"Thunder!"
Countless bolts of lightning rended the sky.
"Flame!"
Holy fire exploded outward, dispelling every shadow.
"Purify!"
All negative energy was incinerated in an instant.
High above in the firmament, God's divine authority shone without contest.
He spoke no grand incantations, cast no spells—mere words from His lips, each containing divine law, each one shaping the cosmos.
All creation could be commanded or judged with a sentence.
"Is this… God's power?"
On a shattered island platform, the Demon King trembled, stunned, staring upward.
In the sky, with a few casual divine words, God had suppressed the Beast 666.
That single claw had erased Seraphim and Hell Lords alike—one swipe was enough to obliterate them.
Now, against God, the Beast seemed pitiful, powerless.
The gap was so vast that even the Demon King—once the #1 among demons—felt only despair.
"Let's go. Back to Hell is safer."
The Succubus Lord appeared beside him.
"No… I want to stay and watch."
"They're already in their most intense fight," she cautioned.
"Their strength… I cannot rival it. But maybe this is my chance."
In Hell, there existed a breed called Blood Demons—similar to vampires—who fed on blood essence to gain power. The Demon King possessed part Blood Demon heritage, which explained his exceptional might. Past Demon Kings never matched his strength openly against the Seraphim.
The Succubus Lord's face grew conflicted.
"This place is far too dangerous!" she whispered.
The Demon King frowned, glaring at her.
"Danger? Up there, those two don't even care about us."
"You're weak before them—even I fear them," she said quietly.
The Demon King's face hardened.
"What are you saying?"
"I mean…"
A voice cut in—soft, cold, unexpected.
The Demon King's face twitched. The voice was familiar—Balder's.
When had Balder become so brazen as to address him thus?
Before he could react, the Succubus Lord's face drained of color.
But Balder paid neither her nor the Demon King heed. His gaze was fixed on the heavens, watching the war above.
"You're strong, yes," he said, "but not unbeatable."
The Demon King blinked.
He looked upward, then at Balder.
Impossible—how could that being speak so casually?
Then, in a heartbeat, Balder's eyes snapped with divine light.
No display of power—only a glance.
And in that moment, the Demon King's body fractured.
His eyes bulged.
What kind of strength could kill one of Hell's greatest with a single glance?
That glance—Balder had delivered it.
The Demon King exploded into raw, primordial energy, dissolving into nothingness.
Balder turned his attention to the Succubus Lord.
She trembled violently under his gaze.
He said nothing. Yet her form began to collapse—cracking like glass under pressure.
By the time she tried to plead, it was too late.
Even strong demons could not survive the glance of a semi-Proto-Father.
Her body shattered outward—except not into dissolution.
She condensed into a pink energy crystal, glowing softly.
"Succubi are… interesting," Balder mused. "But I don't care for the old you."
He replaced her power, sculpting a new Succubus form with that energy.
Whether he gifted it to Dr. Wade or kept it for others—he'd decide later.
With his tools gathered, Balder's eyes returned to the heavens.
"By dominion, by holy word… I discerned your nature in a single glance."
He chuckled softly.
"In sheer style, God outclasses any I've ever faced. But in combat?"
He paused.
"Let's say… this version isn't unbeatable."
He considered, internally: God is a mechanism-based entity—power scaling, growth by absorption.
This other God, the one Balder faced earlier, was a duplication entity—its strength came from mimicry and accumulation.
He believed that, in a drawn fight, the duplicated God may temporarily dominate.
But ultimately, he was the faster copier—if allowed, Balder would reverse the outcome.
Balder's lips curved upward.
"He doesn't have much belief left."
High above, God maintained His sovereign posture, indomitable and majestic.
Yet Balder alone knew: this God was strained.
To resist the Beast's pull toward chaos, God had poured out immense reserves of power.
His celestial eyes flickered.
In that instant's hesitation—just long enough—Balder's opportunity came.
From below…
A claw ripped through the void once more, slamming into God Himself, as though striking the throne.
Heaven cracked.
The omnipotent was knocked off balance.
Then—
Light blazed from the heavens. Ten shining suns manifested, each forged of pure divine essence.
Together they converged, forming a giant orb of light—the ultimate divine explosion.
Heaven's power, distilled to the extreme, unleashed downward.
A mile-thick column of radiant force fell, engulfing the mountain where God had been cast.
No explosion, no shockwave—everything under that column was dissolved into pure being.
Seconds passed.
From the crush of that light, God emerged.
His form, unscathed.
His eyes shone with that cold white radiance—able to see through all.
"Is that your strength?" God asked softly.
"Not bad… you Outer-God."
Balder stood on a peak, silhouetted by divine glow, looking down on Him.
"So you did find my presence."
"Beast 666 was sealed by Lucifer. It could not escape on its own."
"And the Thirteen Keys—who forged them?"
God's gaze flickered.
"You."
Balder's eyes widened.
"You set this trap… with power far beyond your apparent self. You didn't need the Beast. Only one of equal stature to me would borrow its might."
"You orchestrated this entire stage to draw out power!"
He extended his pseudo-omniscience to its limits.
"Now, hand over your power. Help me become stronger."
His eyes blazed.
The white light of universal analysis spread—untold power.
God's figure froze.
Shock, confusion.
"Curious, aren't you?" Balder whispered.
"Belief gives power. But what of faith turned bitter? Of the curse of broken worship?"
"That poison—born of despair—infused 666 itself."
"You thought I wouldn't see your plan. You thought the Keys were yours alone."
"In your arrogance—"
Suddenly, in Balder's hand, a spear appeared.
It was unassuming—but saturated with dread.
"Forged from 9,999 Divine-Killing Spears, tempered in God's own blood—this spear exists solely to slay You."
The God-Killing Spear fell toward the earth like a meteor of silence.
Then…
"No!!!"
A black void erupted in midair.
All that touched it vanished.
Every… single… thing.
~~----------------------
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