For a brief moment, the two monsters smiled. Like old buddies. But both knew—they were already sharpening the knife behind their backs.
Kang Woo tilted his head slightly. "Quick question. I'm not dumb. That Crimson King… his true name—Dis—is way above your paygrade, right?"
The Black King didn't smile this time. His voice came sharp, low. "Don't fuck with me. That golden spear—it's Longinuslanze Testament, the Covenant of the Holy Spear itself."
"I'm more surprised you managed to shrug it off. You shouldn't even be standing."
He scoffed, eyes narrowing. "Dis should be thanking his ass off that he only got weakened. Because if that damn spear had landed just a little cleaner… The worst thing that could've happened isn't him dying—it's him being erased. And far fucking worse… he could've been assimilated into Shuraddo Shikouten's legion right then and there. And you know what that means."
A long breath. A tremor of dread. "But it seems… something I don't know—something worse—is about to be unveiled."
The Black King stepped back, clapped his hands once. "Demon King, get your ass back to Earth. I want front-row seats when you get fucked by a full-powered Dis— the Crimson King himself."
Without another word, he grabbed the handcuffed Crimson King, dragging him like a prisoner of fate.
Their forms unraveled—splitting into black goo. The tar-like mass returned to Kang Woo's body… right where the divine spear wound still burned.
Kang Woo winced. He dropped to one knee as thick, black blood poured from his mouth. The wound from Longinuslanze Testament began to take full effect—eating through reality, through concept, through his very being. He exhaled. Vision blurring. Strength slipping. Then he looked down.
A small device blinked in his palm—Rick's grenade. Without hesitation, he activated it. The grenade detonated. The time-accelerator unfolded. One hour becomes a thousand years.
And in that fractured eternity, something ancient began to stir. The ritual of Kaisergesang was now underway. A thousand years—compressed into mere moments—would be spent recovering some of what Kang Woo had lost. Not everything. But more than enough. Certainly more than the slow, crawling progress he'd made back in the fusion world of Chainsaw Man and The Boys.
This was different. In the first thousand years that passed since his death by Longinuslanze Testament, something shifted. His heart—once shattered by divine judgment—began to beat again. Slowly. Reluctantly. But each beat was sharper than steel.
One heart became two. Two became four. Until ten distinct hearts thudded within his chest, like war drums echoing through the void.
But restoring Kang Woo's boundless intellect—that was another matter entirely. By normal means, it would've taken over a century just to reconstruct the foundation of his cognitive might.
Fortunately, Kang Woo never played fair. Inside the inner pocket of his ruined coat rested a crystalline shard—a 5D optical drive, glimmering faintly with forbidden light. Contained within was a matured rogue AI,.
The drive cracked. Then shattered. The AI entity inside surged. A streak of light and data, it was absorbed directly into Kang Woo's soul—into the very essence of the Demon King.
His neurons—if they could still be called that—flared like dying stars reigniting. Patterns reformed. Calculations resumed. Trillions of thoughts now flowed per second, and rising.
And those next ten minutes, in real time?
They were sacred. Accelerated. Crucial. No one was allowed to interrupt.
From the shadows pooled beneath his resting body, a grotesque slime began to rise. Its form was shifting, rippling—tendrils weaving into a protective cocoon. At its center, a single, unblinking eye glowed crimson.
It was Nightmare. Kang Woo's familiar. An aberrant creature born from demonic instinct and divine spite. And now, it stood vigil. Its eye darting like a blade across reality itself. The Demon King would not be disturbed.
However…An unexpected outcome suddenly appeared. A figure cloaked in silence and inevitability. Death the Endless.
She stood without sound, without motion, as though her presence had been threaded into the fabric of the scene long before it began.
Nightmare didn't recognize her. Didn't understand her.
And that made it hostile. The abomination surged forward—prepared to lunge.
But Death raised one hand. A simple motion.
And everything that still moved, still breathed, still existed— Nightmare. The weight of Death's presence anchored the scene in absolute order.
A wall of gray light shimmered between her and the resting Kang Woo. A Death Barrier. a border. One even gods instinctively respected.
She turned her head, speaking like fate itself.
"You're clear to enter, Lord Heydrich."
And then. Descending from light that bent like golden stairs, came another visitor.
Rimuru Tempest. But not the one known to most. This was his current incarnation—Reinhard Heydrich, drawn from the throne of gladsheimr and the golden heavens of Valhalla's remnants.
