Chapter 37 – The Fall of the Executioner

The world trembled beneath their clash.

Oblivion Keep—a prison older than time itself, a place where gods had been broken and chained—was now reduced to nothing more than rubble beneath their feet.

Kuragami stood in the midst of it, his Forgotten Sword humming with unholy power, purple lightning crackling through the air around him.

Before him, Asmodeus—the Executioner of the Abyss, the Eighth Demon, the one feared even among the strongest—was bleeding.

Thick, black blood dripped from his mouth, his obsidian armor cracked, his once-imposing stance now wavering.

And yet, even in his broken state, his crimson eyes burned with something Kuragami recognized all too well.

Desperation.

Hatred.

Fear.

Kuragami slowly raised his blade, its edge gleaming in the dim abyssal light.

"Is this all?" he asked, voice calm, devoid of mockery—just cold truth.

Asmodeus gritted his teeth, gripping his sword tighter. His fingers trembled around the hilt, but still, he raised it.

"This... isn't over."

Kuragami tilted his head. How pathetic.

Asmodeus had been called the Executioner, but in this moment—he was just a man refusing to accept his own death.

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A Battle of Gods and Monsters

And yet, the abyss itself refused to let this battle end so easily.

Asmodeus lifted his hand, chanting in a language older than the stars, and the broken ruins around them responded.

Chains—black as the void, pulsing with the cries of those long forgotten—erupted from the ground.

They twisted through the air like living serpents, lunging toward Kuragami.

But he didn't move.

Didn't blink.

Didn't react.

Because there was no need.

The moment the chains touched his body—they withered into dust.

Asmodeus froze.

For the first time in his existence, the forgotten laws of the abyss had been defied.

Kuragami stepped forward, his voice nothing more than a whisper.

"I have already seen these chains before."

Asmodeus tried to move. Tried to swing his sword, to raise his defenses.

But it was too late.

Kuragami's blade flashed.

And then—silence.

A clean, effortless cut.

A single moment that defined the end of an era.

Asmodeus's eyes widened.

He looked down at his body—only to realize his torso had already been severed.

The Executioner of the Abyss, the demon who had taken the heads of thousands—was now falling into two separate pieces.

His sword slipped from his grip, clattering to the ruined ground below.

The realization hit him too late.

He had lost.

No—he had been erased.

As his vision faded into eternal darkness, his final thoughts were not of rage, not of defiance—but of horror.

Because in his last moments, he understood something.

Kuragami was no mere demon.

No warrior.

No prince.

He was something far, far worse.

And then—he was gone.

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The Silence After the Storm

Asmodeus's lifeless body crumbled into dust.

And with it, Oblivion Keep itself began to collapse.

Kuragami turned, stepping through the ruins, his face expressionless. His army—those who had followed him into this abyss—watched in stunned silence.

They had come here believing Asmodeus would be one of the greatest obstacles on their journey.

But now, they stood before a new reality—one far more terrifying.

Kuragami had not just won.

He had erased Asmodeus from existence as if he had never mattered.

A demon emperor, a ruler of the abyss—reduced to nothing more than dust beneath his feet.

This was no ordinary conquest.

This was the beginning of something much greater.

Kuragami turned to face them, his violet eyes glowing.

"Who is next?"

The question was simple.

But to those who heard it, it was nothing less than a command from the true ruler of demons.

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The Path to the Demon King

With Asmodeus defeated, only seven of the Ten Strongest Demons remained.

Their next target was Belphegor—the Demon of Endless Slaughter.

Unlike Asmodeus, Belphegor was not a ruler, not a tactician—he was a force of pure destruction.

His territory? A land soaked in blood, where war never ceased.

An eternal battlefield where the dead rose again only to kill and die once more.

A place where only the strongest could set foot.

And yet, Kuragami smiled.

This was exactly the kind of opponent he had been waiting for.

"Prepare the march," he ordered. "We head for the Battlefield of the Damned."

And so, the journey continued.

Kuragami, the Forgotten Prince, the Rebirth of the Vengeful Demon God, pressed onward.

Not just to conquer.

Not just to kill.

But to find the truth of his own existence.

To learn why he had been born in blood and fire.

And ultimately—

To take his place at the throne of the abyss.

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End of Chapter 38