Bellows's mainstay skill, 『Rule of Law』, was one of the world's most powerful unique skills, with power comparable to the Monarchs' Absolute Skills. But he had gained 『Rule of Law』 by killing the Court Archduke. In other words, the skill he had originally relied on was something else—one powerful enough to kill a top-tier player like the Court Archduke.

And at that very moment, he was using Eugene's heart as a sacrifice to activate his first unique skill.

[The heart of a descended constellation has been selected as a sacrifice.]

[The sacrifice meets the minimum value requirement.]

[Unique skill 『Sacrificial Rite』 activated.]

[You may offer the sacrifice to a constellation and request a reward worth 97% of its value. However, a sacrifice given without consent is reduced to 9.7% of its value.]

[Please select a reward.]

"Comrade, you..." Eugene coughed up a mouthful of blood. Bellows gave her a cold smile and chose one of the options floating before his eyes. "Reward selection: 『Constellation Transplant』."

THUMP.

The moment Bellows spoke, Eugene's heart began to pound in his grip. She writhed, trying to resist, but could do nothing. All she could do was watch as her heart gradually dissolved into motes of light that flowed into Bellows's hand.

"Resistance is useless. When you accepted my command, didn't you give me power over your life and death?" Bellows whispered mockingly in her ear. Then the change began. As he absorbed the motes of light, his battered body began to recover rapidly. Eugene, on the other hand, had remained unscathed through every mortal wound until now, but her face quickly drained of color.

At last, when her heart had dissolved completely, Bellows pulled his hand from the hollow in her chest and said with a sneer, "You should have obeyed my orders sooner. Then this regrettable business could have been avoided."

"..."

Perhaps some remnant of her immortality remained. Even with her chest torn open and her heart gone, Eugene did not die. She glared fiercely at Bellows. But that was all. The wound did not heal.

As she knelt helplessly, able only to glare at him, Bellows took the hammer from her hand and smiled viciously. "Don't be too disappointed. I'll make the best possible use of your constellation."

CLANK!

After Bellows picked up the hammer, the mechanical gauntlets and boots Eugene wore detached themselves, as though replacing parts that had served their purpose, and fastened over his Greek-style armor. It was less a union than an overlay: ugly and haphazard, as though parts from entirely different toys had been forced together. Bellows didn't care. He even laid the law book he held over the armor. The book broke apart into gears and mechanical components and was absorbed into it.

[Warning! Warning!]

[Corruption rate is rising rapidly.]

[Durability of the Star Spirit Machine (星靈機) is falling rapidly.]

[The ‘Frenzied Immortal Giant’ is enraged at losing its vessel.]

[The powers of two different constellations are clashing due to the overlap of 『Constellation Descent III』 and 『Constellation Descent V』.]

[If 『Constellation Descent』 is not deactivated or 『Constellation Transplant』 is not canceled, the corruption rate may exceed the Star Spirit Machine's durability limit.]

Red messages filled his vision. The system was warning him how dangerous his actions were. Bellows could feel a burning rage, and every beat of his heart brought the sensation that his entire body might explode. Hosting the descent of two constellations exceeded even the limits of his duke-class body—all the more so because he had forced it to happen with a skill.

"Great Giant, wait." Bellows smiled despite it all. He had anticipated this when he used 『Sacrificial Rite』, and he already had a solution. "Unlike that willful sacrifice, I intend to give you the chance to rampage to your heart's content."

As he murmured to himself, Bellows raised the box he had guarded with his life through all the chaos. He reached for its tightly shut lid.

BANG!

"Tch. Why the hell'd you twist up a perfectly good space like this...?" Limon broke through a wall of Bellows's maze and trailed off. The instant he saw Eugene slumped there, looking all but dead, and Bellows transformed beyond recognition, he moved. In three strides he reached Bellows and swung for his neck. Experience with countless villains and dark mages had taught him that when an enemy was up to something suspicious, it was best to kill them first.

SLICE.

Limon's sword was as swift as his judgment and cut cleanly through Bellows's neck. "You're too late." There were two problems: Bellows hadn't died, and even with his neck severed, his hand was opening the box. As the lid swung up, Bellows seized the Violin of Deepest Black inside.

"『Special Performance Act, Enacted』."

HUMMM.

The violin sounded on its own, pouring out a chilling melody, and Bellows's armor shook violently. Like dozens of different instruments coming together as an orchestra under a conductor's direction, the gauntlets and boots he had merely forced over the armor began to resonate with the melody and fuse with it. Wires connected inside; components of every kind meshed together, even the gauntlets joining the whole. By the time those countless changes were complete, the gauntlets and boots had merged seamlessly with the armor, as though they had always been one.