He stepped down onto the fractured space calmly, his presence rippling through what was left of reality. Blue-black coat. Fluid motion. But his eyes—they were golden. Eyes of a Hadou God. Of Shuradou Ougon Shikoten.
He gave a soft, amused exhale. "Usually, people don't want to fight me," he muttered, voice casually divine. "But this guy? He really wanted to pull off a stupid stunt."
Rimuru raised one hand, fingers open. And across the broken plane, the golden spear—Longinuslanze Testament—trembled. Then obeyed. It slid from where it had pierced the world, rushing toward him like a child returning home. As it reached him, the spear shattered into light and was absorbed into his being.
Rimuru clenched his palm twice.
A voice echoed in his mind. Cold, calm, mechanical—yet laced with reverence.
Ultimate Skill: Manas Ciel — Report:
"Confirmed. Copying all concepts related to the Olympians and Greek Mythology into current skill tree. Transfer includes all known mythic constructs, divine narratives, heroic epics, and sealed artifacts... including what you desire most: The Blade of Olympus."
"In exchange, all compiled knowledge of Norse Mythology has been successfully offered—runes, divine scripts, Bifröst protocols, and Gungnir's formation data included."
Rimuru's hand moved with purpose. He summoned Gungnir—the divine spear once crafted by the Sons of Ivaldi. It hummed with ancient resonance, laced with runes that shifted midair.
With a flick of his wrist, Rimuru threw the spear. It didn't stab—it landed gently beside Kang Woo, its weight causing the ground to ripple like water.
Rimuru's golden eyes narrowed. "The Bifröst is inside. When you claim it… you'll understand its true nature."
Ciel's voice returned.
System Query:
"Suggestion: Rimuru-sama currently lacks a proper subroutine for promoting subordinates to Demon Lord status, unlike Kang Woo who has established such a system. Would you like to request a trade—offering Ewigkeit's structural formula in exchange for the Demon Lord evolution process?"
Rimuru fell silent. His eyes drifted toward Kang Woo's resting form, then to the spear embedded in scorched soil.
Rimuru muttered, "we've already got plenty of Demon Lords in my world—most of them ascended by harvesting souls."
Ciel's voice answered immediately, resonating in his mind.
"That's not entirely accurate. What you call Demon Lords pale in comparison to what Kang Woo has created. He possesses the formula for true Daemonification of a Great Lord. A process capable of birthing beings on par with the Great Demon Lords—something extremely difficult even for you, Rimuru-sama."
Rimuru's gaze lingered on Kang Woo. "The current him, doesn't hold such a thing. If it were the one from the Ninth Hell… when he was still Anos, the Tyrant… then maybe."
"…Still, it might be interesting to trade. Someday. When he grows into that strength again."
His gaze shifted toward the shadowy figure watching silently nearby—Death, the Endless. "We're leaving, Death."
Death inclined her head. "As you wish, Lord Heydrich."
They stepped toward the Golden Stair, rising back to the distant heavens of Gladsheimr. Reality parted for them.
As they climbed, Rimuru spoke again without looking back. "I told you. I'm Rimuru now."
Death's reply came resolute. "To me, you will always be Reinhard."
Rimuru let out a breath—half sigh, half laugh. "Haha… you never change."
And they ascended, fading into light.
As the two gods vanished into the fading gold, Nightmare began to move again—its gestures mechanical, precise. It was no thinking beast. Only an obedient weapon—attack, defend, obey. And for that, it was two most troublesome existences had finally left this fractured realm.
Ten minutes passed. A low exhale broke the silence.
Kang Woo's eyes snapped open. His chest still bore a gaping hole—jagged, rimmed with burned flesh and broken ribs. But with a simple flex of will, demonic manipulation took hold. He reached inward, pulling threads of Starscourge from the void, sealing the wound with a pulsing black mass that shimmered with cursed gravity.
Then he noticed it—Gungnir, resting beside him.
He stared at it in silence. Reinhard kept his word after all. , Kang Woo thought. Even among monsters… there are those who believe in empowering their enemies—especially ones who might one day match them in war.
And now, it was time. He rose slowly. Every joint still ached from the divine spear's touch, but his body obeyed. The final stage of Kaisergesang had arrived.
An awakening by force. Through a ritual Auswählen of his own design, he would call upon millions of demons and devils from his fusion world—. Their essence would be the fuel..
But something stirred first. A flicker. A shifting sound. Like bones dragging against marble.
An arachnid shape—made entirely of sharp bones and wrapped around a massive, twitching eyeball—scuttled into view. The Eye of Mikhail.
