The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns Chapter 283: Cornered

Listen While Reading: Unsolved Mysteries
-----

Belphegor was left speechless; Bing Xue had completely played with him. Her plays were completely out of this world, and it felt like she was always one step ahead of him in more ways than he could even predict.

“It’s almost as if she can see the future… How is this possible?!”

The Archdemon King of Sloth, a powerful primordial being from the Dimension of Hell, was having his patience tested by who he considered to be a “merely stronger than normal mortal”. If he had to be honest, he had little to no information about Bing Xue and stupidly accepted her bet because he found her hilarious.

However, as he saw her play with his cards, he began to realize that she wasn’t quite what she seemed to be. Her way of playing with them, how she anticipated his own movements…

“T-This is ridiculous…”

It felt like Belphegor was trapped between her webs, and even his own moves, decisions, and everything was already previously calculated by her.

“I was guaranteed to win; I should’ve won! And yet…”

He grabbed his golden mask, his sharp claws tightly holding it while he felt an immense pressure coming from her; his eyes widened…

He felt fear!

“T-There’s no way I am feeling fear over a mortal… I am an Archdemon! Have I ever felt fear against anybody else other than the Creator and Lucifer?!”

He wasn’t in his true body here, but taking over a constructed vessel using three creatures, two divine machines, and one monster from his cards, allowing him to come to this universe and do as he pleases.

But stupidly, he ended up locking himself in this duel with a woman he never imagined was this cunning, and above all…

Strong.

“What is this Aura?! Has she been sealing it this entire time?!”

As the battle continued, Bing Xue’s Aura continued growing stronger, as if she was slowly releasing it, to make it so Belphegor wouldn’t easily realize just how much power she was hiding.

Until it was too late!

After all, if she had shown how truly mighty she was from the start, the Demon would have likely run away with the souls of the Machine Gods with him, something she didn’t want to happen.

“Her Aura… She’s strong, too strong! Is she even human?! No, she must be some kind of Deity, right?! Divinity! There’s Divinity leaking out of her! How was I fooled this entire fucking time?!”

Belphegor, the Archdemon of Sloth, was well known for being a lazy entity, someone who preferred to lay out malefic plans and slowly reap the benefits passively. Over time, he had the best patience of all Archdemons, or perhaps only rivaled by Mammon, the Archdemon of Greed.

He had just woken up from a nap when he got here, noticing the destruction of one of his Duel Card Arena Dimensions, disrupting his sleep. He had used the card of Djet to summon himself, and at the same time, eat his soul while he was at it.

Therefore, his mind wasn’t at the best point back then; still sleepy and getting all cocky with Bing Xue, he never realized just how strong she should have been to even shatter the pocket dimension his Duel Cards create!

“Am I really going to lose?! Wait, is that her plot?! Beelzebub! Is this her doing?! I thought we sealed her eons ago in that damned Library! Why…? Why is she here, and with that woman too?! Why didn’t I question that before?! Dammit!!! I was too sleepy! I just didn’t care enough…! I assumed it was just a temporary summon, but this…! She’s whispering to her as she’s taking the cards! Aaaarrggh, are they plotting something?!”

As Belphegor agonized internally, he suddenly heard another voice, from the referee himself.

“My lord, fret not, the deck of that human woman has been modified; she should no longer have any more monster cards with her!”

“What?”

“As you requested, I made her deck the worst possible I could; she had already used all her monster cards! They’re now in the graveyard, and there’s no card that’ll let her bring them out anymore.”

“R-Really?!”

“Yes! No matter what she uses, it won’t be able to help her deal any damage to you, my lord! Rest assured, next turn, you will win for sure!”

“A-Ahh… Hahaha! I see! S-So that’s the case! What a relief—I mean, that’s as expected! I am the greatest duelist after all…! I made this game, heh!”

As Belphegor felt relieved and giggled evilly while glancing at Bing Xue, she quickly realized why he was even laughing to begin with.

“I see, so this is what he finds funny, huh?”

She glanced at the five cards she took from the deck.

[Aging Curse: Tier 2]

[Bear Trap: Tier 1]

[Villager Riot: Tier 1]

[Phantom Hand: Tier 3]

[Graverobber: Tier 2]

“No Monster cards…”

Only Trap and Spell Cards were available!

“So, Bing Xue~? What will you pick now? I am waiting patiently here! Take your time…. Geheh… Geheheheh…”

Bing Xue’s eyes squinted for a moment as she looked at Belphegor.

Indeed, Demons were just as she imagined: treacherous, cheaters, evil, wicked, and vicious.

Perhaps the demons inside her library were the same too, but she never experienced it from the receiving end as they were her familiars.

“That damn bastard barely placed monster cards in your deck!” Belze complained.

“Hmm, it seems I’ve run out of monster cards altogether; only effect cards are left. Without monsters to play around with them, my strategies are much more limited now…” Bing Xue’s eyes shone brightly.

In front of her, countless images appeared; her mind was constantly calculating hundreds of possible outcomes with the things in front of her.

“Hmm, but there might be a path towards victory, a tricky one. I might have to gamble.”

“Y-You saw a path to victory? Even in this situation? But how?”

“Yes… It is the one with the highest chances, so I will go for it.”

As Bing Xue said, she quickly began placing cards on the field.

All of them, except for one.

“I put these four cards in the field upside down…”

All four cards projected themselves in front of her, floating while being upside down; Belphegor couldn’t see what they were.

“And I use Graverobber!”

FLASH!

The card showing a man wearing a black coat while carrying a bag of bones and a shovel appeared.

“Hmph, that card? Okay, sure, you can draw one card from the grave, but you cannot bring out monster cards; it is stated in the card itself, you know? Your situation is quite hopeless; you should just give up already, Bing Xue.”

Belphegor mocked her bad luck, but Bing Xue smiled.

“That’s right, I cannot take monster cards from the Grave, but I can choose which cards I can take… from either of the two graves.”

“…”

Belphegor squinted his eyes, without saying another “what?!” as usual, containing himself, although his left eye twitched annoyedly.

“Hey, is this true?! That damn card…! It can steal from my grave too?!”

Belphegor sent a telepathic message to the referee.

“Y-Yes but it shouldn’t matter, sir! It’s not like she can turn the tables so easily!”

“…”

Belphegor remained in silence, as all of his grave cards that were from non-monsters appeared.

And…

Of course.

Bing Xue chose “that” card.

[Bouncing Psycho Mirror: Tier 4]

Bing Xue took it out from the grave; Belphegor was aware she took that one, making him furious.

“And so what?! That card won’t work unless you place it on the field, and now that I know it’s your only card, you think you can stop me?!”

“…”

Bing Xue smiled while closing her eyes and then placed the card on the field, right in front of her.

“We’ll see.”

“Tch! It’s my turn now! Prepare to die!”

Belphegor pulled six cards and instantly started summoning monsters; he didn’t care about strategy; he just wanted to defeat her.

“No matter what you try, I will simply crush you with overwhelming power! I sacrifice this card to summon Crimson Blood Queen: Carmilla in attack position! I sacrifice these two cards to summon Celestial Sky Whale: Gafoon in Attack Position!”

FLAAASH!

-----