Eternal Vision was a sub-space independent of all things.
Ghostly green flames burned silently on invisible walls, stretching the two confronting silhouettes into twisted, hideous shapes.
In this colosseum designed for battles of desperation, Mammon quickly regained the elegance of a Great Demon after his initial moment of panic.
He examined the wildly shaped skeletal torches around him with interest and let out a light chuckle.
“Are you continuously draining my Mana to maintain this Space? Truly an interesting Authority.”
“You certainly are confident, horse-face.”
Noctiluca — or rather, Katy — was currently clad in her purple-black Abyssal Magic Armor.
She walked forward slowly like a mobile steel fortress, each step landing with a heavy, muffled boom.
“My name is Mammon.”
The Demon of Greed frowned slightly, his vertical pupils flashing with golden light — a sign of Mana condensing to its limit.
“Although I do not know where you stole back the power of a Calamity Pillar, as the Great Demon presiding over Greed, I am not an existence that a low-born mongrel like you can casually provoke.”
He raised his right hand, and a mass of pitch-black fluid that seemed alive appeared out of thin air.
[Vault of the Void], an Authority capable of manipulating a god-made weapon that could mimic any substance in the world from Demon Race legends.
Mammon held the divine weapon with a determined gaze, while Noctiluca, hidden behind her armored mask, had already begun to laugh.
“Pfft. If I remember correctly, whatever weapon that glob of black mud mimics is completely random, right? Aren’t you afraid that in a life-or-death struggle like this, you’ll suddenly end up holding a dinner fork or a soup spoon?”
However, before the girl’s mockery could even land, the mass of black fluid in Mammon’s hand instantly elongated and hardened, finally transforming into a crimson spear wreathed in Law Magic.
The corner of Mammon’s mouth curled upward.
“Luck is also a part of one’s strength. It seems even fate is on my side — if it is Gungnir, it is only fitting to use it to execute a traitor like you who opened her legs to Humans.”
“Hmph. Then I’ll just have to break your hands and crack your skull open to see exactly how much disgusting filth is packed inside!”
Noctiluca let out a cold laugh.
The Nocturne in her hands erupted with a sinister light as she swung it down with enough momentum to crush everything in its path!
Boom!
Two destructive forces collided within the narrow space, marking the beginning of the slaughter between two Calamity Pillars.
Noctiluca completely discarded her usual facade of being a lady like Katy.
She was like a berserk meat grinder, bombarding him with a heavy hammer powerful enough to shatter mountain peaks while simultaneously launching mental attacks through her insults.
“Is this all the strength you have? Did you skip a meal, or are you just trying to scratch an itch for me?!”
“Aren’t you the third-ranked Calamity Pillar? Why are you being chased around like a headless chicken by me, the thirteenth?”
“Mammon, is that sweat in your pants, or is it pee? Oh, it’s pee! I figured as much. How could an opponent like me ever make you break a sweat?”
“👎😅STUPID IDIOT👎😅STUPID IDIOT👎😅STUPID IDIOT👎😅STUPID IDIOT👎😅STUPID IDIOT👎😅”
Mammon, enraged by both the energy drain from the space itself and Noctiluca’s verbal abuse, cursed maliciously while parrying the storm-like assault.
“Shut up! You shameless Succubus! Since you love Humans so much, sooner or later, you will completely fall between the legs of those Heroes and become their toy!”
“Huh? I think your brain is broken!”
The girl delivered a kick to Mammon’s abdomen, sending him flying.
She then arrogantly hoisted her giant hammer onto her shoulder and laughed maniacally.
“I am the never-conquered Noctiluca! The undefeated Abyssal Magic Armor! How could I possibly lose to a mere Human?!”
However, the moment she uttered that flag-triggering statement…
A complex purple magic circle suddenly lit up beneath the feet of both Calamity Pillars.
The terrifying aura that reigned supreme over everything caused them both to stop in their tracks.
It was His Majesty, the Demon King.
A cold and somewhat playful voice echoed directly in their minds.
