Back on the surface of Cruotis Prime, the two pairs of goddesses and demons left there found themselves facing seemingly endless waves of flying monsters.

Suddenly, the flying monsters stiffened and froze in mid-air before they began dropping to the ground like flies.

This didn't affect all of them, however, as the ones that fell were the bulk of their numbers, the weaker creatures that the two demons could wipe out by the hundreds with a single strike.

A considerable number of the stronger ones remained in the air, although their speed had clearly diminished.

Tens of thousands of undead monsters plummeted from above as the two pairs flew away to avoid being buried under the falling masses.

With the vast difference in power and speed between them, Alvey and McEnda carried Beatrix and Artemisia, respectively, and as they shot through the darkened sky, Beatrix suddenly muttered.

"I certainly wanted to be swept up in your arms, but these aren't the circumstances I had in mind…"

Hearing her words, Alvey's brow twitched, his gaze briefly shifting downward to meet the eyes of the girl in his arms.

"How can your thoughts even head in that direction in this kind of situation?"

"It has to be some kind of coping mechanism," McEnda muttered with a sigh, but when Beatrix heard him, she only blinked in confusion.

"Huh? Coping mechanism?"

Seeing her genuine confusion, McEnda realised he'd gotten it wrong, and Artemisia took in a deep breath before sighing.

"It's not any form of coping mechanism. That's just how she is."

Hearing Artemisia's words, Beatrix blinked once, then her eyes widened as she quickly snapped her gaze toward Artemisia.

"Did you just diss me?!"

"It took you that long to figure it out?" Artemisia replied, her expression flat.

"Arty!?"

At Beatrix's animated response, Alvey, who was carrying her in his arms, frowned and spoke.

"Can both of you focus?"

"Don't worry, Alvey," Beatrix answered, "I'm definitely focused."

And before Alvey could respond, Beatrix continued speaking.

"We've got incoming. 500 metres ahead. Move down."

"!"

Both Alvey and McEnda immediately dove down as fast as they could, and no sooner had they done so than a wave of fire swept across the skies, scorching the space they'd occupied moments earlier along with the undead flying monsters pursuing them.

If they'd stayed on that path, the flames would have engulfed them, and before McEnda could even say anything about it, Beatrix pointed at him and spoke.

"Two on your left."

The demon instantly spun around and sent out a rushing wave of darkness with a sweep of his wings, swallowing the two earthen spears that had been launched at them from a distance at supersonic speed.

Artemisia, her gaze scanning the ruined land below, frowned and muttered, "We need to head to another continent if we want to have any semblance of footing."

They couldn't remain in the air forever, and the earth beneath them was a mess, split with fissures that poured magma, all branching outward from the massive caldera the three protagonists had descended into earlier.

"Brace yourself then," McEnda replied, forming a spherical barrier of magic power around Artemisia as he poured more demonic energy into his wings, preparing to accelerate at full force.

Alvey mirrored his actions, and within a second, the two shot through the air at hypersonic speed, cutting across the darkened sky and tearing through hordes of flying undead as they streaked over the slowly boiling oceans.

They crossed the boiling oceans in seconds and arrived at another continent, one split in two, though one half remained relatively stable compared to the devastation that covered the rest of the planet.

The moment their feet touched the rocky ground, the earth split apart and a massive decaying draconic arm burst upward, but Alvey summoned his sword and, with a single flash of light, reduced it to scattered chunks of rotten flesh and crumbling bone.

Artemisia and Beatrix wheezed faintly, and Beatrix pressed a hand to her head to steady her spinning vision after the extreme speed of their flight.

Alvey, sheathing his sword, frowned as he clenched and unclenched his empty fist before muttering.

"We don't have enough power to make an atmospheric exit right now."

At his words, Beatrix, staggering as she got to her feet, asked, "So until those three manage to kill that guy in his Core Dimension, we have to hold out up here."

Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, a deep rumbling shook the ground, and her gaze shifted toward a cloud of dust rising into the sky, clear evidence of the approaching swarm of walking dead in the distance.

