Milena coughed heavily, struggling to breathe. She forced herself to look up at Glenn—no, Diamanes, who was effortlessly fending off Laurance's attacks under the Hell Knight's careful watch.

"Come on, show some nerves! You're a Newborn Ruler bullying an Expert Magi! I'm sure you can do a little more than that!" Diamanes taunted as he flicked Laurance's bone to the side, grinning widely as he dodged his opponent's every move.

'I'm certain now...' Milena gritted her teeth and pushed herself up despite the pressure. 'I thought Glenn could control that thing, but I was wrong. Damn it!'

She remembered what her grandfather told her back when she was in treatment in his house in the Court.

"Milena, I have to warn you...that friend of yours, Glenn." Exan had been very careful with his words. "Something dangerous that even I can't fathom has found its place in him. An entity that I can't understand."

At the time, she dismissed his words as unnecessary worries. After all, Glenn wasn't anyone. He was the Devil's Hand, but most importantly, her first friend with Sahro. No matter what mess they ended up in, he would always pull through, using some nonsensical magics to flip the tables around.

Not this time. This time, Glenn died and left his body to that creature, Diamanes. Milena's every sense was screaming at her to run away and hide in a hole, but she fought against them. Glenn and she had gone through thick and thin together, and he was one of the main reasons she kept on progressing on her path. She couldn't abandon him.

'There has to be something left in him that can be saved! I just need to approach him and use my magic...'

While Milena schemed, Diamanes and Laurance's fight intensified. The monstrous Earthling was panicking, accelerating as fast as he could and striking with all his might, only to be ridiculed by Diamanes. The latter would simply lightly step to the side, or push Laurance's sharp bone sword away with a single finger.

"You know, having control of a body again after so long feels great!" Diamanes exclaimed with a pleased laugh. "And, not to say, but I even have a nice sandbag to stretch my muscles against! Isn't that great?"

Laurance roared madly, plugging his ears to Diamanes' taunts and doubling his efforts to take him down. The purple man picked his nose lazily before slipping behind Laurance's back.

"Now, now, good times never last. I should make the most of it, don't you think?" He grabbed both of Laurance's arms, his skin flaring up with purple mist with the contact. Laurance screamed painfully, contorting himself to extricate himself, to no avail.

"What are you doing?! Argh! My strength—!"

Diamanes sighed. "I'm not even certain this will be useful. Powers obtained from sacrifices feel filthy, but, oh well. He might need it later on, considering he'll never be able to replicate it with his Specialty. Oh, and this is also interesting..." The entity sounded as if checking down a list, blissfully ignoring Laurance's cries of pain.

The Hell Knight had stabbed his sword in the ground, facing Diamanes and Laurance without moving. No one could tell the Knight's thoughts under that skull mask of his.

Liara leaned on her spear while raising her sword in her other hand. A pair of wings of light appeared in her back, but a hand stopped her before she charged at Diamanes. Lucian pushed her back firmly, his eyes filled with fear.

"T- This is beyond a king's power!" He turned to Liara and shook his head, terrified. "T- That thing inside Glenn, it's stronger than my father!"

The Black Heiress froze, her wings disappearing as her small bird flew into her chest and hid itself, scared to death.

Sahro clawed his way out of the rubble he had been thrown in. Blood was flowing over his face, and his broken ribs ached with annoying pain. Red electrical current kept on running through his body, but it wasn't enough to push him beyond the terminal exhaustion he was in. Raijin, his fox, appeared on his chest, its small paws trembling. It glanced back to Diamanes and shook its furry head.

'Damn ruh sayiya, did it get Glenn in the end? Damn it!' Sahro cursed. He coughed out a mouthful of blood as he leaned on his sword, his mechanical arm hanging limply by his side. The mechanism was completely ruined, with no hope of being repaired. A stop by Liam and Janica's atelier was going to be necessary—if they even managed to survive through this ordeal. The Black Heir glanced at the Hell Knight, who was standing still and observing Diamanes beating the crap out of Laurance.

