The system had warned him before—promotion quests would be far more difficult than ordinary world missions.
But now, Ren Kuroda felt this wasn't merely "difficult."
This was death-mode.
The kind of mission that simply could not be cleared.
A calamity-class Demon King like Az Dakaha—a top-tier three-digit existence—was on a completely different level from the Nightblade Deity Ren had once fought. The gap wasn't just large.
It was astronomical.
On the other side of the battlefield, Az Dakaha—who until now had seemed suppressed—appeared to have finished gauging Izayoi and His Highness's limits.
And he had no intention of playing any longer.
The moment he began drawing out more of his true strength, the tide shifted exactly as Ren and the others had feared from the start.
Az Dakaha acknowledged it freely—Izayoi and His Highness were among the finest humanity had ever produced.
But power alone was not enough.
They had not grasped the true nature of the Human Final Trial—Absolute Evil.
Even Izayoi, usually sharp-tongued and impossible to out-argue, had been driven into silence during his debate with Az Dakaha. Frustration had gotten the better of him—and not only had he failed to gain ground, he had lost an arm for his trouble.
"Trying to defeat Absolute Evil like this… we didn't prepare enough," His Highness said gravely. "We should withdraw for now.
"At the very least, this battle has shown us the true strength of the Human Final Trial. It hasn't been meaningless."
Izayoi's arm was ruined. Ren's aura was unstable. His Highness himself bore fewer visible injuries—but against Az Dakaha, he had little confidence.
For Ren, Izayoi, and His Highness, this was their first encounter with Az Dakaha.
Their first clash.
Crossing humanity's ultimate trial had never been meant to be simple.
His Highness believed they should retreat, digest what they'd learned, and prepare properly for the next campaign.
It was a sound plan.
But Az Dakaha was not a dungeon boss.
They were not players who could enter and exit at will.
Though he embodied "Humanity's Final Trial," that did not mean he would endlessly grant second chances to those he found promising.
After all—
Being sealed for eternity was hardly pleasant.
"So this is your limit," Az Dakaha declared, his voices overlapping like distant thunder. "You have reached the summit of humanity—yet you cannot surpass humanity itself.
"If you cannot transcend me, then you are not the one I await."
The three dragon heads rose high.
"Wheel of the Overlord—Khvarenah!"
Az Dakaha might admire Izayoi and the others.
But admiration would not soften him.
As the Human Final Trial, he would not hold back.
Could not.
Blazing heat gathered within the three gaping maws. The surrounding air warped violently under the rising temperature.
Golden radiance condensed—
And from it formed a terrifying, rotating halo of light.
Even at a glance, it dwarfed the dragon breath he had unleashed earlier.
This was one of Az Dakaha's greatest Gifts—
The strongest flash-heat lineage ability.
A power said to be capable of destroying one-third of the world.
The Wheel of the Overlord.
As it shot forward, everyone's vision was swallowed in gold.
Under such overwhelming force, they realized—
There was nothing left to do but await death.
A Gift capable of annihilating a third of a world was no exaggeration.
Before that scale of power, even high-ranking gods and buddhas would be a joke.
"Aurora Pillar!"
Izayoi, his right arm useless, thrust out his left and unleashed his strongest attack with everything he had.
Beside him, His Highness activated his simulated cosmology, replicating Izayoi's worldview. Through Avatāra's omniscience and omnipotence, he mirrored Izayoi's technique—
And fired a second Aurora Pillar.
Two white beams shot skyward, radiant columns that seemed capable of piercing the stars themselves.
The instant they collided with the descending golden halo, the earth convulsed.
At the epicenter of the clash, space fractured like shattered glass.
The twin stellar beams and the world-destroying golden wheel collided with force rivaling top-tier three-digit combat.
Yet the situation was anything but reassuring.
Despite having the numerical advantage, the two Aurora Pillars did not gain the upper hand.
At first, the twin white columns stood firm, defiant as lances piercing heaven.
But as seconds ticked by—
The rotating golden wheel began grinding them down.
Inch by inch.
Izayoi and His Highness were forced backward under the crushing pressure transmitted through their arms. Their boots carved deep trenches into the ground as they were driven back.
Since ancient times, beam clashes always favor the left side's defeat.
Putting power levels aside—
Their positioning was already wrong.
Anyone with eyes could see it.
As the Wheel of the Overlord accelerated its descent, the two Aurora Pillars were gradually shredded apart.
Shira Yukimura and the others wanted to follow Izayoi's earlier order—to retreat while they held the line.
But countless Az Dakaha avatars surrounded them.
Clearly, from the beginning, Az Dakaha had anticipated this scenario.
The blood he had shed earlier—when he had still been testing Ren and the others—had already formed a legion of divine-class clones.
Perfect for blocking escape.
The Wheel of the Overlord had always been meant to wipe them out.
All of them.
As the two Aurora Pillars were finally torn apart, the golden halo descended like the last straw crushing a dying beast.
Its heat distorted space itself.
And the first to face it head-on—
Were Izayoi and His Highness.
Watching the blazing wheel descend, Izayoi lowered his remaining arm.
How long had it been since he'd felt this?
This powerless.
This despairing.
"Damn it… If I die in this world, as long as my Spirit Origin doesn't completely disperse… I could at least end up as a ghost or some kind of Gift, right?"
Golden light filled his vision.
He had already accepted it.
His life flashed before his eyes.
But at the very last moment—
A figure suddenly stepped between him and His Highness.
Muttering something incomprehensible.
And from the ground—
Vast swathes of black mire erupted upward.
They surged and spread, forming a massive barrier before them.a