The descent was silent.
No wind. No sound. No light.
Just Shigen, walking through the void, flanked by the Seven Deadly Sins.
The portal behind them had vanished. Ahead, a crimson horizon pulsed like a heartbeat, casting long shadows across the obsidian ground.
Hell wasn't fire and brimstone.
It was worse.
It was still.
The kind of stillness that made your bones ache. That made your thoughts echo too loud in your skull.
Shigen didn't flinch.
Didn't speak.
He walked with his hands in his pockets, shirtless, barefoot, and utterly unbothered.
Pride glanced at him. "You're taking this well."
Shigen shrugged. "I've been through worse."
Wrath chuckled. "You haven't."
---
The City of Chains
They arrived at the gates of a massive citadel—black towers spiraling into a blood-red sky, chains the size of ships wrapped around its spires. Screams echoed from within, distant and constant, like a choir of the damned.
The gates opened without a sound.
Inside, the air was thick with pressure. The ground pulsed with heat. The walls bled shadows.
Shigen stepped through.
And stopped.
Because there, seated on a throne of bone and obsidian, was Keziah.
The Devil.
Her form was elegant—inhumanly so. Horns curled from her head like a crown. Her eyes were galaxies of darkness. Her smile was a blade.
"Welcome home," she said.
Shigen didn't bow.
Didn't kneel.
He just stared.
"You've gone through a lot of trouble," he said. "What do you want?"
Keziah stood, her presence swallowing the room.
"I want to see what makes you burn," she said. "And whether that fire… belongs to me."
---
The Test
She raised a hand.
The ground split.
A figure rose from the floor—twisted, monstrous, stitched together from the corpses of fallen Hunters. Its aura was wrong. Broken. Hungry.
"Fight," Keziah said. "Or die."
Shigen sighed.
"Fine."
His eyes glowed white.
"Let's see if hell can handle me."
The SS-rank Stone Corpse lunged forward—its body a grotesque fusion of petrified flesh and jagged obsidian, each step cracking the floor beneath it. Its roar shook the citadel walls, a sound forged from agony and rage.
Shigen didn't flinch.
He rolled his shoulders once, then vanished.
A blink.
A flash.
And then—
Boom.
The corpse's arm exploded at the elbow, molten rock spraying across the chamber. Shigen reappeared behind it, his fist still glowing white-hot.
The corpse turned, swinging wildly.
Too slow.
Shigen ducked, slid beneath its legs, and drove his palm into its spine.
"Ash Pulse."
A shockwave of blue fire erupted from his hand, tearing through the creature's core. The Stone Corpse screamed—then cracked, crumbled, and collapsed into a heap of smoldering rubble.
Silence.
Then—
A slow clap.
From the throne, Keziah descended the steps, her heels clicking against the stone.
"Well," she said, voice smooth and amused. "That was… disappointing."
Shigen exhaled, brushing dust from his shoulder. "You sent a corpse. I expected more."
Keziah's smile didn't waver. But her eyes narrowed.
He didn't even activate it.
That limit-breaking phenomenon—the one that had shattered her scrying mirrors, that had burned through her seers' minds like wildfire—he hadn't even tapped into it.
And yet he'd crushed an SS-rank construct like it was made of paper.
This isn't just potential, she thought. This is inevitability.
She turned to the Seven Sins. "Take him to the Crucible."
Pride blinked. "You're sure?"
"I want to see what happens when we push him. Break him. Burn him."
She looked at Shigen, her smile sharpening.
"Let's see how far your fire goes before it consumes you."
---
The Crucible
They led him through a winding corridor of obsidian and bone, down into the heart of the citadel. The air grew hotter. Denser. The walls pulsed with veins of magma.
At the center was a vast chamber—circular, open, with a pit of lava swirling beneath a suspended platform.
Chains hung from the ceiling like spiderwebs.
This was no arena.
This was a forge.
A place where souls were melted and reshaped.
Pride gestured. "Step in."
Shigen did.
The platform rose, hovering above the molten pit.
Keziah's voice echoed from above. "Let's see what your soul is made of."
The chains snapped to life.
And the Trial of Flame began.
---
Elsewhere in Hell
Far from the citadel, in a forgotten corner of the underworld, a figure stirred.
Wrapped in tattered robes, bound in chains of light, it opened its eyes for the first time in centuries.
It smiled.
"Another one has entered the fire," it whispered. "And this one… might just survive."
The chains snapped to life.
They didn't bind Shigen.
They tested him.
Each one lashed out with elemental fury—ice, lightning, shadow, rot—designed to tear apart body, mind, and soul. The platform beneath him trembled, suspended above a swirling pit of molten despair.
