A deep, mocking laugh echoed all around Alex, seeping into his very bones like a cruel whisper from the abyss.
“Coming in contact with my clone was your worst mistake, child,” the Hatred Demon sneered, its voice distorted, distant, as if it was reaching him from somewhere far beyond reality.
Alex’s vision blurred, his head spun, and a terrible weight pressed against his entire being, dragging him downward into something unknown.
It was suffocating.
He could barely hear anything except the fading echoes of that sinister laughter.
But then…
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion shook his entire existence, and in an instant, everything changed.
His instincts flared, warning him of something beyond comprehension.
Without thinking, Alex shut his eyes, clenched his fists, and blocked out all sound.
The force of whatever had just happened was so overwhelming that his entire body screamed at him not to look, not to hear, not yet.
Then, silence. Slowly, cautiously, he opened his eyes.
Everything was gone. There was no battlefield.
No broken land. No sky. No sound. No scent of blood or fire.
Only darkness.
A vast, endless void stretched in all directions, swallowing everything in its presence.
It wasn’t simply the absence of light, it was deeper, emptier, as if it were a place where existence itself had been erased.
At first, a thought flickered through Alex’s mind.
“Is this… inside my head?”
But he quickly dismissed the idea.
This was something else. Something far worse.
A cold, artificial voice rang in his ears.
[You are currently going to the Hatred Domain.]
[You will never leave, but please be on standby as you will arrive shortly.]
His breath hitched, and his fingers twitched.
Somehow, a notification like this one felt absolute.
It wasn’t a warning. It wasn’t a threat. It was a statement of fact.
Alex’s eyes trembled, but he refused to show any fear.
He dismissed the panel with a wave of his hand and exhaled slowly.
This wasn’t the time to panic.
[The Crown of Calamity warns you that this place is fucked up.]
“Thanks for the information,” Alex groaned, shaking his head.
A low rumble echoed in the darkness, and he recognized the voice immediately.
“I don’t like this place either,” Alphox muttered, his usually composed tone laced with unease.
“Get out of here quickly.”
Another voice scoffed.
“Are you stupid? It literally said he couldn’t leave,” Astolf, the Undead King, sighed.
“Maybe it’s just a trick to make you think you can’t leave!” Alphox snapped back.
Alex, however, wasn’t interested in their argument.
His gaze remained locked on the abyss surrounding him.
“The Hatred Demon unlocked his ultimate form,” he said, his voice firm, “And if it’s anything like [Blood Arts], then this is a place where he has the complete advantage.”
“A domain where he can bend everything to his will.”
Silence.
Neither Alphox nor Astolf could deny it.
[The Crown of Calamity warns the user that it should really get out now. It knows what the Hatred Demon is capable of normally, but this is beyond anything it has ever seen.]
And then…
Flick!
A flicker of crimson light pierced the void.
Flicker!
Another pulse of red energy danced before Alex’s eyes.
Then, in the blink of an eye, a figure materialized.
It was it, the Hatred Demon.
But this time, it was different.
It wasn’t the towering behemoth that had ravaged the battlefield.
It wasn’t a mindless monster destroying everything in sight.
It stood before him in its [Pure Hatred] form, humanoid in size, yet still grotesque beyond words.
The four arms, the twisted wings, the gaping hole where a face should have been, filled with countless shifting eyes and grinning mouths.
And it simply stood there, watching him.
Alex instinctively prepared to fight, his body tensing,
But then he noticed something.
His arm. It wasn’t transformed.
No [Bleeding Dragon Claws]. No power surging through him.
When he tried to activate it, nothing happened.
The Hatred Demon chuckled.
“It is futile, child,” it said, its tone disturbingly calm, “This is the space between the real world and my domain.”
“We are only in transition right now.”
“…Huh.”
“This will be one of our final conversations,” the Hatred Demon continued, bowing slightly, the mouths on its face stretching into something resembling a smile, “Once we arrive in my domain, it will be the true end.”
Alex narrowed his eyes, “…Are you saying that,”
“Whoever wins this battle will be the true strongest of this world,” the Hatred Demon laughed, spreading its arms wide, “Can’t you see?”
It lifted a single clawed hand, and the void around them began to change.
Crimson lines bled into the blackness, like cracks forming in reality itself.
The emptiness split open, unraveling into something far more nightmarish.
A sun, no, an eye, rose over the horizon.
A massive, bleeding, crimson eye.
Alex’s breath hitched.
Something ancient was watching him.
A presence he could not comprehend.
His body trembled, not from fear of the scenery, but from the overwhelming power surging through the air.
“What about the gods?” he asked, his voice barely steady.
The Hatred Demon chuckled.
“Those fools? I can count on one hand the number of them who can still rival us at this point.”
“…But then…”
“Be truly ready, child,” the Hatred Demon said, cutting him off, “For now, only the strongest will survive.”
Alex said nothing.
He simply took in the Hatred Domain as it fully formed around him.
The ground beneath his feet was covered in dark grass, swaying eerily despite the absence of wind.
The air was thick with the scent of something long since burned.
And all around him, ruins.
Collapsed buildings. Shattered weapons. Piles of corpses, stretching far beyond sight.
The sky was endless, its only feature that terrifying crimson eye, staring, unblinking.
There was no end to this world.
It stretched infinitely, an eternal graveyard of destruction and hatred.
Alex clenched his fists.
Somehow, he knew this was the work of the clone he had touched.
That one careless moment had dragged him into this forsaken place.
But there was no point in thinking about it now.
The Hatred Demon was here andd it was watching him.
“If you manage to defeat me here,” the Hatred Demon said, stepping back, “I will accept my loss.”
It grinned, lifting one clawed hand in a mock salute.
“Farewell, Hero of Humanity.”
For a moment, Alex almost laughed.
There was something bitterly poetic about this moment, two sworn enemies, speaking like this, knowing full well that neither could allow the other to live.
But there was nothing left to say.
Alex had to act.
[You have fully entered the Hatred Domain.]
[All of your abilities are available. There are no debuffs.]
[Description: The representation of the Hatred Demon’s being. A world built on destruction, killing, and hatred.]
[This domain can only be activated when the Hatred Demon’s hatred matches that of its opponent.]
[Neither of you can leave until one of you is dead.]
The panels vanished and Alex understood that this was the final battlefield.
There would be no interruptions. No outside forces. No distractions.
Just him and the Hatred Demon.
And then…
FWISH! BOOM!
A massive explosion erupted before Alex as the Hatred Demon grew, expanding back into its colossal form.
“As expected,” Alex muttered, clenching his fists.
His heart pounded, but he forced himself to grin.
‘Fine by me. I just have to hold out until the angel arrives.’
Even as the towering monstrosity loomed over him, even as the crimson eye in the sky watched his every move,
He felt it. A pulse.
Something deep within him, whispering: “Do not give up.”
So Alex took a deep breath and steadied his stance.
And as he stared up at his greatest enemy, he knew that it would soon be over.