"But the angels—" Seraphelle tried to protest.

"Will be dispelled. Now."

Valentine’s hand moved in a complex gesture, his pure white divine authority flowing outward in controlled wave.

Angelic Dismissal - Divine Severance

The spell struck all four heroes simultaneously with surgical precision.

The angels—the Sword, the Mercy, the Threshold, and the Judgment—felt the Archbishop’s command and had no choice but to obey.

Because Valentine carried divine authority second only to the Pope. When he commanded angels to depart, they departed.

The four divine beings separated from the Heroes’ bodies in rush of golden light that shot back into the sky, returning to whatever higher dimension they’d descended from.

Gattychan gasped as the Sword Angel left his body, the overwhelming power vanishing instantly. His golden eyes faded back to blue. His six light-wings dissolved. His wounds—which the angel had been suppressing—suddenly made themselves known with agonizing clarity.

He collapsed.

Seraphelle felt the Mercy Angel depart, her amplified healing magic draining away, her cracked ribs screaming with pain now that divine power was no longer sustaining her.

She collapsed beside Gattychan.

Mikazelle’s Threshold Angel left, her omniscient spatial perception disappearing, leaving her blind in one eye from Seraphina’s face-wound and magically exhausted.

She collapsed between her companions.

Rindelle’s Judgment Angel departed, and the tail-wound in her stomach—which the angel had been keeping from killing her—suddenly became life-threatening again. Blood poured from the puncture.

She collapsed with the others, all four heroes falling unconscious simultaneously.

But they were alive. Unconscious, critically wounded, but alive.

The Angelic Descent had been ended before it killed them.

Valentine gestured again, and divine light manifested in sphere around the four unconscious heroes.

Holy Sanctuary - Divine Protection

A golden-white shield formed, creating protective barrier that would prevent any attack from reaching them. Not a temporary defense—a sustained sanctuary that would last until Valentine dismissed it.

The four heroes were safe. Protected. No longer factors in the battle.

Which left only Seraphina.

Valentine turned his attention to the demon lord, his gentle expression never changing. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"Now then," he said conversationally. "Shall we begin?"

One moment Valentine stood fifty yards from Seraphina, his hands clasped peacefully, his expression serene.

The next moment he was directly in front of her—having crossed the distance in literally zero perceptible time, moving faster than even demon lord perception could track.

What— Seraphina’s thought was interrupted.

Valentine’s right leg, coated in pure white holy magic that blazed like miniature sun, struck Seraphina’s thirteen-foot demon form in the center of her chest with force that defied physics.

Holy Strike - Purifying Impact

The kick didn’t just hit her.

It sent her flying.

Seraphina’s massive demon lord body—thirteen feet tall, four demon wings, scales and claws and corruption miasma—was launched backward like she’d been struck by catapult.

She flew three hundred feet through the air, her body tumbling uncontrollably, before crashing into the ground and skidding another hundred feet, tearing a furrow through earth and rock.

The impact site where Valentine’s kick had connected showed no wound—no broken ribs, no crushed sternum—because holy magic didn’t just damage flesh.

It purified corruption.

Seraphina felt the demonic energy in her chest burning away, felt her corruption-enhanced durability stripped from the impact zone, felt holy power searing through her like fire through dry kindling.

She gasped, forcing corruption magic to flood the purified area, fighting to restore her demonic defenses before Valentine struck again—

He was already there.

Standing above her as she tried to rise, having crossed the four hundred feet she’d been launched in the same instantaneous movement he’d used before.

His right hand, now coated in the same white holy magic, descended in palm-strike aimed at her face.

Seraphina rolled desperately, the strike missing her head by inches and hitting the ground instead.

The earth exploded.

Not from kinetic force—from purification.

The holy magic in Valentine’s palm strike literally disintegrated the corruption-tainted earth it contacted, turning fifty square feet of demon-contaminated soil into pure blessed ground in single instant.

Seraphina scrambled backward, her four demon wings beating to create distance, her mind racing.

He moves like martial artist! Not a mage! Not a spell caster! He coats his body with holy magic and fights hand-to-hand!

Valentine stood calmly where she’d been lying, his hands returning to peaceful clasped position as if he hadn’t just nearly crushed her skull.

"Demon Lord Seraphina," he said, his tone still conversational, like discussing weather. "I should explain my fighting style before we continue. It seems only fair."

He raised his right hand, pure white holy magic coating it from fingertips to shoulder.

"I’m not like the Heroes. I don’t use weapons. I don’t cast offensive spells at range. I don’t rely on magical bombardment."

His left hand became coated in the same holy energy.

"I fight like a martial artist. I coat my fists, my feet, my entire body with holy magic. And then I engage in close-quarters combat."

He took a stance—feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, hands raised in guard position that fighters used across every martial tradition.

"And I have a passive ability. An automatic enhancement that activates whenever I fight demons or monsters."

His entire body began glowing with pure white radiance, the holy magic spreading from hands to arms to torso to legs.

"When fighting demonic targets, my strength increases ten-fold. My speed increases ten-fold. My durability increases ten-fold. My holy magic becomes ten times more effective."

The glow intensified until Valentine looked like human-shaped star.

"You’re classified as demon, Seraphina. Even though you were originally fallen angel, your corruption transformed you into demon lord. So my passive activates against you."

He smiled—still gentle, still serene, but now carrying edge of absolute certainty.

"Which means I’m currently fighting you at ten times my normal power. And my normal power is already trained specifically to kill beings like you."

Seraphina felt ice in her stomach.

Ten times enhancement against demons. Passive ability. Always active when fighting me. And he’s already Archbishop-level without it...

I’m fighting someone who becomes god-tier specifically when facing demon lords.