"Such a trivial trick!"
Escanor swung his massive arm with a burst of immense physical force, and the black Hellfire entwined around his hand was instantly blown away, vanishing into thin air.
But at that very microsecond, a sharp, piercing pain shot through Escanor's thick abdomen.
Looking down, he saw that Meliodas had already bypassed his guard completely. The pitch-black blade of the Demon Sword Lostvayne was buried cleanly up to the hilt in Escanor's belly.
"Ugh..." Escanor grunted, before a haughty smirk crossed his face. "Hmph! Insignificant!"
Escanor moved his massive palm down and clamped it like a vice around Meliodas's wrist. With a terrifying surge of raw strength in his arm, he violently yanked Meliodas backward, ripping the Demon Sword out of his own gut in the process.
Scorching, golden flames instantly covered Escanor's open wound, emitting the charred aroma of roasted meat. Under his body's naturally radiating, extreme high temperatures, the lethal wound immediately cauterized, scabbed over, and healed.
"Weak!" Escanor boomed, stepping forward. "Feckless! An attack like this... can't possibly cause me any real harm! Captain!"
The golden Divine Axe Rhitta hacked and slashed relentlessly, transforming into a blur of heavy golden arcs.
Meliodas remained completely silent, his dead eyes tracking the movements as he simply met the devastating blows with his short sword in a flawless, constant defense.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The bedrock of the Capitol grounds continued to cave in and shatter from the sheer kinetic shockwaves of their clashes.
As minutes and seconds ticked by, the sun continued its inexorable ascent toward the absolute peak of the sky. The ambient temperature on the battlefield grew increasingly, suffocatingly sweltering. Even the onlookers—Merlin, Gowther, and Ban—had been forced to retreat to a significant distance just to safely watch the battle.
"This is no longer a battle we can participate in," Ban said, his expression unusually solemn as he looked toward the blistering epicenter of Meliodas and Escanor's clash.
In such a localized, extreme environment, even someone with an immortal body like his... could not adapt fast enough before being melted into sludge.
Merlin looked up at the blazing sky and did a precise mental calculation of the time.
'Soon,' Merlin thought, a smirk touching her lips. "The strongest Escanor will appear."
On the ruined field, Escanor and Meliodas were still clashing incessantly.
In Assault Mode, Meliodas felt absolutely no trace of pity or camaraderie in his demonic heart. Nor did he engage in behaviors like holding back or going easy on his opponent to enjoy the thrill of battle. This was the terrifying, emotionless mode that had once struck absolute fear even into his former subordinates, the Ten Commandments.
Under Meliodas's blindingly fast blade, Escanor was soon covered in deep, bleeding wounds. Blood kept spitting from the Lion Sin's mouth as the kinetic force rattled his organs.
"I advise you to stop here," Meliodas warned, his voice cold and hollow as he pointed the blood-stained Demon Sword forward. "Otherwise, even if you were once a teammate... I will slaughter you."
His expression was incredibly stern, tinged with a hint of genuine demonic irritation.
"You are strong!" Escanor laughed, coughing up a mouthful of blood before lowering the divine axe in his hand. "But I am stronger!"
Escanor's body began to swell rapidly. His already towering two-meter frame expanded, his muscles bulging impossibly as he transformed into a nearly three-meter giant in an instant. Countless thick plumes of visible heat rose off his skin.
The shattered concrete and asphalt beneath his boots began to glow a furious, blinding red. And then, centered entirely on Escanor... the ground melted, turning into a bubbling pool of molten lava.
A god-like aura began to violently radiate from Escanor's body. With every single step he took, a massive section of the ground collapsed under the localized gravity of his power.
Walking step by step through the magma toward Meliodas, his massive frame completely overshadowed the small demon. Escanor looked down, staring intently at the boy.
"Let us continue!"
Escanor raised Divine Axe Rhitta high above his head and brought it down heavily in an instant.
"[Supernova Slash]!"
Under this catastrophic strike, the ground for a thousand meters in every direction completely collapsed into a massive crater. The dust kicked up by the apocalyptic aftershock forced the three onlookers in the distance to wave their hands and raise magical barriers in defense.
Enveloped in a vast, choking cloud of dust, the situation of the two monsters on the battlefield was completely obscured.
Merlin waved her hand, and a fierce magical wind howled, blowing away all the dust that blocked their vision.
However, the scene revealed in the absolute center of the crater left them all utterly shocked.
Escanor, who had just swung his axe with such overwhelming, earth-shattering power... was currently being casually trampled and humiliated under Meliodas's clawed boot.
Meliodas stood atop Escanor's massive chest, pinning him to the bedrock.
"It's just your way of speaking that has changed," Meliodas said coldly, looking down at the giant. "Your power... is insignificant."
