System: Daily login!!, jackpot on the first day!!!

"How is it, Lembu?" Taufik asked as he and Kl'lara touched down on the ruined ground of the Hollow Citadel, the once-golden earth now nothing but fractured stone and smoldering ash.

"It's good. Finally didn't have to hold back after so long... It's refreshing," Lembuswana rumbled, his massive, beastly form towering high over Taufik, eyes gleaming with satisfaction.

Taufik dragged a hand over his face. "...That's not what I meant"

"Well, whatever. Are they dead?"

"Nothing left," Basukhi replied, his voice calm but absolute.

"I thought so." Taufik nodded, already expecting the outcome. "Still… Mammon didn't show himself. Even after his domain was reduced to this. That means they're preparing something... probably deeper in Hell"

Kl'lara glanced at him, her voice careful. "My Lord… do you think the same kind of battle will happen in the next layer?"

"…Likely"

"Then… wouldn't it just become too difficult for us?" she asked.

At that, Taufik smirked. Lembuswana's fangs curled into a toothy grin, and even Basukhi's lips twitched upward.

"Doesn't that just make it more fun?" Lembuswana said, his voice carrying a low, rumbling laugh.

"Yeah," Basukhi added, his tone laced with nostalgia. "Opportunities to go all-out don't come often. Lembu and I once fought to the death, and the world itself nearly broke. Draco was almost destroyed, to the point angels had to intervene." His eyes darkened slightly. "Well… we were under a demon's influence back then, but still. It happened"

Taufik waved the memory away. "Forget the past. Let's move. The faster we clear each layer, the faster we find the way out of this Hell"

The four of them stepped forward, the air around them shifting. With each step, the scorched ground gave way to a yawning chasm, a black maw that swallowed the light.

And then... fire.

They descended into the Fourth Layer, Jahmoras, the Pit of Wild Flames.

A realm where the fire never died, and the screams of the damned were carried on the heat like whispers from a furnace.

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Jahmoras, the Pit of Wild Flames.

The land of Wrath, Destruction, and Bloodlust.

A vast volcanic plain stretched endlessly before them, cracked earth glowing with molten veins. In the distance, rivers of lava cut through blackened stone like bleeding wounds, and above, the sky churned in shades of ash and fire. From time to time, molten meteors rained down, bursting into showers of embers upon impact. The air itself burned to breathe, heavy with the stench of scorched iron and blood.

Here, war had no beginning and no end. Clashing steel and roaring flame blended into a single, maddening rhythm, the heartbeat of Jahmoras.

Every rock, every gust of heated wind seemed to hum with rage, as if the land itself hated all who walked upon it. The flames here were not mere fire; they were wrath given form, eating away not only at flesh but at the soul.

And then, the moment they stepped forward… it came.

A scream.

Not one voice, but hundreds.

No… thousands.

It was a chorus of fury, despair, and unending agony. Screams from the living, howls from the dying, and roars from those who could no longer tell the difference. The sound pressed against their ears, clawed at their minds, threatening to ignite their own hearts with the same mindless rage that ruled this realm.

Somewhere in that hellish noise, steel struck steel, bones broke, and fire swallowed the fallen.

The war never stopped. It never would.

"…Chaos"

It was the only word that slipped from Kl'lara's lips as her eyes swept across the nightmare before her.

Endless rivers of molten rock illuminated an ever-shifting battlefield where demons and damned souls tore into each other without pause. Spears splintered, blades shattered, and flesh burned in the unforgiving rain of fire.

"My Lord… how can we possibly go through this?" Her voice trembled, not from fear, but from the overwhelming madness of it all.

Taufik's gaze never wavered from the carnage ahead. His eyes reflected the burning plains as if they were born of the same fire.

"…We make our way," he said slowly, his tone as calm as the eye of a storm.

Then, with a faint shimmer of darkness, his katana materialized in his hands. The polished steel seemed to drink in the crimson light of Jahmoras, its edge humming with restrained power.

"…Forcefully"

A faint, predatory smile tugged at his lips as he stepped forward, the ground beneath him cracking under the weight of his resolve.

"Lembu, Basukhi… start it"

The order left Taufik's mouth like a verdict, and both ancient beasts grinned in unison.

Lembuswana's massive form surged forward, each step shaking the scorched earth.

