It seemed Leon had caught the meaning behind my earlier words.
Even as our blades clashed, he matched my rhythm perfectly—playing along with the duel I had staged.
To everyone watching, this looked like a genuine fight between two monsters.
Still… did he truly understand me?
The look he gave made me think he knew Granbell was the one orchestrating everything—but we needed to wait for the right moment. Until then, we simply had to act.
At least, that was the plan.
Yet Leon's swordwork gave me no room to breathe.
His speed was phenomenal.
Hinata's attacks were fast, but Leon was on another level. His movements were clean, orthodox, refined—a swordsman shaped by discipline and perfection.
My own swordsmanship was very different. I had shaped mine through the Pharaoh Authority, through the power of Solarys, Sovereign of Wisdom, and through countless battles across worlds. My style carried my own instincts—creative, adaptive, overwhelming.
Solarys constantly regulated the flow of my movements, preventing anything sloppy—but still, I was no traditionalist.
Not that it mattered.
I was simply admiring how clean and deadly
Leon's strikes were.
He attacked with such precision that I wondered, increasingly, whether he was actually trying to kill me. His face revealed nothing—emotionless, unreadable, empty of killing intent. That uncertainty troubled me.
Did my message actually reach him…?
«Report: No problem. According to analysis using Foresight of Solarys, Leon's attacks are coordinated with your movements.»
A breath of relief escaped me.
Very well.
I let Solarys take over, shifting into Automatic Combat Mode.
But something else bothered me.
Faint quakes trembled beneath the Grand Cathedral—small at first, then stronger. At first, I suspected the ground shifting. But no—this intensity could only belong to one person.
Luminas.
Problems were erupting everywhere.
This was beyond a diplomatic incident. If I weren't the one caught in the center of this, someone would've already filed formal charges and escalated it into a political catastrophe.
—Although Luminas would never care about paperwork.
More troubling was that Diablo had yet to return.
Shion, Ranga, and my spirit-deck monsters were still battling the insect-type creature called Razul.
Hinata and Granbell remained locked in combat. They seemed even—but I could see Granbell was still holding back. If this continued, Hinata would fall.
Every battlefield was moving toward disaster.
Which one should I intervene in first?
Before I could finish thinking, a violent surge of mana erupted beneath us. A pillar of light tore through the Cathedral floor, vaporizing the ceiling as it surged skyward.
Luminas had broken through.
And she was furious.
"Granbell, it seems you truly intend to be my enemy."
Luminas rose from the hole, holding a beautiful woman in her arms. When Leon and I saw her expression, we knew the situation had changed drastically.
The woman wasn't sleeping.
She was dead.
Only her body remained—turned into a vessel, a puppet, a familiar.
"Maria…" Luminas whispered. Her voice trembled with rage.
Her killing intent flooded the air.
Granbell simply smiled.
Leon and I paused our act completely. Continuing the duel now would be absurd.
Granbell removed the glove on his left hand. An engraving glowed. Maria's body shimmered in response—then dissolved into a beam of light, absorbed into his hand.
And then it happened.
Granbell's power surged.
His magicules spiked.
His aged flesh regenerated.
White hair turned golden.
Wrinkled skin regained youth.
The Hero Granbell Rosso—the man from legends—had returned.
Luminas trembled. "You even put my love energy into Maria's body?!"
He nodded. Calm. Cold.
The revived Granbell turned to Hinata.
"Hinata. My most talented student. You trained harder than anyone. You were extraordinary—but still incomplete."
He flicked his hand.
A slash flashed—faster than thought.
"Melt Slash—?!" Hinata gasped. "To manipulate spiritrons without chanting—?!"
She dodged. Barely.
Granbell's control was monstrous.
"Hinata," he continued, "You were endorsed by the spirits. You had everything needed to awaken as a Hero. And yet you did not. Why?"
Hinata's grip tightened. "So what? I simply couldn't become what I was never meant to be."
"Or perhaps," Granbell said, "you killed someone close to you. A parent? A sibling? A friend? Darkness lingers in you."
"SHUT UP!!"
Hinata attacked in rage—only to be swatted aside like a child.
She slid across the ground, breathless.
The difference between them was absurd.
Granbell sighed. "How regretful. You lack resolve. A Hero protects what they must protect. You—"
He swung his sword.
Solarys screamed in my mind.
«Warning. Predictive calculation indicates his target is—»
My instincts roared.
Chloe.
Granbell's attack wasn't a slash. It was a Melt Strike—a spear of disintegration moving at nearly the speed of light.
There was no time.
