Spade Kingdom Castle - The High Spire
The top floor was silent. Wind howled outside, but inside, the air was stagnant, heavy with Bone Magic.
Zenon Zogratis stood in the center of the room. He wasn't even sweating.
Across the room, Yuno panted, leaning on his Spirit of Boreas sword. He was bleeding from three slashes. Langris was on one knee, spatial defense cracked.
"Is that all?" Zenon asked calmly. His devil percentage was low—only 55%—but his Spatial Mana Domination (Mana Zone) made magic useless. "In my space, only my mana exists. Your wind dies. Your space fades."
Yuno gritted his teeth. "I am... not done...!"
"You should be."
Zenon raised a finger. A massive bone-spear materialized. Bone Magic: Eternal Fang.
It launched at Yuno's chest. Too fast to dodge. Too strong to block.
CRASH.
The floor exploded upward.
Not the door. The literal stone floor between Zenon and Yuno erupted in a shower of debris.
A fist—red glove, white cuff—punched the bone spear out of the air.
Snap.
The magical bone shattered like dry pasta.
Saitama stood in the hole he'd just made. He dusted off his blue blanket-cape.
"Man," Saitama coughed. "These stairs are confusing. It's faster to just jump."
Genos flew up next, landing with a heavy clank. He immediately scanned the room. "Master, target identified. Zenon Zogratis. Bone Attribute."
Zenon didn't flinch. He just stared at the intruder.
"The Anomaly," Zenon said. "Saitama. You defeated Dante."
"Dante?" Saitama picked at his ear. "Oh, the mustache guy. Yeah. He was bouncy."
Yuno lowered his sword, eyes wide. "Saitama... you came."
"I told you I'd come," Saitama looked at Yuno's wounds. "You look beat up, prince-boy. Sit down. Genos, do you have a Band-Aid?"
"I possess medical staples, Master."
"Good enough."
Zenon stepped forward. The absolute control of his Mana Zone pressed down.
"You have no mana," Zenon analyzed cold logic. "Therefore, my spatial domination cannot suppress you. You are... a physical threat."
"Are we gonna fight?" Saitama put his hand on Yami's katana (still tied to his belt). "Or can you just tell me where the smoking guy is?"
"Yami Sukehiro is the core," Zenon stated. "He is powering the Gate. He cannot be removed. Unless you kill me."
"Okay." Saitama took a step. "I'll try not to kill you. Just knock you out."
Zenon's eyes narrowed. Devil Power: 80%.
Bones erupted from his back like wings. His body turned armored and dark. The spatial pressure increased until the walls cracked.
"Spatial Mana Domination: Absolute Lock."
The air turned into gelatin. Gravity ceased.
"Die."
Zenon didn't attack with one bone. He attacked with all of them. The entire room turned into a pincushion of razor-sharp mana bones, thrusting inward from every angle at once.
There was no dodge space.
Yuno gasped. "SAITAMA! It's an omni-directional attack!"
Saitama yawned.
"Serious Series."
He didn't punch.
He stomped.
"Serious Stomp."
Saitama slammed his foot onto the floor.
KAAAA-BOOOOM.
He didn't stomp the ground. He stomped the shockwave.
The kinetic force radiated outward from his boot in a perfect sphere. It pushed the air away with such violence that it created a localized hurricane.
The bone spears were blown backwards.
The spatial domination was disrupted by pure air pressure chaos.
The windows blew out.
The roof lifted off.
Zenon's Absolute Lock was shattered by the physics of "Stomping Really Hard."
Zenon was pushed back, sliding across the floor, his bone armor cracking.
"Impossible," Zenon whispered. "My mana controls the space. He... he overwrote the space with vacuum pressure?"
Saitama walked forward through the dust.
"You use a lot of pointy sticks," Saitama said. "It's dangerous. Someone could poke an eye out."
He reached for Yami's katana.
"Now, about the landlord..."
Spade Castle - Basement - The Qliphoth Ritual Room
Nacht and Asta had arrived.
But they weren't alone.
Blocking the giant, pulsing roots of the Qliphoth Tree were two High-Ranking Devils. Not Supreme, but High. Lilith and Naamah. Fire and Ice.
