Ethan stood with his back straight, the Executioner's cloak draped over him like a living shadow. It breathed, slowly, unnaturally, as if aware of the slaughter beneath its folds. In his right hand rested the Black Blade, silent, patient, hungry.
Every eye lifted as he walked forward.
Step. Step. Step.
Each footfall crushed broken stone and blood alike, echoing louder than the screams that had filled the battlefield moments earlier.
"…Who's that?" Wills whispered, disbelief tightening his throat. "A… kid?"
Ethan stopped beside Zane. Up close, the contrast was brutal, Zane, bleeding, broken, barely standing… and the boy, untouched, radiating an aura so dense it warped the air around him.
Herod's presence collided with Ethan's.
Dark met dark, cold met absolute void. The clash of their auras cracked the ground between them, thin fractures racing outward like spiderwebs.
"Hey... !" Zane barked, clutching his ruined eye. "Kid, this isn't a game! Go home.... now!"
Ethan didn't answer. He turned his head. Red light spilled from beneath the hood; infinite, merciless, inhuman.
"I'm no kid," Ethan said calmly, his voice low, carrying far too much weight for someone his age.
"Call me… Black Blade."
DING!
— SYSTEM MESSAGE —
[Executioner Identity: Approved]
[Executioner Name: Black Blade]
A thrill rippled through Ethan's chest.
Heh… even the system agrees.
But the battle wasn't over yet. Herod and Devon's expressions twisted, not fear or confusion but in anger. Raw and offended.
Herod raised his blade and pointed it directly at Ethan, killing intent flooding the air.
"Black Blade," he snarled. "What are you?"
He narrowed his eyes. "That mana… it's not human."
Ethan didn't reply, he simply laughed softly and controlled. The sound scraped against their pride like rusted steel.
Inside, Ethan's thoughts raced, not with panic, but calculation.
I'm not sure I can take both of them.... Not cleanly.
He had been moving nonstop, cutting down demons across the city, sealing streets, erasing legions before they could reach his home… the hospital… Freya.
The inner districts were safe. But this....this was the core and he was only using one percent power enhancement from the Executioner mode.
His grip tightened on the Black Blade.
If one percent isn't enough… then I'll bleed the rest of it out slowly.
The system pulsed again.
— GRAND QUEST —
[KILL THE DEMON EMPIRE]
[14,598 / 20,000 : Eliminated]
Herod's lips curled into a smile so cruel it twisted his entire face, a grin born purely from the joy of slaughter. Without warning, he raised his sword high, demonic mana roaring to life around the blade, then brought it down toward Ethan with absolute killing intent.
BOOM!!
The strike never touched him. Instead, it split the earth itself.
The ground was cleaved clean in two, a jagged chasm ripping forward as if the land had screamed in pain. Stone and rubble exploded upward, a violent storm of dust and debris swallowing the battlefield whole, blotting out sight and sound alike as the shockwave thundered through Almsworth.
As the dust slowly settled, Herod's smile faded, replaced by irritation.
The ground lay shattered where his strike had fallen, but there was no body.
His eyes widened slightly as he turned his head, and there they were.
Several paces away, standing in a completely different stretch of the battlefield, Ethan had reappeared with Zane beside him, both untouched, as if they had never been there at all.
Ethan glanced at Zane, his voice calm, almost gentle beneath the shadow of his hood.
"Go," he said quietly. "Find somewhere safe to stay."
Before Ethan could even finish his words, Devon's sword shot toward him like a bolt of lightning, barely grazing the edge of his hair, slicing off a fragment.
The force of it rattled him, a sharp reminder that this wasn't a game. Ethan had never been to war, not truly. All he'd known were war games he'd lost time and again, simulations where failure carried no real consequences.
And now, in the midst of a battlefield drenched in blood, fire, and screams, he had no guarantees. No cheat codes, no save points, only the cold, merciless reality of life and death.
Devon's blade collided with Ethan's black sword, sparks exploding in a violent burst of lightning that tore through the air. Each strike was precise, brutal, and unrelenting, yet Ethan met it blow for blow, his movements sharp and calculated, his eyes burning with cold determination.
Before he could catch a breath, Herod slammed his massive blade down, the force sending tremors through the ground.
Ethan leapt, twisting through the air with fluid grace, landing on a nearby wall. The impact cracked the stone beneath his feet, but he pushed off immediately, propelling himself back into the fray, unyielding.
The two demon commanders unleashed a relentless flurry, their massive blades slicing the air with deadly precision.
Ethan's chest rose and fell rapidly, he knew he couldn't match their raw strength, yet retreat was not an option. Every second he wasted was a second the village and his father remained in danger.
Taking two careful steps back, Ethan planted his feet firmly and leveled his black blade at both of them. Herod hesitated for a fraction of a second, stepping aside to let Devon move forward. That split-second was all the system needed to react.
— GRAND QUEST —
[Defeat the B-Rank Demon: Devon]
[Defeat the B-Rank Demon: Herod]
Ethan tightened his grip, lowering his stance as his cloak fluttered like a living shadow. With a sudden burst of speed, he surged forward, launching a precise, forceful strike at Devon.
Clang! Clang!
Metal screamed against metal, sparks flying with each collision as Devon's blade met Ethan's black blade.
The force of the strikes reverberated through the battlefield, shaking the ground beneath them and drawing the gaze of every soldier and demon alike.
The battle raged on relentlessly, a whirlwind of sparks, shadows, and clashing metal that tore through the battlefield from one end to the other.
Ethan's movements were sharp, precise, but the sheer power of the Black Blade still pushed him to his limits, its destructive force threatening to overwhelm even him.
