Glenn stood before a window, his arms crossed behind his back. He glared back at the eyes staring down at the Beyond, filling the skies like countless disgusting bubbles. This was a true tapestry of nightmares, woven by the ancestors of the demon race, their powerful Rulers who fell victim to Corruption.

"Hmm...I'll have to admit, I'd need at least one of my fists to care for them," muttered Diamanes discreetly. Glenn glanced at his left, purple arm before returning to the table.

"This is a lot of information, Elder Ialkris. Our objective coming here was to find a way to close the Rifts—the Horizon Gates." He rubbed his chin and turned to Lucian, who was leaning back in his chair with a curious expression. "I...think we should retreat."

Sahro's expression hardened as he slammed his fist on the table. "What? Retreat?"

Milena tapped the tip of her nose, pondering. "It makes sense if you think about it. From the looks of it, the Horizon Gates is a natural passage that existed since, uh, the dawn of time, I suppose. The only reason it had been closed down was due to the Gods' intervention—which is already completely insane too."

Liara patted Sahro's fox, listening silently to the discussion. Lucian, Munirp's Crown Prince, stood up and leaned over the table. He pressed his fist on his chest as he turned to Elder Ialkris.

"Elder! In my quality of Crown Prince of Munirp, I, Lucian Magnus, would like to propose an alliance!"

Ialkris looked at him. "No."

Lucian blinked. "No?"

"No."

"...Why?" Lucian blurted out, confused. "The Beyond is literally hell, the place where you live, the Last City, is moments away from crumbling, and you're constantly under attack from the Occult Wanderers, whoever are those fools. I'm extending a hand to you, why wouldn't you take it?"

The Elder pinched the tip of his horn. "Demonkind has already allied themselves to humans once. And what was the result?"

Glenn scoffed. "You prefer holding onto your grudges rather than saving your kind?"

Ialkris clicked his tongue. "We have survived for thousands of years despite the sealing of the Horizon Gates. Now that they're open once again, the Beyond will return to its normal course. We just need to hold on a little longer and protect this place—"

Boom!

The ground shook as a loud explosion rang in the distance. Ialkris suddenly stood up, paling. Glenn's team was also on their feet, ready to draw their weapons and spells.

"Dear guests of Munirp, my apologies, but it seems like he returned once more..." Ialkris hissed through his teeth as he ran out of the room, leaving them there. A moment passed before Glenn cleared his throat.

"How are your reserves?"

Sahro's red lightning flared up as his eyes lit up with battle lust. "They're just fine!" Raijin jumped on his shoulder, a red current running through his fur. Lucian smiled broadly and stretched.

"I have more than enough Mana to show the Beyond the true might of the Magnus family! For Munirp!"

Milena sighed. "...I'll be fine."

Liara smiled gently and gave him a thumbs-up, her round bird singing on top of her head.

Glenn chuckled softly. "Well, then, let's go give them a hand then." His expression hardened as the corner of his lips curved upward in a wicked manner.

"Let's hope the attackers are these damned Occult Wanderers. I'm more than happy to rid the world of a few more child killers."

***

Life in the Beyond isn't particularly interesting. There's no sun-moon cycle, so there's no fixed time to wake up. The only food comestible is moss, mushrooms, and some specific types of monsters that need to be cooked in very particular ways. Water isn't rare, but it's stale, with a constant taste of sulfur.

Most of a demon's time is spent cultivating their strength, nurtured by the hostile environment and dense Mana. A standard human, without help, generally becomes a True Initiate or a Knight by age thirty. Demons skip all that part. They're born at the fourth level, Mana or Aura already awakened for them. Truly, they have it easier than most when it comes to climbing the stairs of power.

There was only one, tiny drawback to that life.

Glenn's Meteor crashed down on said drawback, a swarm of monsters the size of trucks climbing the walls of the Last City. Spells and Aura flew past him, burning, freezing, and cutting through the creatures. Pebble carved through the ground in a grand ray of burning blue flames, destroying everything in its path.

"Nelg, do what you can," ordered Glenn as his armored twin appeared out of thin air.

"It's probably immoral to use a living being as a projectile, but why do I love it so much?" Diamanes questioned, unfazed by the incoming wave of creatures.

Glenn shrugged as a small, pearl-sized Sun appeared above his palm. "As far as I'm aware, Pebble seems to enjoy being a missile. I don't want to deny him this pleasure."