"Hehehe!" Lilith (Ice) giggled. "Humans? To play with? How boring!"
"Burn them," Naamah (Fire) growled. "Or freeze them. Whatever."
Nacht summoned his shadow pack. "Two high-ranks... Asta, we have to hurry. The First Gate is opening."
At the center of the roots, trapped in pods like batteries, were Yami Sukehiro and William Vangeance. They were unconscious, mana draining into the tree.
"CAPTAIN!" Asta screamed. "I'M HERE!"
Yami's eyes fluttered open. Just a crack.
"Kid...?" Yami groaned. "You brought the... noisy squad?"
"I BROUGHT EVERYONE!" Asta roared. "Devil Union: MODE BERSERK!"
Asta charged the devils. Anti-Magic clashed with Concept Magic. Fire turned to nothing. Ice shattered.
But the tree... the tree started to open.
A tear in reality formed between the roots.
A hand reached out.
It was massive. Shadowy.
The First Gate of the Underworld.
And stepping out of it... wasn't a monster.
It was Dante.
Or rather, a fully devil-possessed, 100% Lucifero-avatar version of Dante.
Regeneration? No. Reconstruction. Lucifero had manually rebuilt his host using underworld matter.
"Hello," Lucifero-Dante spoke. His voice layered. "I smell... HIM."
Lucifero looked up. Through the floors. Through the ceiling. Toward the spire where Saitama was fighting Zenon.
"The Bald One," Lucifero growled. "I will handle him personally."
Lucifero-Dante launched himself upwards. He didn't use stairs. He flew straight through the ceiling, smashing through floors like they were paper.
"WAIT!" Nacht yelled. "He's leaving the ritual?! The host just left?!"
"He's going for Saitama-sensei!" Asta realized. "The Boss wants the Boss!"
The Spire - Boss Rush
Zenon was kneeling. One of his bone wings was snapped off. Saitama hadn't even drawn the sword yet. He was just slapping the bones away.
"You yield?" Saitama asked, standing over him. "I'm hungry."
RUMBLE.
The floor under Saitama exploded.
Lucifero-Dante burst through. He grabbed Saitama by the neck and flew him through the roof, into the stormy sky above the castle.
"GOTCHA!" Lucifero roared.
"Whoa!" Saitama blinked as they ascended into the clouds. "Dante? I thought I squished you."
"I AM LUCIFERO!" The devil screamed. "THE KING OF DEVILS!"
Gravity Magic: Singularity - Black Sun.
Lucifero created a gravity well the size of a mountain directly above them. It pulled debris from space. Meteors.
"Take this! PLANETARY CRUSH!"
He slammed Saitama with meteors. Real ones.
BOOM. BOOM. CRASH.
Saitama was pummeled. He was hit with space rocks moving at thousands of miles per hour.
Lucifero laughed. "Dust! You are dust!"
The dust cloud in the sky cleared.
Saitama was floating there (well, falling slowly, then jumping off a meteor debris to stay airborne).
He brushed a speck of moon-dust off his shoulder.
"Rocks," Saitama said. "Ground type moves. Not effective."
Saitama looked at the Devil King inhabiting the human body.
"So you're the guy," Saitama said. "The one in charge. The big boss."
Saitama clenched his fist.
"I punched you once. From far away."
Saitama smiled. A rare, genuinely eager smile.
"I wondered if you'd be tougher in person."
Lucifero felt a chill. His host body—Dante—started to crack from sheer fear reflex.
"I am... Infinite!" Lucifero postured. "Gravity x1000!"
Saitama ignored the gravity.
He drew Yami's sword.
Finally.
The rusty, heavy, dark magic katana.
Saitama held it awkwardly. Like a baseball bat.
"I don't know sword styles," Saitama admitted. "But Yami swings it like this, right?"
Saitama swung.
"Serious Series: Serious Sword Swing."
He didn't cut.
The sheer drag of the sword through the atmosphere created a vacuum blade of wind that spanned the horizon.
It hit Lucifero.
SLASH.
It didn't cut Dante's body.
It cut the Connection.
The wind pressure severed the mana tether linking Lucifero to the human world. The Devil Union didn't break; it evaporated.
