My Wives are Beautiful Demons-Chapter 710: …So this is how it’s going to be.
The next impact was silent.
It was absent.
For a single instant, the entire labyrinth... fell silent. Not because the noise ceased, but because something deeper took its place—an absolute suppression, as if reality itself were being compressed to make room for what was about to happen.
And then—
Movement.
Shiva appeared first.
Not in displacement.
In presence.
He didn’t traverse space—he simply was there, before Alice, his body already rotating, his hips aligned, his arm pulled back in a perfect mechanical force generation.
The blow came.
But it wasn’t just a blow.
It was the execution of a principle.
Destruction condensed into technique.
Alice saw.
And, for the first time...
She didn’t just analyze.
She reproduced.
Her body moved in that same instant. Her foot pivoted on its axis with millimeter precision, her hip following, her spine aligning identically to his. Her arm advanced, not to block, but to intercept the vector of the blow at the exact point where the force was still accumulating.
Contact.
There was no impact.
There was cancellation.
The two forces met in perfect opposition... and annihilated each other.
The air around them collapsed.
Space vibrated.
But neither of them retreated.
Shiva’s eyes narrowed.
And then... the smile returned.
Bigger.
More intense.
More dangerous.
"—Ah."
Alice was already moving.
Without hesitation.
Without delay.
She advanced.
Her fist came in an arc.
Identical.
Perfect.
Not a superficial copy.
Not an imitation.
It was execution. Shiva tilted his head, dodging by millimeters—but what struck him wasn’t the fist.
It was the wave.
The residual force of the blow ripped through the air and hit his face like an invisible blade, pushing him sideways. Not enough to throw him... but enough to displace him.
One step.
A single step.
His smile... deepened.
"You’re learning."
Alice didn’t answer.
She didn’t need to.
Her body was already in sequence.
Her foot slid across the ground—or what remained of it—and her second blow came from below, ascending with a trajectory that perfectly mimicked Shiva’s previous attack.
He blocked.
But not like before.
Now... there was weight.
The impact pushed his arm back a few centimeters.
And this—
This was new.
Shiva advanced.
But now his movements had changed again.
If before he broke patterns... now he multiplied them.
His blows came in impossible chains, transitions that didn’t exist within conventional combat systems. Each movement didn’t lead to the next—he created three possibilities at the same time, choosing one at the last instant.
Controlled chaos.
Destruction in the form of art.
Alice faced it.
And, for a moment...
She failed.
One blow passed.
It hit her shoulder.
Another came immediately after, hitting her side.
Her body was displaced.
Not thrown.
But pressed.
And then came the third.
Direct. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
Straight.
Without variation.
Alice... didn’t block.
She absorbed.
Her body recoiled half a step.
Her feet adjusted their axis.
And her eyes... shone.
"I understand." She advanced again.
But this time...
She didn’t copy a move.
She copied the system.
Her movements ceased to be linear.
Her body began to generate multiple possibilities with each action, micro-variations arising in her shoulders, hips, and feet, all coexisting for fractions of a second before collapsing in the final execution.
She was no longer reacting.
She was predicting.
The two disappeared.
And reappeared at another point in the labyrinth.
And then at another.
And another.
Each exchange of blows now not only destroyed the environment—it rewrote the dynamics of combat. The walls were no longer obstacles, the ground was no longer support, and the air... was no longer stable enough to be considered a reliable medium.
The labyrinth was being undone.
Not by brute force.
But by the complexity of the battle.
Alice spun her body, dodging a diagonal blow, and responded with three consecutive attacks. Shiva blocked two... and the third passed through.
The impact struck his abdomen.
This time—
He was thrown.
Not far.
But far enough.
He slid across the destroyed ground for a few meters... and stopped.
Silence.
For a moment.
He stood up.
And began to laugh.
Not loudly.
But genuinely.
"...You really are doing this."
He raised his hand.
And closed it.
The space around him collapsed.
Not as before.
Now it was directed.
Controlled.
Condensed around his own body.
His presence changed.
No longer expansive.
Now it was dense.
Heavy.
Like a core.
"Then let’s see how far you can keep up."
He disappeared.
Alice reacted.
But—
The difference was now minimal.
Almost imperceptible.
He appeared behind her.
And, for the first time...
The blow landed.
Directly.
Cleanly.
Her body was thrown forward, crashing through two walls before she managed to steady herself. She slid across the floor, her feet carving a deep furrow in the stone before stopping.
Silence.
She breathed.
Once.
Twice.
And then... she smiled.
It wasn’t a wide smile.
It was small.
Precise.
And dangerously satisfied.
"I could see."
She raised her head.
And, without hesitation—
She disappeared.
When she reappeared...
She didn’t go behind.
She didn’t go to the side.
She went exactly where Shiva would appear.
Her fist was already in motion.
The blow struck.
Directly.
This time... there was no defense.
The impact distorted the surrounding space, creating a wave that expanded in all directions, tearing apart what remained of the surrounding structure.
Shiva was thrown. This time... far.
Very far.
Crossing multiple layers, leaving a trail of destruction that cut through the labyrinth in a straight line.
Alice remained still.
Her eyes following.
Analyzing.
Calculating.
And then... she spoke.
Softly.
Almost like a mental note.
"Speed adjusted. Unstable vectors compensated. Rupture pattern assimilated."
