AN: Yo my friends! Happy to see you all back here.

  Question of the Chapter:

  If you could attend a fictional school/academy, which one would you choose?

  (You can go wild here. But you will be attending as yourself. If the school needs you to have some supernatural ability or condition, you will automatically acquire them.).

  At first, I wanted to talk about this chapter here, but I honestly do not want to spoil your fun, so I hope you all enjoy it.

  Le Chapter:

  ~ Razen Antares Gremory ~ With firm steps, Razen rushed forward. His speed was somewhat diminished due to his heavy armor, but not enough to matter against the horde at the moment.

  His sword, still covered by the Force Sword spell, fshed toward the Daemon before him.

  *CLANG*

  The Daemon parried the strike, which surprised Antares enough almost to make him stumble. But his heavy armor and firm steps saved him from a humiliating start.

  *CRACK*

  The Daemon's weapon, unable to support Antares' Sword, started to crack at the point of collision. Not being one to let his opponent breathe, Antares went for a second ssh, only to be reminded he wasn't in a one-versus-one battle when the spear of another Daemon slid off his pauldron, Sadly for the Daemon, the attack didn't have enough strength behind it, so the armored Devil barely felt it.

  It was at this moment that Martial Talent shone, allowing him to quickly use this opportunity to diverge the course of his ssh and counterattack the spear daemon with his bde. The spear daemon's head flew, its unholy blood gushing high and flowing like a reverse waterfall.

  The cracked bde Daemon was not idle, it used the time of Antares' attack to try to impale the brass-colored man in front of it, but before it could even start its swing, a bde shining in an electric blue light decapitated it. But this time blood didn't soar, as the Electric enchanted sword seared and burned all Daemonic flesh it cut.

  Another Daemon tried to get clever and attack Antares from the back, but an Ice Sword through the head was all the response it got.

  The devil heir rose his sword, parring a Kopesh strike from the left, while a mace struck him on his abdomen. He looked west and saw Eu fighting against two sword-wielding Daemons, a halberd struck him in his left chest for the distraction, and looking right he saw that Neptune just killed a dagger-wielding Daemon and was rushing to help him, a kanabo struck his left leg.

  Freeing his sword from the Kopesh, he sshed it forward in a semi-circle, cleaving the Kopesh-wielding demon in half and making the mace, kanabo, and halberd daemons jump back. Using this momentary respite, another Daemon rushed forward, only to have its torso pieced by Razen's sword. Neptune dashed and beheaded the mace Daemon while Eu impaled the kanabo demon with her sword. Razen made a finger gun gesture with his left hand and shot a Force Bullet spell through the halberd daemon's forehead.

  With a little bit of space between him and the next Daemon, Razen focused, lifted his left hand, and cast Force Lance forward, carving a line in the Daemon horde for a few dozen meters, until his spell lost its momentum.

  Sadly, Razen couldn't keep spamming spells like this, considering the numbers he saw in the mission's Additional Objectives, this was going to be a battle of attrition, so even someone with his massive reserves of mana needs to be more conservative.

  Following Razen's spell, Eu jumped forward, her body twisting and spinning in a mesmerizing dance of death, Daemon blood flowed and horned heads flew.

  Neptune was not that far behind, and while not as graceful as Eu's dance-like movements, her proficiency with a bde was astounding, Razen could feel his own sword proficiency rising just by watching her and Eu from the corner of his eyes. A distraction that earned him a naginata edge to the face, something which his helmet thankfully parried.

  Killing the daemon before him with a forced bullet through the eye, he saw Neptune thrust her thunder sword through a group of Daemons and then completely cleave them in half. Using the purplette brief distraction a small cloaked daemon tried to attack her back with a jagged dagger, only to receive a Force Bullet through the skull and an Ice sword through the heart. Razen almost chuckled at seeing his and Eu's coordination.

  The battle continued to flow, more and more Daemons pushed from the wound in reality, the crimson horde seemed endless, but the three defenders were equally as mighty. Their coordination started very awkwardly, with Neptune often missing timings by being too eager or not knowing her newfound allies' capabilities.

  But with time, plenty of foes to grind their skills against, and Antares Martial Talent, allowed the Devil Heir to swiftly transform their awkward fighting force into a true smooth cooperation. Their movements were more precise, flowing and complimenting each other as if they had been fighting for years together, it was a scary amount of progress that only showed just how dedicated and compatible they were.

  In terms of personal skill, It was actually impressive just how much Antares was improving in this fight alone, with many rather skillful enemies to constantly grind his skills against, his Martial Talent is having a veritable feast. He tested and retested many moves, improving with each failure and success, and with an armor that allowed him to ward off most enemy attacks, he could even test a few bolder moves. Neptune and Eu, on the other hand, were skilled enough that heavy armor was almost unneeded, as their agility was far more valuable to their fighting styles.

