The alarm on Jin’s phone rang out, he reached over to silence it and accidentally cracked the screen. His eyes were bloodshot from another sleepless night. He got up and put on his enchanted clothing, a beaten black jacket with a black hoodie, grey pants, and black boots. All of which gave him a litany of buffs from fire resistance to some physical damage resistance and an increase to his overall agility. He then walked over and grabbed a weapon from the corner, [Red Death’s Scythe]. Arguably the strongest weapon in the world, fitting for the world’s strongest hero and much deserved prize for killing the Devil who tormented an entire country.

He teleported to the group of heroes all gathered and ready to depart for the raid, all looked like they had slept as much as him. That is except for King and Shadow, the 2 looked well rested and ready to kill.

After confirming everyone was there, they loaded into the vehicles they had prepared. Meanwhile Jin teleported ahead to the rendezvous location.

At the start of the highway leading to the city. Jin was surprised at the lack of monsters, just a couple low level Fire Devils that he was able to crush with his bare hand, leaving his scythe on his back.

Jin could hear the engines roaring behind him and saw his comrades approaching.

Then the ferocious roar of a Devil rang out. The ground shook below Jin’s feet and out of the ground erupted a black lion the size of a semi-truck with a mane of fire. It charged the convoy of cars.

“A new Hell Devil emerging, that’s an ominous start…” Jin watched as he saw King leap from one of the trucks and tackle the massive beast to the ground.

He plunged his golden claws into the Devil’s throat and ripped it apart. “Too easy!” King shouted as the convoy drove past him to meet Jin.

The heroes all unloaded and gathered around Jin.

“Alright, teams B and C will go with Shadow and start clearing the monsters throughout the city. With Shadow’s army, you all should be able to clear out the lower-level Devils quickly. If you encounter any stronger ones, then call for team D to come off standby and assist you. Team A, you will come and support King and I as we engage Fallen Angel at the Hollywood sign. You are only to cast buffs on King and I, under no circumstances will you attack the Devil. If you gain its attention, then we won’t be able to guarantee your safety.”

All the heroes nodded and dispersed as Jin commanded.

Jin looked around at the remaining heroes in team A, “Wait, where’s King?”

The heroes looked around, one caught sight of him. “Um he’s charging towards the Hollywood sign.”

Jin groaned, “That asshole has no patience, alright let’s get moving. At this rate he will attack [Fallen Angel] and get himself killed.”

Jin and his team followed King as he wrecked the demons unlucky enough to block his path towards [Fallen Angel]. They let King kill them all and conserved their energy because King would end up killing one of the heroes who got in his way or stole a kill from him.

Shadow summoned his minions from the shadows of all the enemies they encountered, it was not long before they numbered in the thousands. The city was overtaken by the darkness of his army. They were perfect for culling lower-level Devils, but the other heroes had to assist with taking down any higher-level ones because they would smash through the shadows with ease.

By the time it was noon, Jin and King were in sight of [Fallen Angel]. They watched the Devil and prepared to attack. This Devil had caused the past 3 raids on Los Angeles to be a failure.

The Devil wore an all-white robe, its face shrouded in darkness and 6 black feathered wings sprouted from its back.

The Devil had 4 arms, 2 of which held obsidian daggers and the other hands were charred with flames emanating from them.

What made this Devil so dangerous was the fact it wielded magic and was an expert when it came to close combat. It would fly into the air and cast down Hellfire on its opponents, then to finish off those who dared to survive, it would fly down and execute with its blades. While it was not as fast as [Red Death], [Fallen Angel]'s speed did come close and didn’t have any known weaknesses like [Red Death]’s core. So, it meant they had to be able to endure prolonged combat with the Devil.

Which is why Jin needed assistance for this fight, he knew that this fight could drag on for hours or even days and he would eventually get fatigued and the Devil would kill him.

King finally slowed down and waited for Jin to be by his side. Despite King wanting to have all the glory for himself, he knew that Jin’s plan was the best and easiest way of killing the Devil.

Jin teleported behind [Fallen Angel] and swung his scythe down, severing the wings from the Devil’s back. It let out a hellish scream that shook the city.

All the heroes were briefly brought to their knees, even Shadow who couldn’t hear the scream, but the vibrations still rattled his eardrums. But not King, he endured and charged the Devil as blood poured from his ears.

The Devil erupted flames from its hands, but the support heroes cast a shield to protect King as he continued to charge and attempted to slice off its arms.

He was unsuccessful in his attack, only managing to graze the Devil.

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Jin teleported beside the Devil and swung his scythe towards the Devil’s torso, but its movements were faster than he anticipated, and [Fallen Angel] deflected his attack with one hand while launching a counterattack with another.

The Devil blasted Jin with a beam of Hellfire.

Jin used his arm to block his face, his jacket had been enchanted with fire resistance and took most of the hit, leaving him minimally damaged, but his jacket was fairly scorched.

King continued attacking like a madman, swiping his golden claws faster than Jin could swing his scythe. But it didn’t seem to faze the Devil who was effortlessly parrying their attacks.

Fallen Angel shot fire into King’s face, temporarily blinding him, then the Devil grabbed ahold of King’s arms.

The Devil swung his daggers towards King, who was struggling to escape its grasp.

Jin shoulder charged the Devil, stunning it and giving King a chance to escape.

They both continued to assault [Fallen Angel] from every angle, exchanging blows relentlessly. But it seemed no matter what they tried, nothing was working, that the only reason they managed to damage it before was they had the element of surprise.

Hours passed and the battle raged on, [Fallen Angel] fended off its attackers with a combination of fire attacks and parrying his opponents.