“My two dear ministers, instead of engaging in this meaningless private feud, why not… try to see the future you will eventually face if you do not change the status quo?”
Before Katy could even react, her vision was forcibly stripped away by an irresistible Mana.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself lying on a large bed that was soft yet cold.
The girl instinctively tried to move, but she heard the crisp clink of metal.
She turned her head with difficulty and discovered that her hands were suspended high above her.
Her wrists were locked in fine gold chains engraved with anti-magic runes; the cold metal bit into her fair skin, leaving behind a circle of gruesome red marks.
‘Eh? What is going on?’
The Calamity Pillar Noctiluca discovered to her horror that the Mana within her, which had been as vast as the sea moments ago, was now completely sealed by these intricate chains.
The moment even a sliver of it emerged, it would be instantly devoured.
‘What is this? A restraint developed specifically for Great Demons? Who exactly did I provoke in the future to end up in such a specialized torture device? No… wait… does this mean that the invincible Noctiluca actually lost and was captured in the future?!’
“Let… let me go! Someone — “
Noctiluca, who had just been making grand boasts in front of Mammon, tried to speak, but she discovered with terror that she could not produce a coherent sound.
At the same time, a sense of tightening suffocation came from her neck.
It was a pitch-black collar, tightly clamped around her slender neck.
Whenever she attempted to make a sound or circulate Mana, the collar would snap shut, cutting off her breath.
“Cough… ack… ghhk…”
An intense sensation of suffocation hit her instantly.
Her source of breath was cut off; her lungs tried to draw in oxygen but could only contract in vain.
Katy threw her head back in agony, her long neck tensing into a heart-wrenching curve.
Because she could not breathe, her eyes rolled upward uncontrollably, showing a large amount of white as physiological tears burst from her eyes.
“Mmph, urgh… help…”
Because she could not close her mouth, her glistening saliva lost all control, sliding down from the corner of her trembling mouth and trailing a silver thread onto the girl’s fruitlessly heaving chest, gradually rolling down over a large expanse of exposed skin.
The powerless feeling of impending death and the humiliation of being completely controlled by an unfamiliar force caused her body to spasm involuntarily.
‘No way… am I really going to die in such a shameful and ridiculous way? I don’t want that — ‘
Click.
The door to the secret room was pushed open, and a figure that seemed somewhat familiar walked in.
Immediately after, Katy felt the invisible giant force gripping her throat suddenly relax.
“Ha! Haa… pant…”
Fresh air flooded into her lungs.
Katy breathed in great gulps like a drowning person who had just been rescued.
The cold collar lost its tight grip, sliding down to her collarbone — which was wet with sweat and saliva — before rolling down toward her abdomen.
“Thank… thank you…”
Her vision was still blurred; she could only vaguely discern that the newcomer was wearing a suit of armor and radiated a trembling scent of blood and the aura of a powerful being.
This person was significantly stronger than her; among her own race, perhaps only the pressure from the Demon Lord could be said to firmly surpass him.
“Thank you? Is that the first thing you want to say to me, Miss Katy?”
The voice was hoarse and low, yet so familiar that Katy’s entire body went stiff in an instant.
She looked up in disbelief.
Although her hands were bound, the girl desperately shook her head to toss away the tears in her eyes, trying to see the person’s face clearly.
‘How can it be Gray’s voice?’
In the next second, a rough, large hand firmly gripped her chin, forcing her to look up.
Then, the man roughly wiped away the tears and saliva from her face with a movement that carried an undisguised brutality, as if the imprisoned girl were his property.
In Katy’s blue vertical pupils, which had regained their focus, the man’s figure was clearly reflected.
The deep gray armor was covered in battle scars.
The man before her had long since shed his youthfulness; his short black hair had become messy, and in those eyes that were once warm, only a bottomless darkness and desolation remained.
“Eh? M-Mr. Gray? What is wrong with you? Please, calm down — “
“Are you going to continue your boring and clumsy acting?!”
The enraged man let out a low growl, and a violent golden light suddenly ignited in his left eye.