Nor was it only the armor's appearance that the violin's melody had changed. Power pulsed through him, rough but steady, along with a pleasurable rage. Smiling viciously at the result he had planned for, Bellows activated another unique skill newly inscribed upon his heart. "『Avatar of Wrath』."

BOOOOM!!!

In the next instant, Bellows was split down the middle, and Limon, who had struck during his transformation, was sent flying by the hammer. The result was mutual destruction. Ordinarily, Bellows, cleaved from crown to groin, and Limon, struck by the hammer, should both have died on the spot. But what followed was neither blood nor corpses.

RUMBLE!

Bellows was whole again in the blink of an eye, as though he had never been split in two. He slammed his hammer into the floor. Hundreds of stone pillars burst up like spears and blades through a crack that spread far ahead from the point of impact. Limon cut through them like weeds and struck Bellows again. As though splitting him in two would no longer suffice, his blade flashed hundreds of times at a speed that could have split light itself, chopping Bellows's body into tens of thousands of pieces. But it lasted only an instant. Before the sword strikes were even finished, Bellows revived and his hammer swept through the air.

Limon struck Bellows's knee with his sword, throwing him off balance. Just as he moved to swing again through the opening left by the missed hammer—

[『Prohibition of Carrying Swords Act, Legislated』.]

His sword suddenly grew unbearably heavy and tried to slip from his hand. He held on by force. It took only an instant to cut through the invisible law binding his sword, but in that brief opening, the hammer shot toward his chest like a cannonball. Rather than dodge, Limon made one slow, graceful stroke, as though cutting a petal fallen on water. His sword split Bellows in two, and the hammer struck him squarely, flinging him backward like a sheet of paper.

THUD!

Limon had moved back with the blow and let ninety-six percent of its force flow past him. Even so, the remaining four percent hurled him twenty paces into a wall, which his body half demolished. He wiped his mouth with one hand, saw the blood on it, and immediately frowned. "What the f—?"

As Limon swore, Bellows charged with his hammer. It was a simple charge, like a boar's, but his terrifying strength and speed shattered the floor beneath every step. Limon clicked his tongue and was about to respond when a calm voice rang out: "『Accuracy Correction』, 『Projectile Acceleration』, 『Weapon Manifestation』."

BOOM!

A heavy shell sent Bellows flying. Lee Cheon-gi had finally made it through the maze and immediately used his skills. Hitting Bellows in one shot, without aiming, while he charged at a speed too fast for the eye to follow—it was a feat worthy of a Monarch.

"You idiot...!" Instead of admiring Lee's skill, Limon swore. In the next instant, Bellows appeared behind Lee Cheon-gi and swung his hammer. Limon stepped between them. His sword met the hammer as gently as the flutter of a butterfly's wings calming a storm, then sent it flying back twice as fast in the opposite direction. The hammer crushed Bellows's head.

BANG!

Perhaps being struck by his own attack had taken a greater toll. Though his head regenerated in an instant, Bellows staggered instead of acting immediately as before. Limon used the opening to grab Lee Cheon-gi by the collar and fling him toward Yo U-in and the Ink Dragon Unit, who had arrived just then.

"Sword Lord?"

"What do you think you're doing?"

Lee Cheon-gi, abruptly thrown, and Yo U-in, who caught him, were both dumbfounded. Limon paid them no mind and called out coldly, "Stay out of it. He's not yours to fight."

"... Are you telling us to stand aside because we'd only get in your way?"

"Yes."

His immediate answer left Yo U-in and the Ink Dragon Unit visibly bewildered.

It would be one thing to say that about anyone else. But to dismiss a Monarch—one of the absolute beings of this age—as useless in a fight sounded insane. Fortunately, Lee Cheon-gi took it calmly. Another Monarch would not have held back his anger. "That man's power is certainly unusual right now, but I don't believe I'd get in your way," Lee said, raising a measured objection. After all, he was confident he could have blocked Bellows's attack from behind a moment ago.

"No. You would." Limon was certain. He wasn't saying it merely to insult Lee Cheon-gi because he couldn't stand him. He was convinced that without his intervention, Lee would have died on the spot—or at the very least suffered an injury nearly as grave.

Was it Bellows's frightening increase in strength and speed? His immortality, surpassing even Eugene's moments before? His madness-filled eyes and ferocious presence? All of those played a part, of course. But Limon had another reason to be wary of him. The others could look straight at Bellows and never notice it. Only Limon, after his long life and his experience cutting down even dragons and the Demon God, could recognize the one thing that made him bristle.

"If you've never fought a god, stay the fuck back."

He spoke in a growl as he watched Bellows, who radiated a distinct divinity far beyond the power of a mere constellation.