Every strike he made demanded every ounce of focus, and even then, the blade seemed to fight against his will.
In a brutal exchange, Devon's massive blade collided with Ethan's black blade with a force that echoed like thunder.
The sheer impact ripped the weapon from Ethan's grip, sending it spinning through the air before it buried itself deep into the scorched earth.
Devon didn't hesitate; he slammed his blade into the ground where the blade had fallen, sending a jagged shockwave toward Ethan, forcing him to leap backward to avoid being crushed.
Ethan landed hard, dust and debris raining down around him. His chest heaved, his eyes still glowing a deep crimson from the Executioner mode, as he stared at his discarded weapon.
Every second counted now, one mistake, one hesitation, and Devon wouldn't just destroy the blade… he'd destroy him. The stakes had never been higher.
Ethan had nothing, no weapon, no shield, nothing but his own body to face Devon's fury. His chest rose and fell rapidly, adrenaline screaming through him as he realized just how powerless he was.
"I've got you now!" Devon bellowed, his monstrous fist cutting through the air like a battering ram. His blow connected with Ethan's stomach, sending him flying with terrifying force.
He crashed through the remnants of a ruined building, wood and stone splintering in every direction.
Devon didn't give him a moment to recover. He lunged forward, fists striking with relentless precision.
Punch after punch hammered Ethan's face, his body bouncing helplessly off the jagged debris. Another brutal swing sent him hurtling through the air, smashing into a shattered rock, the impact reverberating through the battlefield.
Blood and dust mixed around him as he struggled to even lift his head, every strike a reminder of just how far he was from victory.
The battlefield went silent for a heartbeat, everyone watching in horror as the young Executioner struggled to rise, his crimson eyes still burning with defiance despite the punishment.
The horde of demons erupted in unison, their voices a deafening roar that shook the ground beneath Ethan's battered body.
"Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!" they chanted, stomping and clawing at the ruined battlefield as Devon advanced, each step deliberate, his sword dragging across the stone with a metallic screech that echoed like a death knell.
Ethan coughed up blood, his vision swimming, his limbs trembling. He had thought defeating the demon minions was hard enough, but a commander was another beast entirely.
The raw, crushing presence radiating from Devon made the air itself heavy, like a noose tightening around his chest.
Devon crouched slightly, tilting his head as he gazed down at the young boy struggling beneath him. His pitiless eyes pierced through Ethan like blades.
"Know your place, you ant!" Devon hissed, his voice dripping with contempt, the power behind his words making the earth itself tremble.
The words struck Ethan's chest like molten iron, twisting deep into his gut. Pride and fury flared, he would never allow anyone to look down on him, but from a demon, the sting cut sharper than any blade.
Shadows from the Black Blade swirled violently around him, retracting like living smoke, merging back into his body. The air trembled with raw energy.
Then... DING!
— SYSTEM MESSAGE —
[Weapon: Fangpiercer]
[Authorization: Approved]
From the suffocating darkness of the night, a blade appeared, sleek and deadly. In a single, precise strike, the dagger pierced Devon's armor, slicing through flesh.
A guttural groan tore from the demon, his eyes widening in shock as crimson seeped through the wound.
Ethan's lips curled, his eyes burning with red fire beneath the hood. For the first time in the battle, the hunter became the predator.
Ethan didn't hesitate, every movement was a blur of shadows and steel.
Fangpiercer plunged into Devon again and again, each strike erupting the cracked earth beneath him like the fury of a storm. The demon screamed, but there was no mercy.
In the chaos, Ethan remembered, the Fangpiercer wasn't just a weapon. It was the dagger taken from the Ultra Hellfang Fox, a blade capable of piercing the strongest magical armors and resisting the deadliest of enchantments. Now its full power sang through him.
"Die! Die! Die… you wretched prick!" Ethan roared, stabbing relentlessly, each strike driving Devon closer to the ground.
The demon's body convulsed under the assault, and crimson blood painted the battlefield like fire.
[POWER UP!]
[POWER UP!]
[POWER UP!]
The system's notifications exploded around him, echoing the surge of energy coursing through his veins.
Ethan felt every inch of his being ignite, his senses sharpening, his strength magnifying. The Fangpiercer wasn't just a weapon, it was a promise of annihilation, and Devon would feel every bit of it.
Devon lay in a mangled heap, his body nothing more than a twisted carcass, severed and bloodied from head to toe.
Ethan rose from the carnage slowly, his black cloak trailing behind him, red-stained and billowing like smoke from a battlefield funeral.
Every movement radiated menace, every breath carrying the lingering scent of death. Even the system seemed to pulse in approval, as if savoring the brutality of his strikes.
Ethan's eyes—crimson, infinite, and burning with otherworldly fury, locked onto Herod.
Step by deliberate step, he advanced, his shadow stretching unnaturally, coiling like a predator stalking prey.
The battlefield froze. Soldiers, mages, even the remaining demons paused, unable to tear their gaze from the boy drenched in blood and radiating pure terror.
From the dust and ruin, Ethan's aura erupted, a dark, oppressive force that pushed through the air like a shockwave.
Every heartbeat felt like a drum of war, every breath a countdown to annihilation.
The ground beneath him cracked, shadows crawling across the battlefield, and from the haze, a long sword materialized, its blade wreathed in darkness and glowing eyes like molten crimson coals.
Zane's chest tightened, his instincts screaming. He had faced armies, monsters, even commanders of the Demon Empire... but this boy? This was something else entirely. The boy was no longer merely human.
He was something far more dangerous, something worse than any demon. And as Ethan's shadow stretched over Herod, the air itself seemed to tremble.
The world held its breath. The next strike would either end a commander or ignite a slaughter that would scar Almsworth forever.