Transmigrated as a Ghost

"My, you really did catch me off guard there with that one. I would have been in trouble if not for my subordinate's unique skill Death Substitute. To think you would pull one over on your friends as well as me. I honestly did not think you would attack me there."

The Archdevil appeared from above and floating down slowly clapped his hands towards Marcus.

However, now he was not alone, and eight more devils descend with him.

All this time they had been waiting outside the range of any of Marcus and his team's perception skills. Waiting in case they were needed.

'This explains why he was so confident. He was never alone to begin with.' Marcus thought as he pulled his scythe out of the minion that had died in the Archdevil's place.

It was also clear now why he required ten of their souls. It was one for him and each of his subordinates.

"Looks like we are fighting." James said with a grimace on his face.

"Yeah, the contract was one sided, and there were hidden bits I could not even read. All this devil wanted to do was steal our souls. Fighting was always our only real way out from the beginning." Marcus said to everyone.

Swiftly they all got into a battle stance and kept their attention on the nine devils that were hovering above them and picking out which of them would be their prey.

'Mraz, how are their levels looking? Are they all close to as strong as the Archdevil?' Marcus asked switching over to telepathy.

However, the response he received from Mrazivy was verbal, which surprised him. Until he heard what she had to say.

"One of them has telepathy jack. They have been able to hear everything we have been discussing from the beginning. And as for their levels, the weakest is level sixty-five and the second strongest after their leader is eighty-one. None of them are nearly as strong as he is, but they are not pushovers. This is going to be tough."

Marcus grimaced when he heard this, but at least knew he made the correct decision to not tell any of them that he was going to attack. Had he, they would be fighting ten devils right now instead of nine, since one of them lay dead from Marcus' surprise attack.

? "Now I am sure a mass free for all would be interesting, but how about we try to keep things a bit more orderly. I would prefer for this entire faciality to not be destroyed, so if all of you wish, you can take us on as you want in individual battles." The Archdevil said.

Immediately after nine paths opened up, and each of the devils took place in front of one of them.

For a moment Marcus contemplated not following what the devil was trying to go for and simply have an all-out fight as a group, but understood this method was best for both their teams.

There was a power difference between each of their weaker and stronger members, and just the shockwaves from their full power attacks could kill their allies in a chaotic battle.

However, this meant that they would not be able to protect each other as well.

"Fine, we can do it the way you want. Of course, we have more members, so some of you devils will have to fight two of us."

Bowing his head, the Archdevil showed his approval for this. He had confidence in the devils that served him, and in his own powers.

Without much delay everyone from Marcus' group found their opponent with Mrazivy's help pairing up their levels.

"Roxene and I will take on the Archdevil. The rest of you, good luck with your own fights." Marcus said when they were ready to begin. 𝒇𝗿𝙚ℯ𝑤ℯ𝑏𝒏𝑜ѵe𝙡.c𝐨ｍ

Soon they were all standing in front of the devil they had chosen to take on and began following them into the separate areas.

Though before they did, Marcus stealthily left a small Dark Portal with everyone. That way he and Roxene could come to their aid if need be.

Then right before he followed behind the Archdevil, Marcus steeled himself and shouted out, "Lilia, you have my permission to go wild if necessary. I will leave it up to your discretion when to use it."

After that he passed through the same doorway as the Archdevil and appeared in the area they had come from that previously contained the vats spawning monsters.

Yet it was no longer devoid of activity. The monsters had broken through and stood at the back of the Archdevil as his loyal army.

"You must be truly foolish to separate like you did. You had a better chance of winning if you fought together. At least then you would have taken out some of my subordinates before we killed you all. Now it will be a sweep for us." The Archdevil said confidently.

He believed that every single one of his devils would come out on top in their battles now that they were fighting enemies of a similar level, instead of having to fight in a cluster.

"I think you are looking down on us too much. I have faith in my companions' abilities. They are more than a match for your subordinates, and I am more than a match for you." Marcus said as he brandished his scythe.

He then nodded towards Roxene, and she bound off towards the army of monsters at the back of the Archdevil. She would hold them off while he did battle with the ruler of this floor, and their greatest challenge.

'Embodiment of Eclipse, Bright Form.'

Starting off strong, Marcus activated his supreme skill and launched a quasar blast spell with the slash of his scythe. f𝑟𝑒ewe𝚋𝚗૦𝐯e𝘭.c𝗼𝓂

The massive beam of light flew fast and true towards the demon, who was a bit surprised to see the light magic attack.

He had naturally had one of his subordinates use a unique skill that could see a targets skills without any constraint to level, and nowhere on Marcus' skill list had it listed light magic.

