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Heroic Spirits were the first step for a mortal to become a God.
Gods would call the Souls of a mortal they believed was an admirable Hero and would use their Divine Power to change the structure and quality of their souls.
By giving a small piece of their power, the mortal soul would ascend, becoming an immortal soul.
As an immortal soul, the physical body would be not needed, and the former mortal would ascend into a Heroic Spirit.
However, Graham was a lower quality version.
Due to Bestellen not using the complete power needed to ascend a selected hero's soul into a Heroic Spirit, Graham turned into a Familiar Spirit.
A Familiar Spirit was still rather strong and held Divine Power within, however, the potency of its power was not complete.
Nonetheless, Graham's strength had multiplied several times since being a mortal, and because he already held powerful Skills and Magic, all of that was multiplied as well and continued to be part of the strength of his soul.
However, he did not possess the System anymore, so he was not able to grow his Skills amongst many other things, however, the power he acquired in exchange for it was enormous.
If he proved to Bestellen that he was indeed the chosen one defeating Ervas, he would most likely be granted the pleasure of serving Bestellen, and perhaps even ascend to a Heroic Spirit and then a Heroic God or a Subordinate God, as long as he kept at his lord's side and improved his power in this new form.
Because of this shining new future ahead of Graham, he could not possibly lose anymore.
He employed all of his power, hitting Ervas and throwing him towards the ground, he honestly believed for a second that he had finally killed him.
However, he sensed the faint presence of its life down below, feeling a bit surprised.
But instead of feeling frustrated, he grew fascinated.
Of course, even as a Familiar Spirit, Ervas was still capable of taking his hit!
This meant that Ervas was really the future Demon King, an admirable enemy, someone truly deserving of the title!
This only made Graham's mind grow more insane, as he smiled and flew with all of his power towards Ervas!
"Amazing, Demon King! But now… I shall finish you once and for all!" laughed Graham, as his eyes began to shine with an immensely iridescent light, releasing two beams of light from them!
Flash!
Ervas glanced at the sky as he tried to exert all the power he could, converting the ground into golems and throwing giant boulders towards Graham, however, they were all destroyed within seconds by his powerful ocular lasers!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ervas gnashed his teeth, covering himself in the ground and controlling it around through Golem Transmutation, diving deep underground!
"Running away?! Where do you think you are going, Demon King?! Confront me! Face your fate!" laughed Graham, exerting his power, and breaking through the ground, following Ervas as fast as he could!
Ervas then moved around the dirt, diving upwards, and flying towards the sky.
Graham laughed, as he followed him, reaching the surface.
However, what greeted him was not the sun or the blue sky, but a world of void!
"Ginnungagap!" said Ervas, as he infused Soul Break into his spell, trying to compress Graham with the immense power of such a costly Spell!
"Nnngghoooh…! T-This again! However…!"
Crack, crack!
Graham grasped the void itself with his divine soul hands, exerting an immense power!
"This is no longer effective against me!" he said, breaking the entire spell into glass-like pieces, as Ervas suddenly vomited blood!
"Blood?" he wondered, as he glanced down below.
An enormous spear of light pierces his chest, impaling him within a millisecond.
It was so fast, that he was not even able to detect it with all of his abilities…!
Graham threw this attack the moment he broke Ervas spell, catching the cautious boy off guard by simply using a spell so fast that not even Ervas could see it in time.
Ervas quickly released giant claws of the phantom, beginning to devour the divinity-charged spear with Soul Break, while healing his wound as fast as possible.
"Ervas, Ervas!" cried Gaia, seeing the boy slowly tremble, he was becoming lethargic and cold…
"Gahaha! Hard to destroy it? This is not a simple spear, but part of my very soul! I made a few adjustments as well, infusing several curses that inhibit regeneration! Oh, I know that you can eat them, this is why I made the theme extra large and complex!" laughed Graham.
"At the end… I was not able to do this on my own…" thought Ervas, as darkness took a hold of his mind…
However, right before he could fall into an eternal sleep, Ervas consciousness came right back, as he felt Veronica's soul merging with his own.
The deep wound both on his flesh and soul quickly regenerated, as Ervas felt the warmth of Veronica's voice.
"Ervas, enough of this, you're not fighting him alone," said Veronica.
