Accompanied by the monocled woman in foreign garments, the black-haired man stepped into the innermost chamber—the territory manifested by Anra.
(Damn it! How did he get inside this Territory?!)
To begin with, this Territory occupied a space completely severed from the outside world. Normally, even breaking down the doors would lead only to an empty room. Yet he had reached this place without breaking a sweat. It was merely a guess, but he had likely cleaved straight through the dimensional rift separating Anra's territory from the mortal realm, wiping it out of existence.
(M-Monster!)
There was no mistake. This entity was an irregularity down to his very existence. He was almost certainly the same breed of creature as that absolute powerhouse, the Commander-in-Chief of the Evil Army. In a straight fight, Anra's defeat would be certain. However—
(It's fine! This is my territory! All of his stats should have plummeted to the level of absolute small fry! There's no way I can lose now!)
He could sense it clearly. Those two were standing squarely inside Anra's territory.
This territory was the ultimate ability Anra possessed. The moment someone set foot within it, they were forcibly subjected to its rules. The territory Anra had manifested this time was "Weakening." It endlessly drained the strength of anyone who lacked his permission.
(Still... what on earth is this soul-churning chill?)
He shook off the ominous thought with everything he had.
This territory was Anra's trump card. No matter who they were in this world, as long as they remained inside, their capabilities should have been reduced to those of mere vermin.
In fact, unlike before, he could not sense even a shred of power coming from the black-haired man. That alone proved the territory's effect was active. In short, the outcome was already settled.
The black-haired man shifted his gaze across Anra, the Six Great Demon Gods, and the guardian soldiers.
"As I thought, I can't feel much of anything from these ones either. At best, maybe that monster in the form of a child. Asta, you don't mean to tell me that's the overwhelming powerhouse of this world you were talking about, do you?"
He questioned the monocled woman beside him, his voice sharpening. As he voiced his doubt, a heavy frustration hung about him, tinged with a faint melancholy that bordered on resignation.
The monocled woman beside him stared at him for a moment before letting out a long sigh and shaking her head firmly from side to side.
"Nay, the absolute powerhouse of whom I speak is nowhere to be found. In all likelihood, both seem to have fled the moment Master launched his assault."
She spouted such incomprehensible nonsense.
"Fled, you say? By slipping through your barrier?"
For the first time, the black-haired man's eyes opened wide, gleaming with an intense, uncanny light.
"It seems they simply slipped right through."
"..."
The black-haired man stared down silently at the floor for a moment, but then—
"Khaha! Kuhahahahaha!"
Laughter burst from him like water breaching a dam.
Leaving Anra and the others watching in stunned silence, the black-haired man pressed a hand over his face.
"I see! Rather than smashing through the barrier, they slipped right past it! Asta, that was quite the blunder on your part!"
He shouted in a lively, thoroughly amused tone.
"Indeed it was. And so, what dost thou intend to do with these ones?"
The monocled woman turned her eyes toward the Six Great Demon Gods and Anra, posing an utterly disparaging question to the black-haired man.
"Hmm. Let's see. With nothing but low-grade monsters like this, it won't even serve as a pastime, let alone a proper fight. What ought I to do?"
He genuinely saw no point whatsoever in fighting General Anra. Not a single trace of fighting spirit toward Anra emanated from him.
"Kill that obnoxious bastard."
Anra gave the command to the Six Great Demon Gods and the guardian soldiers stationed in the innermost chamber.
"As you command!"
"By your will!"
"If it is the order of our Chief God!"
The Six Great Demon Gods—Zarutch, Mānāf, and Saur—each voiced their assent before moving to surround the black-haired man.
"Sir!"
The guardian soldiers formed a ring as well, enclosing the black-haired man and the monocled woman with weapons drawn.
Anra acknowledged that the black-haired man possessed an aberrant level of strength. He knew full well that in an ordinary clash, his own defeat was guaranteed.
However, battles between true supernatural entities were never settled by such simple power scaling. Within the territory Anra had manifested, their abilities should have dropped so drastically that they couldn't even defeat a guardian soldier, let alone the Six Great Demon Gods. The fact that the black-haired man felt utterly harmless now was proof enough. With this lineup, Anra couldn't possibly lose. It had to be impossible!
"Despite the difference in our strength, you still dare come at me for the sake of your master? You lot aren't half bad. Very well, allow me to answer in kind."
"Ugh, what is with this guy? Creepy!"
Zarutch grimaced, extending razor-sharp claws from multiple hands.
"You filthy rat, I will make you regret ever stepping foot in here!"
Even as Mānāf leveled the threat, he aimed the staff in his right hand at the intruder. In that instant, straight into the brain-like mass of Mānāf's head—
"Gwah?"
A long blade pierced through. Amidst the rising spray of blood, the black-haired man could be seen driving the weapon held in his right hand directly down through the crown of Mānāf's head.
"Huh?"
All of Zarutch's faces widened their eyes in unison, mouths hanging open in stunned disbelief at the abrupt, anticlimactic end of Mānāf, the foremost of the Six Great Demon Gods. Immediately after—
"Gageh?!"
A long blade drove vertically through the top of Zarutch's skull. The black-haired man had landed on Zarutch's right shoulder, casually running the blade down through his head.
"Gwah..."
Dropping from Zarutch's shoulder to the floor, the black-haired man flicked the blood from his blade, slowly closing the distance toward Saur, the slender, pitch-black evil god.
"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!"
Saur's multiple eyes darted frantically, and a shriek that sounded like tearing flesh ripped from his throat.
In the span of a single blink from Anra, the black-haired man was already behind Saur.
Saur's entire body was neatly cleaved down the center in a cross.
"I-It's slipping apart?!"
Saur desperately tried to hold himself together with both hands, but his severed pieces tumbled apart and clattered across the floor.
Confronted with the reality that the renowned Six Great Demon Gods had been slaughtered with such effortless ease—
"The Six Great Demon Gods... were defeated..."
The captain of the guardian soldiers forced out a trembling whisper.
"M-M-Monster!"
"It's impossible... There's no way we can beat that thing!"
"He's right! When even the Six Great Demon Gods couldn't lay a finger on that monster, what are mere guardian soldiers supposed to do?!"
Faced with the undeniable terror of their situation, the guardian soldiers descended into outright panic, their screams overlapping.
"Run!"
At last, spurred by a desperate shout, they abandoned all thought of their master Anra and made a frantic dash toward the massive double doors—their only way out.
"Not again..."
The moment the black-haired man spat out those words, his figure vanished. Then, standing before the double doors, he gave his blade a single flick to clear the blood.
A heartbeat later, every last guardian soldier who had rushed toward the doors collapsed into a shower of minced flesh across the floor.