Five seconds ago, the Third Maze Boss Room.
The longsword in Gray’s hand clashed violently with a thunderous weapon that extended from the void.
The massive recoil made his grip go numb, and the ground beneath his feet cracked inch by inch.
Yet the angle of the young man’s rising lips proved this was not his disadvantage.
“Damn insect, filthy fool… Why won’t you die?!”
Mammon in the air had lost all his initial elegance.
His expensive velvet robe was in disarray, and a fine crack had appeared on his golden mask from Gray’s reckless Dragon Ascension Slash moments ago.
‘He’s just a human who couldn’t even defeat Noctiluca… I have the Vault of the Void, an Authority capable of mimicking all things in the world… Why does this seemingly ordinary human warrior act like a stubborn, hard rock? No matter what weapon or attribute I use to attack, he blocks it all with that broken sword?’
‘Even more, in the last few exchanges, this human actually learned to predict the rhythm of my weapon switching and even left several wounds on me!’
“Is this a member of the Dawn Blade? Impressive indeed!”
Mammon gritted his teeth, a flash of ruthlessness in his eyes.
‘I can’t drag this out any longer. I don’t know what Noctiluca can conjure in her Authority Space, but if I keep this up, and I actually lose… she and that bastard will mock me for a thousand years!’
“What a shame, but I’ll have to erase this entire area along with that little girl.”
Mammon flew into the air, grinning as he raised his hands high.
The golden ripples behind him trembled wildly as hundreds of phantom images of Divine Weapons began to merge, ready to coalesce into a devastating strike.
Just as Gray prepared to repeat his tactic of countering fake Lobelia’s ultimate Holy Light against this attack, the space and rift at the center of the field—belonging to Noctiluca—suddenly let out a pained screech.
“Ahhh! Mr. Gray, help!!”
With a scream, a petite figure flew out of the void, as if thrown, crashing with a thud at Gray’s feet.
“Kars?!”
Gray’s pupils contracted.
Before he could help her up, an aura that froze his very blood stepped out from the shattered space rift.
It was a figure not particularly tall—worn leather armor, a gray face that could not be seen through, and in its hand, a longsword that seemed forged from molten sunlight.
The moment that figure appeared, both Mammon, who was about to unleash an indiscriminate blast, and Gray, who was about to help Kars, froze in place, their actions as if paused.
To Gray, that was an existence that existed only deep within his soul, one that, no matter how hard he tried to recall, he could only see a blurry back.
Due to the influence of Ye Yin Liang’s “Erasure” Authority, he could not remember her face, her voice, or even her name.
But he remembered this sword, this stance, this reassuring feeling that as long as she stood by his side, any difficulty would eventually be overcome.
“Ugh, my head—!”
The longsword in Gray’s hand clattered to the ground with a sharp ring.
Intense pain surged like a tidal wave, forcing the young man to clutch his head in agony.
Yet he still stared fiercely at that figure, trying to see through the gray to make out that face.
For Mammon, however, the emotion was much simpler.
It was fear—pure, soul-deep fear.
“No… impossible…”
Mammon’s voice turned sharp and distorted.
His face, which had always worn a fake smile, was now filled with ghostly terror.
“That bastard… that monster… She was supposed to have died in the ‘Broken Sword Incident’ three years ago! Even her soul was personally stripped by the Demon Lord!!”
“Why are you here?! How could the Square Water Mirror copy something that no longer exists?! The human limit—”
In response, there was only a flash of sword light.
The girl called the human limit did not acknowledge Mammon’s roar.
She simply lifted her head and glanced at the dense phantom weapons in mid-air.
Kars, supporting Gray, spared a moment to look at her.
‘Hah, so pretentious.’
‘Still, if it were me, I’d cut down that demon’s treasure Mammon conjured with one full-powered strike first, then kill him.’
The girl swung her sword.
This slash was slow—so slow that even Kars could trace its arc.
But in that instant, the light of the entire Third Maze seemed to be devoured, leaving only that dazzling gold.