Escanor's mouth opened slightly, and he couldn't help but spit out another heavy mouthful of crimson blood. Crushed by the sheer, absolute density of the Demon's dark power, even someone as prideful and arrogant as Escanor... had no thought of speaking to refute him at this exact moment.
With a roar of effort, Escanor swept Divine Axe Rhitta in a wide, horizontal arc, forcing Meliodas to leap backward temporarily.
Escanor slowly staggered to his feet from the crushed ground. He stared at Meliodas, his chest heaving, without saying a word. Holding the golden axe with one hand, he began to swing it to build momentum.
The two once again began clashing their weapons, a flurry of gold and black.
At this time, in Escanor's free, outstretched hand, a blindingly bright, miniature sun began to rapidly emerge and condense. Pushing his arm forward with a roar, the miniature sun left his hand, hurtling toward the demon.
"[Cruel Sun]!"
Seeing this, Meliodas merely took a casual step back. A cold, mocking sneer curled at the corner of his mouth. Watching the incoming, incinerating sun, he gave a simple, practiced wave of his dark blade.
"[Full Counter]!"
Escanor's sun violently expanded in size the exact moment it neared Meliodas's body, absorbing the reflection magic. With lightning speed, it rebounded, flying back in the exact direction it had come with more than double the explosive force.
Escanor's pupils constricted. He threw his massive body to the side, barely dodging his own reflected attack.
The [Cruel Sun] flew past his side and landed in a distant, ruined cluster of government buildings, setting off a massive, blinding nuclear-scale explosion that wiped the structures from the map.
Meliodas's [Full Counter] had always been entirely unreasonable like this.
A blinding red light rose behind Escanor as the distant explosion framed his towering silhouette. He looked like a god of fire descending upon the ruined world.
Seeing his own ultimate magical attack rendered completely ineffective, Escanor did not show any outward emotion. He still maintained his arrogant, unyielding expression.
Right then, bursting from the dust cloud in front of him, Meliodas raised the Demon Sword and charged once again.
Escanor brought the haft of his axe up to block.
CLANG!
The sudden surge of immense, localized demonic force caused Escanor's massive, muscular arm to tremble under the strain.
Seizing the tactical opportunity, Meliodas let out a cold laugh and pressed down brutally hard with his blade.
Escanor's grip was violently forced open, and Divine Axe Rhitta flew from his hand. After tumbling heavily twice in the air, the massive golden axe stabbed deep into the molten ground, out of reach.
For a fraction of a second, Escanor's prideful expression turned slightly stiff.
'It's over!' Meliodas's eyes narrowed.
Meliodas did not stop his lethal movements. Taking absolute advantage of the fact that Escanor was currently weaponless and his guard was wide open... he swung the Demon Sword in his hand in a blinding, imperceptible flurry.
"[Kami Chigiri]!" (Divine Thousand Slashes)
One deep, spurting scar after another appeared instantly all over Escanor's massive torso and arms. In an instant, golden blood sprayed out continuously into the hot air.
Escanor's massive body swayed, his eyes rolling back before he fell to the ground with a thunderous, earth-shaking crash.
"Nothing more than this," Meliodas whispered.
He glanced down at the fallen, bleeding Escanor. A flash of utter disdain crossed Meliodas's dead eyes. He calmly sheathed his dark blade and turned his back to walk away.
Meliodas paused, glancing in the distant direction of Merlin, Gowther, and Ban.
However, he had absolutely no desire to launch an attack against them. His programmed mission from the Overlord was solely to destroy the city; as long as these pests didn't actively come to stop him again... Meliodas didn't necessarily have the intention of wasting time killing them.
"How scary," Gowther noted, adjusting his glasses. "The Captain out of control is truly a bit terrifying."
To still be able to say such flippant, deadpan words at a time like this... this person could be none other than the Sin of Lust.
The cold, dead gaze Meliodas had just directed at the three of them was indeed full of apocalyptic pressure. Ban and Merlin had immediately assumed tense defensive stances, sweating profusely. Only Gowther could still make such a heartless, observational evaluation.
Seeing that Meliodas simply turned away and did not make a move to attack, Ban and Merlin breathed a heavy sigh of relief. They simultaneously lowered their guard.
Merlin looked up at the sky, her golden eyes locking onto the exact position of the sun. She revealed a slight, knowing smile.
"Time's up."
Hearing Merlin's confident words, Gowther and Ban instantly turned their eyes back toward the battlefield.
And at that exact, precise microsecond... the clock struck exactly High Noon.
A catastrophic, impossible heatwave violently swept outward, instantly expanding across the entire ruined capital.
Countless spontaneous fires began to aggressively rise from every single corner of the city, instantly turning all of Washington D.C. into a raging ocean of golden flames.
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