Roy's mind blurred in and out of reality, his vision hazy. Even the system's blaring warning gradually faded into a high-pitched frequency noise.

He could feel the vile taint of corruption defiling his soul.

The black mass of endless death and destruction slowly ravaged his pure Ether-filled soul.

Even his mutated Ether Genesis didn't put up much of a fight against the ravaging conquest of the sickening force of corruption.

Arrrghhhh!

He would have started thinking of a way out if he could, but his mind couldn't function — too busy enduring the soul-shredding pain.

He could feel the sinister force slowly encroaching toward his attribute stars, aiming to devour them whole.

Not only that — because of the Assimilation skill, Velra, Trion, and his newly summoned Heaven-Devouring Slime were also at risk of being corrupted.

He bit into his tongue, his mouth gurgling full of blood. He was attempting to use physical pain to distract himself from the torment of the soul.

Think… what can I do… I can't give up… I will lose everything, the corruption will claim all I have! He used this brief moment of clarity to rack his brain for a way out of this mess.

"Ahhh… yes, that might work!" His only normal eye lit up with an idea.

[Sacred Dew Drop: 3/6]

The only force he could think of that could purge him of corruption was divine energy.

He wasted no time. A single glistening drop of dew appeared midair, and Roy swung his head forward, swallowing the divine elixir.

A familiar refreshing torrent burst as his tongue made contact with the dew drop, absorbing it in one go.

The cold torrent flushed through his system. His once-blackened veins slowly faded, the darkness consuming his left eye receded.

The changes weren't only physical. The divine brilliance brought by the elixir raged through his soul. The corruption festering within dared not resist.

Black sticky substances were forced out of his pores. From his throat gushed a writhing stream of darkness.

His body was being purified, corruption expelled as impurities, forced out like waste.

"What? How is that possible!" Belzebub never saw this coming.

It had assumed the battle was over. How many minutes were left before the veil stopping the world from sensing him elapsed? Two at most. There wasn't time to waste. Even though the creature was shocked that Roy had something that could resist corruption, it still had to finish this fast.

Belzebub's figure burst into a dark blitzing streak, its crimson lenses burning fervently like purgatory torches.

As it descended toward Roy, building destructive force, its figure burned with darkness, dense corruption spilling from its frame in waves.

The Hand threw everything it had into this vicious fatal attack.

This was its only chance. While Roy was undergoing purification and temporarily immobile and weak, it had to finish the bastard once and for all.

The vile horror reached deep, holding nothing back. It even tapped into its forbidden ability — something that could damage the very essence of this plane itself.

Decay!

Unlike Ether users, Lords, and Hunters, who had numerous skills, corrupt creatures — Variants — only had one ability. The difference was that this single ability was more versatile and catastrophic than skills.

A sickening force of decay bloomed from Belzebub, its form clouding with a vile haze, its body writhing like it held within it numerous maggots writhing their way out of its carapace.

Roy spat out the last wave of impurities from his system when the suffocating sense of danger bore down on him.

He looked up. The streak of darkness was already too near… he couldn't escape.

He frowned, but his eyes now carried a golden tint. A familiar sense of invincibility clouded his mind.

There was still a trickle of divine energy left in his system.

Having experienced this feeling twice now, Roy could finally understand Jake's plight.

His eyes cold with indifference, he didn't see Belzebub's looming attack as a threat. Nothing was a threat.

Straightening to his full height, clad in rose-gold armor, he raised his hands, morphing g them into a nozzle, a manifestation of his legendary shotgun.

He had used two abilities of the gun, but it still had one left. Compared to the others, it was a legendary-grade weapon after all.

All Goes to Void!

An ability that carried the eerie trait of void — the trait of Null. He poured all traces of divinity left in his system into this shot.

Bang!

A massive caliber catapulted out of the golden nozzle of the weapon.

Compared to Belzebub's fearsome descent that promised catastrophe, the bullet felt mundane.

Its speed, compared to the astounding falling velocity of the Hand of Gluttony, was slow.

But something about the small, seemingly ordinary streaking bullet seemed wrong.

Very wrong. Belzebub sensed this. But with the velocity it had gathered, dodging was impossible. It could only meet the attack head-on.

And meet it did.

Its figure, buried in a consuming mass of decaying corruption, met the shot.

Belzebub watched in pure horror as the bullet tore through its fearsome energy as though nothing.

No — it didn't tear through. It was as though its energy dissipated on contact. Corruption, decay — both vanished.

It could only stare as the bullet pierced into its reinforced carapace. Like porcelain, it shattered, its force energy vanishing like smoke on impact.

The bullet had no sound. It didn't traverse at sonic speed. But the horrifying effect it carried was palpable.

The bullet sank into its frame unimpeded, delivering a fatal divine energy right into its vile, black, heavily thudding heart. Belzebub felt helpless. There was nothing it could do to resist.

The more force it mustered, the more it dissipated.

Spurt!

Black, putrid blood streamed out of the gunshot injury. Like a deflated balloon, its figure lost all momentum, velocity — the very law of physics abandoning its frame.

It landed limply, not even carrying enough force to muster a crater on landing.

Cough!

Roy's body, drained of all strength, lost bearing. He fell to a knee, coughing out remnants of black, putrid waste from his mouth.

He gazed weakly at Belzebub's still frame. He couldn't help but hope…

Was it over?

Unfortunately the faint blazing force of corruption across Belzebub's limp fram said otherwise.

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