Halochassis

The Resurrected Demon King swung its massive, muscular arms toward Samael. The sheer size of its fists made the air whistle as they tore through it, each movement carrying enough force to crush a normal warrior in an instant. The metallic armor beneath Aether’s control gave a warning tremor as the incoming punch filled his vision. At the last possible moment, Samael switched modes.

“Aegis Mode!” Samael shouted.

The metallic sections of his wings immediately separated from his back with a series of sharp mechanical clicks. They folded and shifted around his body, locking together into a massive shield in front of him. Golden-blue magical energy rushed across its surface, forming a translucent barrier that shimmered like glass beneath the cathedral’s dim light. Aether barely had time to brace himself before the Demon King’s fist slammed into it.

The impact produced a thunderous boom that shook the entire cathedral. A powerful shockwave burst outward from the point of impact, blasting dust, broken stone, and fragments of debris across the wide hall. Ancient pillars groaned under the pressure, while fresh cracks raced across the cathedral’s stone floor like lightning. The stained-glass windows rattled violently, some of them already damaged from the previous battle, and loose fragments fell from the ceiling with sharp crashes.

Yet Samael remained standing.

His shield trembled violently in his hands, its magical surface rippling from the tremendous force, but the barrier had absorbed most of the attack. Seeing that Samael was still on his feet, the Resurrected Demon King growled and pulled its arm back.

Then it punched again.

And again.

And again.

Each blow struck the Aegis with enough force to make the entire hall shake. The barrier flashed with every impact, while the metallic frame of Samael’s armor groaned under the pressure. Aether’s body was protected inside the armor, but he could still feel the violent vibrations traveling through the machine and into his bones. His teeth clenched as another punch slammed into the shield, sending a painful jolt through his arms.

“Damn it! I can’t believe that I am fighting the Demon King!” Aether muttered inside the Samael power armor.

Sweat rolled down his forehead despite the cooling system inside the cockpit. His breathing became heavier as he watched the monstrous figure through Samael’s vision. This was not some ordinary undead soldier or powerful monster. This was the same Demon King whose name had once terrified entire nations, the being that had forced the legendary Celestial Wardens to fight together just to bring it down.

“You’re dead now, Samael!” Saint Elwyn laughed.

Blood still stained the corner of her mouth, and a few red droplets scattered through the air as she laughed. Her expression was almost euphoric as she watched the power armor being pushed backward. “It took all of us Celestial Wardens to defeat the Demon King. There is no way you can survive this!”

The Demon King suddenly stopped punching.

For a brief moment, the cathedral became strangely quiet.

It brought its two enormous fists together and bumped them against each other.

A tiny sphere of energy appeared between its hands.

At first, it looked almost harmless. The energy resembled a miniature atom, with brilliant particles spinning around a glowing center. But the air around it immediately began to distort. Dust and small fragments of stone were pulled toward the sphere, while the temperature inside the cathedral seemed to rise sharply.

Then it exploded.

The resulting blast swallowed Samael’s entire field of vision.

The force was so overwhelming that the Aegis barrier shattered instantly. The magical shield broke apart like glass struck by a hammer, scattering glowing fragments of energy throughout the wide hall. Samael’s metallic wing parts were blown apart and sent spinning in different directions, clanging against the cathedral floor and walls.

Aether’s body was thrown backward inside the armor.

His stomach lurched as the force rattled the cockpit, and warning alarms screamed inside his ears.

[Hybrid Armor at 3%]

The system appeared directly in front of Aether’s face.

His eyes widened.

Only three percent.

Sweat poured down his face now, running along his cheeks and dripping from his chin. His hands tightened around the controls as the reality of their situation finally settled in. Samael was almost completely destroyed, and the enemy standing before him had barely suffered any damage.

“That is the Atomic Big Bang,” Saint Elwyn said.

Her voice carried through the dusty cathedral as she watched Samael struggle to recover. 

“It was the one that took out the Untouchable Windwalker during the final fight. Undodgeable. Unblockable. Unnegateable.”

She smiled through the blood covering her lips.

“That is the power of the Demon King.”

Aether stared at the towering monster through Samael’s damaged vision. Smoke and dust drifted through the cathedral, partially obscuring the Demon King’s enormous silhouette. His heart pounded heavily against his chest.

I won’t be able to last at this rate! Aether thought.

His eyes darted toward the scattered pieces of Samael’s wings. Several components had been thrown across the hall, some of them buried beneath broken stone. The armor’s warning signals continued flashing around his vision.

How can I defeat the Demon King?

The question barely finished forming in his mind when another voice suddenly echoed through the ruined cathedral.

“Just half of it, apparently.”

Aether’s eyes widened.

Azazel appeared above them, soaring through the dusty hallway with his crimson-violet energy wings spread wide. The powerful wings left trails of glowing particles behind him as he descended through the air. His crimson eyes burned brightly against the darkness, and without wasting a second, he unleashed a barrage of concentrated lasers.

