The war warriors of the Asura faction were a battle-hardened force, considered among the finest in the Evil Army, fearing not even death itself. Alongside Asura, they had slaughtered countless high-ranking officers of the Heavenly Army across innumerable battlefields. They were absolute powerhouses acknowledged by everyone in the world. That had been an undeniable truth—at least, until Asura witnessed the merciless spectacle unfolding before his very eyes.
"N-Nooo!"
With a final, dying shriek, a general officer had his head bitten clean off by a bipedal fly monster, dying on the spot.
"H-Help—"
An officer cried out in desperate plea, only for another bipedal fly monster to tear his head from his shoulders.
"Eeeek!"
An officer who turned his back to flee took the talons of a fly monster's right hand straight through his chest, vomiting blood as his body went limp.
The war warriors of the Asura faction, who once boasted peerless might, had completely lost all will to fight. They scrambled pathetically to escape the bipedal monsters with fly heads, their lives reaped without being allowed the slightest resistance.
What awakened terror in these warriors who feared not even death was this overwhelming difference in fighting strength. Laying down one's life to achieve an objective was a warrior's honor. Believing that one's death would surely aid their general in victory was the sole reason a warrior could wager their life. But when it became nothing more than a pointless demise, the story changed entirely.
No warrior, regardless of who they were, possessed the resolve to rot away pathetically without being able to do a single thing. If anyone did possess such a mindset, they were merely an insane battle junkie.
Even so, up to this point, Asura might have somehow held his ground. He might not have lost his pride just yet.
However, reality proved utterly merciless to Asura and his men to the very end.
"Hmm, I guess we need to reevaluate things. You guys are far weaker than maggots."
Grabbing Goki by the collar with his right hand and lifting him into the air, Būnbun spat out words of pure contempt.
"You... mon... ster..."
Goki's left arm had been torn off at the shoulder, his torso was covered in wounds, and his internal organs were visible beneath his mangled flesh. It was blatantly obvious that he was gravely injured. And that was not limited to Goki alone.
"Dear brother, dear brother, it's rude to the maggots to lump them in with something like this~"
Ujiko, who was sitting on the back of Zenki—who lay face down without twitching a muscle, his entire body unnaturally swollen—held her clasped hands to her mouth and cheerfully offered her opinion.
Zenki and Goki possessed supernatural healing abilities, but repairing their bodies required a certain amount of time. There was no way these monsters were naive enough to twiddle their thumbs and wait for that time to pass.
"Būnbun, Ujiko... this is the order of our Supreme Great One. No matter how much of small fry the opponents are, I told you time and again not to be overconfident. But well—with the renowned Six Great Generals in such a pathetic state, perhaps it cannot be helped."
Princess Fly spat the ultimate insult at Asura, her compound eyes fixed on his battered, wounded figure.
Asura's combat skills were among the very best in the Evil Army. Yet, Asura's all-out kicks, his punches capable of shattering even mountains, the slashes from his cherished blade that could cut through anything, and the greatest forbidden technique of his signature oni arts were all parried effortlessly by the folding fan in Princess Fly's hand. What was more, she had not taken a single step from where she stood. It was painfully clear that Asura and that creature were on entirely different levels of strength.
"Don't tell me... Beelzebub is even stronger than you lot?"
He did not want to believe it. He truly did not. But if Beelzebub was even stronger than these monsters who treated Zenki, Goki, and Asura of the Six Great Generals like mere insects, then no one in the Evil Army would be able to defeat such a monster except that Great One.
"To compare our strength with Father's is utter foolishness! Compared to Father, our strength is truly nothing more than that of maggots! Above all—"
Just as Princess Fly snorted in derision to refute Asura's question and was about to say more—
"Somehow, the difference in ability was far too great, so it wasn't very entertaining. Hey, Beelzebub, is this guy really Anra's comrade, Asura?"
A voice entirely devoid of tension, utterly unfitting for this scene of carnage, drifted through the air. Turning his gaze toward that slightly disappointed voice, Asura saw a black-haired youth who appeared to be human, standing with a single naginata in hand alongside a crown-wearing giant fly kneeling at his side.