A space isolated from where Kain and Frelia had just faced off against Illyna and Isildi. The dimensional rift. It was a place where space was distorted, feeling completely cut off from others even if right next to it.

Neltarid had summoned Davey using the Pond of God as a medium.

The reason was obvious. Although they claimed to hate the world beyond comprehension, another part of their inner self must’ve held the will to protect the world that Priestess Freyja loved—along with the divine heart that loved their creations.

Nonetheless, Neltarid’s attacks were all menacing.

After all, the environment allowed both them and Davey to go wild without restraint.

Clang! Clang!!

Their weapons clashed a couple of times.

Even though Davey wielded an indestructible helixium sword, it couldn’t block the shock that traveled through it. The power carried through, slamming into him and piercing his defenses to deal real damage.

Slash!!

Davey deflected Neltarid’s sword and drove a powerful kick into their abdomen, but at the same time, they managed to slash their longsword across his shoulder.

“Tch.”

Clang!!!

Despite both of them suffering injuries, Neltarid and Davey continued to exchange multiple attacks without yielding one bit.

An invisible power, one Davey couldn’t directly feel, inflicted serious wounds on him. He was used to sword cuts. In fact, if he hadn’t erased all his scars, his body would be covered in them.

“You must be in pain,” Neltarid remarked.

“Yepp. Hurts like hell.”

His entire body was covered in blood. The wounds wouldn’t stop bleeding, and the intense pain continued to break his focus.

“If you don’t fight properly, you will meet your end here.” They gave him a serious, bone-chilling warning. They were telling him not to foolishly try to save them, even for Earth’s sake.

That wasn’t even the only problem Davey had to overcome.

Davey let out an awe of pure exclamation, sighing, “Incredible.”

The swordsmanship Neltarid displayed, no matter how he looked at it, was absolutely complete.

“When did they learn to wield a sword like that...”

Davey couldn’t comprehend that Neltarid had learned such a thing after becoming a God.

Neltarid had abandoned all their levels and descended to a single creation, yet, in return, gained a power that was just as immense.

People often misunderstand divine beings to be perfect in every way. However, the only perfect being in the world was Chief God Freyja.

“Before I became a God...”

Davey stayed silent.

“I was definitely a being with emotions.” They retraced the now half-faded memories. “I picked up a sword to protect her. Do not let your guard down, Freyja.”

“Seriously, I said I’m not Freyja!”

Boom!!

Davey slammed their sword up, forcibly creating an opening, and then imbued the spear with swordsmanship that he normally could not use.

[Continuum-Attacking Blade Transformation]

[Continuum-Attacking Spear]

[Extreme Divine Flash]

Thud!!

Of course, he knew his fundamental comprehension and wielding of the technique might fall short compared to Illyna. Her talent was monstrous enough to be acknowledged by even the Sword God Ares and Dokgo Jun, the Heavenly Destroyer.

Davey had absorbed the Continuum-Attacking Blade in his own way, and even if it was only an imitation, its power was—

“Hmph?!”

Not in any terms weak.

The eerie flash threatened Neltarid several times.

Even from just the initial clash, they instantly realized how dangerous it was, so they pulled back and placed one hand on the ground.

Crack!!

The earth twisted and waved as if it was about to erupt. Then, mysterious swords of light shot up from the earth. Those swords of light flew at Davey from all directions, aiming precisely for his vital points.

Clang!! Clang!!

Most of the swords collided with his Continuum-Attacking Blade and vanished, but some squeezed through the gaps and threatened him.

He knew that if he kept pushing through like that, he’d get a real injury. However, the moment he retreated, the situation would revert to square one. He had to restore Neltarid to their original self before it was too late.

“Are you still holding onto such optimistic thoughts?!!” Neltarid, who had sensed his intention, roared in fury, “If you do not kill me, not only Earth, but EVERYTHING will perish!!”

“If I kill you, billions on Earth will die, dumbass.” Even when Davey said that, Neltarid didn’t quit. “So I gotta stop you first.”

‘If you just return to your original state, there’ll be no problem.’

Of course, there’d be casualties, but he couldn’t just kill them and cause billions more to die.

“Will you still keep me alive if the couple of casualties are the ones most precious to you?”

“What?”

Neltarid, having decided that Davey had no intention of backing down, plunged their sword into the ground and slowly raised one hand. A strong, black-hole-like ring of light formed above their hand, and its center began to warp.

“The mad angels you saw are not simple apostles of God.”

Davey didn’t know how to respond.