Thin beams of crimson light shot from Azazel’s eyes and struck the Demon King across the face and chest. The smell of scorched flesh immediately filled the cathedral as the beams carved several blackened marks into its skin. Smoke curled upward from the wounds.

The Demon King roared.

It swung both fists toward Azazel, the massive movements creating another series of violent gusts through the hallway. Azazel twisted his body in midair and narrowly slipped between the attacks. One fist passed so close to him that the pressure made his energy wings flutter violently, but he remained just out of reach.

Another punch followed.

Azazel spun sideways.

The Demon King’s fist smashed into a stone pillar instead, pulverizing part of it and sending chunks of masonry crashing onto the floor.

The sudden distraction gave Samael the opening he desperately needed.

“Come on!” Aether grunted.

He forced his damaged armor to move.

The scattered metallic wing parts suddenly began sliding across the floor. They lifted from the rubble and flew back toward Samael, locking into place one piece at a time. Each connection produced a sharp metallic click as the damaged components reassembled behind his back.

“Buster Mode!”

The metallic wings rapidly transformed.

Their individual sections folded inward, compressed, and reconfigured into a long, heavy cannon that rested over Samael’s shoulder. Mana began gathering inside its barrel. The weapon hummed louder and louder as brilliant energy condensed at its muzzle, illuminating the surrounding dust.

Aether pulled the trigger.

A powerful mana blast erupted from the cannon.

The beam tore across the cathedral like a miniature sun, illuminating the ancient walls and casting enormous shadows across the floor. It struck the Demon King’s face directly, engulfing its head in a violent explosion of light and smoke.

For a moment, Aether thought it had worked.

Then the smoke began to clear.

The Demon King was still standing.

Half of its face was burnt black, with smoke rising from the damaged flesh, but the wound was surprisingly shallow. The skin around the impact point had been scorched and cracked, yet the Demon King’s eye remained completely intact. It stared back at Samael with the same terrifying hostility as before.

Aether’s stomach sank.

Azazel immediately raised both of his magnums. The weapons roared as he fired consecutive shots.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Mana-enhanced bullets streaked across the hall and slammed into the Demon King’s body. Each impact produced a flash of light and sent fragments of debris flying, but the bullets failed to penetrate its thick skin. They simply bounced away, ricocheting across the cathedral with metallic sparks.

Even Azazel’s powerful weapons could barely scratch it.

The Demon King slowly turned its head toward the two Halochassis.

Its crimson eyes glowed through the smoke.

For the first time, Aether realized that they were not fighting an enemy they could overpower through sheer firepower. They were fighting something that had already survived the combined strength of the Celestial Wardens.

And it was only using half of its original power.

“No way! Bullets have no effect!?” Azazel shouted.

The sound of his voice was nearly drowned out by the deafening echoes of gunfire still hanging in the corridor. Smoke drifted around his black and gold frame, curling from the barrels of his weapons as spent casings scattered across the stone floor. The metallic clatter barely had time to settle before the Demon King moved.

Its massive fist came forward with terrifying speed.

Azazel barely had time to turn.

The punch slammed into his chest with a thunderous impact that shook the entire hallway. The force was so overwhelming that Shin felt his body being thrown backward inside the armor. His vision flashed white as alarms screamed inside the cockpit, warning him of catastrophic damage.

The Hybrid Armor immediately plummeted.

[Hybrid Armor at 0%.]

Crimson-purple energy wings erupted into a storm of shattered particles, breaking apart behind him like glass caught in an explosion. His black and gold metal frame groaned under the force before sections of armor were violently disassembled and flung across the floor. Plates of metal spun through the air, scraping against stone and sparks.

And worse of all, half of Azazel’s helmet had been completely destroyed.

The broken armor exposed half of Shin’s face to the cold air.

“Gah!”

Shin coughed violently, and a warm spray of blood stained his lips. Pain radiated through his chest and shoulders, making every breath feel like it was dragging broken glass through his lungs. He staggered within the ruined armor, one hand clutching at the remains of his chest plate as his ears rang from the impact.

Saint Elwyn froze.

She had been watching the battle through the chaos of shattered stone, smoke, and blood, but the moment she saw the face hidden beneath Azazel’s helmet, her eyes widened.

She knew that face.

Her mind immediately returned to the man she had seen speaking with Lireina earlier.

Shin.

Saint Elwyn had already heard the rumors surrounding the Untouchable Windwalker. Rumors that the legendary Celestial Warden had secretly taken a lover. She had dismissed most of the gossip as the meaningless chatter of nobles and cathedral attendants, but she had seen the man herself once or twice when he came to the Cathedral to visit Lireina.

She had never imagined that the mysterious man was standing before her in the middle of a battlefield.

“Wait, you are...”

Saint Elwyn failed to finish her sentence.

Because at that exact moment—

“You’re wide open!” Samael roared.