  Eu sshed and diced with her sword and ice constructs, cleaving through weapons and daemons alike, her strikes growing stronger, faster, and more precise with every minute she passed in combat. Her improvement was mostly attributed to her getting in the rhythm of this battle rather than in skill proper, she was already plenty skilled after all.

  The same can be said about Neptune, and while she may have started a little awkwardly, she was now zipping in and out of the horde, cleaving swathes of daemons with her thunder sword at every opening in their primitive formation she found.

  With Razen and Eu revealing more of their abilities, her teamwork with them slowly improved, to the point she started completing their attacks and adding a few of her own.

  The lull of combat soon consumed the trio, like instruments of sughter sharpened by combat, they left only the bodies of Daemons behind, their coordination ever improving, their skills sharpening, but their mana and stamina slowly tickling down. It was no surprise; the horde seemed endless, but their reserves were not.

  Still, they persevered, the improvements they made during combat allowing them to keep up with their consumption, fight more efficiently, and use less mana as time went by.

  Sadly, even with her agility, skill, and improved outfit, Eu couldn't fully avoid being wounded. A scrap here, a little ssh there, an impact she wasn't fully prepared for, it was minimal, but such small wounds stack. A real death-by-thousand-cuts scenario.

  Neptune was in a much worse condition, as differently from Eu, her outfit didn't have armored bits to protect her, so she had accumuted way more wounds, even considering her agility was a tad bit superior compared to the Cryo user.

  Razen, on the other hand, was getting tired fast, moving around with armor that weighed a ton was not easy on his stamina, he grew tired at a faster rate than both girls combined, and the only reason why he was able to endure was just how much his stamina had improved until now, that's not to mention his armor was far from being invincible. It is of excellent quality, of course, its metal enchanted and treated by one of the best Armorsmiths in the underworld, and its self-repair function is prodigal. It sadly, couldn't make miracles, yet. Hit it enough times in the same pce, and it will start to bend or break, ssh at it enough times, and simple scars turn into gaps, bash enemies enough times, and its pte is wounded.

  Self-repair couldn't keep up with something like that, it needed energy and time, both things Razen didn't have right now. Thankfully, his rising skill at fighting with armor allowed him to mitigate the worst of it, but things were reaching a tipping point, and something would have to give out, sooner or ter.

  And the infinite Daemon horde didn't look like it would falter any time soon.

  Antares summoned up the mission on his HUD, noticing he had completed the additional objective of killing 10 and 100 DDD quite a while ago, which deposited 25 credits on his Catalog bance. Without hesitation, he bought Talent Share for Martial Talent and Soul Talent.

  Eu, who was in the middle of fighting a sword-wielding daemon, suddenly felt a change within her, it was like flipping a switch and turning on the lights, or putting on gsses for the first time, she was suddenly that much more aware.

  Obstacles and doubts that pgued her fighting style for years suddenly felt like they were extremely easy to fix, ideas she tried and was unable to implement felt as pusible as any of her skills, new skills, new moves, new ideas, everything flowed throughout her mind and muscle memory in that single instant. And it all felt so easy.

  She felt her instincts growing sharper and more flexible, allowing her a quasi-precognitive battle ability. Making the Spindrift Knight suddenly jump in lethality in the middle of combat. Her Daemons' adversaries barely registered as a footnote in her perspective when their heads were already flying.

  With a delicate spin containing more skill than half a dozen of her previous selves combined, she jumped forward at a group of daemons and sshed forward. She couldn't help but marvel at her improvement, at how her now her understanding of combat, of the martial way, all rose like an exploding rocket; linking from the most improbable to the most innocuous movement and skill, all connected in such a cohesive and comprehensive whole that it almost sent Eu into an Enlightenment High.

  When she blinked, more than a dozen daemons had perished by her hand, and not even a single new scratch was added to her person.

  Antares almost stopped in shock, he knew Eu would benefit immensely from both talents, but he didn't think it would be that much. It was sort of eye-opening for him, the way she could use Martial Talent way better than him spoke volumes of the sheer training, talent, and experience she carried. It also allowed him to know that the Talent is extremely useful for people who have that much training "accumuted".

  Afraid that Eu would simply get way into her improvement high, Antares approached the dancing knight, intending to cover for any opening she may have left.

  Neptune, likely reading the situation and reaching a simir conclusion, followed behind Antares while using his impressive bulk as cover to assassinate as many Daemons as possible.

  With him approaching Eu, the Daemonic tide became something fierce, with their two targets so close together, the daemonic frenzy that empowered the crimson tide seemed stronger, turning all enemies into bloodthirsty berserkers with incredible martial skill for their mental state.