"I'll be hanging around Liara and Milena!" Nelg shouted before dashing away in a flurry of dense blue Mana particles. Glenn didn't get to see yet how his Soul Weapon fought, but considering Nelg was literally a living weapon, he wasn't too worried. And considering he was also practically indestructible, it should be quite hard to hurt him.

"Demons, watch the glory of Munirp's Twilight!" Lucian's voice thundered over the Last City as a veil of orange and magenta light fell over the battlefield, consuming the monsters and pulling them into shadows. Glenn gritted his teeth as he felt the Mana of Munirp's Prince. It was of much higher quality than his own.

'If I had a doubt before, now I'm certain. Lucian is an Archmagi.'

"And yet, he still feels threatened by you! Imagine, an Expert Magi scaring a peak Archmagi! Isn't that thrilling?" Diamanes laughed wickedly.

Glenn drew a deep breath as the Sun in his hand finally turned blue. With one last thought, he infused the power of Nitrogen into the spell. The spell trembled and shivered, burning ice and chilling flames, a paradox made real with magic. He flicked the spell into the densest part of the horde.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Ice Age." A freezing explosion shook the ground when the words left his lips. Kilometers of monsters suddenly froze over into flame-shaped ice, before shattering in million pieces. Lucian's Twilight covered them in an orange curtain, signaling the end of their abominable existences.

Ialkris suddenly appeared next to Glenn, panting heavily. "W- Why did you help us, strangers? You owe us nothing!"

Glenn shrugged as Mana twirled around him. "Because I felt like it. And I have more questions to ask you. That'd be tough for you to answer if you're dead, right, Elder?"

Elder Ialkris' eyes widened. "...Unexpected. I shall return to the other walls. Please, hold on a little more! With your help, we might be able to hold on a little longer!"

"Sure, sure, just try to find us some food after that," said Glenn as he waved at him dismissively. The Elder dashed away while barking orders at the defenders still standing on top of the ramparts. The battle wasn't won yet, as proved by the tsunami of creatures rushing for the Last City's walls in the distance.

"I wonder what's pulling them here," Diamanes commented suddenly. Glenn raised an eyebrow.

"The demons, maybe? Maybe the monsters want to eat them or something."

"No." Diamanes' tone turned suspicious. "I think the demons are keeping something here that draws in the monsters. That's why they don't want to leave the Beyond, and why they stubbornly refuse to give up on this place."

Glenn rubbed his chin as he watched the next incoming wave. "Hmm... Maybe you're right. But what does that have to do with us?"

Diamanes grinned from within Glenn's palm. "If it's incredible enough to pull in thousands of monsters, don't you think it's also worth the interest of the Occult Wanderers? Maybe that's also why those bastards attacked this place."

"It's worth considering. Nothing stops us from asking Elder Ialkris outright once we saved his city," decided Glenn as Lance of Prometheus appeared in his hand. "For now, we have more killing to do."

Suddenly, all the monsters froze in place. Glenn blinked, unsure of what he was looking at. The shrieks, pants, screams, cries, and hungry snarls had all stopped. The creatures slowly parted, opening a passage that led directly to the Last City's gate. Glenn's pupils widened as he recognized a stumbling figure walking past the creatures, like a king on a red carpet. He was some sort of gigantic spider with a human torso grafted on top of it. Eight human legs of disturbing lengths, four arms all ending with ten crooked fingers.

His head was split in two, faceless, and a long, ominous bone sword was stabbing through his chest.

"Well, well, well, look who we have here!" hissed the creature as it looked up at Glenn. "Seems like I'll have the chance to pay off an old debt, Devil's Hand!"

Glenn gritted his teeth as he instinctively called Nelg back. The longsword appeared in his right hand, puzzled but silent.

"Laurance..."

A mouth appeared on the split head of the creature, grinning with a hundred teeth. "In the flesh."

***

A bead of sweat pearled down Sahro's forehead, past the white Inheritation Sigil, and into his eyebrows. He wiped it off with a breath and stabbed a monster with another. His red lightning was crackling all around him, a cage of thunder that reduced everything that dared come close to him to ashes. Glenn and Lucian had taken the north side of the Last City, while he, Milena, and Liara had taken the south side. The town was besieged on all sides, threatening to collapse at any moment.

The Black Heir dashed back to safety for an instant, enjoying a short but pleasant breath of air before returning to the fight. The monsters all looked the same, a slurry of blood, flesh, and crushed bones, colors blending under the might of his red lightning. Raijin hissed as it followed his master's movements, ripping the throats out of smaller creatures and dashing away in small bolts of lightning.

