Several minutes before...

Standing inside the main hall of Star Palace, everyone stared at the floating panel in front of them with mixed emotions.

People looked excited, furious, happy, and most importantly... hopeful!

After witnessing the strength of the Rotrid and also getting to see her current Avatar Status, people seemed to lose hope and were even ready to cause ruckus and chaos all around the world.

Some even began to do so by robbing shops, beating up others, or simply destroying buildings, but luckily, because President Bai seemed to predict that things at some point in time will escalate to such heights, he was able to keep things under his control.

Or at least, to be more precise, prevent them from escalating even further.

However, there was no such thing as absolute, especially not when the world seemed to come to an end.

After the initial state of where things seemed to be under President Bai's control, more people started to lose their faith and start mayhem, giving the United World League more and more headaches.

However, just when things seemed to be getting out of hand and all hell was on the verge of breaking loose, a miracle happened.

Raven, who all this time seemed to have no chance against his enemy, after all, their difference in Rank and the fighting experience was massive, was able to showcase a strength that told everyone that success perhaps was truly not that impossible!

Once again, people began to believe and hope, some going all the way to start praying as if he was a God or a messiah who could save them.

And it seemed their prayers worked as not long after Raven met with the Rotrid for the second time, he was almost able to claim victory!

At that point, a lot of people started to cheer and cry tears of happiness... only to be faced with the harsh reality just a second later.

The very moment Raven failed to land his finishing blow, everything turned upside down.

In just a matter of a few seconds, Raven lost his two arms, lost his weapon, and sustained several broken bones, while he was also thrown and cornered at the edge of a massive pit from where he could not run anywhere.

Just in that short duration, he lost miserably...

Of course, while people knew deep within that it was not Raven's fault that he lost, since the gap in both their Ranks, Artifacts, and especially in the amount of fighting experience they had was just massive, people still cursed him and began to hate him.

After all, such behavior was only the nature of humans...

Naturally, some people didn't do such things. Others, like Luna or Old Dan, still tried to hope, but from their teary eyes even a fool could understand that they clearly knew what reality was, they were just stubborn to accept it.

"...So this is the end, huh?" leaning back into his chair, President Bai held his head with trembling hands and let out a heavy sigh.

And just like that, for the first time in human history, a never before seen mayhem broke out between humans...

People began to kill each other or commit suicide, women and men alike were raped, and buildings got robbed before being demolished completely!

Complete chaos broke out at every point on Earth, and to make things even worse than they already were, wild and natural calamities swallowed the seemingly whole planet!historical

Large tides, forest fires, avalanches, lightning, and thunder-filled storms in hundreds of miles of radius appeared almost everywhere, thousands if not tens of thousands of people dying with each passing second!

Things really seemed to come to an end, and humanity, now for real, was slowly but surely approaching the point of no return.

"It's... It's not... It's not over yet!" feeling mixed emotions such as fury, helplessness, and sorrow, Luna clenched her teeth and dig her nails into her palm, stubbornly trying to deny reality.

'This is not it! This can't be it! It's not the end! I refuse to accept it!'

"Master Dan..." stepping beside Old Dan while looking at Luna with a sad look, Thomas sighed and said, "We should get going."

Glancing at his butler who served him for several decades, Old Dan nodded and placed a palm atop his daughter's shoulder.

"Luna... We must go. This place is no longer safe and you know that too."

Upon hearing her father's words, Luna clenched her teeth and fingers even more, however, once she heard the screams and commissions outside the hall, she was forced to accept the truth.

Raven has lost, and with his seemingly inevitable death, unknown how or when, they will be next.

Thus, although it hurt to accept it, after all, there were still a lot of things she wished to say to him, if she wished to survive she had no choice but to do as her father said.

'Only if I could have helped him...'

Meanwhile, inside the hall, Etia sucked on her lollipop with a rather intrigued expression, seemingly enjoying the show happening before her.

"Haha! Look at all of them! Running around like rats on a sinking ship, trying to save their asses! Haha!" laughing with mockery, Worus slapped the table while a wide grin formed on his face.

"The only difference is, that rats won't kill, much less **** each other when their lives are in danger." a beautiful goddess with a body covered in plants spoke, her gaze filled with contempt and disdain as he stared at the scenery presented within the floating orb.

"Moreover, it is not like they will die right away if that human dies, right, Lady Etia?" another goddess, with a crystal-like body asked with a soothing voice, her calm and crystal clear eyes glancing toward Etia.

Feeling the stares on her skin, Etia took her lollipop out of her mouth and nodded.

"That is right. If that human dies, his race won't die right away."

"Then what will happen? Isn't the core of this challenge salvation or complete annihilation?" another God, with a body that was half ablaze with blue fire while the other half was frozen in crimson ice asked with confusion.

And it was not only him, but it seemed the majority of the Gods and Goddesses within the hall felt puzzled.

After all, as far as they could understand it, the challenge of Heaven or Hell meant that only one race can remain alive.

Yet, after hearing the words of both Etia and the beautiful goddess, it seemed it was not the case at all.

Seeing the confusion in the eyes of the other gods, Etia sighed and said, "Heaven or Hell is a challenge where only one race can remain alive depending on the outcome of the battle that is fought by the strongest individual from both sides. That is an absolute fact."

"The victor will give their race another chance to keep living, just like one gets another chance in heaven after death."

Then, showing a devilish smile, Etia continued, "However, the side which losses won't die right away. No, they will die pathetically slow, just like in hell."

Whispers broke out within the hall before a God with an octopus-like head asked, "And Lady Etia, how exactly will they die?"

"How? It's easy. All the Realm Gates and Realm Domain in their worlds will turn Black and open, through which waves of High Ranked monsters and beasts will rush in and wipe their numbers out."

And just as she was ready to keep speaking, suddenly her body froze.

"Huh?"

-

-

-

Back to the present.

While kneeling on the ground with blood flowing down from his mouth and nostrils, Raven tried to process the things that happened, but he didn't have to think for a long while.

It was pretty much obvious what happened.

With the pillar of black light behind his back, something exploded out from within it and that something crashed into Paloma's copy.

Whatever that something was, that was the thing that killed the copy and not him nor a monster.

'But if that is true... Why does she look so... Confused?' Raven pondered silently as he tried to ignore the assaulting pain in his body.

"I-Impossible... But... How?" Paloma began to murmur silently, but soon enough she shifted her gaze at Raven, now her eyes filled with fury.

"Hey! fucking trash! What the hell did you do?!"

"Huh?"

"Don't fucking 'huh' to me!" Paloma yelled with anger and without hesitation three her spear at Raven, which as a result pierced his abdomen.

"Blaergh!"

Blood quickly surged out of his mouth in large amounts right after that, however, unknown how he was still alive.

"Y-You... Bitch... Bleargh!" trying to speak but to no avail, Raven watched as Paloma appeared before him like a ghost and after grabbing him by his collar, she lifted him from the ground.

"Give it back! Give me back my Artifact right in this fucking instant!"