At this moment, both Calamity Pillars and the Hero who was once a member of the kingdom’s party involuntarily lifted their heads, wanting to witness that sun’s final radiance.
The next moment, like a hot knife cutting through butter, the hundreds of Divine Weapons behind Mammon—enough to destroy an entire army—vanished silently the instant they touched the golden sword light, not even giving time for an explosion.
Along with the Vault of the Void in Mammon’s hand, and his body itself.
“This is impossible! How could His Majesty’s prophecy—”
The greedy demon’s final scream was cut short.
Before his consciousness was wiped out, he finally understood why, in the future revealed to him by the King, he would die at the hands of the long-dead captain of the Dawn Blade.
The golden light swept through, plowing a bottomless trench across the entire battlefield, before slamming violently into the maze wall, triggering a fierce earthquake.
After this strike, the dust settled.
The once-arrogant Third Calamity Pillar had been cleanly erased, not a trace left.
‘Holy shit.’
Kars stared at this scene, instinctively swallowing a gulp of saliva.
‘Is this the human limit? If she wanted to harm Gray, I’d probably only buy a few seconds even going all out.’
However, unleashing that earth-shattering slash seemed to have drained all the energy from the Square Water Mirror.
The girl’s figure standing in the center of the rubble began to grow transparent.
She slowly turned, her gaze passing over Kars, and landed on the writhing Gray.
The young man noticed and looked up.
He saw her smiling—carrying a hint of apology, longing, and boundless expectation.
Then, the particles of light dissipated.
The legend who once stood at the pinnacle of humanity returned to nothingness.
“Ugh… Ca… Captain!”
Gray let out a suppressed roar.
Under a struggle that felt like it was tearing his soul apart, countless fragmented images surged into his mind, leaving him in agonizing pain.
“Mr. Gray!”
Seeing this, Kars forgot to play weak.
She quickly scrambled up and pulled the trembling young man into a tight embrace.
“It’s okay. Both that shadow and Mammon are gone now.”
The girl pressed Gray’s head against her not-so-broad chest, her soft, boneless hand gently stroking his back, a warm Healing Holy Light glowing in her palm.
This was more than simple comfort.
She subtly mixed a trace of the Succubus’s hypnotic spell into the Holy Light to heal any potential mental trauma.
“It’s all right, Mr. Gray. I’ll always be by your side.”
Her voice was soft, like the warm spring breeze.
“Yes… I’ve got you right here…”
Under the combined effect of the magic and the girl’s reassuring presence, Gray’s tense muscles finally began to slowly relax.
His bloodshot iron-gray eyes gradually lost focus, and finally, in Kars’s embrace, he closed them heavily.
“Whew…”
Seeing Gray finally fall asleep, Kars let out a long breath, feeling the cold sweat on her back nearly soak through her clothes.
“What a mess this is…”
She sat down on the ground, looking at the chaotic battlefield, then at the pained-faced Gray in her arms.
Her expression grew complicated.
‘That girl just now, even though she was just a soulless copy, I could feel it—her feelings for Gray were definitely not ordinary.’
‘But weirdly, no matter how I think about it, I can’t muster an ounce of hostility toward her.’
Kars knew that whether it was the straightforward Lobelia, Lily, or Eve, she had, to varying degrees, felt a pang of jealousy when they interacted with Gray—though she vehemently denied it.
But toward that girl, Kars, whose soul she claimed was that of a male demon, felt no adverse reaction at all.
“‘Captain,’ huh… Before that Dark Elf Assassin’s copy disappeared, didn’t she also say something about a captain?”
Kars pouted, hugging her mission target tighter like a cat guarding its food.
“Hmph, probably just mistaken because of similar looks or something. But no matter what happened in your past, the one by this guy’s side now is me, Noctiluca!”
Gray’s steady breaths brushed against her exposed forearm.
The hot air made her heart tighten, and she instinctively held him closer.
What Kars could never have imagined right now was that the reason she couldn’t feel any hostility toward that so-called “human limit” phantom was that, in the end, they were the same person chosen by fate.