Chapter 278
"Menna"
Mart Sevec watched the slender-looking demon vanish in an instant.
He looked at his wife, who was about to grasp the hellish larva sticks.
A sound like shattering glass rang out, and a partially cracked demonic barrier appeared before Menna.
And in front of Menna, levitating, stood the Senior Councilor with their right hand resting on the demonic barrier that protected her.
[Rage Trait Activated]
[Strength attribute temporarily increases by +110]
[The Capital Trait of Wrath is taking control: Demonic Reward]
Mart Sevec’s strength always increased proportionally to the level of Wrath he had reached.
And at that moment, not even his Intelligence attribute could contain the murderous glare Mart directed at the Senior Councilor.
"You dare?!" Mart’s eyes took on a color reminiscent of burning lava—a trait characteristic of the Force lineage.
He clenched his fists tightly, and his hands were bleeding.
But the blood was engulfed in flames before it touched the ground.
Mart’s thoughts were muddled, but Menna was clinging to him.
She didn’t want him to act impulsively.
And he was trying to hold onto what little sanity he could muster at that moment.
The skewers of impaled hellish larvae had fallen to the ground.
"Mart, calm down, please!" Menna exclaimed.
The vendor who was present fainted at the sight of the Senior Councilor, and many other common or low-ranking demons fainted as well.
"Marquis Sevec, you can storm into the Republican Council and expect to face no punishment?" said the Senior Councilor in a mysterious, androgynous voice.
"Punishment—and that’s why you’re attacking my wife and not me?" That thought caused Mart to wave his left arm, and demonic barriers appeared all around the city.
"Menna, come back!"
Menna nodded with some regret; she understood that this was not the time to defy Mart.
The Senior Councilor turned their gaze toward Menna, but in an instant, Mart was standing right in front of them.
Boom!
The entire capital of the Marquisate shook.
If it weren’t for the demonic barriers, many of the surrounding buildings would have been reduced to dust, and some demons to mincemeat—or even less than that.
The blow Mart landed squarely on the Senior Councilor’s face sent them flying through the air, lifting them up into the clouds.
"He possesses devastating strength," thought the Senior Councilor as they looked at a small, golden demonic statue that had shattered in their hand.
Soon, that small statue lost all its color and turned into worthless dust.
"He was able to destroy this Ancient Demonic Artifact." Although the Senior Councilor was staring at the dust in one of their hands, they hadn’t let their guard down, so they sensed Mart approaching, accompanied by a strong killing intent.
..
"Marquis, are you planning to start a war...?"
Boom!
A single punch unleashed an explosive force that scattered the clouds in its path.
But this time, the Senior Councilor dodged the blow without much trouble.
Mart stared at them with eyes ablaze with a fiery orange glow as he attacked again without hesitation.
Boom!
This time, the Senior Councilor’s robe tore slightly, revealing that Mart Sevec was becoming faster.
[Strength attribute temporarily increases by +120]
A demonic energy began to envelop the marquis’s elegant hands.
And his power continued to grow little by little—something the Senior Councilor could sense.
But at that moment, the Senior Councilor had no time to be distracted, so they vanished and reappeared right in front of Mart.
Their fingernails, shrouded in a powerful and corrosive demonic energy, attempted to shred Mart’s face.
"You must die!" Mart’s eyes were wide open as he watched those nails pierce his right hand.
Mart clenched the Senior Councilor’s hand tightly.
The Senior Councilor managed to recoil a great distance, but one of their hands had been reduced to a shapeless mass due to the force with which it was crushed by Mart Sevec’s wounded right hand.
"What is this?" the Senior Councilman was surprised to see a malevolent energy corrupting their hand and causing their flesh and blood to rot, emitting a nauseating stench.
The heavens rumbled as if they were about to collapse; the clouds were scattered by waves of expansive power caused by the force of each blow, which compressed the air and released it, imbued with demonic energy.
The councilor was struck from the side by a blow that shredded their robe and partially ripped open their abdomen, exposing blood, flesh, and entrails.
But despite the hellish scene, the Senior Councilor seemed concerned only with the wound on their hand, which had been tainted by the malevolent energy.
"It’s a kind of curse," thought the Senior Councilor as they saw the marquis appear right in front of them.
Boom!
A demonic blow delivered by the marquis’s left hand reduced the Senior Councilor’s head to bloody dust.
But at that moment, just as the Senior Councilor seemed defeated, a silver throne inlaid with demonic gems appeared in their place.
"I’LL KILL YOU!" Mart Sevec exclaimed furiously upon seeing the throne and the gems, which crumbled into useless dust.
The Senior Councilor had used another ancient demonic artifact to escape.
Although rage still consumed him, Mart could not sense the Senior Councilor’s presence in the nearby territories.
Had he not been consumed by such profound rage at that moment, he would have realized—from the cursed mark he had placed on the Senior Councilor—that the latter had returned to the capital of the Republic of Argariz.
Unable to sense the Senior Councilor, Mart Sevec’s furious, murderous gaze turned toward the troops stationed by the Republic of Argariz along the borders with his marquisate’s territory.
...
The moment Mart’s gaze—brimming with murderous intent—fell upon the soldiers of the Argariz Republic’s army, those lower-ranking demon soldiers collapsed to the ground, vomiting blood from every orifice of their bodies.
Some begged for help as they felt an unspeakable terror that threatened to crush them slowly and painfully until they died.
This directly hostile action prompted three Baratrense commanders to emerge from their military tents carrying demonic artifacts used to create demonic barriers to protect their subordinates from the sudden attack.