When the Soul Devil regained her senses, she discovered that she had been dragged into a vast underground space.
The shining runes she had personally inscribed and the familiar landscape immediately let her know that she was where the core of the formation was placed.
Yet, surprisingly, apart from her, there was one more person here—the owner of the grabbing hand.
The Soul Devil looked at this person and was surprised to find that she recognized her.
It was the Devil who had originally been part of the Horse-Faced Devil's formation, the one that Eshara, her slave, had killed at the beginning of the battle.
The Soul Devil couldn't understand why this woman was still alive, and most importantly, what she was doing down here.
Unfortunately, the person responsible for her many doubts—Liora—did not seem ready to spend any amount of time answering them.
The moment after she pulled down the Soul Devil, she lunged at her and wrapped her hands around her like a hug, using the momentum of the launch to throw her toward the ground.
Or to be more accurate, toward a specific part of the ground.
At some point, a deep, empty hole had appeared in this place, with a red-orange glow flickering at its depths.
Before the Soul Devil could react, both she and Liora were on top of each other, descending into the hole.
It took a few moments for the Soul Devil to recover from the shock, and when she felt herself falling and the hot wind blowing against her face, she instantly understood something.
"You're crazy!"
Her pupils shrank, and she instinctively launched a soul attack at Liora, only to find a thick barrier obstructing her from touching her soul—the Myriad Devils Armor.
"Crazy! You're crazy!", the Soul Devil yelled and struggled to throw Liora off, but her efforts proved meaningless.
Not only did Liora's hands not budge at all, but she even raised her legs and wrapped them tightly around the Soul Devil's.
Seeing this, the panicked Soul Devil lifted her head and reached out with her hands, in an attempt to grab the walls and stop her free fall.
Unfortunately, the rugged walls of the hole were tough to take a hold of, and coupled with the weight of Liora pressing down on her, she failed.
Her fingers scraped against the rocks, causing her silver nails to snap and blood to flow out freely.
But the Soul Devil paid no heed to this.
Most of her attention was on the temperature around her, which was rising at a terrifying rate as the two descended deeper into the hole.
Within moments, the pair had plunged hundreds of meters, yet there was still no end in sight.
As the two got deeper, the temperature around them increased even further.
Even though the Soul Devil was a Young Devil and possessed a physique many times stronger than that of ordinary humans, she still felt her skin tingling as a result of the heat.
And as time passed, this discomfort became increasingly obvious.
Of course, Liora could also feel what the Soul Devil was feeling. After all, the two of them were falling together.
It's just that compared to the Soul Devil, the Myriad Devils Armor's defenses and its new evolution—which gave her slight immunity to fire damage—allowed her to withstand it better.
Silent, Liora kept her grip on the Soul Devil, whose struggle was becoming more and more intense as they plunged deeper into the pit.
Her screams and curses constantly echoed in her ears and were becoming difficult to ignore.
"Idiot! You're going to kill us both! Let me go! Let me go!", the Soul Devil shouted, her always calm and calculating facade shattering now that she found herself in danger.
However, her panic and fear were actually valid.
The temperature of the Demon World was already many times higher than that of ordinary planets like Earth, and the temperatures at its depths were even higher.
By now, the Soul Devil was withstanding a temperature of thousands of degrees Celsius.
Her pale, smooth skin was beginning to blister and crack, while faint burnt marks appeared on the edges of her long silver hair.
Feeling the soul-tearing pain coursing through her and staring at Liora, who showed no signs of letting her go, a bloodthirsty, cruel light flashed in the depths of the Soul Devil's eyes.
Without hesitation, she leaned forward and opened her mouth, directly biting on Liora's left shoulder.
A tearing sound was heard as her sharp teeth tore straight through the flesh, splattering blood all over her beautiful, delicate face.
Liora's body shuddered as the pain assaulted her mind, but she gritted her teeth and suppressed the urge to let go.
At the same time, she didn't forget to retaliate.
Her fingers flexed, and her nails dug deep into the Soul Devil's back, leaving behind a large number of monster-like scratches.
Just like her, though, the Soul Devil ignored the pain and leaned forward again, using her own teeth as a fatal weapon.
Time blurred. In both of the Devils' perceptions, it seemed that hours had gone by.
The pain caused by each other's ruthless strikes, the smell of sulfur and blood, and the heat numbed both Liora and the Soul Devil, who lost control of time.
"Let me go! I promise to never fight you again! I'll give you everything I have! Everything!", the Soul Devil begged for mercy, bloody tears flowing out of her eyes.
She should have looked pitiful, but the blood on her face and teeth made her look terrifying, like a demon who had crawled out of the deepest parts of Hell.
Smoke flew out of her mouth as she spoke, making it clear that her inner organs had been burned as a result of the heat.
Liora did not fare much better.
Half of her shoulder was riddled with bite marks, while her skin had almost become red, like molten iron.
Regardless, she endured. She was betting that the Myriad Devils Armor would help her last longer than the Soul Devil.
And soon, her bet seemed to have paid off—
Suddenly, a clicking sound reached her ears, and Liora felt the Soul Devil's body freeze. When she lowered her head and looked down at her, she found that the heart-shaped pendant she had been wearing had cracked.
"No! No! No!", the Soul Devil screamed and stared at the remnants of the necklace in despair.
Before Liora could react, the Soul Devil's condition, which was already bad enough, deteriorated even further.
Her silver hair finally caught on fire, while her skin fractured even more, and blood gushed out. The blood dissolved instantly upon coming into contact with the flames surrounding her.
These flames were not ordinary mortal flames, but the flames of the Demon World, possessing temperatures of thousands of degrees.
"Why?! Why?! I should have become a Lesser Devil! I should have reached the top of the Crucible!", the Soul Devil howled.
Her beautiful face twisted with despair, anger, pain, and above all, hatred.
Her terrifying, cold eyes reflected in Liora's, and her hateful expression, like that of an evil spirit, was the last thing she saw of her.
The next moment, her whole body burst into flames and disintegrated, like a star in the sky or a meteor. Only ashes and silence were left behind.
Her death relieved Liora's worries and pressure, causing the adrenaline rushing in her body to fade and for the pain she had been ignoring to resurface.
Her vision blurred and her mind grew heavy, almost causing her to fall unconscious.
However, she understood that falling unconscious at this point in time would seal her death.
Gritting her teeth, she stretched her only remaining—still working— arm to the side and pushed her hand into the wall.
Half of her fingers broke, twisting into all kinds of unnatural angles, but half of them succeeded, ending up embedded in the wall.
Immediately, Liora's descent came to an abrupt stop.
Her entire body now hung in the air, supported by only two of her fingers.
Glancing down and staring at the scorching land at the bottom of the hole, she couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.