In order to know just how strong Cifer Palak was, Dark Lord and Morphus (Occupying an adult body), teleported with him to a place that was yet another fighting ground between the demons and human knights.

The battle ground was what remained of a remote demon village.

As the human troops advanced further and further, more and more demon villages were destroyed, and all the demons within them, no matter if they were old or young, men or women, even if they were children, they were mercilessly slaughtered.

Considering that Dark Lord had Shadow Lords reporting to him on the movements of the human troops, this place was rather easy to find.

‘To think, just a few days ago, this was a peaceful demon village…now it looks like a scene from a nightmare’

Dark Lord was clad in clothing that concealed all parts of his body, form fitting attire that was all black in color with grey outlines.

On his face he wore a featureless silver mask that covered his entire face.

The others wore disguises as well, making it impossible to discover their identities. In Cifer’s case, it was rather easy, considering he wore so much clothing.

Their objective, of course, was to encounter human knights and have Cifer fight them.

And fight the human knights he did, apparently none of them were of Holy Knight level, making it easy for a Demon Lord level demon like Cifer to splatter them with ease.

By now, Dark Lord, Morphus, and Cifer ended up killing a platoon’s worth of knights.

‘Well, I guess I should have expected as much from a Demon Lord…’

“You fiends! You shall not escape!”

Out of nowhere, a figure of a knight of jet black armor emerged; Dark Lord knew exactly who he was.

He was leading at least thirty Holy Knights.

“Oh for the love of…you are everywhere!”

The one in front of him was none other than the Knight of Night, Larat Lemuri.

Like a Shadow, he proceeded to dash forward.

Faster than an eye could see, he ended up stabbing Dark Lord through his torso on the right side, pinning him to a tree.

Cifer and Morphus were now surrounded by Holy Knights, and Dark Lord had Knight of Night’s undivided attention.

“You have no horns….” Knight of Night observed. Then his face was filled with undeniable rage.

“You are a human being, aren’t you? Why? You could have been a hero, yet you wasted your life serving evil”

Knight of Night addressed the man he just stabbed; fully confident he had delivered a fatal blow.

‘Same line as back then, huh. You really haven’t changed at all….’

“I am no hero” Dark Lord confidently stated.

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Then, the man Larat stabbed ended up grabbing Larat’s hand with his left hand, holding him in place, and proceeded to grab Larat by the neck with his right hand.

“Gotcha”

Suddenly, Larat felt his power suddenly wane, his body started to feel heavy, and he felt that he could no longer stand on his two feet.

As he ended up involuntarily falling on his knees, the man Larat stabbed stood up.

‘The stab through his chest should have killed him, but yet he stands….How is this possible?’

With his right hand still upon Larat’s neck, Dark Lord used his left hand in order to pull the sword out of his body.

Larat did not see a drop of blood on the blade; it was as though the blade did not even touch his flesh.

“Knight of Night, Larat Lemuri, we meet once again, though in your case, this is our first meeting, so I must say, you make a very good first impression”

‘My strength….What is happening? I feel so weak…’

“I have dreamt of this moment for so long, planned countless strategies, drove myself crazy with despair, but here you are, walking right into my hands, and funny enough, this is on the first attempt! I can hardly believe my luck!”

This particular scenario was a completely new occurrence; Dark Lord did not yet have the chance to use his curse to loop back in time.

But, interestingly enough, Dark Lord may not need to loop back this time after all.

Knight of Night was too fast to avoid, so the best Dark Lord could do was control where he would get stabbed.

Considering he faced Knight of Night in many loops, Dark Lord knew that Knight of Night would first attack with his sword, in order to conserve his mana, which meant that if Dark Lord timed it right, then he could play the cards to his advantage.

By now, Dark Lord’s timing had become almost impeccable.

When the Knight of Night tried to kill Dark Lord, Dark Lord managed to turn his body slightly to the side, so that he would get stabbed through his right side, avoiding the left side that had all his vitals.

Then, Dark Lord’s trap was complete.

Dark Lord’s fingers clenched tightly upon Knight of Night’s neck.

“Ever since I ended up in this world, I have wondered endlessly…aimlessly…Constantly questioning, what was the path before me? Where was I heading to? What was my purpose?”

Dark Lord leaned in close; his face under a silver mask was now only inches away from Larat’s face.

“Larat Lemuri, if it weren’t for you and the Knight of Light, I would never have realized my destiny, and for that, I thank you.”

Raising up the looted sword, Dark Lord proclaimed.

“Now, it’s time for goodbye….”

As he saw his impending doom, Larat’s mind was in a frenzy.

‘I have always walked the path that I thought was right…I fought endlessly in order to protect humanity from the demon kind….So much that I need to accomplish…There is no way this is my end! Not like this! I refuse to go down like this! I refuse!’

Suddenly, Larat’s right eye momentarily shined bright blue.

With a sudden burst of strength, he pushed Dark Lord off of himself, making a space in between them.

His legs shaking from barely being able to carry his weight, Larat used all his strength to brandish his second sword from its scabbard.

‘Not good….I can’t feel any mana in my body, I was even forced to resort to using that….’

“Right, I almost forgot you were one of them, I guess I got tad bit carried away, please excuse my rudeness.” Dark Lord talked in a rather twisted, polite manner.

With the weakened Knight of Night refusing to give up, Dark Lord proceeded to attack.

As Dark Lord’s blade clashed against his opponent’s sword, Dark Lord’s sword ended up being cut in half.

Knight of Night may be weakened, but he was far from helpless.

‘Still, he was a nuisance in my plans for far too long, it is time I take care of him, permanently’

Dark Lord brandished his crystal dagger and slashed the Knight of Night.

Fully confident of crystal dagger’s infallibility, Dark Lord could not help but express shock when Knight of Night’s sword clashed against the crystal dagger, two blades viciously clashing against each other, neither able to best the other.

“But how? The crystal dagger should have sliced cleanly through your blade!”

Dark Lord pondered. ‘I took away his mana so he could not have used magic, but if he did not use mana to coat his blade, what did he…’

Then, Meros’s words echoed within Dark Lord’s mind.

‘Skilled swordsmen rely not on mana, but chi in order to enhance their swordsmanship’

“A chi user, huh. What a surprise. But to think your chi is strong enough to clash against my dagger…I must say, I am impressed…”

Dark Lord proceeded to kick Larat with his right leg, making the latter fall down. With nearly all his mana drained, the fearsome Knight of Night was at his weakest while Dark Lord was at his strongest.

Dark Lord lunged forward to stab the fallen hero, but Larat managed to roll out of the way on time. Once again, their blades clashed. The two arch enemies knew that if one lets his guard down, then the other would cut him down in an instant.