"Veronica… I… Sorry… I just wanted… to prove myself…" thought Ervas.
"I know how you feel, I know very well how you feel… But this is enough, you already defeated him. You proved yourself… However, against our plans, it seems that the bastard above the skies sends us a little gift, let us fight him together, as we should always have done!" said Veronica.
"…Yes, let's do it," said Ervas, as his soul completely fused with that of Veronica, finally showing his actual true strength!
Flash!
Graham was surprised over the development of the situation, surprised over the strange Living Armor that had emerged out of nowhere!
"This… who might this be?! Wait… this presence… that cursed metallic fortress is this Living Armor?! Maybe a pawn of the Demon King? No… This power, their souls are… merging?!" asked Graham in surprise.
"So… there are two… Demon Kings!" he said.
"And when they fuse… the real Demon King finally emerges! I cannot believe this! This challenge… has even adjusted itself to fit my new power?! Amazing, Bestellen-sama!" laughed Graham, glancing at the sky with wicked fascination.
"Wait! I am not going to let my son fight by himself, I also am joining in!" cried Jason, running towards Ervas as he used the No Attribute Spell Levitate to fly through the sky momentarily, reaching Ervas and Veronica.
"Father…!" said Ervas.
"Oh?! A Human?! Impossible… This… He must be the Demon King's father! Amazing, I will be destroying three birds with one stone then! This shall please my lord!" laughed Graham, as he had spoken enough, flying towards Ervas, Veronica, and Jason with great speed!
Ervas and Veronica noticed Jason approaching them, as they extended their fused soul into a hand, grabbing the man and literally slurping him inside of Veronica's armor, which began to shapeshift and adjust!
"Well, well, another one does not sound too bad!" said Veronica.
"V-Veronica, what are you doing?! That wicked pope is coming right here!" asked Jason.
"Let me… adjust a few things and… voila!" said Veronica, as Ervas and Veronica's soul began to fuse and cover the armor, generating a large wave of enormous quantities of concentrated Mana, disrupting Graham's charge as he was thrown a few meters away!
"Nngh?! Oh! This power… truly a terrifying Demon King… But you will need way more to break through my new Divine Body!" said Graham, laughing as he charged right back, only to be greeted by a single entity floating in the sky.
Although the figure was not enormous, its size vastly surpassed Graham, being almost three meters.
Its entire body was shrouded in black armor decorated with sharp spikes and horns, alongside its helmet which was the same as a large skull, flashing with eyes made of blue flames.
It held an enormous crown made of sharp blade-like spikes and even surrounded by rose thorns and roses, all made of black steel.
All across the metallic figure, there were several red, purple, and blue crystals encrusted around, and the entire being exuded a powerful presence, an Aura that merged both Darkness, Life, and Fire.
Jason suddenly found himself inside of this large metallic entity, and his son was sitting right ahead of him.
"Father, let's do this," said Ervas.
"E-Eh? W-What is… this?!" asked Jason.
Suddenly, Veronica's voice resonated within the mech-like interior of the three-meters tall metallic figure.
"Hey, what do you think? I've always wanted to do this with Ervas… you mixed in, but we might as well add your power into this baby," said Veronica.
"Veronica… is this you?" asked Jason.
"It sure is! My soul and that of Ervas are now fused, although we can't fuse our bodies, I can always let him be inside of my metallic body as if he were riding a robot, and well, you're here as a plus, so make sure to give us your power too, alright?" asked Veronica.
"I am counting on you, father," said Ervas.
"I… Sure thing! Let's do this all together, like a family!" said Jason.
FLASH!
Graham had enough, flying towards the metallic creature as he laughed, charging an enormous sphere of light above him!
"So this is the real Demon King…! To think that your existence was so unique by itself! Truly, you are the personification of all evil! Perish! Grand Supernova!" said Graham, throwing the enormous sphere of blinding light towards Ervas, Veronica, and Jason's 'fusion'!
FLASH!
CLASH!
However, as the light impacted the fusion, a dark ray of power clashed against the light, as if it were slowly consuming it!
"Abyssal Soul! Eclipsing Sun!" said Veronica's voice, releasing her powerful Abyssal Soul and weaponizing it as a large sphere of darkness, throwing it right back at Graham!
"Oh?! T-This…!"
Boom!
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