His roar rolled across the volcanic plains like thunder, cutting through the screams and clashes of battle.

The sound was so primal, so overpowering, that for a heartbeat even the endless war seemed to hesitate.

Then, with a whip of his tail and a lunge of his colossal body, he slammed into the nearest horde, scattering demons like leaves in a storm.

Basukhi followed, his serpentine body slithering over the jagged rocks, scales glowing with molten heat.

From his maw, streams of searing white fire spilled forth, not like the chaotic flames of Jahmoras, but something purer, hungrier, stripping flesh from bone in seconds.

The battlefield reacted. Warriors, both damned and demonic, turned their fury toward the intruders.

Good.

Taufik's lips curled upward as he stepped forward, Kl'lara close behind.

"Draw them in," he muttered.

Above them, the sky cracked with another volley of fire rain, streaks of molten death hissing through the smoke.

The heat pressed against their skin, but the four of them moved as if walking through a garden path, unshaken, unstoppable, cutting their way toward the heart of Jahmoras.

Somewhere beyond the sea of blood and flame, their true enemy was waiting.

The ground trembled, not from the stampede of demons, but from something deeper.

A pulse.

A heartbeat.

Slow, heavy… and angry.

The warring hordes began to falter, their eyes shifting toward the far horizon.

Even the volcanic winds seemed to hesitate, as though the land itself feared what was coming.

Through the smoke and fire, a silhouette emerged. Massive. Armored in jagged black steel that pulsed with veins of magma.

His helm was crowned with horns like twisted blades, his eyes burning with a wrath that could sear through souls.

Every step he took melted the ground beneath his feet, and each breath spilled embers that danced like dying stars.

In his hand, no, gripped like an extension of his very body was a colossal greatsword, its edge shimmering with molten light.

Each slow drag of the blade across the earth carved glowing scars into the volcanic plain.

The air grew heavier, pressing down on Taufik's party like a physical weight.

Kl'lara's pupils shrank. "That's him… the Lord of this Circle"

The voice that followed was like a furnace exhaling, deep and suffocating.

"Intruders… in my war"

Taufik didn't blink. "... Malphas"

The Crimson Tyrant stopped, tilting his head slightly as if measuring them, not with caution, but with the detached certainty of a predator who had never once failed to kill what stood before him.

"I will grant you this..." his voice rumbled, "... you will die with your weapon in hand"

The battlefield's chaos erupted again, but now every scream, every clash of steel, and every roar was pulled into the gravity of the coming clash.

Malphas didn't wait.

Wrath never did.

With a roar that split the volcanic sky, he swung his colossal greatsword, not at them, but at the ground.

The world cracked.

A tidal wave of molten rock erupted from the earth, surging forward like a living beast, swallowing everything in its path.

Demons caught in the blast were instantly reduced to cinders, their screams lost in the roar of the flame.

"Scatter!" Taufik's voice cut through the chaos.

Lembuswana roared in defiance, charging headfirst into the oncoming hellfire, his massive frame shielding Kl'lara as molten rain hissed against his scales.

Basukhi surged from the ash like a phantom serpent, weaving through rivers of magma with impossible speed, striking down any demon that dared come near.

Malphas was already moving again, closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye despite his massive size.

Every step was an explosion, the volcanic plain itself trying to keep up with his rage.

Taufik's katana flared with black light: Concept: Darkness - Edge Collapse, meeting Malphas' downward swing.

The impact was cataclysmic.

The ground beneath them shattered into an abyss of lava. Shockwaves rippled outward, tearing apart anything unfortunate enough to stand nearby.

"You're strong," Malphas growled, pressing down, the heat from his blade threatening to melt through Taufik's weapon, "but strength alone does not win in my domain"

Taufik's eyes narrowed. "Good. Then I'll take yours"

He twisted, shadows coiling up his arm, forcing Malphas' greatsword aside in a burst of raw power. In that moment, Kl'lara struck from the side.

Malphas didn't dodge.

He caught the scythe in his free hand.

... And crushed it.

"Pathetic"

He swung his blade in a wide arc, a slash of molten fury that tore through the battlefield, the shockwave alone toppling towers of black rock in the distance.

But Taufik was already gone from where he stood, reappearing above the Tyrant's head, katana raised, darkness spiraling around it like a collapsing star.

"... Let's see if Wrath can bleed"

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