Overgeared

A disaster created by hundreds of thousands of explosions in total—the viewers witnessed the baptism of rays that were like heavy rain or a typhoon, and predicted the destruction of the allied forces. There were quite a few people who closed their eyes, blocked their ears, or changed the channel because they didn't have the courage to face the devastation that was about to unfold. They took deep breaths for a long time before belatedly opening their eyes. Then they turned the channel back.

"Hup..." They breathed in.

They resented the camera's perspective as it skimmed through the battlefield. Destroyed land, weapons buried in dirt, blood that formed lakes, the pieces of flesh that had lost their owners... The devastation on the battlefield was even more terrible than expected. It seemed to mark the beginning of the apocalypse.

Raim of the general store, Paulson at the blacksmith, the lord who was bad-tempered but always took care of them...

They were sad and afraid that everything they accumulated over the years in Satisfy would disappear. Satisfy in the future would be completely different from the past Satisfy and it didn't seem fun at all. Their colleagues who wanted to go on an adventure to a more famous place and who were motivated to raise their level would gradually leave Satisfy...

"...Uh?" The people who were depressed while thinking about different relationships and reasons...

They were looking at the screen with sad expressions when they belatedly noticed the music flowing from the broadcast. Was there an orchestra on the battlefield?

The moment they thought that this was nonsensical, the screen moved. It slowly and broadly expanded their horizons along with the majestic music. It lightly passed by the devastated battlefield and illuminated unexpected beings. Contrary to expectations, the allied soldiers were still alive. They were all looking up at the sky. They had jubilant expressions on their faces as they cheered with a momentum great enough to swallow up the music.

"......!"

The viewers gradually noticed. Most of the traces decorating the devastation of the battlefield belonged to the demonic creatures. The camera followed the soldiers' gaze and soared upward to show someone's back. The dim light spread around him was the color of sunset. It was the sun that lit up the black sky distorted by demonic energy.

"Cra...zy..."

It was thrilling and delightful. People realized the reason why heroes existed.

***

'Move slowly.'

The temporarily flustered Grid soon calmed down. He confirmed that Baal's laughter had stopped. He knew that excessive tension could become poison, thus he relaxed his body and mind.

'To what level is he?'

Grid had fought Baal's ego fragment previously, but this wasn't enough to use as a reference. Baal had possessed Agnus at that time, while the current Baal was in Zik's body. It was incomparable. Zik was a concept that was superior to a yangban. He was a real half-god. He was building up worthy achievements and worship to become a god.

'First of all, measure it through speed.'

Grid had lived a busy life over the past few days. He accumulated golden experience through the spar with Biban and witnessing the battle between Zeratul and Hayate. Thanks to this, he grasped his level properly. He could almost certainly reach the speed of sound, but it was difficult starting from supersonic speed.

Even if he maximized his transcendent senses, there were often cases where he was 'unable to respond even if he knew.' While he recognized the attack, he couldn't avoid it. He had to rely entirely on his intuition. If Baal's speed broke through the 'normal' speed of sound like Zeratul, it meant Grid's odds of winning were lower.

However, Grid didn't evaluate Baal's skills too highly. No matter how strong, he thought it would be Biban-grade. Considering that Baal was the direct lineage of the absolute god (Yatan), it could be said that he was on the same level as Zeratul. Still, that was only the background of his birth.

Zeratul had the status of a god, while Baal was only a great demon. Baal might've been born at the same time as Zeratul, but it was unlikely he was on the same level as Zeratul, who steadily built up his status through human faith. The number one archangel that hadn't been seen yet—they were the antithesis of Baal. Probably.

'It isn't even his main body and this is the human world.'

The worlds might be mixed together, but it was different from pure hell. Baal was significantly weakened. In conclusion...

'The odds of winning are high.'

This was a judgment he made in an instant. Meanwhile, Baal also evaluated Grid.

"You are ripe." It was a completely contrary assessment from their past encounter in hell. "You are playing a proper role compared to the days when you stayed as a human despite being qualified to be a god. I can see why that guy Chepardea made a fuss."

The world believed that the culprit of this war was Baal. It was natural since all of hell had invaded the human world. However, reality was different. It was Chepardea who caused the war. He had to kill Grid, take everything away from Grid, and lower his status. Baal just let Chepardea do as he wanted.

"......" Grid was surprised. Was it because it was just an ego fragment? Only a certain personality was shown, so Baal's tone was completely different from when he was in hell. It was rather frivolous and didn't feel like Baal.

