For a split second, visions flooded his mind,. He saw a monstrous figure clawing at the walls of an invisible prison—a figure draped in crimson robes, its formless face framed. Its presence pulsed with sheer, malevolent will..
The Crimson King… He understood at once: In three minutes, the Crimson King would finish breaching the veil. And the beacon drawing him here… was Kang Woo himself. The realization turned Kang Woo's face stark and silent. He lowered his sword fractionally, eyes fixed on nothing.
Makima, who'd been moments away from praising him again, fell silent as she glimpsed the subtle tremor in Kang Woo's expression. The quiet confidence that usually surrounded him seemed to splinter for just an instant.
Makima's eyes searched his face, her playful grin fading. "…Kang Woo?" she murmured softly, her voice almost hesitant.
Without warning, Kang Woo reached out and seized both of Makima's hands in his own. His grip was firm, almost trembling with urgency. His voice was low, edged with quiet desperation.
"Makima. Focus on me. Do not look behind me. Do not look at what's happening around us. Only me. Do you understand?"
Makima blinked once, shock flooding her features. But then she swallowed hard and nodded silently, pressing her lips together.
As Kang Woo spoke, the entire cavern around them began to shift. The underground landscape, drilled open by the Nightmare Familiar beneath the Aokigahara forest, warped and twisted.
The rocky floor unraveled like paper, transforming into a vast red carpet strewn with countless skulls. Between the bleached bones scuttled spiders as large as wolves, alongside swarms of grotesque insectoid creatures, their limbs skittering over the bone-littered terrain.
Mikhail's voice flashed urgently in Kang Woo's mind: Master. The Crimson King's breakthrough has reached 99%.
But Kang Woo ignored the message. He held Makima's gaze firmly, even as he could feel the monstrous presence looming up directly behind him.
For the Crimson King was here now—still cloaked under voluminous crimson robes, enthroned upon a throne made of fused skulls .
Yet from Makima's perspective… she saw none of it. Instead, time around her seemed to grind to a halt. Her body felt locked, her limbs too heavy to lift. Everything beyond Kang Woo blurred into a soft haze. In her eyes, Kang Woo was the only figure sharply in focus—his features illuminated by gentle starlight. All around her stretched a serene ocean under an endless night sky filled with quiet stars.
Kang Woo exhaled a trembling breath. He lifted his left hand, and from the back of his palm, the Eye of Mikhail detached, glimmering like a tiny sun. Carefully, he placed it into Makima's palm and curled her fingers around it.
Makima stared at the glowing eye cradled in her hand, confusion and fear warring on her face.
Kang Woo laid his other hand gently on her shoulder, his voice soft yet fierce. "Makima… I'm giving you a blessing. So you can wield Quincy abilities without tearing yourself apart from the inside."
Makima shook her head, her Silent Expression tells . But… why, Kang Woo? Why keep giving me these gifts… without telling me the reason?
Kang Woo's eyes darkened with sorrow, yet an unyielding pride burned within them. His voice dropped, deep and resonant, like a vow etched into the cosmos itself. "Makima… remember this. You can be so much more than what this world planned you to be. You think you're only a devil born of fear… but you're wrong. If you'd been born in a world rich with mana, you'd have become the greatest magician who ever lived. You are capable of becoming anything—of transcending your fate."
Tears welled in Makima's eyes, spilling down her cheeks. Deep inside, she already knew the truth—that these words were a farewell. A final confession.
Kang Woo's voice softened, a gentleness laced with profound sadness. "Makima… you are the best Control Devil there ever was. Without you… I'd have destroyed this world days ago—or left it behind without a second thought. Whatever happens to me… or this world… do not blame yourself. Live on. Be free."
He gave her hands one last squeeze,. "Makima… you made me feel unknown again. Thank you. Every moment we've shared… I've treasured it. Every laugh. Every fight. Even the times you made my plans fall two steps behind… it was worth everything."
Makima trembled as silent sobs wracked her chest.
But in the next instant—
Makima's vision shattered like glass.
For the briefest fraction of a heartbeat, she saw what lay behind Kang Woo: A titanic, crimson-cloaked being stretching out a colossal arm toward them both. Its skin was a roiling mass of writhing red threads, its claws black as midnight, each finger the size of a skyscraper.
The Crimson King had breached the veil.
