“I guess when you’re reinforcing something, you need some material to go along with the reinforcement stone.”

Though that sounded a bit nonsensical, it was the perfect way to describe the current situation. The cloud of Pure Black Desire’s fragments covered the magic circle and began to greedily absorb blood.

“What are those!? Did you do something, Hero!?”

“That’s a secret.”

Sorry, but I don’t know what that is either.

From his confused face, I could tell he no longer had the magic circle in his control. I turned my sight to the magic circle once again, and saw that it was distorting little by little. The black blood that painted the magic circle began to move towards one place, moving so fast that my eyes could barely keep up.

“So? What’s your plan now? It looks like that magic circle isn’t going to activate.”

“... Huu.”

It seemed he was thinking the same thing. The helpless look on his face made him look like a middle-aged man that lost his life’s savings by gambling.

At that moment, a huge hole blew through his chest. Ye-Eun’s chakram had penetrated him.

“Kuhuk!”

“Eit!”

Ye-Eun’s attack didn’t just end there. She pulled on the chain that had been restraining one of his arms and threw her javelin, penetrating his head. When he arrived in front of her, she beat him to a pulp with her iron bar and club.

Though unbelievable, he died just like that without even his final words. It was somewhat understandable as he was suddenly struck after having put all his mana into the magic circle, but it was still unexpected for him to die so helplessly. I had to give credit to Ye-Eun for being able to go in for the kill in a situation where such an overwhelming mana was going berserk. Was it because of her talent as an assassin? Or was it because of the divine power in her body?

When the Army Commander’s head exploded, the blood covering the Army Commander’s body began to let out a dark light. It seemed he had no plans to go out peacefully.

“Ye-Eun!”

Using Divine Speed, I charged at Ye-Eun. She was only just taking her weapons back when she was tackled by me and flew away. As a result, she was safe from the Army Commander’s suicide explosion. As I continued to accelerate forward after pushing her away, I also managed to escape the brunt of the force. Still, I couldn’t completely avoid getting hurt, especially because I only had Dortu’s protective layer on me.

“Kuk!”

This explosion was even stronger than the previous explosion caused by the curse. That wasn’t the only problem. As if they were expecting this to happen, the elite demons that were on standby began to absorb demonic energy and puff up.

Though not as strong as the giant magic circle, it was still enough mana to blow away this entire area! I immediately decided to use Overlord.

At that moment, the crumbling magic circle shone and began to suck in the demonic energy of the demons that were about to explode. It sure was greedy!

The magic circle quickly shrunk to a size I could see with my eyes. Seeing dense demonic energy and mystical cold energy becoming compressed into one point was a chilling sight to behold.

“I’m not the one to lose in terms of mana capacity, but I’ve never seen so much mana gather together in one place...!”

If it was at the level of the Beast King, I could do something about it with Peruta Circuit and Absolute Soul. But if that much mana gathered together, the matter was out of my hands. Peruta Circuit? I would end up being sucked in instead. At first, I thought Shiva’s Eye would be enough to break the magic circle, but not now. That magic circle, which was constantly evolving by devouring all sorts of energy, seemed impervious to all attacks.

“Kang Shin, it’s fine.”

The raging mana in the sky caused the demons below to all forget about the battle and look up. Daisy also seemed uninterested in fighting them, as she looked up at me with a calm expression.

“If that goes wrong, Earth will end.”

“Hey!”

“Before it’s too late, to Kang Shin, I want to say something.”

“Don’t set up flags like that.”

I frowned at Daisy’s words. Daisy dropped her head sullen, and this time Yua raised her head.

“Oppa, I want to say something too!”

“Yua, we’re not going to die! I think!”

If you want to make a confession, go to a church, not me! I shouted inwardly and asked Dortu.

“Dortu, can you find out what’s happening?”

[I am Dortu. If Dortu goes in there, Dortu will get sucked in and die.]

“Don’t. That wasn’t my intention.”

At that moment, another change occurred. Mana, demonic energy, blood, flesh, and fragments of Pure Black Desire, all of these began to flock to one place.

A golden light flashed, then darkness that seemed to suck in all light rose up, then a dark red light flashed, then a blue light flashed. Amidst this chaos, I tried to open the gate to the dungeon, but I couldn’t. Damn it.

“Amazing.”

Did her true name’s power run out? Ye-Eun flew over and murmured in a daze. The arms formed with aura and the weapons that were in those hands were all gone. She had returned to her normal form. I had many questions I wanted to ask her, but this was the first thing I asked.

