Samael stood before Leon like a walking calamity, his blackened fist slowly tightening around a condensed sphere of chaotic energy. The air around his hand twisted unnaturally, cracking with streaks of dark lightning as reality itself seemed unable to withstand the power compressed within his palm.

Beneath his feet, the earth rotted into ash, while the surrounding mana shrieked in disarray, corrupted simply by his presence.

Across from him, Leon stared at the Apostle of Chaos with a gaze so cold and murderous it felt capable of freezing the battlefield itself.

Veins bulged along his clenched arms while divine energy surged violently through his body, barely restrained beneath the surface.

If hatred alone could kill, Samael would have already been torn apart a thousand times over.

And in truth, Leon wanted nothing more than to rip the monster apart with his bare hands.

During his long years fighting the Demon Cult, Leon had witnessed countless atrocities.

Entire cities reduced to graveyards. Children orphaned by demonic raids. Kingdoms drowned in rivers of blood. Yet no matter where he travelled, no matter which battlefield he stepped upon, one name always surfaced above the others like a nightmare humanity could never escape.

Samael.

The Demon Fist... The Apostle of Chaos.

Stories of his cruelty spread across the continent like a plague.

Villages burned not for strategy, but for entertainment.

Men nailed to crosses while forced to watch their wives and daughters being violated before their eyes. Infants were thrown into flames while Samael laughed beside the burning homes. There were even tales of him intentionally sparing survivors, allowing them to spread despair to the next town before he arrived there as well.

To Samael, human life held no greater value than dust beneath his boots.

Worse still was the chaos that followed him everywhere.

Mighty houses collapsed simply because he passed through their borders. Armies turned on one another under the influence of his corrupted aura.

Fields blackened. Rivers soured. Entire regions became cursed wastelands incapable of sustaining life long after he had left.

Within Eldorin, the Apostle of Chaos had long been classified as one of humanity’s highest-priority extermination targets. Now, standing face-to-face with the monster responsible for so much suffering,

Leon felt every story, every corpse, every scream echo within his mind.

The raging war around them faded into irrelevance.

The explosions in the distance, the cries of soldiers, the clash between armies—all of it became background noise.

At this moment, there was only one thing Leon cared about... Killing Samael.

Alas, Samael struck first.

The blackened demonic fist twisted into a raging whirlpool of torrential mana, spiralling violently around Samael’s arm as though the heavens themselves were being dragged into ruin.

Thunder roared from within the maelstrom while vicious streaks of black lightning crackled across its surface, tearing through the air with deafening shrieks. The sheer density of demonic power caused the surrounding space to distort, rippling unnaturally beneath the pressure.

And the attack continued to grow.

What began as a concentrated mass around Samael’s fist rapidly expanded into a monstrous vortex large enough to swallow an entire castle whole. Winds screamed across the battlefield as soldiers from both armies instinctively fled, their faces paling at the catastrophic amount of energy being condensed into a single strike.

Then Samael unleashed it.

The colossal maelstrom exploded forward like the hammer of a wrathful god, tearing through the battlefield with unstoppable force. Mountains of earth were uprooted in its wake while the ground split apart beneath its passage, unable to endure the pressure radiating from the attack. Its sole purpose was absolute annihilation.

Even with the power of his newly ascended divinity flowing through his veins, Leon immediately understood one thing.

Blocking that attack head-on would be foolish.

The instant the demonic vortex descended upon him, Leon vanished in a burst of divine light, narrowly evading the catastrophic strike as the maelstrom thundered past his position. The attack continued for a long distance before detonating against the earth, erupting into a black storm that devoured everything within sight.

But the moment Leon moved, Samael was already there.

A cruel grin stretched across the Apostle of Chaos’ face as another fist came crashing toward Leon. Demonic mana erupted violently from his arm, far denser and more unstable than before. Thunder screamed through the sky as a second maelstrom manifested instantly.

This one was twice as powerful.

"Die!!!"

Finding his blind spot, Samael took full advantage of Leon’s seemingly momentary lapse of judgment. Yet, despite being in peril, Leon simply let out a wry smile.

"Too simple."

All of Leon’s eighty-one suns ignited as the pressure mounted on Samael. Almost instantly, the maelstrom created by Samael’s demon fist dissipated as if it had never existed, allowing Leon to showcase the might of his newly ascended divinity...

"Dawn."

With the force of eighty-one suns, Leon pushed Samael back violently. A bluish white-gold lion emerged from the skies and stared down the Apostle of Chaos as if it were a deity looking down on mere mortals. And with that strike, Samael was flung onto the ground like an unwanted toy.

Bluish flames seared Samael’s skin as he struggled to comprehend what had occurred. The demonic mana attempted to heal his injuries, but they were denied by the massive, constant barrage of flames. As if the world itself had gone against Samael’s body and was rejecting his existence.

"... what did you do?"

"Repent now, Samael... And you will still die as a human."

Leon gave no response. His expression remained cold and unreadable as the colossal divine lion protecting him dissolved into countless streams of radiant energy.

