Leon was in a surprisingly good mood.
It showed in the ease of his expression, in the faint curve at the edge of his lips. Valeria's soul was safe now.
That single fact lightened sothing deep inside him, sothing that had been crushing his chest since the day she died. Whatever happened next, he had already secured what mattered most.
Unfortunately, the demon god did not share that mood.
"… submit?" it snarled, its voice warping the void.
"Over my dead body."
Leon tilted his head slightly, as if considering the statent from an odd angle.
"Then I guess force is the only option left."
The demon god laughed, sharp and furious.
"Force? How can you force when we are beings of equal strength?"
Leon's smile widened, slow and deliberate. He pointed over his shoulder, toward the figure standing calmly behind him.
"What do you think she's here for? Moral support?"
The demon god's eyes narrowed.
Leon continued, his tone patient, almost instructional, like he was explaining sothing obvious to a child.
"We're going to gang up on you."
The void trembled as fury exploded outward.
The law of imperfection flared violently around the demon god, twisting space to its will. In response, a void blade condensed into Leon's hand, its edge swallowing light itself, while a massive greatsword ford in the brightest star's grasp, radiant and heavy with authority.
They exchanged a single nod.
Then they vanished.
They reappeared directly in front of the demon god, so close the distortion of its presence bent their outlines. Its eyes widened as it roared,
"You dare—!"
The surrounding space scread, attempting to tear them apart, but Leon's law control locked reality in place, and the brightest star stood unmoved, her authority answering the pressure without resistance.
Leon struck for the neck.
The brightest star aid for the abdon.
The demon god reacted instantly, arms snapping up to intercept both attacks. But in that exact mont, space folded and ti stuttered.
Leon and the brightest star switched places.
The sudden inversion shattered the demon god's calculations. The blades did not cut, but the force behind them detonated on contact, launching the demon god backward like a cot torn from its path.
It was sent hurtling through the endless void, crossing distances asured in dozens of galaxies in the blink of an eye.
Leon was already there.
The demon god twisted midair, barely blocking Leon's follow-up strike, its claws screeching against the void blade. Before it could stabilize, the brightest star stepped out from Leon's flank, her movent seamless, and drove a brutal kick into the demon god's abdon.
This ti, it was ready.
The demon god recoiled, countering instantly, the shockwaves of their collision rippling through layers of reality. Law clashed against law as Leon and the brightest star pressed the assault, moving in perfect tandem, striking, repositioning, striking again.
Two against one.
The demon god manifested its own blades, forged from warped law and malice, eting the strikes of the two supre entities head-on.
Sparks of fractured reality burst with every collision as it was driven back step by step. This was not how it was ant to unfold. A shallow cut slipped past its guard and traced along its neck, forcing it to recoil. Before it could stabilize, a brutal kick slamd into its chin, snapping its head upward.
It recovered mid-motion and surged forward again. It could not retreat. It could not yield. Every aspiration it carried, every twisted dream of becoming what it believed it was ant to be, burned too fiercely.
A heavy blow crashed into its chest, forcing vile black blood to spill from its mouth. The demon god froze for half a heartbeat, stunned by the sensation. It had never known it could bleed.
Leon and the Brightest Star showed no rcy. They pressed the advantage relentlessly, their movents clean, precise, and rciless. Every attempt the demon god made to counter was crushed before it could fully form.
Strike after strike battered it, forcing it back through the void. They were not trying to wound it. They were trying to break it.
Still, it refused to fall.
With a roar that twisted law itself, the demon god unleashed everything. Space buckled. The endless blackness reshaped and condensed, taking form as an astral law manifestation.
A black dragon erged, so vast its body seed to span millions of light-years. Against it, Leon and the Brightest Star appeared like insignificant specks.
Leon reacted instantly.
His presence expanded, law responding without hesitation. His astral form manifested as an armored warrior, imnse and resolute, its blade forged from countless galaxies bound together by will. Beside him, the Brightest Star condensed into her own astral form, a singular black star. She was the smallest among the three, but that did not matter. She had never needed size to fulfill her role.
The battle escalated.
Leon's astral form swung its sword, a sweeping arc capable of cleaving realities. The dragon twisted away, surging forward in a close-range assault. Before its jaws could close, a beam of blinding light erupted from the Brightest Star, striking its eyes and tearing through its perception. The dragon reeled.
Leon did not waste the opening.
His astral form spun, delivering a devastating roundhouse kick that sent shockwaves rippling across the void. He followed through, thrusting forward as his blade descended in a brutal crosscut. The attack severed both wings in a single motion, fragnts of astral law scattering like dying stars.
The dragon did not stop.
Madness had fully consud it. With all reason burned away, the demon god charged again, its broken form dragging annihilation behind it as it hurled itself at the two beings who stood between it and its obsession.
Leon and the Brightest Star did not let the madness deter them.
If anything, it made things easier.
The demon god's attacks had lost all restraint, every strike wild, every movent driven by desperation rather than reason. In its frenzy, it left openings everywhere, and Leon did not waste a single one. Each reckless charge was t with punishnt. Each roar was answered with force.
Blow after blow rained down, driving the demon god farther and farther back, until at last it could no longer hold itself upright.
It crashed through the void.
There was no ground here, no surface to shatter, so its massive form simply drifted, suspended in the endless black. Its obsidian armor was broken in multiple places, fragnts floating away like dead stars.
The once-foul demon visage was swollen, torn, and burned, barely recognizable. It looked less like a god now and more like a thief caught in the act, beaten bloody before the authorities could even arrive.
Leon hovered before it, the Brightest Star at his side.
He studied the ruined figure for a mont, then spoke calmly.
"Do you still refuse to submit?"
The demon god twitched. Its body was shattered, its presence unstable. When it forced its mouth open, the words ca out in broken pauses, as though even speech resisted it now.
Its law powers no longer responded properly. Only law could affect law, and Leon and the Brightest Star had dished out enough of it to leave the embodint of imperfection barely holding together.
"I… planned… for eons…" the demon god rasped. "Only to end… like this."
Its voice trembled, not with fear, but with sothing closer to disbelief.
"Is this… how it was always ant to be?" it continued.
"Perfection… always standing above imperfection?"
Leon's eyes narrowed slightly.
The demon god's gaze shifted. One broken eye turned toward the Brightest Star, "its first daughter, born of perfection." Then its gaze moved back to Leon.
"And you," it said weakly. "The other… its embodint. Its avatar."
Leon said nothing.
Silence stretched, heavy and oppressive.
"If this is creation's answer," the demon god went on, its voice sinking lower, "if I cannot beco my true self… then it is better that I cease to exist."
At those words, a blinding light began to build within its broken form.
Leon's expression hardened.
This was the worst possible turn.
There were only supposed to be two endings. Either Leon would stop the demon god and restore balance, or he would be consud, allowing imperfection to beco perfection and erase existence itself.
But now, a third path had revealed itself.
Imperfection choosing to disappear entirely.
****
[Authors Note]
Damn I didn't see that coming.
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