The dark barrier created by the Black Tower Master split apart, and his shoulder was torn away along with the Demonic Spirit Barrier.
"Arrrghh!"
Unable to bear the pain of his flesh being cut away, the Black Tower Master bent over. Bright red blood gushed from his shoulder.
"Ultimate technique."
But Chamber didn't stop her magic chant even after seeing this sight.
"S-stop..."
She extended her finger forward, looking at the Black Tower Master who was begging her to stop.
"Space Rift."
"You damned woman!"
The Black Tower Master gathered demonic energy to spread a magic barrier, but he couldn't draw a perfect technique because his arm had been torn off. The spatial wave raised by Chamber cut through the magic barrier and shattered the Black Tower Master's skull. His headless body crumbled like a sandcastle.
"Haaa..."
Even though the Black Tower Master had fallen, Chamber didn't lower her hand or release her magic technique.
'I need to do it once more...'
Most magicians create a ring in their heart to accumulate mana. The Black Tower Master wouldn't be an exception, so she had to make sure to destroy his heart.
"Kuhak..."
As she tried to use magic again, black, dead blood spurted from her mouth.
'I feel like I'm going to die.'
There was still mana left to use Space Rift, but her mind and body felt like they were about to shatter. A pain that felt like her head was splitting arose, and her vision blurred. But she couldn't stop here. Even if she died on the spot, she had to make sure to cut off the Black Tower Master's breath.
"Ultimate technique."
Chamber raised her trembling finger, aiming at the heart of the crumbled Black Tower Master.
"Space Rift."
As soon as she finished her chant, forcibly maintaining her concentration, the Black Tower Master's chest, protected by the Demonic Spirit Barrier, burst open and dark red blood spurted out like a fountain. The Black Tower Master didn't move, as if his breath had truly been cut off, and the demonic energy he possessed began to melt away.
"Heurgh..."
Only after destroying both the Black Tower Master's head and heart did Chamber lower her trembling hand.
'Is it over?'
She had thought she might die before killing the Black Tower Master, but fortunately, she was able to finish him off first.
'I'm lucky... No, it's thanks to those guys.'
In fact, she didn't know she could fight this hard. It seemed she was able to endure until the end thanks to the spirit shown by Raon and the other children during this operation. If she hadn't seen everyone's fight first, the person buried here would have been her, not the Black Tower Master.
"Now I can feel the pain..."
Chamber bit her lip, enduring the pain. Despite having wounds where her skin was torn and bones were visible, her head and heart hurt even more. It meant she had really been on the verge of death.
'Now I just need to go back, close the Devildom Pathway, and deal with the remaining stragglers.'
She wanted to lie down and rest right here and now, but she was worried about the children left in the Black Tower's dimension.
'Even with Raon and Karoon there, the damage will be great.'
The Silent Spirit World was a magic that revived demons and demonic beasts. That state would be maintained until the Devildom Pathway was closed, so she had to return as quickly as possible, close the gate, and save even one more person.
"Just one breath of rest..."
Chamber straightened her back and closed her eyes. As she was recovering her body and mind through mana breathing, a sudden chill ran down her spine.
'Wait a minute.'
She opened her eyes again and looked at the Black Tower Master's corpse soaked in blood.
'The movement of the demonic energy is strange.'
When a demonized human dies, the demonic energy they possessed slowly dissolves into the natural mana, like garbage that doesn't burn. But now, the Black Tower Master's demonic energy was disappearing unnaturally fast.
'No way?'
Chamber raised flames over the Black Tower Master's corpse. Even though the Black Tower Master was dead, the Demonic Spirit Barrier should have still worked, but it burned and melted too easily in the flames. It meant his corpse wasn't real.
"Damn it!"
Chamber gritted her teeth and turned around. She crossed through space without even wiping the blood flowing from her mouth.
* * *
Raon chewed his lips as he looked at the Devildom Pathway.
'There's only one chance.'
The Devildom Pathway was growing larger even at this moment. Because his condition wasn't normal, if he missed this chance, he would never be able to close that gate again.
-Look straight at the gate.
Wrath climbed onto his shoulder and nodded.
