The void didn't just open; it tore through reality like a jagged blade through silk. Out of that abyssal tear stepped a creature of absolute stagnation. His presence was so overwhelmingly toxic that the oxygen in the arena instantly turned to lead. The obsidian pillars—massive structures that had stood for eons—began to melt, turning into a bubbling, black sludge under the weight of his aura.
I lay in the dirt, a broken mosaic of shattered ribs and ruptured organs. Every breath was a gamble with death.
'Great. Another uninvited guest at my execution,' I thought, the metallic tang of blood filling my throat. 'How much more is this story going to break me? If this is the Demon Lord, he should have arrived earlier. I could have died before enduring all this extra agony. If I survive this... if there is any justice left in this rotting world... I will tear this monster limb from limb just for making me wait for my own end.'
"Night," I whispered into the hollow silence of my mind. "It's over. If I'm going down, I'm switching to your soul. I'll burn us both to cinders if it means biting a piece out of this thing's throat."
"Don't talk like a martyr, brat," Night's voice growled, though the usual arrogance was replaced by a sharp, vibrating tension. "Our journey hasn't reached its final page yet."
"Shut up. You're going to die by my hand anyway, whether it's today or a century from now," I spat back.
Night let out a dry, haunting chuckle. "You complain a lot, partner... but mark my words, we are going to be the best of friends."
The Emerald Requiem
Suddenly, the suffocating darkness was pierced by the frantic beating of wings. Thousands of glowing birds—shimmering with an emerald radiance more intense than a thousand fireflies—descended into the pit. The moment their light touched my skin, a wave of unnatural warmth rushed through me, knitting together the most lethal of my wounds.
"Yumi..." I wheezed.
The birds swarmed over the four fallen Valkyries, their mangled bodies healing at an impossible speed. The leader of the First Rank team struggled to her knees, her eyes bloodshot but defiant. "I won't... let you hurt anyone else!" she screamed.
'A family feud?' I wondered dizzily. But as the emerald birds flew toward the Demon Lord, they didn't heal him. They didn't even reach him. The moment they entered the radius of his black aura, they shriveled into charred husks, disintegrating into ash before they could even sing their song of life.
"Why are you talking about dying?" Night roared in my head. "We live today, Reyansh!"
"Stop dreaming, Night. Look at me! I'm leaking from every orifice in my face!"The Golden Descent and the Indestructible Blade
Then, they arrived. Hina, Seraphina, and Yumi. Yumi was unrecognizable. She was draped in a golden, divine radiance that pushed back the very shadows of the abyss. She looked like a Devi—a Goddess of Light—stepping into the deepest circles of Hell. Her aura was expanding, clashing with the Demon Lord's corrosive fog.
Hina didn't hesitate. She unleashed massive orbs of concentrated fire, each hot enough to vaporize stone. But as they neared the Demon Lord, they simply... vanished. No explosion. No smoke. They were erased from existence before they could even claim to be a threat.
The Demon Lord raised a single hand, his eyes locking onto Yumi. He was preparing a strike that would delete her from reality.
My mind snapped. My soul screamed in a language of pure agony. Funneling every drop of my remaining existence into the Earth Element, I forced thousands of jagged stone walls to erupt from the ground, layering them into a massive, desperate shield between the Demon Lord and the girls.
The world slowed to a crawl. Night seized the moment. His sword ignited with a Pitch Black energy so dense it felt like a gravitational well. The Demon Lord's strike tore through my earth walls like they were made of mist.
CLANG!
Night met the force head-on. He twisted the blade, his muscles screaming as he redirected the world-ending energy away from the girls. The impact was so colossal that it punched holes through the arena's ceiling, sending shockwaves that shattered the surrounding bedrock.
"Your sword..." I gasped, noticing that despite the impossible pressure, the blade hadn't even chipped. "How is it still whole?"
"This blade won't break even if our souls turn to ash," Night panted, his aura flickering violently. "It was forged the day I was chosen as a Hero. It is an absolute constant in a world of variables."
But the price was paid in blood. My eyes, ears, and nose began to leak a crimson flood. My brain felt like it was being boiled in its own skull. My vision blurred into a swirling grey, and as my consciousness failed, I saw the Demon Lord's cold, unmoving eyes—bored and indifferent.The White Void and the Hanging Man
I woke up in the "Space"—the white, sterile realm of the Goddesses. The air was crisp and clean, a cruel mockery of the blood-soaked arena.
The White Entity stood over me, her gaze dripping with condescension. "You are careless," she hissed. "A fool who takes pride in his own destruction. You hurt yourself because you are too stupid to trust your allies."
The second entity stepped forward, her voice a cold lash. "You didn't use your full power. You were afraid. You should have sacrificed your soul for those girls, yet you wavered. You are pathetic, Reyansh."
I lay there, gasping for air that didn't feel real, listening to their endless, holier-than-thou lectures. My mind, already shredded by the Demon Lord, finally broke. I began to laugh. A loud, hysterical, jagged laugh that echoed through the infinite void.
"Shut... your... mouths," I cackled, looking up at them with bloodshot, manic eyes. "You sit up here in your ivory tower giving me lectures while I'm the one being pulverized! You think you're superior because you watch from the sidelines?"
The world suddenly flipped. Gravity died. I was yanked into the air, suspended by an invisible, suffocating force—hanging as if from a gallows.
"Shall I just take your life now?" the Goddess whispered, her voice a frozen blade against my throat. "If you are so tired of the struggle, let us end it here."