The Demon King pursues the Earth Dragons.
The Earth Dragons move to obstruct the pursuit.
The Demon King smashes through the barrier generated by the nine Earth Dragons and keeps chasing.
The Earth Dragons reconstruct the destroyed barrier, coordinating in a precise nine-way rotation to stall the Demon King.
It looks like an evenly matched exchange of blows, but the outcome is already decided.
There is no chance the Earth Dragons can win this fight.
That's precisely why they're going for a complete stalling strategy.
Buying time.
And, in the long run, a roundabout form of suicide.
The Earth Dragons are strong.
In particular, the one that seems to be their leader — the individual communicating telepathically with the Demon King — is outrageously powerful.
Its Status numbers average around 18,000 across all stats.
That was the result of me secretly using the Demon King's Appraisal Skill to take a peek.
It's by far the strongest monster I've ever seen.
The remaining eight are strong too.
After all, five out of the eight have average Stats exceeding 10,000.
The remaining three also have individual stats that push past 10,000 — they're no pushovers.
Even the weakest of the bunch has average Stats around 7,000.
Calling that "weak" would be absurd.
And yet they still have no chance.
Not against this Demon King.
Of the nine Earth Dragons, six possess the Divine Dragon Barrier Skill.
The remaining three only have the inferior Dragon Barrier Skill.
So those six form the core of the barrier operation to encircle the Demon King.
Frankly, a low-power Dragon Barrier doesn't even qualify as a stalling measure against the Demon King.
The three without the Divine Dragon Barrier are tasked with creating walls of earth magic.
They're trying to slow the Demon King down even a little.
But the results are not exactly stellar.
The Demon King pierces through the earthen walls with absurd ease and charges forward.
What kind of busted creature is this?
She looks like a person, but she's completely a monster.
Female D*minator?
I wouldn't even be surprised if she was made of metal on the inside.
When I think about how those Earth Dragons feel right now, being chased by something like that — Lord have mercy.
Also, there's something I've been wondering about this whole time — what's going on with this woman's MP and SP?
The numbers displayed on her Status are ludicrously high, but on top of that there's an additional stockpile of reserves.
My main body also has the Gorge Skill, and hers is probably its final Evolution — the Unique Skill Gluttony.
Thanks to that effect, the Demon King's HP, MP, and SP all have enormous bonus reserves stacked on top.
What's with the +99,999 on everything?
No matter how you fight, there's no way you can chip through numbers like that.
But that's not what caught my attention.
It's that her SP isn't decreasing at all.
It's actually increasing.
HP and MP recovering automatically isn't strange — she probably has recovery Skills for those.
But SP normally only recovers through eating meals.
The secret is that her SP recovers every time she moves her mouth.
When the Demon King moves her jaw as though gnawing on something, a portion of the Earth Dragons' barrier vanishes.
No — "vanishes" isn't quite right. It's more like it gets shaved away.
And then she chomps.
Every time she gulps it down, her SP recovers.
The source of that is Gluttony's effect.
『Gluttony: Power to reach n% of godhood. Becomes capable of devouring everything and converting it into pure energy for stockpiling. Also supersedes the W System and grants interference rights within the MA Field.』
『Dominator of Gluttony — Acquired Skills: "Abundance LV1," "Sublimation." Acquisition Condition: Obtaining "Gluttony." Effect: Increases HP, MP, and SP. Applies a positive correction to the Proficiency of status-enhancement Skills. Grants Dominator-class privileges. Description: A Title bestowed upon one who has come to dominate Gluttony.』
In other words, the Demon King is using Gluttony's effect to eat the Earth Dragons' barriers.
Then she converts that into energy and feeds it back into her SP.
Every Deadly Sin Skill is completely broken, but among them, when it comes to combat specifically, Gluttony is beyond ridiculous.
It's essentially a perpetual motion machine.
The most anxious Earth Dragon — the weakest one — unleashes its breath attack.
A blast of devastating power that seems capable of destroying everything.
If the opponent hadn't been the Demon King, that attack would surely have been effective.
If the opponent hadn't been the Demon King of Gluttony.
The Demon King opens her mouth.
The Earth Dragon's breath is sucked right into her maw.
She chews.
Then swallows, as though nothing happened.
So this is what it means to devour everything.
My Gorge Skill operates on a completely different dimensional level as a Skill.
She doesn't just eat food — she eats rock, soil, metal, and even the enemy's attacks.
She converts all of it into her own energy and recycles it.
That is the power of Gluttony.
It's not merely offense-and-defense-in-one — it's the worst possible ability, sustaining her in prolonged combat as well.
Purely in terms of combat capability, it's a more terrifying Skill than my own Pride.
The Demon King and the Earth Dragons resume their game of cat and mouse.
The Divine Dragon Barrier does buy them some time.
Even with the Gluttony Skill, the Divine Dragon Barrier isn't something that can be broken easily.
But the Earth Dragons, who must maintain the barrier and repair it every time it gets destroyed, are draining away steadily.
Meanwhile, the Demon King recovers the more she eats.
There's no way to win against that kind of cheat.
And beyond everything else, their base Stats are on completely different levels.
The Earth Dragons are strong.
And yet their strength is completely overshadowed by the Demon King's terrifying Stats.
An average of nearly 90,000 — an absolutely absurd figure.
The Demon King's threads slip through the gaps in the broken barrier and lash onto one of the Earth Dragons.
That Earth Dragon is the one with the lowest Stats.
The threads had been aiming for the one with the highest Stats.
The weaker one threw itself in front of the threads to shield the other.
The threads claim the Earth Dragon's life without mercy.
Even as the weakest one here, this Earth Dragon was surely among the most powerful beings in this entire labyrinth — and yet it was dispatched with trivial ease.
Eight Earth Dragons remain.
They continue to fight a battle they cannot win.
Sorry.
I don't think I can hijack the Demon King while you guys are busy trying your hardest.