The 29th Great Demon, Marchosias—at one time, he enjoyed the struggle. He failed to endure his boiling blood and had ambition to become the master of a deeper hell in order to lead more armies. However, he was defeated by the wanderer, Zepar, and briefly lost the 29th Hell. His wild instincts and passion faded like a lie. He learned the concept of ‘limitations.’

Marchosias reigned by turning everything his breath touched into stone. He lost all motivation once he discovered there were some objects that couldn’t be turned to stone, and many of them were here in hell. Demons were no different from humans. Their fate was sometimes dictated by something innate.

‘The appearance isn’t bad for a human. Should I make her into a stone statue to decorate my bedroom?’

Marchosias wasn’t stupid enough to let go of the human who invaded his territory at will. He wasn’t degraded to the extent where he would shrink back from a human. Demon Slayer? It was a grand title, but she was still young compared to the past generation. He let it go once or twice because it was annoying and he could handle her easily as long as he made up his mind.

“......?”

Marchosias was approaching Yura when he suddenly felt flustered. It was because Yura, who was standing in front of him, suddenly disappeared. Then he realized it wasn’t Yura who disappeared. It was that his vision had changed. He wasted a single second. Then there was a sharp bursting sound behind him that was accompanied by pain. He realized the blood scattering in all directions was his own and hurriedly let out his breath.

Marchosias’ skin and muscles turned into hard stones. The hot and sharp object that was cutting at Marchosias’ body. It was presumably a sword and it could no longer cut Marchosias’ body. It bounced off. Marchosias kept turning himself into stone as he raised his half-cut neck and looked back. He saw a person other than the Demon Slayer.

“Fast...”

He wondered if humans could be this fast.

‘A transcendent?’

He wondered why a transcendent was in hell.

‘I heard that transcendents are quite obsessed with life.’

Transcendents were those who lived forever, but couldn’t resist physical death, unlike legends. They transcended the limits of a human being in order to realize their simple desire for development and were immersed in their own world all day long. Therefore, they had little external activities. Yet one stepped into hell willingly?

‘Additionally, why is it my hell?’

Today was an annoying day in many ways. It wasn’t enough that Baal came and made trouble. Now there was the Demon Slayer and a transcendent...

‘Tsk, it is ominous.’

He didn’t want to see a transcendent who might’ve lived for many years. Marchosias became cautious and let out a breath as an experiment. Everything that existed where the fan-shaped breath passed quickly turned into stone. It could be called a wave of stone. The human at the end of that wave...

“...Tsk.”

There was no petrification. Marchosias clicked his tongue, spread out his wings, and flew back. He also confirmed that the Demon Slayer blocking his path was quite tense.

“I don’t care what you are doing here. Can you just leave?”

There was a superstition among the demons. It was a superstition that, whenever the flesh was extinguished and the flesh was born, it would gain a stronger or new power. Of course, Marchosias didn’t believe in superstition. Hell Gao, Drasion, Morax, Astaroth, Furfur—he thought it was a rumor spread by the followers of the idiots who lost their flesh to Sword Saint Muller to maintain the dignity of their master.

‘It is a waste of time to die.’

He might only be resurrected after a few hundred years. Life would be no different from before even if he was resurrected. Marchosias just wanted peace and quiet.

Yura was shaken by the words about withdrawing. This development was unexpected and her shaky gaze shifted to Grid. They were communicating without Marcosias knowing.

-Glant advised me to avoid fighting Marchosias as much as possible. He said that if Marchosias wasn’t worried after an incident, his ranking would be much higher than it is now. It is difficult to believe in the visible ranking. There are many variables so it is better to avoid him.

-I’d like to fight.

Since ancient times, the premise of killing a great demon was ‘in the human world.’ They might be the same great demon, but there was a huge difference in the human world compared to in hell. Therefore, Grid wanted to confirm it.

-I have to make sure that the great demons in hell are as great as the rumors.

Grid planned to use hell as his main stage for future activities, so it was necessary to gain an idea of the combat power of great demons. He needed to know if his skills could handle the great demon in the region before he could make a thorough plan. Yura nodded when she read Grid’s intentions.

-I understand... however, I will remind you. Don’t be careless just by looking at the rankings. Glant’s assessment might not be unconditionally accurate, but he said that Marchosias deserves to be 22nd ranked. This means he is stronger than Beleth in the human world.

-More than Beleth?

Yura brought up Beleth so that Grid could feel it more clearly. Grid was calm despite her continued warnings. Therefore, she felt the need to instill vigilance. Then what was this?

-I’m looking forward to it.

Grid was smiling rather than being nervous. Yura realized something when she saw the light in his eyes. Grid wasn’t afraid of Beleth. It was honestly unbelievable. Just a few months ago, Grid’s face had been full of agitation and surprise throughout the fight against Beleth. The video of Grid’s anxious expression as he hoped for this moment to end was still popular among people. Yet his stance changed in just a few months?

