mist. The massive, four-armed insectoid warrior deployed his icy, translucent wings and flew directly from behind Ainz, hurtling toward Ban's location like a frozen comet.
Before this deployment, the high-definition footage of Ban swinging the Holy Rod Courechouse had been successfully intercepted and broadcast to the entire world via news satellites in space.
It let everyone know that New York City had not been abandoned to the slaughter. There were still extraordinary heroes fighting desperately to protect the people.
At the same time, live feeds of the Avengers' brutal, desperate stand against Albedo were also being broadcast.
Countless rounds of spontaneous applause and cheers broke out in living rooms and public squares all over the world.
[Go for it, Avengers!]
[Kill those demonic monsters!!]
[Those useless cowards in Congress should step down immediately!]
Countless cheers rang out in every corner of the globe. It was a pity the Avengers weren't Ultraman; otherwise, with all this collective light and hope from humanity, they should have been able to stomp the Overlord of Death into dust with one giant foot.
Contrary to the public's roaring support, the politicians hiding in the Capitol Building were not very happy when they saw this scene.
The more outstanding, heroic, and self-sacrificing the Avengers appeared on screen, the more like absolute, irredeemable trash the congressmen appeared in the hearts of the voters by comparison. However, at this moment, the politicians had absolutely no good solutions. They could only sit in their secure bunkers, watch the live broadcast, and leave things to fate.
Only the President breathed a heavy sigh of relief after seeing Ban display such localized, divine destructive power. No matter what happened politically, as long as the lives of New York's citizens could be preserved, he wouldn't go down in history as the man who let eight million people be eaten by zombies.
.....
"Ban, I'll leave this sector to you," Meliodas said, stretching his arms. "I'm going to go support the others."
"Huh?" Ban grunted, swinging his staff to crush a wave of crawling skeletons. "This is way too busy, Captain. These trash mobs keep reviving!"
"You can handle it!" Meliodas gave a cheerful, casual instruction. Without stopping to listen to the Fox Sin of Greed's complaints, he leaped off the gargoyle and vanished into the skyline.
....
The situation was dire.
Captain America gritted his teeth, his muscles burning with lactic acid as he constantly raised his shield to block the devastating, heavy strikes of the battle-axe in Albedo's hands.
This shield, which had survived the entirety of World War II, deflected the Tesseract's energy, and withstood the crushing blows of Thor's hammer, was now giving its final, tragic measure of service.
Under the relentless, structure-destroying properties of Albedo's World Item, [Ginnungagap], the Vibranium had reached its absolute molecular limit.
CRACK.
With a crisp, horrifying sound that echoed over the battlefield, the legendary Vibranium shield split completely in two, turning into one large and one small fragment.
Steve Rogers staggered backward, his arms numb, staring in shock at the broken metal strapped to his wrist.
"Captain, the tactical situation is a bit unfavorable," Natasha called out, firing her widow's bite at Albedo's armor to absolutely no effect.
Steve dropped the smaller fragment of the shield. He wiped the blood from his mouth and raised his fists.
"Don't give up," Steve breathed heavily, glaring at the dark knight. "I can do this all day."
Although Steve's words were incredibly morale-boosting, reality never shifts simply according to personal willpower. Within the Avengers team, besides Captain America's broken shield, only Thor's hammer possessed the divine durability to directly resist Albedo's battle-axe. Even Tony Stark's Iron Man armor didn't dare get caught in her melee range, forcing him to strictly launch repulsor attacks from a safe distance.
Without the shield to absorb the kinetic impact, Captain America was forced to withdraw from close combat. Relying on Thor alone to hold the vanguard, they wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer.
"Hi! Everyone!"
A cheerful voice suddenly rang out from the sky above.
A heavy object fell rapidly from the air, slamming into the asphalt right between the Avengers and Albedo, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and debris.
"Why did you have to jump down from the roof?!" a high-pitched voice complained from the crater. "You clearly know how to fly!"
In the dust, Hawk ran out, coughing and hacking, furiously glaring back into the smoke to complain to Meliodas.
"Hahahaha! Isn't this more interesting?" Meliodas laughed loudly as the dust settled. He was kneeling on one knee, his head bowed, supporting himself with a fist pressed firmly against the cracked pavement. "I saw them all make their entrances like this! It's called a superhero landing!"
This pose...
"Is he imitating me?" Tony Stark's slightly resentful voice sounded over the Avengers' team comms.
"It could also be me," Natasha responded, a hint of helplessness in her tone. The pose was indeed somewhat familiar to both of them.
Meliodas stood up, patting the dust off his hands. He looked back at the exhausted, battered heroes and completely suppressed his usual, easygoing smile.
"You guys go evacuate the citizens in this sector," Meliodas ordered, his voice dropping an octave. "You can leave this place to me."
