And there was darkness. Deep, unsettling and horrifying.

No light dared to enter the tenebrous vastness of the cathedral's main hall. The few rays that tried seemed to recoil, as though even photons themselves had sensed what dwelled there.

It was a being wrought for a single purpose: to guard the maiden destined for suffering, the one whose sacrifice would bring light back to the Forgotten Shore. Yet the guardian itself was born of horrendous darkness. Whether forged from love or from duty, no one could say but the wraith, clad in armor as if it were its very skin, had waited for eternity for her return.

Tall and terrible, magnificent yet twisted, it stood as a shadow of the Nether's miracles, the god who once shaped life from stone. A Demon of Destiny, whose wrath could shake the heavens. The last child of the unknown, the youngest daemon… but the first... The first to drink the blood of a god.

Yet this knight was no stone saint wrought by the Prince of the Underworld. It was the Builder's creation, one of the ancient Sovereigns of the Forgotten Shore, who had sworn to restore the sun when endless night consumed all.

The oath had been noble.

But the path to keep it... vile.

A pure priestess offered up, countless lives extinguished, all for the return of light. And yes, the sun had risen once more, their vow fulfilled.

But what is the worth of sunlight, if there are no souls left to walk beneath its warmth?

Born to become the sun that would bring clarity and guide the lost from endless night... the maiden instead was twisted, defiled by the revolting corruption of the void.

Once, the land had rejoiced beneath her promised light.

Now, the same sun that once brought joy became the herald of horrors.

Rivers of blood flowed.

The sin of the Seven Heroes was carved into the soil, never to be forgiven.

Their towering statues, once raised in honor, were struck headless.

Their names erased, their deeds forgotten, save for the sacrifice they made.

But every tale has its beginning… and its end.

The beginning was the Nephilim who drowned the world in darkness.

The end was the helpless priestess,

twisted into the cruel sun that rose over the Forgotten Shore,

and left it forever lifeless.

Yet the pitiful being, condemned to wait for eternity, would meet its end this day.

By unknown, a beings who defied the world itself, who turned its order upside down long ago and waged war against the void and a gods.

Incarnated now in mortal shells, yet carrying wills that neither time nor death could break… indestructible spirits hidden beneath fragile flesh.

Life, Mysteries, and Apocalypse had come.

Together, they would end the suffering of the lonesome knight.

And Mysteries would steal even the fate of Death itself.

A pale plume drifted on the wind, carried into the dark cathedral as though etched upon the tapestry of fate.

This was, indeed, the only… reasonable development.

***

Clash!

Sparks flared as Medici caught the knight's obsidian blade on the shaft of his spear. His grin widened as he twisted the Flag of Life and slammed its base into the cathedral floor. The impact sent a shudder through the ruins, flames roaring to life around him like a defiant banner.

Seishan was there in an instant, her warhammer crashing down on the knight's plated side. The strike landed with earth-shaking force yet the dark knight didn't so much as glance at her. It was as though pain had long since lost its meaning.

With a single motion, it raised its massive sword and cleaved downward. Seishan cursed, leaping back just as the blow split the stone where she had stood. Her brow furrowed. Her strikes weren't leaving anything.

Medici's inferno surged, pressing back the suffocating black mist that radiated from the knight. Fire and darkness writhed against each other yet the darkness was winning, inch by inch. Medici was a dormant demon, but this thing… it was a fallen devil, something that outclassed and out-ranked him.

Behind them, Kido loosed arrow after arrow, her bow singing, while Kai mirrored her from the opposite flank. Still, it was clear who had the sharper eye; Kai's arrows sank deep into the knight's weak points, each shot saving his allies by a hair's breadth.

Gemma, meanwhile, became a wall. He lifted his shield to catch a strike meant for Seishan, only to be sent flying. The blow hurled him into a pillar with bone-crunching force. He staggered, growling, and spat blood… then walked forward as though nothing had happened.

Bones cracked and sealed again beneath his skin. His regeneration made him near-immortal. His sheer ferocity made him a herald of death.

The shield vanished back into his soul sea. In its place appeared a vicious, spiked mace. With a roar, he darted forward, sliding under the knight's swing. His mace crunched into its knee, driving the monster down.

Before he could follow through, the knight's gauntleted fist smashed into him, sending him careening across the hall.

Gemma only rose again, more furious than before. The bloodier he became, the wilder his strikes grew. Pain was meaningless unless it killed him outright.

The knight, despite its overwhelming might, was being boxed in. Medici's fire was suppressing its shroud, robbing it of its advantage. Luna's immortality bought them time. Gemma's madness forced it to defend. And even Seishan's failed strikes created the openings Kai's arrows needed.