“They are all fragments of a shattered divinity, driven mad while holding pieces of emotion.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Willow... that child is truly warm and kind—the only God with emotions that Goddess Freyja successfully created.”

“For someone who says that, you’re pretty full of emotions yourself.”

“I merely plundered the result of her pioneering efforts.”

They were basically saying that while there had been many failures before Willow, now that there was a successful case, it wouldn’t be hard for more gods with emotions to appear.

As Davey suddenly searched for the intent behind their words, a terrible hypothesis came to mind. “You don’t mean...”

Thud!!

Neltarid turned the enormous energy gathered in their hand into a wave and sent it flying across the space.

“But that child is still young. Do you think Willow can directly face the truth of the world and maintain her sanity?”

Beings known as gods pursued extreme practicality and efficiency. That was why they protected their creations. And because they loved their creations, they had done many unimaginable things in places the creations didn’t know about.

One of their acts was driving divinities mad and tearing them to shreds.

“All the mad angels will rise up at once. And...”

The one who led them would be Willow, who’d trigger their transformation.

“I showed the truth of the world to that child. At least, the kind child I know won’t be able to endure it.”

Willow, who could see more because she was a goddess, wouldn’t be able to bear the horrible reality beyond what Davey felt. When that thought dawned on him, he instantly lost his cool.

Thud!!!

An enormous sonic boom instantly rang out, and Neltarid was sent flying. Davey then struck them with the shaft of his spear and sent them flying once more.

Not satisfied with that, he forcibly overloaded the numerous powers he created, using his divine power, and drove them into Neltarid’s body. He finished the assault off by forcefully bringing his hands together.

Crack!!

Then, using his two palms as axes, he slightly twisted his hands. The ground warped, and a gigantic maw made of light sprang out, swallowing Neltarid whole.

Crack!! Crack!!

The maw crunched and devoured their flesh.

Davey’s stamina took a heavy toll from forcibly bringing out that power. Nonetheless, having flown into a rage, he kept going.

Crack!! Crack!!

Perhaps Davey had known all along.

That the probability of restoring Neltarid to their original state without killing them was, in fact, incredibly low.

Flash!!

Suddenly, the light burst, creating an enormous storm.

Davey held back the wind with Longinus plunged into the ground. He then grabbed Blue Ribbon and Red Ribbon, who had been attacking while floating in the air.

He had heard the two crying amidst their fight, and figured they were instinctively syncing with his emotions.

Yeah. It sucked. In fact, it was worse than that. He couldn’t even put into words how bad the situation was.

Because in the end, he had to kill Neltarid.

Davey, gripping swords in both hands, took a short breath and stepped forward. “Here goes nothing.”

Neltarid soon burst out of the maw. Their armor was in ruins, but their power hadn’t weakened much. “If you do not kill me, Willow’s fall will become irreversible. Come at me!!”

At the same time, their jet-black armor was engulfed in black flames, and a power incomparable to before erupted. An enormous number of gears formed in the sky, along with a gigantic metallic clock hand.

Tick. Tick.

The second hand slowly moved. However, unlike a normal clock, the second hand and minute hand moved practically simultaneously.

The gears began to move, and a massive sphere of energy floated high in the sky above them. Chunks of energy kept flying in from somewhere and seeping into the massive energy sphere.

Naturally, as the sphere compressed, the power inside reached an ultra-high temperature, pressure, and density.

Fortunately for Davey, he knew exactly what that was.

The end of a star. It was one of the final stages of a star with immense mass after it finished nuclear fusion—a supernova explosion. It was the precursor to an immense explosion that could easily burn away everything hundreds of light-years around it in a single burst.

He figured the gears and the clock were probably acting as the mechanism, isolating the flow of time and speeding up the process to the extreme. The birth and death of a star was thus accelerated to be near-instantaneous, requiring only seconds to complete.

“You crazy bastard. It doesn’t matter that we’re in the dimensional rift, you’re seriously crossing the line.”

Instead of saying anything, Neltarid aimed their sword at his heart and rapidly lunged in.

Having come thus far, Davey figured he was left with no other choice. He unleashed a massive surge of divine power, unlocking the restrictions on his body. The massive agglomeration of power that was permitted to him was activated, and his body began to go through divine manifestation.

In the midst of the illusion that the world had slowed down, massive energy poured into him indiscriminately. He channeled mana into his sword, creating a gigantic energy sword around it.

He then used devil mana to forcibly compress it, and covered it again with divine power to make it an even heavier sword. The compressed energy sword was already on a completely separate level from its ordinary counterparts.

