The massive shadow of Demon King City finally descended completely.
Towering black walls pierced the clouds, twisted spikes and streams of dark purple energy like pus spreading across their surface.
“Domain deployed—‘Eternal Sanctuary’!”
Reina’s clear voice rang out sharply, and a hemispherical barrier of pure Holy Light instantly enveloped the Team, cutting off the outside evil and whispers.
At the same time, an inhuman scream erupted from within the city gates!
Dense gray-black demonic energy surged out, condensing into the towering silhouette of the Demon King.
It was not a physical form, but a fusion of countless wraiths, magma, and dark energy, its writhing tentacles of destruction lashing out wildly, exuding an aura of utter despair.
“Ants! It’s you again! This damned Cycle of Reincarnation again!”
The Demon King’s roar exploded in everyone’s mind.
The battle broke out in an instant, lasting for days and nights—a struggle beyond anything the Material Realm could comprehend, with laws shattering upon collision and time growing sticky and bizarre within the whirlpool of energies.
The aftershocks left Demon King City riddled with scars, the entire space torn apart, fragments of shattered reality everywhere, elemental currents raging like a deadly, beautiful painting.
Until the final moment arrived.
“Judgement—World-Destroying!!!”
Belinda leapt high into the sky, her greatsword transformed into a golden lightning bolt that pierced heaven and earth, descending with the determination to end the Cycle of Reincarnation.
She struck mercilessly at the Demon King’s head, burning with World-Destroying flames.
Boom!!!
That mountain-sized head, wreathed in World-Destroying Demon Flame, was cleanly severed from its neck by the Judgement’s light that cut through all.
It tumbled and roared, smashing into the center of Demon King City’s ruins with destructive force, carving a massive crater into the already broken ground.
Gray-black World-Destroying Demon Flame continued to burn, using its former master’s skull as fuel.
It was over…
For a moment, Demon King City was deathly silent.
Then, the shockwave from the fallen head swept out like a tsunami, carrying dust and shattered stone in its wake.
Ellen stood where he was, the power within his body utterly drained, making it almost impossible even to lift a finger.
The Philosopher Mage’s robe flapped in the aftermath, his vision filled with swirling dust and the towering, gradually fading gray-black flames.
Exhaustion, like an icy tide, flooded every cell.
Is it over?
The thought floated up like a feather.
Finally…can I rest?
Yet before the idea could fully form, the air suddenly solidified.
Three gazes, heavy as chains, locked onto him from different directions, each carrying a distinct power.
Left.
Belinda emerged slowly from the drifting smoke.
The greatsword “Judgement” in her hand pointed to the ground, golden light still flickering along its blade, illuminating her dust-stained but still stunningly cold face.
Her crimson eyes pierced the haze, fixed unwaveringly on him, filled with unshakable confidence—a smile of certainty even tugged at her lips.
She waited, waited for Ellen to walk toward her, toward the sword that symbolized the empire and the marriage contract.
Directly ahead, the hovering Holy Light slowly faded.
Reina gently landed on the rubble-strewn ground, her pure white robe untouched by dust.
Her ice-blue eyes were calm as frozen lakes, reflecting Ellen’s weary figure with perfect clarity.
Her hands were gracefully folded before her abdomen, her posture sacred and compassionate.
Yet beneath that compassion lay a knowing that saw through all and a silent, irresistible pull.
She was waiting, waiting for Ellen to accept her “Salvation,” to step into the pure but cold embrace of Holy Light.
Right and behind, a shadow of deep green appeared atop a broken stone like a ghost.
Hestia knelt on one knee, poised for action at any moment.
Her emerald eyes blazed through the fading smoke, burning with wildness and a desperate longing for “Freedom.”
Her gaze, sharp as a hunter’s arrow in the forest, pinned Ellen in place.
No words were needed.
Her eyes screamed—Teacher, blow the whistle, now, come with me!
For Freedom!
Ash drifted, smoke billowed.
At the spot where the Demon King’s head had fallen, gray-black World-Destroying Demon Flame rose like a dying beast’s last gasp, twisting and struggling, exuding the stench of sulfur and scorching heat.
At the heart of the flames was the pure Scar of Oblivion, a wound left by forcibly torn space.
In Belinda’s eyes burned the fire of empire and marriage.
Beneath Reina’s sanctity hid the cage of Holy Light and Salvation.
And within Hestia’s emerald pupils, the trap of the Elven Forest flickered—
Three unseen forces tightened around his soul from three sides, almost tearing his exhausted body apart.
Fragments of Reincarnation from nearly three thousand cycles surged in his mind.
