6.

Rewinding a little, to roughly twenty minutes earlier.

When Helena and Seong had each used the lord’s Authority, Dimensional Confinement, to divide and block off the stairways of each floor.

Helena looked toward the side where Mihael was and muttered,

“It seems the outsiders are watching, so I should cover things up to a reasonable extent.”

It would be a bit much to let the child she was meeting again for the first time in so long become a spectacle.

She ought to fully enjoy this long-awaited reunion.

Helena hummed as she spoke, looking at the Lord of Narak trembling in front of her.

“Murakan, you’re the same as ever.”

The Lord of Narak could not help but misunderstand when he looked at Helena standing before him.

A being like a mother who had made him and brought him into existence.

However, that was impossible.

Helena, the one who was called the mother of all demons and the mother of Narak’s lord, was already dead.

He had watched that very clearly, and afterward she had been sealed by Black Star, so there was no doubt.

The Lord of Narak, called Murakan, knew very well that it could not be, yet when he saw that outward appearance, he could not help but feel fear welling up.

But how did she know his name, and what was that appearance?

The Lord of Narak could not understand.

However, one thing was certain.

Ruuuuumble———!!!

This was a golden opportunity to kill that woman, whether she was Helena or a clone.

Compared to the Helena he had once feared, the difference in level between them now was far too great.

If anything, now was his chance.

Believing that without a doubt, the Lord of Narak drew up his energy and unleashed the power of Narak without any restraint.

Narak.

It was similar to the abyss yet different.

In its dictionary meaning, it referred to a hopeless situation from which it was almost impossible to escape, but conceptually, Narak contained the meaning of falling into something or being unable to escape from that place.

And so.

Kwoooooooo—!!!

The air condensed ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) and crushed the spot where Helena had been, carving a bottomlessly deep pit into the ground.

A pit deep enough to reach down into the abyss formed, and Helena vanished without a trace.

However, the Lord of Narak lifted his head.

And he could see it.

Helena, holding a parasol and alluringly looking down at him.

He had clearly created a pressure that would crush the surroundings into Narak and form a huge pit.

Yet the Lord of Narak could not understand when she had moved over there.

But he could not stop here.

He used his power once again.

Chains of Narak sprang up, trying to seize Helena.

Chains that shot up from the deep pit flew toward Helena, but she smiled as if she were amused and murmured,

“Ahahaha! How fun, Murakan.”

Dozens, hundreds of chains of Narak surged up, yet not a single one of them could catch Helena.

Helena, lazily flying around with her parasol in hand between the chains, still looked calmly down on the Lord of Narak.

When she had brought over the six great evils from the Demon Realm, what she had incidentally obtained was Narak itself, and by granting it a self, the Lord of Narak, Murakan, had been born.

Yet as things turned out, he had stopped listening to her, so she remembered sealing him away in her own body.

‘It seems after I died, my first child came here and sealed you.’

It was truly a pity.

But what was pitiable was pitiable, and what had to be done still had to be done.

It was a self that she had given.

So then—

“I should be the one to take it back, shouldn’t I?”

As Helena said so with a slight smile, the Lord of Narak felt a chill and tried to manipulate the chains even faster to catch her.

Now Helena, too, began to move in earnest.

When she unleashed celestial power—

“......!!!”

The Lord of Narak was at a loss for words, his eyes widening as he stared at Helena.

Seeing Helena display celestial power—one of the trophies she had brought from Heaven, just like what she had brought from the Demon Realm—the Lord of Narak flinched in terror and gathered the chains into one.

Because he knew very well what was about to come flying in.

Sure enough, a celestial greatsword flew toward the massed chains, and a sword even larger than this Narak itself came crashing down on the chains.

Kagagagagagagagak.

A harsh sound of friction like iron being cut rang out, and the celestial greatsword pierced the chains about halfway through.

However, without fully penetrating them, it shattered into pieces, filling the surroundings with celestial energy.

As light sparkled and it almost felt as if the surroundings were growing brighter, the Lord of Narak clenched his teeth.

Watching that, Helena still flew lightly through the air under her black parasol as though she found it entertaining.

Then she called out to the Lord of Narak.

“Aren’t you going to attack? Then I will.”

As soon as she said that, countless celestial swords were summoned around Helena, who was floating in midair.

They were smaller than the greatsword from before, but the celestial swords held a power that was by no means inferior to it, and seeing them, the Lord of Narak began to unleash his strength.

The power of Narak rose up as chains in the deep pit gathered, forming spikes that shot up, and celestial swords poured down like rain.

When celestial swords pouring down like a storm from the ceiling collided with the spikes of Narak, the two sides shattered each other into pieces and scattered through the air.

