The Varkhaza came like a wave with no warning. The ground cracked beneath its speed, sending dust to flying in every direction.

Without hesitation, Leon moved before his mind could comprehend. He pushed Wu Ze out of sight before thinking about his own life.

As soon as Leon rolled to the left, the creature’s clenched fist slammed where he had been. Though Leon dodged, the echo knocked the air flowing through his lungs out through his mouth and nose.

"It was close," Leon said, placing a hand over his fast-pounding chest. Immediately he straightened he smiled.

"Is that all you’ve got?" The words came out without him knowing why he said it, whether to make himself believe something. He had no idea.

The two serpent heads spun toward Leon’s voice as if the words had given them back the very life Leon had taken a few minutes ago.

When the serpent’s mouth opened, it wasn’t a hiss anymore. It sounded like two boulders sliding against each other.

Watching the serpents of the Varkhaza dash at him first, Leon jumped to the side and raised the broken sword.

He pieced it into the right serpent’s neck, the very place that had caused the sword to break.

"Die!" Leon screamed in a tone that carried both pain and joy as he pressed the handle with his trembling arms.

Sparks and a grinding sound filled the air as the right-leg serpent drew back. In response, the left charged toward Leon with its mouth opened wide.

Leon stumbled two steps away. He slammed the half-sword into the left serpent eye.

Though he used all his strength to swing the sword, it didn’t even leave a mark.

With screams and the pounding of its chest with its own hands, the Varkhaza sidestepped and drew back its left serpent leg.

’If I wasn’t even able to scratch it, then I have to make it bleed.’ Leon thought before rushing toward where Wu Ze’s second sword was.

As soon as he reached two feet away from the sword, the Varkhaza slammed its arms on the ground.

Instead of standing on a slightly trembling ground, Leon’s boots were now left to survive on their own.

He hopped from one place to another until he was finally free from the collapsing ground.

"Shit!" Leon cursed and spat on the ground. "Now I’ve got no choice but to use this."

He raised the black seven-inch dagger, stared at his dirty reflection, and then gripped it with all his strength.

Leon inhaled once before dashing forward like a madman. The Varkhaza also lunged toward Leon, dust and stones spiraling behind it.

When it was down to just half a second for the human and the God-beast to crash, Leon sidestepped and leapt into the air.

He rolled and landed on the right-hand shoulder of the ape part of the creature. Moving on the golden skin was like being drenched in slime while trying to stand on metal.

The more Leon moved forward, the more the creature tried to slam the human against its body.

"Take this!" Leon screamed as he leapt between the creature’s left-hand fingers. He whirled around and used that moment to make the creature’s nose bleed.

The dagger’s blade sliced through the golden nose skin like passing through water. Blood dripped on the creature’s face when Leon landed on its left shoulder.

When he tried to use the same momentum, the Varkhaza flipped Leon like flipping a mosquito.

The small flip sent Leon crashing into a Starfire Opal pillar, shattering it into tiny pieces.

Instead of seeing blood after Leon’s arms broke, he saw the blue glow of the stone snaking through his body.

First, it moved like a snail. Then, as it reached his elbow, it dashed forward like lightning. "Ouuuch!" Leon screamed so loudly that the sound alone caused Wu Ze’s bent arm to straighten.

’Leon.’ The name bounced once in Wu Ze’s mind as her hazy vision cleared. Beside her, she saw some of the Starfire Opal’s glow seeping into her skin.

She gritted her teeth as if her cells were taking on a new shape. She tried to push herself up, but her unfinished sudden healing wasn’t done with her twisted legs.

On Leon’s skin, when all the glow from the Starfire Opal faded, his gold energy emerged. His eyes were the first to blaze, followed by the lines of his veins

When Leon grabbed the seven-inch dagger and stood up, the dagger’s black skin transformed to gold.

The golden glow around Leon burned the last things, including the Starfire Opal stones that had lost their glow, to ashes.

The red cloth, which Leon had entangled around his neck, moved on its own. Before Leon could catch the new transforming version of himself, the Varkhaza appeared out of nowhere and slammed him face-flat to the ground.

Blood and water splashed out of Leon’s mouth, nose, ears, and eyes as the stone and the sharp pieces of the Starfire penetrated through his skin.

"LEON!" Wu Ze used the little energy she had gained and stood up after her legs had reformed.

She dashed forward toward the unbroken sword. She didn’t even wait to check if she was protected in her special combat outfit before moving toward the Varkhaza.