The celestial beast let out one final roar that shook the heavens before its entire body compressed into a torrent of divine essence and surged directly into Ascalon. The moment the energy merged with the blade, the sword began to tremble.

Then pale-blue flames erupted from its edge.

The fire burned with a colour unlike anything found within the mortal realm. It carried the brilliance of the empyrean sky itself, illuminating the battlefield with an almost sacred radiance.

Yet beneath that beauty lay something terrifyingly absolute.

The flames did not merely emit heat... they carried judgment.

Every flicker of fire felt like a heavenly decree descending upon the sinful. The surrounding demonic mana immediately recoiled. Black lightning hissed and vanished upon contact with the pale-blue radiance while the corrupted atmosphere began to purify itself simply from Ascalon’s presence.

Even the battlefield seemed to grow silent for a brief moment, as though the world itself recognised the authority emanating from the divine blade.

And for the first time since the battle began... sweat rolled down Samael’s face. His grin faltered as his heartbeat pounded violently within his chest. Instinct, sharpened through countless massacres and centuries of slaughter, screamed at him that the sword before him was no longer a weapon wielded by a mere mortal.

It was something transcendent.

Something ascendant.

The pressure radiating from Ascalon felt ancient and absolute, like the gaze of the heavens descending directly upon him.

The pale-blue flames burned endlessly, incapable of being extinguished, existing solely to erase evil from existence itself. They were not ordinary divine flames, but the manifestation of heavenly judgment made real.

And in that moment, Samael finally understood.

The man standing before him was not simply a recently ascended divine.

Leon had become a deity who carried out the will of the heavens.

"You bastard... since when did you inherit Amon’s role?"

"I didn’t... The heavens cannot tolerate your existence, that’s all."

"Heh, big words from someone who got his divinity by sucking Amon’s cock."

"..."

For the first time since the battle started, Leon let out an amused smile. He wasn’t insulted by Samael’s words; rather, he found it quite ludicrous that the Apostle was using this taunt against him.

"Well, if sucking on Amon’s cock gives me the power to kill you... I would say that’s not a bad deal."

"Heh, you bitch."

At first, Samael’s role was to keep Leon occupied. At least until the Demon Empire manages to break down the defensive line. But seeing no hope for victory, Samael immediately changed his plans. He pivoted his soles, ready to make a run for it.

But unfortunately, Leon read that as well.

Massive pressure descended as a sanctuary of blue flames emerged. Within it, a phantom of a lion and a dragon emerged, sealing the space, preventing any escape. If Samael attempted to run, the blue flames would entrap him while the lion and dragon pair would smite him from above.

"I know your patterns, Samael... You never fight opponents stronger than you. Almost always, you will target easier opponents, ones that you can torment to your pleasure."

Leon sent a flying sword light straight at Samael, creating a cut that continued to burn no matter how much the Apostle attempted to heal.

"So I prepared for the day when I finally faced you... To stop you from escaping."

"Hah... I didn’t know the Hero thought of me daily. What an honour!"

Samael scoffed, observing the sealed domain. Just as Leon had mentioned, there was practically no escape. Even if he did somehow manage to punch a hole in the sanctuary, Leon’s blade would have ended him before he took one step out of it.

Therefore... Samael only had one choice.

"You know... I was saving this... preferably for Amon. But, I guess there’s no helping it."

Samael’s emerald-green eyes locked onto Leon with murderous hatred, so intense it seemed venom itself dripped from his gaze. The veins along his arm bulged grotesquely as torrents of demonic mana surged outward, roaring through the battlefield like a tidal wave of corruption.

Then the power exploded back into his body.

A deafening shockwave erupted from Samael as the demonic energy forcefully fused with his flesh, twisting and evolving every part of his existence.

The ground beneath him collapsed while the surrounding air turned heavy and toxic, unable to endure the sheer concentration of evil radiating from his form.

At that moment, it no longer felt as though Samael was merely using demonic power.

It felt as though he had become demonic power itself.

Whatever remnants of humanity he once possessed vanished completely beneath the flood of corruption. His skin blackened into an abyss-like darkness that reflected no light, as if his body had become a living void. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Jagged dragon scales spread rapidly across his flesh, layering over his body like cursed armour forged from the depths of hell itself. A sickening crack echoed through the battlefield. From Samael’s waist, a pair of enormous devil wings burst forth, spraying black blood and demonic mist into the air.

The wings unfurled with terrifying grandeur, blotting out portions of the sky as violent storms of chaotic mana spiralled around him.

Each movement released pressure strong enough to shatter the earth below.

And still, the transformation continued.

The demonic mana surrounding Samael began to change. The chaotic energy no longer resembled ordinary demonic power, but something vastly superior—something capable of rivalling the authority of the heavens themselves.

Grey lightning warped into existence around him while the laws of the world trembled beneath the pressure of his evolving essence.

Leon’s eyes narrowed immediately.

Because he recognised that power.

It was similar to his own, but vastly on the opposite side of the spectrum.

The same divine corruption carried by the Prophet and the Demon Prince that invaded Solfea in the past.

Demonic divinity.