In fact, the blades of Blue Ribbon and Red Ribbon had changed colors to resemble a gigantic galaxy.

Using his twin-sword techniques, he aimed the tips at Neltarid’s vital points, lowered his stance slightly, and focused.

As Neltarid lunged forward, dozens of barriers unfolded in front of them. Davey figured it was a defensive measure meant to block his attack.

However, in that brief moment, as if the flow of time returned to normal, he was able to take a deep breath. The ground also warped and pushed him forward.

As he lunged toward Neltarid at incredible speed, he slammed into the first defensive barrier. It was a barrier sturdy enough to block most ordinary attacks, though the first barrier couldn’t stop him and shattered completely.

It felt as though time was flowing very slowly as he continued forward.

Crash!!

The second one shattered as well, then the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth. It continued on to the tenth, the twentieth, and so on.

He destroyed the extremely compressed barriers in one go. He then plunged the compressed sword straight into Neltarid’s heart. No matter if they were a god, with their level having fallen this far, he knew his attack would be fatal.

Davey knew that if they died, billions would also die. If he hesitated over their death, they would make Willow go through the mad angel transformation.

Davey almost instantly lost his sanity, but somehow managed to pull himself together. There was no going back for him; he had already gone too far.

With that being the case, instead of clinging to a solution that wouldn’t work, he had to find another way.

After breaking through dozens of defensive barriers in an instant, he met Neltarid’s eyes once again.

“You selfish jerk.” Of course, despite his words, he knew how tormented they must’ve felt.

The truly bad and cruel thing was the terrible system they lived by.

Squelch!!

Along with a chilling sound, his two swords pierced Neltarid’s heart and spleen.

At the same time, their sword pierced Davey’s shoulder. It exploded with black flames, rendering one of his arms useless.

The awful burning pain was enough to make him dizzy, but he didn’t stop. He pushed himself and plunged his swords deeper.

“Grrr...”

Squelch!!

A terrible sound echoed once more.

At the same time, the black flames burning his arm scattered instantly, and Neltarid tumbled across the ground.

Clank, clank.

Afterward, Davey dropped Blue Ribbon while kneeling on one knee.

“Haah. Haaah.”

The recoil from that brief burst of immense power hit him in the next moment.

Davey blankly stared at Neltarid and muttered, “You’re dying? Like this? In vain?”

Neltarid had been considerably favorable toward Davey. They had given Davey plenty of support to protect their creations, and they had been a benevolent god who had protected Earth the entire time.

He couldn’t believe that such a being would die with such futility.

The black flame clinging to their body was gradually dying out like the ashes of a bonfire.

“But... why isn’t that going away?” Davey slowly raised his head and saw that the hour hand had passed the halfway point.

As the hour hand moved, the colossal energy being compressed possessed a repulsive force that was incomparable to the beginning.

He’d assumed that, if Neltarid died, the power maintaining it would vanish. Yet it was perfectly fine, despite all the damage.

In that moment of blankness.

“Snap out of it!!! They’re not dead yet!” Isildi, who seemed to have joined in the midst of the fight, hastily struck away debris that flew his way.

“Isildi?”

Soon after, a streak of light sparked as it shot past Davey, creating dozens of blade energy strands that sliced through the air.

“I don’t know why you’re hesitating so much, but that’s no longer the Neltarid you know.”

Davey thought all his hesitation had disappeared when Neltarid pulled that despicable stunt on Willow. Unbeknownst to him, Davey had been very grateful to Neltarid, and it seemed he had grown quite fond of them. Hearing those words, he realized that his last remaining hesitation had been holding him back.

Davey slowly rose, forcibly twisting his distorted body back to its original state, and focused on Neltarid.

The holiness he saw in them was no longer any bit the original Neltarid. They were simply remnants of a completely berserk evil god.

Illyna also muttered with a somber face, “Neltarid...”

It seemed that ending the situation without anyone getting hurt was only a wishful luxury this time. They said turning the impossible into reality was a miracle. Davey had already pulled off many of them, but he couldn’t create a miracle for everything.

At the very least, not this time.

“Since they’re like that, restoring them is impossible. You know that, right?”

“Yeah.” Davey slowly healed the arm that had turned black and held Blue Ribbon again. “What about Kain and Frelia?”

“We knocked them out. No matter how loyal they are, they’ll return to normal once Neltarid is gone.

Davey nodded. He then looked at Neltarid. “Forgive me.”

For a brief moment, it almost felt like the evil god Neltarid was smiling behind their helmet.