Thankfully, it didn't appear hostile to them, only concentrated on Diamanes and Laurance. The latter had given up fighting back and was now investing all of its strength trying to get out of Diamanes' vice grip, still without success.

"W- What are you?!" Laurance screamed desperately. "How are you stronger than a Newborn Ruler? You're an Expert Magi—you're nothing!"

Diamanes moistened his lips before shrugging, casually slapping Laurance with one hand and absorbing his power with the other. "I quite disagree. Higher realms do mean more power, but what matters is how you use that power. Simply said..." Diamanes grinned as he ripped off Laurance's arm. "...My expertise and skills are so above yours, I can dominate you even while being at a lower realm. That's the advantage of living thousands of years in a fleshy box, I suppose. You start to get inventive."

Laurance ripped his own arm off to escape from Diamanes, dashing out in a panic. "Let me go you fucking monster! I- I'll call all the Wanderers to hunt you! If you kill me, I'll—"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Diamanes grunted. "Yes, yes, if I kill you, the bigger fish will come to get fried, I know. And I don't give a single shit. Now, I think I took everything I could need, so let's put an end to this."

His demeanor suddenly changed and his expression hardened. Laurance ran away as far as he could, and yet he could still Diamanes' voice in his ear.

"...What was it already? Ah, I remember."

Diamanes breathed out a cloud of ice-white vapor as he reached out with his left hand in Laurance's direction.

"Winter Is Coming."

Laurance's eyes widened and he turned back in shock.

"What—?"

The Beyond's landscape turned to ice, a northern paradise. The lava froze over, the fires snuffed out and the remains of the monster waves crystalized. Laurance couldn't utter a word as his entire body turned into an extremely realistic sculpture of ice.

Diamanes slowly walked up to Laurance, looking up and down at his creation, before pushing it down. The ice sculpture shattered into a thousand pieces.

Laurance was dead, effortlessly killed by the entity living inside Glenn. Just like that, a Newborn Ruler died.

"That's one thing done. Alright, who's next?" Diamanes suddenly grabbed at the air, Pebble tightly clenched in his hand.

"Your power will allow us to grow much stronger. Your master will soar even higher with your sacrifice, be happy—" The arm holding onto Pebble fell on the ground. Diamanes looked at the wound on his arm with a frown.

"Hmm. I liked that arm. Anyway." A new arm grew back effortlessly. The Hell Knight silently wiped the blood off his sword, facing Diamanes sternly.

"...You don't belong here. Begone." The Hell Knight muttered, his voice brittle. Diamanes rolled his eyes before disappearing once more. Liara protected her face as a gust of wind pushed her back. Diamanes was standing in front of her, clenching her little bird tightly.

"That's also an interesting creature here. Liara, I like you, but, you know, if I want Glenn to help me, I do need him to be stronger than he is. Don't worry, I'll find a pigeon for you—"

"No!" The cross on Liara's forehead gleamed powerfully. She punched Diamanes in the nuts with all her strength while Milena slipped into his back. The purple man bent over, releasing the poor little bird.

"Oof...T- That's cruel... I didn't enjoy having genitals for thousands of years, and when I finally do, they're crushed like that. Cruel world." Diamanes' expression darkened as he swatted Milena away with the back of his hand. Liara's back was covered in a cold sweat as Diamanes reached once more for her bird, but a man covered in red lightning stopped him at the last moment.

"Glenn, I know you're in there! Wake up!" Sahro shouted as he swung his sword desperately. Diamanes sighed and stopped him with a single finger, before snapping around and blocking the Hell Knight's blade. Diamanes' arms were covered in the same bone armor that Laurance had, only it was completely purple instead of a pale yellow.

"Now, now, I know you are all very worried about Glenn—which makes sense, considering he did die, but—"

"Shut up!" Milena shouted angrily as she flew back in, both her hands pressed against Diamanes' back. "He didn't die!"

