Thor didn’t give it a second to breathe. She dragged the heavy head of her warhammer across the ground, generating a razor-thin blade of low-arcing lightning that scraped through the floor.

She ripped the hammer upward, catching the Demon Head perfectly under the chin with a searing electric uppercut that snapped its head back.

Even then, Thor didn’t stop. Why would she? This mad beast had taken everything she had thrown at it so far.

She bent her knees and vaulted high into the red sky, soaring dozens of feet above the battlefield.

"Spinning Lightning Fury!" Thor roared.

She spun the hammer above her head, faster and faster until it became a terrifying halo of pure energy. The weapon emitted so much lightning it sizzled across the entire square, superheating the air...

...Until she directed it downward, right at the Demon Head.

The collision was silent for a fraction of a second. And then, the world turned white.

Apocalyptic lightning blasted from the warhammer and erupted against the ground, washing over the entire square in a blinding flash of raw destruction.

The thunderous boom that followed knocked everyone close by to their knees. The ruthless heat threatened to tear the Demon Head apart at a molecular level, vaporizing the surrounding buildings into fine ash.

When the white light finally faded, a massive, smoking crater remained.

But the Demon Head was not dead. It had fallen, yes, but it was still very much alive. Even after the Spinning Lightning Fury.

Thor glared with frustration and anger. What did the Demon Lords plan to do with this place that they sent such a powerful Head?

Through the thick smoke, a shockwave of solid, suffocating Gloom exploded outward. The Demon Head rose from the crater, its red skin charred and smoking, half of its horns blasted away, but its eyes burned with absolute fury.

It lunged.

"We have to help!" Kaleb said to the others.

"On it already," Vernon replied.

Silas, Kaleb, and Vernon surged forward to assist, unleashing a barrage of their attacks. Kaleb rained concentrated lightning; Vernon unleashed a torrent of spinning fire and ice.

The Demon Head looked at them like they were but a nuisance. It swung its massive arm, releasing a tidal wave of Demonic miasma that completely extinguished Vernon’s flames and scattered Kaleb’s storm.

Snapping its writhing tentacles, it backhanded Silas. The Rune Carver’s defensive barriers shattered instantly as he was blasted through the thick wall of a neighboring building, his body going limp under the rubble, nearly killed on impact.

"Raaaarrr!" Thor intercepted the beast as it tried to finish off Silas, her body glowing brighter and brighter as she absorbed the monumental punishment.

The battleground completely shattered around them. They traded blows that leveled entire city blocks. Thor unleashed arcs of localized plasma, while the Demon Head countered with flesh-rotting Gloom and crushing physical strikes. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

But as the devastating, world-breaking melee continued, Thor’s sharp eyes noticed a crucial detail.

Every time she aimed a lightning strike or a hammer swing at the center of the monster’s chest, it reacted frantically. It would sacrifice an arm, or use its thick tentacles to absorb the blow, actively guarding its sternum at all costs.

’It’s the Demon Core,’ Thor realized. ’It’s protecting that damned core behind its chest. Demons are killed easier by harming the core.’

But capitalizing on the discovery wasn’t easy. As the battle continued, the physical toll was draining her again, and so was the miasma.

The Demon Head sensed the weakness. It punched her over and over, and threw her through buildings. Before she could crash on the ground, it caught her, lifted her high and slammed her skull directly into the bedrock.

Once. Twice. The world spun in Thor’s vision as blood coated her face. Extremely weakened, her hammer slipped from her grasp.

The Demon Head picked her up by her hair, lifting her battered face to meet its glowing red eyes.

"Your legend ends here in the dirt, Valkyrie," it rumbled.

SHUCK.

A streak of golden light whistled through the air, aimed directly at the center of the Demon’s face.

The monster’s reflexes were too sharp. It raised its free hand, catching the projectile inches from its eye.

It was Valeria’s Starsplitter.

Thor painfully turned her head. Down at the base of the ruined clock tower, Valeria Bloodgood had dragged her broken body out of the rubble. She was on her knees, clutching her bleeding ribs, having used the very last ounce of her strength to hurl the S-Grade spear.

The Demon Head scoffed, glaring at the Grand Dragoon. "A pathetic, desperate attempt. You—"

It didn’t finish the sentence.

