The temple was erased...
An entire land .. once a miniature city in itself, a place where Frey Starlight spent years of his life since his reincarnation ..
was suddenly flattened, wiped clean from existence with a single strike.
A tremendous explosion lit up the night sky, announcing the beginning of a new horror.
The radiance of the blast lingered for several long seconds before slowly fading, revealing a colossal heap of ruins—the shattered remains of the temple’s many buildings and facilities now strewn across the land.
Among the debris, a massive chunk of rubble was hurled aside as a certain figure slowly rose to his feet.
It was Frey.
Beneath him lay Ada, whom he had shielded with his own body ..
a back now carved by a massive, bloody gash, scorched and shredded by the blast.
But his body immediately began to regenerate on its own.
Frey pushed himself up, lifting his head toward the sky.
"Of all possible times... they choose to attack now?"
He muttered under his breath, annoyance creeping into his voice as Nameless warned him instantly:
"Several strong opponents are surrounding us."
"I figured at least that much..." Frey replied sharply, while Ada slowly sat up behind him, still clutching Carmen’s corpse tightly.
"Frey... what just happened?"
"We’re under attack, Ada. From this point on, don’t leave my side. And get rid of Carmen’s body .. she’s dead, and holding onto her won’t help."
He didn’t even look at her. His eyes were fixed on the sky, hunting for the source of the attack.
Ada hesitated. She refused to let go of Carmen’s corpse.
Carmen was still there... lying lifeless in her arms, with a gaping, bloody cavity in her chest.
She was undeniably dead.
But Ada wanted to at least bury her properly ..
it was the least she could offer her. Carmen died in agony, especially after watching Frey kill her son right before her eyes.
Despite all her sins, she wanted him to live...
and Ada couldn’t forget that.
Frey understood her feelings perfectly ..
but he ignored Carmen’s final wish without a care.
Now, all that was left of Carmen was her corpse ..
and Frey intended to discard it without hesitation.
Ada found this cruel, but she wasn’t naive.
They were in a battlefield, hunted by terrifying enemies.
She herself was a burden to Frey .. nevermind carrying a second corpse.
So, reluctantly, she laid Carmen’s body down and stayed close to Frey. She looked utterly broken... but she understood she had no choice. She was too weak to change anything.
Meanwhile...
A violent star-like aura surged around Frey as he summoned the full destructive output of the Black Hole Aura.
"This is going to be difficult." Frey muttered with a strained smile ..
as their enemies finally revealed themselves.
Both figures hovered in the sky, bathed in moonlight and the fractured glow of the split moon.
Their presence was overwhelming—
especially that familiar demon who once plunged Frey into terror.
"Zibar... I didn’t expect to see your cursed face again this soon."
Frey drew the Dark Sister, while Balerion’s black terror wrapped around his arm in the form of an armored shadow limb.
His enemies were none other than:
—The Tenth Seat of the Upper Demons, Zibar.
—And Thánatos, the puppeteer Gepetto, Rank 13.
Both demons laughed mockingly as they descended from the sky.
"You owe a debt, Frey Starlight. And don’t think luck will save you this time."
Zibar cracked his knuckles, his body radiating monstrous power ..
A wild, destructive force trapped beneath his massive black armor...
The Katarina Armor.
"Your opponent this time isn’t a clone... but the real Tenth Upper Seat.
So prepare yourself .. today, you’ll suffer more than you ever have."
"You talk a lot for a mutt who brought another demon along to help him."
Frey sneered, shifting into a stance to protect Ada.
She froze completely. She couldn’t move an inch under the crushing pressure exuding from all three demons.
Frey was in a nightmarish position ..
not only outnumbered, but forced to protect Ada on top of it.
Secretly, he attempted teleportation to escape.
But his enemies had prepared for that—they locked the entire area under an aura barrier.
Frey’s teleportation required sending aura to the target location first.
But with the barrier sealing the surroundings, he couldn’t send his aura past their walls.
Wisker never repeated mistakes—
and this time, he came prepared.
"What’s wrong, Frey? Does this feel unfair? Hehehe..."
Zibar laughed loudly, pointing at him.
"You’ve got the mighty Nameless inside you, after all. Don’t blame me .. this much is barely enough for someone like you."
"You’re using Nameless as an excuse to make it two versus one? Pathetic. I never imagined the great Tenth Upper Demon could be this desperate."
Frey continued provoking him, sidestepping subtly as Gepetto circled from the other side.
Zibar didn’t seem offended .. instead, he burst into laughter.
"Two versus one? It seems you’re the one misunderstanding something, Frey Starlight..."
His eye glowed with a terrifying light, instantly alarming Frey.
"This is three versus one."
The moment those words left his mouth ..
a crushing pressure slammed down on the battlefield...
Announcing the arrival of another monster.
A monster whose power rivaled Zibar’s ..
or perhaps even surpassed it.
Frey’s expression darkened completely as he slowly turned his head toward the masked man who appeared from the void, approaching beside Gepetto.
In that moment, Frey recalled Snow’s warning from their previous battle against the Ultras ..
The masked monster that defeated Snow with shocking ease ..
the creature Snow begged Frey to team up with him against.
Now... that very monster had arrived to join Zibar and Gepetto.
"When I thought things couldn’t possibly get worse...
that bastard shows up too."
Surrounded by three monsters, Frey stood alone ... shielding his sister, the most important person he had left—with nothing but his own body.
It was, without a doubt, a hopeless situation. Let alone fighting all three at once... he wasn’t even confident he could defeat Zibar alone.
Frey’s mind worked at an absurd speed, burning itself in a frantic attempt to find a way out of this nightmare.
Since the beginning of his second life... he had likely never faced a situation this desperate.
No matter how hard Frey tried to think, every path led to the same ending:
Defeat.
Nothing else.
At that moment, Frey turned toward Ada.
"I don’t care what happens to me... but Ada... Ada must survive this."
Frey was fully aware that his enemies would not kill him .. capturing him would benefit them far more.
But Ada... nothing guaranteed her survival.
"Think..."
He cursed himself internally, pushing his mind to its limit.
"Think, damn it... how do I survive this cursed situation?"
His head felt like it was burning, overwhelmed by the weight of the crisis.
Frey was a genius .. his mind moved far faster than any normal human’s.
Within mere seconds he had run through hundreds of scenarios.
All of them led to death.
The only viable path was to make Nameless take control again...
But the masked king had rejected that option completely, leaving Frey with no choice but to fight alone.
"Think, damn you!! How do I get out of this?!"
He screamed internally, throwing every shred of instinct, experience, and power he possessed into searching for an answer.
And then ..
At the peak of his collapse ..
Reality seemed to freeze.
Something happened that shattered every thought in his mind.
Frey’s eyes had been fixed on his enemies the entire time: Zibar, Gepetto... and the hooded figure shrouded in black.
But in a fleeting moment...
the masked figure slowly removed his hood.