The universe, despite its vastness and boundless scale, can sometimes feel strangely small.
What happened in Helmond spread across existence in an incredibly short time. Soon, everyone had heard what had occurred—and about the battle that reshaped Helmond’s very terrain.
The Great Ones had invaded a place no one had dared to touch since the beginning of history, even though the Demon King himself had been present there.
The name Agaroth alone was usually enough to deter anyone from even entertaining such a thought, yet the Great Ones defied that logic. For the first time ever, Odin himself appeared and fought his first recorded battle.
The races knew nothing about Odin. He was nothing more than an ancient myth, a forgotten legend told by elders and relics of the distant past.
Everything about him was unknown. He had been placed at the lowest rank among the Seven Supreme Powers as a special exception, without anyone knowing the extent of his abilities or what he was truly capable of.
But now, the world had been given a glimpse .. an idea of what the monster known as the Pale Devastation truly was.
His first recorded battle was against the Demon King Agaroth. Although their clash ended without a conclusion, Odin had fought the Demon King on equal footing, even overpowering him through large portions of the battle.
That alone was earth-shattering news. Since Nameless, no one had been able to challenge Agaroth on equal terms.
Odin’s achievement forced those responsible for ranking the Seven Supreme Powers to completely reevaluate him.
With strength great enough to confront the Demon King, and total dominance over all Great Ones to the point that every one of them obeyed his will, Odin was now regarded as a calamity on the same level as the Demon King himself. The Great Ones were elevated to an unknown-level threat, potentially even worse than the demons.
As a result, the ranking of the Seven Supreme Powers was completely rewritten. Midir was removed from the first position, and Odin was officially declared the strongest of the Seven Supreme Powers, becoming only the third being in history to reach that rank after Pure Vessel and Midir.
Due to the invasion of Helmond, a vast portion of the Demon Planet was destroyed, and at least hundreds of millions of demons perished.
The battle reshaped Helmond’s geography entirely, and one of the Dukes of Hell fell during the clash between the Demon King and the Lord of the Great Ones. The First Demon, Manus, was found dead under mysterious circumstances.
Manos was a unique existence. He was the very first demon, a being who once rampaged across the universe.
But long ago, he withdrew completely from the battlefield and became dormant, never leaving Helmond again.
His power had declined greatly because all demons were born through him, and each one siphoned away a portion of his strength throughout his life.
As a result, he became motionless and silent, speaking to no one, like a senile old being who had lost both his mind and memories.
Out of respect for his history, the demons still treated him with honor and granted him the title of Duke of Hell, but it would not be an exaggeration to say that Manos was the weakest among the current Dukes. Compared to monsters like Gael, the Father of the Abyss, or the enigmatic Maskeith, he was extremely weak in comparison.
That alone raised many questions about why he had been targeted and why the Great Ones wanted him dead.
The Demon King said nothing about it, but it was clear that he had some idea of the Great Ones’ true objective.
Their goal was one and only one: to bring their master, Odin, back into the physical world. To accomplish that, Manus had to die .. there was no other explanation.
The demons had lost a great deal, but the Great Ones had suffered a devastating blow as well. Of the fifty Great Ones who invaded Helmond, Agaroth killed forty-one of them, leaving only nine alive.
The total number of Great Ones barely reached a hundred, so it was no exaggeration to say that the Demon King had slaughtered nearly half of their entire race on his own.
Compared to tens of millions of insignificant demons, the death of forty-one Great Ones—each one an advanced SSS-class existence—was far worse.
Because of this, it was impossible to determine whether the invasion of Helmond had succeeded or failed.
This incident occurred only days after what happened on Earth, proving that the world had entered a difficult transitional phase.
It was worth noting that, despite his extraordinary feats, figures like Saint German were never included among the Seven Supreme Powers. That was because Nameless and his strange cult were treated the same as the Demon King and his high seats.
Thus, neither Nameless nor his followers were ever part of the Seven.
Days passed one after another, and the age of war officially returned .. both in the Uncharted Continent, where many titans of the universe had gathered, and on Earth, where the final battle was drawing near.
There were sixty-seven days remaining until the Shattering.
...
...
...
On Earth, in the Ultras Continent, the War of Darkness had officially ended. The conflict between the Empire and the Ultras was over, its result resembling either a draw or a mutual defeat.
Now the struggle was being driven entirely by external forces.
The Ultras had fallen under the command of the High-Ranking Demons who arrived one after another, while the Empire had completely collapsed, leaving humanity under the rule of the Shadow Sect.
The final battle resulted in a crushing victory for the Shadow Sect. They had killed three High-Ranking Demons, recovered Abraham Starlight, and even released a beast that was a direct enemy of the demons.
So far, the Shadow Sect under Gehrman’s leadership was in control, and the demon side was forced to take immediate action.
After Wesker’s fall, the eleventh-ranked Amon became the absolute authority over the demon side and the Ultras as a whole.
Beside him stood the ninth-ranked Nito, the third-ranked Vayne, and a number of other demons who had arrived later...
Among this new delegation came one of the worst demons in existence—a terrifying monster appointed to take part in the coming war.
The moment he emerged from the warp gate, the very atmosphere of the Ultras Continent changed. His presence was suffocating, accompanied by an overwhelming killing intent unlike anything before it.
Amon himself was there to receive him, along with a delegation of the Ultras. It could be said that every human present fainted the instant they were exposed to him.
He was a viscous being, more like a shadow than a living creature. His entire body looked like a mass of layered darkness and pitch-black matter. The only thing that stood out was his face, which resembled a mask .. deathly white, with three dark hollows that seemed to be his eyes.
He had no mouth and no nose—only those empty cavities. Yet the killing intent emanating from him eclipsed everyone present, proving that he had slaughtered a terrifying number of living beings.
The assassin .. the worst killer in Helmond—one of the Dukes of Hell.
Vex.
"I see you’re still a savage who can’t even control his killing intent," Amon said coldly, standing with his hands behind his back, his own face hidden beneath a mask, as he criticized his fellow Duke of Hell.
Vex had always been known as Helmond’s most infamous killer .. a filthy entity Amon had long despised. But the assassin didn’t care.
"Stop spouting nonsense and give me a name," Vex replied indifferently.
His voice was faint, barely audible—more like an irritating metallic rasp that scraped against the ears.
"I don’t have a name. I have names. But since you’re so eager to begin your work, bring me the head of Saint Gehrman."
Amon gave him the name, and that was all Vex needed.
In an instant, he sank into the ground, vanishing between its countless cracks, moving through them like a shadow searching for its owner.
The moment Vex disappeared, Amon let out an irritated sigh.
"I hope he dies this time."
It was clear that Amon despised Vex—not merely because he belonged to the Dukes of Hell, a faction opposed to the High Seats, but for something far deeper.
He hated him as a being and held no respect for him as a warrior.
Amon respected strength. He utterly despised assassins like Vex—creatures who stabbed their enemies in the back.
That dark monster had, in the past, killed foes far stronger than himself purely through his assassin abilities and lethal methods.
As Amon stared at the place where Vex had vanished, Vayne approached from behind.