A triumphant flash of light, channeling the power of all the gods, consumed the malignity of Chaos.
Every single cell of the behemoth disintegrated in the heated holy light.
[Lionheart---!]
With a short terminus, the triumphant flash annihilated the malevolent soul without leaving a trace.
Victory.
With the loss of all satellites, the people lost focus to observe the starry sky.
The loss of the starry sky, which had never been missed since mankind's foray into space, was terrifying.
The sight of the eyes of the universe falling seemed to signal the end of the human race. Everyone wondered if the world was really ending.
In the midst of this fear, while everyone prayed to their own gods, they remembered one man.
Intolerant, authoritarian, arrogant, and misguided, but a prophet who brought a new faith to the world.
A man who changed the standard of faith, proved the existence of a real God, and represented its power.
A superhuman who leads people to the stars on a course that ordinary people can't even imagine.
And so, along with the gods, they prayed for a knight.
May he triumph.
────■■■■■■■■■■■■■!!
As if in answer to their prayers, a brilliant light illuminates the sky. They witness and realize that the sorting continues onward into space.
He is victorious.
* * * * *
-Baaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
"How the fuck did that make sense?! How the fuck did they beat that thing! Freaking monsters! Freaks!"
The near-screaming cursing disturbed the lesser beings, but Reynald instinctive survival took precedence over it.
"Oh, what are you doing, Great One!"
Reynald cried out, desperately seeking wisdom from Gob, the Archdemon of Wisdom.
"What the hell, you should run!"
"Ah---!"
Rakshar, Lord of Chaos, was defeated. The realms of chaos that Rakshar ruled have fallen, and all that remains are the demons that were sent to aid in this war.
"They'll find this place soon enough! We have to get out of here before they do!"
"Can't you open the gate, so they can take us to the demon world------"
"Stupid!"
The gate from the Demon Realm to Earth would require considerable sacrifice and magic power, but going to the Demon Realm in the opposite direction would not be an impossible task for the Archdemon of Wisdom.
But Reynald's hopes were dashed by Gob's tirade.
"If we open the gate to the Demon Realm from here, we'll be tracked down by the Magician Queen! You think they won't come to the Demon Realm?"
"Aaah------"
In other words, physical escape is the only answer here.
"Right out the door!"
"Ah, the old days, shredding papers and-"
"There's no time for that, we must flee as fast as we can from his presence!"
"What? Ha, but------"
Reynald knew the importance of this place, which contained sensitive information, including a support list of demon followers operating in secret around the world.
If the information here was revealed, it would jeopardize their comrades in arms around the world.
"Even if it's fire---!"
"What if they see the fire?! Just blow it up!"
No countermeasures, no follow-up, just unconditional flight. Is this the Archdemon of Wisdom?
But Reynald, a mere follower who hasn't even been demonized yet, can't refuse Archdemon Gob's orders.
He packs his things and flees with the remaining demons in the facility.
While his followers wonder why he has to flee so urgently, some of them run with him without hesitation.
Demons.
"Run! They're coming for us!"
"Where are the Archdemons?! Have they all been defeated?"
"I thought I heard there was one Archdemon of Wisdom!"
Reynald glanced slyly at Gob, who ignored him.
"Great One?"
"Don't talk to me, asshole."
Gob, who was supposed to lead them now that most of the Archdemons had been defeated and the chain of command had collapsed, was in no mood to do so.
Gob walked silently down the corridor, even using the artifact to hide his presence, while he and Reynald blended into the bustling crowd, looking for an opening to escape.
-Thud!
"What, what!"
"What was that?"
The boom sounded like a sudden earthquake. But they all knew it wasn't natural.
"They're here! So soon?!
Damn fanatics. How long has it been since the battle with the lord and they're already out hunting down the remnants?
Disgusting bastards!
Horrible bastards!
-Thump! Thump! Thump!
A series of thuds, followed by a scream from down the hall, creaking from the collision that had just occurred.
Everyone knew something was there. But no one moved.
No one could even breathe, let alone run away. They had a gut feeling that even the slightest breath would be caught. And the obvious fact that the moment it was caught, it would be the first to die.
-Gum gum gum gum.
The lights in the hallway flicker on and off.
Everyone in the room fell deafeningly silent until the lights flickered.
Just like that.
Maybe five seconds. Five minutes in my mind.
I hear a muffled gasp from the extreme tension.
-Whoosh!
It's a normal breath, but it sounds so loud.
Reynald felt a cold sweat trickle down the nape of his neck, tickling him, but he didn't think to wipe it away.
And then the owner of those breaths appeared-──
The moment the pure white holy sword revealed itself.
"Aaaaahhhhhhhhh!"
It was a voice that bordered on the vicious. The demon with the gun squeezed the trigger repeatedly, unleashing a barrage of bullets.
But the knight with the sword deflected the bullet with a flick of his sword.
It was a signal.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
A fight.
But it wasn't a struggle.
It was a scream and a rampage.
Bullets, blades, magic, whatever, they threw everything they had at it.
Immortalized, they accumulate endless amounts of magic in their long dimensional invasions and endless play. Everything they accomplish lasts for hundreds of years at most, thousands of years at most.
But even they don't believe in what they're doing, as they spend their entire lives doing it.
They know it's a senseless act, but they can't stop screaming as they face their impending annihilation.
-Kwak!
It slashes, its throat is seized and snapped, and it is consumed by the flames that extend from its fingertips.
"Oh, no!"
"Help me!"
They struggled to live one more second before the knight who embodied the death of evil.
"Ah, ah------"
Reynald was frozen in place as he watched.
The difference between man and demons.
He had succumbed before that vast difference.
But the one in front of him, the knight, the Lionheart King---he was far beyond that divide.
