The demon's remaining eye locked onto Klaus.
It burned with hatred and recognition.
Zul'got's laugh crawled out of his ruined chest, wet and uneven, bubbling through lungs that barely worked anymore. Each breath sounded like gravel dragged through water.
"You humans…" he rasped, blood running freely from the corner of his mouth. "I underestimated you."
He straightened.
Slowly. Painfully.
The movement sent rabbits skittering away as a wave of pressure rolled outward, flattening loose stones and snapping scattered debris around. The ground groaned beneath his feet.
"Now," Zul'got continued, his voice deepening as the massive orb above him pulsed brighter, "it is time for you to feel despair."
The floating orb began to melt.
Not drip—melt.
Blackened mana liquefied and poured downward in thick streams, splashing against the ground around him. Wherever it touched, stone hissed and darkened, turning glassy and brittle. The air warped, heavy and oppressive, like standing too close to a furnace made of shadows.
Zul'got's broken lips stretched into a grin. "I will show you my true power."
Mana surged.
The pressure intensified so suddenly it felt like gravity itself had been dialed up. The pillar of stone beneath the demon cracked and collapsed, crumbling away—except where the black liquid coated.
The rabbits tried to charge.
They didn't make it three steps.
Unstable mana lashed outward, flinging them back like leaves in a storm. Delle, relentless as ever, skidded across the ground and tumbled end over end. No matter how hard it tried, it couldn't get close anymore.
From the blackened earth, the liquid surged upward.
It crept up Zul'got's legs, covering them in glistening darkness. The liquid flowed into the bullet-riddled wounds, sealing and reshaping the damage as it reformed his flesh, leaving behind jagged, thorn-like protrusions along the newly coated areas.
Shane's expression finally changed.
His brows drew together, jaw tightening as the pressure in the air swelled. Mana pressed against his senses like a rising tide, heavy enough to make his skin prickle. He took an instinctive step back, boots grinding against loose rubble.
"This is bad," he muttered. "That mana reserve… it's massive."
He glanced sideways at Klaus. "It's almost on the same level as Peonome Cloverstone."
Klaus didn't look away from the demon. His gaze remained calm, almost detached. "No," he said flatly. "It's not even close to Peonome's mana reserve."
Shane blinked. "How would you know?"
For a brief moment, Klaus's eyes unfocused—not from fear, but memory. Two years ago, he had witnessed a glimpse of Peonome's power: a colossal tree erupting from bare ground, hundreds of wooden clubs forming in an instant, and the resulting explosion that rippled across the land like a great calamity, forming a mushroom cloud of smoke that reached the sky. The scale of it had been absurd. Terrifying. Beautiful, in a way only overwhelming power could be.
It was from his buried past and didn't want to share any of that.
"Rumors," Klaus said lightly.
With a casual flick of his wrist, he dismissed the Vickers. The massive machine gun dissolved into motes of light and vanished back into his Mindforger, leaving the battlefield unnervingly quiet without its thunderous song.
"If silver can't kill this demon," Klaus continued, rolling his shoulders as if loosening up before a workout, "then I'll use gold."
Shane shot him a sharp look. "You're serious?"
"Oh," Klaus replied dryly, "tragically."
This time, he didn't smile. The usual grin refused to come. The Vickers alone had cost him five hundred silver coins—and an entire day painstakingly embedding trap runes into every single round. Burning through another box wasn't just expensive.
It was painfully time consuming.
He stared at the advancing black armor.
Then he sighed.
"Well," he said, resigned, "they say, time is gold."
"Mindforger."
The ground shook.
With a thunderous thud and a cloud of dust, a howitzer materialized beside him—long barrel, reinforced frame, and runic stabilizers etched deep into its metal. A second impact followed as an enormous shell appeared next to it, nearly as large as Illumi's torso.
Shane's eyes widened.
He started backing away immediately. The ringing from the Vickers still echoed faintly in his ears, and he had absolutely no desire to be anywhere near whatever came next.
"…You really do keep ridiculous things in your head," he muttered.
Klaus grabbed the shell and heaved it into the breach with a grunt. The metal scraped into place.
"This is my last option," Klaus said, tone casual but tight. "And my strongest."
He adjusted the barrel slowly, carefully, angling it toward Zul'got's chest—toward the torn flesh where he'd glimpsed that fragment of purple orb beneath the torn shoulder.
Zul'got watched, amused.
The black liquid had already reached below his chest, thickening into layered armor. "You think that can kill me?" the demon scoffed. "Your holy barrage of pellets couldn't even finish me. How could that oversized junk of yours harm me?"
Klaus glanced up at him. "First of all," he said pleasantly, "it wasn't a pellet."
He placed his hand on the firing mechanism.
"It was a bullet."
His smile sharpened. "And this big boy doesn't need to be holy to pulverize you, demon."
He pulled the trigger.
The explosion of sound was immediate and overwhelming.
The howitzer fired with a deafening boom that ripped through the mountains. The ground bucked violently as the artillery skidded backward from the recoil, carving deep grooves into the dirt.
The shell screamed through the air.
Zul'got reacted instantly, roaring as he hurled the black liquid forward. It surged like a tidal wave, forming a thick barrier that slammed head-on into the projectile.
The impact shook the battlefield.
Sparks flew as demon and artillery strained against one another. Zul'got gritted his teeth, muscles bulging as he forced the projectile to a halt midair. The transformation wasn't complete yet—he couldn't afford to let it hit.
For a heartbeat, it worked. The black liquid stopped the projectile, only allowing the tip to pass through.
The demon grinned.
Then the tip of the shell began to glow.
The second trap was activated.
Zul'got's eye widened. "No—"
The shell detonated.