"And that's easier said than done," she added.

McEnda summoned his staff and stabbed it into the ground, the impact splintering the earth and sending small rocks flying upward into the air.

Artemisia caught sight of one of the rocks at the edge of her vision, but then the stones suddenly slowed in mid-air, the rushing wind around them dulled, and even the brown leaves of a half-dead tree caught in the breeze began to drift unnaturally slow.

"!"

Her eyes widened as the world around her slowed to a crawl, and two arms slipped around her shoulders from behind, followed by a voice.

[You know…I grew curious when I sensed your presence near the place where that strange request originated. I decided to take a look just in case, but…]

The voice trailed off, and the entity that suddenly appeared behind Artemisia shifted their gaze forward toward the slowed swarm of walking dead advancing in the distance.

[You appear to be in quite the bind…]

Leaning closer, the Incarnation of the will of the Valmone Universe spoke, their question sounding like a devil's whisper.

[Want me to get you out of here? My dear favourite.]

'Get...me out?' Artemisia asked, her words breaking in gaps as she spoke, and Valmone's Incarnation hummed softly in response, resting their chin on her shoulder.

[Or are you putting your hopes on those three defeating this planet's consciousness? Is that really the right choice?]

The goddess frowned at the question, and sensing her reaction, Valmone's Incarnation chuckled dryly before adding, [Let's see how they're doing and find out, shall we?]

With those words, the Incarnation's hands slowly lifted toward the sides of Artemisia's face, their fingers gently tapping the edges of her eyes, causing her vision to warp.

◇　◇　◇

Evan's body warped through space, appearing behind Bewússtsein and striking his back with a swift kick at the same moment Arthur teleported in front of him and landed a kick to his face.

Bewússtsein, slightly twisting his upper body, caught both their kicks with his hands, death law energy immediately flowing from his palms into their legs.

The move, however, had been anticipated by both boys, so they were ready for it.

The gravity around Bewússtsein instantly multiplied by two hundred, forcing him down to his knees, and at the same time, Arthur's black sword dropped from above of its own accord, piercing Bewússtsein's hand and cutting off the flow of death law energy that had been seeping into Arthur's leg.

This also broke Bewússtsein's grip, giving Arthur the chance to pull free.

Evan, meanwhile, cloaked his legs in yellow flames of purification, Mesarthim's Authority burning away the death energy that attempted to invade his body. The flames coursed into Bewússtsein's arm, searing through the death energy within and causing him pain.

Taking advantage of the opening, Evan used the leg Bewússtsein still held as leverage and swung his free leg into Bewússtsein's face.

'Electroflame + Fracture!'

His familiar combo ignited a rose of flames across the side of Bewússtsein's face, and Evan's other leg, now cloaked in golden lightning, collided with the fiery rose, the shockwave echoing as the impact of the skill mixture doubled the damage and sent Bewússtsein's body reeling backwards.

With his leg freed, Evan lifted it high and dropped into a crushing kick, activating Collapse as he slammed it into Bewússtsein's chest, still weighed down by Arthur's gravity amplification.

The blow slammed Bewússtsein's back into the ground with enough force to crack several ribs.

Before Evan could press the attack further, the ground around him split apart, and grotesque, skinless arms coated in death energy erupted outward, reaching for both him and Arthur.

The two instantly teleported away, narrowly escaping the grasping arms, and as they reappeared, every skinless arm was suddenly ripped apart, shredded by Jamie, who cleaved through them with his sword.

Flipping his grip on the blade, Jamie unleashed a powerful downward slash that tore through space itself, forcing Bewússtsein to conjure dozens of fleshy walls in an attempt to block the strike.

Jamie's slash, however, sliced through them with ease, and with no other choice, Bewússtsein released a burst of destruction energy to 'destroy' the gravity laws pressing him down before hurling a fist coated in destruction energy toward Jamie's slash.

The collision of the two shattered the space Jamie's sword had been cutting into, triggering a spatial collapse that forced them all to back away.