Faced with a Reaper far stronger than the one he'd nearly faced at the Magician Queen's Gate, Reynald realized he was doomed.
"Run, stupid thing!"
Then, with a snap, a gnarled hand pulled him to his feet. When he realized it was the gnarled demon's grip, his magic slammed into the ceiling, causing it to collapse.
-Thud!
The ceiling collapsed and Reynald cried out in anger.
"Wee, great one!"
It was a remarkable survival instinct to be able to move in the face of such a devastating death but Gob didn't stop there.
"You guys, block that place!"
"What?"
"What's going on?"
The dazed demon and his followers, unaware of what had happened inside, stared at the collapsed ceiling as Gob pulled Reynald to his feet and ran for his life.
-Kwah!
-What, what!
-Ahhhhh!
The screams were heard, but the two never looked back.
Hoping they would be too busy hunting others down to notice them.
"Gob, you have come!"
They arrived at the banks of the Daedong River, which led to the sewers, where a goblin demon was waiting for them.
"Chu, let's go! Hurry up!"
"Ah, ah!"
The goblin demon quickly boarded the small submarine he had hidden in the river. Gob, of course, didn't hesitate to jump off and throw himself into the submarine.
"Wee, Great One, what is this?"
Reynald glared at the submarine, wondering what kind of submarine it was.
"One of the eleven escape routes in case the Lord of Chaos is defeated!"
"Ah, ah------"
Archdemon of Wisdom, where in the world do you see------
Wise One.
Reynald vowed to follow him to the end.
-Kaaaaaaaaaah!!!
Within seconds of their dive into the Daedong River, divine flames erupted, incinerating the secret base.
"We survived today!"
* * * * *
The Lord of Chaos had been destroyed.
The demons who had watched the whole thing couldn't hide their dismay.
"Damn Lionheart------"
The Chaos Lord and his legions were annihilated. More than a dozen Archdemons were killed.
The greatest losses since the Great War began two hundred years ago.
Among the demons of the Demon Realm, the oldest of them all.
The Great Old Ones.
They represented the history of demons, having survived a long history of struggle in which even their own demons betrayed and colluded with each other.
"This is why I opposed using the Great Old Ones as expendable weapons of war."
"What alternative was there? Everyone, even Rakshar, agreed."
The demons suffered a devastating blow two hundred years ago.
Malus, Lord of Chaos, Caracael, Lord of Wisdom, and Dothradon, Lord of Pleasure, fell at the hands of Lionheart.
After destroying an empire in a matter of days, they were unable to destroy the lesser Lionheart, forcing them to endure decades of war of attrition.
They had defeated countless Holy Knights and annihilated every member of the world except for the Lionheart King, but they hadn't won.
How many other Archdemons perished in the process? Archdemons of all factions suffered damage that would not be repaired for millennia to come.
They accelerated their invasions of other dimensions to repair the damage---but everything was disrupted when the one they couldn't kill returned to Earth.
"We should have reserved our strength for victory a millennium later. We should have abandoned Earth instead of ignoring our own wisdom."
The Great Old Ones of Wisdom and Exploration, who had faced the Lionheart King himself, shuddered.
"We're giving up on the Earth?"
The Old One of Wisdom shook his head in agreement with the other Old Ones.
"They've mastered the gate technology. The Queen, the candidate for Lord of Pleasure and Corruption, has also gathered the coordinates of the Demon Realm, and given time, she will grow in strength and come here."
""------""
The Old Ones shuddered at the thought of the day when Lionheart would come to the Demon Realm himself.
He had already ravaged the Archduke of Slaughter domain, and he had traveled to the Glacial Continent to find Vulcanus.
The Demon Realm is not a simple physical dimension like the planets, but once the coordinates are learned, it is not difficult to cross over using the subspace travel technology known as the Gate.
"Now we must choose."
We can either save our strength and retreat into the back roads of the dimension for a rematch.
"Join hands with the beasts."
Call upon more powerful monsters for help.
"With the death of the last lord who used all our resources, I doubt we have a choice."
Two dimensional singularities.
Ever-evolving enemies, each killing the other.
The 'beasts of that dimension' are freakishly powerful.
* * * * *
"It's opening up after all."
"Do you see it?"
The old beast stared into the blackness of space as its master looked up.
A 'fake universe', to be precise. The ones who feared them had forced them here, sealed the dimension, and tried to keep them contained.
Part of him thinks they expected them to die out naturally in these polar regions------
'We have survived in this frigid land, and you have failed.'
They are survivors, warriors who find even endless struggle amusing.
Fierce warriors who would normally turn their axes on each other, but it is only because of the presence of an overlord of absolute charisma that this land has not been torn apart by civil war.
"Shall we kill them all?"
The Sage of the Great Beasts reflected on his master's intentions with the unbridled ferocity of his birth.
"Their lord was nothing. He'll be no match for the Fourth now."
The only one worth fighting was the Lord of Destruction, the strongest of the Lords, but after him, even his own class paled in comparison.
And it was decided through this contact that they also had no power.
The last one who had his skull crushed was the Lord of Lust.
He heard of the death of the Wisdom One before that, so he doubted there were any Lords left.
And if there is nothing stronger than a lord, even demons pale in comparison to him.
"Let's hear what you're offering."
A speculation that seemed to rise from the depths of the abyss. A tyrannical aura that would make even the champions of the Fighting Gods and the Champions of the Shamanic Gods fear.
This is the champion of champions, chosen by all the Orc gods.
"We will do as the Great Khan wishes."
High Orc Khan Murka.
Champion of the Orc gods, who crushed the Lords of Slaughter, Sloth, and Lust and tore apart dozens of Archdemons with his own hands.
A great fighter and cunning man.
A ferocious grin spreads across his face as he gazes into the unsealed dimension.