The demon girl stood frozen on the ridge. Her eyes were wide as she stared down at the massive cloud of dust currently settling over the ruins below.

"Fuck," she whispered, her voice barely carrying over the wind.

She grabbed the boy by his shoulder and shook him, her claws digging into his jacket.

"Did you see that?" she snapped, feeling pure panic. "Tell me you saw that! That thing just came out to meet them personally!"

The boy did not answer immediately. He kept his steady gaze fixed on the towering figure standing in the middle of the crater.

"I saw it," he said, his tone completely flat.

"Why is it out there?!" she yelled, letting go of his shoulder and starting to pace frantically along the edge of the ridge. "It is supposed to stay inside the village! It is supposed to guard the inner core! Monsters like that do not just walk out to the outer rings to deal with minor intruders!"

The boy crossed his arms, watching the standoff below.

"Maybe it got bored," he suggested.

"Do not joke about this," she hissed, her tail lashing aggressively through the air.

She turned back to look at the ruins, feeling genuinely terrified. The original template for that monster was just a simple four-shard beast but she had poured too much demonic essence into it as an experiment, and it had mutated out of control until it became something even they struggled to handle. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

She knew exactly how strong it was.

"If they fight that thing right now, they are all going to die," she said, her voice dropping as the reality of the situation fully set in.

If Hajin died, the Goddess fragment would shatter with him. Then she would have to stand in front of the Underworld King and explain how she had watched their primary asset get crushed by her own failed experiment.

She stopped pacing and looked at the boy.

"We have to step in," she said, her tone completely serious. "If we do not stop it right now, we are going to lose the vessel."

The boy did not look away from the ruins.

"We cannot step in," he said, his voice staying flat. "If we interfere directly, we risk exposing ourselves to the knights and ruining the entire operation."

"And if he dies, there is no operation!" she yelled, throwing her hands up. "There is just us, the Underworld King, and a very short execution!"

He finally turned to look at her, his expression completely unreadable.

"Just wait," he said, "the vessel has survived everything else so far, let us see what he does."

Back in the ruins, Hajin was still staring at the massive crater in front of him, his chest heaving slightly as the dust slowly settled around them.

’That was way too close, if not for that viewer warning me I would have been completely toast just now,’ he took a slow breath to steady himself, his eyes locked firmly on the towering figure standing in the center of the impact zone.

’What the fuck is that thing? It is giving off some seriously bad vibes,’ his jaw tightened while the heavy aura bleeding from the monster seemed to press down on the very air itself.

No one in the formation moved a single muscle, pure instinct keeping them completely frozen in place as they waited to see what it would do.

The silence stretched out thick over the ruins, no one daring to make any stupid moves while the monster just stood there, its visor locked entirely on Hajin.

"You killed my guards," the monster said, its voice low and vibrating against the ground beneath their feet, "I will admit, I am impressed that you managed to make it this far."

It turned its visor slowly across the formation, taking in the terrified knights and the ruined path behind them.

"No one has ever made it this far before," it continued, the aura bleeding from its armor shifting slightly, "but this is as far as you are allowed to go."

’This is the boss monster, there is absolutely no other explanation for something this strong,’ Hajin thought, his grip tightening on his chain.

’But what is it doing all the way out here in the outer ruins?’ his brow furrowed as he stared back at it, ’are boss monsters in high-tier gates not supposed to stay inside and guard the core? Is this thing really that confident in its own power?’

The monster’s visor shifted, locking entirely on Hajin again.

"You must be the leader," it said, taking a slow step forward, "you are giving off the most unique mana scent out of all of them."

That single statement made it very clear that he was the primary target, instantly putting Hajin on guard as he shifted his weight into a combat stance.

Juna wasted no time. Her two spectral wings flared into existence as she stepped forward, Loccy instantly following her lead and manifesting her single wing while they both positioned themselves directly in front of Hajin to protect him.

’Is this really a good idea?’ He thought, his chest tightening as he stared at the towering figure, ’fighting that thing right now feels like an absolute death sentence.’

But before he could second-guess himself any further, Helen suddenly moved.

She blurred past him in a fraction of a second, seven glowing shards materializing around her arm as she slammed a heavy strike directly into the monster’s chest, actually forcing the massive creature to slide backward across the ground.

"Oh," the monster rumbled, its voice carrying a note of genuine surprise, "I am impressed."

"Snap out of it, Hajin!" She yelled, not taking her eyes off the creature.

Hajin stood frozen as he felt the ambient mana in the air suddenly shift and compress around her, realizing she was activating something he had only ever heard rumors about, a state that only the strong could ever hope to achieve.

The Zone.

The temperature around Helen rapidly dropped to freezing, her hair and eye color visibly shifting into a pale, icy blue while glowing lines spread across her skin. Frost crystallized over her body to form a sleek suit of ice armor, several jagged ice weapons materializing out of thin air to float around her.

"We are going to defeat this thing," she said, a cold mist slipping from her lips.

"Are you now," the monster chuckled, its deep voice vibrating against the ground.

It completely vanished from sight in the next instant, trying to blitz her from the front, but she easily reacted to the sudden burst of speed. She raised her arm and perfectly blocked the heavy strike, the sheer force of the impact pushing her violently backward across the ruins.

But in that exact same moment, she launched her own attack as well. Her floating ice spears shot forward and slammed directly into the monster’s chest, the impact sending the massive creature flying backward through the air.

Both of them crashed through opposite walls of the crumbling ruins at the exact same time, disappearing into massive clouds of dust and shattered stone.