[ Undercity - The Golden Catfish Restaurant ]

In the eyes of ‘Casandro’, perching on top of the massive pillar, the figures of the white-haired twins leaned forward.

—And disappeared in the next second. 

Poof~!

When they reappeared again, in the air right in front of him with their weapons aiming for his throat, ‘Casandro’ was faced with a terrifying pressure that almost made him flinch. 

However, he reacted quickly, leaned back to avoid the first slash from Vena, hung on the end of the massive pillar with his hands, then used his full weight to ‘pull’ it down along with him. 

Eventually, the massive pillar broke loose, violently splitting apart the deck’s wooden flooring, scattering tiny pieces of wood into a dusty trail before spinning into the air wildly.

—First, disarm. 

At the same time, Altarin also continued to ascend. When he reached his maximum height, he pointed his gun downward, perfectly timed the rotation for the massive pillar to almost be perpendicular to the ground. And shot it down.

Bang—!

Instantly, the massive pillar plummeted down like a meteorite and violently punctured deep into the ship, causing the entire vessel to shake.

‘Casandro’, who was standing below waiting to catch it, hopped backward to avoid the impact. Immediately, Vena rushed at him with a horizontal slash, forcing ‘Casandro’ to kick the floor and grab the wooden plank that flew off out of the air to defend himself.

Having intuitively understood the trajectories of her sword swings, ‘Casandro’ calculated the exact angles needed to deflect Vena’s attack, and swung the flimsy plank of wood.

It collided with Vena’s ice-formed blade, just enough to veer it off-course before being cut, and for him to lean out of the way.

—Second, suppress.

Altarin fired a shot. 

Bang—!

Knowing what a single touch of his bullets could do, ‘Casandro’ quickly tilted his head to the right, dodging it.

Altarin then fired three more shots.

Bang—! Bang—! Bang—!

And ‘Casandro’ dodged them too.

However, those moments of distractions were all Vena needed to get closer. She stomped the ground, and the corroding frost that generated under her boot shot forward, catching ‘Casandro’s’ right foot, momentarily pinning down his movement.

And finally…

—Third, overwhelm.

Disarmed, distracted, vulnerable.

The trap that Altarin and Vena had been laying down since the beginning of their encounter, finally revealed itself.

“...!”

—He may have figured out that the speed of what the bullets touched could be altered. 

—But not the directions.

All five bullets that were fired, automatically flew back around to attack ‘Casandro’ from all sides! 

Shwang—!

One clean cut. ‘Casandro’s’ left arm flew off. Blood splattered everywhere. 

Sliced—!

Another cut. This time. His right arm cleanly severed from his shoulder.

Wooosh—!

With another swing containing Vena’s full strength powerful enough to cut through space itself traveling toward his neck—

Klank—!

““...!””

…..

However…

When Vena’s sword collided with its target, rather than the sound of cutting through flesh, something else rang out instead.

Something much, much more baffling.

At this moment, Vena and Altarin, and all the people who were watching this fight being broadcasted onto the gigantic monitor inside the Golden Catfish Restaurant, became witnesses to a frankly ludicrous sight.

On the deck of a half-broken ship above the pitch-black frozen canal. As the ice-formed blade of Vena approached his neck, as his arms were cut off, as his feet were frozen to the floor, and as the barrage of bullets from all sides controlled his torso, preventing him from moving to avoid any of it.

‘Casandro’ simply just…

—Bit the sword…

“...” Vena.

*Chew* Chew*

—Chewed the shattered pieces in his mouth.

“...” Altarin.

*Gulp.*

—And gulped it all down.

“““...””” Everyone.

…..

‘Casandro’ breathed in deeply, then sharply exhaled. 

Haaa—...

And just like that, the two arms that were cut completely off started to regrow. 

First the bones, then blood vessels and nerves, then muscle fibers, and then skin.

At the rate visible to the naked eye, a pair of arms that were completely cut off had been replaced by a new pair that reformed like nothing even happened.

Then, the temperatures on his skin suddenly rose, and the ice that thawed his limbs melted away.

With that, Vena and Altarin were forced to realize, that despite everything going according to their plans, the blonde-haired young man remained unscathed.

““...””

In the world of [Astrea], [Mana] permeated all there was. Tiny, imperceptible substances that fuelled and perpetuated the connecting elemental planes. Everything contained it, whether it’d be that rock or that tree, or that ice-formed blade of Vena that ‘Casandro’ just devoured. 

It was the essence of the world’s spirit, and the essence of magic itself, a way for the inhabitants to communicate with the elements and change their properties. 

But this essence, in high amounts, was extremely dangerous. Mutation, insanity, death—across the various systems of magic that were developed to harness the power of mana, there were two methods to account for the harm that would come from tapping into the essence of the world.

First, was [Faith]. And second, was being demonstrated at this moment by the blonde-haired young man. 

—[Evolution].

In the Abyss where the Mana Density was the most extreme, and it alone would kill any ordinary mortals who stepped down there, how did any living thing survive at all? 

The answer—they simply ‘evolved’ their bodies to accommodate. 

‘Whatever doesn’t kill you; strengthens you further’. The entire philosophy of the demon race.

So perhaps it should be expected then, that the being who had faced all the challenges of every Abyssal Floor and survived and was crowned its prince while countless others failed to do the same—would also be the one who could evolve the fastest.

“Without a doubt,” said Vena.

“He’s the Prince of Abyss, Karzio,” said Altarin.

A being who took the concept of [evolution] to its logical extreme. 

A physique that changed to suit its owner's needs, coupled with the mental alacrity that learned and processed information at an incredibly fast speed.

