It wasn't much of a surprise that it had some form of intelligence, but the ability to speak meant it was of a higher level than initially thought.

After it evaded his initial strike, he pivoted around, relinquishing the devilish-made sword and instead turning it into a hammer made out of the same, dark energy.

'I need to expand my range!' Asher thought.

As he slammed the hammer down against the ground, a repeating shock wave emitted, ripping the grass from the soil and blasting the Speed Demon back. It was a property infused into the hammer that embodied far-reaching power: "Sonic Impact".

The only problem with using such a powerful property with his Devil Force was that a portion of it bounced back to Asher, causing his arms to bounce up from the aftershock.

"Ngh!"

Even if it came with a drawback, he gritted through it as he caught himself, gripping the handle of the giant, demonic hammer and swinging it directly against the air itself just as the blurred demon rushed him.

Hitting the wind, the hammer emitted a massive blast of shock waves that rippled through the section of the forest, tearing through the bulk of trees and catching the Speed Demon in the erupting force.

'It's working! It hasn't adjusted to the shock waves yet!' He thought.

It was risky, but he reshaped the hammer into a pair of gauntlets again, still inhabiting the property of "Sonic Impact"—the shape and reach of the hammer made the recoil mitigated, but the gauntlets brought that force closer to him.

The trade off, however, were much faster attacks. As he dashed through the trees with the swiftness of a bolt of lightning, he caught up to the demon that had been flung back.

Unleashing a rapid set of blows, the metallic, sleek fiend dodged the direct punches flawlessly, though the resulting shock waves caught it, once more pummeling it with the delayed impacts.

"..Deceptive!" The Speed Demon hissed.

It was surprisingly sturdy for an elusive creature, though its metallic skin began to be dented from the repeated, intangible attacks. Asher didn't let him, swinging his gauntlets relentlessly as his arms began to bruise from the continuous recoil.

"Ghh!" He winced.

One of the blows seemed to cross a threshold of his limb's integrity as his entire left arm jolted back, bruising to a deep purple as the shock wave smacked both him and the Speed Demon back.

'I need to finish this now!' Asher thought.

They had been dashing through the vast forest the entire time, blitzing through critters and burning the grass in their path through the sheer force of their run.

Asher altered the property of his boot with "Sonic Impact" as well before stomping down, emitting the powerful force that caused the demon to stumble briefly.

It was an opening that was perfect for him as he placed all of his strength into his fist, sending it forward for one, final blow:

"Speed is king."

Those words trailed from the grinning mouth of the infamous demon as it suddenly vanished from the direction of the punch.

"—!"

Asher threw his fist forward, missing completely as the all-out shock wave tore through dozens of trees, uprooting a chunk of nature before him.

As he turned around slowly, he found his eyes laying upon an altered appearance of the Speed Demon.

A metamorphosis had occurred; the metallic skin of the fiend had changed into a black-and-blue tint with two more horns sprouting from its head, resulting in four total as cyan electricity coiled around its body.

"You're.."

Asher recognized it at the moment; there were two legends from his homeland of Ennage—the continent of demons—that were both realized to be one and the same at that moment.

The "Speed Demon" was also a more nefarious, legendary entity known as the "Horned King of Brutality". Those four horns made it clear to Asher, along with the lanky physique of the demon.

[Mythical Legend: "The Speed King of Brutality"]

'Why is something like this here..?' He questioned.

Even with his heightened perception, he couldn't see what happened—the altered Speed King vanished before his eyes before dozens of impacts slammed against his body.

"Speed is king," the figure repeated.

The Devilheart's armor cracked all over as he dropped to a knee, feeling the swift blows ache throughout his body.

'This speed, it's..' Asher thought.

—

In an attempt to find Asher, Emilio, along with the others, stumbled upon tall, snow-white walls of a castle that seemed to sprout out of nowhere from the veil of fog.

"A castle?" Joel questioned.

"Did we go the wrong way?" Blimpo asked, sniffing the air as if he would gain some sense of direction from doing so.

Emilio was stunned at the sight of the exuberant castle that felt out of place amidst the misty forest, though it was mainly for one reason: the knowledge imbued into his brain from biting the illustrious apple told him one, important thing–this was the castle that guarded the Quandary Gate.

"This is it," Emilio said quietly, audibly speaking his thoughts.

"It's what?" Joel asked.

Vandread seemed to know what he meant, looking up at the massive walls which had black flags cascading down their height, "This is the 'destination'."