-You must unleash all the wrath you possess at once to cut through that dimension.
He raised his chubby hand to directly point out where to cut.
-Think of crushing and bursting that Devildom Pathway itself with my wrath. Brutally!
Wrath clenched his fist, saying that Raon needed to explode his power at once to close the Devildom Pathway.
"Phew."
Raon slowly regulated his breathing and resonated the Ring of Fire. He opened all three energy centers and entered the realm of transcendence. As he simultaneously operated the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation and Glacier, frost and flames blazed over the Heavenly Drive.
He harmonized the two vastly different energies with Garunua's wind and raised the Heavenly Drive above his head.
-Don't mind the demonic beasts. Focus all your attention on closing the gate.
'I know.'
Ignoring the demons and demonic beasts that were glaring at him with their black eyes, he focused his gaze only on the Devildom Pathway.
-Now! Strike down with wrath!
As he heard Wrath's words, he opened the realm of his soul. The wrath of the Demon King, which had grown by receiving the demonic energy of the Devildom, rose up, causing intense waves as if to devour his soul.
Operating wrath on top of his already exhausted state felt like his mind was freezing over. Enduring with the Ring of Fire, he poured the wrath that was pressuring his body and mind into the Heavenly Drive.
The space around the Heavenly Drive twisted and split lengthwise. Dimensional cracks naturally opened due to the concentration of such overwhelming power.
'Let's endure.'
Just holding the Heavenly Drive made cold sweat pour down. After a long battle and using Sword Domain twice, his body and mind were in tatters.
'Endure. Rensia must be watching...'
The desire to give up welled up, but he endured, remembering Rensia's face as she asked him to take care of her siblings even as she was dying. As if sensing that he was trying to close the Devildom Pathway, the surrounding demonic beasts and demons began to charge towards him.
'I must ignore them.'
If he scattered the energy infused in the Heavenly Drive now, he wouldn't be able to close that gate. Thinking he would endure with his body, he took another step towards the Devildom Pathway. But the excited demonic beasts and demons didn't manage to strike him.
Saintess Olga and Karoon, who remained on the ground, raised holy power and sword strikes to block the demonic beasts approaching him.
"Go quickly!"
Olga spat out the cigarette she was holding in her mouth, telling him to close the Devildom Pathway quickly. Seeing the black blood on the end of the cigarette, it seemed she was pushing herself too hard as well.
"Don't stop."
Karoon protected him while blocking the revived Black King and high-ranking demons. Despite having several serious-looking wounds, his expression remained calm.
'Thank you.'
Raon bowed his head to the two of them and tightened his grip on the Heavenly Drive. Thinking of cutting not the Devildom Pathway, but the black sky itself, he swung down the Heavenly Drive. Azure Sky Sword Technique. Heavenly Flame King.
The wrath of the sky descended upon the quietly falling sword blade. A terrifying wave arose as if to erase everything in sight, wiping out all the surrounding demonic beasts.
The wrathful sword strike connecting flames and frost cut through the thick wall of demonic energy and fell towards the Devildom Pathway. The Devildom Pathway, which had been endlessly expanding its range, stopped for the first time. Under the weight of the sword strike imbued with wrath, the gate that had been gaping like a demon's maw slowly began to split.
'A little more!'
The repulsive force of the Devildom Pathway was beyond his imagination. It felt like cutting a giant zelkova tree with a thin saw. Enduring the pain as if his grip was tearing and his arm was being ripped off, he continued to swing down the sword.
The Devildom Pathway struggled like a living being, concentrating its demonic energy, but it had no choice but to yield its neck before an even greater wrath.
The massive gate that had covered the sky split lengthwise.
'Now!'
His head was so dizzy he wanted to collapse right away, and his wrist felt like it was about to break, but he could feel that this was the moment to cut through the gate. Gritting his teeth, he swung down the Heavenly Drive.
The Devildom Pathway continuously spewed out demonic energy as if desperately wanting to survive, but it couldn't reverse the already tilted momentum. As the gate gradually closed, the size of the demonic beasts coming from the Devildom also shrank.
"Stop him! Stop that bastard!"