Of course, this was due to his own unique skill False Status, and it allowed him to get one over on the Archdevil.

Before the blast hit though, the Archdevil deployed a powerful mana barrier around himself and used his unique skill Enhanced Protection to buff all his defenses.

'Dark Portal.'

With his first attack blocked Marcus led up with his next by using his newest unique skill to create a gate in between him and the Archdevil.

He was able to place it within his enemy's mana barrier and slashed his scythe right towards his side.

Unfortunately, while the attack slipped by the Archdevil's barrier, his danger sense picked up on the attack the instant the portal had appeared, and he moved to intercept it.

Marcus' scythe then clashed against the devils claws, which he had extended out from the tips of his fingers.

Sparks flew as they vied for supremacy, but in the end Marcus was overpowered and his scythe pushed back through the portal.

"You certainly are full of tricks aren't you. Not only was the status reading I got wrong, but you have powers that match up better against me than I expected. Still, I have ways of dealing with these pesky portals. Dimensional Lock."

A wave of energy flew out from the Archdevil's body as he used the powerful skill that was meant only to deal with space magic and similar abilities.

It had a similar affect as Marcus' spatial disrupter in that it made it difficult for space magic to be used but worked on a different principle.

With the spatial disruptor made it difficult for space magic to input correct coordinates and would cause it to malfunction rather than simply fail, the skill dimensional lock instead strengthens the stability of the area around the user to prevent space magic from warping dimensions which was the way the powerful magic skill worked.

However, Marcus only smiled and created five more darkness portals around the Archdevils and unleashed his next attack.

His unique skill did not warp space but simply corded a hole and punched through it. Allowing him to use it even through the Archdevil's dimensional lock skill.

'Crescent Moon Strikes.'

Using the technique he had learned on the fiftieth floor, Marcus let loose a series of attacks through each of the portals in rapid succession.

Surprise was written all over the Archdevil's face once again, as these attacks came at it through Marcus' darkness portals that should not have been able to work.

He frantically had to move his body around and swing his claws to avoid being sliced by Marcus' attacks but could not evade them all.

Two of the slashes stuck home, and carved deeply into the Archdevil's right side and left shoulder.

"Gah!"

The Archdevil screamed out in pain from the attacks that drew his blood, and even drained away his mana and life force due to the abilities within the scythe it had inherited from Dread Devourer.

'Lightning Gatling.'

To follow up Marcus held out his left hand and cast a tier seven lighting magic spell he had gotten from the dungeon.

Five rings of electricity formed around his left arm and began spinning quickly. Before firing off a constant stream of intense lightning bolts.

In merely a second Marcus had unleashed over a thousand bolts, which all slammed into the demon's mana barrier.

It was not long before it was overwhelmed, and the lightning began hitting the Archdevil's body.

Smiling, Marcus kept the attacks going and did not let up for a moment.

While most spells simply launched one attack, or created a persistent effect that could be used or controlled, this spell worked differently.

So long as he kept pouring in his mana, he could keep firing off a barrage of bolts without rest or need to cast the spell again.

But his supremacy did not keep up for much longer.

The Archdevil having been more pressured than he thought used his strongest powers to push back against Marcus.

A dark red mist began permitting from his body that ate away at Marcus' lightning, and his form shifted and changed.

He now had another set of wings and arms giving him four of each, and on his head were three more eyes that moved around unnaturally and without any coordination with his main eyes.

"To think I would be made to show my true form and deploy my Hellish Miasma unique skill. I admit I underestimated your power far more than I thought possible. It seems that there is some danger to me after all, and I will need to take this more seriously."

Without any warning the red miasma around the Archdevil began expanding out towards Marcus and he felt his danger sense go off like crazy.

"Where are you looking. I am right behind you."

Suddenly before he could react, Marcus heard the Archdevil from behind him, and in the next moment felt his claws slash against him.

In the nick of time, he managed to defend his head and take the hits where his armor was and prevent himself from being sliced to ribbons.

Nevertheless, the attacks hurt just by how much force was behind them, and they also flung Marcus in the direction of the miasma that had been shot towards him.

'Dark Portal.'

Before he was completely consumed, Marcus enveloped himself with his unique skill and opened up another one far away from danger.

Yet the second he appeared, the Archdevil was waiting for him and swiped at him again.

'Stalwart full moon.'

Immediately he deployed his defensive skill and moved his scythe around fluidly to block the incoming attacks, but the difference in their physical strength was too high now that the Archdevil was in his true form, and Marcus was knocked around like a cat playing with a toy.

'This does not look good. He is way stronger in physical combat than me, and the miasma surrounding him is chipping away at me. I cannot afford to hold anything back.'

'Soul burst! Shield of the Just!'