The massive five-hundred-metre-tall flesh avatar Bewússtsein had created had only been a cover for him to complete the formation of his perfect vessel, and though the Protagonist Trio eventually shredded it apart and ripped him out of it, he had already finished shaping his vessel, transforming what had once been only an upper body into a fully humanoid form complete with legs.

Now in a roughly six-foot-tall body, Bewússtsein was both a smaller and faster target, but the Protagonist Trio had managed to land enough blows with their durability-negating destructive powers that his once rapid healing had begun to slow.

Arthur was the first to notice this detail, and at the same time, Bewússtsein was observing them closely as well, focusing particularly on Jamie.

'His regeneration is troublesome. Even worse when combined with his spatial powers.

Even if he's an 'Immortal,' there's no way he can regenerate infinitely. The typical approach to dealing with regenerators like him is to target vital organs—like the brain or heart.

I'll start aiming for the heart.'

As those thoughts passed through his mind, Arthur, Jamie, and Evan charged forward to unleash a combined attack. But before they could reach him, the ground beneath Bewússtsein suddenly collapsed, pulling him down as the earth sealed shut immediately afterwards.

Moments later, Bewússtsein erupted from a nearby pool of lava, his body rising with it, wreathed in swirling elemental laws, from flames, to lightning, ice, earth, wind, water, light, shadow, and death energy.

Each of these elements spiralled violently around him before he hurled them outward in torrential, pressurised streams moving at hypersonic speeds, launching them toward the trio.

|Void.|

Jamie snapped his fingers with that command, and the space before him distorted, opening into a blue-rimmed portal with an abyssal void inside, an all-consuming emptiness devoid of light or substance.

Every pressurised torrent of energy was pulled into it with a gravitational force that Bewússtsein couldn't resist, vanishing into the endless darkness.

Arthur and Evan closed in from opposite sides, their blades cutting through the air toward Bewússtsein.

Evan attacked first, sending out prismatic flames that melted through Bewússtsein's hastily raised barriers, then followed with three lightning dragons that snapped toward Bewússtsein's head.

Although Bewússtsein bent his body to avoid the attack, the flames still scorched his side, but luckily for him, he managed to raise earthen walls just in time to ground the lightning.

Evan swung his sword again, ice rising like a mountain to trap Bewússtsein's feet, and before it reached him, Arthur charged from the other side with his silver aura blazing around his sword.

Bewússtsein countered with fire to melt Evan's crimson-gold ice and hurled an orb of destruction at Arthur, but before it reached him, Arthur vanished, switching places with Jamie, who snapped his fingers once more.

|Void.|

The destruction nova Bewússtsein hurled at Arthur was swallowed by Jamie's void, and spatial power poured from Jamie's body.

Bewússtsein clicked his tongue and roused his cosmic energy to counter Jamie's supposed spatial attack, only for his expectations to be broken.

Instead of spatial or destructive energy, Jamie's blade blazed with azure flames and lightning, both elements crackling as he swung it forward in a diagonal arc.

The shockwaves from the strike made the air ripple and spark, forcing Bewússtsein to raise his arms in defence, but when it crashed against them, the sheer force ripped through his layered barrier and skin, burning deep into his flesh.

As Bewússtsein was knocked toward the ground by the blow, he quickly gathered death energy in his hands, but before he could retaliate, Arthur appeared behind him, his Continent Split slash carrying the weight of more than just a continent as it tore through Bewússtsein's shoulder, cutting deep into his lungs.

'Tsk…not deep enough…'

Arthur clicked his tongue and swapped places with Jamie again, and as Bewússtsein turned to strike back, Jamie's fist came zapping toward his side.

Bewússtsein roared and released his death energy in a concentrated blast that shot forward and struck Jamie in the chest, tearing a hole through his right side, and scattering blood, flesh, and bone fragments through the air.

However, Jamie acted as if he didn't feel the damage, the force in his fist not lessening at all as it drove toward Bewússtsein's side, and just before it connected, Evan and Arthur locked on him and activated their Authorities.

'Mesarthim: Orange: Burned Ally.'

'False Gravity Authority: Weighted Impact!'

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