Sephirot's gaze was icy as he adjusted his stance, blowing apart the other head that attempted to counterattack.
However, it all seemed to be in vain.
From within Hell, a surge of majestic energy poured into the headless mount.
In the blink of an eye, two brand-new heads regrew.
"It is useless. As long as I remain in Hell, you cannot harm me."
"And once I descend upon the human world, free of the contract's restrictions, your current power will be utterly incapable of wounding me."
Valak sneered.
In this brief window of time, it had already gauged Sephirot's situation.
The Sparda bloodline within the man was incredibly thick, but its level of awakening was pathetically low. It was as if he had never been taught how to awaken it; he couldn't even trigger the most basic Devil Trigger.
The last trace of apprehension in its eyes vanished, replaced once more by a high-and-mighty arrogance.
"Cough... cough..."
At the edge of the magic circle, Constantine violently coughed up a large mouthful of black blood.
His body was already hollowed out by lung cancer; by forcibly maintaining this formation, he was excessively draining his life force.
Sephirot knocked Valak back half a step with a punch, his brow furrowed slightly.
Half of Valak's body remained in Hell, and the energy from that side was continuously mending its wounds.
Unless he could unleash an outburst of damage that exceeded the speed of Hell's restoration, Constantine would surely be the first to die if the battle dragged on.
"Drop the magic circle," Sephirot said suddenly.
Papa Midnite, who was struggling to maintain the barrier, was struck with horror:
"Are you insane? If we drop the magic circle, it will be completely unrestricted! The entire city will become a slaughterhouse!"
"Constantine can't die yet. Get him out of this house."
Sephirot spoke without turning his head.
"Without the magic circle's suppression, how are you going to deal with a Demon Lord?!"
Papa Midnite demanded.
"You staying here will only get in the way."
Sephirot slowly raised his hand, and a snow-white fedora appeared in his grasp.
"The range of the upcoming clearing is a bit large. If you don't leave, I'm afraid I won't have the money to cover your funeral expenses."
Seeing that Sephirot was not joking, Papa Midnite decisively abandoned the magic circle, hoisted the collapsing Constantine over his shoulder, and headed for the door.
As a businessman, he had already done more than enough.
Without anyone controlling the magic circle, the chains binding Valak instantly shattered.
Free from the suppression of the formation, Valak stepped through the rift, its deformed demonic body fully unfolding within the room.
"I smell them... millions of delicious souls in this city."
Valak took a greedy breath, its forked tongue licking its lips as it looked down at the tiny Sephirot.
"As a reward for offering up these souls, I will devour your flesh first and savor your despair."
Sephirot stood his ground, looking at the overbearing Demon Lord in silence.
Supporting Constantine at the doorway, Papa Midnite looked at the Demon Lord projecting an overwhelming demonic aura, then back at Sephirot, only to see that at some point, a white hat had appeared on the man's head. *He still has the presence of mind to tidy his appearance?*
A red scarf materialized around his neck, long and trailing, the excess fabric fluttering behind him like Superman's cape.
Papa Midnite instinctively stared at the scarf; as a businessman, he instantly recognized the US dollars printed with Franklin's portrait covering its surface.
"Get back."
Sephirot pressed down on the brim of the white hat with one hand, a crimson light surging within his lowered eyes.
[Faust Hat]
[Special Devil Arm]: Wealth is power.
[By sacrificing the holder's currency (subject to a cap), it exchanges wealth for a devastating strike capable of interfering with reality.]
As his words fell, the long scarf behind him began to burn at an exaggerated speed.
—--
Outside the house.
Ed Warren held his wife, staring at the sky in sheer horror.
The reporters, who had been fighting tooth and nail over territory just moments ago, looked as if they had all been seized by the throat simultaneously.
Every camera and every gaze turned as one toward the peak of the cloud layer.
There, the thunderstorm clouds were being forcibly crushed aside by an irresistible, grand force.
A massive meteor, over fifty meters in diameter and trailing a crimson tail of flame, was slowly descending toward them.
—--
At the same time, inside a military base on the outskirts of Los Santos, the anti-air radar alarms began to shriek in unison.
"Sir! Radar has detected an unknown high-energy signature! There's a meteor falling directly over Los Santos!"
The operator pointed at the red warning on the screen, his voice trembling.
"You say what?!"
The commander shoved the operator aside. "Why didn't the Meteorological Bureau or the near-earth orbit satellites give us any early warning?!"
"Sir... the satellite captured a clear image. That meteor... its structure..."
Another officer in charge of satellite imagery swallowed hard and pulled up the high-definition feed. With a look as if he had seen a ghost, he stammered, "It seems... to be composed of countless burning US dollars?!"
"What? You bastard, what kind of goddamn joke is this?!"
