Through the six demons standing in his way, Ankh spotted Crawford hiding behind them and using Super Archive to manipulate something.
"So there's the traitor…"
Kyoka's heart tightened.
"Get him out of here!" she shouted.
Before her words had even finished echoing, Ankh appeared behind Crawford like a ghost.
Seilah reacted instantly and thrust out her hand.
Crawford's fat body suddenly curled into a ball and rolled away, narrowly escaping the crushing gravity that would have flattened him into paste.
As Crawford tumbled helplessly across the floor, Kyoka gave another order.
"Take him and run!"
Seilah seized control of Crawford through Macro and forced him to flee down the passage behind them.
Keyes and Silver followed her at once.
Ankh locked his gaze on the corridor through which they had escaped, then became a streak of black light and shot after them.
Torafuzar charged into his path with a savage expression, crossing both arms in front of himself.
His body was harder than steel, yet Ankh's punch still launched him into the wall.
The enormous corridor collapsed with a thunderous crash.
Kyoka sprang into the air, her long leg snapping toward Ankh like a whip.
"Don't underestimate the Curses of the Etherious!"
Ankh raised one arm and blocked her kick.
"Etherious? Is that the grand name you gave yourselves?" he mocked. "For a collection of incomplete creatures?"
"Demons are not incomplete!"
Jackal roared furiously and swept one hand forward.
A chain of explosions swallowed Ankh.
A weapon instantly appeared in Ankh's hand through Requip, and he swung it directly into the flames.
The blade forged from Dragon Slayer Lacrimas absorbed the raging fire, while the shock waves from the explosions merely pushed Ankh back a few steps.
"Pain—amplify!"
Seeing Jackal's attack fail, Kyoka hurriedly activated her Enhancement Curse.
She could strengthen herself or others, but she could also amplify any of an enemy's senses, including pain, multiplying the suffering caused by every injury.
Ankh felt some strange force sweep through his body, only for it to disperse without leaving a trace.
He promptly ignored Kyoka and moved to continue the pursuit.
Torafuzar, whom he had just punched away, charged back in and wrapped both arms around Ankh's leg.
Relying entirely on his monstrous durability, he clung on desperately and refused to let him leave.
Jackal kept bombarding Ankh with explosions, while Kyoka gritted her teeth in fury.
Curses did not work on this man.
They had no choice but to fight him directly.
But…
Torafuzar's supposedly invincible body was repeatedly cut open by that abnormally sharp blade.
Jackal's explosions were being devoured as quickly as he created them, forcing him to demonize and fight at close range.
This man was practically a natural predator of demons.
Their Curses were useless against him. All they could do was use those Curses to strengthen their own bodies.
Kyoka cast Enhancement on herself and joined the other two in surrounding Ankh, relying on their powerful demonic physiques to delay him.
Yet without their Curses, the demons were cut down as easily as vegetables.
In front of Ankh, they looked less like elite officers and more like recruits on their first day of training.
Ankh, impatient to catch Crawford, slashed Torafuzar down again.
He then kicked Jackal and Kyoka into the wall, one demon per foot, and immediately tried to break through the corridor.
At that moment, the gravity pressing down on his body multiplied several times over.
His feet sank into the floor.
Ankh quickly activated Titan Gravity Magic and canceled the force restraining him.
'Strange.'
Ordinary gravity magic should not have affected him so strongly.
The answer soon appeared.
An elderly man who looked remarkably energetic approached with a staff in hand.
Beside him walked Tartaros's acting master, the Underworld King Mard Geer.
Mard Geer looked at his three battered officers, and his face turned black with fury.
Bloodman had only just mocked them as inferior demons, and now three of his officers had lost to a single human!
"Human…"
Mard Geer stepped forward, ready to settle the score, but August raised an arm and stopped him.
"As temporary allies, I would prefer not to watch you die here."
August's voice was indifferent, but his words were unexpectedly considerate.
To Mard Geer, however, they sounded no different from an insult.
Was this old man looking down on him?
He was the Underworld King! Did August truly think he would lose to a mere human?
August glanced at the three demons, each injured in a different and humiliating way, and sighed silently.
"Take them away," he told Mard Geer. "I will handle this place alone."
Mard Geer was displeased by August's obvious lack of faith in him, but he was sensible enough to listen.
He raised one hand and summoned vines that dragged the three demons toward him, then withdrew from the chamber.
Ankh did not try to stop them.
His attention remained fixed on August.
Something about the old man's Magic Power made him instinctively wary.
By human standards, August had already reached the absolute limit of what his species could achieve.
There was simply nowhere left for him to advance.
And the spell August had used to stop him earlier was painfully familiar.
It was the exact same Titan Gravity Magic Ankh himself possessed.
"They say this magic belonged to a powerful race from another world," August said. "Only a few fragments of its existence remain recorded in this world."
"Fortunately, I was lucky enough to learn it."
Standing between Ankh and the passage ahead, August fell silent for a moment before continuing.
"I know that if you use that power, my chances of victory will fall considerably. But if my only purpose is to delay you…"
August raised his staff and calmly discarded the coat draped across his shoulders.
The slow, dignified old man vanished from Ankh's sight.
In his place was a figure as agile as a white ape.
A shadow dropped from above.
August swung his heavy, reinforced staff down toward Ankh's head.
'So he really is a battle mage.'
Ankh casually raised his blade.
The instant the weapons collided, an enormous force crashed through the sword.
Surprised, Ankh tightened his grip and thrust upward, sending August flying away.
Then everything within his vision began to change.
The ground beneath him dissolved into emptiness. Darkness surrounded him on every side, while the sky overhead became a perfect square.
A one-hour countdown was carved across its surface.
"This is an ancient forbidden spell known as Void Roaming," August explained calmly as he stood within the endless black space.
"It consumes my lifespan, but this place exists outside ordinary time and space. It is an intangible void that cannot be located or reached."
"Until the allotted time expires, even you cannot leave."
Ankh looked at the darkness close enough to touch.
He invoked the power of the God of Space through Take Over, only to discover that August appeared to be telling the truth.
There was no way out.
His brows drew together.
"You used a spell this costly just to trap me?"
August carried the determination of a man who would accomplish his goal no matter the price, along with the easy acceptance of someone who no longer cared whether he survived.
He answered without hesitation.
"With you removed from the battlefield, our victory outside is already assured."