"Dad… how did you defeat your first ranked devil?" a curious twelve-year-old William asked as he sat on the stairs, his hair being trimmed.

Carter hummed. "My first ranked devil… if I remember correctly, I fought one when I was still a cadet. Our team was taken down, and only I remained, along with four wounded members of my battalion."

Letting out a quiet sigh, the man glanced at the blue sky. "Back then, my senior had already humbled me enough to keep my head clear, even when that monster started absorbing my flames."

William's eyes widened. "That devil could absorb your flames?" In his mind, his father's attacks were absolute, meant to annihilate everything and leave nothing behind. The revelation shocked him.

Carter nodded gently, a faint smile forming on his lips. "That day, I learned that even your greatest weapon can become useless, or worse, be turned against you."

"That's why," he added, tapping William's temple, "you must always rely on this. Never lose control, and always analyze the battle, even when you're at a disadvantage."

….

William was experiencing exactly that.

His greatest strength, the ability to read an opponent's mind and stay two steps ahead, was now turning into a crippling weakness.

His breath came out in ragged gasps as he moved his head from side to side. A thick vein bulged at his temple, his vigilance pushed to its limit, his entire focus forced onto defense while the noise continued to tear through his skull.

THUMP THUMP

William spun on his heel at the heavy reverberations behind him.

The Devil was advancing… slowly, deliberately, as if savoring the moment.

Its mouth gaped wide, pincers of curved teeth forming a grotesque grin, as though it had already claimed victory.

William ground his teeth and slashed his arm downward.

The Devil swatted the attack aside with contemptuous ease. The same strike that had once cut deep dissolved into nothingness, leaving not even a trace behind.

The Devil drew closer, leaving William with no choice but to push through the pain and levitate away. In doing so, he was forced to sacrifice his telekinetic arms, at least for the moment.

However, the instant he flew backward, the Devil jumped—not toward him, but straight upward.

THWAMP

When it landed, William's vision was suddenly cut off.

DHAK

His back slammed into something solid. The blond warrior looked around and realized he was completely surrounded.

'Is… this its skill?' Thick, spiked walls had trapped him inside, leaving only a single opening at the very top.

And through that opening, William saw something falling toward him.

"...!"

It was the Devil.

William clenched his jaw and let his body drop to the ground, using the brief moment to regain his telekinetic arms.

DOOOOM

The Devil's fist crashed down squarely onto his invisible barrier, nearly breaking through.

William's legs trembled as the force drove him to one knee.

The Devil didn't relent.

Reeling its arm back, it began to pound relentlessly, like a mad bull, finally displaying something utterly inhuman in its ferocity.

THAMP THAMP

One after another, punches rained down on him. Separating those monstrous blows from William's face was a trembling telekinetic wall, already on the verge of collapse.

Yet strangely, William felt calm.

The pain inside his head had gone beyond agony and turned numb, and that numbness allowed him to think. To grasp the only option left to him.

'For an unconventional mage like you, imagination is your true limit.'

Words he had heard countless times before, including from Emma.

If imagination was the key, then—

'Why limit it to just arms?'

A slow grin crept across his lips.

THUNK

The Devil paused. The ground stopped trembling as its massive fist was caught mid-swing by William's arms.

The Devil pulled back its other fist—

THUNK

That one was caught too.

The two were locked in a brutal tug-of-war, neither willing to yield.

William's mind was still polluted by the shrill screeches echoing around him, but that was exactly what helped.

Nyx erupted from his core, a violent surge that forced the Devil backward.

William slowly rose, his feet never touching the ground.

He wasn't levitating.

He was encased within his own telekinesis.

An invisible humanoid form shaped itself around him as he murmured, "Let me show you how it feels when someone fucks with your head."

THUNK

"GHEIIK!"

The Devil cried as William snapped his head forward, and something far larger than a human skull slammed into the Devil's head, smashing it toward the ground while its arms remained firmly locked in place.

William laughed. "Interesting." With a slight pull, he shoved the Devil back and reeled his telekinetic arm in.

"Alright, catch this~"

DOOOOM

CRACK

The fist connected, and the wall behind the Devil fractured, chunks of it collapsing as deep cracks spread outward.

The impact jolted the Devil awake. It leapt backward in alarm.

"He's out!" someone shouted from the side, making Angelica halt mid-step. She had been about to rush into the cage, but when she saw what had just recoiled in alarm, she forced herself to stop.

"What… in the world?"

The Devil refocused, its eyes swirling violently around.

The noise intensified.

Blood streamed from William's eyes and ears. His mind was no longer capable of containing so many thoughts, yet did that stop him?

"Hahaha!" the world heard him laughing. A laughter of hunger.

The Devil panicked as William shot upward, his hands coming together overhead like a hammer.

The devil expected a short drop before the strike.

Instead, from nearly thirty feet in the air, William elongated his arms and brought them down with overwhelming force.

DOOOOOOM

The Devil couldn't dodge. It couldn't even block.

A massive crater formed, and at its center lay the Devil, framed by the imprint of two colossal hands.

William snickered before lifting his hand.

He didn't focus, afraid that doing so would disturb him again, and instead channeled another Void Dominion.

It began slowly.

Dust and shards of rock were drawn toward the dark orb forming before his fingertip.

The monster's small eyes weren't spared, nor were the students standing nearby.

"Ah! Hold him!" someone shouted. Fortunately, a few of them were still conscious and had enough strength to resist the pull.

The eyes weren't so lucky.

One after another, they were dragged into the void, swallowed whole, and erased into nothingness.

William dug a finger into his ear and muttered, "Ah, finally."

As the dust settled, a bloodied and broken Devil was revealed, its body already beginning to knit itself back together.

William didn't panic. He didn't rush.

He simply lowered himself to the ground and began walking toward the monster in silence.

So consumed had he been by the battle that he hadn't noticed the change in his audience.

Guinevere and the others had arrived at the edge of the complex.

Among them, the silver-haired woman felt her heart sink into a pit at the sight of his condition.

Yet none of them dared to interrupt.

Because they knew.

They knew exactly how he would respond to any interference.

William stopped before the shattered structure and tilted his head slightly.

"You know," he said calmly, "you should blame my girlfriend's father. If not for him pushing me into a corner so recently, I might not have dealt with you this easily."

His body swayed faintly, but his gaze never left the existence in front of him.

The Devil groaned and forced its maw open.

Both of its hands rose.

They came crashing down in one final attempt—DHAK—only to be stopped once more.

William chuckled and raised a finger.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

A droplet formed.

He flicked his finger and dropped the orb straight into the Devil's open maw.

And then—

A sun rose in the heart of Catchipara.

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