Kindred reached out to grab the air and ripped it open. Chwak! He laughed violently as he jumped out of the tear in space, curving his fingers into claws and slicing down Brahm’s head. Brahm managed to escape with Blink, but Kindred tore the Book of Mercury’s cover off.

Had he been aiming for the book in the first place? Brahm glared at Kindred, whose movements had been so free that it was as though the illusory world belonged to him. Kindred jumped up once more and rushed towards Brahm like a beast hunting prey.

Brahm activated Blink again and began Triple Casting.

Lightning bolts fell from the sky, and Ceratopsian Dinosaurs with Devil Poison were summoned from the ground. This was only possible because it was Brahm’s illusory world and he controlled everything inside it.

However, Kindred just slashed away all the lightning and the Ceratopsian Dinosaurs without even slowing down, evidence of his ten years of training on the twentieth floor. Brahm also noticed something hazy around Kindred as he moved.

‘Even devil spirits?’ It was a phenomenon that appeared whenever bishops acted and amplified their powers. It seemed like Kindred had the ability to move so freely in the illusory world because of a Devil God’s Factor.

Brahm clenched his teeth. He knew well which god it was—a god who wasn’t a god and a demon who wasn’t a demon. The players called it Devil God, but the entity was actually closer to the light than any other entity. To the Devil Army, he was called the Heavenly Demon, and Brahm knew that he wouldn’t win against him, even if he fought with all his strength. He couldn’t even imagine fighting the Heavenly Demon, and since Kindred had received Demonic Factors from him, he was difficult to defeat for the time being.

The illusory world was beginning to grow tinted with the color of the Heavenly Demon. ‘Is that how much they need Sesha? I understand the Elohim’s reasons, but why is the Devil Army interested?’ Brahm made a snap decision. If he couldn’t defeat Kindred, he had to kill him by crushing the illusory world and everything inside it.

.

Brahm slammed his hand down, instantly destroying the world he had built so painstakingly over such a long period of time. The sky began to collapse and the space around him ripped apart, taking Kindred with it. The magic circles he’d set up helped Brahm’s skill, and he didn’t hesitate at all. He’d been thinking of destroying everything if a powerful opponent showed up anyway, and he could always rebuild. As long as the summoning magic circle was intact, it would be fine.

Kwakwakwa! Kindred realized that he was in danger of being crushed, and he made an attempt to escape. However, everywhere he stepped crumbled under his feet. If he made a single misstep, he would be locked in right away.

Suddenly, the two other bishops arrived at his side.

“Second Bishop!” One of them used their strength to pull Kindred away, and the other sent a magic power blast towards Brahm, who was completely vulnerable as he used his skill. However, Galliard appeared in the nick of time, and the explosion did nothing.

Galliard used his Shunpo and sent arrows flying. Ping! Ping! Ping! The two bishops found themselves collapsing along with the barrier. Boom! The arrows that had been created with Brahm’s magic formulas made the barrier crumble instantly.

As the two bishops stumbled back, Galliard used the wind spirit to reach them right away.

.

It was as fast as Blink, and the two bishops instinctively waved their hands as Galliard approached them. As their robes flapped around, their blackened palms rushed towards Galliard.

It was a special technique of the Devil Army that made veins burst when touched. But Galliard quickly protected his body and attacked the bishops at the same time. He sent a dagger on his belt flying into the stomach of one of the bishops. Puck! “Explode.”

The magic in the dagger activated, and as the dagger exploded, it ripped the bishop’s internal organs into shreds. It was a serious injury, even if they had the Heavenly Demonic Factor, and the Ninth Bishop, Jevich, soon succumbed to it.

“You!” The Eighth Bishop, Dmitri, shouted in fury and blasted the Grace of Devil God attack. Galliard used Ilwidogang to retreat. Dmitri tried to chase after him, but his feet became tangled up in the remnants of the collapsing world. “Damn!” Even his curses were muffled.

It was pandemonium everywhere. The illusory world collapsed with several explosions, and everyone grew dizzy. Brahm and Kindred found their equilibrium and tried to attack each other again. The shifting world quaked once more, and a large tornado descended from the sky. Brahm’s and Kindred’s powers clashed within it.

Crash! As though millions of mirrors were breaking at the same time, the illusory world burst shattered, revealing the outside world. The tornado that whirled inside began to destroy the outside as well. The Wave of Fire that Yeon-woo had used against Aether and the others was nothing compared to this force.

The tornado uprooted Devil Trees and pulverized Demonic species as it rampaged throughout the area. It seemed as though it would break the stage, but Brahm and Kindred ignored it and continued to battle, not wishing to lose any advantage.

Inside the tornado, power crashed against power, holiness and holiness collided, and holy powers struggled against each other. The tornado expanded until it swallowed the Demons’ Forest. The Demonic species and ghosts were swept up in the tornado even as they tried to escape, sand and dust floating up with them.

“Urk!” Brahm gritted his teeth. It felt as though his arm were being cut off. As the illusory world collapsed, his holiness and power leaked out like water, but he continued to squeeze out his soul. If he lost his advantage, he would die. He didn't particularly fear death, and he had no attachments to life. But without him blocking the way, they would take Sesha, and he couldn’t let that happen. ‘I won’t!’

Sesha, his poor child, hadn’t ever known a mother’s love or seen her father’s face. She’d been bedridden for a long time and had only recently begun to recover. He remembered the first time she’d smiled and laughed, putting her thin little hand in his. He would never allow anyone to take that smile away from her, even if his power ran out.

“Please, I have to entrust you with this child.” The memory of Ananta showing up in the middle of the night with a sleeping baby surfaced in his mind. Her eyes had been full of tears.

“Are you in your right mind? This child isn’t even yours!”

“No, she’s mine. She didn’t come from my womb, but she came from my heart. Please.” Her eyes were firm. “Father.” It was the request of a child who had never called him “Father”, the desperate plea of a daughter who had hated him all her life. He’d loved and cared for Sesha because he wanted to atone for the sins he’d committed when he was younger.

Boom! The tornado grew bigger and looked like a gigantic column that connected heaven and earth. Brahm realized that the tornado had completely escaped his control. It had drained his holiness but the power he felt inside it belonged to Kindred—or rather, the Heavenly Demon.

If this kept up, not only would all of his holiness disappear, but the level of his soul would also be ripped away from him. He would lose Sesha, and so Brahm thought of a way to turn the tables. He still had one last ploy left: the summoning magic circle deep underground.

He had set it up separately from the illusory world, and by now, it was sure to have consumed a large sacrifice: the Elohim, the bishop of the Devil Army, Devil Trees, Demonic species, and Ceratopsian Dinosaur. He’d probably exceeded the amount needed for a sacrifice. And what if he added his power and godly position as well? Brahm let go of his control over the tornado, and he was sent flying out.

He grew dizzy from the demonic power, but he used his last skill and extended his hand towards the ground.

There was a horrifying pain as though something he couldn’t see were being ripped out of his soul. Then, the transmutation circle floated up from below the ground, glowing with a black light as it spit out a large, iron door that had a strange symbol on it.

As it radiated demonic energy, the door burst open. Bang! The impact seemed to stun the world into quiescence, and a man floated from the shadows with dozens of black wings wrapped around him like armor.

『The air of the lower floors is more refreshing than that of the higher ones.』

It was the demon who had the second-highest rank among L’Infernal’s Seventy-Two Demons, the Grand Demon Duke who represented ruin and madness: Agares. His avatar had appeared.