  With such a long stretch of combat, Antares reached a certain rhythm; parrying strikes left and right, staggering enemies with punches or bashes, before killing them with a Force Spear or Force Bullet into a vital area, or when the opportunity presented itself, with his sword as well.

  Razen was in a trance, and with every battle he improved, even if just by a little, such improvement started to accumute over the many, many battles he held today. Quantity, in this case, became a quality of its own. But his priority was still covering Eu, so even if sometimes he could've pursued the enemy, he opted to stay beside his Knight.

  The purple-haired beauty, on the other hand, was slowly changing the way she fought. At the start, she behaved mostly as a sword wielder, but as the battle raged on, she was forced to act more and more like an assassin. The focus of the horde on Eu and Antares presented her with immense and unique opportunities to, well, assassinate the daemons. And she grew increasingly proficient at it.

  Sadly, even if the focus of the horde was on her two saviors now, it didn't mean the Daemons completely ignored her. If they saw her, without being able to detect any of her saviors, she became their targets instead, so while she was behaving like an executioner/assassin, she never strayed far from the brass knight and the Cryo Bde dancer.

  Making a circur motion with Balmung(replica), Antares parried two incoming attacks, spping his left hand forward he cast Force Lance twice, exterminating two lines in the daemon's ranks. But before Razen could even react to the result, a massive axe hit him in the chest, breaking the enchanted armor and the skin underneath with equal ease, and was only stopped from cleaving the devil in half when he lifted his sword just in time.

  The cnging echo of metal meeting metal sounded a tide bit macabre, like a requiem march that already expected you to be dead by the time you heard it. Leveraging his strength, Antares pushed himself off the axe, making his crimson blood flow to the ground, and in that moment he saw it, forming from bck smoke mid-air was a daemon remarkably simir to the one he killed first.

  The daemon was as tall as its terrible brother, its muscles bulged unnaturally, Its body and head adorned a bck full pte armor of equally terrible origins, orange and red sigils embellishing every corner of the jagged and spiky metallic wear, and an aura of dread exuding from it like a poison to the world.

  Without wasting time healing his wound, Antares attacked, his sword, still boosted by the Force Sword spell, made an arc swiftly heading for the daemon's neck. The Daemon tilted backward, making Razen's ssh slide off its armor.

  The daemon quickly pressed a counterattack, its axe already mid-swing.

  Neptune jumped to its side, and her thunder sword fshed across the Daemon's right arm. Sadly, the red-skinned being had very honed instincts and managed to avoid Neptune's ssh, if only by a half. A deep gash now adorned its right arm, right above the elbow.

  But Neptune's attack wasn't made to only disarm the daemon, it was also to give Antares an opportunity. An opportunity the Devil Heir quickly grasped. Stomping on the ground, a silver-white magic circle fshed to life under the Daemon's armored hooves.

  A Force Ssh fshed upwards, cleaving everything that was on its way. The Daemon, showing prodigal reflexes, jumped to the side, but sadly for the red-skinned creature, it wasn't enough. The Force Ssh managed to completely cut off its left leg, making it fall to the ground in a spsh of blood.

  The purple-haired girl did not hesitate, and instantly drove her thunder sword through its head, instantly killing the downed creature.

  For a brief moment, Razen gave himself the luxury of looking at Eu, who alone held off the horde of 'normal' red-skinned Daemons while he and Neptune worked to kill the Elite Daemon.

  Immediately willing himself to heal, Antares went back into the fray, his senses now focused on unveiling possible hidden elites.

  It didn't take much, as Razen's sharp gaze soon noticed a red-skinned giant wielding a hammer, without hesitation he used his Goetia of Gravity to send a Force Ssh towards it, hopping to wound the creature before their fight even started.

  The elite twisted its armored body, making the Force Ssh only leave a bloody gash on its right side. The elite roared and swung its hammer forward, unching a wave of hellfire toward Antares.

  The boy stood there, paralyzed. Memories of being burnt alive resurfaced in his mind, the agonizing memories of having a star coursing through his veins. Phantom pains assaulted his psyche, repeatedly making him feel his body burning alive. Stress Defense doing its dammable best to stop his mind from colpsing into a heap of-

  A frost-covered hand pushed his armored body out of the day, making it fly for a few meters before hitting the ground. Gritting his teeth, Antares got up, his anger and frustration at his own response almost blinding him, but he pushed it back together with his ICHOR that boiled in want to be activated.

  He shook his head to clear his mind and looked at Eu and Neptune, right as they killed the hammer-wielding elite. Neptune's sword impaled the base of its spine, while Eu's Song of Broken Pines pierced its heart.

  Sadly, this time there was no one to hold the normie horde while they killed the elite, so the two beauties were a single step from being overrun.

