“What... is this outrageous presence?!”

Valter’s mustache quivered as he looked up at the ceiling. Karen, Elahan, Cedric, Gilbert, every Master in the infiltration team stood speechless, feeling a nightmare step into reality.

There was an old saying that should’ve been perfect for this situation, “Out of the frying pan, into the fire,” but to the team, it didn’t feel nearly sufficient. It felt like they had swam out of a lake just to land in an ocean.

A demi-god. Equivalent in class to a fully summoned Nephren-Ka, but in sheer rank of existence, this one was several tiers higher. The team instinctively knew that this was something they couldn’t face head-on.

With the palace’s barrier core shattered, the force field that guarded the White Peak Palace had already vanished. The ceiling collapsed with a single slash from Leon, exposing the night sky.

“Goddess above...” Elahan whispered, unable to hold back the shock at the scene laid out before her.

A giant’s form rose to the clouds, its overflowing light staining everything in a sullen hue. The border between matter and immaterial blurred; the line between life and death went vague.

This was the Death King’s authority itself. Merely standing there, it profaned life and rewrote physical law with laws from another realm. Divine-class beings were each potential lords of a world; even incomplete, they could scatter their influence.

Feeling pins and needles in his fingertips, Cedric muttered, “This doesn’t look good. We can’t linger here.”

Whatever this giant was, it wasn’t friendly to the living. Even Master-level bodies would start necrosing in minutes. Ordinary folk would be dust inside an hour.

However, the person most horrified wasn’t any of the Masters who had sensed the Death King’s overwhelming strength.

Lyon stared, eyes wide, up at the giant. It speared into the clouds, yet even at midnight its features were crisp: a sharp, high-bridged nose, brows arched into a waspish scowl, and lips chewed since childhood, mashed flat into a thin, mocking curl on that impassive face.

A face he’d never forgotten, even in dreams. His mortal enemy.

“Nex...!”

From his days hiding at the Academy—no, since before that—he’d thought endlessly about how to sentence the man. Hang him from the gallows for all to see? Hack off his limbs and pierce his heart? Keep him breathing, stack kindling, and burn him alive? Yet in this moment, all thoughts fled.

“What? Nex?” Karen jolted at his mutter. “Wait, are you telling me that giant is the Mad Emperor?!”

Leon had sensed it somehow, but the others had not. Their shock doubled at the fact that a madman—neither Aura Master nor Archmage—had transformed into a giant on par with transcendents? No matter how wondrous the Evil Order’s arts, it beggared belief.

Only Elahan guessed the truth and bit her lower lip. “Power bought with human sacrifice. To remake himself as a hideous monster, he threw his own subjects into an exogod’s jaws...”

Her Holy Iron Breaker flashed as if answering her anger. Perhaps the holy light provoked it. The giant’s emotionless gaze, which had been idly cast at its feet, fixed on Leon’s party.

“Ungh...?! W-what is this pressure?!”

Just that look pressed on their shoulders like a massive weight. A transcendent’s gaze was violence to mortals. Only because they had reached Master-level—or near it—did it stop at mere oppression. Otherwise, their hearts might have stopped or their brains fried.

Then, he spoke.

—Pitiful, futile things. Accept My salvation.

The giant—no, the Death King, Nex—spoke in a gentle voice. Its lips never moved. Its “will” arrived like a mental wave. Strangely, that wave was warm, suffused with mercy toward the have-nots. Heard in ignorance, one could have sworn it wasn’t evil.

While the others held their tongues at the dissonance, Leon stepped forward and met the eyes floating hundreds of meters above.

“Salvation? What’s that supposed to mean?”

At the same time, the Death King recognized his true identity.

—I feel upon you the favor of that accursed light. Are you the proxy of the harlot—of the goddess who soaked this land in pain and injustice?

Elahan’s eyes flared at the blasphemy, but at Leon’s hand signal, she swallowed her wrath. Leon’s mouth crooked up.

“I’m a little surprised. I didn’t think you’d keep your piety even after ending up like that.”

—What?

“From what I hear, you’re the by-blow of a drunken tumble between the late emperor and some nameless dancer. So calling the Goddess a harlot... is that you thinking of her like your mother?”

Death King blinked, dumbstruck. He hadn’t expected to be hit with such filial impiety from the Hero. It didn’t take long before astonishment turned to rage, and rage to murderous intent.

Ectoplasm was fundamentally colorless, but the Death King’s eyes, brimming with killing intent, went a deep black-red. Then, he loosed a destructive beam like a breath attack.

It wasn’t even a grand technique; he’d merely gathered a little power and fired. Even so, sweat chilled Leon’s body the instant he faced it. It was that familiar premonition of death.

On reflex, he brought up the Holy Sword and focused on the Stigma of the Purifier. With a loud, grating noise, the beam split into two great streams and screamed past to his left and right. The Holy Sword and Stigma meant little before pure otherworldly force, unlike they did against Evil.

Had Leon not provoked him, the Death King likely wouldn’t have wasted power like that. Perhaps venting cooled his head; the Death King’s eyes cleared, returning to colorless transparency.

—Paltry wordplay, slave of the harlot. Be grateful for the mercy by which I indulged your taunt.

“Save your bullshit.”

Ignoring Leon’s curse, the Death King continued, —Consider this, you benighted. Consider how unjust and wracked with suffering this nation—this world—truly is.

Even as a demi-god wrought by the Evil Order’s ritual, the core of his self had not changed much at all. Nex was the son born from a nameless dancer the late emperor of the Clyde Empire took for a single night’s pleasure. He was branded from birth as the imperial family’s disgrace and was locked away in a remote corner of a side palace.

