Leo wasn't someone who enjoyed tormenting others.
Even after being reborn as a devil in this life—gaining power, letting himself be a little freer—he never abandoned certain lines he'd drawn back when he was human.
Nearly twenty years as a devil had turned him into someone fully qualified for the role, but also someone who didn't lose control of his emotions without reason.
So even when facing an enemy, Leo usually just aimed to end things cleanly. If he intended to kill, he did it swiftly. He never bothered to draw out someone's suffering or take pleasure in their screams.
That was a bottom line he'd kept from his human days. Even if he had to kill, even if he had to abandon unnecessary sentimentality, he never developed any taste for cruelty.
But this time… Lafei's actions truly enraged him.
"Splrt!"
So he didn't mind using methods a little crueler, letting Lafei have a proper taste of defeat.
A second ripping sound tore through the air. The second pair of bat-like devil wings was ripped straight off Lafei's back, blood spraying everywhere in violent arcs.
"Get... off me!!!"
Lafei was still bound tightly by countless rocks, forced to watch in agony as Leo tore his wings apart one after another. His pain only dragged him into deeper madness.
"Boom!"
The demonic power of a ten-winged devil burst violently out of him again, smashing the restraints to pieces with brute force. Stone exploded outward like shrapnel.
"Whoosh!"
A storm of demonic power surged up around him.
Leo was already gone—his devil wings flaring once to pull him clear before the explosion hit.
He raised one hand and pointed toward the sky. Black clouds churned overhead, lightning flashing violently before crashing downward in rapid succession. Bolts slammed toward Lafei one after another, filling the air with blinding light.
But this time, Leo's attacks were scattered by the raging storm swirling around Lafei. Pure demonic power roared from him, shaking even the air.
"So what if you're a Sacred Gear user? So what if you have the world's second strongest Longinus?"
Lafei's back was drenched in blood, only two pairs of devil wings remaining. His appearance was wretched—his aura, deranged.
"Those toys are nothing but creations of gods. The power I carry… I took it from a god directly!"
Pitch black.
The demonic power around him had become like that same little black serpent he'd swallowed before.
"With this power... someone like me shouldn't lose! I won't lose!"
Cracks split across Lafei's skin, blood seeping out and covering him entirely. His whole body looked like it was moments away from collapsing.
It wasn't far from the truth.
"His demonic power…!"
"He's overloading himself! Does he want to die!?"
Rias and Sona Sitri were forced to retreat from the overwhelming magic, keeping distance from Leo and Lafei as they watched with tense expressions.
Every devil had a limit to how fast they could output demonic power. High-Class Devils had their limit; Ultimate-Class Devils had theirs; even Maou-Class beings had one. If any of them released all their demonic power at once, the destruction would exceed a nuclear blast.
Lafei's power had grown after swallowing that mysterious serpent, and his output had risen to the level of a ten-winged devil—but no further.
Yet now, Lafei was burning his life to force out more power than a ten-winged devil could output in a single instant.
That destructive power came at the price of tearing his own body apart.
"And I'm supposed to lose to a filthy half-devil!? Never!!!"
He roared, channeling all his power into massive beams of light and firing blast after blast toward Leo.
Leo watched the blood-soaked figure coldly—unmoved by the rage, madness, or suicidal frenzy. He simply poured his own eight-winged demonic power steadily into his Sacred Gear, letting its aura replace his own.
If Rias's demonic power was a brilliant crimson, and Sona's was a clear blue, then Leo's was purple.
The purple demonic aura of the Eligos family was subtle and diffuse. It spread easily, making it ideal for sensing hidden things—ruins, objects, secrets.
But when Leo poured all his demonic power into activating his Sacred Gear, the aura of Zenith Tempest appeared instead.
And the color of Zenith Tempest's aura was pure white—capable of containing all attributes.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
High above the battlefield, two devils—one wrapped in pure white flame, the other in black—faced off across the air.
One unleashed attacks of every element; the other poured out power in a mindless frenzy.
Leo pushed Zenith Tempest to its limit, summoning flame, lightning, ice, storms, stone, floods—every natural force at once, hurling them toward Lafei.
Lafei responded with nothing but raw destructive magic—huge beams and explosive light spheres blasting outward, colliding violently with flame, lightning, ice, storms, stone, floods.
Explosions thundered again and again. Shockwaves ripped through the air.
Within seconds, the sky above the entire chamber became a storm of chaotic energy, the massive room trembling harder and harder under the escalating destruction.
Rias and Sona Sitri couldn't get anywhere near the battlefield. They were stuck dealing with the remaining Old Maou faction devils.
There weren't many left, but every survivor was either High-Class or Mid-Class—and together they were still troublesome enough that the girls couldn't spare a glance toward Leo's battle.
Leo and Lafei, meanwhile, had no attention for anything but each other—one calm and calculating, the other slipping deeper into insanity.
"Die! Die die die! Go die already!!!"
Lafei felt like his nerves were burning. His whole body felt submerged in molten lava, ready to burst apart at any second.
He never imagined he could be driven this far—forced into a desperate corner by a devil of the new generation.
Originally, the power of an Ultimate-Class Devil like him should have been enough to crush several up-and-coming High-Class Devils easily. And he'd even prepared the entire labyrinth ahead of time, laying traps and obstacles to wear them down.
In his mind, even if Leo's group reached him, they would already be weakened. Even if they had unexpected tricks, none of them should have been able to escape his judgment—especially when he carried the "serpent" bestowed by that great being.
If an accident happened, he would use the serpent and end everything.
So why… why had everything gone wrong?
Why was a "no-name" mixed-blood devil from mere months ago now an eight-winged devil equal to him?
Why did he possess one of the strongest Sacred Gears in existence—power said to be able to kill gods and Maou alike?
For Lafei, it was a nightmare.
But his despair and pain were nothing but deserved in Leo's eyes.
"For a devil, saying things like 'evil deeds bring their own ruin' is a bit ridiculous… but honestly, that saying fits you perfectly."
Leo finally spoke, his voice a stark contrast to Lafei's insanity—cold, detached.
"Your strength isn't bad. If this were a little earlier, I might not have been able to defeat you so easily."
"So your failure is almost funny. You just had bad luck."
"Honestly? The moment you targeted our group, this ending was probably inevitable."
After all, Leo and Sona aside… Rias was a bona fide member of the protagonist cast.
"So take that disgusting madness and hatred of yours… and go repent in hell."
Leo's voice cut through Lafei like the scythe of death.
"Boom!!!"
A moment later, the pure white aura around Leo erupted. Earth, water, wind, fire, lightning, ice—every element intertwined, merging into a tangible natural catastrophe.
It crashed forward violently—smashing, erasing, pulverizing everything in its path.
Lafei's giant beams and explosive magic were swallowed whole by the descending disaster.
His pupils shrank to needlepoints. His mouth opened—maybe to scream, maybe to curse—but every sound was drowned in the deafening roar.
In seconds, his entire body was engulfed by the disaster.
The raging demonic power inside him flickered… dimmed… and vanished—just like its master.
Lafei was gone. Completely. Forever.
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You can read up to chapter 147 on patreon.com/NiaXD.