Debuff Master-Chapter 1100

Chapter 1100
The Maze of Evil was riddled with countless traps.
The traps were so lethal that they could kill even a demon lord if caught off guard, and the fact that only two demons in the entire history of the Demon Realm had ever made it through the maze was a testament to how deadly these traps were.
‘
It's impossible for me, but these traps can injure that bastard,’
Siegfried concluded.
Belial was an overwhelmingly powerful demon.
But was he truly one of the strongest demon lords in the history of the Demon Realm?
The answer to that question was no. If he had been one of the strongest, then he would have conquered the Maze of Evil a long time ago, regardless of whether to just show off his strength or to use it as a training ground to become even stronger.
However, Belial had not attempted to conquer the maze.
In other words, Siegfried had a shot if he could use the traps to his advantage. With these traps, he could mess him up, or perhaps do something even worse.
‘
There’s one over there!’
Siegfried exclaimed inwardly, spotting yet another trap.
He ran toward the trap while making sure to lure Belial right behind him.
With the help of Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance, he saw the hidden trap.
It was a pit of highly corrosive acid, hidden beneath the ground.
‘
Heave-ho!’
Siegfried jumped across the trap with ease.
Splash!
On the other hand, Belial stepped right into the trap and plunged into it.
Tssssss!
A hissing sound filled the air as the green acid began eating away at Belial’s flesh, releasing white steam in the process.
“
Grraaaaah!”
Belial roared in agony. The Maze of Evil was so terrifying that the Demon King, Baal, himself had used it as his training ground in his youth. No matter how powerful Belial was, there was no way he would walk away unscathed after falling into a trap like that.
“You son of a biiiiitch—! I’m going to rip your motherfucking head off of your shoulders!” Belial roared, his face twisted in rage as he hurled curses after curses..
Siegfried flinched and shrieked in horror, “
Hiiiik!”
Seeing Belial’s skin melt away as he roared in agony while hurling curses at him was a sight so horrifying that even Siegfried instinctively flinched.
However, that was a very good sign for him.
‘
He’s lost his temper. Perfect!’
Siegfried was quick to analyze and capitalize on the situation.
“Catch me if you can~!” he shouted, taunting Belial as he ran.
“Y-You...!”
“I’m waiting for you to rip my head off~
Bleh!”
“YOU LITTLE SHIT!”
“
Eeep!
You’re chasing me again! So scary! I’m outta here!
Wheee~!”
“You fucking worthless piece of filth!”
Belial’s temper had already reached past its maximum boiling point, causing him to charge after Siegfried like a mad bull.
Whoosh!
Siegfried activated Pesky Brat once again and ran off, skillfully dodging the charge and running toward another nearby trap.
This trap was marked with the icon of a beetle.
‘
Sidestep... Just like that!’
Siegfried danced past the trigger with ease while making sure to keep the distance close enough for Belial to come charging at him.
“Oh no~ He’s so close! I’m so scared~
Eeep!”
“Y-You little shit!”
Blinded by fury, Belial failed to notice the trap and stepped right into it.
Click... Clack!
Creaaaak...!
A section of the wall slid open with a mechanical sound.
Thud...!
Shwiiiiik!
And from within the wall poured out what had to be millions of beetles.
Each one was about the size of a macaron, and they swarmed toward Belial the moment they were released.
Kwachik! Kwachik! Kwachik!
They immediately began gnawing at his skin as if they had been starving for centuries.
These beetles were the infamous Flesh Eaters, a type of bug in the Demon Realm known for devouring the flesh off of the living.
“
G-Gaaaah!
Get off me! Get off me!”
Once the beetles bit off a chunk of his flesh, they stabbed their pincers deep into his muscles.
Puuuk!
Using their pincers, they created an opening and started burrowing into Belial’s body.
“
A-Aaaaack!”
Belial shrieked as unbearable pain radiated from all over his body.
Upon seeing that...
‘Now’s my chance!’
Siegfried seized the moment.
