“Hello Lilith! You ran away from me…. again. Don’t you remember what happened last time you did it? It didn’t work out so well, didn’t it? And yet you never learn.” The strongest demon lord spoke in an arrogant tone as she looked at the trio who has gathered below her.

Slowly descending from the sky and landing on the ground, the demoness looked at the fools who dared stand in her way: one used to be her comrade, one whose existence was so trivial she could erase it in seconds and the final one, an old acquaintance who was killed by her own hands was now standing in front of her once more. Anyone would freak out in that situation when the person you killed decided to show up again but that was not the case for the demon lord.

“Asmodeus….” Lilith uttered. “Before we fight, I want to ask something.”

“….What is it?” questioned Asmodeus.

“Why are you helping Alastor? Sullivan told me of your obsession with him. Why?”

“Did he now?” the demoness stared at the dwarf who immediately hid himself away behind the little girl.

“Is this because of Killian?”

As soon as that name was mentioned, Lilith along with her two allies was blast away from their position. But to their realization, that was not even an attack yet. That shockwave was merely the peak of the iceberg that was Asmodeus’ power. Her sheer aura was capable of do just that. It made one wonder about the true nature of the demoness. She could not be a simple elf that turned into a demon. That was simply not possible considering her true strength.

“You truly never learn. If you wish to die that much, then let me give it to you! This time, I will make sure that not a single trace of your wretched existence is left.” Asmodeus grunted in fury.

“”

With a single fist, the demoness split the soil, creating a fissure that expanded for miles toward the trio. Using their quick reflexes, all three escaped to the sides from harm. However, the same could not be said to the soldiers behind them who fell into the rift before it somehow closed itself back.

“How?” Viviana uttered in shock. She thought that she has prepared herself enough after hearing the rumours of the power of Asmodeus but this was completely a different story. “What the hell is she?”

“You are wrong about one thing, Lilith. This is not a fight. This is a massacre! I will put an end to this pointless conflict with my own hands.

”

Once again, a large earthquake shook the entire continent of Mara as cracks appeared on the ground. Large pieces of stone rose from the fissures and stayed afloat before falling down again, crushing the troops who were scattering around in fear.

“I shall reshape this wretched world! You will all die for what you have done!” Asmodeus proclaimed, raising both her hands to the sky.

“Damn it you still hold a grudge after that long? His death was not anyone’s fault.” The Goddess tried to reason with the demon lord.

“DON’T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT HIM!” With the chaos still ongoing around, the demoness vanished in an instant. Moving at light speed, she lunged herself at the little girl before throwing a shattering fist.

“Ragnarok, come to me!” A molten sword of lava manifested itself in Lilith’s hands, blocking Asmodeus’ attack. The weight was so heavy Lilith almost sunk into the ground with a crater under her foot. Her hands were shaking, doing their best to resist the overwhelming force that was put on them.

Focusing all her power in an instant, Lilith pushed the demon lord back and cleared some distance between them. Unlike before, she knew her limits and most importantly, she knew that unless you wanted to die, you better did well to stay clear of Asmodeus’ reach. That beast possessed insane strength even though her build suggested none of those. One single hit and it would over. Besides, it was not their aim to beat Asmodeus by themselves. The objective was to keep the demon lord busy until reinforcement arrived. However, even Lilith was not sure if all of them together could achieve it. Or worse, could the others even beat their own foes to come here?

“Sullivan, Viviana, let’s do this!”

* * *

“Get back here, you punk!” the slime Azureus shouted in anger at his supposed enemy who only ran away from him.

“Try to catch me, dad!” Devas said casually as he bounced repetitively at incredible speed toward the southern region of Ceadric.

Somehow, these two slimes managed to jump from one mountain to another with their small bodies, forcing Mephisto and Amelia to use the portal in order to keep up with the two.

“Azureus, what is he doing? Why is he just running away from us?” the devil asked in confusion facing the strange battle tactic of the slime. But again, knowing Azureus’ personality, he was not surprised that his son too shared that same trait.

“I am not sure….but don’t let your guards down! He is extremely cruel and dangerous. Stay close to me!” the blue slime spoke.

