"Who! Exactly! Are! You!!!"
A shriek of utter fury suddenly rang out over Palatine Hill.
Yet when they looked over, they saw a square, platinum-gold barrier like a ward covering the area where Dumishan Palace stood.
They could not see what was happening inside at all.
By then, the sky was gradually brightening, and dawn was about to arrive.
The once magnificent Dumishan Palace was now filled with ruins and broken walls, utterly devastated.
In the center, which had been reduced to bare ground,
the Demon Queen Fafhena, who had somehow returned to human form, glared furiously at Yami Tsukahara, Isaac, Uchiha Kejiu, Vittorio, and Deneve hovering in the air around her.
Her dress was torn, and she looked disheveled.
Though her expression remained vicious, her aura was weak, and she was even gasping for breath. Clearly, she was in terrible condition.
Yet her appearance remained as beautiful and bewitching as ever.
Looking at the platinum-and-gold barrier sealing off the entire battlefield overhead,
Fafhena had never imagined that these people would think of—no, that they would possess—such a method to deal with her.
The purpose of those damned barriers was not primarily to trap her, but to block the "hatred" coming from every direction.
They prevented it from pouring into her body and transforming into a continuous supply of Demon Power!
The people who had constructed the barrier were Pope Vittorio and Deneve.
Or rather, it had initially been Pope Vittorio's own idea.
He had given up on treating Yami Tsukahara, Uchiha Kejiu, and the others, instead using sacred magic to erect a barrier and seal off the area, all to cut off Fafhena's external source of energy.
Otherwise, even if they fought for a year and a half, they probably would not be able to outlast her.
The negative