  Wanting to redeem himself from his moment weakness, Antares decided to go big this time. Gathering a massive quantity of mana, something akin to 30% of his reserves, he trusted both of his hands forward, Balmung disappearing into his pocket space.

  Utilizing both of his Goetias for a never-before-seen combination, Soul Talent working on overdrive to make everything possible, Antares cast Force Push.

  Two massive waves of pure force rushed forward, their speed almost breaking the sound barrier, they swept over the daemonic horde, catching hundreds of Daemons and a few elites along the way, an unstoppable and unrelenting tide of pure Force that none of the daemons could ever hope to stop.

  Flexing his will, Antares caught as many daemons as he reasonably could, and with an unimaginable force of will, he tilted the waves so they would collide with each other, with all the Daemons they carried in the middle.

  *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

  The two waves of Force collided, and an agonizing loud squelching sound echoed. The squishy daemons in the middle turned into a crimson paste of blood, compressed metal, and gore.

  Antares stumbled forward, almost falling to the ground if it wasn't for a very strategically positioned rock that he gripped, suddenly spending 30% of his mana left him feeling full of cramps, almost like he was running a marathon, and suddenly stopped, only to notice he was incredibly thirsty. His body did a sort of wibbly wobbly rebound, that gave him a headache and messed with his sense of equilibrium a bit. Not to mention the raw and simultaneous overly smooth feeling in his mana channels, something akin to passing sandpaper too much in the same pce. Thankfully, Soul Talent allowed him to deal with it like a pro.

  Clenching his fists, Antares unfurled his wings and jumped toward Eu and Neptune, arriving close to them, he summoned a vial of Phoenix Tears and administered a drop for each and one for himself.

  It was outright miraculous. With a single drop; Eu, Neptune, and Razen were back in full health. It was as if none of the wounds had existed in the first pce, and if it wasn't for their slightly torn clothing, Antares would've believed so.

  "WOW! A full heal!?", excimed Neptune in pure awe; "Awesome!", she punched mid-air.

  Razen chuckled; "Sadly, it doesn't restore our mana.", the crimson-haired Devil admitted sadly; "So try to be a little more conservative with that.".

  "For sure.", Neptune nodded, before narrowing her eyes cutely; "You wouldn't happen to have a mana potion, would you?".

  "Nope.", answered Antares pinly; "Those don't exist here, for all I know.".

  "Bummer.", Neptune grumbled; "I spent all that I had running away from those guys.", she said while pointing at the approaching horde.

  "We will have to ration our mana then.", added Eu while looking at Antares from the corner of her eyes; "I am currently at 60%.".

  "Half", added Neptune.

  "Less than a third.", winced Antares. Eu narrowed her eyes at her, hoping he wouldn't go suicidal again. And fully prepared to stop him from doing so.

  "How many of those big moves you have on you?", asked Neptune curiously.

  "Zero.", sighed the Devil Heir while summoning Balmung; "That move costs a little above a third of my mana pool.".

  "Shit!", Neptune eloquently responded.

  "Language.", Eu admonished with a smirk, Neptune just showed her tongue to the knight.

  Seeing as the horde was getting closer, Neptune's expression turned serious; "For how long will this continue…", she mumbled in a very tired voice.

  "Looking at the rate their entrance to this world is closing…", started Antares while stretching his limbs; "Probably around half-hour at max. But it's probably way less, as every time an elite enters this dimension, the wound gets smaller faster.".

  Eu looked at the wound in the fabric of Space-Time and nodded her head, deeply hoping they could go through this battle safely.

  Neptune pursed her lips, a sense of doubt flooding her for a moment; "Hope you are right Copper Knight.", she while looking at Antares from the corner of her eyes.

  "It's Brass.", grumbled the Devil Heir back without heat. Tightening his muscles, he entered into a stance, leagues better than anything he could ever come up with before the start of this quest.

  "I still worry about the BBDDD.", added Eu while getting into her stance. "The fudge is that?", asked Neptune confused.

  "Final Boss.", informed Antares while releasing his wings.

  "Ohhh…", Neptune unfocusedly replied while lighting started coursing through her sword again.

  The horde was already almost upon them, so instead of being reactionary, Antares decided to be proactive. Crouching until he almost touched the ground, he jumped, using his wings to not get too far from the ground, the sheer strength behind his jump and momentum allowing him to leverage a greater striking power.

  A striking power that enabled him to cleave through swathes of Daemons, regardless if they raised their weapons in defense or not. With every swing of his bde limbs and horned heads flew, blood drenched the earth, and bodies fell. Sadly, his momentum ended, and with a loud *thumph* sound, his feet met the ground.

