Across the battlefield surrounding the Hell Gate, countless bodies lay scattered, spawn torn apart, their blood pooling in unnatural colors across the ruined land. Yet despite the carnage, the gate continued to vomit monsters into the world.

  Barbatos assaulted it relentlessly, waves of harmonic atum slamming into the massive tear in reality. Still, it was not enough.

  It was already too far gone.

  His jaw clenched as he felt the resistance push back against him. The gate trembled but refused to collapse, its size and density overwhelming even his immense control. Worse still, if it expanded any further, it would breach the seventh rank.

  If that happened, cataclysmic-class spawn would emerge.

  The world would not survive that.

  Barbatos grit his teeth and forced himself to release every fragment of power he could access. Light burned around him, raw and unrefined, drawn from countless planes at once. Unlike his companions, he had no spirit to amplify his strength, no divine echo, no perfected harmony born of trial and transcendence.

  He had never cleared the Fourth Trial.

  He was not the strongest because he had suffered the most.

  Not because he had surpassed his limits.

  He was simply strong, because power answered him.

  And for the first time, that was not enough.

  Alexandria noticed immediately.

  Her eyes widened as she felt the strain rippling through Barbatos’s presence. She leapt back, crashing into the side of a mountain and shattering it beneath her form. Drawing in a deep breath, she closed her eyes.

  She did not speak.

  She focused.

  'Let’s hope this still works,' she thought.

  When she opened her eyes, she dropped to all fours and opened her mouth. A beam of atum erupted forth, colorless, yet shimmering with every hue at once. Like Barbatos’s power, it was connected to nearly all planes, wild and absolute.

  The moment it struck the Hell Gate, the effect was immediate.

  The gate convulsed violently.

  Assaulted now by two beings of overwhelming power, its structure began to destabilize. Space warped. The edges of the tear rippled, and then, slowly, unmistakably, it began to shrink.

  As the battlefield trembled, frost crept across the ground.

  Ice spread outward in jagged patterns, devouring scorched earth and corrupted flesh alike. A sharp laugh cut through the chaos.

  Yuki had arrived.

  She glanced around once, then casually decapitated an approaching spawn with a blade of pure ice.

  “Sorry I’m late,” she called out with a grin. “I don’t have any fancy teleportation tricks like you lot.”

  Spikes of ice erupted from the ground, impaling dozens of spawn at once. Some resisted, their hides too dense to pierce. Yuki scoffed as one charged her.

  Before it could reach her, a living shadow surged up and swallowed it whole.

  Evelyn emerged from the darkness, her armor writhing with shadow.

  “About time you showed up, witch,” she said coolly, gesturing as a spike of darkness skewered a charging devourer.

  Yuki rolled her eyes. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  A scythe of ice formed in her hand just as a colossal spawn lumbered toward her flank. She glanced at it, unimpressed, and exhaled. Cold vapor poured from her lips.

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  “We’re talking here.”

  The creature froze solid mid-step, and shattered an instant later, reduced to glittering fragments of ice.

  Evelyn whistled behind her mask. “Nice one.”

  “I know,” Yuki replied smugly.

  She surged forward, landing in the midst of the remaining spawn. The ground shattered beneath her feet and froze instantly, unbreakable ice spreading outward in a violent bloom. She twisted gracefully, scythe flashing as she shattered frozen enemies one after another, every movement precise, elegant, lethal.

  She sighed mid-slaughter. “I hope I get a proper match soon.”

  As if answering her, the Hell Gate convulsed again.

  A massive, hairless hound with a flaming mane forced its way through, its growl shaking the frozen ground beneath it.

  Yuki whistled appreciatively. “What are you? A glutton?”

  The beast roared and unleashed a torrent of flame. Yuki raised a hand, conjuring wall after wall of ice. Each time the flames burned through, another barrier formed instantly.

  “It’s no use, doggy,” she said cheerfully. “I am the Icy Witch.”

  The hound leapt over the barriers, landing directly in front of her. Yuki didn’t move. Her scythe reshaped itself into a massive hammer, which she swung upward into the beast’s jaw, sending it flying and shattering trees in its wake.

  It rose again, snarling.

  Nearby, another presence emerged.

  Not a beast, but a demon.

  A humanoid abomination with six arms and no eyes stepped from the gate, its killing intent fixed squarely on Evelyn. She sighed.