Shigen stood still.
His eyes closed.
His breath steady.
Then—
Boom.
A chain of obsidian flame struck his chest.
He didn't move.
Another wrapped around his leg, trying to pull him into the lava.
He stepped forward instead.
The chain shattered.
Above, the Seven Sins watched from a balcony, their expressions ranging from amusement to unease.
Pride leaned forward. "He's not resisting."
Wrath growled. "He's absorbing it."
Keziah narrowed her eyes.
That skill…
She had seen it once before.
A long time ago.
A nameless warrior who had burned through the underworld itself—before being erased from history.
But Shigen was different.
He wasn't just surviving the Crucible.
He was thriving in it.
---
The Devil's Concern
Keziah turned away from the balcony, her expression unreadable.
She descended into the lower sanctum of the citadel, her footsteps echoing through the obsidian halls.
She entered a chamber lined with mirrors—each one showing a different timeline, a different version of the world.
She waved her hand.
One mirror shimmered.
It showed Shigen, standing in the Crucible, his body glowing with white-hot flame, his eyes blazing like twin stars.
Keziah's voice was low.
"Limit Breaker…"
She clenched her fist.
"If that power awakens fully, not even I can contain it."
She turned to a shadow in the corner.
"Prepare the next trial. Push him until he breaks. Or until he becomes mine."
---
The Oath's Echo
Back in the Crucible, Shigen stood amidst the shattered chains, his chest rising and falling slowly.
He looked up.
"I know what you're doing," he said aloud. "You want to see if I'll snap."
He smiled.
"Let's find out."
The lava surged.
The platform dropped.
And the next trial began.
---
Far Below – The Chained One
The ancient figure in the forgotten prison stirred again.
It watched the Crucible through a crack in the stone.
Its voice was a whisper, but it carried through the rock like thunder.
"Limitless…"
It grinned, teeth like broken glass.
"If he survives the next trial… the seal will weaken."
Chains rattled.
The ground trembled.
And somewhere, far above, Keziah paused—her eyes narrowing.
She had felt it too.
Something was waking up.
Something older than her.
Something that remembered the first fire.
The final door groaned open.
Fifty-seven trials.
Fifty-seven nightmares.
Each one crafted to break him—body, mind, soul.
And yet, Shigen emerged.
Not broken.
Not even bruised.
His hair, once a flowing brown cascade, now shimmered white, glowing faintly like moonlight on snow. His aura pulsed with terrifying density—no longer just fire, but something deeper. Something ancient.
His Regen had erased every wound.
But not the change.
He was no longer the same man who had walked in.
He had crossed the threshold.
He was SS-rank, at least.
And still rising.
---
The Devil's Dread
From her throne, Keziah watched in silence.
Her fingers twitched.
Her breath slowed.
Why does he keep growing?
Why doesn't he stop?
She had seen prodigies. She had crushed legends. She had devoured gods.
But this…
This was different.
This was wrong.
Then—
It stirred.
---
The Ice Demon Awakens
Far beneath the Crucible, a seal cracked.
Chains shattered.
And from the depths of the forgotten prison, she emerged.
A woman of impossible beauty—skin like glacial crystal, hair like frozen starlight, eyes glowing with ancient frost. Her presence chilled the very air, frost creeping along the obsidian walls as she walked.
She stepped into the Crucible chamber.
The Seven Deadly Sins turned, weapons half-raised.
Keziah stood from her throne, her aura flaring.
But the demon ignored them all.
She looked only at Shigen.
And then—
She bowed.
Low. Reverent.
"My King."
The room froze.
She rose, her voice calm and melodic. "Why are you still in this weakened state? It's only been a hundred million years. You should have awakened by now."
Shigen blinked. "What?"
The Sins exchanged glances.
Keziah's eyes narrowed.
She's not talking about me.
She's talking about… him?
But that made no sense.
She had killed the Devil years ago. The true one. The source of all demonic bloodlines.
Hadn't she?
Then why…
Why did this woman's presence make her feel like she could die at any moment?
Even from 500 feet away, even without being looked at, her instincts screamed.
Run.
---
The Revelation
Keziah chuckled, masking her unease.
"How amusing," she said. "A fool calling a human its master. You've been sealed too long, ice witch."
The demoness turned her gaze to Keziah for the first time.
And smiled.
It was not a kind smile.
"Indeed," she said. "I've been sealed. But not blind."
She looked back at Shigen.
"He is not human. Not truly. He is dormant. But the soul remembers."
She placed a hand over her heart.
"I am Yurei, Empress of the Ninth Circle. And when you are ready, my King…"
She bowed again.
"I will help you reclaim your throne."
---
[END OF CHAPTER 12]