  Parrying a spear thrust from an overeager Daemon, Antares cracked its skull with a punch. And using the momentum of his attack, he sshed forward, bisecting a pair that was right behind his previous aggressor.

  A streak of sparkling blue fshed in the corner of his eye, Neptune had arrived decapitating three more daemons with her thunder sword.

  Following Neptune came Eu, her steps swift and her bde even swifter, her movements and strikes felling Daemons with the same ease she felled hilichurls not too long ago.

  The battle raged, but the trio reinvigorated by the Phoenix Tears fought with a renewed ferocity that almost equaled the Daemon's own.

  Only the elites could slow them down somewhat, but even if took a little bit more effort, the bigger Daemons fell all the same.

  The trio was even more conservative with their mana this time around, rarely using spells and opting mostly to use their own martial skills to fell the red-skin tide and its elites before them.

  The battle looked endless, at least from the perspectives of the defenders, but even when tiredness started creeping in again, they persevered.

  Even when Eu was wounded by an elite, she quickly administered a Phoenix Tear and continued fighting. Even when Neptune almost lost her leg, Antares quickly gave her a Phoenix Teardrop and the purple-haired girl was soon back into the mix.

  It was a battle of attrition, and they were somehow winning against an entire horde.

  Elites started to become more frequent, to the point that every minute or so the group killed one or two. Thankfully, none of them had any fire-reted abilities, so Antares didn't have another episode.

  Sshing forward, Eu sent a wave of frost that quickly turned into six flying swords, these swords impaled the daemons before her, ending their lives instantly. Another group of Daemons took their pce, making Eu smirk and snap her fingers, a magic circle glowed under each of her ice swords, making the ice constructs explode.

  Neptune was doing equally well, jumping and dashing to avoid attacks and counterattacking with her thunder sword. With a single ssh, she separated a daemon's legs from its torso, with another, a horned head flew. With precise thrusts, Daemonic heads and hearts were made useless. With pinpoint accuracy, she always helped her teammates; striking a daemon when it least expected it, stopping an elite mid-swing, cutting tendons and weak points, and being one hell of a finisher.

  Antares, on the other hand, was mentally praising his past self for creating a spell as versatile as Force Sword, just for the fact he can use it to cover his sword in a yer of pure Force attribute, a yer that both protects and boosts the sword, turning it into a true instrument of sughter regardless of durability, was more than enough to turn the simple replica sword into something truly sting.

  Parrying an incoming ssh, the Devil Heir quickly counterattacked, cutting his aggressor's armored arm rather easily. With a lower huff, he dashed inside the unsuspecting Daemon's guard and impaled the invasor on his bde, thereby ending its life.

  And then… nothing?

  Frowning at the weirdness of the situation, the Devil looked around searching for more Daemons, and found… none?

  In terms of corpses, the crater had accumuted plenty, to the point the trio has long been treating them as floor. It was a task at first, but nothing Martial Talent couldn't help with. Neptune apparently didn't need it because she is that good, according to her at least.

  And talking about the Devil…

  "Was that the st one?", asked the purple-haired girl, sounding way too casual for someone who just murdered hundreds, if not thousands of Daemons.

  "I… I don't think so.", added Antares a little reluctantly; "We have yet to face the final boss at least.".

  "Of course.", Neptune grumbled; "...hope it's not a souls-like boss, the CPUs know I had enough of those already.".

  "The CPUs?", mumbled Eu confused.

  "Yeah, scary Ice dy, don't you know who they are-", Neptune stopped for a moment, she looked around a bit, her gaze particurly zeroing in on the purple sky, her face contorting into a grin; "Don't tell me…", her grin kept widening; "Am I in another world?".

  "Well… you probably are.", expined Antares while looking at the still-closing wound in reality; "Whatever that Space-Time wound is… it brought you to Hell.".

  Neptune almost faltered; "Hell? The heck!?", she then looked around once more; "Are you trying to fuck with me? Where is the fire and brimstone?", she then looked at the Daemon corpses on the ground and relented; "Albeit these guys look like your typical Demons… but they seem to be invading…".

  "They aren't Demons.", expined Antares while staring intensely at the wound in reality; "Demons are Devils who managed to achieve their True Form. These guys are Daemons.".

  "Potato tomato. Same thing really.", dismissed Neptune with a wave of her hand.

  "Not true.", Antares shook his head, his gaze turning towards Eu, checking if she was alright; "We are Devils for ex-".

  "You guys Devils!? No Way!", interrupted Neptune with an excmation, while narrowing her eyes.

  Antares released his wings, prompting a raised eyebrow from Neptune; "While I do admit the Bat-like wings are cool…", she then made a circur gesture with her hand; "Was that supposed to mean anything?", she asked a little confused.

  "It should?", the boy answered with a little doubt himself; "People normally get pretty much convinced when I show them the wings.".

