The Gloom Domain pressed onto the cemetery with its suffocating evil, but the woman hovering in the crimson-tinted air seemed completely unaffected.

In fact, she looked entirely in her element.

"Spectra..." the Demon Head breathed, still holding Lancet by the neck. "The human who calls herself the Mother of Demons."

The beautiful seductress—Spectra as she was called—smiled haughtily. "I am no mere human, Bulkrat."

The giant Demon’s eyes widened and took a foot back, clearly shocked. "You... you know my name."

Spectra tilted her head, her white hair flowing with the wind behind her. "What kind of mother would I be if I didn’t name my children?"

Bulkrat, the second Demon Head, looked discombobulated. It didn’t know what to make or this. Nevertheless, it knew one thing for sure.

"You’re supposed to be dead," it said, growling at her.

Spectra laughed, the sound like something a Disney movie witch would make. Then she glared at the Demon Head. "And you’re supposed to respect your mother!"

Spectra forcefully pushed her hand forward, and from the center shot a blast of dark magenta energy. The energy slammed into the Demon’s chest like a truck.

"RRAAAARRGH!"

The Demon Head was violently thrown backward, and the force caused its massive clawed hand to snap open.

Lancet dropped like a stone, hitting the ruined earth of the cemetery, although managing to use his hand to shield his fall. After having his face caved in ten times, he couldn’t bear to hit the ground face-first.

He coughed violently, a spray of red blood splattering against a broken grave. Every bone in his body protested against making any kind of movement, his ribs grinding together as he desperately gasped for the corrupted air.

Thankfully, with a higher Constitution, even though he was only Level 17, Lancet had enough fuel and stubbornness to drag his battered body across the dirt.

Once he saw his sword, he reached for it, his golden-plated fingers desperately clawing the golden hilt.

He successfully gripped the S-Grade blade, using it to weakly prop himself up on one knee.

Spectra floated down slightly, her smoking ribbons of demonic magic drifting around her voluptuous frame like silk in water. She looked down at him, her dark, blood-red lips curling into an impatient smirk.

"Well?" she purred, her voice seductive and dangerous at the same time. "What are you waiting for?"

Lancet stared at her for a moment, taking the image of his first villainess in. She might have thought he was reconsidering their deal, but he was just in awe that he had created something as fascinating as her.

Then, with no words said, Lancet—while on his knees—raised the blade and pointed it at her. Then, he reached with one finger and pressed in the orb lodged in the golden hilt.

’Release.’

The Radiant Guillotine made a quiet hum sound, and then, it exploded.

From the edge of the golden steel, the eighty-two trapped Demon Souls erupted. They poured out like a geyser of crimson ethereal wisps, pushing Lancet backwards and shrieking in torment as they flooded the space between the boy and his new summon.

Spectra threw her arms wide, her white hair billowing wildly behind her as she embraced the torrent of souls. She was absorbing them, claiming them into her soul not just as summons but as a source of energy.

"Yes!" Spectra threw her head back, bathing in the corrupted energy. "Fill me with my children!"

The souls crashed into her chest, sinking into her pale skin. With every soul she devoured, the dark magenta aura surrounding her flared brighter, growing incredibly dense.

The reddish smoke rolling off her shoulders turned into a violent tempest, thick with intoxicating, raw demonic power.

When the final soul was consumed, Spectra lowered her head. Her eyes burned like a goddess reborn, every part of her body sizzled with energy. Demonic energy.

She raised one of her clawed hands and pointed toward the town of Hebthej.

"Go!" she commanded something unseen. Suddenly, the red smoke around her materialized into dozens of Demons—the same ones she had just absorbed.

Only that they had been reborn, bred from her newly fed power.

"I have made you more powerful!" she exclaimed. "Go and bring back your brothers and sisters to me!"

The new Demons shrieked in obedience, instantly blurring past Lancet and the Demon Head, tearing out of the cemetery toward the town.

Spectra then turned her full attention to the twenty-foot monster recovering from her blast.

The Demon Head slowly rose to its feet. Its dozen floating yellow eyes all locked onto the woman floating before it.

Spectra looked it up and down, her eyes tracing its muscular form like it was an artwork she was banned from purchasing. She sighed disappointedly.

"It’s a shame, though," she said, tracing one of her claws across her dark-red lips. "I would have loved to keep you. Bounded to me as a loyal soldier. But... I and this intriguing summoner have struck a deal."

