"Let's go!" Maruti shouted, her voice echoing through the dark chamber as she burst forward with blinding speed.
Scarlet ran beside her, spinning her long spear in tight circles, her eyes locked on Horax. The air around them crackled with power, liquid swirling in every direction.
Horax let out a deep growl, his monstrous eyes narrowing. With one wave of his hand, dozens of twisted creatures—anomalies—formed from the ground, each one shrieking as it lunged toward the two. At the same time, his tentacles shot forward like black lightning, fast and sharp enough to slice through steel.
Scarlet reacted instantly. Her spear glowed with bright blue energy as she swung it in wide arcs, slicing through the tentacles one by one. Each slash sent black blood splattering across the walls.
Maruti jumped high, flipping through the air as golden fire gathered in her fists, punching through the incoming anomalies. Each one that came close to her body turned to thin gray ash, dissolving into the air.
Within seconds, both of them had cut through the wave of enemies and reached Horax.
Then the real fight began.
Maruti's fists burned with orange and red fire as she threw punch after punch. Scarlet danced around her, stabbing and spinning her spear with precise, deadly movements.
Their teamwork was fast and unpredictable—when Maruti attacked from the front, Scarlet came from behind. When Horax tried to block one, the other struck his blind spot.
But even then, Horax was far from losing.
The entire dark room was his domain. The walls, floor, and ceiling pulsed like living flesh, all connected to him. With a loud laugh, Horax suddenly twisted his wrist.
The entire room flipped upside down.
Maruti and Scarlet both lost their footing for a second as gravity turned against them. Their bodies slammed into the ceiling—then the direction shifted again, throwing them sideways.
"Damn it!" Maruti yelled, using bursts of flame from her feet to keep herself steady in the air.
Horax's voice echoed around them, low and mocking. "You think you can win in my territory?"
"Give me five seconds!" Scarlet called, stepping back several meters. Her grip tightened on her spear. "I'll break this whole room apart!"
Maruti nodded sharply. "Got it!"
Now she was standing alone in front of Horax.
A wide, creepy grin stretched across his face. His tentacles quivered with excitement. "Idiots," he hissed, his voice thick with arrogance.
BAM!
Before he could even move, Maruti dashed forward and punched him right in the face, her fiery fist landing squarely on his jaw. "So creepy!" she shouted. "Don't smile at me like that!"
Horax stumbled a step back, clearly annoyed. Then his long fingers shot out and gripped her shoulder tightly. "Anomaly Transformation!" he said darkly.
A wave of twisted energy surged into Maruti's body, trying to corrupt her from the inside out. Her vision blurred for a second as she felt her mana start to twist—
—but then something inside her pushed back.
A powerful force, bright and pure, burst out of her core. It repelled Horax's dark energy like a mirror reflecting light, burning his hand in the process.
Horax hissed in pain, stepping back. His face turning into an frown. "An… incarnation…" he growled.
His face twisted into rage. "Fine then! Let's see how long you can last!" He raised both his arms. "Killer move—Rotten!"
But nothing happened.
The air went still. The essence stones on his chest glowed faintly, then flickered out completely.
"What—?!" Horax froze, confused. His attack had failed.
This was Xing Liang's move; he could block other people's will and stop them from using their essence stones. She had trained under him for months, so of course, it was finally time to pull it off
Her whole body began to blaze in red and orange flames, her aura glowing brighter and hotter with every breath. Despite the heat, her face carried a wide, confident smile.
BAM!
She launched forward and slammed her fist straight into Horax's stomach.
The impact made a loud, heavy sound. Horax's body lifted slightly off the ground as the shockwave burst outward.
His eyes went wide in disbelief. That punch… it wasn't ordinary. It felt like magic—a spell in the shape of a strike. The attack carried the power of both fire and light, burning through his corrupted flesh like holy flame.
"How can this be? It's like the punch was a magic formula in itself! But she didn't cast any spell. She's just using her killer moves via essence stones. How can one person use both things at the same time? That would cause an insane amount of mental exhaustion!" Hundreds of questions flooded his mind, but literally no answers came.
BAM!
Another punch cut his thoughts off.
This one hit his face, the light within it carrying a purifying effect that acted like a poison to him from the inside. His skin sizzled, and black smoke poured out from his mouth.
Then—
SMASH!
Maruti's flaming kick landed next, sending him reeling backward. Explosions erupted across his body, one after another, like firecrackers going off under his skin. His massive form shook violently, tearing open in multiple places.