I dashed forward, considering consuming space itself using Devouring Sun—but I wasn't certain I could catch spiritrons moving that fast.
Still—I would reach Chloe.
But Hinata moved first.
Without hesitation—without fear—she threw herself between Chloe and the strike.
"Hinata!!"
The Melt Strike pierced her chest cleanly.
Blood sprayed.
She collapsed.
But the beam kept going—slower now, weakened.
"Damn—!"
Venom appeared next, diving in front of the weakened beam.
"Ugh! That hurts—!"
It tore a hole through him—but demons could survive physical destruction as long as their soul remained intact.
Their sacrifices bought me time.
I appeared before Chloe, devouring the space in front of her, then raised Absolute Defense of the Covenant King Uriel.
"Eh? Atem-sensei? Hinata-oneechan?!" Chloe whimpered.
Children cried behind us.
Luminas rushed to Hinata. "Hinata! Stay awake!"
Chloe ran toward her, panicked. I put the remaining children to sleep with Paralyzing Breath and gave Venom a potion.
Hinata's condition was dire.
Her physical wounds healed—but the spiritron corrosion continued tearing through her spiritual body.
Luminas gritted her teeth. "The spiritrons are eroding her astral body too fast!"
Hinata opened her eyes… barely.
"Chloe… I'm glad you're safe…"
Her voice was faint.
She lifted her trembling hand, offering Chloe her Moonlight Rapier and the Holy Spirit Armor.
"…Chloe, I leave it to you. You'll surpass me… you must…"
"Hinata-oneechan…"
Chloe reached out—
And then the world froze.
Light gathered around Hinata.
Time halted.
Chloe screamed, "No! It's not time yet! Why?!"
"Chloe?!" I called—
And she vanished.
Gone.
Without a trace.
Leon grabbed my shoulder, frantic. "Atem! What did you do?! Where is Chloe?!"
"I don't know," I said honestly. "I truly don't."
Even Solarys faltered.
«—Unknown phenomenon. No data exists on the event involving 'Chloe Aubert.' Investigation impossible.»
For the first time…
Solarys itself had no answer.
And I had no time to process the shock.
Luminas was not surprised that the young girl's body had vanished—but that no longer mattered.
What mattered now lay at her feet.
Hinata. Lifeless. Empty. Gone.
Luminas attempted resurrection—yet the spell dissolved the moment it touched Hinata's body, evaporating like mist in sunlight.
"Why…?! She hasn't been dead for long—so why?"
But Luminas could see the truth.
Hinata's body was healed. Perfect. Not a wound left.
But her soul—the core of her being—
—was gone.
"Hinata… forgive me. To lose you while I stand here powerless…"
A tear slipped down Luminas's cheek.
And someone—someone who had no right—chose that moment to speak.
"Enough mourning. Everything is falling into place. Perfectly, in fact. That one just now went especially well, Luminas."
Only Granbell would laugh here. Only he would smirk at the corpse at their feet.
Hinata was dead.
Luminas hadn't even had a breath to mourn.
"UNFORGIVABLE! I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU! I WILL TEAR YOU APART!" she roared, voice broken—face burning with rage.
Her world—her precious person—had been taken before her eyes. Powerlessness drowned her. Rage swallowed her.
It reminded her of the day Veldora destroyed her kingdom—raw trauma gouging her heart open.
Her emotions—suppressed for centuries—finally ruptured.
A dam breaking.
The Voice of the World thundered:
«Confirmed. Emotional threshold exceeded. Unique Skill Lust has evolved into Ultimate Skill Lustful King Asmodeus.»
Her power skyrocketed—violent, divine, terrifying. She now wielded dominion over Life and Death itself.
Yet Luminas only looked at her own hands with hatred.
"It doesn't matter. It's too late. If this power could not save her—then it is worthless!"
She didn't care about transcendence.
She wanted vengeance.
"You wish to finish our duel, Granbell?" her voice quivered with fury.
"Indeed, Luminas. And congratulations on your evolution." Granbell sneered.
Luminas's mismatched eyes—red and blue—glowed like a monster as she glared at him.
"This is different from what I was told—but that hardly matters. I WILL SEND YOU TO YOUR MAKER!"
A thousand years of entangled fate—now ending.
Their final duel began.
Atem's Perspective — The King's Judgment
I watched silently as Luminas failed to revive Hinata.
The method was flawless. The power was more than enough.
Yet the resurrection did nothing.
Why?
«Answer. The soul of 'Hinata Sakaguchi' no longer exists in this world.»
Solarys's calm voice echoed in my mind.
Even I froze at that.
A missing soul… truly gone…?