“Do you think he is trying to pull us away from the battle? Just so no one could help us?” Amelia wondered.

“….we will see.”

Meanwhile, in the mind of the black slime. ‘Unlike the other demon lords, I was not resurrected in my prime time…The current me can’t take father on. But no matter! I will just have to find my old body again. It’s somewhere close in the south of this country...I can feel it.’

Suddenly, Devas stopped in front of a strange forest, staring at it intensively as he got his back against the three demon royal guards. Fearing something might be out of place or the slime has prepared some kind of trap, Azureus instructed the two to stay behind while he would advance toward the black slime.

“What are you playing at, Devas?” asked the blue slime.

“Do you remember this place?” said Devas.

“This?” Azureus observed the strange landscape in front of him.

While the valley they were standing on was filled of a field of green grass, just a couple meters ahead stood a decrepit forest with puddle of dirt mixed with water. However, the strange thing was everything was colored in a mauve dye, even the trees and ground itself.

That was right. This location was the Great Swamp, a land infested by a strange purple substance that changed the lifeform and the very nature of the things of this place. But for both Azureus and Devas, this place held a much more importance, one that the royal guard has long forgotten about…until now.

“This is….where I killed you!” Azureus revealed.

“Correct! But there is also something else that happened here, don’t you remember dad?”

“…you! Is that why you brought us here???” the blue slime shouted in anger.

“Yes! This is where I ate mum and the others. They were so delicious, dad. And today, I will finish that meal I have started a long time ago…You will be the final course!”

Suddenly, the murky water from the swamp agitated like a living thing and leaped at the black slime as it fused with him, making it growing bigger and bigger.

“And now, we eat! Have a nice meal, dad! Though in this case, you are the meal!” the giant slime that looked like a bubble of mauve water spoke as it consumed the entire swamp.

“What the hell….?” Amelia uttered upon watching the monstrosity growing in front of her.

“We must move, now!” Mephisto shouted.

“But to where?” the witch said.

“Anywhere but here!”

Picking up the frozen slime who was shocked by his own son, Amelia ran as fast as she could together with Mephisto.

“It’s futile to run. I will eat everything in this continent. No…I will eat this entire world!!! HAHAHAAHHA! All shall become one!”

“ *heavy breathing* How do you beat him?” the witch uttered.

“Let me down, Amelia!” the blue slime spoke.

“What?”

“I will stop him! We can’t keep running forever and the longer we leave him alone, the more he will eat and the more powerful he will be!”

“But…”

“It’s okay, Amelia. Trust me!” the blue slime reassured.

“….I won’t forgive you if you die too.” Amelia said while holding back her emotions rising inside her upon the thought of losing another one of her friend today.

“I promise!” Azureus said.

Letting the slime jump down from her arms, Amelia and Mephisto took their battle stances as they faced the monster coming at them.

“Be one with the Mire!!!” the dark slime shouted.

“”

The giant slime shot out a part of its body toward the sky passing the clouds. A short moment later, a rain of mauve water poured down, melting everything they touched.

“” Amelia invoked a barrier made of ashen bones and skulls around the three, sheltering them from the corrosive rain. But that wall would not last for long against this attack.

“”

A wave of light emitted from the blue slime body and cleansed the tainted water before shutting down the rain and stopped it.

“How about this?

”

From the giant mauve bubble, dark warriors and beasts crawled out of the thing. Their armors and skins were covered by a mauve substance while their eyes looked lifeless, because they were. These were the unfortunate souls that lost their lives in that swamp for centuries, all stacking their bodies upon another as the swamp consumed them all.

“Kill them!” Devas commanded. “Let them know the wrath of the Mire!”

Taking up speed, the flock charged insanely at the trio without any care. Each of them was weak but they made up with their endless numbers. It became a battle of stamina to see if the royal guards ran out of stamina first or the flock ran out of numbers first.

“Here they come!” Mephisto shouted.

“Mephisto, Amelia, I will leave you to it.” The blue slime said as he charged through the flock toward the giant slime behind them. “DEVAS!”

