The southern continent had turned into a battlefield .. a clash between Nito, the Ninth Seat, and Snow Lionheart, who had only recently broken into the SSS rank.
Snow’s Pureflame completely overwhelmed Nito’s blue fire, sending the latter crashing down from the sky, his body engulfed in blazing white flames.
Yet Nito’s fall did not last long.
His monstrous form soon twisted and reshaped itself, reverting to a humanoid body.
Standing well over two meters tall, Nito’s physique was packed with terrifying muscle density and overwhelming solidity. His sky-blue hair flowed behind sharp, arrogant features .. features now clearly twisted with rage.
"These flames... I’ve heard of them before."
Nito slowly rose back to Snow’s level, drawing the Slitherine Sword as he did so.
"Pureflame .. white fire of absolute purity. One of the most powerful offensive abilities once wielded by the Pure Vessel itself."
He narrowed his eyes at Snow.
"If you possess this power... then that confirms it. You truly are his descendant."
Slowly, Nito tightened his grip around the sword’s hilt.
The Snow standing before him was no longer the same opponent he had fought before.
His armor had turned pure white—a flawless, refined metal that covered his body perfectly.
His aura had surged, his power multiplied many times over.
All of this... merely the result of breaking into the first stage of SSS—the Throne Beyond Existence.
To Nito, Snow looked like a phantom riding upon a cloud of white fire.
Hatred and fury burned in Nito’s eyes.
"So easily... he lays his hands on yet another world-breaking ability."
The power Nito had chased obsessively—so much so that he betrayed his own race for it—had fallen into Snow’s hands as if it were nothing.
"I hate people like you."
Nito’s body ignited as his aura erupted violently.
"Bastards who are born with superior talents .. monsters gifted with abilities that let them surpass everyone else effortlessly."
As Nito spoke, a certain face surfaced in his mind...
Those like Snow—like Midir, the Dragon God—were beings born with world-breaking powers from the very beginning.
Naturally, they ascended far faster than anyone else.
Calling people like Snow merely talented was inaccurate.
They were geniuses.
Nito possessed talent .. but he had never been able to keep up with geniuses.
In truth, Snow Lionheart represented the kind of existence Nito hated the most.
Snow saw it clearly .. and didn’t care.
The Hero of the Empire extended his hand toward Nito, curling his fingers in a taunting gesture.
"Come, Traitor of the Pantheon. I don’t have time to listen to your inferiority complex."
Snow deliberately provoked him.
And Nito responded instantly.
Launching himself forward with full speed and power, Nito brought his sword down in a vertical strike .. only for Snow to meet it head-on with equal force.
Their auras collided violently, flames of different kinds clashing against each other.
At first, the battle was evenly matched...
but Snow’s white flames gradually began to tip the scales.
With every collision, Snow’s strikes grew faster and heavier.
Nito compensated for his lack of raw destructive power with overwhelming toughness and superior physical strength.
"Tell me, traitor Nito... was that borrowed power truly worth what you did to your own race?"
BOOOOOOM!!
Their swords crashed together as they closed in, faces nearly touching, each trying to overpower the other.
"You handed the Pantheon’s weakness to the Demon King .. dooming your own kind, beings on the same level as the Light-Bearers. All for what?"
BOOM!!!
Flaming sparks scattered as Snow gained a clear advantage, now merging the power of the Light Soul directly into his attacks.
"You struck a selfish deal with Agaroth, trading everything for the Light Soul—the world-breaking power you always dreamed of. But then what?"
"Here you are .. having lost that precious ability the moment you ran into me. And you were crushed by the Dragon God Midir when you dared to challenge him as well."
"How utterly pathetic you are... Emperor of Dragons."
Snow’s relentless mockery finally made Nito snap.
"SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH!!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
Out of nowhere, Nito hurled his sword high into the sky, abandoning it completely.
Instead, the former Dragon Emperor clenched his fists, flooding them with an enormous amount of aura.