  "Huh…", Neptune replied a little speechless; "Dude, I know like… three to four people who can grow wings of different types.", she pointed out.

  "Yeah, that would make sense considering where you came from.", spoke Antartes with a nod.

  "You know where I come from?", asked Neptune dumbstruck.

  "You come from Gamindustri, right?", asked the Force user nonchantly.

  "You know Gamindustri?", Neptune almost screeched, with widened eyes; "But hoooow? That should be-", Neptune suddenly stopped, her body fully paralyzed, and like a puppet that had its strings cut, she started falling to the ground.

  A bloody hole the size of a baseball, right in the middle of her chest, guzzled out blood like a daemonic fountain.

  Antares eyes widened, and he immediately rushed to the girl, Phoenix Tear already in hand…

  He was swatted away like a fly, his armor bending, its metal twisting and ripping in many unnatural ways, its distorted and ripped metal cutting, crushing, and piercing his body.

  He skipped on the ground like a ft and smooth stone skips on a ke, his body ragdolling like he was inside of a video game with broken physics.

  His mind spun in an ocean of pain and confusion, he then heard a scream, something that sounded suspiciously like Eu, his two Goetia instantly refocused, sharpening to degrees he never felt before. Exerting his will, he tried to heal himself, only to partially succeed, many pieces of his broken armor had lodged themselves on his body, stopping the healing from being fully effective.

  With a flex of his will, he sent his armor toward his Pocket Apartment, and instantly breathed a sigh of relief. Sadly the shards inside of his body weren't removed, but just the fact that the armor wasn't crushing his body was a win in the Devil's book.

  A huge sense of urgency consumed him, Antares gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain, willing himself to heal again, but this time he forced his regeneration to spew the fragments out. It took a great deal more effort, but his Talents and Heritage weren't just for show.

  With the shards out and his body fully healed, Antares put on his Fme Chaser suit and jumped up. His movements were frantic and worried, he could feel Eu's Evil Piece and intellectually he knew she was alive, but alive doesn't mean intact. He scanned the battlefield and finally saw it.

  It was a monstrosity of 15ft tall, its body made of baleful fme, rock, and hardened leather. A pair of dragon-like wings the size of a small building fpped erratically behind it, leaving small gouts of fmes with every movement, its spine was alit with fme, to the point it was possible to see through it.

  Its physique was as equally terrifying as it is powerful, weird, and alien muscles adorning a body that probably is the pinnacle of its species; its arms were long and powerful, its cws enough to dispute with those of a Dragon.

  Worst of all was its skull, and whoever looked at it could clearly see it was a piece of evil incarnate, curved horns pointing downwards, a skull-like face with angry and mocking pupilless fming eyes, and a mouth filled with jagged sharp-teeth with its fangs bigger and protuberating.

  The creature did not carry armor or a weapon, for it needed none. Its body, by itself, was its strongest weapon.

  It reminded Antares of a Balrog, even if there were still plenty of differences.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]But worse than its appearance was its ability, every single elite monster Antares faced until now had some kind of gimmick or special ability, and the balrog was no different.

  Speed, an ability was as simple as it was terrifying. The 15-foot-tall creature had a speed that did not belong in anything of its size. It probably had one more ability, because Antares knows for a fact the Wound on Reality did not have enough space for it to squeeze through, so either it was here since the beginning and hid itself until the tide lost, or it could become small enough to pass the Wound. But whatever the answer was, it didn't matter right now.

  Likely already thinking itself winner, the creature toyed with Eu, its malicious smirk exhaling sadism and baleful fme. The Spindrift Knight, on the other hand, did her best to stay alive, avoiding attacks, and weaving between fireballs and fire nces, but every time there was an opportunity she would attack it. Which sadly didn't amount to much, even with its speed simply outside of the norm, the fire Daemon's hide was simply too thick for people of their current strength to pierce.

  The creature was strong, strong enough that it made the Six-Winged creature Antares killed look like a simple barking dog, its pressure was equal parts oppressive and frightening, with a baleful burning sensation at the tail end of it, like its very existence was an affront to all that is alive and good.

  And worse of all, Eu was wounded, the left side of her abdomen a fiery orange-bckened mess. And she still held her own, doing her best to survive.

  Antares felt angry, but it was not the type of red-hot anger that consumed his sanity and transformed him into a berserker, no… It was the cold and harsh type, the type that shimmered under his mind and fueled his actions to seek retribution.

  Without hesitating for a single moment, Antares used his Goetia of Gravity to bring up his HUD. Mentally clicking on the message app, he sent a message to his brother; 'Danger. Familiar Forest. Help. One Dead. X:23J1113K6….51A65…16C5 Y: 4O59…555…4XC1…95 Z: -98AAS7DF5444545AEFF4….94QD6..213…22.'. Antares made sure to include the closest spatial coordinates that he knew, so his brother would arrive even faster.