Kang Woo's body moved faster than thought. His face twisted with grim resolve. He shoved Makima backward, hard enough to fling her clear across the chamber. In the same motion, he slammed one hand toward the ground. A wall of jagged ice exploded upward, forming a towering frost barrier. He wove it together with a blazing ring of holy runes—a Sankt Zwinger—sealing Makima off completely, ensuring she could never return to his side.
Makima pounded her fists against the translucent barrier, her voice lost amid the roar of colliding powers. Inside the Barrier , Kang Woo's hand darted to his pocket. He flicked a tiny copper coin into the air—a Final Destination penny. Its surface glowed with runes as it spun, vanishing in a blink through the multiverse.
From an unfathomable distance away… an answering force awoke. Suddenly, a beam of golden light split reality itself, stretching across universes like a sun-lance. The Longinuslanze Testament hurtled down with unstoppable momentum,
Kang Woo braced himself, teeth gritted. He'd expected the spear to impale him alone. But fate had other plans. The golden spear slammed through the Crimson King's chest first, punching a yawning hole clean through his monstrous form. A heartbeat later, the spear burst from Kang Woo's back, impaling him as well, the golden tip glinting in the dim red glow.
The Crimson King convulsed, coughing up streams of black ichor. His voice rattled like an earthquake, blood bubbling from the hidden depths of his hood.
"What… thy is this spear…?" the Crimson King gurgled, his words slurring as he hacked and choked. "Cough… It burns… It's killing me…"
Kang Woo, pale and trembling, somehow managed a bloodstained grin.
Heh… The only one who's allowed to kill me… that's me—or maybe you, huh?
He turned his face slightly, a distant glint in his eyes as though speaking across universes. "The only one who can kill you… is me. Isn't that right… Reinhard ?"
The Crimson King, his crimson robes billowing around him, staggered forward onto his knees. His monstrous form shuddered, black ichor streaming from the massive hole punched through his chest by the Longinuslanze Testament. For the first time in his existence, the Crimson King desperately wanted to return to his prison—a notion so absurd it would have been laughable under any other circumstances. The being who once dreamed of destroying all universes now yearned for the safety of his own eternal confinement.
But Kang Woo, blood still pouring from his own wound, lifted one trembling hand. A ripple of power surged outward.
With a cold, merciless flick of his fingers, Kang Woo invoked his Authority of Gates, and the passage to the Dark Tower verse—an escape route for the Crimson King—slammed shut like a vault door crashing into place.
The Crimson King's rotting red threads writhed violently as he let out a bellowing roar. "YOU FOOLISH HUMAN!" the Crimson King thundered. "YOU WOULD RATHER SEE ME DIE—AND KILL EVERYTHING HERE—THAN ALLOW ME TO LEAVE?! YOU INSOLENT MORTAL WRETCH!" Black lightning crackled around the Crimson King's towering frame. His four-pronged crown blazed like molten iron as he clawed desperately at the sealed gateway, fury and terror warring in his monstrous form.
Kang Woo's lips curled into a thin, blood-flecked smile.
Without hesitation, he began weaving two powers together deep within his own body. He called upon his Demon King Magic: Invincible Ruler—an arcane spell capable of inverting offensive magic force into healing. Then, with a flex of will, he merged it with his Authority of Sloth, which slowed everything within Kang Woo's vision to a crawl.
His aim, however, was not perfection. This time… Kang Woo wanted it to fail.
The spell wavered, power fracturing. A cosmic fracture yawned wide around him. The walls of reality peeled apart like wet paper, revealing something beyond comprehension.
A space between time emerged—a realm of perfect Nothingness, neither light nor dark, neither existence nor void. A place where no being should ever exist… nor could Gods survive.
The Crimson King froze as he beheld it. For the first time since the birth of universes, his voice shook with primal fear. "What… what thy abomination are you?!" the Crimson King croaked, his monstrous form shrinking back, tentacles recoiling. "What monstrosity is this… that you can create such a… such a thing?!"
His countless eyes darted wildly, panic blazing in their depths. His titanic limbs quivered. For the first time in eternity, the Crimson King feared dying.
Kang Woo only smiled, crimson spilling from his lips. The void around him pulsed wider, swallowing chunks of the red-carpeted chamber, dragging skulls and insects and cosmic debris into its endless depths.
On the other side of the Sankt Zwinger barrier, Makima was a storm of desperate energy. She kept firing her Heilig Pfeil arrows over and over, each bolt blazing as it slammed into the barrier. Her face was streaked with tears as she simultaneously summoned swirling black flames—her Hellblaze, invoked through the Commandment of Piety—to burn through the holy runes keeping her separated from Kang Woo.
