Chapter 49: Confrontation

  In the mountain lords' lodge, Eusebius jumped to his feet.

  "What the hell is he doing?!"

  He was reacting to the dramatic image that had just appeared on Boruta’s crystal monitor screens.

  An image in which Felix Faustus was dying.

  "Stop!"

  Before the voivode’s cry echoed through the room, the lord of the Mountain of Research and Development was already outside the Mountain of Mists.

  'I must save Felix!'

  There was no time for deliberation. Without sparing the power of his mighty cultivation base, he took a few steps that brought him closer to the moon.

  He didn't care about the games. His protégé, whom he had looked after for the past ten years, was balancing on the edge of life and death.

  This young man was like an adopted son to him and he had no intention of letting him die.

  His figure against the night sky looked like a large blur that only sufficiently powerful cultivators of the 66th dimension could perceive.

  "Felix!"

  He shouted, already very close to the lunar atmosphere.

  He intended to interrupt the ritual. However, just as he was about to descend there, he felt a voice resonate in his head.

  "No interventions will be tolerated."

  It was a warning from the dimension spirit, Mister Twardowski, who was overseeing the ceremony!

  Eusebius knew there was a ban on interfering with the matters taking place on the moon. Even magic used for communication from both sides was delayed until the ritual concluded.

  This had not mattered to him, however, in the face of the danger to his special adept.

  Unleashing the full power of his cultivation base, he decided to ignore the earlier warning.

  He took a step intended to transport him to the surface, and... the world stopped.

  The mountain lord couldn't even move an eyelid as the invisible force of the dimension spirit stopped him before the entrance and slowly lifted him up.

  Then, with an irresistible force, it hurled him back toward the Sect of the End of the World!

  The devil watched in terror as Felix’s was growing smaller in the distance and he himself soon pierced the sound barrier with a colossal crash and slammed into one of the planet's oceans with terrifying momentum!

  His broken body quickly began to sink into the deepening darkness of the ocean, as Voivode Boruta, who was observing the whole event, immediately rushed after him.

  Meanwhile, on the moon.

  Belisara slowly brushed the dust off her clothes. She couldn't stop the smile slowly creeping onto her lips.

  'And so, all loose ends regarding the Kingdom of Peace should be tied up.'

  Although the impact site was still terribly smoky after the explosion, she was certain that the matter should be concluded. Justinian's energy remained there, and the paralyzing formation was not broken.

  She expected the boy to have survived the explosion and even hoped that would be the case.

  'That power of his with the iron hand could be useful to me. Plus, the devils think he has an interesting foundation.'

  She couldn't assess it like long-time adepts, but it would be of great benefit to her if it was true.

  'His strength will be necessary for me to prepare for the inevitable clash with Greedius...'

  Walking toward the slowly clearing explosion site, she suddenly turned around.

  Her brows were furrowed, and her eyes began to scan the surroundings intently.

  'I'm sure I noticed some movement...'

  However, Justinian's energy was still in the paralyzing formation.

  After a brief consideration, the deviless, maintaining great caution, began to approach the increasingly transparent impact site.

  Strange energy debris seemed to vibrate in the air when, about 10 meters from her target, her senses began screaming danger again.

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  This time, she didn't have to turn around for her face to twist into an ugly grimace. Tension hit her temples, and indecision flashed in her eyes for a moment.

  'What kind of tricks are these?!'

  Standing right before the slowly dissipating smoke was a strange figure. It was transparent and looked at her with a stern, emotionless gaze.

  The figure involuntarily reminded Belisara of a ghost that refuses to depart to the land of the dead, having left unfinished business on earth.

  The strange creature before her had the face of none other than Aldona Borowiak, whom she had consumed earlier.

  'How?!'

  The deviless gritted her teeth in frustration at this impossible sight. Greedius hadn't told her anything about issues with the soul of people consumed by his gift.

  'Did he do it on purpose?'

  However, she quickly dismissed that thought.

  Nothing like this had happened with her other victims.

  Quickly calculating the options she deemed possible, she clenched her fists.

  "Are you having fun?"

  At first, only silence answered her, but as seconds passed, a masculine silhouette finally outlined itself behind the strange ghost. It was none other than Justinian, trapped in the formation, who looked at her with an expression containing little more emotion than the ghost.

  If anything was visible in his eyes, it was primarily pain.

  Cold sweat beaded on Belisara’s neck at that gaze. The man before her no longer looked like the naive boy she wanted to use in her plans.

  His focused face brought to mind someone mortally dangerous.

  There was no time to wonder why the magical formation's impact had failed. Direct combat was not in her interest, so she needed to retreat while the paralyzing formation was still working.

  The deviless reached into her coat pocket to pull out the smoke bomb she kept ready there. She was about to smash it when an icy voice interrupted her.

