CHAPTER 63: UNDER THE HEAVENS

For a heartbeat, silence reigned.

The demoness felt a strange sensation throughout her humanoid body.

There was something wrong here... that boy with the Holy Power was doing something...

Both Zyon and Iz did not know what KiRA was doing but as they watched, surprise shrouded their faces as well.

Warmth blossomed in KiRA’s chest, one more fierce and radiant than ever before.

-Oooooooooooooooong!

From his back, a gentle glow began to pulse... it was first faint, then growing stronger, brighter, it spread throughout the arena and the hall.

-ZAAAAAAAA...!

Slowly, wings of purest light unfurled, stretching wide and majestic, each feather shining with celestial power. This scene was similar to seeing a heavenly swan spreading their wings for the first time at dawn.

The two of them could not believe they were seeing something like this on the first floor, but it surely was happening right in front of their faces.

-Oooooooooong!

As the wings expanded, a luminous halo formed above his head, spinning with an ethereal golden fire.

{ "...?!" }

The demoness recoiled, eyes wide with terror.

Those wings and that halo... the demoness felt primordial fear from those two.

Demons existed on the 90th floor and just a floor above them existed the archenemies of the demons– Angels of Holiness.

The characteristic features of those angels, that halo and those pure white wings scared the demoness even though they were simply effects of a skill.

"Now isn’t this fun?"

KiRA looked at the demoness, halo blazing, wings fully spread to fill the ruined hall.

Pure Power surged through him. Even though they were weaker compared to the demoness, with this power, that gap had been shortened significantly.

He met the demoness’s gaze, and for the first time, she faltered.

"Should we test your darkness now?" he asked, voice ringing with a hint of mockery.

The skill was no simple addition to his powers. While the wings wouldn’t allow him flight, the skill enhanced his Holy power significantly.

With the effects of the Halo, he could not only use ranged attacks with his Holy power, but he could also use the feathers of his wings as a weapon to attack the demoness in a wide area.

His holy power was a poison to the demons, and this skill not only enhanced his holy power but also the strength of his Purity stat.

{ "That’s just fake! How dare you play tricks!" }

The demoness snapped after realizing this wasn’t on the level of the angels. Those celestial beings were different in every manner.

This boy was a human and she was being fooled by some skill!

{ "You’re damned!" }

-Ooooooooooooooong!

KiRA attacked without waiting, firing his wing feathers at the demoness.

-Swiiiiiiiiiiish!

The wings that moved like rays of light through the air were fast, very fast. The demoness moved faster, but even she could not avoid every one of those attacks.

{ "Ughhh!" }

Just a scratch from the feathers burned her skin, damaging her more than any normal physical attacks would have ever been able to.

"You’re not even attractive. Why do you even care about those few scratches?" KiRA continued irritating the demoness while shooting his feathers.

At the same time, Zyon moved through the vicinity and predicted the movements of the demoness.

He appeared precisely where she would end up and threatened to take her down. If she was strong, he was no weak human either.

{ "You little...!" }

Dealing with KiRA was out of the question now and the swordsman was a little too good at handling that holy sword.

The demoness was concerned now that the two of them had a clear advantage against her.

{ "It’s not ready, but..." }

She resorted to the last of her schemes and used her special skill.

-Oooooooooooong!

Darkness covered the entire area, one that devoured both the light of the feathers and the holiness of the sword.

The darkness then turned into a world different from what they had known, a place that had already separated the three of them.

{ "Kekeke, you must have overestimated yourselves. There’s no way you humans could ever win!" }

The demoness had used her {False Reality} skill to create a world where all three of them were shown a scenario that would induce strong negative emotions within anyone seeing them.

Zyon saw the end of his world, the death of his loved ones, and the destruction of everything he loved.

KiRA was shown the death of his parents and loved ones, though their deaths weren’t as simple as the ones that Zyon saw.

They were brutally tortured by the monsters of the tower and disposed of after being incapacitated. The scene was gruesome as well, so anyone would have been shaken to the core had they witnessed this scene.

The skill also made the entire reality that they were seeing as real as the real thing. They would not know whether this was the truth or not even if they knew this was the effect of some kind of a skill.