The conversation wasn't long. Baal headed straight to Grid and attacked as if to appease his boredom.

'He is Biban-grade, but he is much trickier due to his killing moves and debuffs. The variables are his power and hell summoning.'

Grid evaluated Baal's level through one collision. Zik's body was much better than what Zikfrector had mentioned and Baal made use of this near-perfect body to the limit. Moreover, he called all types of debuffs. Grid resisted many of them, but he was still affected by a few. His level of transcendence decreased by several stages, his Skin of Transcendence and other transcendent effects disappeared, and several titles were sealed.

Of course, his divinity was maintained. Perhaps thanks to this, he avoided the debuffs of his weaknesses being exposed and the decreased concentration. The sealed titles were those mostly obtained in the early and mid stages. The titles obtained by becoming a god or those that had a direct or indirect influence to becoming a god were still intact. Perhaps it was because it was a malice presumed to belong to Baal. The distorted hell and vague will of Yatan couldn't harm a god's dignity.

Just then, Grid's jaw bent at an angle. It was due to Baal's fist that stretched out like a light. Grid took a step back to avoid it, but it touched his chin. He suffered 15,000 damage. It wasn't a loss. At the same time that he stepped back, the Kill sword dance that he used pierced Baal's chest and caused dozens of times more damage.

There was a lot of blood, but he wasn't worried about Zik's body. Would the body that had been sealed for thousands of years be easily destroyed? It was Grid's judgment that Baal's ego fragment would be destroyed first before the flesh was completely broken. He trusted the conclusion based on solid evidence, Satisfy's characteristics, and his various experiences. It was fine even if something went wrong.

'I have Sehee.'

Next, Baal's fist was stuck in his armor. Grid was hit by the counterattack. He responded with a three fusion sword dance. However, Grid's sword couldn't reach Baal and it soared upward instead. It was because it lost its trajectory after Grid's wrist was hit by Baal's foot. Grid's move that caused this loss was giving up his chest. His body was pushed back and his reach became shorter.

On the other hand, Baal's kick overwhelmed Grid in speed because it moved along the shortest path.

'This jerk.'

Grid realized it when he saw Baal smiling—Baal had learned martial arts. Unlike ordinary great demons, he didn't fight according to instinct or relied on his power. Rather, he used systematic fighting techniques. Looking back at the action of Baal's fist hitting his armor, it was highly likely he was good at Jujitsu. If the armor had been a bit softer, then he would've pushed his hand inside using this weakness and grabbed at Grid's body.

Red energy overflowed from Grid's left hand as he recovered the soaring sword and used Pinnacle. It was the precursor of Blood Flow Wave. Baal's body shook as he tried to avoid Pinnacle. It was because the chain of shockwaves caused by Blood Flow Wave caused him to lose his balance. It might be different if it was the main body, but Zik's body couldn't completely resist physical conditions.

The moment Pinnacle cut his shoulder, the soaring blood took the form of a blade. It was a combo completed with Blood Sword Shatter.

Grid used Item Combination without a break. The Fire Dragon Sword was combined with the Enlightenment Sword to maximize the power of the next attack. The ensuing sword dance was Transcended Linked Kill Wave Pinnacle.

The whole process took place in less than two seconds. The explosion and cutting sound that occurred one step late was delivered to the ground in a dizzying manner. People were mesmerized by the sight of the shockwaves and colorful skill effects colliding, fragmenting and decorating the sky. It was a different fight.

Some broadcasters gave up on a live broadcast. They emphasized their expertise by looking back at the situation that occurred a second ago, but hundreds or thousands of times slower, in order to identify and analyze the battle. Viewership rose vertically.

Baal, who started to be hit by Transcended Link Kill Wave, used a trick to reverse the situation. He took advantage of Zik's extremely developed physical body and expressed his willpower to subdue Storm of the Fire God. Even so, he marveled at the power of Transcended Link Kill Wave Pinnacle and layered demonic energy over his skin.

"Cough!"Grid was in the midst of the movement for Transcended Linked Kill Wave Pinnacle when he coughed up blood. Baal's palm dug into the gap in Grid's armor, opened up Grid's belly, and tore at his intestines. The unbelievable level of pain and the enormous damage proportional to it was something Grid had never experienced before and it shocked him.

