The Beast King shifted into his humanoid form right after smashing into the Three-headed Hellhound at full speed. The Hellhound was hurled aside and slid across the dry ground, squashing an unfortunate Grand Hellhound. Nobody paid attention to the Grand Hellhound’s desperate howl, the last sound before dying.

The Beast King paid full attention to the Three-headed Hellhound, his claws digging deep into one of its three necks right after he landed softly on the ground.

Purgatory Fire engulfed his claws, and a tremendous amount of mana surged through him as he tore the Three-headed Hellhound apart. His muscles bulged, and it felt like they were about to burst at any moment when the squishy voice of the Hellhound’s fleshy neck giving in resounded.

The Beast King smiled vibrantly, dark blood squirting in his face as he ripped large chunks of flesh out of the Hellhound’s neck. Each hand was drenched in demon blood, tightly holding onto the Hellhound’s flesh.

The Three-headed Hellhound yelped in pain and roared, the two other heads lunging at the Beast King. The Beast King growled and twisted his body to evade the attacks while retreating a step. At the same time, a flash shot past the Beast King. The Imperial Head had already been ready to engage in a head-on battle, but he used the moment to push past the Beast King.

His blade flashed vibrant silver as the Imperial Head’s sword performed a beautiful arc, severing the Three-headed Hellhound’s already injured neck.

The unscathed heads roared in pain and anger. One eyed the Beast King while the other glared daggers at the Imperial Head. One of the creature’s heads had been removed cleanly, drenching the dry soil in demon blood, but the remaining remained intact. The Demon Lord, an imitation of the legendary Cerberus, was still alive.

It was injured, but the fight was not yet over. Darkness gushed out of the headless neck or what was left of it. The darkness pushed outward and formed into slippery tendrils that wiggled around seemingly mindlessly. One of the tendrils found the dead Grand Hellhound and pulled it into the bleeding remains of a neck. Darkness mantled the Grand Hellhound’s remains, shaping them until they fit the frame of the head the Three-eyed Hellhound had just lost.

“Did it just?!” The Imperial Head cursed, his eyes widened in utter surprise and disgust.

“Using corpses to rebuild your body…” The Beast King muttered, “You must be torn into shreds until you cannot rebuild yourself anymore!”

A deep rumble escaped the depths of the Beast King’s body, and brightly burning Purgatory Fire burst out of him. The fire gushed out of all open holes, wreathing the Beast King. It burned everything in the immediate surroundings. Even the Imperial Head was forced to step aside to escape the terrifying heat the Purgatory Fire emanates.

“Can you burn his powers?” The Imperial Head asked the Beast King, licking his lower lips nervously while sweat poured down his temples.

“Maybe. I don’t know if the Purgatory Fire works against the darkness,” The Beast King shrugged. He didn’t seem to particularly care, “But you can. The darkness didn’t pick up its head. You severed the head. That bright power, whatever it is…use it again. Pierce that bastard’s heart!”

“Alright,” The Imperial Head nodded slowly. He took a deep breath and added, “I will go all in. Play with that disgusting imitation for a moment, will you?”

The Beast King rumbled and shot forward. He was ready to unleash his full power to shred the Three-headed Hellhound if that’s what they had to do to kill it, but he was also curious about what that human was capable of. He wanted to know how much stronger he’d grown since then.

“Go for it,” He said, propelling forward quickly. He transformed into a living cannonball and disappeared in the blazing hellfire the two intact heads of the Cerberus imitation. The third head shot around, releasing a wave of darkness instead of hellfire. The Beast King coated his body in a few more layers of Purgatory Fire, burning through his mana reserves rapidly, but he arrived before the demonic creature without a scratch.

If anything, the Purgatory Fire had grown stronger after devouring a portion of hellfire.

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“I would love to tear you apart, but this is rather interesting,” The Beast King mumbled, “So keep still and let me watch this in silence!”

His claws burst forward, each claw bursting through one intact neck. The Three-headed Hellhound would have roared in pain if that was still possible, but they focused on burning the Beast King instead. At a close distance, the hellfire was supposed to be hot enough to penetrate the Beast King’s defense and burn him alive.

