Others side

Chaos was pulled under by something. And as if that was a signal, the demons immediately swarmed the group left behind in the throne room.

Nobody is worried about the queen of the Dominion; if anything, she's the one person among them who's the least in danger. The devils coming for them with no regard for their own lives are a far more pressing matter than checking whether or not Chaos is alright.

Aurelia cuts a path through the enemy hordes with her golden weapons and makes her way toward the towering devil in the middle of trying to decapitate the God of Gold. The humans and gods of Adanak find relief in having the pressure taken off them due to the reinforcements that Tokomaha and her clones brought, and fight with newfound vigor.

Hestia uses the ample space between the floor and the towering ceiling to take to the air and rain down spirit spears from above. But to her surprise, many devils can block them by creating barriers of dark flames. They return fire with flaming orbs or bolts of energy, causing the fallen angel to quickly weave her way across the room to avoid getting shot down.

Only Kamii and Tokomaha are forced to fight in close combat, with the former quickly building up her combo curse due to the sheer number of enemies to hit. The little goddess forms a battle line using her clones, and advances in formation - something she would have never bothered to learn if not for Chaos teaching her tactics.

Despite being outnumbered, they quickly gain the upper hand in the throne room. When Aurelia shreds the towering devil to pieces, the lesser devils realize that they're outmatched and begin to panic. But as if an unknown intent is overseeing the battle, snaps of red lightning open unstable rifts in space from which more devils pour forth. Many armored ones appear among smaller imp-like creatures that swarm the room with pure numbers.

Then, a massive thunderclap outside the throne room announces the arrival of a new enemy. A gigantic clawed hand grabs the metal doorframe and bends it out of shape just from holding onto it. Reddish-brown skin wrapped in armor that seems to fuse with the flesh, a maw filled with sharp teeth, burning eyes, and an arm ending in a metal tube comes into view. Two horizontal horns extend from this giant devil's forehead, reaching from shoulder to shoulder.

It takes a step through the door but can't get in. With an almost casual shrug, it breaks the frame and the sandstone walls, fully entering the throne room. With a roar that seems to shake the entire pyramid, the giant devil makes its presence known. Humans and gods alike stare at it in horror, realizing that this must be a creature on a different level from those before.

"Bigger only means it falls harder." Kamii comments as she splatters a human-sized demon with a single swing of her cursed arm. She has built her combo counter to the point where even metal gets ripped apart rather than bent, so this new opponent won't stand a chance at all.

"Leave this to me." Hestia raises her hands and summons a massive lance of darkness above her head. Before, she would have had to chant a lengthy incantation in the language of the Fatas, but now she can easily conjure even the most powerful spells with a simple thought. Her imagination may be limited from many years of indoctrination in magic, but she has been training hard so that she doesn't get left behind by Chaos.

The lance of darkness comes down on the behemoth devil, but it raises its tube arm. From within emerges a crackling beam of raw energy that disintegrates the lance. Hestia dodges the beam heading for her with a nimble twist of her body, then spins around while creating an array of black spirit spears. She doesn't need her wings to fly anymore, so she spreads them while creating more and more spears while making them rain down on the giant devil in sequence.

They impact the creature's skin but barely chip away at its surface. Even then, it roars in obvious pain and raises its hand to shield its face from it while haphazardly loosing pellets of energy in the general direction of the fallen angel.

"Now's your chance." One of Tokomaha's clones pats Kamii's shoulder just as the latter disintegrates an imp with a swing of her arm. The little dark elf doesn't respond and instead spins around on the spot to head for the behemoth devil. Along the way, enemies are splattered left and right to further increase her combo counter.

She wants to settle this in a single strike; jumping up into the air and swinging her crab arm horizontally, she aims for the midsection of the colossus. But to everybody's surprise, the massive creature steps back with an unexpectedly nimble motion despite its size and swings its tube arm to swat Kamii out of the air.

The little dark elf's combo counter used to reset with time between hits. But now it only happens when she misses. Her intended swing hits nothing, but she twists her body around in midair, letting her cursed arm carry her momentum.

The crab pincer collides with the devil's metal arm. In the next moment, the shrapnel resulting from its disintegration rips dozens of smaller devils to shreds. The behemoth stares at its destroyed weapon with evident surprise but then roars in rage. Kamii takes that moment to land between its legs and slide underneath it, barely avoiding a stomp aimed at her head. Her combo is still going.

Using that opportunity to pelt the devil with a rain of spirit spears, Hestia takes the heat off the little dark elf. But as if realizing that it's a diversion, the beast endures the pain and turns around to grab Kamii. She gets up just in time to avoid the clawed hand and holds her cursed arm in reserve. Last time, she was able to hit after missing initially because the enemy didn't know her abilities. She can't swing her trump card around without a guarantee that she will hit now.

Instead, she hides her arm behind her back and draws the dagger at her hip in a reverse grip. Compared to her curse combo, this weapon appears laughably weak before the behemoth devil. But if this creature is at all intelligent, it should become wary of it; after all, why would a person whose crab pincer can pulverize even metal forgo that for a weaker weapon? The only potential reason is that this dagger is even more powerful.

"Come." Her short blade raised to eye level, Kamii glares up at the devil fearlessly.