The Great One of Krat extended his hand again.
Another aura emerged from him, this time taking on a completely different color.
A vast sky-blue radiance spread outward before taking the shape of another colossal serpent-like creature—
One far larger than the Silver Mist Blade itself.
"One of the Three Kings of the Sea of Mist... Leviathan."
With a grim expression, Crimson raised his gaze toward the sky, which had now become crowded with monsters.
Leviathan dwarfed the previous creatures summoned by the Great One of Krat.
And the pressure emanating from it was incomparably greater.
Leviathan’s mouth resembled an enormous black hole.
From within it erupted dense blue flames of terrifying intensity that engulfed the First Upper Demon beneath an ocean of fire.
At the same time, the Silver Mist Blade attacked once more.
And the Owl Eagle continued imposing its horrifying gravity-like pressure, making even the slightest movement feel nearly impossible.
"I have never seen creatures like these in my life..."
"And that bastard keeps summoning them effortlessly."
Crimson resisted the pressure.
Then, from within the blue inferno unleashed by Leviathan, another flame erupted—
Crimson flames.
The First Upper Demon answered fire with fire.
Not only matching Leviathan’s flames...
But overpowering them.
Crimson endured Leviathan’s blazing assault while simultaneously battling the Silver Mist Blade—
All while suffering beneath the Owl Eagle’s suppressive pressure.
The moment he saw those crimson flames, the Great One of Krat recognized them instantly.
"Crimson Shadow Flame..."
"One of the strongest forms of fire in existence, equal to the Spirit of Darkness itself in destructive power."
That too was a world-transcending ability.
One of the terrifying powers within Crimson’s arsenal.
Its flames managed to overpower even those of Leviathan, a creature summoned directly from the World of Aether.
And the Great One of Krat had no intention of allowing that superiority to continue.
White aura erupted from his body.
Then another overwhelming existence materialized into reality.
Above the skies of the Maze of Doors—
A new gigantic creature was summoned.
This time, everyone heard the song of a whale echoing across every direction.
Beside the serpents appeared an enormous white whale with hollow gray eyes, floating high above them all.
From within the whale’s body spread a thick mist that swallowed the entire battlefield and obscured all vision.
The fog spread everywhere.
Nothing remained visible except the colossal silhouettes of the monsters hidden within it.
That mist was not an attack.
It was camouflage.
And Crimson realized that immediately.
The moment the fog spread—
He could no longer sense the aura of the monsters.
Nor the aura of the Great One of Krat himself.
His senses were completely shut down.
He had become blind, unable to predict where the next attack would come from.
That was one of the white whale’s abilities—
Whale’s Call.
And immediately after came the Whale’s Song.
Though it was no song at all.
It was a savage sonic wave, closer to a monstrous scream capable of rupturing ears and shattering minds.
Crimson took the sound wave head-on.
Blood burst from his ears as they exploded completely, while his brain nearly suffered the same fate.
At the same time, the other monsters attacked again as well, coordinating flawlessly under the Great One of Krat’s control.
"The way this bastard controls these creatures..."
"It is perfect. Just like fighting that damned Nameless."
Crimson cursed while enduring the relentless barrage of attacks coming from every direction.
The Great One of Krat fought with nerves of steel and the same chilling composure Nameless once possessed before gaining emotions.
His control over his abilities was flawless.
He used the summoned creatures exactly the same way Nameless used his world-transcending powers.
And that was what made him terrifying.
Especially since the creatures he summoned came from an entirely different world altogether.
What made him even more dangerous...
Was the fact that he had thoroughly studied his opponent.
The Great One of Krat knew everything the First Upper Demon was capable of.
Meanwhile, Crimson knew absolutely nothing about the creature standing before him.
After being assaulted from every direction, Crimson finally resorted to his strongest power—
The very ability the Great One of Krat had been waiting for him to use.
The flow of aura inside Crimson’s body changed.
And something monstrous was about to happen.
Crimson light erupted from every direction.
The entire Maze of Doors was swallowed by it—
To the point where it completely overwhelmed the whale’s mist and made it seem insignificant.
The battlefield now resembled an enormous crimson sphere.
And within it...
The monsters’ attacks could no longer touch Crimson at all.
"So this is it..."
"The strongest defensive ability of all. The Red World."
The Great One of Krat observed the vast crimson domain that had swallowed both him and his summoned creatures.
The very ability Agaroth himself had once described as the greatest defense he had ever witnessed.
The Red World was the world-transcending ability Crimson had created with his own hands.
A power that allowed him to reject any attack directed toward him.
Any strike entering the domain simply vanished before it could touch his body.
The Great One of Krat openly admired the absurd ability.
Yet he did not seem surprised by it.
He had known about it beforehand.
And Crimson realized that immediately.
’Those summoned creatures are powerful... but I can kill every single one of them without difficulty.’
’The only reason they managed to pressure me like this was their coordination... and that bastard’s flawless control over them.’
Crimson’s crimson eyes swept across every creature surrounding him, preparing to annihilate them all with a single overwhelming assault.
Their attacks no longer reached him inside the Red World.
The sonic waves never touched him.
Leviathan’s blue flames disappeared entirely before reaching his body.
The Silver Mist Blade froze in place the moment it drew close to him.
Even the Owl Eagle’s suppressive pressure could no longer slow his movements.
This was the tyrannical might of the Red World.
An ability that rendered him untouchable.
A power that granted him complete superiority.
And the Great One of Krat had no intention of allowing that advantage to remain.
Only a few seconds passed before the Great One launched his counterattack.
And this time...
It did not take the form of another summon.
Before Crimson’s gradually darkening eyes—
Another color appeared beside the crimson.
A dark gray.
The gray intertwined with Crimson’s scarlet domain and clashed against it violently.
It resembled gray paint being poured across a crimson canvas as the two colors fused together and warred against one another, each trying to dominate the other completely.
From afar, it looked as though two entire worlds had collided.
A domain against another domain.
"You seem surprised, First Upper Demon Crimson."
The Great One of Krat spoke calmly while standing atop the giant Owl Eagle.
Terrifying amounts of aura poured endlessly from his body.
"Did you truly believe you were the only one carrying a domain-type ability within your arsenal?"
The Great One of Krat’s strongest offensive power—
World of Mist.
A defensive domain against an offensive one.
Each attempting to overwhelm the other.
"World of Mist grants me freedom."
"The freedom to keep the gate open... and summon as many creatures from the other world as I desire."
"And within this domain..."
"Those creatures will never die."
"They will possess infinite vitality."
Crimson, the Red Moon, suddenly found himself standing alone beneath a sky that had transformed into a massive gate from which dozens of colossal creatures emerged endlessly.
Each one of them possessed enough power to inflict severe damage upon him.
The Red World no longer covered more than half the battlefield.
The Great One of Krat had successfully matched Crimson’s strongest ability.
"Twenty-one times..."
The Great One of Krat spoke while standing atop the Owl Eagle at the head of the monstrous army he had summoned from Odin’s Treasury.
"For the past thousand years..."
"You fought Demon King Agaroth twenty-one times."
"And you lost every single battle."
"I watched all twenty-one of them."
"Through them, I learned everything you are capable of."
"Unfortunately for you..."
"There is nothing within your arsenal that I cannot deal with."
The Great One of Krat extended his hand.
At once, every monster attacked simultaneously.
"Today, Crimson the First..."
"You will die."