Not even Demon Lords of the Seven Hells’ fires wouldn’t remain unscathed in their hellfire. They did not possess an immunity toward fire after all. Even the Beast King was not supposed to be immune to fire.

Yet, instead of screaming in pain or burning alive, the Beast King held onto the demonic creature, his eyes trained on the human powerhouse.

The Imperial Head’s eyes narrowed to tiny slits, realizing what the Beast King wanted. He should have been afraid of the searing hot flames filling the surroundings, anxious about what would happen once the flames touched him, but there was nothing like that.

His ears turned deaf at the cacophony of death curdles, desperate screams, and roars filling the air. His nose stopped differentiating the smell of demon blood, smoke, and sweat, and all his eyes could focus on was a simple point—a point in the Cerberus Imitation’s chest—the point where he’d pierced the real Cerberus’s heart. Everything around him turned dull, and even his sight turned hazy, other than the point he’d aimed at.

The Imperial Head breathed out slowly in an attempt to control his wild heart while activating the Augmentations [Lunar Manifestation], [Moon’s Champion], [Haste], [Perfect Cleave], his longsword’s runic enchantments [Power Strike], [Armor Pierce], and his Ego’s only ability [Herculean Might].

At last, he kicked the ground and shot forward, his mana paths and muscles burning fiercely. The Imperial Head transformed into a flash, swept through the Three-headed Hellhound’s hellfire, and pierced his chest and heart in one smooth move.

The hellfire barely grazed his hair when the flames gushing out of the Three-headed Hellhound’s heads ceased. The surrounding temperature was unbearable, and the Imperial Head felt like collapsing at any moment, but he prevailed. The corners of his lips curled upward while his Lunar Mana pulsed wildly, entering the demonic creature’s heart and decimating the darkness within.

The Three-headed Hellhound collapsed, its dead eyes staring vengefully at the Imperial Head and the Beast King.

“You could have killed it without my help,” The Imperial Head commented, his chest heaving with great effort. His sight was still blurry, and his legs threatened to cave in.

“I wanted to see it,” The Beast King commented lightly.

“See what?”

“How you would fare against one of the Devil’s direct subordinates. The darkness is part of the Devil’s power.”

“Is that all?” The Imperial Knight squinted his eyes.

The Beast King smiled at him, but the Imperial Knight only noticed it now that the Purgatory Fire was being retracted, “I know you.”

“You know me? I don’t think so. I have never participated in the Beast Wars since…” The Imperial Head shrugged, “Though I know who you are, I don’t think we ever met.

The Beast King’s eyes narrowed slightly, but the smile didn’t crack. He was certain to be right. He and the Imperial Head met in the past. Not as powerhouses and not with the same titles, yet they met. He clearly remembered who the Imperial Head was.

It wasn’t a pleasant memory. Not at its core, at least. Everything was overflowing with blood and death, just like now. However, his memory of the Imperial Head wasn’t as bad. Quite the contrary. The Imperial Head was probably the only good thing about one of his bleakest memories.

A memory of a young man, a youngster barely considered an adult, reaching out for him. Stretching a helping hand to a creature his comrades would have considered an enemy.

“You aren’t too bad,” The Beast King rumbled, “But you won’t be strong enough to defeat the Devil if that’s all you’ve got.”

The Imperial Head raised an eyebrow, “The Devil is a problem for later. We can–...”

Before he could finish his sentence, the Imperial Head froze. A terrifying pressure spread across the frontlines all of a sudden. It was accompanied by endless hunger.

The Imperial Head swallowed hard, whereas the Beast King spun around, his eyes burning fiercely as he looked at the entrance to the Moonlight Forest.

Purgatory Fire burst out of him again, wreathing the Beast King in armor of blazing flames as massive crimson eyes emerged in the darkness of the dying Moonlight Forest.

“I found you!!” The Beast King roared, kicking the ground to shoot across the battlefield faster than most could follow. He left behind a trail of black flames, burning dozens of Elite Demons alive, but nobody paid any heed to their deaths.

Everyone looked in the direction the Beast King had disappeared in. The Devil’s territory. The Moonlight Forest.