The King of the Madoni continued to look, amazed, at the figure of Crater which was now superimposed on that of Helial. The Revenant had been replaced by the monstrous outlook of Tariata. And the Colosseum had become the exact spot where Alexander had been ambushed and died.

Skill Activated:

Crater's Uppercut!

The Empusa was looking at Crater with a hint of contempt. She had heard a lot about the great Madoni General, Alexander's right arm; he was the second strongest warrior in the King's Empire, so Tariata had decided to face him personally.

Until then, however, he didn't seem to have earned the fame the stories gave him. Tariata had cornered him, filling his body with wounds that were impossible to heal. The monster's Chakrams were more than just weapons. In fact, they possessed several Bonuses capable of bringing even the Dragon King to his knees.

Tariata must have been very disappointed, having realized that Crater, despite being nearly as strong as the Dragon King, had been hurt so easily.

Yes, Crater was indeed an excellent warrior with great military technique. In short, he was not one to play with. But Tariata could not help thinking, with a touch of pride, that no one in the universe would dare to look at her in the wrong way; she and her sisters were one of the most feared armies ever and Crater was another poor wretch who would die under their blows.

That ambush had cost the Empuses a lot of money and many lives and would probably deal a heavy blow to their troops, but at the same time make them infinitely rich. In time they would rebuild an even more terrifying army.

Tariata prepared to dodge the stupid Skill Crater had just activated. The trajectory of the blow was so obvious that she almost thought it was a bluff. Was Crater hoping to hit her with such an obvious Uppercut?

The Empusa didn't doubt that, considering Crater's strength, the blow would cause great damage if it landed, but did the General really expect her to remain still as if dazed?

But as the monster started to move, she realized that her limbs felt as if paralyzed.

Crater, despite being covered in blood and having concentrated all the Vitality left in his body within that single Skill, found enough time to give her one last wink.

In that last split second, Crater saw the figure of his King, dying in Bucephalus's arms.

He took a deep breath.

All the air that had ever come out of his lungs had contained what he felt for Alexander, all the blind faith he had placed in that man, all the love for the greatest comrade he had ever had, for the greatest man he had ever known. Every breath he had taken over the course of his life, he had taken for Alexander.

That day, Crater would die, but he didn't care, because that day he would die along with Alexander.

...

Opening his eyes, Alessandro saw the Revenant hit the Colosseum barrier like a cannonball. A melancholic smile appeared on the King's face.

Alexander wondered how Helial got to know that story. The boy hadn't experienced that tragic battle, the only time Crater had used that blow.

However, Crater had created and refined the Uppercut from a young age and the foundations of the Skill had always existed. He must have told Helial about it in Alexander's memories.

Helial's gesture had been almost naive. The boy just wanted to show Alexander his gratitude, bringing him as close as possible to his closest friend. Instead, he found himself unknowingly using a Skill that, in the past, had beheaded one of the big shots in the universe.

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How strange are fate and coincidences.

Iblis kept a rigorous silence. Even though he couldn't read Alexander's mind, he had sensed some of his emotions.

Alexander had lived his whole life with his generals, just like Iblis with his own. The least the Devil could do for another monster like him was to respectfully observe his pain.

Several figures who had abandoned him over the year passed before Iblis's eyes.

Perion, the gentle giant, whose heart had always shown something new to the universe.

Doine, one of the great generals whom for too long he had not thought about: he had won several battles when Iblis was too busy thinking about Amaterasu.

Leuconia, the master of Shadows.

Gilgamesh, the lord of Blades.

Cartago, the one who had organized the army of Destruction, once assembled.

And many others, who had followed Iblis in his enterprise.

"Iblis, if you could go back and save them all, would you?" Alexander's words cut straight to the heart of the Devil.

When it came to two beings like them, a simple emotion could shape the energy around the planet. It was all too easy to read each other inside.

The King of Kings almost felt guilty for reopening his own wound in the body of the Lord of Destruction. The Devil was much younger than him, and many of the people he loved, including his nemesis and only love, were still alive.

Furthermore, Alexander knew how much the Devil's choices had affected the lives of his great companions. Alexander had always cared for the lives of others more than anything else. Iblis, selfishly, had always cared too much about Amaterasu's.

A couple of glances, a breath, a gesture, a blink of an eye. This was enough for Iblis and Alexander to understand each other.

Iblis brought his open hand to the corner of his eyes, rubbing them slowly and closing the fingers towards the nose.

He lifted his chin upward and focused on the clouds in the sky, although he could see far beyond.

He turned his gaze to Alexander.

"Even if I did, it wouldn't change anything, you know that too. The odds would remain virtually unchanged."

The green and blue eyes of the King lit up: "The most important thing is to know, or rather, to believe that you have done everything possible. Even today I wonder if this was my case, as I'm sure you are wondering too...

"The younger you are, the more wounds like that penetrate your soul. The more we tell ourselves that we haven't done everything we can, that our choices have been wrong, or that they might have been, the more we want to torture ourselves. There are two idiots who have bound their souls indefinitely to something in order not to give up the possibility of redeeming themselves one day. Imagine being able to remove even a small weight from the shoulders of those in front of you. "

Iblis crossed his arms.

"Absolutely nothing will change."

The King approached the Devil threateningly. Iblis frowned and held back the urge to take his original form, but released his murderous Aura in Alexander's direction.

The King's hand rose and very slowly rested on Iblis's shoulder.

It was a simple, banal gesture. Some would have interpreted it as a soft and feminine gesture. But, in the souls of great beings, every gesture had an equally important value.

"Take some pain from the world, take something away from fate. At least someone has to be removed from the calamities you have witnessed. You are the greatest Devil that ever existed in the universe, I am the King who conquered it. If we won't intervene, who will?"

A surge of pride entered the flesh of the Devil. He was so used to living like the greatest of all that he had almost forgot.

If it hadn't been him, to interfere with fate, to bend it, who would have done it?

And Iblis did nothing but snap his fingers.

...

In the Colosseum

As Helial watched, determined, the abomination fly across the arena, he felt his body suddenly glow.

He fell on all fours as every single fibre, every cell, was invaded by a strange demonic energy and an equally strange red-hot energy.

The Mana within his meridians began to flow a hundred times easier than before as he felt his muscles turn to steel and ... fire?

With a simple thought, a pure white flame enveloped his body as a strange familiar weight fell on his back.

Flame of the Qilin bubbled around him, setting the air ablaze and instilling a primal fear in the hearts of all Undead.

Even the Revenant, who had landed in pieces on the sand of the arena and was repositioning his head, separated almost completely from his body, felt a pang of terror run down his back.

Helial put his arm behind his back; a cold, angular hilt found his hand. He grabbed it.

Curse of the Demon was wielded as easily as ever. The young man finally seemed to have found his lost half.

Meridians of the Demon, Flame of the Qilin, Curse of the Demon.

How was it possible that he had got them back? Shouldn't ten years have passed?

"Yes. The level will have to wait anyway. Not ten, but five years. That's the true duration of the side effects. The rest was a test. Let's say, in a sense, you passed it."

A legendary figure within Helial's Soul rolled his eyes at the other's shameless lies. But as his eyes flew up, so did corners of his mouth.

Even a Devil is not always a devil.

A second snap of fingers reached Helial's ears.

You have unlocked the second Layer of Demon's Curse!

Congratulations!

Second Layer: Pasta with Butter