By now Kriel's body was already covered in large and small, densely packed wounds.

Although Alka and the others were also carrying a few injuries, under Thin Needle's treatment they had recovered quite a bit.

Kriel stared at the massive cocoon wrapped in vines.

It was already too late to figure things out now.

"Jingle jingle—"

The sound of a bell suddenly rang out, coming from the direction of the already bound Kriel.

In his hand, no one knew when, a black-and-red bell had appeared.

From it emanated an evil aura that made one's skin crawl.

Alka's eyes snapped shut and open again; as he watched that evil aura, he caught a scent that felt disturbingly familiar.

In an instant, a huge wave of pink mist surged in like a tsunami, flooding the entire space. With Kriel no longer blocking it, everything went unnaturally smoothly.

Alka's figure appeared directly beside Kriel, and in that brief instant the mass of pink mist was squeezed out and clung to his body.

Kriel reacted with perfect timing, and a hand punched straight through Alka's chest.

That hand was no longer human but a scarlet Demon claw—thick, sharp, bristling with bizarre spikes.

Alka's chest was pierced through; this time he had indeed hit a solid body. But it was just a clone Alka used to take the damage.

After that, Alka stepped back and his body seemed to refresh like a respawn.

His whole person vanished from where he'd been.

"The same cheap trick again." Two overlapping voices crossed.

At this moment, everyone was standing together again, watching warily.

"This is the deal you were talking about?" Kriel's voice came through clearly.

The answer came from the scarlet gas floating behind him, coalescing into a figure that looked just like a Demon.

"I do enjoy using devil's terms to deal with mortals, but sometimes, I still don't recommend using Demon methods to reach my goals.

I told you already, didn't I? I'm violent and sly."

The crimson figure said with a laugh.

"So from the very start your target was him?" Kriel stared at Alka as he spoke.

The bell just now hadn't been rung by him at all; it had simply appeared in his hand and forced him to ring it.

Taking advantage of his moment of weakness to show up now—what that was for needed no explanation.

"You finally show a bit of brains, what a shame. Take that 'extraordinary ambition' of yours and go to Hell, trash."

The scarlet Demon figure laughed wildly at him, then dove straight into Kriel's body.

A look of relief crossed Kriel's face, tangled with boundless unwillingness.

But none of it mattered anymore.

His body began a total demonization: horns sprouted from his skull, and a pair of huge Demon bat wings burst open from his back.

Scarlet skin started to spread over his body.

He gradually transformed into a Demonic form, and into a shape they all knew all too well.

"Alka, hahahaha, we meet again. I told you we would, didn't I?"

Fully demonized, Kriel stared at Alka and laughed recklessly.

And Alka's group had already recognized exactly which Demon this was—the Mouth of Devouring they'd dealt with not long ago.

"Lately, I've been thinking about you every waking moment, thinking about slicing open your skin with a blade, clawing your heart out with my talons, ripping your muscles apart by sheer force.

Tearing out your soul to mint into coins, to make into dolls and roast over the flames of the Abyss.

Oh, I've missed you so much."

The Mouth of Devouring went on and on, even grinding his teeth; you could hear the hatred for Alka dripping from every word.

Listening to that voice, Alka couldn't help but laugh and say, "Why're you so hostile toward me? You ran into me yourself last time, it's not like I set up some elaborate ambush. You were just stupid."

"I'm stupid?" The Mouth of Devouring snapped back, but then shut his mouth.

Just like Nightmare had said before, he really had spread word of the Mouth of Devouring's last failure and clown show across the entire circle.

And he'd even done it with a full, 360-degree, no-blind-spot recording.

Everyone who watched it could practically feel like they were on the scene.

It was distributed endlessly and for free through the Dream Realm—a rare time Nightmare went all-out, and not even for Nightmare work.

This Evil God of the Dream Realm had a built-in edge when it came to publicity.

And that meant everyone who knew or was familiar with the Mouth of Devouring now knew all about that incident.

Alka himself had no idea he'd already become notorious in a certain circle.

The Mouth of Devouring always loved using words to needle his enemies; his style every time was disgusting enough to make people's skin crawl, whether enemy or teammate.

But because of his strength and his ideas, except for the time he died in defeat during the Divine War,

ever since he'd been resurrected by special means, he had never failed like that again.

No one had any intention of holding their tongue; everyone kicked him while he was down, and any time they saw this Demon, they'd take a jab.

That had made the last few months feel like years for the Mouth of Devouring, letting him truly experience how mortals perceived the passage of time.

And it made his hatred for Alka climb to an entirely new level.

"For you, I've been scheming here for quite a while. I even split off a little piece of my soul, just so I could kill you myself and savor your blood."

"Yeah, I can tell," Alka nodded. "I can tell you're in a rush and your scheming's crap—reeks of rough, impatient work, full of holes."

He'd already completely fallen out with this Demon, so he was going to insult him every chance he got.

Every line came out dripping with sarcasm, with no mercy at all.

"Heh, just keep flapping that mouth of yours. This time there's nothing on you that can handle me."

The Mouth of Devouring spoke as he took over Kriel's body, pushing its power up to Tier Six again.

Even though this body was rapidly falling apart, it was more than enough for him to kill Alka alone. Alka was the only one he wanted dead.

He didn't even want to bother with torture—he just wanted this man to die right in front of him.

At that moment, a brilliant pillar of light suddenly speared down through the ceiling.

"Aaaargh!"

Thick smoke billowed from the Mouth of Devouring's body, wrenching a scream out of him.

Realizing something was wrong, he immediately lunged forward, aiming to kill Alka on the spot.

Perfectly correcting his old habit of taunting people to their faces before he'd secured victory.

"Demon!"

By now the main doors had been thrown open; Jason and the others, Narminis included, all rushed in.

Seeing the Mouth of Devouring's figure, Narminis roared.

"Mouth of Devouring, it's you, you damned bastard!"

Clearly, Narminis also recognized the Mouth of Devouring.

Right now, the Mouth of Devouring didn't want to spare anyone a glance; relying on the brute force of his power, he charged straight at Alka.

He used Kriel's Treasure, unleashing an overwhelming pressure—better than the original owner ever had.

The wide-area pressure pinned everyone where they stood.

Some of the people following behind Narminis were even forced directly to their knees, heads lolling as they couldn't move at all.

As a Sixth Stage being, the effect when he used this Treasure was far stronger than when Kriel used it.

Alka's group could still remain standing, but the crushing pressure made it hard for them to move.

They were all lambs waiting for the slaughter.

By now, scorched marks were spreading across the Mouth of Devouring's body, smoke constantly curling off him.

The light pouring down from above was inflicting tremendous damage.

The world's powerful radiance was rejecting him, furiously burning away everything that did not belong to this world.

Using his full power only accelerated the collapse of his body.

He was fighting the clock for every second.

But it was enough.

Alka was pinned where he stood; it was enough time for him to kill this bastard before he died and was forced to leave.

He'd even have time to seize Alka's soul while he was at it, to slowly torture later.