"Kiaaaaa!"
"Raon Zieghart!"
The demonized humans and demons, seemingly unable to imagine the Devildom Pathway closing, screamed and leapt at Raon.
"Protect Raon!"
"Don't let them touch Raon at all costs!"
"Block them with your lives!"
The allied forces also ran, coughing blood, to block the demons in front of Raon to protect him. No less intense than the battle between Raon and the Devildom Pathway, a fierce and desperate fight continued below.
-We're almost there!
Wrath struck Raon's shoulder, telling him to exert his strength until the end.
"Kraaaaaaah!"
It was when Raon, letting out a roar like an evil spirit, was about to cleave the nearly closed Devildom Pathway. Woooong! A pitch-black being wrapped in a black robe jumped out from beside the Devildom Pathway. It was the Black Tower Master that Chamber had dragged away.
[You dare interfere until the end!]
The Black Tower Master, despite having no head and a hole in his chest, hadn't died and stretched his hand towards Raon. An enormous amount of demonic energy gathered on his finger shot towards Raon as if to kill him.
'I can block it. But the moment I do, I'll lose the strength to close the Devildom Pathway.'
Right now, he was pouring all his strength into destroying the Devildom Pathway. If his aura wavered here, he wouldn't be able to cut through all the demonic energy, and his sword would break.
'I have to believe.'
This wasn't a battle he could win alone. Trusting in Chamber, who had inflicted such wounds on the Black Tower Master, he focused on cutting the Devildom Pathway. The moment Raon ignored the demonic energy shot by the Black Tower Master and swung his sword down to the end, a mature woman in a short robe appeared with a blue flash from the right.
The woman with red hair reaching her waist flashed her golden eyes and erased the Black Tower Master's demonic energy in an instant.
"Uaaaah!"
Raon roared to prevent the Black Tower Master from interfering again and swung the Heavenly Drive down to its limit. As the tip of the Heavenly Drive descended to the ground, red and blue flashes spread across the black sky filled with demonic energy.
"Heurgh..."
Raon lowered the hand holding the Heavenly Drive and painfully raised his gaze.
'The, the gate...'
The Devildom Pathway, which had been large enough to cover the sky, was split in half and frozen in silver frost. However, a tiny space just big enough for one person to enter was still alive and breathing, having escaped the wrath.
'...Did it fail?'
Despite pouring out all his aura and wrath, he couldn't completely destroy the Devildom Pathway, and the pain in his mind became extreme. He wanted to give up everything and faint.
-Look properly.
Wrath calmly shook his head.
'Look properly?'
Raon turned his gaze following Wrath. Chiiiik! Silver frost was very slowly descending, freezing the remaining Devildom Pathway. The demons outside the gate were watching with their hands lowered, seemingly bewildered by Wrath's anger imbued in the frost.
-If we keep guarding like this, the gate will eventually be blocked.
Wrath nodded, saying it was just a matter of time.
-Of course, we'll have to stop that guy.
His gaze turned to the Black Tower Master standing as if guarding the gate. However, Raon's gaze first went to Chamber, who was in front of the Black Tower Master.
"Lady Chamber."
Chamber had returned not as a child, but in the form of a mature woman. She had grown taller, with her once-short red hair now reaching her waist, a peerless beauty, but her magical power seemed to have grown even more than that.
"Are you alright?"
More than her strength, he was first worried that she seemed to have overexerted herself severely.
"I'm fine."
Chamber smiled and shook her head as if to say not to worry. But seeing her trembling lips, she seemed to be in a difficult state contrary to her words.
"If you have strength left to talk, let's focus on killing that guy."
Chamber raised her finger to point at the Black Tower Master who was holding onto the Devildom Pathway.
'The Black Tower Master...'
The Black Tower Master, despite losing his head and having a hole in his left chest, was still guarding the nearly closed Devildom Pathway without falling. To be alive even with two vital points of a human destroyed, he seemed to have become a specter that even death avoided.
'Is the effect of the Silent Spirit World applied to him too?'
No, it hadn't worked perfectly. Perhaps because the Devildom Pathway was closing. The Black Tower Master's wounds weren't regenerating, maintaining their current state.