“What are you going to do, dad? Think you can take me on?” the dark slime arrogantly provoked.

“You want to eat me right? I will give it to you! AAAAAA!”

Without warning, Azureus dived into the pool of murk inside the demon lord.

“What???” Devas uttered, unable to grasp his father’s actions. He felt his insides getting emptier. His body was being eaten by something. “You…GET OUT!” Devas shook his body desperately as he tried to launch the slime out of his system. To add more pain, Devas increased the intensity of the acid in his body hoping it would kill Azureus. “Fucking die!”

Meanwhile, Azureus could feel his small body being melted down. In addition to purify the tainted body he was consuming, the royal guard had to keep healing himself from the acids. Expanding his own size from what he has eaten, Azureus grew little by little as he took over the body of the dark slime.

“GET OUT! …NO NO NO!” Devas shouted painfully. “I can’t die like this! Not again!” Just before his whole body was taken over, a small block of black ooze shot out from the giant slime as it tried to escape the terrible fate that awaited it.

“Not so fast!” a blue tentacle of pure liquid lunged itself and caught the small thing before it could reach the ground. The giant slime has now changed color to a light blue of the ocean. More tentacles launched themselves from the giant, catching the flock and saving his two friends.

“No no no!!! Let me go!” Devas shouted angrily.

“No...you won’t escape from me. Let it be a lesson for you if you ever want to come back! Remember this: I will always be there to put you back in your place, son! It’s my duty as your father…So goodbye!” the tentacle dragged itself rapidly toward its source.

“NOOOOOO!!!”

And it was over in an instant. The hunter has become the hunted and ended up as the meal himself.

“It’s over?” Mephisto uttered before turning toward the blue giant. “Azureus?”

“Yeah…it’s over…for now!” White smoke rose from his body as it shrank down to its original size.

“Welcome back!” Amelia smiled gently out of relief, something that was quite rare for someone like her.

“I am back. Let us hurry and see how the others are doing!”

* * *

“You witch, what did you do?” the dragon lord shouted in anger as he found himself unable to move an inch. The only thing he could control right now was his head while the rest refused to listen. “Why can’t I move?”

“ Simple but effective, isn’t it?” the woman in chains muttered. Her face was mostly covered by her hood, revealing only a pure white smooth skin and a pair of bright rose lips.

“A curse??? But that’s….”

There was a reason why no mage ever wanted to resort to curse magic. Because of the terrible price it imposed to cast the spell. Most of the known curses required a portion of the lives of their users or in other cases, something even worse than that. While curses were extremely difficult to remove because of their nature, dragons should be able to resist most common curses thanks to their natural resistance to magic. And yet, Celdora was hit by the most basic curse. Either something was wrong with him or the sacrifices Beatrix used must be very high, like the cost of her life actually.

At that moment, Celdora realized that him killing her several times earlier was part of the curse. She used all those lives just for this. But that didn’t explain why she could revive herself like that.

“Wondering why I didn’t die? I thought I told you why…” the woman grinned.

“ARGG! Let me….” And Celdora lost control of all his body. His only interaction with the world was now through his glassy eyes as his vision turned black.

“Shhhh…” Beatrix put her finger on her soft lips as a gesture of silence. “Would you be a dear and wait for me for a moment? I will be right back.” The woman spoke softly before walking pass the dragon who could not even do anything, trapping inside the darkness of his own world.

“It can’t be….she beat lord Celdora so easily.” A dragon uttered upon seeing the scene.

“He doesn’t look dead to me. We must rescue him! Come on, brothers and sisters! AAAAAA!” a dozen dragons accompanied by a few brave knights rushed forward at the demon lord.

“”

In an instant, numerous sets of chains lunged from the shadows of the warriors before restraining them, forcing them to be on their knees.

“What is this?” a knight yelled as he tried to get away from the seemingly living chains constricting them.

“Bondage lives in the heart of all men. To be bound by your own shadows, that’s the true nature of humanity. The same can be said for dragons and any living being.” The woman muttered as she observed another large wave of soldiers coming her way. “And here they come!

