"You dare speak over me?" the Demon Lord hissed.
He raised a clawed hand, and without a single incantation, he fired a projectile of compressed, jagged shadows straight at Isaac's chest.
Because of my new Unique Skill's Future Calculation, I saw the attack's exact trajectory before the Demon Lord even moved his arm. I instantly engaged my spatial powers.
"Event Horizon, First Application: Infinity Shield!"
I projected the spatial barrier directly around Isaac. But to my absolute shock, the hardened space barely held. The shadowy arrow violently cracked the fabric of my shield, stopping mere millimeters from piercing Isaac's heart before it finally dissipated into smoke.
Shit, I cursed internally, my eyes narrowing. This Demon is powerful. He has to be Tier 4... maybe even Tier 5.
[Affirmative. The Ether signature he is currently emitting corresponds to Tier 5.]
[Initiating connection to the Cenotaph of Pride. Establishing an Ether bridge...]
Ah... that feels good.
A massive, overwhelming surge of pure Ether flooded into my veins straight from the Cenotaph. Armed with this fresh power, I didn't hesitate. I activated Sky's Limit, folding the space between me and the throne to instantly warp right in front of the Demon Lord's face.
I brought the barrel of Bad News directly to his temple and pulled the trigger.
BANG.
But he didn't even flinch. The bullet flattened and crushed against an invisible wall just an inch from his skin. He was shielding himself with a compressed dome of pure darkness—the exact same technique I had seen that red-haired pirate captain use. But this time, it was exponentially denser. There were no blind spots, no weaknesses. It was absolute.
"Get back, Luci!" Sera shouted from the top of the stairs.
I instantly triggered Sky's Limit again, warping backward to regroup with the others. I need to conserve my Ether, I calculated rapidly. I'll stick to my standard Pathway powers for movement. I can't afford to burn my reserves using the Omniscient Gate's teleportation sub-skill right now.
"It seems you humans possess a shred of bravery after all," the Demon Lord mocked. He slowly stood up from his throne of shadows, raising both hands into the air as his oppressive aura flooded the room. He spoke just two words.
"Despair Time."
The instant those words left his mouth, an unnatural, suffocating darkness exploded outward, swallowing the entire cathedral. The light didn't just fade; it was violently erased. We were plunged into an absolute, pitch-black void. We were now trapped inside his personal domain.
As the darkness enveloped us, my mind raced. What about Sera?
We had already secured the Stele. The Virtue suppression in the room should be completely gone. Why wasn't he using his Time Manipulation to counter this? Was something wrong with his sequence?
"Sera, are you alright?" I asked, my voice echoing slightly in the pitch-black void.
"Yes," he replied.
His tone was completely casual—half-hearted, even. It sounded like a man who was mildly inconvenienced rather than a warrior trapped in a Tier 5 Demon's domain. It felt as though he was actively choosing not to help us fight.
I gripped my gun tighter in the dark. Is this just how arrogant Angels naturally act... or is there a crucial piece of the puzzle I'm completely missing here?
Wait, I thought, my mind racing as we stood trapped in the pitch-black void. Is Sera's hesitation related to that item I found? Well, let's test that theory.
Kallisto, connect to my Cenotaph.
[Affirmative. Opening dimensional storage.]
My consciousness briefly dipped into the Cenotaph. I bypassed my stored Ether and grabbed the mysterious artifact I had looted earlier—the Spindle. In an instant, I pulled it out of my mindscape and into the real world, holding it up in the suffocating darkness.
"Sera," I said, my voice cutting through the quiet. "Look at this."
Even in the absolute dark, the artifact emitted a faint, ancient hum. Sera turned toward me. For a second, he looked genuinely confused, but as his eyes adjusted and his Pathway recognized the object, pure shock washed over his face. Even Arthur, standing nearby, looked bewildered by its sudden appearance.
"Where... where did you get this?" Sera asked, his usual calm demeanor completely shattering.
"Isaac and I found it when we were trying to figure out why we couldn't send letters outside this city," I explained rapidly. "This artifact was the source of the spatial interference. I know it's a Tier 6 artifact, but—"
"No, no, no," Sera interrupted, his amber eyes wide. "It is not just a Tier 6 artifact, Luci. It is an Authority for the Pathway of Time and Fate. It is the core conceptual law that an Awakened must accommodate into their soul to reach True Godhood!"
I stared at him, utterly dumbfounded. An Authority? Godhood? Everything he was saying was completely new to me. I had just reached Tier 3, and he was casually dropping lore about the requirements to become a literal deity.
"Do you know why—" Sera started to say, his voice urgent.
Before he could finish his sentence, the absolute darkness around us violently contracted. The Domain wasn't just blinding us anymore; it was physically shrinking, the shadows solidifying into a crushing vice meant to grind us into dust.
"Explain later!" I shouted.
The shrinking void was too fast and too wide to dodge normally. I had no choice. I tapped into the massive reserves of my Cenotaph and activated my new Unique Skill.
Omniscient Gate: Gate Weaver.
The spatial coordinates of the room flashed in my mind. I folded the fabric of the Domain itself and instantaneously teleported the three of us out of the collapsing shadow trap, reappearing right in front of the Demon Lord's throne.
As we materialized, I noticed something crucial. The Demon Lord's eyes were wide with strain, his hands trembling slightly as he tried to maintain the crushing force of his Domain. He's vulnerable, I realized. Maintaining an absolute space like this restricts him from casting other defensive magics.
I didn't hesitate. "Sky's Limit!"
I raised my fist, grabbed the invisible fabric of reality right in front of the Demon Lord's chest, and punched it with everything I had.
CRACK.
The space shattered like a pane of glass. The sheer, devastating kinetic force of a Tier 3 spatial strike slammed into the Demon Lord point-blank. He let out a horrifying screech as the shockwave launched him off his throne and straight up into the air. He smashed through the cathedral's vaulted ceiling, tearing away massive chunks of stone and stained glass as he was blasted into the night sky above.
With his concentration broken, the Domain of Despair instantly collapsed. The suffocating darkness vanished, and the natural moonlight bled back into the ruined cathedral.
"Sera, figure out how to use that artifact!" I yelled, already preparing my next move. "I'm going after him!"
"Wait, I am coming with you!" Arthur roared.
With a thunderous crack, massive, draconic wings burst from Arthur's back. He kicked off the ground, launching himself through the massive hole in the ceiling.
I immediately followed. I activated Event Horizon and Sky's Limit simultaneously, hardening the empty air beneath my feet to create invisible platforms. Stepping on the very fabric of space, I sprinted upward into the sky, chasing the Demon Lord into the clouds alongside the Dragon.