She took a step forward.
And her aura... changed again.
It didn’t grow.
It refined.
If before it was raw power with control...
Now it was technique with purpose.
At the distant point of impact...
The debris began to move.
Slowly.
And then... a hand emerged.
Shiva stood up.
His eyes... shone.
More than before.
More than at any point in that fight. He looked at her.
And, for the first time...
There wasn’t just excitement.
There was respect.
"...Perfect."
He took a step.
And the world around him... yielded.
"Then come."
Alice replied.
Taking the same step.
And the space between them...
Disappeared.
This time... there was no longer any difference between them.
The fight had changed.
It was no longer a god against an apprentice.
It was—
Two monsters.
Learning from each other.
While destroying everything around them.
...
...
...
The center of the labyrinth didn’t seem part of the rest of the structure.
While the corridors were narrow, oppressive, and full of false paths, that space was vast... too open. A gigantic circular hall, where the walls curved upwards until they disappeared into a distant vault, covered in runes that pulsed in a slow rhythm, almost like breathing.
The air there was different.
Heavier.
Denser.
As if the space itself were... attentive.
Vergil entered without hesitation.
His steps echoed cleanly, controlled, each movement calculated, without any hurry. His gaze swept over the environment, analyzing every detail—the runic lines, the points of intersection, the flaws in the structure. Even without being able to map the labyrinth, he was still... reading.
Medusa, in her reduced form, remained wrapped around his neck like a living scarf, her small head resting near his collarbone. Her reptilian eyes moved constantly, attentive to everything.
"I don’t like it here..." she murmured, her voice low, almost a whisper. "It’s too quiet."
Vergil didn’t answer.
He just kept walking.
And then—
Impact.
There was no warning.
There was no presence.
There was no detectable intent.
Just force.
Absolute.
The blow struck his torso with such extreme violence that the ground beneath his feet didn’t even have time to react before being pulverized. His body was thrown backward like a projectile, hurtling through the air with absurd speed, breaking through an entire wall of the central hall, then another, and another—until disappearing into the darkness of a distant corridor.
The sound came next.
A deep rumble that reverberated throughout the structure.
Silence.
For a brief moment.
And then... debris began to fall.
Stones.
Fragments.
Broken runes flickering unsteadily.
In the midst of that trail of destruction... something moved.
Vergil emerged from the rubble without haste.
No sign of damage.
No irregular breathing.
No exertion.
He adjusted his neck slightly, cracking it with a short movement, as if more bothered by the interruption than the attack itself.
Medusa raised her head, her eyes narrowed.
"...Okay, that was rude."
Vergil ran a hand over his shoulder, removing some of the dust.
And then he spoke.
"...What the hell was that?"
No irritation.
No anger.
Just... realization.
His eyes lifted.
And then he saw.
In the center of the hall... there was someone.
Momentary.
The presence wasn’t explosive like Shiva’s.
It wasn’t chaotic like Alice’s.
It was... silent.
But dense.
Like an abyss that simply existed.
The figure stood, enveloped in dark armor that seemed to absorb the surrounding light, subtle lines of energy running across its surface like veins of an artificial organism. There was no visible face—only an opaque, cold, emotionless visor.
But the eyes...
The eyes were there.
Even without being visible.
Watching.
Fixed.
On Vergil.
The air around the figure vibrated irregularly, as if its mere existence were interfering with the environment. The runes on the nearest walls began to flicker, blinking in erratic patterns.
Vergil tilted his head slightly.
Watching.
Analyzing.
Without haste.
"...So you’re the one."
Silence.
The figure did not respond.
It did not react.
But then—
She moved.
There was no preparation.
There was no visible displacement.
She was simply closer.
Much closer.
Vergil raised his arm.
Block.
The impact came.
And this time... there was reaction.
The ground beneath his feet gave way.
It sank a few inches.
A fissure spread around the point of contact.
But he wasn’t thrown.
He held on.
For an instant.
The two remained there.
Locked.
Force against force.
And then—
Vergil smiled.
It wasn’t fun.
It was recognition.
"I understand."
He pushed.
Not with more force.
But with better application.
The figure’s arm was displaced a few inches to the side.
Enough.
Vergil turned his body. And he counterattacked.
His blow came straight, precise, without waste.
The figure moved its arm to block—
Too late.
The impact struck its torso.
The sound was... strange.
It wasn’t flesh.
It wasn’t ordinary metal.
It was something in between.
Something that absorbed part of the impact... but not all.
The figure slid back a few meters.
Stopped.
Momentary again.
Silence.
Vergil lowered his arm.
His eyes narrowed.
Interested.
"It’s not an automaton."
Another realization.
Another analysis.
The figure tilted its head slightly.
And then... spoke.
The voice didn’t come from its mouth.
It came from the surrounding space.
Distorted.
Multiple.
Emotionless. "Eliminate."
A pause.
Short.
And then—
"Lucifer."
Medusa froze.
Her eyes widened instantly, her body contracting around Vergil’s neck.
"...Oh, no."
Vergil didn’t move.
But his eyes...
Changed.
For the first time since entering that labyrinth...
Something within him responded.
Not as a reaction.
But as... a memory.
Recognition.
His smile vanished.
Replaced by something smaller.
Colder.
More dangerous.
"...So this is how it’s going to be."