”

From the flimsy cloak, the only clothing on her body aside from those chains covering her body, Beatrix launched countless chains toward the army. But unlike those from before, these chains were bright red as if they were soaked in blood. Each of them plunged into the chest of a soldier, making them squealing in pain as they agitated violently. From them, a crimson liquid was trailing on the chains and dropped to the ground.

“Bleed and suffer! That’s the destiny of man. Each drop is your life. Let’s see how long you all can last!” the woman spoke softly.

Afraid of getting close to the woman, the other soldiers untouched by her attack decided to help their fellows instead. Healers consisted of priests and celestials rushed to the sides of the afflicted and began their healing as green light shined across the battle.

But then.

“”

All of a sudden, the soldiers screamed even louder as their skins seemed to be burned by an invisible force. Yet, what was responsible for the burns was not some strange unseen external force but the healers themselves. The more they tried to heal, the worse the patients became.

“How? Why is our healing technic not working?” the celestials shouted.

“Hehehe!” the woman chuckled. “What will you do now? Watch them suffer till their death or grant them mercy by your own hands?”

“You evil witch!”

“I am flattered. Hahahahaha!”

But as the woman delighted from seeing the agonies of her foes, a figure appeared and stood firmly between the moaning soldiers and the witch.

“STOP!” the man in a priest garb spoke out loud.

“…that garb….a high ranking priest? ….no…even more!” Beatrix muttered “So the pope himself decided to show up to protect his lambs?”

“I will not let you harm anyone anymore.” Maxime shouted.

“And what are you going to do about it? What can you hope to achieve with your frail vessel?”

“I may be weak but I won’t stand idle and watch the innocents suffer.”

“Innocent? How laughable! We are all sinners, Holy Father. See how many centuries have passed, how many millennia have we lived and did anything change at all? War, betrayals, pains…our world is still infested with them. And we are the ones who caused it. We delight in the suffering and misfortunes of others. For it gives us comfort in our own insecurity and makes us feel better about our miserable self.

Am I wrong to say it?” Beatrix proclaimed.

“….I admit that we have made mistakes in our lives. We all did. But killing all is not the solution to the problem. Instead of spreading misery, we should focus on changing ourselves to seek salvation and peace. We deserve that chance!” Maxime uttered.

“No…we had too many chances already…But enough babbling! Show me how you will save them then, oh Hole Father of the Church of Light! Will you be able to kill me? Or will I kill you first?” the woman grinned.

* * *

“”

Three burning giant stones fell from the sky, piercing through the clouds as they dropped onto to tall figure holding two great swords.

“Fire and dark, heed my command! ”

Crossing his twin great swords above his head, Kaiser chopped down the first meteor before jumping on the second one and used it as a footing as he shattered the last stone in a dance of blades. Dark smoke and fiery embers followed his swords as he dived at the mediating old man in the ground.

Yet, for some reason, the True Monarch was unable to even come close to the old man. He swore he has aimed at him but when he actually landed on the ground, Kaiser found himself where he stood earlier, still far away from the sage.

“What the? What sorcery is this?” the king of Ragna asked loudly.

“, ”

The earth shattered and released a torrent of water from its fissures. The landscape was being ravaged by the violent tides all while crumbling into the abyss below. But where did all this water come from? Kaiser looked through the cracks and only saw an empty darkness below. And yet, somehow, water was constantly coming out of it and was flooding everywhere. How was it possible considering the empty cracks?

Taking flight, Kaiser tried to escape from the flood but somehow ended up deep in the body of water below. Just moment ago, he was flying up so why was there water in the sky and even the ground above? It was as if the world has been reversed and Kaiser was only descending further into the depths of this seemingly endless ocean. Even weirder, he could not see anyone around him, only the old man sitting in his place inside an air bubble, still motionless with his eyes closed.

But Kaiser was no normal being and was fully capable of staying underwater without any need for breathing. Yet, as he tried to lunge himself at the sage, a cyclone appeared underwater in front of the sage and sucked him into it forcefully.

“You will never escape this!” a loud voice echoed. “The nightmare has no end. Surrender and be consumed by it!”

“Never!!!”