Starsplitter recognized the Demonic flesh touching it. The spear’s passive True Damage and Demon-purifying active ability instantly activated.

BOOM!

The star-metal erupted in a blinding, searing golden light.

"Arrghh!" the Demon Head shrieked.

The holy heat instantly flash-burned the flesh of the monster’s hand to the bone, and the blinding light scorched its retinas. In its sudden, agonizing blindness, the beast dropped Thor.

"Arrggg! What is this! Arggghh!!"

Thor hit the ground, but even as tired as she was, the opportunity was too huge to waste.

She snatched the Hammer of Force from the dirt, surged upward with a burst of kinetic energy, and slammed the flat of the hammer head directly against the center of the Demon Head’s chest.

She looked up into its burning, ruined face.

"How about I light up your dark heart?" Thor sneered.

The Demon Head froze. Pure, unadulterated terror leaked into its voice. "No! Not my Demon Core!!"

"All Lightning!!" Thor cried.

Thor’s S-Grade skill activated.

From the heavens far and near, uncountable bolts of spiked, white-hot lightning injected straight into the creature’s sternum.

The magnanimous numbers of electricity struck not just its dense hide, but the Demon Core directly. The monster shrieked, a sound so loud it shattered the remaining glass in a one-mile radius, as millions of volts cooked it from the inside out.

With a muffled, internal detonation, the Demon Core cracked, fried internally as ever stored Gloom was burnt to ash.

The Demon Head was completely smoked. Its charred, blackened husk stood rigid for a second before collapsing backward onto the ruined earth, completely dead.

And right then, the atmosphere of Hebthej changed.

The power of Gloom broke. The massive, beating heart of the invasion had been destroyed, and the terrifying outspread of dark power began to violently retreat.

A rupturing red wave spread through the town, starting from the center to every end of Hebthej. The crimson sky began to lighten. Across the town, the lesser Demons that were tethered to the Head’s miasma began to choke, their bodies withering and turning to ash as their life support was abruptly cut off.

The Demon Head was dead. Hebthej was saved.

×××××××

Miles away, in the eerie silence of the Hebthej Cemetery, the atmosphere changed from hot to warm and chilling in something of a second.

Lancet felt it immediately. He knew right then that the first Demon Head was dead. It was like he felt the exact moment the creature’s Demon Core shattered, the oppressive pressure of the Gloom had lifted from the air, and the distant shrieks of dying Demons echoed across the ruined town.

Thor had done it.

But... it wasn’t over yet.

Because the atmosphere had turned warm, but it also turned cold not long after.

Lancet stood from his sitting position by the corner of the cemetery, pocketing the crumpled piece of paper he had been gripping in his hands. He stared at the distance, right in the center of the graveyard. And he waited.

’...’

’...’

’...’

Thrrmmmmmmm.

Lancet’s head snapped to his greaves. The earth beneath his gold-plated boots had started to hum.

This wasn’t because of the shockwave from the first boss’s death. He knew that much.

This was something else entirely. It was deeper, heavier, and rhythmically beating like a colossal heart buried miles beneath the dirt.

Lancet looked up, peering into the center once again. His eyes widened.

"It’s coming," he whispered.

The vibration rapidly intensified into a violent tremor, shaking the ancient headstones until several toppled over and shattered against the ground.

Deep, spiked cracks began to violently spiderweb through the dead grass and compacted dirt of the graveyard, tearing open the earth. From within those deep, spreading fissures, a sickening, reddish light began to pour out, illuminating the creeping fog with the color of fresh blood.

The tremors localized, pulling violently toward the exact center of the cemetery. The ground there began to visibly bulge upward, the earth groaning and shifting under an impossible, upward pressure.

KRAAAA-BOOOM!!!

Lancet stumbled backwards, his heart pounding madly.

A massive blast of dirt, cement, and splintered wood erupted into the air as the center of the graveyard completely caved outward.

From the freshly blown crater, the intense red light poured out in a blinding, concentrated pillar, piercing the sky and instantly replacing the Gloom that Thor had just eradicated.

The earth trembled one final time.

Then, from the depths of the glowing red abyss, a giant, devilish arm reached up.