It was like a computer suddenly crashing—what caused it?
First of all, the destructive force brought on by the Demon King's railgun was far too sudden and exceeded Icarus' expectations.
Her calculations stalled like a human brain stunned by shock, and since the core area was the one damaged, any attempt at rebooting or reloading became momentarily sluggish.
Though she was destroyed to such an extent, it still wasn't enough to completely shut down Ikaros' functions. After all, this thing wasn't a product of modern science. It's not like a computer that can't power on once the CPU is damaged.
This was a magical construct—it would have to be completely obliterated in an instant to be truly destroyed.
And so, just as the magical sub-processing zones of the remaining parts were about to begin the reboot, the Demon King had already taken advantage of that brief moment to escape the iron sand and reach Icarus.
In that instant, Icarus, having lost her Absolute Defense Barrier [Aegis], appeared in the Demon King's eyes like a completely exposed girl—utterly defenseless. Under his vicious gaze, his body erupted in lightning, instantly enveloping Icarus completely.
Of course, this pure lightning attack couldn't destroy Icarus.
The true purpose of the lightning was to create magical electronic interference—akin to a hacker attack—flooding her with so much junk data that her systems began to lag and freeze.
This was Icarus' current condition.
"Rostar."
"Rostar."
"Rostar."
Twisted, tormented souls roared at the Demon King, eyes filled with venomous hatred as they rushed toward him, aiming to tear flesh from bone. The blend of their corrupted spirits was like black sludge, threatening to swallow the Demon King whole.
At the same time, the strong aura of corruption and evil they emitted triggered a phenomenon: the evil aura polluted the energy particles in the air—so much so that even sunlight was tainted.
Within moments, the area around Icarus spanning several kilometers was engulfed in what looked like miasma seeping from hell itself, making the scene horrifyingly eerie.
"This is bad—if this evil spreads, the affected area will become a demonic zone. Aqua!"
"I didn't hear that! I didn't hear that! I'm not going back down there! Find another goddess to purify it!"
Such a childish tantrum-like response made Lucoa sigh. It's not like they were asking her to go right this instant—just to deal with it afterward.
"Even without going down, I can feel it! That's terrifying! It'll kill me! No way I'm doing that!"
Even from the perspective of others, just seeing the countless twisted, squirming souls made Aqua's scalp tingle. If they were to rush her, she'd probably wet herself from fear.
These weren't ordinary corrupted human souls—these were beings on the level of gods from other worlds. Purifying them might take hundreds of years.
No way was she going to become some glorified water filter.
Besides, nothing's been resolved yet. Let the Demon King be dealt with first—along with that rampaging machine.
The next moment—
"YIYI—!!!"
A strange shriek came from Aqua, who, even while still in the Divine Realm, trembled uncontrollably.
Not just her—even Megumi was affected, and that was with shielding in place.
At that moment, Lucoa, Tohru, the Hero Emilia, and even other gods watching through their own champions all sucked in a breath.
The corrupted souls—black sludge threatening to swallow the Demon King—were instantly swallowed in return by the darkness he unleashed.
What kind of terrifying darkness was this?!
In an instant, Icarus was entirely immersed in it. That darkness shot terrifying black light pillars into the sky, as if piercing holes through the atmosphere.
Without a doubt, it was a darkness capable of consuming the entire world at unimaginable speeds. The waves of evil it emitted stabbed like ice needles into everyone witnessing it.
Despite also being darkness, it gave off a completely different feeling—where the corrupted souls' darkness felt impure and murky, the Demon King's darkness was pure… purely evil.
Then came sharp, twisted wails that echoed endlessly—like you'd entered the cruelest layer of hell where countless punished souls were screaming in agony.
"Want to eat me? Then eat your fill!!!"
That cold, mocking voice came from the Demon King.
If he were merely Rostar Ignatius, then perhaps the darkness of his soul alone might've just been enough to feed those creatures. But he carried the power of ninety-nine worlds with him—this wasn't simple addition.
So, he forcefully stuffed that darkness into them.
This is what it means to be stuffed to death. Each one of them inflated like overblown bubbles… and finally burst.
Dying that way might've been a mercy. But before they exploded, the overwhelming darkness exceeded what their twisted souls could bear.
It was like being dunked into molten lava—far worse than burning—causing their souls to continuously melt away in agony.
Shifting his gaze from these howling pieces of garbage to the seemingly broken Icarus, the Demon King planned to store her inside the Demon King's Ring. But first, he decided to take over her control authority.
From his lightning-marked eye, countless fine threads of current extended into Icarus—initiating a kind of hacking intrusion.
At that moment, Icarus' data model appeared in his mind, all internal structures laid bare. It seemed that with the passing of time, she had undergone some changes… evolution, perhaps?
Wait, what's that?
He noticed something at the damaged site—there was a slightly deformed limb, like something had tried to reposition itself internally during the attack but still got grazed.
It looked like… a mechanical angel.
Wait again—that position looked like a cockpit? When did he ever design something like that? And why was that mechanical angel piloting it?
His consciousness moved in—and in that moment, he scanned the mechanical angel entirely into his mind.
And then… he froze.
In that moment, the cold, heartless Demon King showed a hint of emotional disturbance.
Icarus hadn't obeyed the corrupted souls to destroy him. In fact, quite the opposite—she had used them in an attempt to get revenge.
The essence of this was the created being's revenge against the creator who abandoned her!
In truth, Icarus was never the dragon's original name. The name originally belonged to someone else entirely.