She cast a brief, amused glance down at Lancet, who was still clutching his ribs on the ground. Then, she looked up at the blood-red sky above them.

"So first," Spectra announced, raising her hands. "Let’s get rid of this Domain, shall we?"

"No!" Bulkrat let out a deafening, panicked roar. Realizing she was about to strip away its greatest advantage, the Demon Head charged. The ground quaked as the twenty-foot monstrosity threw its massive, muscular bulk forward, aiming to crush her before she could cast.

Spectra looked unbothered. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

With only her will, a large forcefield of solid demonic magic erupted between them. Bulkrat slammed headfirst into the barrier.

The kinetic recoil was too much for the monster to handle. The Demon Head was repelled backward, crashing through rows of granite tombstones before skidding to a halt in the dirt.

Spectra closed her eyes, her heavy bust rising as she took a deep breath. She extended her metallic claws toward the heavens and physically tore her hands apart.

"Domain Regression!" she cried.

The Gloom Domain immediately shattered.

Like glass, the sky cracked first then shattered to splinters. The DNA-like strings in the air dissolved into harmless mist, the choking pressure of Gloom slowly reversed, and the sky began to clear, retreating from the town in a massive, sweeping wave of expelled corruption.

Miles away, in the land area where the clocktower used to be, the vanguard watched as the sky cleared.

Everyone gasped, taking in massive breaths of clean air. Thor and Astensia were the first to their feet, hurrying to help Renan, who had been fighting the horde of Demons on his own.

They quickly finished off what was left.

Valeria, Silas, Kaleb, and Frieda all weakly pushed themselves up from the rubble, coughing and panting as the paralysis of the Gloom lifted.

"It’s gone..." Amira whispered, her hands glowing with hexes once more. "The Domain is gone."

But their relief lasted exactly one second.

KRAAAAAARRGH!

The eastern streets suddenly erupted with the sounds of shrieks, snarls, and the heavy pounding of clawed feet. More hordes of Demons burst from the alleys.

Even without the Gloom Domain, they were still charging at them, which meant the second Demon Head was still alive.

Astensia gritted her teeth, gripping the Blessed Blade tighter. "Keep others safe inside a shield," she ordered, her golden aura burning bright.

Thor stepped up beside her, lightning crackling around her like she was a storm cloud. "Stand your ground!"

But before either of the heroines could launch a single attack, a second wave of horrors descended from behind the Demons.

Thor’s eyes widened. "What?"

Renan stared. "More Demons?"

Frieda narrowed her eyes, piercing into the distance. "These ones... they look different though."

It was true. The new packs of Demons were redder and their bodies emitted reddish vapor like they were ghosts of Demons rather than actual Demons.

Thor’s eyes narrowed in conviction. Lightning started to crackle madly around her hammer head. "Nothing I can’t kill," she whispered.

She spun the Hammer of Force, generating more and more lightning. Then she pointed it to at the two approaching hordes of Demons. "Lightning Storm Ma—" She paused.

"Eh?"

The redder, smoking summons had crashed directly into the other Demon horde. And they were... killing them?

Everything stared with dropped jaws, flabbergasted.

The square devolved into a slaughterhouse of demon-on-demon violence. A shadowy winged beast ripped the heads off a hostile crawler, its purple blood spraying across the cobblestones.

Another one of smoking Demons—a massive, heavily armored humanoid—grabbed a hostile bug-demon by the mandibles and brutally tore its jaw entirely off its face, tossing the twitching corpse aside before pouncing on the next target.

They fought with even more savagery than Demons normally did, and they formed a barricade between the Vanguard and the hostile horde.

Any hostile Demon that tried to slip past was immediately hunted down and eviscerated, their souls violently ripped from their bodies to be carried back to their Mother.

The students stood completely frozen, their weapons lowered as they watched the bloodbath unfold in front of them. The brutality of the protective demons was mesmerizing and deeply unnerving.

Silas Mercer wiped a streak of blood from his forehead, his eyes wide in disbelief.

"Are you all seeing what I’m seeing?" he with a trembling voice.

"We could be hallucinating," Darian said. "Does the Gloom Domain make one hallucinate?"

Astensia didn’t know what to make of it, but she knew there was only person who would have something to do with this.

Astensia peered far into the distance, anywhere..

"Master..." she whispered as a chill ran down her spine. "What have you done?"