“Cold...everything...so...cold…”

A naked girl was floating around in a dark place. She was curled up in a ball as she tried to conserve the warmth but the more time passed the colder it became.

“D-did we do it? Are Isabella and Mr. Leigong okay?”

….

Beatrice remembered a haughty spirit that she met. He was sometimes overbearing while other times quite peculiar and hard to get along with. There was a certain light radiating from him, she knew this as their souls were connected with each other.

Then there was her new friend, a girl that she used to envy. Somehow the two were connected thanks to this odd spirit. Along their travels, the dislike turned into a friendship that she thought could last forever.

This only increased her anxiety, she knew that this wouldn’t last. Her spirit was pushing them forward and she knew why he wanted to leave. At the end of this journey, the only thing that was connecting her to the new friend would go away. She would lose two of the people that could be relied on.

She didn’t make it seem obvious and the spirit never asked about it. The world was relying on them so she pushed her selfish thoughts to the back of her mind. If everyone else was happy that would be enough, she was used to it.

“Leigong? Isabella? Who are they? I don’t remember… I just want to sleep… It’s cold…”

Soon the old memories started fading away, even when she tried to remember they weren’t coming back. The bright light that was brought into her life started fading away and she started losing herself in this void.

….

….

“There you are…”

A voice called out to her, it belonged to a man but who was he. She felt like this was someone that was close to her but she couldn’t recall. The girl could barely open up her eyes but when she did a radiant golden light filled her blurry vision.

“I’m sorry that I’ve made you wait... “

She could feel sadness coming from this voice. The light continued to get closer and soon she felt warmth returning to her body once more.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

She could hear another voice that belonged to a girl. This voice was also very familiar even more than the one that belonged to the man.

Then she felt it, someone was right next to her. The girl opened up her eyes and saw a bright smile before her. A smile that she was very familiar with, it was her friend that was dear to her.

“Isabella?”

“Yes, don’t worry, you’re not alone…”

Zhang Dong looked at the two young souls before him. They were floating between his palms, he could feel that Beatrice was regaining her lost memories thanks to being in close proximity to someone that she resonated with. This wouldn’t last for long so he needed to act fast.

“I need to start… please forgive me.”

“It’s okay Mr. Leigong.”

Isabella replied while looking up to the giant made of lightning energy before her. The giant hands that were hovering between them moved together. Soon a strange feeling washed over both of the girls as everything faded to white.

Zhang Dong looked down at his hands, in his left he was holding a small wisp of light that was slowly fading away. In his right, he could see a much larger orb that was radiating warmth.

He slowly brought these two lights together while focusing. The larger ball of light that constituted Isabella in soul form slowly made contact with Beatrice’s fading one. Soon the two light sources started to intertwine while the corruption subsided.

The darkness that was dimming Beatrice's soul started fusing itself with Isabella’s. It looked like a yin and yang symbol that was battling for supremacy. The darkness was trying to push its way towards the light that was defending itself from the corruption.

This was the time to act, he used his own energies to attack this corruption by strengthening Isabella’s soul. He couldn’t overcharge it as too much would burst poor Beatrice’s soul like a soap bubble. The corruption needed to be slowly filtered out while the other soul mended itself back.

The process was working but it was slow. On the outside things looked bleak. Zhang Dong’s body had mostly evaporated into mana particles and only part of his arm remained. It hovered with its finger outstretched and still poking Isabella’s forehead.

In the background, the bombardment continued but the first casualties of this expedition started to arise. The true Demon King had reformed itself and with a swipe of its large hand, it destroyed one of the flying ships that was used as a barricade. The soldiers that were manning the cannons and flinging the spells at this creature didn’t even have time to react before they were engulfed in dark-colored hellfire.

Some were lucky enough to be close to some of the stronger combatants like the group of four heroes or the two elven mages that came along for this trip. Even then, all these people could do was defend themselves for a short period of time. Everyone retreated to the grand formation that had been broken already.

“There is nowhere to run, the cycle has been broken, all of you have to perish.”

The monster proclaimed while the large toothy mouth that was at his abdomen area opened up. Dark flames and heretic energies along with miasma were discharged into the surroundings burning everything to ash. No one was safe, human, beast, or even insects; they would all need to be cleansed in this demonic fire so that the cycle could begin anew.

