Kaito and the others stood a short distance from the imposing silhouette of the Demon King's Castle, a structure of obsidian spires that pierced the perpetually darkened sky. The jovial excitement that had once animated Rin was gone, replaced by a deep, weary demoralization etched onto her face. Nysera, too, showed a slight sign of exhaustion, a subtle droop in her shoulders that was barely noticeable against her usual expressionless facade. Even Ysoria, despite her strained smile, couldn't hide the weariness in her eyes.
"Now that you three have reached level nine hundred and ninety-nine," Kaito said, his voice a steady pillar of support, "let's go defeat the Demon King."
Nysera slowly nodded, strangely standing closer to Kaito than usual. As Kaito took a step forward, he was stopped by Rin's hand appearing in front of him.
"Allow me, Hero," Rin said. "I'll settle this quickly. Then, I shall return home and finally put down my blade. I do not wish to see another monster in my life."
Without waiting for Kaito's reply, Rin stepped forward, her expression serene and tired. In one fluid, she drew her katana and swept it in a graceful horizontal arc toward the distant Demon King's Castle.
The air before her split apart like silk under a blade. A rift in time itself tore open, its edges rippling with pale light. The world beyond was laid bare. There, framed in the window of the past, loomed the towering figure of the Demon King. then he was abruptly cleaved cleanly in two.
The rift snapped shut with a sound like a breath being drawn in reverse, leaving only stillness. For a moment, nothing happened. Then came the deep, resonant groan of tortured stone. Dust sifted as a sudden cut made itself visible as the upper half of the black citadel slide away to the side and collapse into an avalanche of rubble.
"With that," Rin said, sheathing her blade, "the Demon King should be dead."
"Thanks? I guess..." Kaito said with mixed feeling.
He looked around the desolate landscape. "So, how do I return to Earth now?"
"Legend states that the Goddess would appear after the Demon King is defeated," Ysoria explained, her eyes searching the sky.
"Perhaps we defeated the Demon King too fast, and the Goddess hasn't noticed yet," Kaito mused.
Ysoria held her hands together and began to pray. "Let me try to communicate with the Goddess. She should be awake at this hour."
Nysera gently nudged him. She pointed toward the ruined castle. "The Demon King is still alive."
From the rubble of the fortress, an ominous black miasma began to rise, slowly coalescing into a gaseous, monstrous face. The Demon King's roar shook the very ground beneath them. "How dare you ruin my castle! Do you know how much time I spent renovating it?"
Ysoria's face hardened with determination. "It seems the Holy Sword is the only weapon capable of killing the Demon King."
She raised the glowing blade high, its radiance burning against the blackened sky. For a heartbeat, the world seemed to hold its breath, then the heavens split open.
From above, a colossal pillar of blinding light tore through the clouds, its brilliance so fierce it turned night into day. It crashed down with the fury of a thousand suns, engulfing the castle and the seething miasma that clung to it like a living shadow.
The Demon King's roar rose in defiance, deep and earth-shaking, but even that terrible voice was swallowed by the deafening, incandescent howl of the descending light. The air vibrated, the ground quaked, and for a moment, all that existed was the overwhelming radiance.
When at last the brilliance began to fade, the miasma was gone. Not a wisp remained. The castle, its spires, its walls—all had been erased as if they had never been.
Where once the fortress had stood proud, there now yawned a vast, perfect circle in the earth, its edges scorched and glassed smooth by divine power. It was a mark upon the world that something unholy had been purged here, utterly and without mercy.
"That should do it," Ysoria said in triumph. "The Demon King should be vanquished."
Kaito looked around again. "It seems the Goddess hasn't appeared yet. Is the Demon King truly dead?"
"I apologize, Hero," Ysoria said, her smile looking even more strained than before. "The Goddess is still in the middle of her nap. It may take around a week until she wakes up. We can return to the Kingdom to celebrate our adventure until you return home."
Kaito, a little worried but seeing no other option, nodded to Ysoria. "Alright. It would certainly be better than an abrupt disappearance."
Just as they were about to leave, Nysera tugged lightly on Kaito's sleeve, her voice a hushed whisper. "A powerful entity is approaching."
Then, as if reality itself had been struck by an unseen hammer, the world convulsed. The sky fractured into jagged streaks of darkness, and the ground beneath their feet bled away into nothingness. In an instant, all was devoured by an all-consuming void.
From the fathomless depths of that emptiness, something began to take form. A presence so oppressive it felt as though the void itself was bowing to it. The shadows twisted and condensed into an ominous, towering figure.
It bore a silhouette reminiscent of the Demon King, yet greater. Two massive sets of curving goat horns crowned its head, curling like the crescents of a blackened moon. Its body was clad in jagged, abyssal armor that seemed forged from the night itself, each plate radiating an aura of ruin. Between the cracks in its form—eyes, joints, and the spaces between its armored plates—there was only bottomless, hungry umbral.
When it spoke, the void itself trembled.
"I am the Demon God!" it roared, its voice a thunderous command that shook the bones of all who heard it. "You dare destroy my vessel so completely? For such insolence, I shall erase you from the fabric of this world!"
The words hung in the air like a death sentence, each syllable carrying the weight of inevitability.
Rin stepped forward, her earlier exhaustion forgotten, the fire in her spirit reignited. Her lips curled into a smile as her eyes shining with unrestrained exhilaration.
"Finally," she breathed. Her katana rose slowly, catching the faint glimmers of what little light remained in the void. "A real challenge."