Zenon, who had liberated eighty percent of his devil power, became even more terrifying. Skeletal armor appeared on his body, and even half his face was covered by a bone mask, revealing only one pitch-black eye.
Behind him also spread a pair of bat wings, except one was a white skeleton frame with fleshy membrane, while the other was completely black.
And besides the pair of antelope horns on his head, Zenon's forehead sprouted two more short horns.
These were called devil's markings, symbols that only devil-possessed individuals possessed.
Yuno on the side clenched his fists tightly, his fingertips even piercing his palms and drawing blood.
He had felt he had a chance to defeat the previous Zenon, but the current Zenon made him lose even the courage to fight.
As if sensing Yuno's mood, Charles spoke, "Yuno, when you and your contracted spirit can truly achieve unity of heart and body, spirit assimilation will advance to another stage.
When fusion with the spirit approaches one hundred percent infinitely, you'll reach the realm called Saint Stage.
At that time, you'll have power that can dispel devil power, the same as Asta's anti-magic."
Saying this, Charles approached Zenon as if to prove it to Yuno.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"
Zenon watched Charles with his pitch-black eye, then reached out as bone whips drilling from his back extended madly toward Charles.
But just as Charles had said, Saint Stage power had a restraining effect on devil power. It could be said that aside from anti-magic, Saint Stage was the only power that could completely slay devils.
The flames from Charles's punch swept away the bone whips, exploding thunderously on Zenon's chest.
The dense cracks on Zenon's skeletal armor healed instantly, then a bone sword appeared in his hand again, slashing toward the approaching Charles.
The clanging sounds of metal striking metal rang out continuously as countless sword shadows and palm shadows collided together, making it impossible to count how many times the two had exchanged blows.
During this process, the bone sword in Zenon's hand cracked several times, then instantly restored itself.
As that large man had said before, devil power could elevate the possessed person's original magic to another dimension.
Zenon's bone magic was the same - both hardness and regeneration speed had improved to astonishing degrees.
But unfortunately, this improvement still wasn't enough for him to contend with Charles.
After another clash, the dispersing impact forced both to step back.
Zenon narrowed his eyes as a new bone sword appeared in his free hand, stabbing straight toward Charles's heart.
Charles's palm shot out flames. Using the recoil from the flame eruption, Charles's body twisted half a turn, just avoiding the stabbing bone sword.
Charles bent his arm, directly smashing that bone sword with his forearm, scooped up the broken sword and stabbed it directly into Zenon's chest.
Zenon cried out in pain but still created a thicket of bone spurs that drilled out to force Charles back.
The leaping Charles looked at the bone spurs still continuously extending toward him, inhaled a large breath of air, then exhaled a blazing pillar of fire.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!"
Bones and flames collided together, but couldn't hold out for long before being directly destroyed. The fire pillar extended directly to Zenon's face.
"Spatial Magic - Void Severance!"
A gray misty space appeared as Zenon reached out, blocking before the fire pillar and bizarrely erasing the flames.
Zenon didn't relax after blocking this strike, instinctively turning to look behind him.
But he was still a beat too slow. Charles had already appeared there, his fist striking heavily.
Surging flames spread out from behind Zenon, destroying all the bone spears stabbing from behind him.
Zenon's pupils contracted as he endured the severe pain and retreated, while bone whips drilled out from behind him, stabbing straight at Charles.
Charles's body moved like flickering, dodging the bone whip attacks. Finally Charles reached out and grabbed the last bone whip like a venomous snake, using his arm strength to directly pull Zenon toward himself.
"Flame Dragon's Wing Blade!"
Raising his other hand in a palm strike, Charles aimed at Zenon and brought down his flame-wrapped palm.
The flames refined to the extreme brought terrible destructive power. Zenon's body was like a painting that had been wiped, with part of his chest directly disappearing.
But strangely, there was no bleeding from the wound, and no muscle or bone could be seen, let alone internal organs.
Inside was pitch black, as if Zenon's entire body was composed of dark energy. It made one wonder if he was still human at all.
And within that body seemingly composed of dark energy, the only thing visible was a still-beating heart, except that heart was also within the wound's range, so a small part had been erased as well.
Zenon spat out a mouthful of blood and fell backward.
Zenon wasn't Dante who possessed flesh magic and that virtually immortal self-recovery ability.
Even though having devil power gave him some self-recovery ability, having his heart vital point attacked was still life-threatening.
Charles watched Zenon fall but didn't release his battle form. Instead, he extended his hand and summoned a mass of dark red destructive flames.
Facing such an opponent, Charles wouldn't feel at ease without watching him turn into particles invisible to the naked eye.
Sure enough, before Charles could throw the flames in his hand, he saw Zenon's eyes regain their luster.
In that instant just now, in a space Charles couldn't see, Zenon had made a deal with the devil possessing him.
Zenon gave everything of himself to the spatial devil Beelzebub in exchange for Beelzebub's heart... the devil's heart.
For devils, the heart wasn't just an important organ - it was the source of a devil's power and life. As long as the heart wasn't destroyed, the devil couldn't be killed.
Charles watched as the broken heart in Zenon's chest cavity rapidly restored itself, except the restored heart's muscles and blood vessels had all turned black.
Then the wound on Zenon's chest also quickly healed, and even the skeletal armor covered it again.
The ominous massive magic power pushed Charles directly away as Zenon stood up again.
But the Zenon who stood up again had become completely unlike a human.
The short horns on his head had grown much larger, and those large horns had also sprouted branches. Black cracks like wrinkles grew on his face, and his ears had become sharp.
The pair of devil wings behind him had also turned completely black, with a tail made of assembled bone segments swishing behind him.
As Charles had thought, among the Dark Triad, Zenon was definitely the most troublesome one.
Possessing the resolve to stake everything, Zenon had actually unleashed complete devil power even without the gates of the underworld being opened.
Zenon grinned, white vapor emerging between his sharpened teeth.
"I won't fall here. For the Spade Kingdom, I will definitely defeat you here."
Charles steadied himself and said coldly, "Having become like this, stop saying such protagonist lines."
Possessing devil power with a devil's heart beating in his chest - such an existence was completely a devil!
And the obsessive feelings in Zenon's heart were now exactly the same as a devil's. Such a him couldn't protect anything.
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