Diamanes raised an eyebrow. "I assure you he did, and I'm simply trying to—"

He suddenly stopped talking, his eyes losing their focus. Milena fell to her knees as blood flowed out of her eyes and ears. The light in Diamanes' eyes returned and he shook his head with a displeased expression.

"Hmm...That was weird. Memories...that I shouldn't have. Ugh. I won't thank you for that, Milena."

Lucian gathered his strength and pushed himself up. A crown of weak light appeared above his head. "This is an order from Munirp's future king! I, Lucian Magnus, command you. Release Glenn!"

A beam of white and black light rushed out of Lucian's hands and crashed against Diamanes. The latter blocked it with his palm, yawning as he did so.

"I could take this, but it's not that great honestly. Not useful enough, anyway."

Lucian collapsed, the colors draining out of his face after he expended the last drop of his Mana.

"Leave his body," suddenly said the Hell Knight as he pressed his sword against Diamanes' throat. "This young man holds too much potential for you to waste it away. I don't want to kill him, but if you force me to..."

Diamanes sighed heavily, opening his mouth to reply only to fall to his knees. Confusion painted his face.

"What the..." He watched helplessly as the purple left his skin, replaced by Glenn's usual tone of skin. The purple retreated to Glenn's left hand, exactly like it was at the beginning of their...relationship.

"Hah, I should have expected it." Diamanes scoffed dejectedly before falling face-first on the ground. Liara gasped heavily as the pressure pushing down on the group disappeared. She dashed to Glenn's side, her sword carefully pointed at him. She flipped him up on his back and pressed her fingers on his throat.

Ba-dump...ba-dump...

It was weak, but there was a pulse.

Tears welled up in Liara's eyes but she shook her head with cold anger. She slapped Glenn's face, but the young man remained unconscious.

"It's no use," said the Hell Knight with a tired voice. "His body drew on a strength way beyond his own. He needs rest, a lot of it."

Sahro pointed his sword at the Hell Knight, heaving with difficulty. "H- How do we know that you're not an enemy?"

The Hell Knight looked down at him for a moment. "...Because you're not dead. I'm not like this fool Laurance. I don't toy with my prey."

A shiver crawled down the Black Heir's back, and he sheathed his sword, his teeth tightly clenched. The Hell Knight walked up to Glenn and lifted him with one hand.

"Follow me. I am certain you have questions. I'll try to answer them the best I can."

Without further explanation, he strolled away. Liara, Milena, Sahro, and Lucian exchanged tired and wary looks before following him. The Hell Knight's boots left deep tracks in the ground with each step he took. They followed him for a couple of hours, far away from the Last City and the demons. They eventually arrived at a cascade of lava, which the Hell Knight promptly stopped with a lazy swing of his sword. A cave was hidden behind the magma, which he rapidly entered. The others followed him in, ready to draw their weapons and cast their spells at any moment.

Liara gritted her teeth. 'If something happens, it's over for all of us. We've spent everything in that fight.'

Sahro's thoughts weren't too different. 'Even if I die, I'll at least fit my blade in that bastard's armor! I refuse to go down without fighting!'

Milena was leaning on Lucian, her legs trembling weakly. 'We're all going to die. Why does this always happen to us—no, why do I always follow Glenn in his damned adventures? Why didn't I stay at grandpa's place like any normal person would have done?'

Lucian groaned, biting down on his lips to try and push through the pain and exhaustion. 'It isn't kingly to show weakness. I shall assist Miss Milena, and if needs be, protect my citizens with my life. I refuse to let Munirp's glory be tarnished by my incompetence!'

The Hell Knight led to a small, comfortable cabin constructed in the depths of the cave. A hot spring was boiling a few meters away next to a sort of mushroom farm. The Hell Knight sighed deeply as he entered the cabin and laid Glenn on a simple bed. He dragged his feet to a chair carved straight out of the ground and collapsed on it.

"Welcome to my humble abode. Please, make yourself at home."