Void Slash

“Fire!”

The bean-sized fireball I discharged soared away into the absolute distance. After a brief interval, a miniature flash of light erupted. A heavy, booming explosion echoed back, severely lagging behind the visual. It felt as though it had traveled tens, hundreds… or perhaps thousands of kilometers across the expanse before detonating.

“Exactly how vast is the spatial architecture of this pocket realm?…”

I lightly furrowed my brows. If this were a sector partitioned by a physical matrix like a wall, I could easily destroy the boundary to map out a swift escape route. But against a void that was strictly, endlessly vast, what operational vector should I execute to break free?

“Suppose I deploy a Mega-tier spell at absolute maximum output?”

Back during my spell-testing routines, I had witnessed a stray Mega Fire cast systematically fracture the fabric of space itself. Executing the same methodology here should theoretically shatter this pocket realm, allowing my system to check off a successful return loop.

However—

“The residual splash damage parameter is far too colossal…”

There was a non-zero probability that the shockwaves would leak through the threshold and compromise the external surface world.

Wait. Auditing my available magic logs, I possessed a secondary tactical asset.

“—Let’s run an experimental deployment of that.”

The demonic slash array I had masterfully crystallized during my intense training match with Juda.

Rumble…………………..!!

Right then, the heavy shockwaves of an active engagement vibrated from the far coordinates.

“Are Juda and Feria actively locked in combat?…”

Both entities were high-tier demons blessed with formidable power metrics. Against ordinary trash mobs, their deletion velocity would be absolute. However, their current target was the ultimate weapon engineered by the gods. They could easily be suffering from a grueling tactical bottleneck, or worse, approaching their absolute structural limits.

“I need to fast-track my return vector immediately.”

I thrust my right hand forward.

“—Lock down the mental blueprint.”

I delivered the rigid constraint to my own mind. I needed to visualize the exact technique I had engineered during my sparring matches with Juda.

Make the imaging more vivid. Trace the details with absolute precision.

The scorching thermal energy of my internal mana ignited across my entire frame like raw fire. I mapped out a localized vector to channel the entire payload straight into my right hand.

The structural concept I visualized was a sword.

An artifact no armor can hope to block.

An artifact no shield can hope to deter.

The absolute demonic blade that cleaves through any material in existence.

Its taxonomic nomenclature—

“Convergence Configuration: Void Slash (Vanity Blade)!”

Materializing smoothly inside my right palm, a blade woven entirely from dense magical energy verified active. It was a pitch-black sword shimmering with a dark purple luster, crackling with arcs of crimson lightning. While the color profile was entirely inverted, its physical architecture was a flawless match for the Miracle-class armament, Gram—the primary weapon that had anchored my build back when my profile was flagged as the Hero.

The next dynamic fraction of a second, a dark purple line materialized across the airspace directly before my eyes.

The trajectory of a single, instantaneous swing—

The pocket dimension was ruthlessly cleaved in two, and my frame successfully executed an absolute return loop back to our original coordinates.

“Lord Demon King…?!”

Stationed right beside my landing point, her features twisted into a wave of profound shock, was Juda. Her current status indicators explicitly logged that she had been deep in the middle of a high-intensity engagement; fresh blood was actively venting from structural tears across her entire frame.

“Are your survival metrics stable, Juda?”

“I blundered and absorbed a few localized injury ticks, that’s all,” Juda answered, forcing a faint, self-deprecating smile.

“…Evaluating the structural damage, that looks exponentially more severe than a ‘minor injury.’”

Hovering directly over the upper airspace commanding the sector was the colossal silhouette of a jade-colored phantom bird. It possessed six massive wings, actively running a cold audit on our positions from above.

“Is that anomaly another Divine Gear?”

“That is the Lord of the Wind,” Juda provided, answering my query.

“Deactivate your combat loops and focus on stabilizing your systems. I’m tagging into the vanguard.”

“Understood. I shall gracefully accept the support,” Juda murmured, stepping back to clear the immediate perimeter.

“…Juda.”

I threw my voice toward her retreating back.

“Yes?”

“You performed beautifully to hold the line.”

My scanning arrays had processed the wider field. Positioned directly behind Juda’s rear flank were Feria and a cohort of demon civilians. It was highly anticipated that she had intentionally absorbed those catastrophic damage ticks to safeguard their survival parameters.

“You flawlessly protected our people. My immense gratitude for your service.”

“ …Well, my profile is technically logged as the Supreme Commander of the Demonic Army right now,“ Juda muttered, keeping her back turned to my coordinates.

While her exact facial expression was completely hidden from my line of sight, I felt as though I could flawlessly calculate the warm smile spreading across her features.

“Leave the remainder of the processing to my blade.”