  “Alright,” she muttered, raising her weapon. “Let’s get this over with.”

  The demon lunged, all six arms striking at once.

  It never touched her.

  “To slow,” Evelyn said calmly as a blade of darkness severed one of its arms.

  Evelyn seized one of the demon’s remaining arms and hurled it violently into the flaming hound. For a brief, absurd moment, the two snapped at one another,

  Then Yuki surged forward.

  One strike.

  The demon and the hound were erased, the mountain behind them collapsing under the force of her slash.

  The Hell Gate shuddered again, smaller now, weaker.

  But not yet gone.

  The two paragons advanced cautiously toward the shrinking Hell Gate, its edges folding inward as reality slowly reclaimed itself. The battlefield had grown eerily quiet, the screams of spawn replaced by the low hum of stabilizing atum.

  Barbatos and Alexandria appeared beside them in a flicker of light, their sudden presence drawing everyone’s attention as they silently observed the gate’s final moments.

  Evelyn glanced upward, and froze.

  Alexandria stood tall, her presence commanding even in stillness. She wore loose, dark clothing, clearly not her own. Evelyn’s eyes narrowed as she looked closer.

  'Those are Barbatos’s clothes.'

  She shifted her gaze back to him, confusion evident on her face. Evelyn had never been told of Chimera’s awakening. As far as she knew, a mysterious warrior of terrifying strength had appeared mid-battle and aided them. Now that the fighting had ended, the questions she had suppressed surged forward all at once.

  She turned back to the unfamiliar woman and spoke carefully, her tone respectful.

  “Um… excuse me, miss. I don’t think we’ve met before.”

  Alexandria looked down at her, her expression softening. She smiled faintly.

  “My name is Alexandria, child,” she said gently. “But you know me as Chimera.”

  Evelyn staggered back half a step.

  The name struck her like a physical blow.

  She stood there in stunned silence, processing the revelation as everything clicked into place, the power, the presence, the familiarity she hadn’t been able to explain.

  Nearby, Yuki stretched her arms and glanced at Barbatos.

  “So, boss, are we done here? Is that thing finally finished?”

  Barbatos nodded slowly just as Rikin landed beside them, the crackle of lightning fading from his form.

  “Good work, everyone,” Rikin said, exhaling deeply. “We managed to contain the damage and didn’t lose a single person. We were lucky Evelyn was here to notify us the moment it formed.”

  Evelyn scoffed sharply.

  “Not so lucky that Vale was here when it formed.”

  Her irritation was clear. She knew he was alive, but that didn’t erase what had almost happened.

  Alexandria nodded in agreement.

  “That was indeed a cruel twist of fate,” she said quietly. “But he is safe now.”

  Barbatos chuckled softly, drawing their attention. In his true form, onyx shell broken, olive skin exposed, hazel eyes clear, he was a rare sight. Unexpectedly so. Even Evelyn found herself momentarily distracted.

  “Cut him some slack,” Barbatos said lightly. “He managed to kill a colossal using his enigma. That deserves some praise, even if it nearly killed him.”

  Alexandria turned to him sharply.

  “So… they did hurt him?”

  Barbatos winced.

  “Well, yes. I noticed it while I was busy breaking my onyx shell. I couldn’t reach him in time, but right before the colossal crushed him, he grinned. His eyes turned gold.”

  He shrugged awkwardly.

  “I figured he’d be fine.”

  Alexandria’s smile vanished.

  Evelyn’s expression darkened as well.

  The two women stared at Barbatos with unmistakable anger.

  He opened his mouth, clearly realizing he should elaborate.

  Then he felt it.

  His gaze snapped back toward the Hell Gate. A bead of cold sweat slid down his cheek.

  The gate, nearly sealed, twitched.

  From its narrowing opening, a figure stepped through.

  It was humanoid, yet unmistakably insectoid in design, segmented limbs, angular movements, a presence that felt wrong. It paused, surveying the battlefield in silence.

  The air grew heavy.

  Everyone felt it.

  This spawn was not weak.

  It was not a blight.

  It was something far worse.

  “A cataclysm,” Barbatos muttered under his breath.

  And not just any cataclysm, a powerful one.

  Without hesitation, Barbatos surged forward, light erupting around him as the battle, thought finished only moments ago, threatened to begin anew.