Marissa cut down the ogres around her with one swift turn. Her boomerangs flew in a circular motion and decapitated two rows of ogres around her. Rock smashed a demon's head and saw that one slipped away from him, aiming for Marissa.

"Marissa, watch–"

He hadn't finished his warning yet when a wavy, black-haired man shot past him and killed the demon along with the demonic beasts around him. He whipped the black blood off his blade and turned to Marissa.

"You okay, missy? Watch your back more."

Marissa looked up at him and was immediately stunned. She almost thought Ash has revived from his death.

August saw a group of demons coming towards them from behind and pulled Marissa to his back before slashing them to their death.

"Don't space out on a battlefield if you don't want to die."

"I-I'm sorry…"

"Don't apologize. Just concentrate," August dashed away.

Godford had already gone inside earlier. He didn't think there would be anyone else as strangely powerful as Rye. Only someone like them could reach the demon castle from Yigiris this fast. He didn't think there would come a day for him to experience what flying felt like.

Meanwhile, inside the throne hall, Godford faced Rye with mixed emotions inside his chest.

"What the f*ck are you doing, Rye!? You seriously going to use the power taught to us to kill your own brother!? Wake up!!"

Rye didn't seem to hear anything Godford said and charged toward him. Godford disappeared from his spot. He reappeared behind Rye and bashed his head to the ground mercilessly.

"Tch! I knew you're weak to mental manipulation, but I didn't think you'll get brainwashed this thoroughly one day."

5 magic circles appeared around Godford and activated instantly. A wave of energy blasted out of Godford's body and brutally destroyed the magic circles into dust. Not only the magic circles, it also struck a significant blow at the demon lord, giving Rosetta and Desmund a chance to attack him.

"Sorry, I don't want to do this, but you'll regret it more if I don't."

A magic circle appeared above Rye's head. Rye's eyes widened for a few seconds before they turned slack and blanked out. When Godford let him go and stood up, Rye laid there motionlessly.

Seeing that everything has been handled well, Ludric's attention instantly shifted to the demon lord. Rosetta and Desmund have done their best, but they couldn't leave a single scratch on him.

Other than the demon lord, there couldn't be anyone else who could put Rye in that state. Fueled with rage, Ludric stormed as fast as lightning towards the demon lord, imbuing several spells into his sword. The others also soon joined the fight.

After a long struggle, Ludric finally got an opening and used his finishing move. Light glowed out from his blade as he motioned towards the demon lord's neck. With one swing, his blade cut off the demon lord's head along with almost half of the floor they were in. The rubles slid and crashed down outside, breaking the rooftops and balconies it passed and pummeling the creatures underneath it.

Everyone caught their battered breath. The demon lord's head rolled towards Ludric's feet and he smashed it with his foot in despise.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

The four of them all raised their weapons towards the noise to see it was their crown prince. Even so, none of them lowered their alertness.

Kiefer brought up Rye's body from the floor and hovered him into his arms, "Ah…out of all the parts you could ruin, why must it be his face? He even dressed up so prettily to greet you."

Ludric's pupils shook when he witnessed Kiefer lower his head and kissed Rye deeply. When they separated, Rye's injuries completely healed and his eyes regained back their focus.

"I'm sorry…" Rye muttered as he rested his head on Kiefer's shoulder.

"A punishment will suffice."

"What did you do to him!?" Godford yelled anxiously.

"I just give him what he wants the most," Kiefer smiled vilely, "he belongs to me now. Shutting down his mind is useless. His heart is in my possession."

"What do you think you are doing, Kiefer? How long have you been on the side of evil?" Ludric readied his stance, "even if you have a short temper, I didn't think you would betray humanity itself."

"Even after seeing me here, you still can't figure out anything? Really, you are the most disappointing Supreme Hero I've ever met. Your ancestor would be ashamed of you. No wonder the world is easily destroyed right now," Kiefer laughed in mocking, "your strength is average, your status is average, your charisma is average, even your comrades are average. There's nothing interesting or special about you. Without your heritage you are nothing."

"So what? I don't care if I'm special or not in anybody's eyes. I didn't ask to be born with this heritage."

"Is that why you are so irresponsible with it? You have a lot of time all these years to be the most powerful being under heaven and yet you wasted it because you are too scared to face the unknown outside the familiar border of your country. How laughable. And even after this long, you can't even sense any demon in disguise without your pathetic powder," Kiefer tilted down to Rye, "isn't that right, my love?"

Rye slowly nodded.

Kiefer put Rye down and stroked his hair, "Your lovely little brother is both more powerful and charming than you. Blame yourself for letting my interest fall on him rather than you."

Ludric's patience snapped and he bolted forward to attack. Godford also couldn't tolerate it anymore and cast his most powerful spells toward Kiefer. 5 layers of magic circles appeared in the sky, sucking the light from the stars and moon above, while Ludric started engaging with Kiefer.

Rye looked up and raised his hand to alter the spell, but nothing appeared. There was confusion and wonder in his eyes as he studied the circles above them.

"It's useless. My spells are designed especially to tackle your altering ability. They're built with complex mathematical calculation as their foundation," Godford suddenly charged towards Rye, "I'm waking you up whatever it takes."

Rye faced Godford head-on with his blades. Complex spells and lethal blows flew everywhere from both duels, rendering Rosetta and Desmund retreating to cover.

Unfortunately for Ludric, he wasn't nearly a tenth as strong as Kiefer. In addition, he wasn't in his prime condition after fighting both Rye and the demon lord. After Kiefer got bored catering to Ludric's worthless attacks, he caught Ludric's sword with his fingers and easily snapped it.

"Weak," Kiefer spun the broken-off blade in his hand and stabbed Ludric's abdomen, "your predecessors had their weapons made out of celestial beasts with transcendent spirits in them. Some even crafted them themselves. Born with a golden spoon became a disadvantage in your hand."

Godford was also having no luck in defeating his close friend. He was always aware of who was the most powerful between the two of them. Seeing that the spell was ready, he immediately activated it when Kiefer thrashed Ludric away, costing him a hole in his abdomen from Rye's attack. He quickly teleported everyone away, excluding Kiefer, as he healed himself.

The spell flashed a blinding light a few hundred meters away before a pillar of light shot down from the sky, disintegrating everything under it with a deafening sound. The ground exploded from the impact, collapsing the earth around the castle. Yet the demon castle, or what was left of it, proudly stood in mocking.

"Impressive. For a mortal that is."

Everyone except for Rye turned around to see Kiefer standing perfectly fine behind them.

"Too bad it's too slow. I can fix that if you serve under me. I've lost all my archdemons anyway. I can promote you to one," Kiefer offered.

"No, thanks. I'm perfectly happy with my current race," Godford's face hardened.

He was completely out of mana from that one attack just now.

Kiefer raised his palm with a black flame dancing upon it, "I suppose it is my turn?"

"Sh*t!" Godford hurriedly thought of any spells he could use.

Desmund instinctively stood in front of them and cast as many barriers as he could afford. Rosetta grabbed onto him and transferred as many of her mana as she could.

All of them knew that they would die if they got hit by whatever Kiefer was about to offer.

When the black and purple flame finally roared towards them, all of them could only shut their eyes to pray. As a result, they failed to witness the descendant of the being they prayed to who landed in front of them and answered their prayer.

Without lifting a finger, the chaos flame split 10 inches away before reaching Octavian and soon dispersed.