''Something is definitely wrong!''


    Webb realised that something had gone terribly wrong but before he could even speak, the heroesunched thebination spell at Pride.


    "Launch!"


    Thebination magic created by the thirty-seven surviving heroesunched toward Pride as they blitzed towards her at lightning speed.


    At thest moment, right before the light of the explosion enveloped her, Webb locked eyes with the demon smiling to herself as if she was trying to hold back herughter.


    ***BOOOOOMMMM!!!!!


    An explosion that released shockwaves that spread for miles urred as a giant mushroom cloud of dust and smoke rose up in the air.


    Webb didn''t even wait for the explosion to finish as he instantlyunched his bullet of lightning streams towards Pride, calling his weapon into his hands afterward as he tried to summon more magic power but coughed ck blood instead as his insides felt hot like they were burning.


    It was then that he noticed that his arm had turned ck due to demonic energy infection and his energy cirction had been affected.


    "Why didn''t I notice this earlier?!!!"


    ***DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNN!!


    Along with a deafening noise, the enormous lightning bulletid a direct hit at Pride, synergizing with the earlier fired concentratedbination of magic to create an even greater explosion.


    Clouds of dust oveyed the surroundings, and the ground trembled greatly from the intense shock caused by the attack.


    If such an attack were to be released outside this space, arge country that was hundreds of thousands of square kilometres would be reduced to nothing but a pile of rubble.


    Nevertheless, the heroes were unharmed as they were the ones who casted the spell in the first ce, giving them immunity to its destructive effects.


    The space they had created was cracked in various ces, with white light spilling into it but the heroes paid this no mind.


    They defeated Pride.


    That is what they thought as every single one of them was fixing their eyes on the ce where she was bound.


    "W-We did it…"


    One of them said a line that could not be considered anything but a g as the dust cloud began to clear up.


    A magician even used wind magic to blow away the remaining dust to confirm Pride''s death but the sight he saw shocked him to his core.


    "You should never say that."


    Once they heard the voice, they all turned pale from the shock and bewilderment. The dust cleared away and Pride''s figure standing there asposed as usual, though with the chains still bound around her became visible.


    "h-how…"


    All of them found the fact that she was still standing even after their strongest attack to be strange.


    She was clearly injured, that alone was correct. Her wounds were very serious as she had cuts, bruises, and burns all over her body.


    Her clothes were a mess and they could not be any more than rags at this point, this allowed them to indeed confirm that Pride was definitely wounded by their attacks.


    "Let me remove this now."


    Pride spoke as she poured some strength into her limbs and with a snapping sound, the chains got shattered to pieces.


    "Huh!?"


    "The chains!"


    "How is that even possible?!"


    The heroes whose job was to make sure she was restrained with said chains let out voices of surprise after each other.


    "I apud you all. You actually managed to push me this far despite having no prior knowledge of my strength.


    Your nning was meticulous and your strategy was although simple, very effective. Your individual strengths were also not low, and your choice of magic was also good.


    What''s more, you picked a member of the celestial race, one that while not directly opposed to my demon race, can still be considered our anthesis in some situations.


    For all these, I apud you. Nevertheless, it was all futile in the end.


    Despite your meticulous nning, the mere thought that you could actually win was nothing more than hubris on your part as the difference between us is far too removed.


    And since you were not aware, I would take the liberty of enlightening you pests.


    Your Pride, your self-confidence, your arrogance, and your numbers, all served to empower me while weakening you.


    Lastly, from the moment you all lost contact with reality, it was impossible to defeat me."


    Pride nodded to herself with a satisfied smile after her not-so-short speech. Normally, she would not do such a thing but she did so now to distract the stunned heroes from the fact that her injured arm was healing.


    The moment it was done healing, she ended her speech and deactivated her Pride maniption skill, chuckling to herself as she remembered the look on the celestial hero who was fallen not far from their location when he realised something was wrong.


    She looked at the description of the skill responsible for all this silently before turning her head in the direction of the celestial hero who was dragging his sword towards her while coughing ck blood.


    |Pride Maniption;


    Type: Rare Active Skill


    With this skill, the incarnation of Pride can induce extremely high or low levels of Pride in others, causing them to lose contact with reality and either overestimate or underestimate themselves and their abilities. In some cases, it is possible to make them misjudge things like energy levels and degree of injuries.


    Cannot be applied to Oneself. |


    She locked eyes with the wounded celestial hero before speaking.


    "How about we..."


    Pride halted her words and lifted up her leg before continuing.


    "...end this farce."


    **BAM!


    She struck the leg she was lifting on the ground which caused a giant purple magic circle to form under her feet.


    The circle rapidly erged and surrounded all the heroes. Everyone watched over the circle and waited to see what will happen next. The next moment—


    "W-What!!?"


    "M-My body…!!"


    "It''s heavy…?!"


    They suddenly felt as if a massive weight had been ced on top of them.


    Even the strongest one of them, the celestial hero, crumbled on his knees, unable to bear the weight.


    The other heroes also followed him and fell to the ground.


    The first exnation they woulde out with would probably be that Pride used gravitational magic. However, she had used no such thing.


    It was a simple curse that made the enemy feel heavy. It influenced everyone who was inside the magic circle except for the one who casted it; that was her in this case.


    She shrugged her shoulders as a pair of jet-ck wings appeared behind her and she began floating into the air.


    When she reached a height where she could look down at them all, she released multiple types of magic from my body.


    "Let''s finish this in a shy way."


    The five types of magic emanating from her body, starting with the ones she was most proficient with; Fire and Wind.


    Next were the other attributes she could use despite herck of affinity, water, earth, and darkness, which gradually grew more intense in power.


    In the next few moments, a pentagon formed from fivences of various colours; red, green, blue, brown and ck surrounded the group of heroes by piercing the ground.


    "And... the End."


    The fivences released different types of magic to the top of the centre of the pentagon formation andbined them there, giving birth to a giant mass of magic power.


    The fear in Webb and the heroes cracked up as they watched the mass of magic growingrger. With their bodies pushed down against the ground, all that they could do was receive her attack without being able to defend for themselves.


    Neither of them had theposure to think of a way to use their magic and block it.


    **BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!


    The merciless hammer of defeat struck down the heroes.


    The concentrated mass of magic was entirely released at the heroes who were stuck inside. The ground still trembled violently due to the shock and dust covered Pride''s field of vision as she descended back to the ground.


    ◇ ◇ ◇


    A few minutester, Pride could be seen in the middle of the verdant green field she was originally in, her torn clothes reced with an oversized casual gray shirt and a pair of ck trousers.


    She sat on the ground in silence, a book in her hand as she flipped through the pages casually.


    Surrounding her, one could see dozens of mangled corpses that were either burnt ck by mes, shredded by wind, or riddled with holes by earth.


    The group of forty heroes over level 750 had been wiped put by the demon who was seated in the middle of their corpses while reading.


    "Hmmm?"


    Pride noticed another presence in the field and looked up to see the figure of a pale-skinned man in a brown suit with a simrly coloured overcoat hanging from his shoulders walking towards her with a smile on his face.


    "You never change, do you?"