"Hahaha! Finally… It is finally in my hands!"
At the deepest core of the 'Heart of Chaos,' atop an altar surrounded by grotesquely writhing walls of flesh, Sima Yi let out a mad roar. His entire body was consumed by a dense, violet demonic energy radiating from the Scripture. Tens of thousands of souls harvested from the River of Purgatory flowed into Sima Yi's veins, pulsing in sync with the heart's beat.
It was a power transcending both human and demon, bordering on the divine. As Sima Yi reached out, the very dimensions of the void twisted and shrieked.
Below the altar, Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and Sun Ce—who had been sucked in by the gravitational pull—were struggling to maintain a desperate line of defense while rallying their scattered soldiers. But inside the heart, where the ceiling crumbled and the ground surged like liquid, the resistance of the lords was as precarious as a sandcastle before a massive tsunami.
"Sima Yi! Your ambition ends here!"
Cao Cao shouted, swinging his Qinggang Sword, but Sima Yi only looked down with eyes full of mockery.
"My Lord—no, Cao Cao. You are still so small. With this power, I can rewrite every law of the Demon Realm. The trivial order you have built will now return to nothingness."
Just as Sima Yi was about to snap his fingers to break the final seal of the Scripture—
Rumble!
The sky inside the heart—the very ceiling of the dimension—shattered like a massive glass window. Through the rift, a black comet plummeted directly toward the altar. The one who descended, tearing through the atmospheric friction and shaking the earth by twisting the dimensional storm with sheer force, was the Demon God, Lu Bu.
Boom!
The moment Lu Bu landed, the seven-layered defense barrier Sima Yi had painstakingly constructed was pulverized in a single strike. The pitch-black fighting spirit erupting from the tip of the Sky Piercer collided head-on with Sima Yi's violet magic. The space around the altar, unable to withstand the repulsion, shattered into glass-like shards and scattered in all directions.
"...L-Lu Bu?! How did you get here!"
A stunned Sima Yi stumbled back. This was a variable he hadn't calculated. Lu Bu slowly rose through the cloud of dust. His eyes were already lost to reason, gleaming with a bloodshot madness.
"Sima Yi, my patience with your tedious little games has run out."
As Lu Bu adjusted his grip on the Sky Piercer, the mere aftershock reduced nearby undead to flying scraps of flesh.
"My halberd simply reaches wherever my horse is. Who gave you permission to end this stage?"
As Lu Bu kicked off the ground, the earth collapsed. He made no distinction between ally and foe. Whether it was the skeletal cavalry of Wei blocking his path or the terrified infantry of Shu, all were equally crushed within the trajectory of his halberd. The altar instantly transformed into a gruesome slaughterhouse.
The Heart of Chaos began to slip from Sima Yi's control. Having indiscriminately absorbed the uncontrollable madness Lu Bu radiated, the heart throbbed with a grotesque beat and convulsed even more violently. The battlefield was no longer a place to contest victory or defeat; it was a 'Hell of Survival' where one had to cling to life for even a second longer amidst the vortex of destruction created by a rampaging strategist and a maddened god of war.
With every swing of Lu Bu's halberd, the walls of flesh were torn away, and the acrid blood of the Demon Realm poured down like a waterfall. After grinding Sima Yi's undead into meat in an instant, Lu Bu's gaze finally locked onto one spot. There stood Guan Yu and the Red Hare, trailing silver frost as they guarded Liu Bei's retreat.
"Found you… My horse, and my prey!"
As Lu Bu leaped, the ground where he stood buckled with a massive explosion. The murderous intent erupting from him as he bore down on Guan Yu in an instant was truly overwhelming.
As that chilling aura touched them, the silver frost of the Red Hare—which had performed miracles—began to turn black and twist. The memories of blood, the horrific trauma of slaughtering tens of thousands alongside Lu Bu, began to reclaim the Red Hare's soul. Just as the horse shrieked and reared back in hesitation, Lu Bu's halberd lunged mercilessly toward Guan Yu's heart.
Clang—!
However, Lu Bu's weapon failed to reach Guan Yu's chest. A heavy golden staff, flying from nowhere, struck the halberd aside and shattered the floor of the altar. Embedded in the ground amidst a massive shockwave was the Ruyi Jingu Bang.
Perched atop the staff with one foot, looking down nonchalantly, was Sun Wukong. He let out a bored yawn and muttered toward the Red Hare, whose eyes were trembling with terror.
