System's POV

"Goddess, have pity on your chosen one," Neil muttered as he raised his sword toward the sky. "Grant me the power to smite all evil!"

A radiant light descended from the heavens and landed on the blade of Neil's sword, making it shine brighter than ever.

"Go, My Hero!"

The voice of the Goddess reached Neil's ears, encouraging him to charge at Thirteen with a suicide attack.

Thirteen stood with his arms crossed over his chest, looking at Neil with indifference.

Neil's body surged forward, every wound on his body igniting with holy light as if pain itself had been turned into power.

His battered frame carried him like a meteor, and the heavens seemed to answer his desperate resolve.

"Radiant Judgment!" Neil roared, thrusting his holy sword forward.

The world shook.

A colossal beam of pure, blinding light erupted from his blade, cutting through the ruined city like the wrath of heaven itself.

Stone disintegrated, the ground cracked open, and the pressure of the attack made even the Valkyries grab Medea and Morwen, taking both of them to safety.

"Heroes really like fancy moves," Thirteen muttered as the radiant beam of light shot in his direction.

He didn't bother to move from where he stood, simply grabbing something from the Vault of Heaven.

A loud explosion erupted as Neil's final, desperate attack clashed with the System of Cannon Fodders.

Nearly a fifth of the city had been razed from that attack, including the city walls that were obliterated from the overflow of the Holy Light Neil had unleashed.

The Hero fell on one knee, as he used his sword to support his body.

As he panted for breath, he gazed in the direction where his enemy stood a while ago.

And from the smoke that was rising from the ground, something golden caught his eye.

With a flap of Thirteen's wings, the surrounding smoke dispersed, revealing his unscathed form.

The young man was holding a shield, deemed to be one of the strongest ever created.

It was none other than Aegis, the shield that embodied divine protection itself.

Since what Neil used was the power of the divine, Aegis was the perfect counter to it.

Despair and disbelief flashed in Neil's eyes at the sight of his opponent suffering not a single scratch from his desperate attack.

But before he could even say anything, Thirteen threw his shield, which then collided with Neil's head, making it snap backward.

The young man collapsed on the ground, unconscious and near death.

Morwen sobbed in the arms of the Valkyrie when she saw the man she loved was defeated by the monster their party had created.

If she could turn back time, she would have definitely killed Thirteen and Kate in the cavern where they found them, preventing this tragedy from happening again.

Unfortunately, there were no ifs in this world.

She lost the chance, and with it, she lost her freedom as well.

Theron and Sylas had been turned to ashes by Neil's attack because they were in its way.

In fact, if the Valkyries didn't take Medea and Morwen away, they might have also died due to how powerful the Hero's last attack was.

Thirteen walked towards the fallen Hero, each step firm and steady.

When he was only a few meters away, a ray of light descended from the heavens and landed in front of him.

"Don't kill him," the Goddess Valoria said, her voice cracking in anxiety.

"You have no power over me," Thirteen replied as he continued to walk towards Neil.

"No!" Valoria shouted, finally understanding that Thirteen was really planning to kill her chosen Hero. "He mustn't be killed! It is not his time to die! He hasn't played his role!"

"Then you should've chosen a better Hero." Thirteen didn't give a hoot to the Goddess and pushed her aside as if she was nothing but a random stranger blocking his path.

"No! You mustn't kill him! You mustn't!" The Goddess used her body to shield Neil in an act of desperation, hoping the System of Cannon Fodders would reconsider. "You mustn't kill the innocent!"

Thirteen looked down on the Goddess, who was desperately protecting the Hero with her body.

"Kate was pregnant," Thirteen declared, the rage in his chest once again flared like a raging inferno. "That child was innocent. Did you do anything to save them? Don't preach and tell me not to kill the innocent!"

"It is regrettable that it happened." The Goddess flinched at Thirteen's merciless gaze. "But it is the will of heaven. No one can break it. No—it must not be broken!"

"Watch me." Thirteen said icily as he grabbed Gaebolg from the Vault of Heaven.

The barbed spear was said to give the most pain when it pierced a person's body, ensuring certain death.

No one had managed to survive after getting pierced by the spear, earning it a place among the most deadly weapons ever created.

Without batting an eye, Thirteen stabbed his spear through the Goddess' back, intending to pierce right through her.

And just as he expected, the spear pierced past her body, all the way to Neil's chest, directly into his heart.

"You… how could you," the Goddess Valoria looked hatefully at Thirteen. "Just because of a girl, you decided to challenge what Fate has decreed?"

"Don't worry, she's next on my list." Thirteen sneered. "Also, she's not just any random girl. Her name is Kate, and I'll make sure this world remembers it well."

"You will regret this!" the Goddess Valoria said as her avatar slowly turned into particles of light.

"No." Thirteen replied. "It is YOU who will regret it."

The Goddess glared hatefully at him until her avatar disappeared completely.

Her real body was still in the Celestial Realm, and she merely borrowed a temporary body to try reasoning with Thirteen.

However, the System understood that the Gods of the world had restrictions placed against them, so they were unable to descend fully.

Still, even if they had descended, he still didn't give a damn.

Even if he died, he would return to this world over and over again, doing everything in his power to destroy it.

And when that happened, the Goddess would no longer have the strength to descend a second time, for she would have to deal with the backlash for breaking the rules of the Celestial Realm.

Thirteen then looked down on Neil, who finally breathed his last. The Hero's eyes were wide open, looking at the sky as if he couldn't accept his fate.

Thirteen grabbed a sword from the Vault of Heaven and unceremoniously cut off Neil's head from his body.

Even though the Hero had already died, he wanted the Goddess to know that not even death was enough for his rage to subside.

"Take them to the palace," Thirteen ordered before grabbing Neil's head, tossing it in his dimensional storage.

He then took the Holy Sword from the ground and sheathed it on its scabbard.

The Holy Sword was the symbol of the Hero and contained the divinity of the Goddess, Valoria.

Thirteen had already decided to interfere with the fate of this world, and he would bring it down, not caring even if the Celestial Realm were to rise in arms to attack him.

He felt like there was a hole in his heart, which didn't exist in the past. The pain and grief he felt at the moment made him want to fight anyone who blocked his path, whether they be men, Demigods, or the Gods themselves.

"I guess this world will not have a happily-ever-after," Thirteen muttered as he flew toward the palace.

There was one final thing that he needed to do before the world witnessed the birth of a new Demon Lord, who would pull down the Goddess Valoria from the Celestial Realm, and make her kneel in front of him and apologize for ruining his human life, which had just barely started.