THE VILLAIN'S POV Chapter 712: Until the Last Breath Between Us (1)

The temple was obliterated...

An expansive territory that resembled a miniature city, the very place where Frey Starlight had resided for years following his reincarnation...

was leveled in an instant, erased from the world by a solitary, devastating blow.

A titanic explosion ignited the dark heavens, signaling the dawn of a fresh nightmare.

The brilliance of the detonation hung in the air for several agonizing seconds before it finally dimmed, exposing a massive graveyard of debris—the pulverized remains of the temple’s structures and facilities scattered across the earth.

Amidst the wreckage, a heavy slab of concrete was shoved aside as a figure rose unsteadily to his feet.

It was Frey.

He had used his own frame to shield Ada, who lay beneath him...

his back was now marked by a deep, gore-filled wound, charred and torn apart by the force of the blast.

However, his flesh immediately began to knit itself back together through automatic regeneration.

Pushing himself upward, Frey turned his gaze toward the sky.

"Of all the moments... they decide to strike now?"

He hissed the words, his voice thick with irritation, just as Nameless issued an immediate alert:

"Multiple powerful adversaries are closing in on us."

"I already gathered that much..." Frey snapped back, while Ada slowly sat upright behind him, her arms still locked around Carmen’s lifeless form.

"Frey... what just occurred?"

"We are being raided, Ada. Do not leave my side from this second onward. And drop Carmen’s corpse... she is gone, and clinging to her is useless."

He did not spare her a glance. His vision was locked onto the sky, searching for the origin of the strike.

Ada paused in hesitation. She was unwilling to release Carmen’s body.

Carmen remained there... cold and unmoving in her embrace, with a bloody, hollow ruin where her chest used to be.

There was no doubt she was dead.

Yet Ada wished to provide her a decent burial at the very least...

it was the final kindness she could grant. Carmen had perished in misery, especially after being forced to watch Frey execute her son right before her eyes.

Regardless of her many sins, she had wanted him to survive...

and Ada was unable to put that out of her mind.

Frey grasped her emotions perfectly...

but he disregarded Carmen’s final desire without a second thought.

Now, Carmen was nothing more than a shell...

and Frey fully intended to abandon it without remorse.

Though Ada viewed this as heartless, she was not foolish.

They stood upon a field of battle, pursued by lethal foes.

She was already a weight for Frey to carry... let alone a second body.

Thus, with a heavy heart, she set Carmen’s remains down and moved close to Frey. She appeared completely shattered... yet she realized she lacked any alternatives. She was far too powerless to alter the situation.

In the meantime...

A fierce, stellar luminescence erupted around Frey as he channeled the maximum destructive power of the Black Hole Aura.

"This is going to be troublesome," Frey whispered with a tense grin...

as their pursuers finally stepped into the light.

Two figures drifted in the heavens, illuminated by the moonlight and the distorted shimmer of the fractured moon.

Their sheer presence was suffocating—

particularly that recognizable demon who had once filled Frey with absolute dread.

"Zibar... I didn't expect to encounter your wretched face again so soon."

Frey unsheathed the Dark Sister, while Balerion’s dark malice coiled around his arm, manifesting as a shadowed, armored limb.

His opponents were none other than:

—The Tenth Seat of the Upper Demons, Zibar.

—And Thánatos, the puppet master Gepetto, Rank 13.

Both demons let out derisive laughs as they floated down from above.

"You have a debt to pay, Frey Starlight. And do not assume luck will provide an escape this time."

Zibar popped his knuckles, his frame vibrating with savage strength...

A fierce, ruinous energy was contained beneath his massive plates of black mail...

The Katarina Armor.

"The one you face now is no mere duplicate... but the actual Tenth Upper Seat. So prepare yourself... today, you will endure more agony than you ever thought possible."

"You have a lot to say for a dog that needed to bring another demon along for backup."

Frey mocked him, shifting his weight into a defensive posture to shield Ada.

She was completely paralyzed. She couldn't shift a muscle under the oppressive weight radiating from the three demonic entities.

Frey was trapped in a horrific predicament...

not only was he outmatched, but he was also burdened with protecting Ada.

In secret, he tried to initiate teleportation to flee.

However, his foes had anticipated this—they had confined the entire zone within an aura barrier.

Frey’s teleportation relied on projecting his aura to the destination first.

But with the seal surrounding them, his aura could not penetrate their walls.

Wisker was not one to fail twice in the same way—

and this time, he had come fully equipped.

"What is the matter, Frey? Does this feel slanted? Hehehe..."

Zibar roared with laughter, gesturing toward him.

"You possess the great Nameless within you, after all. Do not blame me... this is barely a fair fight for someone of your status."

"You are using Nameless as a pathetic excuse to justify a two-on-one? I never thought the illustrious Tenth Upper Demon would be so desperate."

Frey kept up the taunts, moving slightly to the side as Gepetto began to flank him from the opposite direction.

Zibar took no offense... instead, he doubled over in laughter.

"Two against one? It appears you are the one who is confused, Frey Starlight..."

His eye flared with a terrifying glow, sending an immediate chill through Frey.

"This is three against one."

The instant those words were spoken...

a weight that could crush mountains descended upon the field...

Heridling the arrival of yet another titan.

A monster whose strength was the equal of Zibar’s...

or perhaps even greater.

Frey’s face went pale as he slowly turned to look at the masked individual who stepped out of the void, taking a position next to Gepetto.

At that moment, Frey remembered the warning Snow had given during their last clash with the Ultras...

The masked terror that had overwhelmed Snow with terrifying ease...

the being Snow had pleaded with Frey to fight alongside him against.

Now... that very monster had arrived to stand with Zibar and Gepetto.

"Just when I thought the situation couldn't get any worse... that bastard appears as well."

Trapped by three monsters, Frey stood in isolation... protecting his sister, the last precious person he had—using nothing but his own body as a shield.

It was, undeniably, a futile scenario. Forget battling all three simultaneously... he wasn't even certain he could best Zibar in a fair fight.

Frey’s intellect raced at a frantic pace, straining itself in a desperate hunt for a way out of this hell.

Since the start of his new life... he had likely never encountered a crisis this bleak.

Regardless of how hard Frey attempted to strategize, every path converged on the same result:

Utter defeat.

Nothing else remained.

In that heartbeat, Frey glanced back at Ada.

"I don’t care what becomes of me... but Ada... Ada has to get out of this alive."

Frey was well aware that his foes wouldn't kill him... taking him alive was far more valuable to them.

But for Ada... there were no such assurances.

"Think..."

He cursed his own helplessness, forcing his mind to its absolute breaking point.

"Think, damn it... how do I survive this cursed mess?"

His brain felt as if it were on fire, crushed by the magnitude of the disaster.

Frey was a prodigy... his thoughts moved at speeds far beyond any ordinary mortal.

Within a few seconds, he had calculated hundreds of potential outcomes.

Every single one ended in death.

The only possible solution was to have Nameless seize control once more...

But the masked king had flatly refused that path, leaving Frey to struggle on his own.

"Think, damn you!! How do I escape this?!"

He screamed within his mind, pouring every ounce of his instinct, his years of experience, and his power into the search for an answer.

And then...

At the very brink of his mental collapse...

Time itself seemed to go still.

An event occurred that shattered his every train of thought.

Frey’s eyes had been glued to his enemies: Zibar, Gepetto... and the cloaked figure draped in shadows.

But in a brief, fleeting instant...

the masked figure slowly pulled back his hood.