As the endless green thorns exploded through the cave, Arad had to fly back, dodging all of them with backflips. What in the nine hells is a demon of this caliber doing here, and why did it keep hiding? This thing was on the same level as Lunara, so if it wanted to, she could cause a worldwide disaster.

"So, this is your true form?" Arad hit a wall and then changed his direction, running right through Ibaraki’s endless thorns; unlike before, they couldn’t even scratch his skin now that he was paying attention.

While Ibaraki spent most of her time masquerading as a weak, starving, little girl, her true form was a harrowing, serpentine green demon of thorns and vines. She looked like the stem of a rose given demonic life, but in place of a rose at the peak of her long, prickly body, she had a skinless human face with four eyes, no nose, and two mouths, one above the other.

"Can he really face her?" The old lady gasped in Amaterasu’s arms, and the goddess just smiled. "It would be difficult to defeat her without blasting this entire mountain to ash."

Arad dodged Ibaraki’s thorns with mastery, punched the stems attacking him aside, turned his palms into draconic talons, and slashed all of the thorns to pieces. Ibaraki was fast, but nowhere as fast as he was; but there was a catch: she had far more limbs to use, just like how Nyar had his countless tentacles.

Dodging all of the thorns was nearly impossible in such a confined space, and even Arad had to get hit a few times, even though those attacks barely did any damage at all; he still didn’t find it amusing to face a demon lord in the mortal world.

If this were a place that he could destroy, he would’ve already transformed into his draconic form and burned her to ash, but here, he can’t do that.

Then, from the thorns, a little girl burst out with a wooden spear. Arad barely dodged her first thrust, but was hit with the second one right through the heart. "I know this won’t kill you, I can’t feel your heartbeat through my spear after all." She pulled her spear out, and as expected, not a single drop of blood left Arad’s body.

Arad swung his foot to kick Ibaraki away, but she dodged his attack and stabbed him again through the stomach, then the back. As he was body dodging all of her thrones, she always managed to create an opening and attack, and eventually she even kicked Arad away so hard that he flew and crashed into the cave’s wall, only to get pummeled by hundreds of thorny vines.

"Your heart isn’t where it should be, and you can manipulate your own blood to stop the bleeding. What a monster." Ibaraki smiled as she licked her spear, and her eyes opened wide. "You smell demonic as well. By any chance, are you sleeping with a powerful demon?"

"Haaaa!" Arad sighed, and his voice started changing, growing higher in pitch. "You’re too short, I feel like I’m fighting a small, annoying bug..." From the dust and smoke, something terrifying walked.

Ibaraki’s eyes opened wide, and she started sweating, feeling that she was in big trouble. What stood before her was a child looking her age, thin in build, wearing a formal suit with a bowtie, and with radiant purple eyes, short silky black hair, and a smug smile on his face.

"We dragons, too, can shapeshift; it’s not something special about you demons." He leaned forward, glaring at her with an evil grin. "I used the body of one of my former enemies as a base. What do you think? Pretty convincing, isn’t it?"

She pointed a finger at her, then extended a second one. "One or two, you either give up and surrender now, or I’ll beat you senseless until you cave in."

She smiled. "Huh, do you really think you can..." At that moment, Arad was already standing in front of her face. "Yes, I can."

She swung her spear to stab and push him away, but Arad dodged her spear with ease now that he wasn’t a big target, and grabbed her head by the hair, and brought it down toward his knee. She tried to dodge, but ended up still eating his knee to the teeth and was sent flying toward the ceiling.

As a powerful demon, that damage healed before she could hit the wall, and she was able to bounce back immediately, aiming her spear at his neck. Arad dodged her attack with a simple sidestep and danced through her countless vines.

Dodging in this tight cave with his three-meter-tall body was nearly impossible, but with the small body of a boy, it was far too easy. In the end, he managed to grab Ibaraki’s spear and slapped her across the face, sending her flying back with a stream of demonic black blood.

"Aren’t you a bit too weak for a demon lord? Maybe a tenth of what I expected." No matter how he looked at her, Ibaraki was much weaker than Lunara. In fact, she would probably die from a single attack from her.

Even though she got slapped across the face with Dalla’s technique, she looked perfectly fine and unbothered by the pain. "Keep dreaming." She smiled, licked the blood on her lips, and then summoned a second spear.

"I’ll shove this up your ass, haughty brat." She pointed the spear at him.

Arad silently extended a finger toward her. "How do I do this again?" Blood dripped from his finger to the ground, and a demonic magic circle appeared. Ibaraki’s eyes opened wide, and she gasped. "What? A demonic ritual?!"

"With this blood of mine, I summon... Radiant hare, the one honored by the moon, and blessed by the destructive divine." From Arad’s shadow, a tall woman of purple skin emerged, glaring at Ibaraki with a raging face.

"Demon Lord Of Severing, Lunara."

The entire cave fell into darkness as Lunara’s demonic presence washed over it, and Ibaraki took a step back. All of her thorns were severed and cut to pieces and Lunara took a deep breath. She had never Arad to actually summon her one day to aid him in battle, so she expected a dire situation...

But when her eyes looked down, she saw the little boy standing there. "It really worked." Arad looked at her with a smile, her eyes sparkled as she grabbed and lifted him up.

"How cute! What is this? Wait until Aella sees you, no, wait until Claug sees you and goes crazy, she’ll laugh herself to death!" She swung him around, spun with him, then gave him a hug. "You’re like a little porcelain doll."

"I’m not a porcelain doll, I’m a scary dragon..." Arad growled, almost getting suffocated by her. "Besides, we need to stop her first..." He pointed at Ibaraki.

Lunara looked at Ibaraki and smiled. "Oh, prickly one, it’s been a few centuries. Where is that drunkard?"

At that moment, a Kanabo smacked the back of Lunara’s head and sent her flying alongside Arad. Where they stood, now stood another little girl carrying an oversized black steel Kanabo and gulping down alcohol from a gourd.

Amaterasu smiled in the back. "The severing demon lord, the penetrating demon lord, and the crushing demon lord, all in one place."

"Arad..." Lunara looked at him with a smile. "We’re equal in power. I can keep one of them at bay, but not two at once. But it seems those two are limiting their demonic magic so they won’t destroy this place. Should I push a bit and overwhelm them?"

"Hold up! If they are holding back like that..." He glared toward Amaterasu. "You! What’s the meaning of this! Why do I have to fight them? Weren’t we going to find Susanoo?"