Ashton's entire demeanour was changed in a fraction of a second. He wasn't in the driver's seat but could feel Astaroth's rampaging emotions. In the year he had known him, Ashton had never seen Astaroth lose his emotions, but now he was on the verge of going on a rampage.
Astaroth's emotional turmoil was expected, considering Beelzebub was the one who took everything from him. His life, His love, his respect... everything. But the cycle of time and karma never forgets nor does it forgives. Astaroth could finally have the justice he had been waiting for so long.
"It really is you, isn't it." Beelzebub chuckled, "The bloodlust in your eyes... there is no mistaking it. How long has it been since the General of Gluttony and the General of Massacre were in each other's presence?"
Astaroth didn't reply, trying to not do anything stupid in the heat of the moment. However, the urge of ripping Beelzebub's head was continuously increasing as Astaroth clenched his fights. His nails dug deep into the palms as the General of Massacre tried to hold on to the shred of patience he had.
"One hundred and fifteen years, three months, fourteen days and eleven hours," Astaroth replied through gritted teeth, "That's how long it has been, give or take a couple of hours. Can't remember it clearly when you stabbed me in the back."
Beelzebub stared at Astaroth as if he was studying the latter before his smile disappeared. Astaroth was standing in front of him, but something felt strange. He was... different. Even his stone cold stare wasn't the same.
"How did it feel?" Astaroth asked him.
"Betraying you? It was... exhilarating. Imagine, the man who was crowned as the next leader of the council being called a traitor. It was fun, especially when I was embracing your beloved fiance in my arms." Beelzebub smirked.
However, the smirk disappeared as soon as it appeared. Astaroth did not hold himself back anymore and kicked the smirking bastard right in the face. It felt good... too good. But once the gate of rage was opened, there was no stopping him.
Astaroth proceeded to kick Beelzebub over and over again until Beelzebub couldn't raise his head anymore. Once he was in that state, Astaroth grabbed his hair and forced Beelzebub to look him in the eye.
"You have no idea how good it feels to have gotten my hands on you." Astaroth laughed maniacally, "Nor do you have any idea of what I'm gonna do to you."
Beelzebub stared daggers at him but did not say a word to offend him anymore. Despite fooling around a bit, he simply could not afford to die here. He had big plans of outing Astaroth and had to handle everything calmly.
Astaroth, on the other hand, took Raphael and slammed him on the metal floor, cracking it instantly. When he took the sword out, they were in an entirely different room. The same one Ashton had met Raphael in for the first time.
Beelzebub's chains weren't transported inside the domain with him. He was free. He lunged at Astaroth to take his Mournblade away. However, got his face slammed hard on the ground a moment later.
Beelzebub grunted loudly, trying to get up, but Astaroth's foot stopped him from moving. This is what he was afraid of when he saw Raphael. Domain Dominance was an ability Astaroth often exploited to stop powerful enemies from getting an edge over him.
Once the target had been summoned inside the domain, not only did they become weaker than the caster, but also the domain itself was a living weapon. The caster had complete dominance over anyone else inside it. In other words... Beelzebub was Astaroth's bitch now.
Levels, skills and anything else did not matter inside the domain. The only drawback of the skill was the limit placed on the number of people the caster could 'dominate'. Astaroth could only have one person inside the domain other than him at any given point.
Meaning, that if he wanted to pull someone inside the domain, he would have to either kill or release the one currently inside the domain. Also, the lifeforce Raphael would absorb while utilising this skill was around 10%.
It was lesser than anyone other Xyran noble had to sacrifice after summoning their Mournblade. The only one who had an even lesser rate was their teacher, Seraph. He was also the only one who had a repercussion rate of merely 4%. Which meant whenever Seraph summoned his Mournblade he only lost 4% of his HP.
"Being back in this room must feel nostalgic to you, right?" Astaroth whispered while looking around the domain, "The last time we were here, we were training our butts off to kill those Precursors."
"Then you and that fucking master of ours got cold feet when we were so close to destroying the Precursor's escaping fleet!" Beelzebub muttered as he struggled to free himself from Astaroth's grasp.
Astaroth took a deep breath before kicking the bastard away. Beelzebub could have attacked Astaroth again, but he knew the result would remain the same. No one, not even the Precursors could defeat Astaroth once they were inside his domain.
"What are you gonna do? Kill me?"
"Raphael, speed up the time inside the domain once I leave," Astaroth ignored Beelzebub, while he tried to calm himself.
"By how much would you like to-"
"Enough to reduce his life force to 1%, then freeze the time."
"Request acknowledged," Raphael responded.
"No, you can't do this to me! YOU COWARD! Fight me!"
However, Astaroth ignored Beelzebub's attempts to aggravate him again and faded back to reality. Once outside, his legs gave away and the following moment, Ashton was back in control of his body.
[The Mournblade is in front of you. Do what you want with it. I'll answer your questions later.]
Ashton nodded and did not ask any questions for now. Astaroth would talk when he was in the mood to do so. Till then, it was best to leave him alone.
__
Balmond is eyeing <Beelzebub's Mournblade>, Would you like to feed the blade to Balmond?
Yes/No
__
"Yes."
<Balmond is happy with the quality of food provided to it.>
<Balmond is now evolving into a [Soulblade]>
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