It wasn’t a mere illusion. The demon’s skill turned the entire area around her into something similar to a pocket reality. The scene that they were seeing was the reality in this realm.

And she was the one who created and controlled this reality.

{ "Do you understand now? This is what will happen to them if you continue this... so, stop them." }

The demoness resorted to something new. Instead of focusing on KiRA or Ziggy in this reality, she focused her powers on Iz, showing her a hell where all of her loved ones had been enslaved by demons.

Her mother and KiRA’s aunt were made into toys for the demoness of lust, and her father was made into a slave without will, his eyes hollow of the fierce fire it had always possessed.

KiRA’s uncle, the person she had looked up to the most after her father, was turned into a puppet for the demoness, an executioner that did as it was ordered– and this executioner was beheading the very children he had raised with his blood, sweat, and tears.

{ "Make the right choice, girl. Make the right choice and save them." }

The demoness was playing with Isah’s emotions, or at the very least, she tried to do it.

"It’s funny how you believe this would be enough to break me," Izzy smirked at the scene that she was seeing and turned her gaze to exactly where the demoness was hiding.

"A skill as simple as this will never be enough to trick me, stupid demon."

-Oooooooooooooong!

A silver-black light shone out from Izzy and almost attacked the demoness.

{ "...!" }

Had it not been for the instinctive fear of death and her reflexes, the demoness knew she would have been hit by that energy.

She knew she would have been injured if she had been hit, so she thanked her demonic god and looked at the girl with a new fear.

"It’s a fun little skill."

She thought the girl was the least threatful among the three, however, she was wrong. Even the girl was hiding her claws.

"Sadly you don’t know how to use it well."

-Oooooooooong!

She failed to notice it, but even this girl possessed an element that made her stronger against the demoness– an element that those who did not serve any gods should not possess at all.

{ "Why do you have that power?!" }

Just like how those with [Purity] stats can resist the corruption and poisonous elements, those with unique stat [Faith] can resist mental attacks and interfere with all skills cast with evil intentions.

A rare skill that those with [Faith] possessed was called {Article of Faith}, a skill that priests of high positions within their religion held.

It was a filthy skill that opposed skills like the one demoness was using right now.

{ "How can you have that without Faith...?!" }

-Crrrrk– Crack!

The false reality was broken and KiRA and Zyon both were freed from the skill. Even Unity, who was separated from them, returned to Izzy.

"Viv? Viv!" (Are you alright?)

"I’m fine." The demoness could have attacked her in that state but the dumb demoness chose to manipulate her instead.

It was the worst mistake she would have made.

"Didn’t I tell you?" KiRA had already predicted she would do something like this when he read about her skills.

He had given Isah a heads up already and thanks to the Saint’s skill that she got from the scripture that KiRA brought from the cathedral, she was able to help them as well.

"You’re Useless, Biyak. The title of Demon of Heartbreak doesn’t suit you at all."

-Oooooooooooooong!

Mocking a demon with their original names was the highest level of disrespect you could show them. But he did not stop at just the name and included the only title she had as well.

And then he proceeded to attack her with his feathers.

{ "..." }

The demoness did not even try to dodge the attacks this time though.

She simply stayed in her place, still as a mountain.

-Swiiiiiiish!

The feathers that were shot at her— some passed through her, while some missed the target.

"Haiiya!" At the same time, Zyon attacked her with the holy sword at the perfect opportunity.

-Thum.

But, instead of avoiding that attack, this time as well, she blocked the attack with her bare hand.

{ "Useless?" }

The demoness snatched away the holy sword with pure strength, overpowering Zyon in an instant.

-Dham!

Then she smacked him even before he could react, throwing him down to the ground with a powerful impact strong enough to create a crater.

{ "Not even the Lord had ever called me that..." }

Black tears cascaded down her pale cheeks as her black eyes glared back at the one who had called her useless.

{ "How dare you." }

A killing intent so powerful it would make any lower-leveled player faint on the spot oozed out of the demoness.

{ "How dare you call me useless...!" }

And in the very next moment, she vanished once again, reappearing right before the one who had mocked her very existence...