Luminas had realized it too.
Her panic and anguish proved how deeply she cared for Hinata.
And I… I could not excuse myself from this outcome.
But this battlefield—this moment—was not the place for regret.
Luminas suddenly roared again at Granbell—
"This is different from what I was told—but that hardly matters! YOU WILL DIE HERE, GRANBELL!"
Her killing intent snapped me out of my thoughts.
I had drifted for a moment.
Dangerous. On a field like this, even a heartbeat of distraction was suicide.
I had to stay calm. I forced myself to still my mind.
Then—
The Grand Cathedral exploded.
A blinding light. A tidal wave of force.
Dust and debris surged through the center of the holy district.
Compared to the speed of the earlier duel, the shockwave felt sluggish.
Still deadly—but predictable.
I shielded the children and the band with a flicker of power.
I glanced toward Shion and Ranga—concerned for their safety.
To my surprise, Diablo had returned—raising a barrier around them.
"Kufufufu, my king, forgive my delay."
"You arrived precisely when needed," I replied.
Shion, however, was entirely focused on Razul—the battle consuming her attention so intensely it was almost frightening.
Her fury made her look like a warrior drenched in fierce beauty.
I left Shion and Ranga to their fight.
Instead, I looked toward the heart of the explosion.
A presence radiated there.
A pressure so great it pressed against my chest like the world itself collapsing.
This aura…
It resembled the spirit that once fused with Chloe.
But this one was darker. Sharper. More absolute.
«Warning. Target possesses a complete material body. Abnormal power—comparable to 'Veldora.'»
A being equal to a Storm Dragon.
A true monster.
And worse—unlike the Chaos Dragon, this one was not feral.
It was awake.
Thinking.
Aware.
I would need to face it head-on.
The smoke finally cleared.
Standing amidst the ruined cathedral was a breathtaking figure—
A girl with long silver-black hair, flawless pale skin, and not a thread of clothing.
Motionless. Eyes closed.
Like a divine statue.
Radiant. Terrifying.
Even I—Atem, King of Games—felt a flicker of awe.
But awe was fleeting. Danger was eternal.
Luminas's voice sliced through the silence:
"The one who stole my Holy Ark—is this your doing?! You unsealed the holy particles and awakened Chronoa…"
She glared toward a figure stepping from the shadows.
Yuuki.
Of course.
Part of me had hoped he wasn't involved.
But Solarys had suspected him from the start—and Solarys was never wrong.
"So, it is you." My tone dropped to the cold, commanding edge that made kings tremble on battlefields.
Yuuki only smirked.
"Ah well—I guess I've been caught. Oh well, this works too."
Behind him stood two masked majin—Laplace and Footman.
I had suspected their involvement.
Now it was confirmed.
Yuuki offered an overly polite bow.
"And you must be Lady Luminas. Yuuki Kagurazaka—pleasure to meet you."
"Silence. How did you break the seal?" Luminas demanded.
"My 'Anti-Skill' nullifies all magic and special abilities," Yuuki said casually.
"I see…" Luminas' lip curled. "You're bold to say that so openly."
She kept her glare on Granbell—the real enemy.
Both of them stayed perfectly in sync with each other's killing intent.
This battle had no openings. No weaknesses.
Yuuki continued, voice still casual but posture ready for death.
"Since Atem already knows my Skill, no need to hide it. But I do have a question—Granbell."
"Kukuku… I can guess," Granbell replied. "Speak."
Yuuki frowned. "I was told the Holy Ark contained the Hero. But she ignores me. She broke the seal on her own. What is going on?"
A Hero?
This girl?
The situation made no sense.
Luminas answered instead, voice sharp with anger and fear:
"She may be called a 'Hero,' but she is no such thing. That girl is the incarnation of evil—Chronoa."
Even Yuuki flinched.
Chronoa.
A name even Solarys whispered with caution.
Granbell laughed wildly.
"Kukuku! Thank you, Yuuki. I couldn't break the holy particles myself—so I manipulated you into doing it for me! Once she awakens, none of us can stop her. Demon lords and villains alike—ALL OF YOU WILL DIE HERE!"
A perfect villain monologue—if not for the fact that it doomed us all.
Yuuki clicked his tongue.
"Tch… So in this game of betrayals—I lose? Damn. I got played."
Then—
The girl moved.
Chronoa's body trembled.
A slow breath.
Her fingers curled.
She raised her head.
Silver-black hair drifting.
Eyes opening—
Pitch-black. Starless.
Abyssal.
A presence that could erase existence simply by looking at it.
Her awakening marked the beginning—
—of chaos itself.