Boom!
Zeldris's darkness collided violently with Noah's, and the impact was so immense that the silver-haired man was hurled away, slicing through the vast blue sky like a projectile. He only came to a stop when he spread his massive wings of darkness, locking himself in place midair.
'It really is Zeldris...' Noah thought, shaking the arm that had gone completely numb from the impact. 'What terrifying darkness. I really want to get out of here, but with him around, that's going to be completely impossible.'
Resigned, Noah let his darkness flow through his arms, stretching them out to his sides as he shaped the power of the shadows into two long, razor-sharp blades.
"This is going to be a pain," Noah remarked, sounding almost bored as he began moving the blades in precise, calculated arcs. The strikes carved deep slashes of darkness into the very air itself, invisible barriers forming before Zeldris and halting his advance for a few brief moments. "But here we go, little Zel!"
Then Zeldris vanished—and reappeared in front of Noah in a fraction of a second, his sword already in motion as it slashed toward the silver-haired man's abdomen.
?!
Suddenly, the eyes of the Prince of the Demon Realm widened.
"Not today, little prince." Noah's voice was calm, almost casual. He had shaped his darkness into a dense layer around his abdomen, and it was that very darkness that caught the blade in place, stopping the strike before it could deal any real damage.
In one fluid motion, Noah dispersed the blades still floating around him and firmly grabbed Zeldris's wrist. Without hesitation, he applied an arm lock and then twisted with all his strength.
Crack!
"AGH!" the demon prince groaned in pain, but he didn't stop. With his free hand, he seized the hilt of his sword and began maneuvering it at an absurd speed, turning the blade's edge toward Noah.
Slash!
"Tsk!"
Foosh!
Forced to release Zeldris's arm to avoid being cut, Noah retreated several meters, channeling the power of darkness into his hand and hardening it like iron. With it reinforced, he began parrying the attacks he could keep up with.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
The clash between the two was brutal—every collision of blades and dark powers generated shockwaves that scattered the clouds and swept away any matter caught in the surrounding area. The speed of their exchanges continued to rise, each one faster than the last, until suddenly everything came to an end in a single instant of silence.
And slowly, a blood-red line appeared across Noah's cheek.
"Hmph! Looks like I won this one," Zeldris commented, a smug grin spreading across his face.
Noah ran his fingers over the wound, wiping away the blood, and then channeled the Power of Darkness directly into it. The injury closed and vanished as though it had never existed. Although doing so consumed a considerable amount of Magic Power, Noah's reserves were infinitely greater than Zeldris's—for him, it was little more than a minor inconvenience.
"Don't get arrogant, little prince." Noah gave him a calm, faintly teasing smile. "I can do this all day."
Zeldris kept the smile on his face—and drew his sword once again, this time at an even greater speed than before.
"Huh?!" Noah barely managed to react, throwing his hand, reinforced with the Power of Darkness, into the blade's path at the last possible moment, stopping the strike by a hair's breadth. "That was dangerous, Zel..."
A small vein throbbed on Zeldris's forehead. He definitely did not like that nickname.
Taking advantage of the moment, Noah shoved the sword downward, throwing Zeldris off balance, then followed up with a sharp, precise kick that sent the demon prince hurtling toward the ground. The impact was violent—it opened a massive crater and kicked up an enormous cloud of dust that spread across the surrounding area.
'I'm still getting used to this, but let's give it a try...' Noah took a deep breath and focused all of his Magic Power into his fist. Gradually, a bluish-silver aura began to take shape around his hand, growing and expanding until it reached an absurd scale—the size of an entire mountain.
Far below, the bluish-silver glow spread for miles in every direction, illuminating the earth like an artificial aurora. The other Commandments, wherever they were, could see that light on the horizon and feel the weight of its power. And buried at the bottom of the crater, Zeldris raised his eyes toward that enormous thing looming above him—and felt a chill run down his spine.
"Try dodging this, alright?"
Foosh!
Boom!
Noah plummeted from the sky like a meteor, the colossal fist tearing through the air toward Zeldris. The impact shook the earth—earthquakes rippled outward from the point of collision, and shockwaves spread across the entirety of Britannia, felt even in the most distant lands.
Meliodas and Mael stopped fighting abruptly—the surge of magical power and the shockwave had been so overwhelming that it nearly swept them away. Both struggled to maintain their position in the air, and when they finally stabilized themselves, they looked toward the horizon and saw the colossal explosion illuminating the distance with a bluish-silver light.
Then, before either of them could react, something shot between them at incredible speed—a blur that sliced through the air like a gust of wind.
"Huh?!"
Dense spheres of darkness slammed directly into Mael, while at the same time multiple blazing suns struck Meliodas with full force. Both were sent crashing downward without ceremony, plummeting toward the ground.
Noah, having struck them both simultaneously without even slowing his flight, continued onward at high speed as he began dissipating the enormous aura he had channeled. The Power of Darkness that had been assimilated by The God gradually deactivated, and the dark aura faded away layer by layer as he put more distance between himself and the battlefield.
"Whew." Noah grumbled, running a hand across his face. "I overdid it and scaled that up way too fast. Damn ridiculous amount of magical power."
Without reducing his speed by much, he descended toward Salisbury Lake and dove straight into it, cutting through the water's surface with a clean impact and rapidly sinking into its depths.
And he stayed there.
The dense concentration of magical power accumulated within Salisbury Lake's depths was perfect for masking his own presence—anyone attempting to track him would find their senses completely distorted by the lake's interference.
The plan was simple: remain hidden for a while, wait for the forces of the Goddess Clan and the Demon Clan to withdraw to their respective realms, then emerge at his leisure, devise a new strategy, and move elsewhere.
It was a good plan.
There was only one small and extremely important detail Noah had completely forgotten.
That lake had an owner.
"Fufufufufu~"
A soft, drawn-out voice echoed through the dark depths, passing through the cold water as though the liquid did not exist.
"So you've returned?"
Noah turned his gaze toward the bottom of the lake—and saw a woman staring at him with a serene smile, her eyes shining in the darkness with a light that should not have existed at such depths. Before he could even process the situation, countless tentacles emerged from the surrounding shadows, wrapping around his arms, legs, and ankles with a grip that was gentle yet impossible to resist, slowly pulling him deeper and deeper—as if they already knew he wasn't going anywhere.
And so it was that Noah, after fighting the Prince of the Demon Realm, casually knocking down two of the strongest combatants of the Holy War in passing, and throwing a punch the size of a mountain, ended up being abducted by the Lady of the Lake—a Daughter of Chaos.