"A teammate? Are you mocking me?!" Lucifer snapped.
"Of course not. Well... to be honest, I know you're prideful—because you are Lucifer. So I'm giving you a decision right now," King Dula said, his voice cold and commanding.
"A decision?" Lucifer repeated warily.
"Team up with me and defeat Xiandre—the Smiling Reaper—or I'll let the Heavens drag you back and torture you again," King Dula replied, his eyes dead serious, glowing with divine fury.
Lucifer tensed. For a brief moment, real fear crept into his eyes as sweat slid down his cheek. He clenched his teeth, glancing between Xiandre and King Dula.
"...Alright, alright. Tsk. I shouldn't have let my pride blind me. Damn it... now my pride's going to get shattered just because I need your help," Lucifer muttered bitterly.
Xiandre sighed.
"This... has to be a joke," he muttered, watching the two strongest foes he had ever faced now standing side by side—fully armed, fully powered.
A golden divine sword gleamed in King Dula's grip, shining with holy light.
"Looks like the king has a second form too. How ironic," Xiandre mused grimly.
Without warning, King Dula teleported behind him and swung. Xiandre raised his hand just in time, conjuring a dark barrier as the blade smashed him down toward the earth.
He rose from the rubble—but Lucifer was already there, lunging from behind with a deadly slash.
Xiandre twisted away, barely dodging—but King Dula came diving from above, his sword aimed directly at Xiandre's heart.
Xiandre dodged again, then again. The onslaught didn't stop. Slashes, beams, explosions—they came at him from all angles, relentless and brutal.
He ducked beneath King Dula's swing and countered with a hard kick to the chin, but the king barely flinched.
Then—pain. Lucifer's blade stabbed into Xiandre's side, and he coughed blood, teleporting upward in desperation.
Floating in the sky, he controlled his gravity, forcing his battered body to stabilize. He reached out—and his severed arm teleported back to him. With a grunt, he ripped the mantle off his helmet and tied the limb back on like it was a shattered toy.
Below him, King Dula and Lucifer pointed their swords skyward.
Pew. Pew. Pew. Pew.
A barrage of energy blasts shot toward him.
Xiandre dodged—left, right, spinning in midair—but some caught him. One hit his shoulder. Another burned through his leg. He faltered.
Then—Lucifer was there, on top of him. A blade through his chest.
"Nggh—!" Xiandre groaned.
King Dula followed instantly, slashing his sword across Xiandre's helmet—cracking it. A second blow shattered it entirely, revealing Xiandre's face as blood streamed down.
Still, Xiandre didn't fall.
He teleported again, bleeding, broken—but still moving. High above the battlefield, he hovered unsteadily.
At that moment, Amelia appeared atop the castle. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw Xiandre barely clinging to life.
King Dula reappeared in front of him, gripping him by the throat.
"This ends now," the king hissed.
He opened his mouth and unleashed a searing beam of divine energy directly into Xiandre's face.
"Aaaghhh!" Xiandre screamed as the light consumed him.
Then, King Dula hurled him with all his strength—straight back toward the castle.
Bang!
Xiandre slammed into the stone with a thunderous crash.
Amelia teleported instantly to his side, kneeling beside him as he trembled, struggling to stand.
His body was broken.
"Xiandre... No, don't die on me..." Amelia whispered, cradling him.
His head was bleeding, wounds torn open all over his body.
"Where... where is Velmora—and Ruby?" Xiandre asked, coughing up blood, his voice trembling.
"They're fighting. Velmora's battling a doppelgänger, and Ruby's helping her," Amelia replied.
"I... I see. Then go help them. Leave me here—I'll handle this," Xiandre muttered, barely upright.
Suddenly, a sharp blade sliced through the air behind Amelia.
Her right eye glowed blue, and she reacted instantly, grabbing Xiandre and teleporting out of harm's way.
Leviathan landed where they had just stood, grinning. Moments later, Lucifer and King Dula came crashing down beside him.
"Lucifer!? You're with him now?" Leviathan asked in disbelief.
"No, I was forced to," Lucifer replied coldly. "He threatened to let Heaven torture me again if I didn't help."
King Dula shot a glance at Leviathan, his expression as stern as stone.
Leviathan growled but nodded. "Tch..."
"Well, look at that," King Dula mocked. "Your little girlfriend decided to help you. Did she really think you stood a chance against us?"
Xiandre coughed harshly. "Amelia... go. I'm telling you—leave me. I'll take care of this."
"No!" Amelia cried. "I can't just leave you here! You can't fight all three of them at once! I know how strong you are, but I care about you. I—" Her voice cracked. "They'll kill you!"
Xiandre reached out and pulled her into a kiss, whispering, "I'm sorry... I love you."
Before she realized it, his tongue pressed against hers—and in that instant, his control spell took effect.
He pulled away, sighed, and gave the order: "I command you—help Velmora and Ruby. Then return to the tavern with Fillia and the others and run if I die... Im fighting people who are immortal just like me, meaning there's a chance that I will still die even if I'm immortal."
Amelia's eyes flickered as she nodded under his spell and teleported away.
Xiandre stood, barely.
His arm was still severed. His breathing was ragged. His body, broken.
"You done?" Lucifer asked smugly. "You do realize this is the end, right?"
"I know all about your Limit Breaker skill," King Dula added. "Even if you max it—multiply it tenfold—it's still not even an atom compared to the power of the gods. With Heaven and Hell both backing me... your death is certain."
