Everyone stood in the red-tinted forest, their focus locked on the demon man. The demon launched himself into the air, his entire body consumed by flames. His eyes blazed with pure fire, and the heat radiating from him became nearly unbearable.
Orin smiled. The blood armor fell away from his body as purple flames coiled around his hands. He hurled the purple fire toward the demon man, but his opponent absorbed it effortlessly.
"Did you really think that would work?" the demon taunted, his voice dripping with contempt. "Didn't you learn from what that girl did?"
"You're right," Orin muttered, his jaw clenched. "I should have chosen a better approach."
He drew his blade and fired a massive ice pillar from its tip. The pillar surged forward but melted before reaching the flames. The demon man opened his mouth wide as fire gathered within, the ball growing larger and more volatile. Finally, the inferno shot downward toward Orin.
Orin barely dodged the strike. The ground scorched even more severely than before, pieces breaking off and disintegrating from the blast.
Omen rose, his red and black sword shimmering. "As the demon general, I shall end you!"
Orin jumped forward and charged toward the demon man. Omen followed close behind, leaping into the air and swinging his sword down in a vicious slash. The demon man vanished. Suddenly, Omen felt a scorching hand wrap around his neck.
The demon laughed, holding Omen aloft. "I'm going to snap your neck and then burn you to a crisp."
Before the demon could act, Deal blinked into existence before him. Deal's white hair, white sword, and white eyes glowed brilliantly as he soared upward, his entire body turning pitch white. He swung his sword, creating a white slashing attack. Just as before, when the white energy struck the demon, the flames consumed it completely.
The demon man felt a new presence. He slowly looked up. Everyone in the area saw something they thought impossible.
Deal saw something he desperately wished he hadn't.
Floyd floated in the air, his red wings spread wide, two swords gleaming, and his eyes completely black—strange even for a demon. Floyd smirked, his bloodlust radiating in waves, his gaze locked on the demon man.
"Now, now," Floyd said, his voice silky with menace. "I wouldn't want you interrupting my fight with Deal."
Floyd dove with terrifying speed and slashed toward the demon man. The demon shot a torrent of flames from his mouth. Floyd did the unthinkable—he cut through the fire.
The demon's eyes widened in shock.
"You think you can fling your pathetic flames at me and expect damage?" Floyd's voice turned savage. "That's not how this works."
Floyd's eyes began to turn red like a normal demon's. His skin flushed crimson, his blades glowed scarlet, and eventually his entire form blazed with a deep, violent red.
Deal stood frozen. The memory of their fight in the desert flashed through his mind—Floyd killing him, severing his head, the blades piercing his hands, the blood bullets, the massive red beam that overwhelmed his white one. All of it surged back. Even though he was undead, even though Sabrina's resurrection controlled him now, the memories remained vivid and raw.
"Floyd," he said in a monotone voice, though the memories burned within him.
"What about it?" Floyd's eyes never left the demon man.
"Why don't you come back?"
Floyd glanced down at Deal, his expression twisted with dark amusement. "I noticed something—a strong presence. And you know what's amazing, Deal? You're here as well. Which means I can kill two birds with one stone."
A portal opened. Floyd hurled his two crimson daggers inside, then spread his hands and unleashed a barrage of destructive bullets toward the demon. The crimson projectiles tore through the air with tremendous speed. The demon man assumed his flames would destroy them, but the bullets continued relentlessly. Each impact felt like a truck slamming into him. The demon flew backward as the onslaught continued, the rain of bullets drilling holes into his body—small, but damaging nonetheless.
Floyd laughed, his bloodlust reaching its peak. He opened his mouth and created a massive sphere of blood energy, then fired a beam toward the demon man. The demon couldn't move. The holes from the blood bullets had riddled his legs, and he wasn't regenerating.
Why wasn't he regenerating? Usually, when a demon felt death approaching, they regenerated quickly on the brink. The demon man felt death closing in—so why wasn't his body responding?
Floyd continued firing blood bullets while the giant blood beam charged forward. The beam struck, along with every bullet fired afterward. A massive crimson explosion erupted.
Sabrina jumped back, her dark clothing partially vaporized by the blast, revealing more layers beneath. Tail's already destroyed body evaporated, making him even more obliterated than before. Deal doubled back, unaffected by the blood shockwave. Omen took the attack head-on—the explosion knocked him back but dealt no damage. Orin created armor from shadows, and the shockwave did nothing to him, just as it did nothing to Deal and Omen.
The demon lay half-destroyed, his fiery eyes dimmed to a single flickering flame.
Floyd floated down, his crimson eyes fading, his hands and skin returning to the usual pale tone every demon possessed. His swords returned to him, their silver gleaming in the red-tinted light.
"Time for the finishing blow," Floyd said.
Before he could act, the demon man's eyes flared blue. Blue flames licked at his eyes, and his body regenerated at an extraordinary pace. Within moments, his body became whole as blue flames erupted from him. Floyd was thrown back and smashed into the ground, creating a crater. The heat, once unbearable, became absolutely deadly. The temperature soared beyond any previous point.
The demon man laughed, his voice echoing with triumph. "You thought that was the end of me? Admit it—you did a lot of damage. But I always have a backup."
The demon laughed harder, more manic this time. "I'm going to destroy this entire area—the outskirts, the demon city, every place will burn to the ground! I can't wait to see the horror on everyone's faces when they're burned to a crisp!"
"We can't fight him," Deal admitted, his voice flat.
"You're right," Sabrina said, her usual nonchalant expression growing more worried. "We might actually die. I've faced death many times, but my flames always bring me back. This time, I don't think that will happen. If I die, you know you'll be dead as well."
Deal looked at her with cold indifference, uncaring about his own death. He had died before—dying again would be nothing. Plus, he had no feelings about death. He was already undead, so why should he fear it?
"Oh no, I do not fear death like you or anyone else here," Sabrina said sharply. "I do not wish for the entire demon world to be destroyed. I have a binding spell that could seal this demon. It might not work, but then again, it might. It's a fifty-fifty chance—a chance I'm willing to risk."
"And what are you waiting for?" Sabrina demanded.
"I have to draw an incantation to seal this demon."
"All right."
Deal drew a bright white circle on the ground and inscribed several symbols. "Now all we have to do is lure the demon into this circle, and I'll initiate the spell."
Sabrina looked toward Floyd, Orin, and Omen. "All of you—bring the demon to this circle!" she shouted.
The demon man laughed, his blue flames growing hotter. "Explaining your plan out loud is ultimately a terrible idea."
He rose into the air. Raining blue fireballs began to fall from the sky. He laughed as the fireballs adjusted their trajectory toward everyone present.
*I just hope this will work,* Deal thought.
Suddenly, the demon stopped smiling as pain shot through his back. The demon turned his head a full 360 degrees to see who had struck him. He saw a man with a red shirt, black pants, and a cold, smiling expression holding a blade.
It was Lane.
Lane smiled. "Thankfully, I discovered a property within my clothing that ignores all temperature," he thought. "If I didn't have that, I'd be dead. But whatever it takes to gain power is my right."
The siphoning blade did its work, consuming the demon man's energy. The demon felt nothing—he had so much energy that no matter how many seconds the blade drained him, he wouldn't notice.
The demon's energy was beyond what anyone could comprehend.
Lane's smile widened as the siphoning blade quietly drank the demon's energy. A few minutes later, when Lane finished, he removed the blade and smiled.
"Now," he said, grinning like a pure power-hungry maniac, "I will be the strongest, and I'll be ruling the demon realm."