Lucifero screamed as he was forcibly ejected back into the underworld.
Dante's body—empty, broken, devil-less—hung in the air for a second.
Then, he fell.
Saitama caught him by the leg.
"Gotcha," Saitama said.
He landed back on the spire, right next to the shocked Zenon. He dropped the unconscious, de-powered Dante on the floor.
Thump.
"That's one," Saitama said to Zenon.
He pointed Yami's katana at Zenon. The tip wobbled.
"You're next, bone guy. Give me the Captain."
Zenon looked at his fallen brother. He looked at the sky where the clouds had been literally bisected by a sword swing.
Zenon Zogratis, the most stoic and devoted of the Triad, dropped his bone staff.
"I surrender," Zenon whispered.
"Good choice."
The Rescue
With the Triad down (Vanica was probably hiding in a hole somewhere), the Qliphoth ritual stalled.
Saitama, Genos, Yuno, and a very bruised Zenon (escorted by Langris) walked down to the basement.
Asta and Nacht had cleared the twins (Devil Union Asta is strong).
They stood before the pods.
Saitama walked up to Yami's pod.
"Hey. Landlord."
He tapped the glass.
Tink.
Yami opened one eye.
"You took your sweet time, Baldy."
Saitama sheathed the katana. "Traffic was bad. Also, meteors."
He punched the glass.
CRASH.
The pod shattered. Yami fell out. Asta caught him.
Genos shattered Vangeance's pod. Yuno caught his captain.
"Captain Yami!" Asta sobbed, hugging the massive man. "I WAS SO WORRIED! I DID 5000 PUSHUPS IN ANXIETY!"
"Get off me, kid," Yami grumbled, but he patted Asta's head. "You got strong."
Yami looked at Saitama.
"My sword?" Yami asked.
Saitama handed it back. "Here. It's heavy. And the balance is off."
Yami took the blade. He inspected the edge.
"You didn't chip it," Yami noted, impressed. "Though it smells like bananas now."
"I used it to peel one," Saitama admitted.
"Course you did."
Suddenly, the tree roots shook.
Even with the Triad defeated, the Gate didn't close.
It was widening.
A hand emerged. Not Lucifero. Not Zagred.
Someone... stranger.
A devil made of Patchwork. Adrammelech.
"My my," Adrammelech clapped, floating out of the gate casually. "Lucifero got kicked out? That's hilarious. But the gate is open. We can all come out now."
Behind him, hundreds of lower devils began to pour out.
Nacht paled. "The flood... we stopped the boss, but we broke the dam!"
Saitama stepped forward.
"More monsters?" Saitama sighed. "Can't we just close the door?"
"It's a dimensional tear!" Nacht yelled. "You can't just shut it!"
Saitama looked at the massive, glowing rift in reality.
"I punched a portal once," Saitama recalled. "Or kicked it. I forget."
He walked up to the Qliphoth Gate.
He grabbed the edges of reality. The glowing purple mana-fabric of the dimension.
He grabbed space.
"Hrrrng," Saitama grunted, biceps flexing.
He pulled.
He pulled the sides of the tear together.
Space screeched. Sparks of mana flew. The laws of the Clover Kingdom screamed in protest.
"HE'S MANUALLY CLOSING THE DIMENSION?!" Adrammelech gasped, eyes popping. "THAT'S NOT HOW MAGIC WORKS!"
"I don't use magic," Saitama gritted his teeth. "I use... grip."
ZIP.
Saitama slammed the dimensional tear shut.
Like a zipper.
He pinched the reality fabric together until it fused.
Poof.
The Qliphoth Tree withered. The roots turned to ash. The devils halfway out were shunted back in (except Adrammelech, who dodged and was now trapped on the human side).
"Done," Saitama wiped his hands.
He turned to the stunned group.
"So," Saitama asked Yami. "Is the Spade Kingdom famous for anything besides snow? I want a souvenir."
Yami stared. Then he laughed.
"Yeah. They got good booze. Let's raid the cellar before we leave."
"I like juice better."
Adrammelech, floating near the ceiling, slowly drifted backwards into the shadows.
"Note to self," the Devil thought. "Do not fight the bald one. Just... observe."