“... Don’t you have something you want to say?”

Ye-Eun widened her eyes and shouted.

“Un, I can go into Beyond now too!”

“You sure are carefree... Uwah!?”

While I was replying with a bitter smile, I felt something pulling me down and screamed. Ye-Eun quickly tried to pull me up, but I slipped out of her hands. I fell from the sky and landed on the magic circle.

“S-Shin!”

“Shin!”

“Oppa!”

Ye-Eun, Daisy, and Yua’s voice rang out. I frantically operated Peruta Circuit while looking around. What was holding me down was the energy forming the magic circle. In the blink of an eye, I had sunken into what was now an enormous lump of energy. The energy then began to change.

“Kuk, what’s happening...!?”

The light flashing in myriad colors suddenly disappeared then settled on a delicate grey light.

In the next instant, I gasped and tightened my stomach. The energy was tightening around me. I tensed up my body and drew up my mana to the peak to reinforcement my body.

By now, I had an idea as to what was happening. A custom armor was being forged. But if I couldn’t endure this pressure, my body would undoubtedly shatter.

“Huu, haa...! What a test!”

Lin, you didn’t say anything about this!

Of course, I knew Lin probably didn’t expect this to happen. Perhaps even Eleine who created the magical tool had no idea. Who would have expected this magical tool to ask for so much? Not only did it require an enormous amount of mana, it also required bodies of demons and terrifying materials that made killing worlds’ enemies look easy in comparison!

“Shin, are you okay!? All the energy is flowing your way!”

“Oppa! Luna, do something!”

[Kyuu.]

“Kang Shin, don’t die... If you must, at least leave behind your body. We’ll be together, forever.”

“I’m not going to die!”

I couldn’t help but shout back at Daisy’s words. It was close to being complete, I had no plans to give up now. I frantically gathered up every ounce of mana to reinforce my body. Even the singular horn on my forehead was radiating a great heat.

“Don’t be arrogant... Just be forged obediently!”

Like I’d lose! I shouted like a madman and tensed every muscle in my body. If I let my guard down for even a second, my bones and organs would surely break!

An unknown amount of time later, just when I was thinking about using Succubus Queen’s Tattoo to replenish my mana, the blinding light subsided slightly. The pressure on my body disappeared. The moment all pain went away, a warm, no hot sensation seemed to envelope me.

I raised my arm subconsciously and a thin black metal began to coat it. It was shining on its own and its natural silk-like softness made it hard to believe that it was metallic. I moved my arm around. Its flexibility made me doubt whether I was wearing an armor at all.

I expanded my view to the rest of my body. I immediately wondered where Pure Black Desire’s original traits went, as what was covering my body was too thin to even call an armor... Right, it was a metallic silk.

An incredibly soft metal wrapped my body. If metals could be weaved to make silk, this would be it. There were symbols I couldn’t decipher engraved here and there, and these symbols radiated a blue glow. This faint light gave the armor a dignifying majesty.

“The helmet too...”

The helmet was no different than the armor. Other than my eyes, it completely covered my face, even my horn. To be exact, the armor had a slightly bigger horn that fit my horn inside.

“Mana... disappeared.”

Daisy’s voice rang out. I looked around. As she said, the truly unbelievable amount of mana had all disappeared as though someone had devoured it all. Of course, I knew who, or what, did it. It was the armor I was wearing.

“Shin, what a cool armor!”

Ye-Eun clapped in awe. But from what I could tell, this armor seemed like a strange mix of a tuxedo and sweats.

“Did all that mana get suck into the armor, Oppa?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

I answered carefully as I wasn’t sure myself. This metallic armor that didn’t hinder my movements was indeed mysterious, but it was still hard to believe that a single armor could absorb the amount of mana that could have ended Earth.

“Armor, information?”

“The dungeon’s power can’t be used right... Ah!”

Because all the energy in the area was sucked into the magic circle, the power nullifying the dungeon’s power was also annihilated, and we could now open our inventories or go into the dungeon.

Moreover, I could feel the dungeon’s power returning. My depleted mana was filling back up. I immediately shouted, feeling a sense of omnipotence with my replenishing mana.

“Great... Sherafina, show me what you can do! Tell me the armor’s options!”

[???(???)

? - ???

? - ???]

Ah... Well, that’s what I expected!