After every fight, a new movement was remembered. After every cut, its wounds healed a little faster. To combat cold, its skin heated up. To combat fire, its temperature lowered.

And eventually, after repeating the acts of battle hundreds and thousands and ten of thousands and hundreds of thousands of times against stronger and stronger and stronger opponents…

—You’d end up with a monster with a strength that rivaled the gods themselves, huh?

Confirming their opponent's identity, Vena cast her broken weapon aside, Altarin lowered his gun, and the two regrouped, standing at the bow of the ship.

Noticing that the gazes of the twins toward him had grown a little more cautious, the blonde young man smiled.

“Ah, it looks like you guys figured it out.”

[Karzio] swung his newly reformed arms, almost taunting in his demeanor.

Altarin narrowed his eyes and asked cautiously:

“Why is the newly crowned Prince of Abyss suddenly wreaking havoc within the Realm of Gods?

“It must have not been long since you got your title, have the fighting and bloodshed of the Abyssal Floors lost their luster to you already?”

“...”

For a while, there wasn’t an answer. 

But eventually, the blonde-haired young man looking down at him from the upper deck shrugged.

“I wasn’t supposed to be doing this, you know…” 

Karzio smirked thinly. His hazy green eyes also narrowed.

“When I first came to the Realm of Gods, a city ruled over by the Goddess of Lust just sounded like a fun place to visit.

“But then about a month ago something happened, and I was feeling really bad. So I started drinking and then an idea occurred to me.”

Karzio burst out laughing.

“It was so easy. All I had to do was burn a few strands of my hair and sprinkle the dust into their drinks like one of those Abyssal Worms parasites. Numbs their senses, makes them fall asleep, slowly letting a part of [me] seep into their dreams, and then consumes them from inside out.”

“But there’s no way that sort of thing...” Vena tried to interrupt.

“—Would work on a [god], I know right? I’m not exactly sure how, but it did. Originally, when I first took control of the two angels, Linlin and Min… something, I thought it was some kind of trap. But then everything just went so smoothly.”

“*Blurbbb~* Hahahaha, you should have seen the carnage that happened after they realized. So much bloodshed, so much violence. But they couldn’t bring themselves to finish the job.

“Seriously, intentionally giving in and letting yourself be controlled just because you don’t want to hurt each other anymore is just… so stupid.

“Since the last angel has just entered the House of Mistresses, it shouldn’t be long before she joins the others, weakening the Goddess of Lust even more.

“After that, it’s only a matter of time before this [Domain] becomes mine.”

Vena and Altarin silently listened as Karzio’s rambling slowly began to drip with condescension, like a drunken man who had a grudge against the world.

Finally, he looked toward the Golden Catfish—its glowing orange lanterns glowed above the frozen pitch-black canal. 

“As for what’s happening with the rest of the city. It was just on a whim. I really didn’t plan to invade the Realm of Gods, you know? But since it already happened, why not have some fun?”

Then, he looked toward them, and smiled slyly.

“Stealing a god’s [Domain]. I don’t know if it has ever actually been done before. But it sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it?”

““...””

—Because of that…

—Eden is…

Vena and Altarin stood there, staring at Karzio.

After a while, they breathed out, and calmly began to speak.

“Hey, Abyss Prince or whoever you are.”

“Because of you, someone very important to us is now in danger.”

“So we’d only ask this once.”

““Could you stop?””

“...”

At their words, the sly expression on the Abyss Prince’s face froze.

—Only for it to be immediately replaced by a crazed, taunting smile.

In the next moment, Karzio jumped from the upper deck, launching high into the air, raising his right fist that began to burn with scarlet hell fire toward the twins!

“Make me.”

And then...

Boom—! 

 —————……….

Meanwhile, inside the Golden Catfish Restaurant. Everything that was said by the three had been relayed by the mechanical-rabbit-head presenter to the Chaos Angels. On the giant monitor, the entirety of the fight from the beginning up to this point was also being displayed.

“You mean…”

“The stuff that we’ve been drinking…”

“Have pieces of him in it...”

One by one, the people who heard the news began to panic. Some even start to try to barf up the content of the stomach. 

Among them, the group of three ‘adventurers’, Boss, Bell, and Kevin stood by the third-floor railing, watching the unfolding scenes. 

“Good thing we haven’t been drinking anything, right? Bell? Kevin?” 

Boss breathed out a sigh of relief and looked to her right… only to find a certain muscular man staring back, holding a bottle of beer. 

Buurrb~

“Kevinnnn~!”

“...Opps.” 

Exclaiming slightly, Kevin stared at his two friends, before bringing the bottle to his lips again.

““Why did you take another swig of it, you idiot!””

“I mean, it’s already too late. So I might as well.”

At Kevin’s response, Boss and Bell’s corners of the mouths twitched, but they ultimately couldn’t find anything to argue against such flawless logic.

Meanwhile, from all around them, several screams started to pop up.

“AaaaaaaaaAaaaahHH~! Those people have gone crazy!”

“They’re trying to force everyone to drink! Everybody run!”

At this moment, across every floor of the Golden Catfish Restaurant, the sleeping people had begun to wake up—like undead rising from the graves. Their expressions had turned into the same crazed smile that Karzio wore, and they were attacking everyone recklessly.

Before long, this place would turn into a chaotic warzone where the Chaos Angels would have to fight their friends and loved ones just to survive. 

Plank—!

At the sound, Boss, Bell, Kevin, and everybody around them turned to look.

Under the orange lanterns, a plain-looking Chaos Angel stood over an unconscious man, holding a broken bottle.

Receiving the gazes, he simply shrugged.

“I never liked that guy anyway.”

Everyone: “““...”””

…..

Perhaps for these people, it wasn’t going to be so hard.

—————……….