Nito completely changed his combat style.
Fist after fist, he assaulted Snow, who answered each strike with his blade.
A storm of punches clashed against a tempest of sword strikes.
The battle devolved into a brutal, mindless slaughter ..
and that was exactly what Snow had been aiming for from the start.
The sharp eyes of the First Lord of Light’s heir had already seen this path of battle in advance.
After losing their previous fight, Snow had realized that Nito was not an opponent who could be easily provoked .. a seasoned, veteran warrior through and through.
But Snow had succeeded in shattering that composure, dragging him into a reckless battle of pure attrition.
Stealing the very world-breaking power Nito had betrayed his race for...
then relentlessly humiliating him afterward..
All of it combined to strip Nito of his caution completely.
’This way... I can defeat him for sure.’
These were Snow’s thoughts ..
in stark contrast to the unsteady Nito, whose current situation had dragged forth hateful memories he never wished to recall.
Memories from the distant past, back when he had still been a member of the Pantheon race, bearing the title of Dragon Emperor, fighting side by side with Midir.
At that time, the Pantheon were the ones most capable of standing against the demons ..
even more so than the Light-Bearers themselves.
This was due to their overwhelming physical superiority and explosive power, which allowed them to utterly dominate the demon armies in direct confrontation.
Yet, at the decisive moment, everything collapsed.
Nito defected from the Pantheon and sold his race’s weakness to Agaroth, who welcomed him with open arms .. making him one of the Ten Supreme Demons and granting him a Light Soul.
The weakness of dragons lay not in attacks that targeted the body...
but in those that targeted the soul.
Physically, the Pantheon were overwhelmingly superior—but soul-based attacks were a fatal weakness to them, especially against those who mastered the Law of Life and Death.
Unfortunately for the Pantheon, the demons possessed someone monstrously proficient in that very domain.
One of the Dukes of Hell .. Maskith.
He became a living plague to the Pantheon, annihilating their armies single-handedly and bringing down every Dragon King.
Even after Midir intervened, there was little he could do alone .. especially once Crimson, the First Seat, joined the battle.
And so, the Pantheon suffered a complete and humiliating defeat.
They were subjected to near-total annihilation, losing a massive portion of their strength.
Even Midir himself nearly died that day, surviving only due to his extraordinary vitality and relentless will to live until the very last moment.
That incident planted a deep, festering hatred for Nito within Midir’s heart.
Which eventually led to another infamous event .. the Crucifixion Battle.
Years after the Pantheon’s extermination, Midir managed to track Nito down and confronted him on a planet occupied by the demons.
That day, despite possessing the Light Soul, Nito was utterly crushed by Midir ..
to the point where Agares, the Second Seat, had to intervene.
Agares possessed a world-breaking ability known as King’s Solidity, granting him physical strength and durability on par with Agaroth himself.
The battle turned into a two-versus-one.
Nito and Agares
against
Midir.
Midir fought alone .. without Placido, which meant he lacked his absolute strongest form.
Even so...
Midir emerged victorious.
He overwhelmed Agares completely, shattering his body beneath the weight of his devastating blows ..
even King’s Solidity proved useless against him.
That battle cemented Midir’s dominance and confirmed his rightful position as First among the Seven Supreme Powers of that era.
Yet he failed to kill Nito that day.
Despite his victory, Midir had suffered severe damage, and fighting two Seats .. one of them the Second .. was an extreme burden, especially without access to his strongest form.
Midir failed to kill Nito...
but Nito was left utterly humiliated.
Despite the power he had betrayed his race to obtain,
despite the support of the demon ranked second highest ..
he still lost to Midir,
without Midir even using his strongest form.
Snow had inherited a significant portion of Orested’s memories .. the current Lord of Light.
Because of that, he knew all of this.
And he exploited it perfectly to provoke Nito even further.
"How pitiful you are, Nito," Snow said coldly.