…But Amon was nowhere to be seen.

Medici hurled another condensed sphere of flame. The explosion rocked the cathedral, fire swallowing the knight whole. For a heartbeat, silence fell.

Then it stepped forward... burning, but unbothered.

Its blade fell like a guillotine. Luna shoved Medici aside and took the strike herself. Steel bit from shoulder to hip, blood bursting from her lips as she was thrown back.

"Shit, little communist!"

Medici cursed, Zenith shard blazing in his hands. He caught the follow-up strike with his spear, sparks flying as fire and shadow clashed once more. Gemma joined him, his mace slamming into the knight's helm. The beast reeled. Medici leapt, gauntlet wreathed in searing flame, weight multiplying by enhancement of his mantle. His fist crashed into the knight's breastplate, burning, hammering and breaking.

His grin widened, teeth bared in arrogant fury.

"What's this? Still chasing the girl after a thousand years? Hah! Even I'm not that desperate, cunt!"

He laughed, raining blows down, fire wrapping his body as he straddled the knight's shoulders and pounded its helm.

"Oi! You got a brain in there, or just shit? Come on, do something, man!"

Nightmare creatures weren't easily provoked but Medici's mockery bit deeper than most. He tailored his insults like blades.

The knight exploded with rage. It threw him off, the sheer force hurling him across the chamber. In the same motion, it kicked Gemma with bone-crushing force, sending him crashing through a column.

Its burning eyes snapped toward them, narrowing with cold, murderous hunger. The cathedral shook with its steps as it advanced, the full weight of its malice settling over the cohort.

While the others froze in disbelief at the seemingly immortal knight, Medici did not hesitate. He dashed forward, meeting it head-on. The more he fought, the more essence he poured into his strikes, and the angrier he became.

Gritting his teeth, he ducked under the devil's blade and drove an uppercut into its helm, making the wraith stagger back. In the same motion, he hurled his spear across the hall. The weapon pierced through the knight's black armor, and with a snarl, Medici summoned Armour Breaker, smashing the cracked plate apart before kicking the monster back.

Hunter and knight collided in a whirlwind of sparks, their clash echoing with raw fury. For a moment, Medici seemed to lose all reason, consumed by a single desire: to kill.

He leapt away, spreading his arms wide. Fire ravens burst forth and dove across the cathedral, each one detonating on impact. The blasts scorched the knight's cursed blade, forcing it off course, while each explosion slowly infused the black armor with searing heat.

His crimson hair lashed in the storm of flame, eyes blazing with fury. With a guttural roar, he rushed forward once more. The knight's sword fell in a deadly arc, but Medici vaulted off the falling debris, soaring above it. He conjured a colossal fireball and hurled it downward, the explosion engulfed the hall in scorching flames, shaking the cathedral to its core.

The devil staggered under the impact. That was the opening Medici had been waiting for. A blazing spear of white fire formed in his grip. Twisting his body in midair, he drove it down with all his strength. The spear pierced through the gap in the knight's armor, nailing it to the ground, flames burning brighter as they spread along the wraith's form.

But the creature had no flesh or blood to burn. It was not born of earth and dust and so, it rose again. The darkness devoured the spear, and with an vicious slash, the knight struck out. Medici barely raised a wall of fire to block the blow, his body trembling with exhaustion.

He hadn't unleashed many techniques instead, he had poured every shred of essence into each strike, bridging the vast gap between their class and rank. That was why, when the counterblow came, he was blasted back across the hall. Crashing into the cathedral's entrance, he groaned in pain as his ribs gave way under the impact.

The knight, enraged by Medici's provocation, closed the distance to finish him off. But before its blade could fall, the stone floor beneath it split open and Luna burst forth, seizing the devil's leg. Using its own momentum against it, she dragged the monster down, slamming it into the cathedral floor.

She had never liked using Flesh Creek, but she had to admit, it was useful. Wrapped in her grotesque flesh cloak, she braced herself against the knight's retaliatory strike. The devil's greatsword cleaved into her body, but she softened her flesh and bones, dispersing the impact so the wound was shallow instead of mortal.

Still, blood spilled from her lips as she dropped to her knees. Snarling, she forced her body to harden again, bones snapping back into steel-like density. Her longsword met the devil's blade, sparks flying as she locked against it.

She couldn't unleash Flesh Bombs, not here, not with her allies in range of the corrosive rain of gore that would follow. But Amon had taught her well after the battle against arachnids. This time, she had prepared. Along their journey, she had harvested the corpses of nightmare creatures. Now, their twisted remains stirred.

From the shadows of the cathedral, grotesque servants of flesh and blood rose: malformed, mindless, yet strong. They hurled themselves at the fallen knight without hesitation. A single one of these abominations could tear apart a weak Sleeper with ease.

