In front of Kaito, The Mist Queen's form had completely changed. Her black robe deepened into blood red, her crimson eyes glowed with a purple-black haze, and sharp fangs protruded from beneath her lips. A constant black mist coiled around her body, seeping outward and thickening the air until it felt suffocating. From her back sprouted a pair of dark succubus wings, their edges dripping with shadow as they unfurled to their full span.
Her eyes stayed closed as she exhaled waves of abyssal energy, each breath heavier than the last, while the magic circle beneath her feet pulsed with relentless power.
Kaito recognized the transformation instantly. This was not Berserk. This was something far darker, Demonification. It was a skill possessed only by those who had submitted to the abyss. Worshippers of the abyss gained it naturally, even players who chose to side with that faction could unlock it. While Demonification granted immense power, it demanded everything in return. To gain this strength, the Mist Queen might have sold her entire soul to the Succubus Queen she had just prayed to.
The phenomenon shook the entire hall. Even the ongoing clash between Hiroto and the Wraith Royal Guards came to a halt. The guards turned away from the battle and fell to their knees, bowing low before their Queen. The sight left the chamber eerily silent, except for the heavy hum of abyssal energy flooding the room.
The Mist Queen's health bar, which had been battered down to half, instantly filled back to its peak. Her body was flawless again, not a single wound left on her skin.
Kaito exhaled slowly, frustration tightening his chest. He had expected this, but facing it firsthand was still bitter. In his previous life, players had discovered a grim truth. Whenever the abyss cult had a presence in a region, the King-level dungeon bosses there almost always possessed the skill of Demonification. It had been proven again and again, until no one could deny it.
According to Glory's main storyline, the world had once been surrounded by portals that connected to countless other worlds in ancient times. Glory itself is part of the Eterna Nexus Universe, a vast system of different worlds. Many other worlds exist besides Glory. Each is graded by how much power it can sustain and how far a person can cultivate there.
Though the cultivation systems differ from plane to plane, all of them describe peak strength using the same shared scale: Tier 1 through Tier 9.
Worlds are ranked from Grade 9 up to Grade 1. With each step closer to Grade 1, a world can support stronger tiers of power. Records are clear up to Grade 3, but beyond that, things grow uncertain. Some texts even describe it in confusing terms, claiming that a world capable of supporting a Tier 3 warrior is already Grade 9. Charts and names differ by culture, but the meaning is the same, the closer a world is to Grade 1, the higher its ceiling for strength.
What is confirmed is this: Grade 3 worlds have produced Tier 9 as their peak. Grade 2 worlds already begin at Tier 9 and may go beyond, but no public record explains those levels. Players do not know what lies above that, and even most of the NPCs in the game only have fragments of knowledge.
And Because Kaito knows that Glory is not just a game world but a real one. He even suspects that Earth itself might be part of the Eterna Nexus Universe and may have been connected to Glory in ancient times. He believes this because the main storyline describes a great war between Glory and the Abyss that destroyed the portals linking it to other worlds. If that is true, then Earth's path to Glory might have been also cut in that war. His own Earth's history also speaks of a time when martial arts flourished, followed by a great war after which the strong vanished. He has many speculations and questions, and he believes that if he follows his plan and becomes the strongest, he may one day find the answers.
The Abyss is different from ordinary planes. It is a mysterious world where the negative energy of the universe gathers. That energy gives birth to Abyssal monsters. Abyssal energy can corrode any living being and turn it into an Abyssal creature. Even powerhouses above Tier 9 are not immune, though they can resist it for a long time. This was revealed in the main storyline released at the start of the game. The Abyss has no grade and can even give birth to beings beyond Tier 9.
The Endless Abyss is said to have seventeen thousand floors. The lower floors remain unstable because the Abyss is always expanding. Each floor has a Floor Lord who holds full authority over that level and its denizens. These floors act like holy countries that worship gods. In the same way that holy countries can strengthen their patron's servants and suppress invaders, a floor empowers its Floor Lord while weakening outsiders who step inside.
In the main storyline, it was said that the powerhouses of Glory once managed to open a portal to the Abyss. But at that moment, they learned a bitter truth, they were no longer the hunters. The Abyss was too vast. It connected to many other worlds and had already conquered them one by one through its sheer number of powerhouses.
The conquest of Glory from the Abyss was led by Abyssal Grand Duke Malphas, the Floor Lord of the 666th level of the Endless Abyss. Malphas was a pinnacle Tier 9 Abyssal monster, cunning and wise, with a fearsome army under his command the Fallen Angel Legion.
The Fallen Angel Legion had been created by Malphas himself. On one hand, he corrupted the angels of the gods, twisting them into his service. On the other, he forged new fallen angels using pure and holy souls, binding them with powerful soul stones through a secret method.
Malphas's most infamous exploit was when he sent the Fallen Angel Legion to besiege and slay a Tier 9 powerhouse of Glory. That single act directly caused the collapse of an entire dynasty, for only Tier 9s were allowed to stand as the pillars of a ruling dynasty. After that dynasty fell, Malphas's Fallen Angel Legion barged into the weakened Glory world again and cut down another Tier 9 powerhouse.
Over the years, more than one hundred Tier 8 powerhouses also fell to his legion. Even though the Fallen Angel Legion suffered heavy losses in battle, it remained so strong that even the remaining Tier 9 powerhouses feared it.
Among the countless Abyssal monsters, Malphas was the one Glory's powerhouses feared the most, for he had been the leader of the Abyss's conquest of their world. In the Endless Abyss, there were many beings stronger than him, but few Floor Lords commanded a legion as terrifying as his.
The 666th floor itself was infamous. Unlike most of the chaotic Abyss, it was the most orderly floor, far from resembling the infernal world of devils. Trade flourished there, and even the most important transactions of the Abyss took place within its borders. Because of this, the 666th floor was considered the great trade hub of the Abyss.
The Abyss had its own currency system. Instead of gold, silver, and copper coins, it used soul coins. By cutting down and breaking apart the soul of an ordinary person, an Abyssal Floor Lord could forge a silver soul coin. One thousand white soul coins equaled one gray soul coin. One thousand gray coins equaled one silver soul coin. One thousand silver coins equaled one gold soul coin. And one thousand gold soul coins could be refined into a single low-grade soul stone, a currency of even higher value.