The commander grabbed the man's collar in a fit of rage, but the moment he saw the magnified image on the screen, his entire body froze.
—--
Beneath this meteor.
Sephirot stood before the demon god.
He looked at the spatial rift that had already closed behind Valak, and his hand tightened slightly on the brim of his hat.
"I hope that self-healing ability you take such pride in can keep up with the speed at which I burn cash."
Valak looked up, its arrogant expression vanishing instantly, replaced for the first time by a sense of dread.
As it stared at the meteor enveloped in blood-red light, the scene, of such brute, pure power steamrolling everything in its path, reminded it of the ancient era and that Dark Knight who had single-handedly slaughtered his way through all of Hell.
It wanted to flee.
But the terrifying aura radiating from the meteor had already locked onto it. The surrounding air seemed to turn into a cage, pinning it to the spot.
It couldn't move!
Valak let out a roar of unwilling fury, its demonic body swelling once more. The two-headed dragon beneath it reared its heads, the Apocalyptic Light gathering in its throats in an attempt to forcibly blast through the meteorite.
But Sephirot would never give it any chance to struggle in its death throes.
"Fall."
His lips moved slightly.
Whoosh...
The meteorite transformed into a scarlet shooting star piercing through heaven and earth, carrying a devastating force as it slammed down!
Watching the shadow that had completely occupied its vision, a flicker of instinctive fear flashed in Valak's eyes.
This inescapable dead end forced a roar from its throat; as one of the seventy-two pillars of the demon gods, its dignity would never allow it to yield, even in the face of death.
"Human! You dare to provoke the majesty of Hell?! Your soul will be extracted and tortured for all eternity!"
"Is that so? Then you'd better pray that you drop a decent Devil Arm for me."
Sephirot gave a faint smile.
"Otherwise, my money will have been burned for nothing."
Valak wanted to say something more; it had even thought of self-destructing its soul, but it found to its sorrow that while locked onto by this meteorite, it could do nothing but wait obediently for death.
Boom!
The moment the meteorite struck,
The US dollars meteorite, created out of thin air by the Faust Hat, transformed into pure destructive power the instant it made contact with Valak.
Even though Sephirot had done his best to control the meteorite, the air pressure brought by its high-speed descent still turned into a visible shockwave, sweeping outward with the Hodgson family home as its center.
Everywhere the shockwave passed, cars and streetlights on both sides of the street were tossed aside like plastic toys.
Having retreated not far away, Papa Midnite gritted his teeth, shielding the unconscious Constantine beneath him.
The Voodoo bone chain on his chest, which had been consecrated for over a hundred years, erupted with light in an attempt to withstand the shockwave.
Crack!
After supporting them for a mere second, the light shattered. Papa Midnite spat out a large mouthful of blood, and the two men were flipped like sacks, crashing into the ruins.
Dozens of water plumes shot into the sky, and within the neighboring few blocks, the glass of every building shattered simultaneously at that moment.
—--
As the storm of total destruction gradually subsided, the surrounding alarms and sirens blended into a single cacophony.
Papa Midnite pushed away the debris on top of him and tremblingly wiped the dust from his face.
He raised his head somewhat blankly.
The block where the Hodgson family had originally been, that two-story house along with several surrounding buildings, had completely vanished.
In its place was a deep crater swirling with thick smoke and dust.
At the bottom of the pit.
The wings on Valak's back were broken, and every bone in its body was shattered.
Deprived of Hell's restoration, this demon god who had been so insufferably arrogant just a moment ago finally felt the terror of death.
Sephirot approached slowly, stepping over the rubble; the Faust Hat atop his head had already dissipated into spots of light.
He picked up Valak's mangled demonic body.
Valak's venomous, slitted pupils stared fixedly at Sephirot, its voice intermittent: "In Hell... I will wait for the day... you are torn to shreds by Lord Mammon..."
"Don't be in such a hurry. I'll be looking for Mammon very soon to send you two to a reunion," Sephirot said as he looked at it.
Without waiting for Valak to speak again, purple demonic energy flowed directly through Sephirot's arm and into its body.
Bang!
This demon god's existence vanished entirely from this world.
(Translated by yourtl.app)
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TL NOTES — CROSSOVER GUIDE
Some references in this chapter come from source universes that may be unfamiliar to some readers. The notes below provide the context needed to understand them without leaving the page.
ITEMS & WEAPONS
Faust Hat — A Devil Arm obtained in Devil May Cry 5. It takes the form of a sentient red top hat worn by Dante. Its signature ability is summoning massive meteors made of Red Orbs (the in-game currency used to buy upgrades), meaning the more orbs the player spends, the more devastating the attack. In this story, the mechanic is adapted to real money: the Faust Hat burns actual US dollar bills to fuel its power, which is why the meteor descending over Los Santos is visibly composed of burning cash.