Time refused to move forward.
Frey and his companions could barely breathe as they found themselves standing before him.
The overwhelming pressure that crushed their bodies made it impossible to think—let alone act.
All they could do in that moment was freeze, awaiting his next move… like lambs patiently waiting for the blade.
Snow had lost all awareness, not even realizing he had knocked Frey over—Frey, who could no longer stand after his legs had been blown apart.
Now lying on the ground, Frey stared up at the demon before him.
But this wasn't just a demon.
It was death itself, standing at their doorstep.
Asmodeus didn't speak ... not even a single word. Whether he was capable of speech at all was uncertain. All that escaped the skeletal maw was a constant hiss, a sound that deepened their terror with every passing second.
Frey had once stood before the Demon King himself .. Agaroth.
But that had only been a distant echo of the real thing. A projection, diluted and incomplete.
The pressure Asmodeus unleashed now, however, made that memory seem insignificant. This wasn't a projection.
This… was the real thing.
'We're going to die'
That thought struck them all at once.
They were going to die ... unable to lift a finger in defense.
Only now did they realize how foolish they had been to ever believe they could face something like this.
The Lord of Graves extended his hand. Everything moved in slow motion. Frey and the others could do nothing but gasp for air as they awaited the end.
Swoooosh.
Their fear blinded them to the fact that the demon's hand had stopped.
Still outstretched toward them, it had been halted .. not by will, but by force.
In the same instant, a ripple spread outward, releasing a powerful aura that revealed a thin membrane—an invisible barrier separating Frey and the others from the abomination before them.
The air grew heavier as Asmodeus pushed harder against that barrier.
Frey, collapsed on the ground, stared in awe as he gradually began to regain his senses.
Slowly regaining control over his body, stared in disbelief.
The terror the Lord of Graves had buried in their hearts had dulled their senses—so much so that they hadn't even noticed how far they'd been pushed back during their desperate retreat.
Gradually, Frey and the others began to take in their surroundings.
Only now did they notice the transparent veil that split the world in two.
On one side .. the fertile, green ground they stood upon. And beyond the barrier .. a lifeless black wasteland.
Then it happened.
A surge of dark aura erupted skyward as the Lord of Graves launched a devastating strike, trying to shatter the barrier.
BOOM!!
His blows rocked the earth, making it tremble as if weeping over its own doom.
Asmodeus wasn't a creature to fight.
He was a calamity.
Each of his attacks far surpassed anything the trio had ever witnessed.
And he didn't stop at one.
He unleashed hundreds.
Each one strong enough to erase them from existence.
But the true miracle wasn't the demon's fury…
It was the barrier.
That fragile, translucent veil held.
"Unbelievable…"
That thought echoed in their minds.
Even knowing the barrier stood between them and the monster, they couldn't move.
They sat there, helpless, as the Lord of Graves rained down his wrath, the earth quaking beneath them.
Amid the chaos, as he lay on the ground, Frey glanced at his companions.
They were spellbound, completely overtaken by the monstrous display.
Frey closed his eyes.
'Look closely…'
He thought, even as the searing pain from his shattered legs failed to bring him back from the terror.
Look closely at the true power of a being that stands at the very top of this world…
It was time to wake up.
The humans who believed they had won the war centuries ago…
It was time to face reality.
Before a being that had surpassed even the SSS rank…
This was the moment to understand.
This one entity alone could wipe out humanity.
Before the embodiment of death, that delicate barrier was their only shield.
And they could only pray it wouldn't break.
Asmodeus's assault continued for only a few minutes—but the destruction he left behind was immense.
The good news?
He failed.
The monster couldn't breach the barrier that stood proudly before him.
Frey and the others were left in awe.
What kind of spell was this?
More importantly…
What kind of being had cast such a barrier—one capable of withstanding an assault from the sixth upper rank demon?
By now, Frey and the others had fully regained themselves, scrambling to put as much distance as they could between them and the nightmare that had shown them a new definition of fear.
Their desperate retreat hadn't gone unnoticed.
The Lord of Graves had seen everything through his hollow eyes.
His skull-like face showed no emotion…
But the aura around him told a different story.
He opened his mouth.
And from the depths of hell itself, a sound emerged.
A scream.
A wail.
A distorted, soul-chilling shriek.
Frey and the others couldn't even begin to describe that horrid sound.
But it never failed to make every hair on their bodies stand on end.
"What is he doing?!" Snow asked, but none of them had an answer.
Why was that thing… screaming?
As they waited for some kind of explanation, the ground beneath them began to shake again—this time, violently.
But Asmodeus wasn't the cause.
Something else was.
Frey was the first to realize what was happening—his Hawk Eyes catching the truth.
"That's not a scream…"
His eyes widened.
"That's a call."
From the distance, they saw them .. hundreds, no, thousands of nightmarish creatures emerging.
Those creatures that had once ignored them completely—allowing them to pass unharmed—were now charging at them like mad beasts.
Grotesque monsters, vaguely shaped like horses, sprinted toward them in a frenzy.
Nightmare beasts, completely mindless.
And the one who had driven them insane… was none other than the Lord of Graves himself.
"Is he trying to use that army to attack us?!"
There were thousands of them, and they were quickly closing in on the barrier.
But ..
"What does he hope to accomplish with this? Even that damned demon's attacks couldn't break through the barrier .. how would these creatures do it?"
If a being of SSS-rank couldn't shatter the barrier, then what hope did low-tier nightmare beasts have?
It wasn't a flawed observation.
But Snow's words made Frey realize something far more important.
"Demon…?"
Frey's expression darkened.
Because he finally understood something crucial.
That seemingly invincible barrier… had already been breached.
And not by some overwhelmingly powerful entity or monster.
The ones who had entered… were them. Frey and his companions.
They had passed through without even noticing it.
In other words—
With a sharp cry, Frey shouted:
"Run! As fast as you can .. now!!"
That barrier wasn't absolute.
It was designed to block specific targets.
And those targets could be summed up in a single word: Demon.
Meaning…
"Anything else can pass through !!"
And just like that—Frey's warning proved true.