  "Do you really think these pathetic tricks can stop me?"

  Before she could react, she managed to hear a sound similar to shattering glass.

  Then there was only a hand. A motionless hand that she had no strength to move, and which was firmly squeezing her throat.

  "What are you, exactly?"

  Belisara felt her blood beginning to flow in the opposite direction as she realized she couldn't break free from this terrible grip.

  She didn't even register the arrival of Septima, who stopped a few dozen meters away from them.

  All she could see was that Justinian, holding her in the air, was looking at her as if she were already dead.

  Elsewhere...

  Had anyone been passing by the neglected Mountain of Plague and Misfortune right now, they would have heard a hair-raising scream.

  It was the desperate cry of Ignatius, who, falling victim to his friend's conspiracy, was being eaten alive.

  At the moment the scream occurred on the moon, Felix was already on the verge of the ultimate tearing apart of his foundation, which had been built up over years.

  The man observing him, who was thoughtfully stroking his splendidly grown mustache, shook his head at this.

  "You're an interesting boy. It's a shame it has to turn out this way."

  Afterward, having no reason to concern himself with him any longer, he vanished from the adept's vision.

  Exactly at that moment, the young devil lost all chances of achieving Foundation Stabilization!

  The tornado that had already wounded him now burst into a fire that began to burn his body, tearing off muscle tissue and hair.

  His entire life up until now was burning, and he himself was losing the last of his strength.

  On the brink of death, however, he didn't look scared. Rather, he seemed resigned to his fate, and also... quite satisfied?

  In one of his hands appeared the technique he had previously enchanted in the dimension, "The Last Spark."

  "This is all I could do..." he said quietly, just as the tornado burned out one of his eyes.

  A moment later, he tore the remnants of the formation out of himself and, with the full power of "The Last Spark," which he had saved precisely for this specific moment... he thrust it toward the planet, where a trace he had prepared earlier was located!

  After Boruta rushed to Eusebius’s rescue, only Maleficius remained in the mountain lords' box.

  He was currently observing Septima's actions when something else caught his attention, and he couldn't control his emotions.

  "Impossible!"

  Felix’s burning foundation, infused with his technique, streaked through cosmic space like a meteor and entered the planet's atmosphere!

  A fiery tail trailed behind it, fueled by the enormous power drawn from the legendary serpent—the beast Felix had previously hunted.

  Soon, with tremendous speed, it began heading straight for the Mountain of Plague and Misfortune, where Greedius was eating Ignatius alive!

  Encountering a defensive formation in its path, it pierced through it, and guided by a spiritual trace from the scar on the lord of the Mountain of Envy and Conflagration, it slammed into him with infernal force!

  "AAAH! WHAT THE HELL?!"

  The devil, who had been completely absorbed in his great moment just moments before, howled in pain, recoiling from his victim.

  The worst, however... was yet to come.

  The foundation, which had not achieved a higher level during the ritual, had to burn, with all the energy used in the attempt.

  Only a few seconds passed before a fiery tornado, with the full power of the lunar ritual, struck him, burning everything in its path!

  "AAAAAAH!"

  He screamed, burning alive, one step away from the goal he had been working toward for the past twenty years.

  Unfortunately, Felix could no longer see this. The moment of the thrust, his burned body collapsed, completely devoid of energy and consciousness.

  However, another devil, who had just been certain of death, took advantage of the moment. Amidst the terrifying screams of his tormentor, Ignatius began to regain his strength after the earlier poison.

  His foundation was severely wounded, but he managed to muster enough energy to flee in terror as Greedius was dying.

  All this happened within a span of a few seconds, after which the tornado began to burn even faster.

  Soon, only a few separated, burned remnants were left of the lord of the Mountain of Envy and Conflagration. Whoever saw them now would probably not believe that this was one of the most important devils of the dimension.

  Dead silence reigned in the residence, which had witnessed important events for the entire hell over the past hours.

  Amidst this silence, no birds or insects could be heard.

  It lasted for a few minutes until it was broken by a strange whisper.

  "I became careless."

  As these words spread in the air, all the burned remnants began to change form, resurrecting as Greedius.

  Such was the power of his unique cultivation of the devilish virtue of gluttony, based on the king of names and symbols system!

  When his form took its final shape, the devil looked toward the moon. Something like a hint of respect flashed in his eyes.

  "That kid had more in him than I ever predicted."

  However, when the healing process was complete, a change occurred on the body of the reborn being. One of his tattoos—the number twelve, which he had previously hidden under his shirt, changed its second digit and now pointed to eleven.

  At the same moment, on the Mountain of Envy and Conflagration, an adept who had been training in isolation for a long time screamed and turned to dust.