In a burst of power, Kaiser destroyed the tornado and suddenly the ocean disappeared together with any sign of the earthquake from before. The landscape has returned to normal and Kaiser found himself on a field of tall green grass once again. However, he still had no way to counter this weird way of fighting of the demon lord or even understood how it worked.

“If it is magic than I can cancel it! In the name of the True Monarch, I forbid the use of magic on this land!” Kaiser proclaimed.

“Fool! That trick won’t work against me. ”

The sky darkened and a huge column of purple lightning struck down onto Kaiser, burning to crisp everything around.

“ARGGGHHH!” Kaiser used all his power to resist the powerful attack.

“You will yield, young one!”

“…Never!”

“Why do you resist? Is this not the will of your father?” Asked Nyx with his disembodied voice.

“My father wishes for peace. This is not what he wants.” Retorted Kaiser.

“And yet he did…” Strangely, Nyx spoke with a doubtful tone as if he himself doubted his own reason for fighting. “But give it up! If you can’t even win against me, there is no way you could reach Alastor or hope to talk to him.”

“You have not seen anything yet…” Kaiser muttered as he deflected the lightning with his sword to the side. “This is not even my final form! AAAAAAAAA!”

A bright light engulfed Kaiser as surges of power were emanating from his body, creating powerful winds.

“What is this power?” the voice asked itself.

From the brilliant light, a new figure emerged. Golden armor with six shiny wings on his back, the figure possessed six eye gaps on his metal face and surrounded himself with a powerful aura.

“Impressive but that won’t help you to escape this world!” Nyx spoke.

“…He is not alone!”

Suddenly, a dark portal appeared and poured out a black mist that seemingly sucked the life out of everything it touched. From the orb, two large figures emerged. One had elongated limbs and female shape wearing a light armor together with a purple veil. The second one who seemed to be composed of the dark smoke itself with only two bright crimson eyes. Their presences were simply too familiar to Kaiser as they were once the same being.

“Odium? Sinforma?” Kaiser uttered in shock.

“….Yes brother, we are here to help.” Said the two simultaneously strangely with the same voice.

“But I thought you were both dead….I mean…Father saw you died, Odium!”

“….She did…But we can talk about this later. Right now, we have an opponent to face.” The two figures spoke.

“….Alright, we will do this together as brothers and sister. CHARGE!”

* * *

While the main battles continued its course, the last two were not going very well. Edward had no way to attack Beelzebub as any magical attack would be absorbed by his hands. In short, the demon lord Beelzebub was the worst opponent to all mages and Edward had no physical skills to keep up with him. Meanwhile, Maria too had trouble to fend herself against the fallen celestials turned monsters. Her Hunters have also joined the battle but the most they could do was to defend against the monstrosities. However, the problem lied in the demon lord Lucifer who was maintaining the Door of Gehenna opened all while launching rains of destruction upon the battlefield, killing hundreds.

“Hahahaha! You have to do better than that, boy! ”

Beelzebub threw a black orb at Edward. Using his Death Spectrum, the boy has anticipated the attack and quickly drew back to escape the suction of the hole as it sucked everything around it before disappearing in nothingness. If not for the power of that brand, Edward would have lost by now. Frankly speaking, a normal ten years old boy capable of lasting this long against an all-powerful demon lord was already an unthinkable feat. But how far would he be able to continue? He was running out of mana and the stamina of a young boy had a limit.

“ *heavy breathing* * Edward panted.

“Out of breath, boy? I don’t blame you....Give it up and I will grant you a quick death!” Beelzebub spoke.

“Why are you doing this? Is this really what Alastor would want?” the boy questioned.

“….It is so you don’t have to resist anymore. Just…let it go!” Beelzebub raised his hand and charged his attack. “Goodbye, Edward! I will remember your name!”

…..

“You are a better toy than I expected. To kill your opponent again and again, how delightful is that? Hahahaha!” Lucifer laughed maniacally, slashing his sword repetitively into the soft flesh of the woman in front of him.