‘No, it isn’t just a few months thinking about it now.’

The value of time varied in every moment. Since the Beleth battle, Grid had already written three epics. The fight with Saleos, the eighth epic on Cokro Island, and the ninth epic in hell not long ago. The time period of the past few months was short, but it had special value to Grid.

She should trust Grid. Grid’s confidence might come from a misjudgment, but she would protect him this time. Yura made up his mind and used Hell Leap to move to the hilly area that was just created by Baal. She found some cover, lowered herself, and set up a sniper point. She recalled the conversation she had with the thousand year old Glant.

“Marchosias’ real strength lies in petrifying himself, not objects. He can petrify his skin and muscles to make himself harder than steel. Imagine if that guy petrifies even his skeleton. If the world perishes, he alone will live.”

“Does that mean he can’t be killed?”

“Yes. Therefore, fighting him is pointless. If you have to fight him, then aim for his eyelids. It is uncomfortable to petrify the eyelid muscles. Thus, he has a habit of not petrifying his eyelids muscles as much. If you shoot his eyelids then you will have time to run away.”

Yura’s barrel filled with jade-colored magic power as she aimed. Increased accuracy, reinforcing bullets, accelerating projectiles, granting evil destruction and penetration properties, etc. All types of buff skills suitable for the situation were repeatedly overlapped on Alex’s magic engineering gun.

Of course, there was no apparent energy. It was because sniping should be done in secret. However, the opponent was a great demon.

“...I have no intention of fighting.”

Marchosias frowned as he felt the threatening energy and petrified his body even further. It was only when his skin, muscles, and even bones were petrified that Marchosias felt hard enough to look outward. His physique was so large that he was reminiscent of a great mountain deeply rooted in the ground.

However, Yura knew his weakness. It happened as Yura was about to pull the trigger...

-I think it makes more sense to fight alone.

-......!

As a new whisper arrived, a veil covered her scope. It was Grid’s cloak. Grid intentionally disrupted Yura’s sniper trajectory.

-I got it.

How much had Grid grown since he faced Beleth? The most curious one was actually Grid. He asked Yura for her understanding and started to dance. In a rare manner, he took several strides.Marchosias was a stone statue that didn’t move. Grid saw it as a divine opportunity and raised the power of his sword dance to the limit.

“Pinnacle.”

Unlike ordinary rankers who consistently raided boss monsters in various areas to make a profit, Grid had a revenue source called the ‘Overgeared Kingdom’ and he didn’t need to be obsessed with raids. It was much more advantageous to make items instead of doing raids.

Due to these circumstances, the number of raids that Grid had done was surprisingly small. It was a considerably lower amount than others. However, if one was counting the number of raids for ‘bosses whose attack strategy hasn’t been revealed,’ Grid would compete for first or second place. It meant he was a raid master. He already recognized that Marchosias was a boss who specialized in defense. He also noticed Marchosias’ weakness based on the fact that Marchosias’ eyes weren’t blurred despite hardening his entire body.

The sword dance that ignored the target’s defense cut diagonally across Marchosias’ eyes.

The 29th Hell shook as there was a lot of bleeding. The unexpected pain caused Marchosias to scream. Marchosias’ was covered in his own blood and he started to rampage.

“Still.... I can’t stay stillllllll!!”

The instincts that Marchosias had removed were resurrected. A great anger was awakening the demonic ferocity. It would’ve happened someday even if Grid didn’t touch him. A great demon who sought peace couldn’t exist.

Every time Marchosias roared, giant rocks were created and continued to aim at Grid. Grid felt the feeling of being exposed to a landslide. The baptism of giant rocks was extremely threatening. Grid was stuck in between the piled up rocks that formed a well and a giant fist slammed into his face.

Rocks shattered and the fragments flew in all directions. However, Grid’s flesh and blood weren’t seen. Marchosias lost sight of Grid and hurriedly petrified himself.

-Certainly, it is higher than Beleth’s level and stats.

Dragon.

Grid conveyed his sentiments to Yura as he penetrated through Marchosias.

-However, level and stats aren’t the only measures of strength.

Beleth’s level and stats might’ve been greatly weakened in the human world, but his power and vision were several times better than Marchosias. Overall, Beleth felt more powerful. There was no need to explain in detail. Contrary to what it looked like, the Beleth who was in the human world was stronger than the Marchosias who was in hell.

Of course, this didn’t mean that Marchosias was weak. It was just that Grid overwhelmed Marchosias.

“Open Potential. Dragon.”

[Pagma’s Sword Dance, Dragon, has temporarily evolved into Grid’s Sword Dance.]

“Sword Dance Creation. Transcend Dragon Kill Pinnacle.”

The charging sword dance gave infinite potential to Grid’s Sword Dance. Grid could make dozens of charges in theory and he penetrated Marchosias’ body again and again, dominating the battlefield.