Back at the subterranean abyssal altar, Hegemon dragged his shattered body toward the high stone dais where Lily was suspended. Every single movement was an excruciating nightmare. The fractured bones in his leg ground together beneath his improvised splints, sending white-hot spikes of agony shooting through his nervous system. Sweat poured down his pale face, blinding his eyes, but he refused to slow down. He dug his bloodied fingers into the narrow crevices of the stone steps, pulling himself up inch by agonizing inch. His body was completely broken, his skill pool completely drained, but his will remained unbreakable.
'Hold on, Lily… just wait for me,' Hegemon gritted his teeth, his jaw bleeding from the sheer force of his bite as he forced his useless right leg upward.
Above him, bound by dark spatial chains, Lily lay completely unconscious. Her mind was drowning in a suffocating, pitch-black ocean of endless void. The grotesque parasite buried in her stomach vibrated violently, steadily siphoning the last silver threads of her informational mana, dragging her consciousness deeper into the dark abyss where no light could reach.
Meanwhile, the clash between Kenji and Leo escalated into a terrifying display of absolute power.
Kenji poured every drop of divine energy into the Holy Sword, unleashing a relentless, blinding storm of sacred slashes. Channeling the ultimate piercing authority of his blade, he sought to force his way through Leo's invincibility. Twenty-three brutal, precise strikes landed in a split second—four aimed directly at Leo's legs to destroy his balance, and nineteen targeted straight at his heart, throat, and vital organs.
Yet, as the dust cleared, the horrific reality hit Kenji like a physical blow.
Leo stood in the center of the crater, completely untouched. The analysis Hegemon provided was terrifyingly accurate: the concept of damage simply did not apply to him. The Holy Sword's spatial-cleaving edge merely slid off Leo's body as if striking a non-existent plane of reality. Twenty-three god-tier strikes had yielded absolute zero physical effect.
The only small silver lining was that Kenji's Divine Absolute Seal blessing was still active, continuously stripping Leo of his zero-second spatial acceleration and keeping him locked in a manageable tempo.
The nightmare, however, was far worse.
Leo hadn't even bothered to draw his own weapon yet. He was fighting the kingdom's greatest Hero entirely bare-handed, treating the absolute power of the Holy Sword like a child's toy. His crimson eyes looked down on Kenji with bored, mocking amusement, completely unaffected by the storm of divine slashes.
Kenji took a shaky step back, wiping the sweat and blood from his brow, his knuckles turning white as he tightened his trembling grip on his sword.
'Dammit all...' Kenji cursed bitterly in his head, his heart sinking into pure dread. 'How the hell are we supposed to kill a monster that doesn't even exist in the same reality?!'