Chachachachachachachang!!!

They became dust together and scattered their energy around them, and the celestial energy glittered as it wrapped around the surroundings, while the energy of Narak lay underneath, binding everything around it and trying to drag it down.

However, the celestial energy did not mix with the energy of Narak; instead, it purified Narak and remained in midair.

To anyone, it was a situation clearly disadvantageous to the Lord of Narak.

Yet the Lord of Narak refused to give up and revealed his momentum even more as he exerted the power of Narak.

Then things that should never have emerged from Narak began to come out.

The underlings of the Lord of Narak, whom he had sent down into Narak and sealed away, appeared and filled this area with countless legions.

Those who could do nothing, shrouded in Narak, had now become Narak’s puppets and came flying in.

To drag down not only themselves, but others as well.

As Helena watched the ones whose vile jealousy and reckless arrogance were all mixed together, she smiled faintly and murmured,

“As expected of Murakan, huh? You’ve piled up an awful lot of trash; looks like I’ll have to do some cleaning.”

Speaking as if it were far too light a matter, Helena made a gesture with her hand.

The celestial energies in the air and Helena’s own celestial energy mixed together, and likewise, new beings began to be born.

The maidens of war from the ancient war long ago, when Helena had invaded Heaven and fought there.

Valkyries were born into the present world from within the celestial energy and began to move according to Helena’s gestures.

Those who tried to drag others down, and those who judged such beings, intertwined with each other and were slaughtering each other.

Those seized by Narak tried to tear off the Valkyries’ wings and drag them down, while the Valkyries swung their spears and swords at the ones trapped in Narak, lopping off their heads and literally sending them falling.

The war between Heaven and Narak went beyond fierce to become desperate and brutal.

Watching such a war, the Lord of Narak began to grow increasingly anxious.

His prisoners were gradually decreasing in number, and the Valkyries, the celestial warriors and so-called maidens of war, still held the numerical advantage.

At this rate, the balance of power would flip over.

So he drew out his strongest prisoner.

He summoned the party of one who had been called a hero before Hindel.

A man who had betrayed the hero and fallen into Narak.

The warrior Muranos.

“Oh-ho?”

Summoning the one who had once been called the strongest warrior, the Lord of Narak began to gain the upper hand against Helena’s maidens of war.

Muranos, wielding a sword of Narak, swept across the battlefield back and forth, slaughtering Valkyries.

Helena watched him with interest.

So she gathered the plentiful celestial energy into one and birthed a new Valkyrie.

When a great warrior Valkyrie with three pairs of wings, on a wholly different level from ordinary Valkyries, was born, even Muranos, once called the strongest warrior, watched her warily.

Then they both bared their teeth at each other and began to attack, charging at one another as the twin vanguards.

Following in their wake, the Valkyries and the prisoners of Narak tangled together in combat, and soon their numbers gradually began to dwindle.

“They fight well.”

Just as Helena said, Muranos did not yield as he crossed swords with the great warrior Valkyrie, and likewise, the great warrior Valkyrie showed not the slightest break in her stance as she fought him.

Because this was a summoning of armies that could be called the expression of their respective capabilities, the Lord of Narak could feel it now.

That Helena standing before him and he himself possessed almost the same level of strength.

So the Lord of Narak somehow poured even more power into Muranos.

When Muranos swung his sword of Narak and accepted even more of Narak’s power, he finally began to gain the upper hand against the great warrior Valkyrie.

As he pressed down from all directions with his sword and attacked the great warrior Valkyrie—

She could not help but have one knee touch the ground.

Kuuuuuuung———!!!

The immense pressure of Narak.

And the great warrior Valkyrie clearly felt it, yet she still deflected that sword with her shield and, likewise using swordsmanship, swung her blade at Muranos.

Muranos, who held nothing but a greatsword, stepped back from that attack and tried to counterattack again, but the great warrior Valkyrie rushed toward his sword, letting it stab into her own abdomen, and in that instant of Muranos’s confusion, drove her one-handed sword into his neck.

Fwoooosh!

As his neck was torn open and the head of Muranos, Narak’s prisoner, fell to the ground—

The great warrior Valkyrie’s body was likewise severed and thrown down.

With the battle between the great warrior Valkyrie and Narak’s prisoner Muranos ending in a draw, both dying, the flow of the battlefield also became roughly even.

Though the Valkyries were very few in number, they had fought well against the prisoners of Narak, but in the end, because they were too few, they ended up annihilating each other.

Just as the Lord of Narak was about to summon other prisoners again—

“It was fun, but let’s stop here.”

Helena’s declaration followed.