Every choice, no matter the path, led to the same crimson, despairing number—2974.
Belinda’s Imperial Cage of Gold, Reina’s Sanctified Cage of Light, and deep within Hestia’s green gaze, a deliberately hidden memory—the Ancient Treehouse in the heart of the Elven Forest, thorn-covered windows.
A “Freedom” cage, seemingly gentle but just as inescapable.
He had suspected from the start.
The freedom Hestia promised was just another form of possession.
No lies, but she hid the consequences of choosing her.
That itself was the greatest deception!
In those thousands of endings, he must have chosen Hestia at least once, but in the end, could never escape the endless Cycle of Reincarnation.
So the truth was—every road was a dead end.
Every choice, an abyss.
No matter who he chose, it meant betraying the others and starting a war.
Their Team would fall apart, the world plunge into chaos again, and the defeated would restart the Cycle of Reincarnation.
Again and again…
Exhaustion from the depths of his soul swept away all fear and hesitation like a polar wind.
Ellen’s lips curved in a peaceful smile.
He stepped forward.
The delicate Wooden Whistle in his sleeve slipped silently into the dust.
“Teacher…why?!”
Hestia’s scream tore through the silence, filled with disbelief and fury.
She saw where Ellen’s gaze landed, saw the weary smile on his face.
He did not look back at any of them.
His eyes passed over the three, fixing at last on the surging gray-black flames—symbol of ultimate destruction—before him.
“Because no matter who I choose…”
His voice was eerily calm, even tinged with a strange smile, reaching all of them.
“It’s just spinning inside two thousand nine hundred and seventy-four endings…”
He lifted his leg and took the first step forward.
The Silver Key in his sleeve slipped into the dust as well.
His boot crushed a charred Demon King’s Carapace Fragment with a crisp snap.
“Ellen…what are you doing?”
Belinda felt as if something was squeezing her heart, pain stealing her breath.
The nightmare she’d feared day and night was materializing before her eyes—and worst of all, it felt as if she’d pushed him into it.
“What I’m doing…”
The second step.
Ellen strode toward the World-Destroying flames that could incinerate a soul.
The hem of his robe began to curl and blacken.
His skin burned.
“Is to create…”
The third step.
He was only a breath away from the annihilating flames.
“Don’t…idiot Ellen…don’t…”
Reina’s calm was crumbling, her voice a nearly pleading whisper.
He stared at the fire before him, expression unchanging.
“The Third Thousand and First Ending!”
At the instant the words fell, he used the last of his strength and leaped!
No hesitation.
No looking back.
His figure dove into the gray-black World-Destroying Demon Flame, vanishing completely like a moth thrown into fire.
For the condemned, there is no path home.
He’d told them that joke long ago.
In the final moment of life, what surfaced in his mind was a distant, simple memory—the first time the Team completed a Bounty Task after forming, slaying a Blackwing Azure Dragon that plagued Finiel City.
Night had fallen.
Everyone sat around the campfire in high spirits.
Reina, who’d just learned Dust Purification Spell, cast it frantically to drive away mosquitoes, all while scolding Ellen, “Idiot Ellen, when are we eating already?”
Jocelyn’s excited shouts echoed in the distance, “Li Zichen, is the Firewood enough? …Fine, I’ll chop another tree—hurry up with the food!”
At that time, the rusty Judgement was cradled in Belinda’s arms as she slept soundly leaning on Ellen’s shoulder.
Hestia crouched obediently beside him, wide-eyed.
“Teacher, when can I start eating?”
Ellen grilled dragon meat over the fire, boasting shamelessly, “The finest ingredients only need the simplest cooking!”
***
He remembered the meat burned that night, but everyone ate happily.
How nostalgic.
He’d never had barbecue that delicious again.
“No——!!!”
Belinda’s scream was raw with despair and madness.
She rushed forward instinctively but was blasted back by the heat and wild energies.
“Ellen!”
Reina’s ethereal voice trembled for the first time, her icy blue eyes shattered with disbelief and horror.
Pure Holy Light surged, trying to snuff out the Demon Flame, but dissolved with a hiss like snow in fire.
Hestia stood frozen.
All wildness and desire in her green eyes extinguished by shock and helplessness, as if the web she’d spun had been torn apart by the prey’s own hand.
She opened her mouth, but no sound emerged—only cold numbness spread from her feet.
Boom!!!
The Demon Flame, like boiling oil doused with cold water, exploded upward.
Gray-black fire surged, swallowing the tiny figure whole, warping the space around it.
Destructive energy ripped up stone and ash, drowning out the three voices and driving Demon King City’s shattered ruins further toward collapse.