After finishing everything, Ren Kuroda stood before the massive stone monument one last time. He gazed at it in silence, then left behind a single sentence before turning away.
"I never said I was the hero you've been waiting for.If anything, you and I aren't so different. We're both what people would call villains.But in this battle… I'm the one who won."
With the triple-layered Binding Art Number Ninety-Nine and the added suppression of All the World's Evil, Azuka Hakuryū would not be breaking free as easily as he once had.
Once that matter was settled, Ren turned—
Only to find himself surrounded.
At some point, an entire ring of gods and powerful beings had closed in around him.
Taishakuten. Shiroyasha. The Halloween Queen. Son Gokū.
Each of them was a Three-Digit powerhouse of Little Garden.
To put it bluntly, if not for Azuka's simulated cosmology—Avesta—any one of them could have fought him head-on alone.
And now, along with a vast assembly of gods and spirits, they encircled Ren, whose aura radiated overwhelming pressure.
Ren remained in his Hyakki Manifestation state.
His body was cloaked in deep black, swirling with drifting fragments of All the World's Evil. Behind him, two colossal star maps shone brilliantly.
In terms of sheer presence, he looked undeniably cool.
In terms of visual alignment?
He was, without question, every inch a final-boss villain.
"From the first time I met you, I knew you were destined for greatness," Shiroyasha said softly, her golden eyes filled with complicated emotion. "But even so… I never imagined you would change this much in such a short time.
"You crushed Absolute Evil by force. You became the second being capable of standing against a million gods. And now you stand before us as an unprecedented Dual Final Trial Bearer."
Of everyone present, Shiroyasha was likely the most emotional.
She had once watched Ren withstand the sun itself in her Gift Game. Back then, she had already sensed extraordinary potential in him. She had even considered passing her title of Floor Master to him someday.
But what stood before her now was no longer merely a promising young man.
He had grown—absurdly fast.
From someone she admired… to someone she was no longer certain she could defeat.
"Ren Kuroda," she continued, her voice steady, "can you tell me why you came to Little Garden? What is your purpose? What is your wish?"
In her eyes, the Ren who once fell into becoming a Demon King just to save Leticia should not have ended up like this.
Ren gave a faint, almost amused smile.
"Coming to Little Garden wasn't exactly my choice. As for my goal? If I said I originally just wanted to defeat a Demon King, would you believe me?
"And my wish…"
He paused.
"I suppose it's simple. I want to grow stronger. Strong enough to protect the people I care about."
Shiroyasha exhaled softly.
"The one who sought to defeat a Demon King… became one. Then became a Final Trial of Humanity.
"How ironic. The dragon slayer becomes the dragon. It's almost poetic."
She lifted her gaze.
"Enough words. I am a Final Trial of Humanity. And you—whether once gods, buddhas, demons, or star spirits—are now human in status.
"So attempt to overcome the Trial. And let us bring this farce to its final curtain."
And so—
The greatest divine war in the history of the Upper Three Layers of Little Garden erupted.
Nearly every participant belonged to one of the Three Strongest Races. The pantheons involved spanned almost every known system.
The battle raged for three full days.
Its intensity was such that nearly half of the entire Third Layer was reduced to ruin.
By the time the third day drew to a close, the storm finally subsided.
Countless gods had perished. Some divine factions suffered such catastrophic losses that they disbanded entirely.
As for the final outcome—
No one would say.
Whenever someone dared ask about the result of the Great Divine War—the battle against the Dual Final Trial—those who had participated would fall silent, refusing to speak of it.
In the aftermath of Absolute Evil's devastation, the Lower Layers faced a severe shortage of combat power. With the Demon King Alliance still active, Shiroyasha returned to the East District to resume her role as Floor Master.
The South District's Floor Master position was taken up by Sara.
As for the North District, although Sandora had been rescued, she voluntarily stepped down out of guilt for having unleashed Absolute Evil.
Thus, the title of North District Floor Master passed to Leticia of Ghost Travel.
After Shiroyasha returned to the Lower Layers, Leticia and the members of Ghost Travel—along with the people of No Name—naturally sought her out.
They wanted to know.
Where was Ren Kuroda?
Shiroyasha brought them into her private game field.
And there, at last, she revealed the truth of that battle.
The combined forces of the Upper Three Layers had not achieved victory.
During the three-day war, more and more divine forces joined the fray. But under the complementary effects of Ren's two simulated cosmologies, his threat level far surpassed even that of Absolute Evil Azuka Hakuryū.
The conditions required to defeat him were absurdly narrow.
One had to be human.
And one had to be a human without negative emotion.
Simply possessing a human spiritual rank was not enough. Under Hyakki Yagyō, nearly all present—except the Seven Great Demon Kings of Yokai—had been degraded into human-level beings.
But once human, they fell under the influence of The Seven Deadly Sins, which converted their negative emotions into Ren's power.
The Seven Demon Kings were unaffected by Hyakki Yagyō—
But they were not human, and thus could not fulfill the Trial's condition.
As for saints who qualified as human and were free of negative emotion—
They were nowhere near strong enough to contend with Ren in his empowered state.
And so, across three relentless days—
Ren Kuroda single-handedly crippled an army of a million gods.
The divine factions of the Third Layer had nowhere left to retreat. With their backs against the wall, they could only grit their teeth and attempt to overwhelm him with numbers.
It proved meaningless.
Before a Final Trial of Humanity, numbers were a joke.
Three days passed. Countless gods fell.
Ren?
He remained unscathed.
And just as despair threatened to consume the million-strong host—
The nightmare himself vanished.
According to the joint speculation of Shiroyasha and Taishakuten, Ren likely understood that if he remained, he would become an unstoppable calamity.
So he chose to leave Little Garden of his own accord.
Where he went—
No one knew.
And as for the result of that battle?
It was far too humiliating a defeat.
So the gods chose silence.