From this boundary onward, it was my turn to repay their absolute devotion. As the sovereign King who binds the demon race together—

Deploying my flight arrays, I vaulted into the upper airspace to establish a direct intercept vector against the colossal jade bird. Because my flight proficiency stats were significantly lower than Juda’s specialized movement loops, my aerial footing felt slightly unstable. Even so, if I pulled the engagement down to the lower earth coordinates, the stray splash damage would guaranteed liquidate the remaining demon units.

Despite the statistical disadvantage, launching an airborne dogfight was the smartest tactical calculation.

“So, the Demon King steps forward to act as the secondary vanguard,” the Lord of the Wind boomed.

“I am not the secondary vanguard.”

My gaze locked directly onto the Wind King’s core.

“I am the absolute cleanup unit. Your deployment ends permanently at these coordinates.”

“Your raw mana signature is undeniably formidable, Demon King. However, executing a spatial breach to escape the pocket realm has clearly drained a massive chunk of your internal energy pool,” the Lord of the Wind hissed.

“Our success metrics have officially crossed the viability threshold. Perish—”

A network of twenty radiant green tornadoes materialized across the field simultaneously. Evaluating the spell metrics, it was a high-tier wind-attribute array operating on the scale of a Mega Wind class payload.

They accelerated along synchronized vectors, closing a suffocating cage from the front, rear, left, right, upper, and lower coordinates all at once.

“Your escape vectors are entirely non-serving, Demon King!” the Lord of the Wind crowed in absolute triumph.

“Escape? A protocol of that nature is completely unneeded.”

The exact dynamic fraction of a second the oncoming wind spells breached my perimeter—every single tornado suffered immediate, absolute deletion.

“W-What…?! Inconceivable…!!” the Wind King shrieked, its vocal arrays dropping into pure bewilderment.

Active within my right hand was the black-purple demonic blade, crackling with raw energy. The blade that had systematically sliced and scattered all six high-velocity tornadoes in a single frame.

“My gratitude. Your spell array provided an excellent sandbox environment to calibrate my swing.”

Venting the declaration, I raised the demonic blade—Convergence Configuration: Void Slash (Vanity Blade)—high above my shoulder.

A single flash.

A pitch-black trajectory sliced a perfectly straight line through the airspace. The coordinates commanding the trajectory split wide open, venting a violent burst of crimson lightning.

“Gah…?!…”

The only mechanical output the ultimate weapon of the gods could process was a brief, strangled shriek that sat somewhere between an agonized groan and a death rattle.

The next instant—devoid of a single acoustic wave, meeting absolutely zero material resistance—the supreme divine engine was systematically halved by the downward arc of my magic blade.

Descending back down to the lower coordinates, I closed the distance to stand beside Juda. Her purple raiment was heavily fractured across various sections, blood continuously seeping into the fabric.

“What is the real-time recovery status of your injuries, Juda?”

“I am actively running my targeted healing arrays, but the regeneration velocity is exceptionally slow,” Juda reported.

“When a demon-kin profile absorbs holy-attribute damage ticks, the system enforces a massive penalty that tanks all health-restoration efficiency.”

“Is that so.”

“As a mandatory warning, let me remind you that the exact same rule maps onto your profile as well. When navigating engagements against the Heavenly Army or the Hero’s Vanguard, standard recovery magic will fail to manifest meaningful utility metrics.”

Juda pressed the warning home.

“Your raw offensive parameters are comprehensively absolute, but allowing your mindset to harbor complacency is an absolute trap. If your frame absorbs a major structural injury, rewriting the damage parameters will turn into an exceptionally grueling process.”

“The directive is permanently hard-coded into my memory.”

“—Excellent. Beyond that, you should maintain a state of high alert the exact fraction of a second you launch your next deployment,” Juda added, her stance tightening.

“Our next deployment?”

“My scanning arrays are registering an immense concentration of hostile mana radiating from the Demon King’s Castle coordinates. The absolute final unit of the Divine Gears—the Lord of the Water. Calculating its current behavioral data, it appears to be locked in a high-intensity engagement against our undead commander.”

“Regal is engaged?!”

“Launching a high-volume siege against the citadel the exact moment the Demon King’s profile is verified absent from the sector—it appears the gods engineered a multi-layered diversion play,” Juda analyzed under her breath.

“Or perhaps… their primary tactical target is ‘That Anomaly’ anchored deep within the castle’s subterranean vaults. If that hypothesis holds solid, the probability that all three alpha units deploy that specific transformation profile scales to maximum…”

An anomaly? What exact programming variable is she referencing?

No, processing detailed queries can be back-logged for later.

“We are initiating immediate return transit!”

I barked the command to the entire platoon. While Stella and Regal were currently safeguarding the citadel alongside Belle’s vanguard defense arrays, the Divine Gears were exceptionally high-caliber opponents.

If we failed to fast-track our deployment and reinforce their coordinates immediately, the castle’s survival metrics would hit absolute zero—