The survivors gathered looked up to the behemoth. This really seemed like it was the end but before the dark flames could singe the remaining people a pillar of light shot up into the sky. Dark demonic flames collided with this light, the two forces surprisingly repelled each other with the light managing to hold its own.

This didn’t stop the demon from charging up a second attack, it leaned back and opened up both of its mouths. While holding its hands outstretched a mass of demonic energy formed in front of its body. It was spherical in shape and looked like a miniaturized sun made from dark flames.

“Perish within the cleansing flames, let everything return to the beginning.”

As the demon lord was speaking he moved this dark sun up and over his head. It continued to expand into massive proportions and ready to singe this world into nothing but ash. The people of the races could only go down to their knees while looking at the massive ball of energy.

Then from within the small pillar of light that had blocked the previous attack a man in a white robe emerged. His form was familiar to everyone here yet in his eyes there was a certain sadness.

He pointed with his finger towards the large dark ball of flames. Right in front of him, a large magic circle appeared on it, with many runic symbols and strange writing. This magical circle expanded into a certain size before it split up into another one in front of it.

These magical spheres continued to pop up right in front of each other while pointing at the demon and the miniature star it was holding. It didn’t look like the demon was agitated in any shape or form by this display of magic as it continued with its own technique.

Finally, with a loud roar, it threw this massive globe of demonic energy down on the people below it. Almost at the same moment, Zhang Dong looked up, from within his fingertip a tiny bubble of white energy emerged.

It was the size of a marble and moved rather sluggish towards the large descending ball of energy. Then when it seemed that Zhang Dong’s spell was a fluke it touched the large magic circle in front of it. In a flash of light, this circle churned with power as it activated its effect.

The tiny bead of light shot forward and dramatically expanded in size. It turned into a beam of white light that continued to increase in thickness each time it passed through another of the previously produced magic circles.

In a fraction of a second, it matched the gigantic demonic sphere of energy and collided with it. To everyone's surprise, the Demon King’s attack halted in its descent. A battle of two repelling energies commenced once again as the earth rumbled down below.

“Grab my hand!”

Takeshi called out to Ami as he held up a shield to protect the survivors. The party of heroes gave it all along with the elven ladies they produced the best shielding magics that they could.

Darkness and Light collided with each other and for a moment it looked like the dark sun would engulf the earth. But with a burst of energy, the magical circles began to turn. They span around while crackling with golden lightning energy.

The beam of white light expanded in size and into a cone shape outwardly. It engulfed the star of doom that was descending onto the survivors and started to push it back.

“How could this be… you should not have this much power…”

The demonic voice of the Demon King sounded out as it tried adding more of its black flames to his powerful attack. It didn’t seem like it was much use as he was pushed back. The golden beam of light shot up into the stratosphere while also erasing this demon's most powerful attack.

“You had your fun, but this is the end…”

Zhang Dong appeared next to the large monster that only noticed that he was hovering in front of it the moment he got there. He was now directly looking at the massive jaws of the demon’s second mouth.

The Demon King opened his gullet wide and quickly chomped towards the small being in front of it. The sword-length teeth descended onto its prey as the mouth closed around Zhang Dong’s body.

“Foolish traveler you could have left this place but now…. ugh?”

While being assured of its victory the Demon King grinned but suddenly a strange feeling washed over his body. He could feel something moving inside of him.

A large opening in the back of this demon was created as Zhang Dong shot out. He was surrounded by his holy energies and looked slightly injured with clothes cut up.

“W-what did you…”

“Nothing, I just took your power source...”

In Zhang Dong’s hand was a large darkened gem. It was radiating strange energies but soon it started to diminish in size while revealing its true form, a cube.

“I-impossible…”

Without its source of energy, the large demon started faltering. Like a deflated balloon it started to shrink down in size all the way till it was the size of the human king.

Still alive the Demon King attempted to flee but before he could even flinch a torrent of golden light descended onto his body. It singed him to ashes rather quickly while Zhang Dong watched on with vacant eyes.

‘It’s finally over… but at what cost…’

Zhang Dong looked to the cube in his hand and then glanced behind him. There, Beatrice and Isabella were on the ground, both collapsed while holding hands.