Although this world was not the continent of Britannia, he absolutely refused to see innocent people wailing and dying in front of him.
Meliodas had a very bad habit. He liked to hold back. Facing different opponents, the baseline power he used always varied. To put it nicely, it was called 'enjoying the thrill of battle.' To put it bluntly, it was the supreme arrogance of the Demon Clan.
But now, his deadly serious expression told everyone present that he was done playing around.
Before the Avengers could even process the order to move, Meliodas's figure completely vanished from their sight. He didn't just move fast; he seemingly ceased to exist in their visual spectrum.
BOOOM!
In a fraction of a second, Albedo's armored body was sent violently flying backward, her spine bent into a sickening bow shape from the sheer, catastrophic force of the impact.
SHATTER!
A layer of the divine, God-tier armor encasing her body cracked and shattered instantly into pieces of black metal. Even an armor built specifically to absorb absolute physical damage found it impossible to withstand a completely serious strike from the Dragon Sin of Wrath.
"Th... this strong?!"
The sound of several Avengers gasping in profound shock rang out over the street.
Thor's expression was the most exaggerated. His jaw practically unhinged. He had fought Meliodas, and during that brief skirmish, he hadn't felt the boy was this absurdly powerful.
'Facing that demon woman, I was constantly doing chip damage with Mjolnir,' Thor thought, staring at the shattered black armor raining down on the street. 'With just one bare-knuckle punch... he broke her divine armor?!'
"This is nothing," Hawk said proudly, puffing out his little pink chest. "Meliodas is the man who defeated the Demon King!"
"The Demon King?" Steve Rogers asked, looking down at the pig.
Realizing he had let top-secret lore slip, Hawk panicked. He tightly covered his eyes and his snout with his two large, floppy ears.
Seeing the pig suddenly refuse to speak, the Avengers sensibly didn't ask any further questions. Instead, trusting the boy's overwhelming power, they retreated to the perimeter, preparing to evacuate the trapped citizens.
As the Avengers fell back, Albedo, who had just been sent flying through three city blocks, exploded back into the street, her black wings flaring violently.
Her beautiful face was twisted into a mask of pure, demonic rage.
"How dare you...!" Albedo screamed, her voice echoing with dark magic. "This is a sacred mission entrusted to me by Lord Ainz!!"
Filled with blind, zealous rage, the heavy bardiche in Albedo's hands was raised high and swung down directly toward Meliodas's head with enough force to cleave a mountain.
Meliodas didn't even draw his sword. He just slightly turned his body.
The razor-sharp axe blade swept mere millimeters past his chest, slamming brutally into the ground. Aside from kicking up a massive shockwave of shattered concrete and dust, it didn't cause the slightest bit of damage to the boy.
Meliodas casually reached out, his bare palm grabbing the flat side of the divine axe blade.
Albedo's golden eyes widened in shock. No matter how hard she pulled, strained, or channeled her dark magic, she couldn't budge her weapon even a single inch from the boy's grip. It was like trying to pull a sword from a dying star.
"Hey," Meliodas said, his green eyes utterly devoid of warmth. "If you want to retaliate against the humans for attacking your home, you can go find the politicians who ordered the strike. Why attack innocent civilians?"
"Huh?" Albedo sneered, a look of profound, genuine confusion crossing her face. She looked at Meliodas as if he had just asked a remarkably stupid question. "Aren't humans just pathetic ants? What does it matter? What is the difference between stepping on one insect, or a million?"
At the beginning of this battle, Meliodas hadn't had any real intention of joining the frontline fight. These entities from Nazarick had only come to Earth for revenge. And it was the human military that had initiated the cowardly nuclear strike first. If that giant skeleton mage hadn't immediately cast a spell to slaughter the innocent civilians, Meliodas probably would have just sat on the roof and watched the political fallout with Hawk until the end.
Those who kill must have the absolute resolve to be killed in return. Having fought a bloody, three-thousand-year holy war across the continent of Britannia, he had long ago accepted this brutal reality. Therefore, he usually wouldn't participate in battles where someone was seeking justified revenge, even if one side was significantly weaker.
There was only one strict exception to his moral code: when one side began massacring innocent bystanders.
It wasn't until he heard Albedo's disgustingly casual reply just now that he finally seemed to understand something fundamental.
'These guys are completely different from any race I have ever encountered,' Meliodas realized, his grip on the axe blade tightening enough to make the metal groan.
Whether it was the Demon Clan or the Goddess Clan, there were always good and bad individuals among them. They had complex motivations.
But these beings... these Undead and Heteromorphic monsters... seemed to be born with an absolute, biological hostility toward all living things. To them, genocide wasn't a tactical decision; it was just pest control.
They were a naturally evil race.
.....
.....
.....
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