"...And for that, we shall erase you from existence."
As Ddraig's declaration echoed through the air, I felt the sheer weight of our shared conviction. Rizevim had crossed every line imaginable. He had committed atrocities simply because he could, touching the "reverse scales" of both the Red and White Dragons.
Vali and I stood side-by-side with a singular, burning purpose.
I don't care what it takes. This piece of garbage... he dies by our hands!
We weren't just fighting for survival anymore; we were here to ensure this monster could never stand again. He was the embodiment of a malice that threatened to swallow the world.
Our auras—crimson and silver-white—began to pulse in a rhythmic, divine harmony. The energies didn't just stand next to each other; they bled together, expanding into a terrifying pressure that bore down on the battlefield.
Even Rizevim, for all his arrogance, took a reflexive step back. A cold bead of sweat rolled down his temple as his throat tightened. My Penetrate ability had effectively stripped him of his greatest defense—his Sacred Gear Nullification. He was still a monster in terms of raw power, but now, he was a monster we could actually kill.
The panic in his eyes lasted only a second before it was replaced by a frantic, jagged grin. He reached into his coat and pulled out a handful of small glass vials.
"Uhyahyahya! So, we're doing this the hard way? Fine! I've got enough Phoenix Tears to last a lifetime. Let's see who breaks first—your stamina, or my patience. It's a contest of endurance, boys!"
He popped the cork on the first vial. We weren't surprised; we knew he'd been stockpiling them since the incident in Heaven.
The real question was: how were we going to stop him from infinitely regenerating?
Rizevim tipped the vial back. "Here goes one!"
He swallowed the liquid. The wounds from our previous assault should have vanished instantly. His broken bones should have snapped back into place.
But nothing happened.
"..."
Rizevim's brow furrowed. He stared at his hands, then at the empty vial.
"What... what is this? Why aren't I healing?!"
"Because they were real," a voice called out from the observation deck. "Right up until the moment you drank them."
We turned to see the Champion, Diehauser Belial. He was battered and bloodied, but his hands were steady as he maintained a small, intricate magic circle. Rizevim's eyes darted to him, wide with realization.
"You... you nullified them? You stripped the power from the Phoenix Tears?!"
"The Belial trait, Worthless, usually only applies to a person's abilities," the Champion wheezed, his voice straining. "But 'objects' are no exception... so long as I understand their molecular structure and the principles behind them. Just now, I rendered every single item in your possession completely worthless."
Rizevim's face contorted as the gravity of his situation sank in.
"The match against the Phoenix family... you planned this from the very beginning!"
That was it. Diehauser had orchestrated the game against Riser specifically to analyze his demonic energy and the composition of the Tears. He had been waiting for this exact moment to deactivate every healing item the Qlippoth faction possessed.
"Diehauser...!" Rizevim roared, his voice trembling with rage. "You dare betray me? Me, the son of Lucifer?! You'd side with the Red Dragon Emperor over your own kind?!"
The Champion didn't offer the dignity of an answer.
Rizevim was cornered. His regeneration was gone, and he was facing the combined, relentless might of the two most powerful dragons in history. He was out of options.
Vali's killing intent reached a fever pitch. He dispelled his gauntlets and manifested a blade of pure, concentrated light in his hand.
"I wanted to finish this alone," Vali said, his voice cold as the grave. "But I'm done being picky. Rot in hell, Rizevim. I'm not leaving a single cell of your body behind."
It felt like the end. No one was letting their guard down—not against a snake like him—but the path to victory was finally clear.
Then, Rizevim started to laugh.
"Kekeke... hyahya... puhahahaha! AH-HA-HA-HA-HA!"
He threw his head back, arms wide, cackling like a madman toward the empty sky.
Has he finally lost it?
For a second, I thought he was calling for Lilith, the Ophis double, but there was no sign of her. The three of us—Vali, the Champion, and I—watched him with a growing sense of unease. There was something wrong with that laughter. It didn't sound like a man who had lost; it sounded like a man who had been waiting for an excuse to do something terrible.
Rizevim finally stopped, letting out a long, shuddering breath.
"Yare yare... I really didn't want to use this yet. But I suppose I have no choice."
He tossed the useless vials aside and reached into his coat one last time. This time, he pulled out a single test tube. Inside the glass, something black and oily was writhing, pulsing like a heartbeat.
The moment I saw it, every instinct I had screamed DANGER. My skin crawled.
"What... what is that foul thing?" even Vali asked, his combat-ready stance tightening.
Rizevim held the tube up to the light. "Ophis's snakes. You're familiar with how the Old Satan Faction used them to power up, right?"
I knew them all too well. I'd fought people who used them—they could turn a third-rate devil into a powerhouse. They had pushed Shalba Beelzebub to the level of a Satan. But those snakes were never this... wrong. They didn't radiate this level of pure, concentrated filth.
"This one is different," Rizevim sneered. "I extracted the snakes from the surviving Old Satan devils and refined them specifically for my own body."
"Refined?"
"It was a side project while I was looking for ways to boost Lilith. I used research notes from the Hero Faction and layered them with every forbidden technique and heresy I could find. The principle is the same as the old snakes, but the output? It's easily ten times the power."
Vali and I both felt the air leave our lungs. Ten times?
"Well, I modified it so much that using it carries... significant risks," Rizevim continued, casually uncapping the tube. "I had Walburga test a prototype to see what would happen, but she was defeated before I could gather enough data."
He poured the writhing black mass onto his arm. The substance clung to his skin, crawling up his limb like a parasite before diving into his mouth and disappearing down his throat.
A heartbeat later...
THUMP.
Rizevim's entire body spasmed violently. His limbs shook, and his veins bulged until they looked like they were about to burst through his skin. The aura around him turned into a thick, suffocating fog of pure evil.
His Lucifer wings shredded his clothes as they expanded to a monstrous size. Two jagged horns tore through his forehead. He looked like a demon from the deepest circle of hell. He exhaled a cloud of toxic miasma and began to laugh—a distorted, multi-tonal sound that made my ears bleed.
『Uhyahya... hyahyahyahyahya!』
The sound echoed across the ruins. This wasn't a devil anymore. It was a calamity. A god of ruin.
Rizevim's eyes, now a deep, bruised purple, locked onto us.
『I might look a bit... intense... but this? THIS is the True Great Satan Lucifer!』
And then, he vanished.
He didn't move; he simply ceased to be in one spot and appeared in another. Before we could even process his disappearance, a crushing impact slammed into my back.
He got behind us?! When?!
I swung a blade of aura in a wide arc, but it cut through nothing but air.
"GAH!"
To my side, I heard Vali scream. The monstrous Rizevim had driven a fist into Vali's chest, shattering the white armor and sending the dragon sprawling. Rizevim grabbed Vali by the arm, swung him like a ragdoll, and hurled him through the city office building, collapsing several floors in the process.
"You bastard!"
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