  Sirzech response was a simple; '1 min.'.

  Looking at the fming daemon, Antares saw that it seemed done pying with Eu, and was now preparing to kill the Cryo user. His gaze briefly went to Neptune's corpse, a pang of guilt and self-doubt assaulted his mind, but he fed it all to the cold fme of his rage. His expression distorted into a snarl.

  His mind briefly went to his mana reserves, which were at around 20%, a fact that locked him out of any useful spells to use. He briefly felt the weight of a familiar greatsword on his right hand, before dismissing it; 'suicidal attacks are not the answer', he admonished himself inwardly.

  Even while running toward the "fight", he still hackled his brain searching for a possible solution. Seeing the situation from as many angles as he could, he revised his abilities and skills over and over again.

  Both of his Goetias worked in overdrive to find a solution, no, to find a way he and Eu would survive for just 1 minute. And then, almost halfway, Antares had an idea. His Corporeal Transcendence Engineering, since the day he arrived, had been collecting Force Patterned Elemental Weave, which is concentrated, manifested amounts of his element.

  So instead of using his mana to create Force, he just opened his Pocket Space and let his Patterned Elemental Weave spill out. And with a flex of his will, a small pte-sized magic circle, and minimal amounts of mana, he could freely manipute the pure Force attribute being spilled.

  With another flex of will, the elemental weave moved, allowing him to instantly create a Wall of Force before the daemon, its blow that would hit Eu, crashing into the wall instead.

  *BOOOOOOOOOM*

  A massive shockwave exploded outwards, the fake Balrog blow's insane strength more than enough to crack and break a Wall of Force. Antares would like to say he was surprised, but he knew well enough the difference in strength between him and the infernal creature.

  Seeing how its attack met a solid surface instead of sweet flesh, the Daemon roared in anger, its gaze instantly turning toward the approaching Antares.

  The Devil almost shuddered under the powerful bzing gaze, but then he blinked, and the Daemon was gone.

  Pain assaulted the male Devil's torso, blood rushed and flowed from a baseball-sized hole in the middle of his chest. Gritting his teeth and doing his best to ignore the pain, Antares looked back, only to see the tail end of an orange beam.'So this is how you killed Neptune, fucking bastard.', swore the boy inwardly while healing himself.

  The Daemon looked confused at Antares, its hellish mind couldn't comprehend how the ant before it had survived its fastest attack.

  The red-haired Devil, more than content to let the Daemon waste time, started summoning his Force Elemental Weave once more. From the corner of his eye, he managed to spot Eu using a Phoenix Tear, which made him sigh in relief.

  The Daemon huffed and blurred forward, so fast that even with Martial Talent added into the mix, Antares could barely follow it. Knowing that if its impact hit him in full again he would just turn into a blood smudge on the ground, Antares flexed his will, spending almost all the remaining mana that he had and turning into his element, becoming a humanoid-shaped accumution of pure Force.

  *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

  The strike was devastating, the ground cracked and shook, and a shockwave washed the battlefield, raising dust clouds and shaking the trees in the distance.

  *CRACK*

  Antares… cracked, it was a small thing at first, starting from his chest where the Daemon struck, and it quickly spread to his whole torso. Luckily, the cracks didn't spread more, stopping right before they could spread to every other limb.

  The daemon was almost speechless and for a brief moment it stood frozen, and Antares wasn't about to waste such an opportunity.

  The Force user smiled evilly when he saw he almost summoned all of the Elemental Weave he had accumuted. Gathering it all in one point before him, roughly in the shape of a sphere, Antares malicious smirk widened to the point it almost split his face. And with a mighty flex of his will, following the directions of his Goetia of Gravity, he turned all of his pure Force Patterned Elemental Weave into its manifested form, Gravitational Force.

  It was instant, the previous transparent, colorless element; turned dark purple.

  And before he lost the hold on it, Antares used the st amount of Force Elemental Weave he hadn't used, to Force Push the condensed ball of Gravitational Force right into the Daemon's chest.

  And then, he let his hold over his Elemental Weave go.

  The dark purple sphere hit the Daemon in the chest, instantly pushing it backward for dozens of meters, the Daemon tried to protest, to resist, and even to turn into an orange beam to escape, but it couldn't, the gravitational field generated by the pure manifestation of concentrated Gravitational Force was simply too strong for it, a pull so mighty that it even started to distort the daemon's body, almost like how a bck hole distorts those that come close to it.

  Pieces of the ground, daemon bodies, debris, and trees all started to slowly float and gather around the dark purple sphere.