Shwiiiiik!
He conjured another wave of aura blades imbued with ice attribute energy and sent them hurtling toward Belial.
Shwiiiiik!
The icy blades pierced into Belial’s mangled figure.
“
A-Aaaaack!”
The effect was immediate. Belial was frozen by the chilling frost aura of the blades, and his movements noticeably slowed down. Now that he was unable to defend himself properly, the Flesh Eaters went wild.
They gnawed away at his flesh, burrowed themselves into open wounds, and some even crawled into every hole on his body to devour him from the inside.
‘
W-Whoa...’
Siegfried flinched and shuddered in horror. Seeing mere bugs tear apart the demon lord he struggled so much against was almost unreal.
What if he didn't possess Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance?
Siegfried wouldn't have made it through the Maze of Evil.
However, Belial was not going down so easily.
“Y-You... fucking dare...!”
Belial spun, shaking all of the Flesh Eaters away, and charged at Siegfried once more.
Even after all of that, he still was not incapacitated.
‘
Oh? He’s still alive and kicking?’
Siegfried dodged the charge and sprinted off again in search of an even deadlier trap.
‘
Keep raging. The angrier you become, the easier it will be for me! Kekeke!’
Belial no longer intimidated him. All he had to do was keep dodging and luring the Demon Lord of Hatred into traps. It was now only a matter of time before Belial would eventually destroy himself.
***
The chase between Siegfried and Belial went on for a full ten more hours.
‘
T-This guy is a monster!’
Siegfried was honestly worn out by Belial’s insane tenacity.
Belial had fallen into dozens of traps over the past ten hours. As a result, he was completely mangled. Yet despite that, he was still after Siegfried like a wild rampaging bull.
He didn't stop, not even for a single second, and it had been ten hours since the chase began. Of course, Siegfried was as impressive as him for managing to run without getting caught for that long.
However, he was slowly reaching his limits.
[Warning: You have been playing Brave New World for 47 hours!]
[Warning: Excessive gameplay might interfere with your normal daily life!]
[Alert: You will be forcibly logged out in 1 hour!]
He only had one hour left.
If he couldn’t defeat Belial within that time, then he would be forcibly logged out.
And that was not his only problem...
‘
Ugh! I’m gonna die at this rate!’
Siegfried could slowly feel his concentration slipping away.
He had been playing for forty-seven hours straight, so it felt like his eyes were about to fall out. He was starting to feel drowsy, and he was slowly making more and more mistakes.
‘
I have to end this...’
Click!
Another trap was triggered just then.
Creak...!
Demonic beings with pitch-black skin appeared from the wall and started attacking Belial.
“Die, weakling!”
“What a feeble demon.”
These were savage ancient demons who once rampaged across the Demon Realm.
Causing war and fighting was etched into their very existence, so the Creator had no choice but to drive them into extinction. Who would have thought that such fearsome beings known to be extinct had been lying dormant inside the traps of the Maze of Evil?
“W-What in the—?!”
Belial was utterly stunned by the appearance of the ancient demons. Their combat prowess far exceeded that of normal demons, and even Belial struggled against them.
‘
Good!’
Siegfried cheered inwardly as he watched Belial getting overwhelmed by the ancient demons.
[Demon Lord of Hatred: Belial]
[HP: ■■■□□□□□□□]
After grinding for the last ten hours, Siegfried managed to whittle down Belial’s HP by seventy percent.
The ancient demons were driving Belial into a corner.
‘
This is my chance!’
The moment Belial’s HP dropped below twenty percent, Siegfried sprinted forward and jumped into the fray.
Needless to say, the ancient demons were not on Siegfried’s side.
“Die, filthy half-blood!”
“Pathetic insect!”
The ancient demons immediately charged at Siegfried as well.
However, Siegfried had no intention of fighting them.
He moved closer to Belial and said, “You and me. Let’s have a talk in private, shall we?”
“W-What?!”
“I said, I’m asking you out right now.”
Swoosh!
