The War of Earth finally came to an end, carrying with it consequences and revelations that shook the entire world.
Perhaps the greatest of them all...
Was Agaroth’s liberation from his chains.
The Demon King was now completely free.
And alongside that...
Nameless had returned.
The mysterious masked warrior who once stood against him in the distant past.
News spread rapidly.
Before long, countless factions had already learned what transpired on Planet Earth.
Everyone...
Except those trapped inside the mysterious continent, where all information from the outside world had been completely severed.
Ever since that continent first appeared, an entire month had already passed.
A month since most of the Seven Great Powers entered it...
Alongside the Upper Demons led by Crimson...
And the most infamous existence within the Duchy of Hell—
Gael.
The continent had transformed into an endless labyrinth...
Exactly as Frey described.
A labyrinth that gathered together countless factions harboring deep hatred toward one another.
Demons.
Great Ones.
The Pantheon.
And the Bearers of Light.
With all those forces gathered in one place, conflict and bloodshed had become inevitable.
Somewhere deep within the continent...
Inside a bizarre labyrinth...
A vast, endless plain stretched outward into the distance, containing nothing except doors.
Doors everywhere.
Thousands of them.
No...
Millions.
Gigantic gates.
Tiny doors resembling the entrance to ordinary rooms.
Some circular.
Others rectangular or square.
This was the furthest point anyone had managed to reach thus far.
The most impossible labyrinth within the continent.
No one had ever successfully overcome it.
Because every wrong door they entered led toward an entirely different maze, forcing them several steps backward once more...
Making them suffer through hell just to return to the Land of Doors again.
Only for them to repeat the same mistake and enter another door that led them toward even more doors...
Finding the correct path had begun to seem impossible.
Especially when there wasn’t a single clue pointing toward which door they were actually meant to pass through.
The first to arrive at the Deep Door Region had been the First Upper-Ranked Demon—
Crimson.
Alongside him were Marvas and Agares, holders of the Fifth and Second Ranks respectively.
They conquered the previous labyrinths faster than anyone else.
Yet even they eventually found themselves trapped within the Region of Doors, repeatedly choosing the wrong paths and being thrown backward over and over again.
As time passed, more and more powerful figures eventually caught up to them.
The Pantheon delegation arrived soon after under Midir’s leadership.
And gradually, many others began to appear as well.
Some preferred avoiding conflict whenever possible.
Others...
Were openly hostile, attacking first without asking a single question.
And perhaps the greatest example of the latter was the Duke of Hell—
Gael.
He appeared out of nowhere and began slaughtering everyone he encountered.
Though he was among the last to enter the continent...
He quickly became the one responsible for the highest number of deaths since its appearance.
Gael carried the title—
Father of the Abyss.
He moved within a pitch-black fog resembling living smoke.
It was said that anyone who entered that fog died instantly without even being able to resist...
Because the Abyss itself was like a poison that devoured all living things.
Because of that black fog, no one could properly discern Gael’s appearance.
His face.
His features.
Even the shape of his body remained shrouded in mystery.
At least...
Until that mystery was eventually shattered.
After engaging in countless battles and leaving behind mountains of corpses...
Gael finally collided with an opponent powerful enough to rival him within the Region of Doors.
That opponent...
Was Midir.
And given Gael’s monstrous nature, battle erupted almost instantly.
Midir endured the Abyssal fog and pushed straight through it, clashing directly against Gael and forcing the Duke of Hell into the open.
Gael’s appearance could be summarized with a single word—
Nightmare.
An enormous figure of monstrous height, his dark crimson skin almost black in color.
Countless mouths lined with jagged teeth protruded from his body itself.
His head possessed a grotesque shape that made it seem as though he wore a crown forged from spikes and sharpened nails.
His eyes were hollow and dark.
And a black substance resembling venom continuously leaked from his mouth.
This was the form Gael had gained after spending countless years submerged within the Abyss that eventually corrupted him entirely.
The battle between him and Midir was brutal beyond words.
Both relied almost entirely on overwhelming physical strength and direct close combat.
They tore each other apart mercilessly, unleashing the greatest battle the continent had witnessed thus far.
A battle whose conclusion no one ever learned...
Because it never truly ended.
The two were nearly equal in strength.
And just as their battle reached its peak...
Both were suddenly struck by a surprise attack that came from nowhere.
The one responsible...
Was none other than Crimson.
The First Upper Demon attempted to kill both of them at once.
Even though Gael was a demon just like himself, Crimson viewed him as no less of an enemy than Midir.
The intervention of the Red Moon transformed the duel into a three-way war.
And in the end, both Midir and Gael suffered catastrophic injuries at Crimson’s hands, injuries severe enough to nearly claim their lives.
Neither had any choice left except to escape through random doors scattered throughout the labyrinth.
They survived because of that decision.
But they lost much in return.
Especially Midir, whose forces were almost entirely annihilated after the battle.
That incident became the most infamous event since the continent’s appearance.
And afterward...
Everyone realized something important.
The seemingly endless number of doors had mysteriously begun decreasing.
Many of the false paths disappeared after the battle concluded.
At that moment, everyone finally understood the secret behind the bizarre Door Labyrinth.
If they wished to reduce the number of possibilities and uncover the correct path...
Then bloodshed was necessary.
No one fully understood the mechanism governing the doors.
But that realization became the beginning of countless massacres that followed afterward.
The labyrinth transformed into a massive battlefield.
With most of the Great Powers and strongest races gathered inside the continent, slaughter became an everyday occurrence.
Nearly half of those who entered the continent were wiped out in a remarkably short time because of the endless conflicts.
During that bloody period...
Crimson of the Red Moon claimed the lion’s share of the slaughter, killing left and right as though indulging in some form of sport.
And with every death...
The true path gradually revealed itself more clearly.
A labyrinth that demanded bloodshed.
As though it had been deliberately designed to reduce the number of those entering it while weakening the survivors.
Many noticed that truth.
But stopping was impossible.
Every single faction inside the continent was hostile toward the others.
None cared about anything beyond their own interests and the survival of their race.
And even as countless died...
More and more beings continued flooding into the continent every single day, arriving from distant corners of the universe in hopes of claiming their chance within the Promised Land.
Before long, the Door Labyrinth divided into four primary territories.
At the very heart of the labyrinth...
The largest region of all fell under the control of Crimson of the Red Moon, who personally dealt with anyone attempting to enter alongside the other demons.
To the west...
The former First and Second among the Seven Great Powers—
Midir and Orsted—
Formed an alliance and seized complete control of that side.
To the east...
Several powerful figures united together, including the Ghoul King and the former member of the Seven Great Powers—
Kalman II.
Meanwhile, the south—the final region—
Became the domain of those who rejected alliances altogether and preferred fighting alone.
Most notably...
The Duke of Hell, Gael.
The sheer number of monsters gathered within the same place made all of them hesitate to directly clash against one another.
None wished to repeat what happened to Midir and Gael after Crimson nearly killed both of them.
And thus...
A deadlock emerged.
None of the major factions attacked each other directly anymore.
Instead, they only slaughtered those foolish enough to trespass into their territories.
That fragile balance continued for some time...
Until the first true change arrived and shattered it completely.
Another monster entered the labyrinth.
One powerful enough to rival even the strongest among them.
One of the mightiest and most mysterious Great Ones...
The Great One whose race had been exterminated long ago.
The Great One of Krat.