The Southern Nightmare Continentā¦
An empty land .. once teeming with Nightmare creatures.
Creatures that had been completely dragged away by the Ultras, exploited during the War of Darkness against the Empire.
Now, this place stood barren.
Yet that was not entirely true.
Recentlyā¦ a heavy guest had set foot upon this land.
After the battle against Nito, Snow Lionheart had fallen onto this continent. And though he had lost that battle, he had managed to grasp the other half of his Light Soul, finally completing it.
Snow did not immediately return to the Shadow Sect.
He intended to break through first.
Howeverābefore he could do soā
Snow was surprised to encounter familiar faces here, on the southern continent.
A creature with countless arms and unnaturally long black hair moved through dense mist.
One of the Nightmare Lords.
The Cosmosāthe very being Snow had fled from in the distant past.
Beside him stood the Hollow, Ludwig, who had likewise escaped during the war.
Encountering the current Snow Lionheartā¦
Made him burst into manic laughter.
"I don't know how to describe thisā
is it your terrible luckā¦ or my incredible fortuneā¦
that the one you run intoā¦ is me?"
Snow's grin widened as Ludwig and The Cosmos lunged at him.
One was SS+, the other SS.
Their movements appeared painfully slow in Snow's eyes now.
He found himself wondering how he had ever struggled against beings like them in the past.
"Perfect timingā¦ I was just thinking of testing the power of my Light Soul anyway."
Snow drew his sword.
A dazzling radiance ignited along its blade, like a falling star.
Thenāwith a single swingā
Snow unleashed an overwhelming burst of light that swallowed his enemies wholeā¦
And continued expanding, until it engulfed a vast stretch of the southern continent.
The radiance lasted for several minutes,
Before slowly dimming and fading awayā
Leaving the continent to return to its familiar darkness.
Everything returned to normal.
Everything .. except Snow's enemies.
No trace of them remained.
They had been completely erased, vaporized by the sheer, monstrous force they had endured.
"That'sā¦ a bit disappointing," Snow muttered.
"If you died that quickly, I won't be able to gauge exactly how much my power has increasedā¦"
He let out a long sigh.
"Whatever. Now that the unwanted guests are goneā¦
this place is ready."
Snow's clash with the Hollow and the Nightmare Lord coincided with the moment Frey and the others escaped the battle between Thanatos and Amon.
In other wordsā
Snow had plenty of time.
And he intended to use it to the fullest.
"It's timeā¦
to return to the stage of SSS."
Without delay, Snow began preparing for his breakthrough.
This would not be difficult for him.
After reclaiming his true self as a Pure Vessel, this was less a breakthrough .. and more a return to his former peak.
Snow took his time, gathering an immense amount of aura, fusing it with the power of his Light Soul.
Thenāafter cleansing the entire area to prevent any interferenceā
He sealed himself within and began the breakthrough process.
It took only seconds.
His body vanished completely, swallowed by a colossal radiance that shone like a blazing star.
Unlike Frey .. whose breakthrough had taken the form of a massive black cocoon of darkness ..
Snow's power erupted like a star that illuminated the entire world.
Considering the sheer amount of aura and power he had amassed,
It was clear Snow was aiming for a perfect breakthrough .. one that would grant him an enormous leap in strength.
He could have done this long ago with only half of his Light Soul.
But he had deliberately waited until it was complete,
To extract the maximum possible power ..
Ensuring that his ascent through the ranks of SSS would be faster and smoother.
And soā¦
Snow, too, was on the verge of stepping into the world of SSS ..
Before even Frey.
Eyes closed, the Hero of the Empire isolated himself completely from the worldā¦
Awaiting his rebirth.
ā¦
ā¦
ā¦
Above the Demonic Sea, which separated the continentsā
The sky was calm for a moment.
Then it was violently disturbed as a massive creature tore through it,
Sending raging storms of wind with every beat of its wings.
A blue dragon.
Its scales resembled crystals of extreme purity, containing an astonishing amount of aura.
It flew at tremendous speed ..
Searching for someone.
This creature was none other than the current Ninth Seat among the Upper Demonsā¦
Nito.
Nito gazed down at the sea below, then up toward the sky above.
"What a strange planetā¦" he said in a deep voice befitting his monstrous form.
"Though it is nothing more than a small, insignificant worldā
it surpasses many regions of the cosmos in sheer peculiarity."
Nito's words were born from his brief yet eventful stay on Earth ..
Where he had crossed paths with far too many heavy names.
The Shadow Sect.
The descendant of the Lord of Light.
And Death itselfāThanatos.
Names that had no business existing in a place like this.
"And then there's that damned thingā¦
watching silently from above."
Nito raised his headā
Toward the enormous ravens soaring high in the sky, deliberately avoiding contact with anyone.
The Devourer of Chaos.
Nito knew this being well.
"One of the Great Onesā¦"
A strange Great Oneā
Appearing only where calamities unfold.
Its origin unknown.
No one knew where it came from.
Yet ..
It attacked no one.
And it could not be attacked.
Nito halted his flight for a moment,
Then slowly turned toward one of the ravens that represented the Devourer of Chaosā¦
Opening his maw, Nito condensed a colossal mass of raging blue flames, then unleashed it at one of the ravens as a gigantic projectile that tore through the sky.
The stream of azure fire continued pouring forth until it reached the Devourer of Chaos, exploding directly before it.
A massive blast .. resembling a spectacular display of fireworks.
Nito descended slowly, watching intently for the resultā
Only to see the Devourer of Chaos emerge completely unharmed, as though it had never been attacked at all.
It did not even acknowledge Nito's existence.
The Ninth Seat among the Upper Demons remained silent at first, observing the strange Great One for several moments.
"ā¦My attack didn't even reach it?"
Nito had seen it clearly.
His flames had stopped short before ever touching the Devourer of Chaos.
It was as though an invisible force had repelled the attack, preventing it from advancing any further.
He did not fully understand what had happened, yet his instincts screamed warnings at him regarding the bizarre creature before him.
After the battle that shook Helmond, the Great Ones had become direct enemies of the demons.
By all logic, Nito should have fought the Devourer of Chaos.
But the blue dragon turned his back and flew away, leaving the strange Great One behind.
"There's no point in entering a battle I can't be certain of winningā¦
Besides, that cursed thing isn't my target today."
Nito accelerated forward, his speed increasing dramaticallyā
Straight toward the southern continent.
"The First Scion of the Lord of Lightā¦
That bastard dared to deceive me."
Rage was clearly etched across Nito's face as he recalled the moment he realized his Light Soul had vanished completely.
Snow Lionheart had somehow stripped it from him .. so perfectly that it had taken Nito a long time to even notice its disappearance.
"This is unforgivable.
An insult like this will not go unanswered."