A swirling darkness engulfed both Siegfried and Belial.
Siegfried had forcefully dragged Belial into his domain, the World of Despair.
“Good. You’re nicely marinated,” Siegfried said with a grin, thoroughly pleased after seeing Belial reduced to a ragged mess. The Demon Lord of Hatred looked far from majestic. His wings were torn up like old tarpaulins, his body was covered in burns and gashes, and one of his horns had snapped clean off.
Not a single thing about his appearance would make one believe that he was the most powerful demon in the Demon realm.
Perhaps that was the reason why Belial no longer had the strength to resist Karma Flare or Embrace of Despair.
Wooong!
Fwoosh!
He was drowning in a sea of debuffs.
Thud... Thud...
Siegfried leisurely walked forward with Touch of Death channeling into his +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp.
“You son of a bitch...” Belial muttered under his breath with a resigned look after finally realizing the situation. He knew that he couldn’t win against Siegfried in his current state.
Siegfried was low on stamina from all the running, but his HP was still nearly full. In contrast, Belial couldn’t even lift a finger anymore. He had fallen into too many traps that he had become completely drained and incapacitated.
“Finish it. I’d rather die cleanly than suffer humiliation if I’m going to lose anyway,” Belial said, his voice not having any will to resist.
‘
Hmm... I kinda want to beat him up some more, though,’
Siegfried hesitated for a moment.
However, he thought it over and knew that it was not the right thing to do.
Why?
It was all because once he inherited the throne of the Demon King, Belial would be the second-in-command of the Demon Realm. Having bad blood with such an individual would not help at all.
Belial was not an enemy to be thoroughly crushed. He was an ally Siegfried had to embrace.
“That was an honorable display from you, sir,” Siegfried said with utmost respect, sounding like a warrior paying respect to a worthy adversary.
“Huh...?”
Belial was slightly startled by the unexpected courteous tone, but that was it..
‘
It’s over.’
Siegfried swung his +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp, which was fully charged with Touch of Death, and slammed it into Belial’s head.
Baaaaam!
A bright light swallowed Belial, forcibly returning him to District Zero.
And then...
[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]
Siegfried was rewarded with a massive amount of experience points for taking down the most powerful demon in all of the Demon Realm, the Demon Lord of Hatred, Belial.
***
The battle between the Allied Forces and the Holy Alliance at the Last Fortress had finally begun, and the very first clash between the two sides ended with a one-sided victory for the Holy Alliance.
In less than two hours after the battle began, one of the five walls of the Last Fortress had already fallen.
Up until now, the Allied Forces had been enjoying a string of victories and were on a winning streak. Their morale had been so high that they barely even considered the Holy Alliance a threat.
However, all of that confidence was shattered to pieces after that devastating first battle.
The Holy Alliance was simply too powerful.
Among the enemy troops, the five hundred thousand infantry that exhaled white steam from their mouths were particularly powerful.
After being injected with combat stimulants, the five hundred thousand troops were so overwhelmingly powerful that even the elite troops of the Allied Forces were forced to abandon the first wall and retreat, after just two hours of fighting.
“To think something this absurd could happen...” Oscar muttered, staring at the collapsed wall with an expression of dismay.
The Holy Alliance soldiers were clearing the rubble and establishing their camp within the walls while disposing of the corpses.
“What should we do? At this rate, we will not last more than a few days. The difference in combat power is just too great,” Hansen said with a grim look. Then, he bit his lips and added, “Those infantry are abnormally strong.”
“I know,” Oscar replied with a nod. Then, she said solemnly, “Our forces won’t hold out much if this continues.”
“What should we do?”
“What are you so worried about, Major Hansen? We will emerge victorious. Do not doubt that for a second,” Oscar said calmly.
“But...”
“His Imperial Majesty will come.”
“...!”
“And then we will win.”
Oscar believed without a shred of doubt that Siegfried would come, and once he was here, this seemingly hopeless battle would instantly turn in their favor.
She believed in that with unwavering faith.