Cracks splintered the frost barrier as she screamed silently, determined to break through.
But Kang Woo only stood there, framed in the glow of the ever-widening void. He lifted one trembling hand and gave Makima a small wave, his expression gentle. "Au revoir… Makima… I'm sorry. I wish we could've gone to the cinema together…" Kang Woo whispered, his voice a fading echo.
The space between time surged forward, consuming every trace of the Crimson King's influence—and then the Crimson King himself. The monstrous tyrant let out a final, strangled howl as the Nothingness devoured his body, dragging him away from all realities. The swirling vortex swallowed Kang Woo as well, the golden spear still impaled through his chest, glinting like the last dying star.
Makima's POV — A Few Seconds Before Kang Woo Separated Her
Makima's vision shattered like glass.
For the briefest, frozen moment, she saw something behind Kang Woo—a monstrous figure cloaked in crimson robes. Its arm, as vast as a skyscraper, lunged forward, clawed fingers stretching toward them both.
Makima's breath caught in her throat, fear flashing through her as her mind struggled to comprehend the sheer cosmic horror looming behind the man she loved.
But Kang Woo moved faster than thought., he shoved Makima backward, hard enough to fling her across the chamber. In the same heartbeat, he slammed one hand toward the ground. A wall of jagged ice exploded upward, forming a towering frost barrier. Holy runes ignited around its edges, spinning into a blazing ring of light—a Sankt Zwinger—locking Makima away from him, sealing her off completely.
Makima slammed into the far wall, the wind knocked from her chest. Gasping, she surged to her feet and ran to the translucent barrier. She pounded her fists against it, her voice raw with panic.
"Kang Woo—WHAT'S GOING ON?!" she screamed.
But her words barely echoed before the world exploded into golden brilliance. A spear of pure golden light—the Longinuslanze Testament—descended from the heavens, splitting reality itself. It plunged through the Crimson King's chest, punching a cavernous hole through his titanic form.
And then— The golden spear burst from Kang Woo's back, impaling him as well. The tip of the weapon gleamed in the flickering glow of the collapsing chamber.
Makima stared, eyes wide, her lips trembling. She felt her entire soul fracture.
"No… no… NOOOOOOO! KANG WOOOOO!" Makima screamed, tears pouring down her cheeks.
Her knees threatened to buckle. But fury surged through her veins like fire.
Makima lifted her trembling hands and summoned her Heilig Bogen, the spiritual bow forming instantly in a blaze of light. She conjured arrow after arrow—Heilig Pfeil—and fired them in rapid succession, each shot striking the Sankt Zwinger barrier with blinding flashes.
"Jikkai!" Makima cried out.
In a burst of swirling dark flames, the Commandment of Piety appeared beside her, its aura seething with ominous power. Without a second's hesitation, Makima directed the Commandment's power forward, channeling its full might into a raging inferno.
"HELLBLAZE!" she roared, her voice trembling with fury and anguish.
Black flames , erupted from Makima's hands, clawing through the holy runes keeping her separated from Kang Woo. The barrier sizzled, cracks webbing outward as divine and infernal powers collided.
But before Makima could finish breaking through—
Kang Woo turned his face toward her, his expression gentle even as his body shook with pain. His voice fading. "Au revoir… Makima… I'm sorry. I wish we could've gone to the cinema together…"
And then it happened. The space between time surged forward, an all-consuming tide of nothingness. It devoured every trace of the Crimson King's influence—and finally, the Crimson King himself. The monstrous tyrant let out a strangled howl as the Nothingness swallowed his existence, dragging him away from all realities.
Makima shrieked, clawing at the remnants of the dissolving barrier. "KANG WOO! DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE ME—!"
But it was too late. The swirling vortex swallowed Kang Woo, the golden spear still impaled through his chest, glinting like the last dying star.
And then… it vanished. The void collapsed in upon itself, leaving nothing but empty space. The chamber fell silent, littered with fragments of bone and dying embers.
Makima staggered forward as the last shards of Kang Woo's barrier fell away like broken glass. She ran toward where the vortex had been, her hair whipping around her face, tears blurring her reached out her hand as though she might grasp him—pull him back—but there was nothing. The swirling vortex was dropped to her knees, a single broken sob tearing from her throat as the silence swallowed her cries.