"Hey, White Dragon (白龍). Keep your eyes open. How long are you going to live under that fake skin, suppressed by the aura of that pile of meat?"
Wukong's voice was low, yet it carried the divinity of the Great Sage who once commanded the Heavens.
"A celestial divine beast with no pride? Your master isn't that madman anymore; it's that bearded old guy over there. Isn't that right?"
That single shout instantly shattered the final shackle bound to the deepest part of the Red Hare's soul.
KII-YAAAAAAH!
From the Red Hare's mouth erupted not a horse's neigh, but a dragon's roar that shook heaven and earth. The blackened fur broke away like shards of glass, and from within, a 'White Dragon (白龍)' with dazzling pure-white scales and a silver mane revealed its divine form. Shedding the husk of the red horse, the divine beast emitted a silver flash that lit up the dark interior of the heart like a polar night, striking Lu Bu's eyes directly.
"Argh! My eyes!"
As Lu Bu staggered, covering his eyes, Guan Yu's gaze flashed coldly.
"Dragon-Steed, now!"
Guan Yu gripped the White Dragon's mane and swung his Green Dragon Crescent Blade in a great arc. The silver flash and blue fighting spirit merged into one, beginning to push back Lu Bu's demonic aura. Despite Lu Bu having lost his sight, Guan Yu exchanged dozens of blows with him at lightning speed, guided by instinct. With every clash, the interior of the heart vibrated and the walls of flesh burst.
Guan Yu did not obsess over defeating Lu Bu. Instead, he used his body as a massive shield, single-handedly enduring the catastrophe that was Lu Bu. Through the momentary rift he opened, Liu Bei and the terrified soldiers ran desperately toward the fractured dimensional rift. Behind the pillar of dazzling light emitted by the War God and the White Dragon, the final path of retreat for the Allied Forces was opening.
The 'Heart of Chaos,' now beyond Sima Yi's control, had become a cancer of the Demon Realm, swallowing everything. The ground melted like liquid, and soldiers caught in the distortion of space-time vanished into the void, disintegrating without even a scream. At this rate, the entire Demon Realm beyond the River of Purgatory would turn into a grave of space-time.
In the center of that ruin, Lucifella took a step forward. Transparent white flames erupted from her entire body.
"Stop… It must end here."
Lucifella's voice trembled, but she was resolute. She clutched the Scripture fragments resonating in her arms. A piercing dissonance rang out as the dark energy of the Scripture collided with her divinity. She had chosen only one path: using her soul as fuel to detonate her divinity, obliterating both the core of the heart and the Scripture entirely.
It was an act of burning away her only chance to return to Heaven, signifying the complete annihilation of her existence.
"I'm sorry, Wukong. I guess the contract ends here."
As Lucifella closed her eyes and raised her final divinity, the entire altar was covered in a blinding white light. Just as everything was about to return to nothingness, someone grumbled with a voice mixed with a yawn, tearing through the radiance.
"Honestly. You really have a talent for being a pain in the neck."
Lucifella's eyes snapped open. Through the heart of the explosion where destructive energy swirled, Sun Wukong was sauntering in as if taking a neighborhood stroll. Shrugging his shoulders dismissively, he drove his enlarged staff into the core of the heart, forcibly suppressing the eruption of energy.
"W-Wukong? The contract is already over! Get out of here!"
The three-contract limit had long been exhausted during the battle at the River of Purgatory. At Lucifella's cry, Wukong picked his ear and pulled her toward him by the waist. Amidst the searing heat of imminent annihilation, Wukong's embrace felt anomalously cool and solid.
"Contract? Who gives a damn about some numbers on a scrap of paper?"
Wukong looked down at her with indifferent eyes and spoke bluntly.
"Besides, it'd be too boring in this hellish Demon Realm without a compass like you, wouldn't it? If it really gets boring later, then you can die. But not now."
With that arrogant declaration, Wukong swung his staff, scattering the last remnants of darkness in all directions. As Lucifella's divinity purified the core of the Scripture, Wukong's overwhelming might suppressed the rampage.
Thoom!
The grotesquely convulsing Heart of Chaos hardened like stone and fell into a deep silence. In the place where the violet demonic energy and white light had receded like a tide, only the ashes of the burnt Scripture scattered quietly like black snow.
Cradled in Wukong's arms, Lucifella stared blankly at his chest. 'Compass.' That arrogant yet nonchalant declaration—telling her to remain as his guide for the Demon Realm—was creating a strange vibration in the heart of the woman who had been prepared to vanish.