"Since the gate is closing, we have the advantage. Let's end this quickly."
Raon nodded, pointing the Heavenly Drive at the Black Tower Master.
"Yes. Let's end this tiresome fight."
Chamber wiped away the dried black blood on her lips and brought her hands together.
"This time, I'll erase you completely."
She focused her wavering magical power while keeping her fingers together.
"Ultimate technique: Space Rift."
With Chamber's chant, the space in front of her was cut lengthwise. Just as the magic tearing apart space was about to erase the Devildom Pathway and the Black Tower Master himself, a sacred light poured down over his head. The golden light imbued with holiness twisted Chamber's magic, saving the Black Tower Master's life.
An angel wearing a golden crown descended with snow-white feathers over the distorted space. It seemed she had blocked Chamber's Ultimate technique.
"You're badly hurt."
As the angel gently lowered her hand, the Black Tower Master's head grew back, and the wound in his chest that had been pierced instantly healed.
'What's going on?'
An angel was the being least suited to the Black Tower Master, so Raon couldn't understand why she saved and healed him.
'Wait, could that angel be...'
Karoon had said he entered the angel's gate and met a woman with a strange atmosphere. He said she came back to life right after being killed, and it seemed that this was that angel.
-An angel? I sense the aura of a high-ranking angel among angels. However...
Wrath narrowed his eyes as he looked at the angel.
-Strangely, her temperament is somewhat different from the angels I know.
He frowned, saying she was different from ordinary angels, just like when he had evaluated Zircon.
"Phew..."
The Black Tower Master touched his restored head and breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was really dangerous this time."
He wiped away the sweat flowing from his palms and curled his lips.
"Damn it..."
Chamber bit her lip until it bled, seeming bewildered that her Ultimate technique was blocked.
"It's okay."
Raon stood beside Chamber and shook his head.
"His wounds have healed, but his demonic energy remains the same. We can win."
Although it was true that the Black Tower Master's head and chest wounds had regenerated, his demonic energy hadn't recovered. He was in even worse shape than Raon.
"We just need to stop that angel."
Raon narrowed his eyes as he looked at the golden-crowned angel floating above the Black Tower Master's head.
"..."
The angel looked at them with a faint smile, her thoughts unreadable. Although she had protected the Black Tower Master, she showed no hostility towards Raon.
"Who is that angel?"
Chamber drew a new magic formula as if wary of the angel.
"Do you know about the Birth Stones?"
The Black Tower Master took out a light green gemstone with his regenerated right arm. It looked similar to an emerald, but some mysterious energy was emanating from it.
"Within the Origin Birth Stones dwell beings different from what we know. In July's Peridot, an angel unlike angels. And in December's Zircon, a demon unlike demons sleeps."
"Zircon? Don't tell me..."
"Yes. This is Zircon."
As the Black Tower Master curled his lips and took out a transparent yellowish-brown stone, the black-handed demon who had died by Raon's hand rose up on his shoulder.
"The Origin Birth Stone..."
Chamber's lips trembled as if she knew the true identity of that Birth Stone. Her complexion turned pale.
"It's time to accept your fate."
"Of course."
As the Black Tower Master floated the Origin Birth Stone in the air, the angel called July's Peridot knelt before him.
"Become one with me."
As he grasped the angel Peridot's hand and turned his gaze towards the demon Zircon, the Origin Birth Stone Zircon floating in the air moved on its own and fell onto Raon's head.
"W-what."
"Zircon!"
Raon caught the stone in bewilderment, and the Black Tower Master looked at Raon with shocked eyes.
From within the yellowish-brown stone, the demon called December's Zircon emerged and looked down at the distant Black Tower Master.
"Zircon! What are you doing! I am your master!"
"You are not qualified."
December's Zircon ignored the shouting Black Tower Master and stood before Raon.
"The one I must follow is this person."
Without a moment's hesitation, he knelt before Raon and bowed his head.
"Raon Zieghart!"
The Black Tower Master let out a monstrous cry, his eyes bloodshot, as if his final plan had been shattered.