But then, as quickly as he was torn apart, his flesh began to regenerate. The damage healed itself..
Before he could fully recover, Maruti was already on him.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Her punches came nonstop—one after another, faster and stronger each time. Each strike carried a different spell: one burned, one purified, one blasted him backward, another pulled him down.
Horax tried to counter, but every time he raised an arm or tentacle, another blow hit him before he could react.
In just a few seconds, Maruti landed dozens of punches and kicks without showing a single hint of exhaustion.
BAM!
With the last punch, she sent him flying several meters away, crashing hard against the wall.
"That was my revenge for earlier, squid face!" Maruti said proudly.
But the next second, Horax regenerated as if nothing had happened. He looked perfectly fine. "I shouldn't have underestimated an incarnation in the first place," he muttered, standing up again.
"Step aside!" At that moment, Scarlet's shout came from behind.
Maruti looked back and saw Scarlet tightly gripping her spear. The spear was glowing a violent violet, with yellow arcs of lightning energy crackling around it.
"Javelin Throw!" Scarlett shouted, sending the spear straight forward.
Fast and powerful—only these two words could describe it. Maruti didn't even have time to react before the spear had already swept past her. Thankfully, she had already stepped aside, or else she wouldn't have had any chance to dodge it mid-attack.
"Siphon Shield!" Horax slammed his hands on the ground. The moment he did, several thick walls of flesh began to pop up. But before they could even fully rise, the spear tore through them like a hot knife through butter. It shot forward like a bolt of lightning, just slipping past Horax and leaving a deep, bleeding scratch on his abdomen.
CRACK!
The spear slammed directly into the far wall, and cracks immediately began to spiderweb across the entire room. The next moment, everything crumbled apart.
Maruti expected to finally be free from the room and see herself back at the academy. But the moment everything broke, she felt herself falling. The walls separated completely, revealing the dark sky outside. It was still dark, but much less so than before.
"We were in the air?" Maruti realized, falling rapidly. It all happened so suddenly that she forgot she could fly, too.
But then, a person leaped close and held her in their arms like a princess, descending gently toward the ground.
"Vesilisa? You're here too?" Maruti looked at the person carrying her.
"Not just me! The whole revolutionary army is here!" Vesilisa said. She landed on the ground and set Maruti down gently.
Scarlet descended beside them. "Be careful, we are facing a demon lord!" she added, wanting to show how serious the situation was.
"What's a demon lord doing here?" Vesilisa immediately felt a chill run down her spine. The title alone was enough to put a look of fear on her face. She then looked at the squid-faced person landing gently on the ground and immediately realized that this person was the demon lord.
"Maruti, I finally found you!" a loud voice boomed, casting a huge shadow over them at the same time.
Everyone looked up and saw Kailith in her dragon form. She immediately changed back to her human form and hugged Maruti tightly.
"An S-rank, a dragon, an incarnation, and one random woman," Horax muttered to himself. "I guess I'll have to go all out as well!"
***
Meanwhile, the time was finally up. Raguel had failed to kill or capture Esdeath. This was a truly humiliating defeat for her. First, Esdeath had escaped from heaven in front of everyone. After that, Jesus had also left heaven, and they couldn't do anything about it at all.
Raguel decided to come here and take Esdeath back to restore her reputation, but it had only gone down further. There was nothing she could do now. She gave one last glance at the half-broken royal palace and then shouted.
"Angels, we are going back!" she said, flapping her wings and reaching high into the clouds.
All the remaining angels heard Raguel's order and followed her. The clouds began to swirl again, forming a vortex, and golden light shone through them. Raguel swept into the cloud, disappearing completely, and the other angels followed her.
"Phoenix—!" Maddie was about to attack and interrupt their retreat, but Lortell stopped her.
"There's no need to provoke them any further. Let them go. The destruction has already done enough!" she said calmly.
Both of them clearly knew that neither side had gone fully all out, or else the whole kingdom would already be in ruins.
Raguel's main focus was to kill Esdeath, so she wasn't giving much thought to the fight either. At several occasions, she had tried to escape and look for Esdeath but was always dragged back by Lortell. As for Morpheus, it felt like he wasn't used to front-line battles. His potential was more in attacking stealthily instead.
"Okay!", Maddie nodded in agreement.
Meanwhile, Morpheus found himself in a one versus two situation.
"It seems this was an failed attack, I couldn't even kill single mariette!", He sighed to himself,"Well I can just do that again and again time to time until I succeed, But I should also retreat for now!",