The late emperor had never acknowledged him as his son. He survived only because he could still be used for a political marriage, but his mother was quietly buried, forgotten by all.

—Some are born of love and live blessed lives, while others are born of desire and suffer cursed ones. Goodness does not always lead to happiness, nor evil to judgment. This world has been twisted, from beginning to end.

The voice dripped with a hatred too seasoned by experience to be dismissed as sophistry.

Even Lyon couldn’t help but feel pity for his plight. To him, his father may have been a great emperor. But to Nex, he was merely the rapist who had violated and murdered his mother. Such a gulf couldn’t and shouldn’t ever be bridged.

—Power and privilege are granted to those unworthy, talent to those of rotten character. If the Goddess the Holy Church worships were truly merciful, she would have remade this unjust world first! But she, that harlot, did nothing!

Nex’s psychic waves lashed out violently. The Masters only frowned slightly, but outside the palace, the soldiers fighting the possessed dropped unconscious on the spot.

Such was the nature of a transcendent. A breath could become a storm, and an idle word could twist the weather into catastrophe.

—So, I shall save this world myself! I shall tear down a world where men begin at different starting lines! None shall suffer envy of talent or fall victim to unfair fate!

“How?” Leon asked.

And at that simple, obvious question, the Death King answered like a true madman, —By becoming Me.

“What...?”

—If you surrender to My authority, you shall become part of Me. You will share this vast power and live a life free from persecution.

Drunk on his own words, the Death King cried out with manic fervor, —You do not vanish. By becoming one with Me, you are freed from suffering! Therefore, I alone am the true and only utopia upon this earth!

Only then did Leon understand what he was really dealing with.

He’s insane.

He sounded coherent, but there was no space to reason with him or any room for another’s voice. Nex was a fanatic convinced his ideology alone was righteous, that everything else was wrong. The problem was that this lunatic was overwhelmingly powerful.

—Now, surrender to Me. I promise you this: accept My offer, and the world will change peacefully, without meaningless war. Even the heretics of the Holy Church—if they desire it—shall become Me and know true happiness.

With that final declaration, the Death King seemed to lose interest in speaking. His colossal body, which was easily five hundred meters tall, took its first steps.

Ectoplasm had no weight, straddling the line between material and immaterial. But the instant the Death King stepped forward, the unprotected frame of the White Peak Palace crumbled beneath the pressure.

Watching that, Leon made his decision. Retreat was pointless. The creature was faster. Ectoplasm was the materialization of spirit. Its speed matched its will. If they scattered, they might last a few minutes at most before being picked off one by one.

So, there was only one choice left, which was to play his trump card.

“Nex! Look at me!”

The roar barely carried through the din, but the Death King turned his gaze toward it. He did not imagine he could lose, and therefore, he looked down at Leon with the eyes of a child toying with an ant.

In that single instant of distraction, the amulet around Leon’s neck burst into light.

“Dimension Lock!” 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

With Leon’s declaration, an eighth-tier spatial spell, magic that isolated a dimensional layer and sealed a single entity, targeted the Death King.

It worked just as Grania had described. Space rippled around the giant’s form, and without a sound, the massive body was swallowed up.

The Death King grabbed at the rift with both hands, his claws screeching against the edges, but it was futile. In the next moments, he was dragged inward and vanished.

Leon stared at the impossible sight and managed to mutter a single word before being cut off by his teacher.

“Did w—”

—Say ‘Did we kill it?’ and I’ll kill you, my stupid disciple.

El-Cid’s voice was tight, almost uncharacteristically grave.

—Your judgment was sound. If you’d tried to fight that thing head-on, you’d all be dead. It won’t hold for long, but you’ve bought some time.

The phrasing made Leon’s blood run cold.

Wait, ‘Won’t hold for long’?

—Of course not. You really think one eighth-tier spell can pin a demi-god? Even Kasim could shred something like that in under five minutes. That one didn’t train to reach transcendence but through a ceremony, so maybe it’ll take him a bit longer.

Dammit.

Leon immediately called the Masters together. There wasn’t a second to waste. They needed a plan, whether to run or fight.

“Karen! Find the Holy Iron Inquisitors and the Cardinals. If you can bring both Cardinals, do it.”

“Got it!”

“Elahan, think of any sacred spell or other techniques that could work against that thing. Anything that could slow it down, no matter how small.”

“Yes, understood.”

After giving his orders, Leon turned to the others.

“Sir Cedric.”

“What is it?” Cedric’s flat gaze met his.

“Lyon told me you joined us only to fulfil your curiosity. You have no obligation to stay in this mess.”

“Well, that’s true enough.”

“Will you fight? Or will you run?”

“If that was supposed to be a provocation, it’s a poor one.”

Cedric gave a short laugh and drew his sword. “I’m staying. I want to see if that monster can be cut.”

“And I’m sure you have no intention to obey my orders.”

“Of course I don’t. I’ll let you use me as needed, though.”

With that brief exchange settled, Cedric stepped back.

Valter, still visibly shaken, asked, “Can we even win? And if that monster-emperor’s words were true, are you really...”

“We’ll talk about it after this. It’s going to be a long story.”

Valter nodded, satisfied. “Fair enough. It’s an honor to fight beside the Hero.”

Thankfully, there was no dissent among the team. Now, how many minutes did they have left?

Leon looked up. The space where Dimension Lock had taken hold was already trembling. He exhaled slowly.

It was going to be a long night.