"You die with him." Wu Ze shouted as she leaped for the creature’s head, but instead hit the creature’s armpit.

"No matter what, I will kill you. Beast." She sliced the vein under the creature’s arm, then kicked the wounded skin before landing on the ground.

"ROOOAAAAARRR!"

The Varkhaza’s eyes glowed with golden essence as it loosened its grip on the lifeless, bloodied human.

Its head snapped forward, its mouth widened, and the snake’s legs regenerating on their own as it directed itself fully to the lady.

"Catch me if you can." Wu Ze mocked, then set out running. She lured the creature from Leon’s side and vanished into the other spaces they hadn’t touched.

On the bloodied ground, Leon lay there, eyes sucked out, mouth ripped apart. The bones in his arms were all now out of the skin. But he wasn’t dead.

In his mind, he saw himself at the front of the gigantic gate, with the sentinels beside him.

At his front was the skeletal God-like being, guarding the world at the other side of the gate.

"What should I do to save them and myself?" Leon asked, but received no response.

Before he could take a step forward, the sentinels’ sword slammed into the space before him, forming an X.

"LEON STORM, THE CREATOR OF YRENDAL, AND THE WIELDER OF SOLFARE."

A chill ran down Leon’s spine as he spun around, trying to find where the voice rose from. When he looked back at the faces of the sentinels, they had changed.

Instead of having the stone human, godly face, all two of them had no face, only a span of galaxies floating.

"WHY ARE YOU HERE?" the voice rose again.

This time, Leon didn’t move. He simply stood there as if his legs were gradually being glued. "I don’t know."

The words escaped from him before he could even stop them.

"ACCEPT YOUR TRUE FORM, OR DIE A COWARD."

’Accept my true form?’ Leon thought as he stood there, shifting glances at the sentinels and the skeletal being at the other end.

"I, Leon Storm, accept my true form." As soon as Leon spoke the words out loud, the air in the dream world shifted.

The glowing mixture of light on the other side of the gigantic gate dashed forward. It wrapped itself around Leon like a palm, then pulled him inside.

Meanwhile, as Wu Ze returned from the cave she had lured the Varkhaza into, she was missing her left arm.

She rushed to Leon’s side and crouched beside him. "Wake up! Wake up!! Wake up!!!"

She screamed while pushing Leon’s body.

But just as Leon’s eyes flipped open while golden light ran through his body, the Varkhaza lashed its ape tail around Wu Ze and dragged her.

Leon gritted his teeth but he couldn’t do anything but watch Wu Ze get torn apart like a piece of paper.

Just as the Varkhaza hurled the torn head into its mouth and crushed it, Leon’s body blasted.

A gold beam of light shot out from the sky of Tartarus and blasted both Leon and the Varkhaza. When it faded, the Varkhaza lay there, burnt to bone, but Leon’s body had no scar.

...

"Move out!" Kim screamed as she saw a beam of light shooting from the clouds above the Hell-Land.

All five of the Ghost soldiers rushed out of their transport carrier and dashed into the open dark land.

Eun-woo turned to Kim, then smiled. He placed a hand on Kim’s shoulder, then locked eyes with her. "I now understand why you were part of us."

Kim giggled, then replied. "If it wasn’t me, all of you would have joined the souls of this Hell-Land."

"Hell-Land. Is this the legendary land that has another world beneath it?" A soldier with short white hair asked in a tense voice.

"Don’t worry, brother, I’m here for you all." Joon said, placing a hand around the soldier’s shoulder.

Kim and Eun-woo exchanged confused glances, then stared at Joon. "We never knew —"

Before they could continue, Joon laughed.

Deep within the laugh, Demon knew he had fucked up pretending to be Joon. Yet he didn’t let his guard down.

"I don’t normally talk when I don’t feel safe around people."

Kim shook her head. "I now understand why."

"Guys," Seo-jun called in a low but firm voice. "Let’s start delving deep into the Hell-Land."

Eun-woo turned. He gave the collapsed transport ship a glance and turned back to Seo-jun. "How are we to get there without our transport carrier?"

"Yeah, how are we going to enter a place like Tartarus without that?" Kim added, pointing to the smoking craft.

Seo-jun looked at their confused faces and smiled. "This is what we are using."

With a single button on the watch around his arm, a triangular craft began peeling itself from the darkness.

Demon focused on the watch, then grinned behind the mask of Joon.