“Argg!” Maria grunted while coughing of blood while the rest of her body was being pierced, covered with holes of injuries as her clothing was being ruined and soaked in her own blood. The wounds might heal but it took a bit of time before Maria had the chance to recover. However, Lucifer didn’t give her even a second to rest and continued his onslaught as he ravaged the huntress.

“Get away from her, you monster!” Scarlet rushed toward the two to assist her friend.

“Be gone, insect!” Lucifer fired an arrow of light from his hand, impaling Scarlet as she fell to the ground.

“SCARLET!!!” Maria shouted with all her force but could not even move because of the intensity of her wounds. “Don’t touch her!”

“The more you say, the more I want to take her away. Your suffering, your agony…it gives me joy.” Lucifer grinned insidiously. “Show me your true self when I decapitate this wench’s head and offer it to you!” Lucifer walked toward the motionless Scarlet.

“No…don’t…please! She is my family…” Maria struggled hardly as she used her hands to crawl and followed the celestial. But she was too slow.

“Die!”

“NOOOO!!!”

…..

“Hehehehehe! It’s about time we rebalance the Game!”

The world froze and lost its color. The landscape, the people, it all became black and white. The drop of blood falling to the ground, the violence, the clashes, everything stopped. Even time itself.

A red door appeared out of nowhere. Wooden rectangular frame, its lone bright color stood out of all, standing oddly in the middle of this monochrome land.Then it opened and a young man walked out. Wearing white gloves, a black cap and a grey long modern coat like some people of the Other World, the man had a long white scarf wrapped around his neck. One of his hands held a golden pocket watch attached to a small thin set of chain trailing to the side pocket of his coat.

Looking at the moving needles on the surface of the watch, the young man muttered. “Just in time! Now where is he?” He turned around. “Aha, there he is.”

Closing the watch and put it in his pocket, the man walked toward a young boy frozen in time. Not far from the boy, a beastman was pointing at him and on the verge of releasing an attack on him. One second later and he would have died.

The man touched the boy on his forehead with his index and suddenly Edward could move again. He has regained his usual colour and just realized that everything around him was frozen, except for the strange man in front of him.

“Hello, young Edward! My name is Cronos, Overseer of Time! It’s good to finally see you face to face! Now, let us start changing this timeline, shall we?”

……

Back to Maria, something was strange. She felt something wet on her face. Struggling to stand up, the woman opened her eyes, only to see a dark sky of nothingness expanding to the horizon.

“What the...Where am I?” Maria uttered in shock before taking a few steps back.

*FLIP FLOP FLIP FLOP*

The sounds of footsteps walking on water. That sound, it came from her own steps. Looking down on the ground and touching her own cheek, Maria finally realized the source of that wet feeling from earlier. Blood, it was blood, blood everywhere. The entire ground she was walking on was an ocean of blood and she was walking on its surface, each step echoing across the whole body of the crimson liquid.

“What the hell is this place???” a voice shouted but it did not belong to Maria. Turning her head back to the direction of the voice, the huntress saw the only person and perhaps the only thing that existed in this place along with her: the demon lord Lucifer who was confused himself by this sudden change of location they were in. “You! You did this? I will kill you!!!” the celestial shouted in anger.

*CLAP CLAP CLAP*

“Now, now, children, behave!”

A sudden chill could be felt by both Maria and Lucifer as they heard a strange female voice along with the sounds of hands clapping. Then, footsteps could be heard coming toward them from the darkness. A figure was walking toward them with her high pointy heels across the pool of blood. Wearing a long tight dress forming the shape of her pale skinned body and a large hat adorned with a large rose, everything on this woman from tip to toe was dyed in a bright red colour, even her long hair pass her shoulder to one side, hiding half her face. The only thing that was not red was her white fluffy fur scarf she wrapped around herself and the ivory parasol she held open in her hands even though it was not raining.

Approaching the only two persons in this place, she bowed lightly but somehow still showed that she was the one in charge here, not them and that this gesture was simply a mockery at their own powerlessness.

“Hello children! I am Rouge, the Sanguine Incarnation! You may also call me Madame Rouge. Enchantée!”

…..

“Ikarus, I will give you back your wings!”