The exchange of attacks continued after that. The dukes returned and resumed their attacks. They made sure to maintain the pressure on her which allowed Xander to get her clones close enough for bites. But their effort was bringing less and fewer results. Beelta was killing more and more of them with her regurgitation.
Beelta always regurgitates anytime she has been pressured too much. Her regurgitation succeeded in taking the lives of 20 more demon dukes. It is too powerful. If they don't pressure her then Xander will have no success with her clones. But if they pressure her with attacks then she swallows them and uses them as ammunition against them.
There was a time that she killed a lot of them even without regurgitating. She opened withdrew her tongues and widened her maws. They thought she was about to regurgitate. It's what she does when she is about to regurgitate.
They are battle-hardened demons so they know to watch for ticks and patterns in the movements of their enemies to predict attacks. They did the same to her. It was a subconscious action that will be considered impressive at any other time but it wasn't this time around. Beelta pretended to regurgitate and they ran for it. If they delay then they will be caught by the fiery explosion.
There was no fiery explosion this time. It was all silent as they turned their backs on her and ran. They didn't hear any explosion at all. What they heard is the cry for help as Beelta concentrated on some dukes. Her tongues focused on them as they ran and latched onto them. Then she pulled the struggling demon dukes into her waiting maws.
"That's just cheating," Baal complained with a pained expression.
He wishes death on the demon dukes as much as any other normal demon but the amount of deaths is getting too much. They won't be able to beat her at this rate. Her ability is already powerful enough. She had to resort to deceiving them to bully them again. His complaint went unresolved. Beelta didn't give up on taking advantage of their cautious attitude. It made it difficult to gang up on her when she can easily send them running by opening her maws.
The struggle continued. They pressured her and lost demon dukes with each attempt. Beelta switched between the two modes depending on the situation. The dukes couldn't do anything to her and entered a losing struggle with her. She was about to eat the 40th demon duke when she suddenly stopped. Her body spasmed and she stepped back.
She stumbled weakly. "What is happening to me?" She asked herself and everyone else in bewilderment.
Something interrupted the all-you-can-eat buffet dinner party held in Beelta's honor. She was weakening. She expected to remain the same in this situation. Having to cough up what she ate means she won't be growing stronger from eating anymore. But she is weakening and she is weakening fast.
She can feel a malignant force spreading through her body and destroying it from within it. This force is also destroying her appetite. It was enough to understand how bad things are. A demon of gluttony without an appetite is a very sick demon of gluttony.
She began to review everything that she has eaten recently and has happened to her. It didn't take long to fixate on the root cause of her illness. She has only been successfully attacked by a single method after all. Her body has been feeling quite funny since she was bitten by the phantom vipers.
"What kind of venom is that?" She asked in agony.
Her body feels like it is breaking apart and the culprit is the venom those clones injected into her. She hadn't feared the venom because she can eat anything including any foreign object in her body. Her body is more like a vessel for her maws. So it is easy for her to rid herself of every venom or poison that enters it.
She did the same to the venom of the clones. They were supposed to become hers and be digested but they refused to bend to her will. It reminds her of the energy that used to surround Aeternus. That type of energy burned her when she tried to inspect him with her divine sense. Now the burning is occurring from within her and she can't run away from it.
The energy is running amok in her stomach and growing stronger every moment. The venom is using the other things in her stomach to strengthen itself and it is making her body reject her stomach. For the first time in her life, she feels like vomiting. It is a tragedy and a sign of doom for a demon of gluttony to feel inclined to expel what they have swallowed.
"Oh no." She exclaimed before she regurgitated involuntarily.
She began to vomit her guts out. It is not careful and ordered regurgitated way that she expelled things that she had swallowed. It is an uncontrollable retching as her stomach sought to expel what was causing chaos within it. Her stomach had decided that it has had enough. It must expel the foreign object with or without her help.
Waves of stuff poured out of her many maws in every direction. They were liquid and solids, attacks, and body parts. They did not return peacefully to the world from the abyss that is her bottomless stomach. They set off a wave of destruction in every direction.
Baal's eyes lit up at the sight. "Xander did something. It seems the demon lord has gone insane."
He had to turn around and after seeing the sorry state that Beelta is in. The other dukes didn't need anyone to tell them to run for their lives either. They ran and they ran far. Weird explosions took place behind them. Rocks exploded as if they are fireballs. Liquids that came out of her mouth acted as fuel to boost the explosions. It was a destruction caused by chaos and mayhem.