But the enemy they faced was no Sleeper. It was a Fallen Devil.

The knight met their charge without flinching, its black armor absorbing blow after blow. It refused to raise its sword to defend itself, shielding the cursed weapon with its body instead. That was its weakness, they knew if the sword was destroyed, so was the knight.

But the blade was no simple weapon. Amon had told Luna it would take a Stone Saint's monstrous strength to shatter it, strength that could rival a Fallen Monster if augmented with Sunny's shadow. Whether Sunny had used his shadow that way or not, Amon wasn't certain. But without it, he would have been a fool.

And they… did not have such power.

That was why they fought not to win, but to buy time.

But even then, the cohort was breaking. Their bodies and wills were nearing their limits against such a relentless foe.

Her scream split the air as the devil's blade tore her apart. Her leg was severed, her arm hung limp with shattered bones, and her torso was nearly split in half. Intestines spilled across the marble floor as she was hurled against a pillar, blood painting the walls in gruesome arcs.

Seishan's eyes widened in horror. Her own leg had been shattered, yet she dragged herself upright, refusing to look away from the monster advancing through the carnage.

Medici, leaning against a cracked pillar, hacked up blood… then grinned. His crimson hair stuck to his burned face as he snapped his fingers.

Boom!

The knight's body erupted in fire. Medici had been injecting his flames into its armor with every strike, waiting for this moment. The cathedral shook with the blast, black armor glowing red-hot.

It wasn't enough. Of course it wasn't. But it made the devil stagger, if only for a second. Its burning eyes turned on him, cold and murderous.

"Well," he grinned, "guess I make a damn good provoker. Shame I'm about to get cooked for real."

Engulfed in fire, the knight's burning gaze locked onto him. Its fury was palpable. Medici smirked, even as his vision swam.

The knight raised its sword, ready to cut him down.

Crack!

The sound echoed like thunder. Every head snapped toward the cathedral's entrance. The statue of the unknown goddess was tilting, then crashing down, marble shattering into a thousand shards across the floor.

Through the settling dust stood a young man with a crystal monocle, hands in his pockets, gaze cool as ever. He looked at the Fallen Devil… and smiled faintly.

"Oops."

The knight's blazing eyes widened, then it roared, the sound shaking stone and soul alike. Enough. It had endured far too much. First that red-haired madman, now this arrogant insect who dared shatter the statue of its goddess. Rage poured off it like molten steel.

But the young man only sighed, shaking his head as if inconvenienced. He flicked his wrist.

Clatter.

The knight's black armor peeled away and crashed at Amon's feet. He smiled faintly.

The cohort froze, staring in disbelief. Had he really...?

No. It hadn't been easy. Amon had been working on stealing that armor ever since he'd emerged from the cathedral's depths with Weaver's mask. It had taken him five minutes of constant effort... five minutes that felt like eternity. Finally, success.

Except… he'd forgotten something.

The armor was not the knight's true body.

"Oh, shit," he muttered, paling. "I don't think... That was in the novel."

The shadows twisted, congealing into something vast. A ghostly colossus of darkness loomed over him, twin crimson flames burning like eyes and then a third igniting below, forming a gaping maw of hellfire.

Its roar tore through the cathedral like the wrath of a god.

Amon's smile froze. "…I'm sorry?" he squeaked, stumbling a step back.

He had plans. Always did. Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. He'd even told the others about them. But Medici's flaw had set B and C ablaze, literally, leaving only Plan D.

"Gemma! Grab Medici and Seishan! Kai and Kido, take Luna!"

They didn't hesitate. With grim nods, they dragged their broken comrades as the apparition descended, filling the cathedral with its suffocating presence.

Seishan gritted her teeth, fury cutting through her pain. "Now what, Amon!?"

Amon's reply was immediate. "Run, dude."

"Pardon?"

But he was gone. Vanished without a trace, fleeing with no shame, employing the sacred, ultimate technique of his illustrious cowardly seniors. The very core symbolism of the Lord of Mysteries: running at full speed… while leaving his allies behind.

What did I do!? his mind screamed as his boots pounded the floor as he throw sword in Fraud's Bag. I just destroyed a statue! A little blasphemy, okay, fine! And maybe I ruined Weaver's plans and stole a divine relic but still! Does that really deserve this!?

Behind him, the apparition howled, the cathedral shuddering as it pursued.

The cohort staggered after him, carrying their wounded, while Amon squeezed his eyes shut, refusing to look back, heart hammering like it would explode.

From Gemma's arms, Seishan glared down the corridor, her voice bitter, trembling with disbelief.

"…How disgraceful."