"Hrm, this big castle? Well..What should we do, then?" Blimpo asked, rubbing his chin.

"Yeah, I mean..This is where we need to go, right? But Asher is still out there fighting," Joel said.

"That's right," Emilio agreed, "We can't go yet. If Asher is defeated..It's a fate worse than death here if you "die" twice. Right, Blimpo?"historical

The elf nodded slowly, "You'll turn into a husk if that happens. Not a very pleasant experience, from what I've seen."

Though the "finish line" couldn't possibly be any closer, and with the elusive nature of the misty forest of checkered trees that could make finding the castle again difficult, the choice was made to find Asher.

"Alright, let's–"

Just as Emilio turned around with the intent of searching for his friend, he suddenly found himself surrounded by new scenery.

"...Huh?"

In that singular instance, he was transported seamlessly, finding his senses taking a second to adjust to what had just happened. It wasn't just him; as he looked to the side, he found that Vandread and Blimpo were with him, but not Joel.

"What the?" The elf let out.

They were standing within a checkered chamber; tiles of black-and-white that were immaculately shiny with lavish paintings hanging from quartz walls and a dazzling chandelier above.

"This is.." Emilio realized.

As he looked towards what lay at the back of the vast, royal chamber, he witnessed a mythical gate that seemed to contain a supernatural force. He recognized this instantly.

'The Quandary Gate!' He thought.

"We're here! This is it!" Emilio shouted, though for some reason felt a bubbling dread, "...But where did Joel end up?"

"This is it? Did we go inside of the castle?" Vandread questioned.

Though the opportunity for questions to be asked was cut short as the aura of a dreadful figure felt like a heavy gravity; across the royal chamber, standing from a throne was a man with skin as pale as snow.

He had a sable crown with a pitch-black halberd that stood in contrast to his bleached skin, looking towards the three with his two, different colored eyes.

"This is my royal chamber and the last obstacle before the Quandary Gate," the mysterious figure stated before slamming his halberd down with an echoing force, "However, none of you shall reach it–not on my authority as the King of Spades."

"'The King of Spades'?" Emilio repeated.

"It's him," Vandread quietly remarked, unsheathing his daggers and wielding them with fighting intent.

It was jarring, but it seemed as though the enemy had brought the fight straight to them. Emilio could feel the palpable animosity that exuded from the man who called himself the "King of Spades"--an anomalous figure who stood there like revered royalty.

"Why're you standing in my way?" Emilio asked.

There was no hesitation in activating his system as he prepared himself, allowing the tough, reinforced scales to stretch over his body as the heat rose throughout his body.

[Dragonheart System Activated]

[Current Stage: 3/10 | Dragon Warrior]

The King of Spades looked almost perpetually bored, answering in his gentle, but overpowering voice, "It is the will of the Primordials. I serve as the guardian of the Quandary Gate; death is a permanence that cannot be defied–that is an absolute truth."

"The Primordials? It's always them," Emilio muttered in frustration, squeezing the handle of his sword.

It seemed that confrontation with the snow-white king was unavoidable as the figure slowly marched across the checkered floor with his ominous halberd in hand, which had a reach that looked well over three meters.

"Leave this to me," Emilio said, "Find a way out of here and look for Asher. I have a bad feeling about the enemy he's fighting."

"Bad feeling?! Do you not see the guy you're trying to fight alone?! What about you?" Blimpo asked.

"I've got this," Emilio assured the elf, keeping his eyes locked on the King of Spades.

Though it didn't seem there would be any need to convince his comrades to leave the foe to him as the King of Spades raised a hand upward before emitting powerful words from his lips.

"Do not worry about your comrades–I already have somebody willing to handle them," the King of Spades said, "Come, First Hero."

The words used by the King of Spades seemed to carry a supernatural power of their own as a mystical light spawned in front of him before–"somebody" appeared.

'First Hero?' Emilio thought.

Manifesting before the malevolent guardian was a man with shaggy, long hair of a crimson shade with both eyes covered by a black blindfold and one arm kept in a sling. The single arm the man had free held a pitch-black steel sword. The mysterious figure held a simple smile, resting his sword against his shoulder.

The outfit the man wore resembled that of a yukata from eastern culture; made of gray-and-black fabric with designs of the moon decorating it.

"First Hero?...Did I hear that right?" Blimpo said in quiet disbelief.

"...Shit. This is the worst case scenario!" Vandread said.