Only his divine hero reflexes saved him.

Gattychan rolled desperately despite his broken arm, the corruption blade missing his chest by inches and stabbing into the ground where he’d been lying.

The blade struck earth and the ground decayed instantly—a ten-foot circle of soil turning to gray ash in one second.

"TOO SLOW!" Seraphina’s voice was fury incarnate.

She yanked the blade from the ground and slashed horizontally, aiming to cut Gattychan in half.

He got his broken blessed sword up barely in time—the cracked blade intercepting the corruption weapon.

The two magics collided—holy versus demonic, blessed steel versus corruption energy.

Gattychan’s sword shattered completely.

The blessed weapon, already cracked from the past explosion, broke into three pieces under the impact of a demon lord’s full-power attack.

Gattychan was disarmed.

Seraphina’s second blade came around for his throat—

"VILLAIN’S BANE!"

Gattychan activated his ultimate ability.

Divine aura exploded outward from his body, a wave of pure holy power that suppressed anything demonic within range.

Seraphina felt her power drain.

Her demon lord strength, normally capable of ripping apart steel with bare hands, dropped to one-tenth effectiveness. Her corruption magic, normally powerful enough to decay entire buildings, weakened to pale shadow of itself. Her supernatural speed and reflexes were reduced to merely superhuman instead of demon lord level.

But even at one-tenth power, she was still incredibly dangerous.

And she was absolutely consumed by grief-fueled rage.

Her corruption blade—now weakened by Villain’s Bane to one-tenth cutting power—still struck at Gattychan’s throat.

He dodged backward, the blade missing by inches.

"MIKAZELLE!" he shouted desperately. "DIMENSIONAL BARRIERS! CONTAIN HER!"

"MY MANA IS STILL LOW !" Mikazelle shouted back, trying frantically to restore her connection to dimensional manipulation. "I NEED MORE TIME TO RECOVER!"

"RINDELLE! SHOOT HER!"

"MY ARM IS BROKEN! I CAN’T DRAW THE BOW!"

Seraphina heard all of this and smiled with cold satisfaction.

"Yes. You’re wounded. Magically exhausted. Your healer is thirty feet away where I threw her. Your spatial mage is powerless. Your archer is crippled. And you are disarmed with broken sword and broken arm."

She advanced on Gattychan, both corruption blades ready.

"This is perfect. You’ll die knowing you’re helpless. Just like my specialists were helpless when you hunted them."

Gattychan scrambled backward, trying to create distance, his broken arm useless, his sword destroyed, his only weapon being Villain’s Bane suppression that was keeping Seraphina at one-tenth power.

But one-tenth of a demon lord’s power was still enough to kill an unarmed, wounded hero.

Seraphina lunged, both blades striking simultaneously from different angles—a coordinated attack that Gattychan couldn’t fully dodge with his injuries.

He managed to avoid the blade aimed at his heart—it struck his shoulder instead, cutting deep, corruption energy burning into the wound.

The second blade he couldn’t avoid. It stabbed into his side, penetrating between ribs, puncturing lung.

Gattychan screamed as corruption magic burned through his body from two wounds simultaneously.

He fell to his knees, blood pouring from shoulder and side, his divine healing struggling to counter the demonic corruption eating at his flesh.

Seraphina stood over him, raising one blade for execution.

"Die knowing you failed. Die knowing your friends will watch you fall. Die knowing that killing you won’t bring back my specialists but will feel SO satisfying anyway."

The corruption blade descended toward Gattychan’s neck—

Golden light exploded between them.

Seraphelle had recovered from being thrown, had staggered to her feet despite her own injuries, and now unleashed Divine Smite at point-blank range.

Holy energy blasted into Seraphina’s back with force that would have killed a normal demon instantly.

At one-tenth power from Villain’s Bane suppression, even Seraphina’s demon lord durability couldn’t fully absorb it.

She screamed as holy fire burned across her back, divine magic searing through corruption-tainted flesh.

Her execution strike on Gattychan was interrupted—the corruption blade missing his neck as she staggered forward from the impact.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Seraphelle shouted, her voice carrying divine authority, her hands still glowing with holy magic.

Seraphina turned to face this new threat, her back smoking from divine burns, her expression showing pain mixed with even greater fury.

"The healer," she said, her voice cold despite the pain. "I should have killed you first. Healers always interfere with executions."

She charged Seraphelle with both corruption blades ready.

Seraphelle raised Divine Sanctuary—golden barriers manifesting to block the attack.

Seraphina’s blades struck the holy barriers with full demon lord fury.

Even at one-tenth power, the impact was devastating.

The Divine Sanctuary cracked.

Seraphelle gasped, feeling her defensive spell failing under assault from a demon lord even while suppressed.

"YOUR BARRIERS WON’T SAVE YOU!"

Seraphina struck again, both blades hammering the Divine Sanctuary from different angles.

The holy barriers shattered.

Seraphelle was exposed, defenseless—

Mikazelle’s voice cut through the chaos: "DIMENSIONAL SHIFT!"

Space folded.

Seraphelle vanished from in front of Seraphina’s blades and reappeared twenty feet away, teleported to safety by Mikazelle’s barely-restored spatial magic.

"My spatial manipulation is back!" Mikazelle announced, though her voice was strained. "Partial functionality! I can do short-range teleports but not much else!"

Seraphina snarled with frustration, turning to face Mikazelle.

"Then I kill YOU next! No spatial mage means no escape!"

She charged toward Mikazelle—

"CATASTROPHIC AMPLIFICATION!"

Rindelle, despite her broken left arm, had managed to draw her bow using only her right arm and her teeth to hold the string. The draw was weak, the aim was poor, but the arrow still flew.

And when Catastrophic Amplification activated, even a weak shot multiplied one-thousand-fold became devastating.

The arrow detonated in front of Seraphina with explosive force.

She raised both corruption blades defensively, the demonic energy absorbing most of the holy-aspected explosion, but the shockwave still threw her backward fifteen feet.

The Four Heroes used those precious seconds.

Gattychan staggered to his feet, one hand pressed against his wounded side, blood pouring between his fingers. "WE CAN’T FIGHT HER! NOT LIKE THIS! WE NEED TO RETREAT AND RECOVER!"

"I CAN’T TELEPORT US ALL AT ONCE!" Mikazelle shouted. "My mana is too low, I can maybe move one person at a time!"