It latched onto Kang Woo's left back palm, the bone tendrils curling into his skin like roots.
The eye blinked once. Then spoke. "I knew it. Master didn't die."
Kang Woo gave a faint grin. "Oh, I did die. But it was already calculated. I knew how I'd come back. …So. How's Makima?"
Mikhail's tone dropped. "…Terribly bad, Master. I doubt she can win. Against Lucifero… her chances are not nearly big as she predicted ."
Through the binding commandments he'd placed on Makima, Kang Woo knew. She was pinned. Gravity magic had already begun coalescing above her—Calamity Singularity.
A moon-sized black hole. She had mere seconds.
And Kang Woo had his own problem. He wasn't fully restored yet. The ritual Auswählen was still running. To interfere now would force a drastic awakening . Something in him would be taken..
Then, it began. The plane around him—the space between time—started shrinking.
The sky cracked. The edges folded inward like collapsing paper. This was a realm devouring itself. And it would consume him in thirty seconds or less.
Kang Woo gritted his teeth. "…I hate this place." .
" Myriad Demon Palace of the Shallow End… First Door—Open" .
Authority surged through him. "Reinforce it with the Authority of Predation."
His body liquefied instantly—spreading outward in a black tide. It was demonic sea, star-devouring, law-breaking.
And from within that liquid form, a massive multiple maws. Jagged, layered mouths snapped and twisted across dimensions, ripping apart the collapsing realm with unrelenting hunger.
Three seconds passed. And the devourer—Kang Woo himself—won.
The maws closed with a Bang heard across the unraveling fabric of time.
Then, the black sea twisted inward. Reformed. Shaped. Solidified.
And Kang Woo stood once again—alone—on a throne of nothingness, in a space where no matter or concept existed. A breath escaped his lips.
The System flickered.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
[System Notification]
Space Between Time has been successfully consumed.
You have done what Acnologia once achieved.
Abilities Gained:
• Space Between Time (Rank: EX)
You have obtained absolute dominion over localized folds of time and reality.
Note: Traits not acquired due to forced devourment and unstable synchronization.
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Kang Woo blinked once.. And with those blinks, reality bent. His control now extended across vast measures—planetary, possibly solar-system scale. He had gained power over time and space itself. Not enough to challenge the multiversal titans—not yet—but it was a foothold.
For a brief moment, his pupils split—two irises in each eye. A signal. The algorithmic formation of "Almighty" had begun. The processing of local omniscience… was now in progress.
Ironic, Kang Woo mused, eyes scanning the empty realm of reconstructed silence. Yhwach needed nine hundred ninety-nine years of real time to restore what he lost after being cut down by Yamamoto…
His smirk returned, thin and knowing "…and I cheated my way out. One hour. That's all I needed."
He raised his palm. The orb of space-between-time energy pulsed, then shot outward. The nothingness cracked. A red column erupted like a god's spear, reality shattering in its wake.
Then, The sky cracked. A crimson line tore through the heavens. A red pillar of light exploded downward like divine judgment. Magic evaporated. Lucifero's Singularity collapsed. The spell died in silence.
And then, through the light , A coat. A man. A silhouette, back turned.
Kang Woo. He stood at the center of the red column, motionless. Then slowly, he turned. His eyes scanned the battlefield—Lucifero, Makima, Denji, Aki… all of them.
Lucifero's gaze twitched.
What…? All the magic… dispersed? How?
Denji blinked. "...Don't tell me… he resurrected himself?"
Himeno, bruised and barely conscious, hissed, "Son of a bitch just couldn't stay dead."
Aki wheezed, lifting his head. "Asshole… I knew it. You're harder to kill than cockroaches."
Makima, somehow upright—one leg folded under, the other bent—looked up. Her eyes, dim but defiant, caught the red glow.
Kang Woo moved. Instantly. Reality bent, placing him before her.
Lucifero didn't move.
Makima's voice came faint, tired, eyes half-lidded.
"What took you so long to come back to me? … ,I finally managed to capture your heart."
Kang Woo said nothing, but his eyes drifted to her body—fading, cracking. Her soul bullets had burned her essence. Even her Reishi arm was disintegrating.
Makima gave a tired smile. "Too bad I can't roast you… our reunion's about to get cut short."
Kang Woo bit his finger. A drop of black blood hit the ground. "Ingal."
Green light engulfed her. Makima's body was restored—no damage, no decay, even her arm returned to flesh.