The moment Transcended Linked Kill Wave Pinnacle was over, he desperately wrapped a bandage around his abdomen and took potions and hemostatic agents. Then he was wary of Baal, who stood blankly without following up with another attack on Grid. Based on the movement of his mouth, he seemed to be having a conversation with someone.

'Does he have schizophrenia?'

It made sense if it was this guy. Grid regarded it as insignificant. He didn't miss the opportunity and rushed toward Baal. He alternated between using Shunpo and a sword dance, and using Shunpo and the Undefeated King's Swordsmanship, with no time difference in between them, to attack Baal from all directions. It was in a much more dense manner than when he fought against Biban.

Baal gritted his teeth as he dodged, was cut, and fought back. "I told you to stop."

They weren't words for Grid. It was a warning for the son of a bitch who was preparing to shoot.

The sniper ignored the warning. Grid's body was hit by a magic bullet that suddenly appeared and he flew far away. The impact seemed great as he fell heavily with his head tilted back.

'Dammit.' Grid stopped just before he struck the ground and he gritted his teeth. He knew from the beginning that Barbatos was lurking somewhere on the battlefield. The reason why Grid spread out the God Hands, Noe, Randy, and the vampires, and was vigilant of his surroundings, was in preparation for the sniping. His transcendent senses were consumed by reading Baal's attacks, so he judged that it would be difficult to recognize and respond to the sniping at the same time.

It wasn't a bad judgment. The problem was that the God Hands and his subordinates couldn't read the trajectories of the magic bullets.

"Leave the rat to us." Braham glanced at Mercedes, Asmophel, and Kyle before disappearing. He intended to search for Barbatos.

It was a cool analysis of the situation. Baal was currently at such a high altitude that some people mistakenly thought he was standing beside the moon. Magic that could reach there was extremely limited, but Braham and Kyle's conditions weren't yet recovered. It was hard to exercise an effective shot.

There were ways to get close and fight, but it was likely they wouldn't be able to handle Baal's speed and skill, and would instead hold Grid back. It was like committing suicide for a magician to fight in close combat with an equal or higher ranked person. Braham had regained the strength of a direct descendant, but he hadn't mastered the art of melee combat. Rather than taking risks and fighting Baal, it was better for them to find Barbatos and prevent him from shooting Grid.

"I will fight with My Liege." Mercedes turned a blind eye to Braham's call.

"We can only find him easily with you. Barbatos' subordinates are united, so it will be dangerous with just Sir Braham and Kyle."

"......"

She was persuaded by Asmophel. Even so, she asked Grid for confirmation before leaving.

"My Liege, can you hold out on your own?" she looked up cutely at him and asked. She pretended to be calm with no expression, but her big eyes shook and reminded him of a scared squirrel.

Grid smiled without knowing it and nodded. "Go and help Braham."

"Leave it to me." Mercedes disappeared after Braham.

Grid's body was slowly injured.

'What should I do in this situation?'

Barbatos' sniper fire that came as soon as his transcendent senses were consumed by Baal's attack...

He needed to find a way to respond to attacks that were hard to grasp with his eyes and senses.

'It is pointless to make a clone with Belial's Power.'

It was the power of the 32nd Great Demon. There was no probability of deceiving Baal and Barbatos' senses when even the Sword Saint's super sensitivity could perceive the clone. Berith's Power of Automatic Transformation could block projectiles, but the duration was only one minute. It wasn't a fundamental solution. Finally, borrowing Keen Insight was dangerous because it would weaken Mercedes. Mercedes needed Keen Insight to search for Barbatos.

'Wait...' The silver threads flashed through Grid's mind. The innovated Magic Power Ejection Machine added physical strength and variability by mixing the silver threads with injected magic power.

Grid called all 30 God Hands to his side. The silver threads ejected from the Magic Power Ejection Machine were woven onto the fingers of the God Hands. It was hard to distinguish with the naked eye. The faint silver threadswere mixed with magic power and they were very close to being transparent.

The God Hands gradually distanced themselves from Grid. This was until the silver threads tied to their fingers pulled tightly. It was the moment when an invisible cobweb unfolded around Grid. The 30 God Hands moved in a straight line and the silver threads crossed in a diagonal manner shone faintly with Grid in the center.

Just then, the bottom of the cobweb shook. Barbatos's shot was caught on the radar made of silver threads.

Grid tilted his head at an angle. He avoided the sniping with simple actions that didn't rely on his transcendence. It was an obvious evolution.

Baal, who was repeatedly swearing at Barbatos, welcomed it.