Xiandre didn't flinch.
"You might kill those girls... Ruby, Velmora, Fillia, Millie, Alice and Amelia. I can't let you three take them away from me, this world I'm currently living in, shall shatter because of my arrival, and this is how I will carve my name into this world, as the smiling reaper."
His tone was calm. Cold. One eye gone. His armor shattered—only his leggings and boots remained. His legs trembled just keeping him standing.
"What a pain," King Dula muttered. "You really don't know when to quit."
"And if I did quit... would you have spared me?" Xiandre retorted. "Of course not. That's why I'd rather die fighting than die begging."
Lucifer grinned. "I love that pride of yours."
"I envy your strength," Leviathan added. "I'm sorry it ends this way—three against one. But you faced it with honor."
Xiandre chuckled darkly, placing his palm on his face.
"...Let's finish this."
King Dula, Lucifer, and Leviathan readied their weapons.
In a blink—shing!
Xiandre's head, arms, and legs were severed. Blood gushed across the broken stone.
His body collapsed.
Dead.
The three foes stood over his remains.
"Thanks for your help, you two. Now go," King Dula said, raising his voice. "Return to Hell—or suffer!"
Without a word, Leviathan and Lucifer vanished, teleporting away.
King Dula looked down at Xiandre's corpse, chuckling darkly, then leapt high into the sky—back into the throne room.
It was empty.
The doppelgänger of Velmora lay slain, riddled with bone shards, its head burned to ash.
The sky began to clear. Demons retreated. So did Leviathan and Lucifer.
King Dula stood at the edge of the throne room, arms crossed, basking in what he believed was victory.
"Tsk. My fate is gonna be running away from the dragon," he muttered. "He's capable of killing me—and all my men because of this huge lost of men..."
Then—boom.
A presence.
A light.
Something behind him.
He turned—
Bang.
And everything turned white.
A lone figure stood in the shattered remains of the throne room, cloaked in a black hood. Her knife dripped with King Dula's blood, thick and dark. His wings had been severed, twitching on the floor behind him.
"Father... am I late?" Scarlett asked, her voice emotionless. Her pale, frigid expression betrayed no warmth—only the cold edge of inevitability.
King Dula coughed, wings and arms beginning to regenerate. He gave a bitter smirk. "Looks like you were..."
In a flash, he swung his sword at her, aiming to cleave her in half.
Scarlett vanished.
Reappearing behind him, she swung her blade—severing his head. It hit the ground... and grew back.
"Tsk. You make me sick," she muttered.
"You understand it now, don't you? You're no match for me," Dula replied with eerie calm.
He blinked forward and rammed his blade into her chest. Blood burst from her—except it wasn't blood anymore. It was molten lava.
King Dula roared in pain as it scorched through his flame-resistant skin. He staggered back—only for Scarlett to slice off his jaw with a clean stroke it regenerated back.
A beam of divine energy suddenly descended, bleaching the sky in white.
When the light faded, Goddess Fillia stood between them, a sly smile playing on her lips.
"Fufu~ Looks like this was always meant to happen," she said with dark delight.
King Dula glared. "Goddess Fillia... You? Siding with an undead? You could break free of him anytime. I know you're hiding your true strength, what exactly are you planning."
Scarlett stood silently behind king dula.
"How shameless," Fillia cooed, brushing her fingers through her hair. "I've grown... quite attached to Xiandre. I pretended to be weak just so I could stay close to him. Fufu~ His voice... his eyes... his skin... his heart... the virus behind his system. I know everything about him. And it consumes me."
"I love him."
"I love him."
"I love him."
"I love him."
"The face he made when I sent him to Hell... pure, broken, beautiful. The Smiling Reaper—he's the only one capable of defeating the Eldritch God of Profanity. He just doesn't know it yet."
Fillia's expression twisted into obsession.
"His body, his power, even his dick—I want all of it. Amelia? The main heroine? No. I want to be his special one. I want to be the heroine in his story."
"Xiandre."
"Xiandre."
"Xiandre."
"Xiandre Xiandre Xiandre Xiandre Xiandre—!"
"You know what? I'll rebuild this world. It's already broken. Grimore has fallen. Let's restart everything... and this time, I'll be the main heroine."
Suddenly, a massive surge of dark energy flooded the sky.
Xiandre rose.
His broken armor was gone—his body now wrapped in a black aura deeper than shadow, colder than void. He hovered above them, radiating an overwhelming presence.
[System]
(Limit Breaker: SHATTERED. You're on your own, Outer One.)
His system shattered.
"I-Is that..." Scarlett whispered. "The Smiling Reaper..."
King Dula stared, then grinned. "So you're back. Good. Fillia, if you wouldn't mind, step aside. I want to see what he's truly capable of."
"Fufufufufu~" Fillia laughed madly as Scarlett stepped away. Amelia and the others arrived back at the ruined castle, frozen in awe as they witnessed Xiandre's new form.
It wasn't just darkness.
It wasn't just power.
It was omnipotence.
Xiandre didn't speak. He simply looked at King Dula.
And then—
SPLAT.
King Dula exploded into a burst of blood and vapor.
Silence.
Then, the sky ruptured.
Seraphims descended.
Eyes upon eyes opened across the heavens. Their presence shattered the air itself. Time buckled. Space cracked.
The castle vanished into a dimensional rift.
They stood no longer in the world they knew. Not Grimore.
This was something else entirely.
A world of space and time.
A god's domain.