His mechanical arm was trembling from the load, but he couldn't care less. Sahro only knew one thing, and it was that he needed to fight, fight, and fight again. He couldn't stop there. He needed to exterminate every one of these filthy creatures and destroy them until nothing was left. His sword crackled with red as he rose it over his head. Time seemed to slow down as he hacked down with all his strength.

Sahro's eyes widened as someone suddenly appeared in front of him and blocked his strike, a dark green Aura flaring up to fight back against his red lightning. The clash sent both of them flying. Sahro grunted as he took a good look at his new opponent. A knight in green-scaled armor, who looked the same as those he cut down back when they first met Laurance.

"You Occult Wanderers fuckers..." hissed the Black Heir as he raised his sword. The green knight imitated him silently, his broadsword gleaming ominously under the gazes of the Beyond's countless eyes. The green knight slammed his boot into the ground and dashed forward, his body covered in that sickly green Aura. Sahro roared as he slid through the knight's attacks, his red lightning carving deep gashes into the scale armor.

The knight grunted and swung his sword with all his might, sending a blade of pure energy for Sahro's head. The latter deflected it without a glance, the palm of his mechanical arm pressed against the knight's helmet.

"Dragon Palm!" He roared as red lightning shot out of his palm like a cannon, electrocuting the knight to death. Sahro crushed the helmet in his palm ragefully as he thought back to Redan and what he suffered from the Occult Wanderers. He threw the corpse to the side and looked at the monsters in his path with burning hatred.

"I'LL KILL YOU ALL!!!" Sahro raged as red lighting covered him from head to toe. A shiver suddenly ran down his spine. Raijin, his fox yelped in warning. The Black Heir leaned back, watching in horror as a blade of bone and flesh slashed past where his neck previously was. He retreated a few steps, his eyes widening in horror as he watched the knight he just killed rise to the fight once again, his limbs broken and his armor charred. His head was gone, and yet...here he stood. The armor melted into the knight's body, becoming part of it. His sword was already the extension of his body, literally.

Sahro raised his sword once again, his red lighting hitting and burning marks on the ground.

"I'll kill you as many times as I'll need, damn ruh sayiya!"

***

Liara would certainly have liked to find out more about her new abilities. She didn't even get to give a name to her small round bird, thanks to the countless monsters who assaulted them since their arrival into the Beyond.

'Thankfully, I was able to break through and reach the fourth level, but I'm not sure of how to use these new abilities...'

The Black Heiress Princess watched the wave of incoming monsters and thought back to Glenn. The latter would have probably blasted through all of them with a single, massively devastating spell.

She wasn't Glenn, though. Her sword vibrated as a white Aura covered it. She was standing on her spear, hovering above the battlefield. Milena was dancing amidst the creatures, her knives cutting and slicing with unnatural easiness. Monsters she wounded turned against their allies, sacrificing their lives to fight back against their kind.

Liara sighed softly and jumped off her spear. A Magekiller, as Glenn called them, appeared before her, but she remained unfazed. The white cross on her forehead gleamed with powerful light, and a halo appeared above her head. The Magekiller froze, helpless as she beheaded it.

Milena suddenly pressed her back against hers', panting heavily. "It's unending! We need heavy artillery, something like Glenn's spells or Lucian's...!"

Liara clicked her tongue. She wasn't Glenn, but she could certainly imitate him. She grabbed Milena by the waist and soared in the air, using her spear as a flying board. The white halo above her head widened and moved in front of her opened palm. She aimed at the wave of monsters, the light getting increasingly more intense.

"Judgement." Her whisper rang out like the death bell. A ray of pure, white light carved through the monsters, disintegrating them to nothingness. Liara chuckled even though she felt a little air-headed. She could understand why Glenn only used spells like that.

It was definitely fun. Milena tapped her shoulder and pointed in the distance, her face draining of blood. "L- Liara, do you see that?"

The Black Heiress looked in the indicated direction.

"...I think I do, yes."

A lone knight was walking in the direction of the Last City, dragging a long greatsword behind him. The monsters in his path scurried away like pests, terrified of his presence. He had armor so dark it looked like it was made of charcoal. But the most eye-catching was his helmet.

A dark, menacing skull. Liara and Milena shivered, their Mana Sight burning with the knight's strength.

The newcomer was a Newborn Ruler.