  Antares couldn't help but praise his past self foresight to use the skill in the opposite direction of Eu and of Neptune's body, but he knew the area the dark sphere was pulling from was getting bigger and bigger, so he quickly backed off, hurriedly running towards Eu's side, Neptune Corpse a few dozen meters beside her.

  Looking at the very small moon forming before him, Antares couldn't help but mutter; "... Chibaku Tensei.". It looked pitiful compared to the original one, barely an imitation that didn't hold even a fraction of the size or power, but Antares couldn't lie and say he didn't take inspiration from there.

  He could see the fake Balrog raging and tearing at everything around it, even trying to take down the dark purple sphere, but that did nothing besides tiring it out more. Its use of fmes brought up the phantom pain of being burned alive to the forefront of Antares' mind, but the Devil quickly suppressed it with growing practiced ease.

  "Could you hit it from here?", asked Antares to the Cryo user beside him, a slightly cracked undertone to his voice.

  Eu cringed; "no… I spent everything I had trying to survive it before. I am almost empty right now.".

  Antares saw that the Daemon's efforts were finally bearing fruit, whatever it was doing, was good enough to shave off the strength of the dark purple sphere little by little.

  "We don't have much time.", the boy said with gritted teeth, his own reserves in an equally pitiful state at the moment; "It will soon escape.".

  Eu scowled, her fists tightening on the pommel of her greatsword.

  The Daemon exploded in magma, like an erupting volcano it rushed to the surface of the moon, and with a flex of its wrists, it created a gigantic fire sword and stabbed the small moon right on its core.

  *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

  An explosion of fire, magma, and force washed over them, the shockwave so strong it almost made the duo fall to the ground.

  Clearing their vision, the duo heard two heavy steps shaking the very ground they stood on. An angry presence stood before them, it didn't roar, nor did it make any sound. It just stood there, its aura turning the entire area around it into an infernal hellscape.

  Looking at the Daemon, Antares knew it was very, very, very pissed. and considering just how angry this monstrosity looked by default, that is saying something.

  "Antares… if don't survive this… I want you to know it has been a pleasure meeting you.", started Eu with heavy emotion in her tone; "These days I spent with you… they were one of the bests of my life. And I…", she stopped, taking a deep breath to try to calm her raging heart, and failing miserably at it; "I love you.".

  Antares felt like his breath was stolen for a moment, he felt exactly the same, these weeks he spent with Eu, he felt more alive than the two decades he lived as a human not so long ago. Living here in this world, learning magic, martial arts, cool powers, and above all; companionship, love… they were the best moments of both his lives, and without hesitation, he followed his heart and spoke; "I love you too, Eu.".

  The fake Balrog couldn't look angrier, to see such positive emotions before it was almost like an affront to its whole existence, its anger, and rage were such that miniature volcanoes started to spawn around it, their tips erupting in deluges of va, hellfire and fiery rocks.

  The Daemon raised its hand, fme and molten rock started condensing into it, slowly turning into the shape of a sword, a sword made of magma and fme. The fake Balrog gripped the bde tightly, and with a natural strength almost enough to break it, the Daemong swung down.

  But instead of feeling despair, Antares smiled. A presence just appeared in his perception, something that allowed his unbelievably tense body to finally rex.

  "But we are not going to die today Eu.", Antares' smile deepened, almost showing his pearly white teeth; "The cavalry arrived, after all.".

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  AN: Damn, this was one hard chapter to write. Hope you all liked it.

  My main concern during this chapter was trying to portray a massive melee the best I could. The sheer despairing sensation of going against way more enemies than you can reasonably handle and having to trade strikes to get to fell your foe. I also focused on portraying the sheer improvement of the characters during the battle, and the fact that Antares bought Talent Share for Martial and Soul Talent in the middle of the fight only increased the rate of improvement.

  The Fake Balrog was quite scary, I hope. The process of creating it was me picking a LotR Balrog and thinking; 'How can I make it even more terrifying.', so I kind of DxDfied it, increased its physical attributes, made it absurdly fast, and thought of a few terrifying abilities to add to the mix. I loved this creation process, it was quite enjoyable.

  Razen's use of Patterned Elemental Weave is part of his Aethermorph Heritage, more specifically the Aethermorph part of the Corporeal Transcendence Engineering. If you want to get more info on that, you can click here, just go to the Heritage Tab on the top of the page, click on the Transhuman Heritage, and in the [First Augmentation] perk you Select Aethermorph, then you can peruse and read about the heritage and its perks as much as you want to.

  For the school/academy, I would go with the Shrek Academy from DD4(Means I would also get to have a cool Martial Soul to go along with it, albeit going back to being 12 would kinda suck. But mechas, battle armors, and cultivation totally offset the demerits.).

  ~ClearSkySage