While Klein was catching his breath, his lungs burning from the effort, Mammon sketched a smile that stretched her lips to a physically impossible angle for a human. She extended her right hand toward the ground. Instantly, the blood stagnating around her ankles began to swirl frantically, rising in a twisted column toward her palm.

The organic liquid densified, solidifying to take the form of a long serrated sword, whose blade emitted a dark and corrosive vapor.

Without a word, she swung her weapon. The centrifugal force generated by the movement was so colossal that it destroyed the marble slabs in its path, creating a deep furrow in the tower’s structure until the shockwave came crashing against the opposite enclosure wall.

After that, Mammon took a guard position, her body lowering with flexibility, before throwing herself at Klein.

She covered the distance separating them in a fraction of a second. Once in front of him, she swung her blood sword to the side, precisely targeting his left flank.

Klein reacted immediately. He blocked the attack with the flat of his katana, the tempered steel meeting the solidified blood in a deafening metallic crash that sent out a spray of bluish sparks.

Seizing the opportunity of their forced proximity, Mammon did a half-turn on herself. She thrust her right foot in a circular kick that struck Klein’s torso, sending him back several meters.

Not giving him any opportunity to stabilize his footing, the demoness reduced the distance again and delivered a descending blow of titanic power. Klein dodged it by retreating a few steps, feeling the wind of the blade brush his face, before striking in turn. His katana sliced through the air in a thrust aimed at the heart, but Mammon simply shifted to the right, letting the tip of the weapon pass into the void.

Not giving him time to reposition, Klein corrected the trajectory of his katana with a sharp wrist movement to strike Mammon with force. The attack was so brutal that it forced the demoness back several steps, finally compelling her to adopt a defensive posture.

< Dash >

Klein teleported instantly. He disappeared to reappear directly behind her, catching her completely off guard. He extended his left arm and seized her firmly by the head, forcing her skull backward.

< Mystic Art : Purification >

Klein tried to inject his mystical aura directly into Dyana’s corrupted mana circuits to purify Mammon, but the demonic energy residing in this body was far too dense.

A blast of power exploded at the point of contact, a shockwave violently repelled Klein, forcing him to break his grip and retreat several meters, his fingers smoking from the backlash.

" I already told you... " Mammon spoke as she slowly turned back toward him, her features distorted by a superior smirk. " We are one now. "

" Tsss... " Klein clicked his tongue.

He threw himself at Mammon again, his blade tracing an ascending trajectory on the left. It was a feint...

At the last moment, he spun on himself, using the rotational force to strike in a diagonal descent. Klein’s blade wounded Mammon, leaving a deep red line on her chest. However, the wound closed and healed as soon as it was made, the flesh stitching itself back under the action of the demonic mana.

" Dyana, I know you are there! " Klein shouted, his voice echoing in the tumult of the battle.

Simultaneously, he formed a quick mudra with his left hand.

< Lightning Descent >

A pure white lightning bolt tore through Babylon’s scarlet clouds and struck down toward the top of the tower. Mammon dodged it with disconcerting ease by moving to the right, the impact of the lightning pulverizing the ground where she had stood a second earlier.

" You are wasting your time, " replied the demoness in a melodious and disturbed laugh that no longer had anything human about it. " She will not return to this world. " 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

" You should rather shut the fuck up, bitch " Klein replied, annoyed.

He continued to harass the demoness, chaining assaults with renewed ferocity, while continuing to call out to Dyana. Each movement was an attempt to pierce not only Mammon’s guard, but also the veil covering Dyana’s mind.

Klein knew that conventional exorcism methods would fail since she was now one and the same person and without Dyana’s help it would be impossible for him.

After a series of unsuccessful exchanges, Klein made a radical decision in a final attempt to provoke an emotional resonance. He decided that the only way for him to bring Dyana back was to confront her with her true identity, that of Kaiser.

He approached brutally, using his "Eyes of Predation" to anticipate and dodge the solidified blood projectiles that Mammon threw at him. He slalomed between the scarlet blades before standing right in front of her, in her personal space. Before she could react with her blood sword, Klein released the grip of his katana, seized her face between his hands and kissed her with desperate fervor.

This action surprised not only Mammon, whose aura wavered under the shock of the unexpected, but it also triggered an internal upheaval in the host. For a brief moment, the absolute black of her pupils dissipated, revealing once again the warm amber of Dyana’s eyes. The duchess’s consciousness resurfaced.

A fleeting smile appeared on Klein’s lips as he felt Mammon’s resistance weaken. Quickly, he began to form the mudras to purify her definitively. However, Dyana’s surge was short-lived.

Dyana gave him a violent punch to the solar plexus. The impact was so sharp that Klein felt the air leave his lungs instantly, making him spit saliva mixed with blood. The blow sent him flying far away, his body ricocheting on the flooded marble before stopping near the edge of the platform.

"You are really a piece of human shit..."

Dyana’s energy then exploded in a colossal way, saturating the atmosphere with an almost unbearable pressure.

"NO !!! "

< Genesis : Prairie of Blood Flowers >

The top of the tower metamorphosed. The marble floor and the sea of blood disappeared to give way to a domain extending to infinity, a space filled with flowers of a scarlet red whose petals seemed made of flesh and veins. Rusty iron spikes surged from the ground everywhere, creating a forest of deadly spears. Her energy, which was already colossal, passed to the Genesis 5-star stage.

" Fuck... "