Meanwhile King and Jin were starting to feel the fatigue start to set in. The healers they brought could only do so much to help restore the fatigue of the fighters.

In the city was a different story, their success was overwhelming. Shadow’s legion of minions had subdued a majority of the lower-level Devils and the heroes were dealing with the remaining ones. [Fallen Angel] was going to be their last hurdle to retaking the city. Shadow began to maneuver his minions towards the Hollywood sign to assist Jin and King.

His minions were all shadow versions of the Devils he faced, they were all different shapes and sizes, but each was about the same level of strength. They moved in mass, trampling over the corpses of the fallen Devils, the city was scorched and in ruins. The sky was a reddish orange and plumes of smoke filled the sky as it rained ash.

As Jin and King continued to battle the Devil, neither had noticed the army of darkness moving towards them, but [Fallen Angel] did. While defending against the heroes with its daggers, [Fallen Angel] charged up a fire spell that was igniting its hands and slowly started consuming its whole body.

“Get ready, I think it’s about to blow!” Jin shouted to King.

King scoffed at him.

As the shadows approached them, [Fallen Angel] released a massive beam of Hellfire in the direction of Shadow's army.

Jin teleported out of the way of the flames and King narrowly leaped out of the way.

The flames it released were bright as the sun itself, blinding everyone. The beam of flames extended for dozens of miles and expanded in a wide arc.

By the time the flames stopped, and everyone could see again, Shadow’s army was annihilated, but so was a sizeable portion of the city.

Jin and King resumed their attacks on the Devil, that is when they noticed the tide of the battle start to shift.

That Hellfire beam [Fallen Angel] cast had drained a large amount of its energy and caused it to be more fatigued. Its movements were slower and more manageable thanks to the sacrifice of Shadow’s army.

The exchange of blows wasn’t so one-sided now as King and Jin began to land some attacks.

Shadow joined the battle and caught the attention of Fallen Angel, he managed to distract it with a frontal attack using his steel daggers. This distraction gave Jin and King the opening they needed, they attacked simultaneously and cut off the Devil’s magic wielding arms.

The battle had become all but decided, the Devil tried its best to defend against the trio of heroes who worked in unison to cut down their foe.

The scorched white robes of Fallen Angel became drenched with blood as it endured the attacks.

Finally, the Devil dropped to its knees and Jin swung his scythe one last time, decapitating [Fallen Angel]. For safe measure, Shadow plunged his daggers into the side of the Devil and King did the same to the other side of the Devil.

The supporting heroes watched in awe as the battered and bloodied heroes conquered the monstrous enemy.

The body of [Fallen Angel] began to glow.

“Get back!” Jin yelled and the heroes all ran for cover.

The Devils body erupted in flames, leaving behind a pile of ashes where it once lied.

The heroes gathered around the ashes, Jin sifted through them and found a golden chain necklace with a ruby pendant.

Shadow picked up the daggers that [Fallen Angel] used.

“Pfft, it didn’t drop anything of use for me.” King grumbled as the others claimed their prizes.

“You can take the ashes, I’m sure they can be fused with a weapon to create something powerful.” Jin said and one of the males handed King a glass bottle to scoop the ashes into.

“Where the others?” Jin asked Shadow.

Shadow got a solemn look and pointed towards where [Fallen Angel] had unleashed the massive Hellfire Beam.

The other teams had been caught in the attack and killed. The realization had made the victory feel hollow to everyone but King, he could have cared less for the Fallen heroes.

Jin put on his new amulet, planning to have it appraised by a mage when they returned in order to figure out what it did. “Alright, let’s head back everyone and-“

Before Jin finished speaking, King plunged his claws through the center of Jin’s chest. His golden claws dripping with Jin’s blood as he withdrew them.

Jin fell to his knees and coughed up blood.

‘No fucking way.’ He thought

His vision began to grow dark as he watched King attack the others, killing the supporting heroes in the blink of an eye. They didn’t even have a chance to comprehend the betrayal.

Shadow attacked King, but he was exhausted from the battle and having summoned such a drastic amount of minions. He stood no chance against King’s strength without his minions.

King slashed his claws across Shadows chest.

A spray of blood erupted from Shadow as he fell to the ground.

Jin tried to move, but his body refused to listen, and he collapsed to the ground as blood pooled around him.

King approached Jin and picked up his [Red Death's Scythe], “Thanks for the assist. It looks like I won’t be leaving empty handed after all.” King’s tone was cold as he swung the Scythe into Jin’s helpless body for good measure, making sure he was actually dead.

King then kneeled beside Jin’s body. “I would say this wasn’t personal, but we both know that would be a lie. I was paid a fortune to make sure you wouldn’t return from this raid, so not only am I even richer before. But now I’ll be the world’s strongest hero.”

King then swung the Scythe into Jin’s body one last time. “Rot in hell you bastard.”

King spit on Jin’s body and began to walk off.

Jin watched; rage consumed him as his vision grew completely dark. Jin cursed King with his final thoughts as his life faded.

‘I can’t believe this is it, this is how I die. Betrayed by a ‘hero’. That piece of shit will claim all the glory for himself. All these sacrifices will be overshadowed and forgotten… I’ll be forgotten.’ Jin thought to himself.

For a brief moment, everything was black and cold.

Jin felt something burning on his chest.

The burning grew, it was as if his whole body was beginning to be consumed with fire.

The darkness began to fade, and all Jin saw was a bright white light.

‘What the- ‘

“Rise.” A deep, echoing voice spoke out to him.

Jin opened his eyes.