Closer, closer!
The more than ten-meter-tall Battle Demon gripped the Chaos Hammer, staring at the towering Temple of Night so close at hand, a greedy and excited sneer hanging on his face.
As long as he broke into the Temple of Night and found the Night Goddess's source artifact on the statue, the task given by the Chaos Demon King would be complete, and he would receive that long-awaited reward.
The terrified faces of the lowly catfolk on the ground, who did not even possess the ability to fly, sent an indescribable thrill through every cell of the Battle Demon's body.
Bzzzz!
Suddenly, a sword of black flames extended from within the Temple of Night. A baleful aura utterly unlike the laws of night swept outward, like a freezing point that could turn all things to ice. In an instant, the Battle Demon so close at hand lost all color from his vision, leaving only the simplest black and white.
"Hmm!? This..."
The black flames instantly drowned everything. The Battle Demon let out a shrill scream as the Chaos Hammer in his hand summoned an endless stream of Chaos Power from the sky. At the same time, he drove his battle instincts to their utmost limit. Amid an explosive surge of power, he finally barely broke free from the lock of that attack.
Clang!
The sound was crisp and piercing.
Even in that fleeting moment of contact, when the black-flame sword radiating the majestic pressure of a supreme deity lightly touched the Chaos Hammer, the Battle Demon's pupils shrank to pinpoints. In terror and horror, he threw away the Chaos Hammer.
"Divine power!?"
Crack, crack, crack—boom!
Cracks spread across the Chaos Hammer before it exploded into fragments that filled the sky. The terrifying black flames even burned those fragments to