Amon and Frey Starlight stood face to face.
The demon’s expression darkened as his eyes carefully evaluated his new opponent.
"Hmmm... the vessel, not the original?" Amon scoffed, a crooked half-smile forming on his lips.
He had lost his mask, leaving his expressions and features fully exposed.
Nearby, Gehrman lay collapsed on the ground, utterly drained .. his vessel no longer capable of offering anything more.
Although Gehrman knew a great deal about the future and its hidden paths, even he had not anticipated Frey’s intervention here. Frey Starlight was an anomaly—one who could not be predicted by fate or foresight.
And then Gehrman noticed it.
The violet flames raging around Frey Starlight’s body.
"...That is the power of souls?"
Genuine shock crossed Gehrman’s face.
"For him to use this power... it means he has already reached the sixth stage of Shadow Adaptation. This quickly..."
The Engineer knew Shadow Adaptation intimately .. every stage, every cost. That was precisely why he had believed Frey would struggle most at the sixth stage. Using it was supposed to leave a severe mark on his mind and mental balance.
Yet reality had defied expectations.
Frey had activated the ability immediately—without hesitation.
"Using Soul Incineration means trampling over the very souls of the people you once fought to protect..."
"Frey... what exactly happened to you?"
In truth, Gehrman had been shaping this version of Frey little by little .. applying pressure gradually, guiding him toward becoming more like Nameless.
Step by step. Without haste. Without mistakes—ever since the day Frey reincarnated.
And yet this was the first time Frey had truly caught him off guard.
The moment Gehrman saw Frey Starlight’s eyes, he knew something was different.
Those were not the eyes of the same young man.
"This variable is unexpected... but it may work in our favor."
The Engineer slowly rose to his feet, transmitting his thoughts directly to Frey.
"I didn’t expect you to intervene—but since you did, you may be our best chance."
"That demon is overwhelmingly strong. You won’t be able to defeat him... but you don’t need to."
Gehrman’s voice carried absolute certainty.
"Just hold him back. For as long as possible. With everything you have, that should be achievable."
His thoughts reached Frey alone—unheard by anyone else.
Frey turned briefly toward him, staring with those lifeless eyes... then calmly faced Amon again without saying a word.
Meanwhile, the demon approached them slowly, step by step.
"Just now ... you spoke to each other in secret, didn’t you?"
Amon let out a hollow chuckle, placing both hands behind his back.
"You never break your habits, Saint. Are you still scheming something even now?"
He sighed as he continued walking.
"If Nameless himself were here, you might have had a chance... but the vessel changes nothing."
Amon was not wrong.
The gap between him and Frey was enormous .. even if Frey used every terrifying power at his disposal to bridge it.
Not to mention that Amon’s true limits were still unclear. He had yet to use his world-breaking ability ..
The power said to overturn the tide of battle against any opponent.
That was what troubled Gehrman the most.
He did not know what that ability was.
Fortunately, Amon did not seem inclined to use it unless certain conditions were met—or unless he was pushed close to defeat.
Still...
Gehrman could not help but wonder.
Could Frey Starlight truly endure this?
Even he and Abraham had failed to restrain Amon for long.
Speaking of Abraham ..
He was still broken from the last devastating assault, but the moment he saw Frey enter the battlefield, he forced himself to rise.
"No... Frey... don’t fight him..."
Abraham clenched his teeth, struggling to gather what little strength remained.
"That monster is not an enemy you can face!"
He tried to reach his son .. but it was futile.
Then, as he attempted to stand, Abraham suddenly froze.
He collapsed again, clutching his chest as a dreadful sensation washed over him.
Something viscous. Filthy. Malignant.
Something touching his heart.
A wave of evil surged through him, sending chills down his spine.
"What the hell... was that?!" Abraham gasped, eyes wide as he gripped his chest.
For a moment, the battlefield vanished from his sight entirely.
It felt as though death itself had reached out .. trying to drag him away.
But Abraham resisted.
When he turned around, there was nothing there.
And yet—he felt it clearly.
As if death itself were calling his name.
All of this unfolded under Gehrman’s watchful gaze.
The light in his eyes shifted the moment he saw Abraham’s reaction .. as if he had realized something.
"...There isn’t much time left," Gehrman muttered hoarsely, turning his gaze back to Frey.
"Just a little longer, Frey. Hold on."
The blue-eyed man placed his faith in Frey.
Frey did not respond.
"..."
For a brief moment, silence fell.
Only the sound of Amon’s footsteps echoed as he advanced toward Frey.
It lasted mere seconds.
Then ... everything changed in an instant.
Frey vanished completely ...
And reappeared directly in front of the demon.
"Instant teleportation?" Amon remarked as he saw his opponent attack from nowhere.
Frey’s sword swept horizontally, aiming for his neck as a colossal surge of aura erupted through the blade.
The demon blocked the strike with his bare hand.
The collision triggered a thunderous explosion of destructive force, shattering the ground behind Amon.
"Impressive... to display this level of power without even reaching the SSS-rank," Amon’s smile widened.
"As expected of a body meant to carry Nameless’s abilities—the only equal to the great Demon King."
Amon continued throwing out remarks one after another.
Frey did not respond.
He pressed the attack relentlessly, unleashing strike after strike while pouring even more of that violet flame into his blows.
Amon moved his hand at lightning speed, deflecting every attack .. until he suddenly paused.
A strange pain surged through him.
Blood splashed onto the ground.
"...This is—"
Amon froze for an instant, then immediately understood.
"Black Hole Aura."
Frey had begun using Black Hole Aura instead of ordinary aura .. suddenly, and in massive quantities.
A shiver ran through the Rank-11 demon’s body.
"You possess truly dangerous abilities, Vessel of Nameless..."
Amon retreated, opening distance .. but Frey chased him down instantly.
The strikes were brutally fast and overwhelmingly heavy, to the point that Amon could no longer afford to treat this lightly.
From the side, Gehrman watched intently, tension evident in his expression.
"Soul Incineration grants him an absurd amount of raw power, which he is channeling through Black Hole Aura—a lethal weapon in its own right..."
Thanks to the power of souls, Frey could amplify his strength to an extreme degree .. naturally increasing the destructive output of Black Hole Aura as well.
"He’s also using Nameless’s aura-circulation method to recycle his energy, minimizing aura consumption to the lowest possible level."
Nameless’s aura circulation allowed Frey to recover a significant portion of the aura expended with every attack .. a technique he had refined even further after using it against Zibar and Abraham before.
"And that’s not all. He also possesses Dark Ascension, which temporarily grants him a physical output comparable to SSS-rank combatants... combined with the stacked power of his ignited weapons..."
"...What utter chaos."
Even with all of Gehrman’s experience and intellect, he could no longer accurately gauge Frey Starlight’s current strength.
Stacking this many world-breaking abilities together should have been impossible.
Yet—because he was Nameless’s strongest vessel—he could endure it.
"I’ve never seen anyone wield this many world-breaking abilities at once aside from the King and my elder brother," Amon muttered darkly as Frey tightened the pressure.
What unsettled him most was the simple fact that Frey had injured him.
Black Hole Aura, reinforced by the power of souls, was lethally dangerous ..and even more terrifying was the way the two abilities were fused together.
"This bastard... he’s merging two high-tier abilities as if it were nothing..."
The wounds Amon had taken were no joke.
And in terms of pure offensive power ..
Frey Starlight now surpassed both Abraham and Gehrman.
"Let’s end this quickly. I have no desire to endure any more of your nonsense, Vessel of Nameless."