Then, without any warning, Katy felt as if her abdomen had been struck hard by a battering ram.
“Guh… urgh!”
The intense pain caused her to arch her body instantly.
The agony, as if her internal organs were being crushed, made her face — which had just regained a bit of color — turn deathly pale.
Cold sweat instantly soaked her thin clothing, causing it to cling tightly to her body and outline the girl’s wretched figure.
“I-I’m sorry… it hurts…”
Before she could catch her breath, that large hand gripped her neck again, lifting her off the bed like a rag doll.
A piercing pain from her joints being pulled came from her hands suspended by the chains, but all of this did not equate to even a ten-thousandth of the fear this man brought her.
“Why did you lie to me?”
“Gray” brought his face close, his hot breath hitting Katy’s terrified face.
“Why did you come to my side? Since it was a lie from the very beginning, why did you act so gentle… Because of you, everyone is dead!!”
“Mmph… ugh…”
The feeling of suffocation returned, and Katy’s consciousness began to fade.
Before her vision turned completely black, she only remembered herself apologizing incessantly as tears flowed uncontrollably from her eyes.
And the last sound she heard was the terrified and desperate scream “Gray” let out after he had strangled her to death.
***
Katy snapped her eyes open.
The realistic sensation of suffocation caused her to kneel on the ground and dry heave violently.
Her pitch-black knight’s armor had been deactivated at some point, and her nun’s habit was soaked through with cold sweat.
“What… was that…”
By the time the girl finally managed to look up, the Mammon across from her seemed to have just escaped from some terrifying vision as well.
The once-pompous Demon of Greed was now as pale as a sheet, as if the scene he had witnessed was no less horrifying than hers.
“No, impossible. How could I — the edge of the Dawn Blade was clearly broken!”
Mammon did not even dare to utter another threat.
He immediately pulled out a golden scroll and tore it open, summoning a Space Rift.
Then, like a stray dog, he dove into it and fled without looking back.
That scroll was even a counterfeit one that recorded Noctiluca’s Authority.
It seemed that the mastermind behind those low-level demons was undoubtedly Mammon.
Under normal circumstances, Katy would have definitely chased him down and beaten the crap out of that counterfeit-selling bastard, but right now, she did not even have the strength to stand up.
‘Was my identity discovered by Gray in the future? And then I was imprisoned by that guy, locked to a bed like a slave?’
‘And in the end, because I caused everyone’s death, I was strangled to death by him?’
The girl swallowed with difficulty and instinctively touched her neck and her dull-aching abdomen.
Silence fell all around.
After Mammon fled, she was the only one left in Eternal Vision.
The Demon King’s aura had also vanished without a trace, as if the Future Sight just now had been nothing more than a cruel joke.
“…Sigh, I should head out first.”
Katy braced her hands against her knees to stand up, her legs still trembling slightly.
‘Wait, what if things on Gray’s side are already over?’
The undercover girl, realizing this grave problem, quickly tried to reassure herself.
‘Actually, Mammon and I only fought for a few minutes. His Majesty’s magic should have only taken an instant in the real world. Gray and Ingram are probably still in the middle of a hard battle, right?’
‘Yes! It must be that!’
She quickly fixed her expression, planning to act as if nothing had happened after she stepped out and then coolly provide support to Gray and the others.
‘It’s fine. As long as I don’t let that terrifying future happen! That must be what His Majesty meant!’
The girl took a deep breath, patted her flushed cheeks, and deactivated Eternal Vision.
The ghostly green barrier gradually dissipated.
However, when the scenery of the real world came back into view, the smile on Katy’s face instantly froze.
In the forest that should have been bathed in sunlight, the sky had completely darkened at some point.
And less than two meters in front of her, Gray, holding his long blade in a guarded stance, was looking at the girl who had appeared out of thin air with disbelief.
Their gazes met in the air.
In the young man’s iron-gray eyes, Katy’s stunned expression was clearly reflected.
“Noctiluca — Miss Katy?”
…I’m doomed!
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