The armored warrior seized the opportunity without hesitation. The massive blue, white, and black power armor released a violent burst of energy as Aether poured everything he had into the suit’s boosters. The machinery screamed as Samael launched forward, kicking chunks of broken stone into the air.

The distance between them disappeared in an instant.

Samael raised his iron sword, its edge humming from the enormous amount of power being fed into it, and brought it down in a brutal diagonal slash.

The blade tore through Saint Elwyn’s shoulder.

Blood erupted across the corridor.

Her arm was severed cleanly and fell to the ground with a wet impact, her staff slipping from her fingers and clattering uselessly across the stone.

“Aaaaaaaaargh!”

Saint Elwyn screamed so loudly that her voice bounced between the walls. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at the stump where her arm had been. Blood poured from the wound, splashing across her robes and dripping onto the floor in heavy crimson drops.

She stumbled backward before panic finally overwhelmed her.

She ran.

Her remaining hand pressed against her wounded shoulder as she desperately fled down the corridor. Her footsteps were uneven and frantic, and every few steps she nearly collapsed. Blood trailed behind her in a twisting line, marking the path of her escape.

“Get back here!” Samael shouted.

He immediately gave chase.

His heavy armored footsteps thundered against the floor as he rushed after her, sword still dripping with blood. The corridor shook beneath his weight, but before he could close the distance, the Demon King turned its attention toward him.

Its monstrous eyes locked onto Samael.

The creature drew back one enormous fist.

Samael realized what was happening.

The punch came.

At the last possible moment, he planted one foot, launched himself backward, and performed a powerful backflip. His armor passed over the Demon King’s fist by only a few inches.

The massive blow missed Samael completely.

But there was another target directly behind him.

Saint Elwyn.

The Demon King’s fist struck her instead. The impact was horrifying.

The punch crushed Saint Elwyn’s body from the middle of her torso downward. Bones snapped beneath the tremendous force, flesh and robes were pulverized against the stone floor, and the lower half of her body was reduced beneath the monstrous fist.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!”

Saint Elwyn’s scream became a desperate shriek of agony.

Blood spread beneath her as the Demon King lifted its fist. What remained of her body trembled uncontrollably. Her legs were no longer capable of moving, yet somehow, through nothing but desperation, she continued to crawl.

Her fingernails scraped against the cold stone.

She dragged herself forward with her remaining arm, leaving a thick smear of blood behind her.

She knew she was dying. And because Elwyn herself stood at death’s door, the impure resurrections she had created were beginning to fail as well.

The resurrected corpses throughout the battlefield started to weaken. Their movements slowed. Their bodies flickered.

The unnatural crimson energy holding them together began to peel away like smoke carried by the wind.

The same fate befell the Demon King.

Saint Elwyn had been its anchor in the physical world, the source that bound its resurrected soul to this reality. Now that her life was fading, that connection was unraveling.

The Demon King’s enormous body began to disintegrate.

Blackened particles floated from its arms and shoulders. Pieces of its monstrous form cracked apart and dissolved into the air, as though its very existence was being erased. Its roar echoed through the corridor, growing weaker as its physical form slowly fell apart.

Saint Elwyn noticed it.

Her breathing became shallow.

“No... Why...?”

She dragged herself forward again.

Her remaining hand clawed against the floor, fingers slipping through her own blood as she desperately reached toward the distant exit.

“Why... Why is this happening to me?”

Her voice trembled.

She could see the light at the end of the corridor.

It was faint, almost beautiful compared to the darkness behind her. The pale light spilled across the floor, illuminating the blood coating her robes and the trembling hand she stretched toward freedom.

“I have done nothing bad!”

She continued crawling.

Her voice cracked as tears gathered in her eyes.

“Why? I don’t deserve this!”

Her breathing grew ragged.

“I’m a saint!”

She struggled to pull herself forward another few inches.

“I’m a saint!”

Her voice echoed weakly through the corridor.

Aether saw what remained of her.

There were no other threats nearby.

The battlefield had become strangely quiet. The undead were disappearing, the Demon King was disintegrating, and Saint Elwyn was already broken beyond recovery.

The armor covering Aether’s body hissed as its mechanisms unlocked. Samael opened.

Aether stepped out of the power armor, his boots touching the bloodstained floor. The cold air brushed against his face as he walked toward the dying saint. In his hand was his revolver.

Each step sounded painfully clear in the sudden silence.

Saint Elwyn heard him approaching.

She stopped crawling.

For a moment, she only stared toward the exit, still desperately clinging to the belief that she might reach it.

Aether raised the revolver.

The barrel pointed toward the back of her head.

Saint Elwyn’s trembling eyes widened as she realized what was about to happen.

“No.”

Aether’s voice was cold and completely devoid of sympathy.

“You are no saint. You are... nothing.”

His finger tightened around the trigger. The gunshot shattered the silence.

Saint Elwyn’s body went limp. Her final breath left her as the corrupted light filling her eyes finally disappeared.

And at last, the corrupted saint saw the light.