The night itself seemed to bleed beneath Ethan's steps as he advanced in a slow, deliberate rhythm toward Herod.
Fangpiecer burned black in his grip, Devon's blood still dripping from its edge, hissing as it struck the ground. Every drop felt like a countdown.
The two gigantic demons reacted at once, roaring as they swung their massive axes down at him, enough force to split the earth.
But they struck only air. Ethan vanished between the blows.
In the next heartbeat, he was already climbing, boots digging into raw flesh as he sprinted up one demon's arm.
Before it could even scream, Ethan drove Fangpiecer into its eye and dragged the blade downward in a savage line, carving through skull, neck, and torso in one brutal motion. Black blood erupted like a fountain.
The second giant raised its axe in panic. Too slow. Ethan was already there.
He leapt, landed on its shoulder, and plunged Fangpiecer into its skull again and again, once, twice, ten times.... until the demon's struggles turned weak, then stopped entirely.
The massive body crashed to the ground with a quake that shook the battlefield.
Silence followed.
Soldiers froze, demons recoiled. Fear spread faster than fire. At that moment, no one could tell the difference anymore, Ethan was no longer human to them. He was simply another calamity walking the field.
DING!
[Percentage of Power Enhanced: 1.1%]
Ethan glanced at the glowing screen and smiled faintly. So it grows this easily…
Herod's expression darkened. He raised his sword and pointed it straight at Ethan.
In response, every remaining demon on the battlefield turned at once, their roars shaking the sky as they charged him together.
The earth trembled under their advance.
Ethan didn't retreat, he didn't hesitate, he attacked, almost immediately.
He became a blur of black and red, cutting straight into the horde.
Fangpiecer flashed relentlessly, heads flew, limbs were torn free, bodies split apart in halves and quarters.
Blood sprayed across shattered stone and burning ruins. His speed doubled, then doubled again, each kill feeding the darkness coiled inside him.
Demons fell before they could even scream.
The battlefield turned into a slaughterhouse, and at its center stood Ethan, moving faster, striking harder, drowning in blood as the night watched in silent terror.
The System counted faster than Ethan could breathe.
[16,909 / 20,000: Eliminated]
[17,007 / 20,000: Eliminated]
Numbers climbed as demon flesh fell from the sky like obscene rain. Severed arms slapped against stone.
Heads rolled, cracking underfoot. Ethan walked through it all without slowing, crushing what remained, hands, feet, skulls, until nothing recognizable was left behind.
Herod staggered backward at last, dragging his blade along the ground, sparks screaming as metal scraped stone. His voice trembled with rage so dense it bent the air.
"You lowly human," he snarled. "You slaughtered my minions. Now you will pay."
Ethan didn't answer, he kept walking.
Bloodlust burned behind his eyes, drowning thought, drowning fear. Only the binding relic held his soul together, chains of cold logic barely restraining the monster clawing its way out.
They stopped several paces apart. Two predators, staring each other down, no superiority, no mercy. Just hunger.
Then... They vanished.
Steel met steel with a scream that ripped through the battlefield. Zane, Wills, the remaining soldiers, none of them could follow the exchange.
All they saw were flashes of violent light, clashing arcs cutting through smoke and ruin.
Herod pressed hard. His sword was longer, heavier, forged for annihilation. Each swing carried the weight of extinction.
Ethan struggled to keep pace, Fangpiecer ringing wildly as sparks tore through the air.
One mistake.
Herod slammed him aside like a broken doll. Ethan skidded across the ground, barely catching himself before the follow-up strike came, too fast. The blade bit into his shoulder.
Pain exploded, before the scream could leave his throat, Herod smashed him into the ground with brutal force, stone shattering beneath Ethan's back.
Herod didn't finish him, he smiled.
Fists came down instead, again, again, again, bone-crushing blows meant to savor the kill. Ethan lashed out desperately, Fangpiecer slashing upward toward Herod's face.
Clang.
The dagger screeched uselessly against reinforced armor.
DING!
— SYSTEM WARNING —
[Fangpiecer Unable to Perform Task]
[Insufficient Penetration Capability]
Damn it.
Panic flickered for the first time. He's too strong…
Then instinct took over.
Ethan dismissed Fangpiecer and summoned the Black Blade in the same breath. Darkness surged. He drove the sword upward and buried it into Herod's neck.
"AAGH!"
Herod reeled back, clutching the wound as black blood poured freely. Ethan surged forward, eyes locked on the opening.... and froze.
His body went numb. His limbs refused to answer.
DING!
— SYSTEM ALERT —
[Body Limit Reached]
[Fatigue: 99%]
No—no, no, no...
Cold terror finally seeped through the rage. Ethan's vision blurred as his strength evaporated, his muscles screaming in revolt.
This is bad… this is really bad.
Herod steadied himself, blood dripping between clawed fingers. His smile returned, slow, cruel, victorious.
Ethan's knees trembled. His grip loosened.
At this point… he knew it. I'm going to...
Herod's blade stretched forward in a merciless arc, stopping a breath away from cleaving Ethan in two.
Ethan couldn't move, couldn't breathe.
Fear flooded his face, not the shallow fear of pain, but the deep, choking terror of ending.
He had only just arrived in this world. Nothing achieved. No freedom earned. No future claimed. He hadn't even become the man he swore he would be.
A thousand thoughts detonated in his mind, then vanished. The flat of Herod's blade slammed into him. Darkness rushed in.
Just before his eyes fully closed...
DING!
— SYSTEM MESSAGE —
[Item: Lifestone Elixir]
[Quantity: 5/10]
Hope flickered, weak and fragile.
Ethan summoned it instinctively, but his body refused to obey. His limbs were dead weight. Fatigue still crushed him like chains forged from lead.
Then memory struck him like lightning.
Nine months ago, after resurrection. When he couldn't move. When he broke himself just to survive
Force it.
He tried. Nothing.
"Come on…"
His muscles screamed in refusal.
"COME ON!"
Herod's sword punched through Ethan's stomach. Over and over again.
Steel went in and out of his body with sickening ease. Blood poured freely, hot and endless, soaking the ground beneath him. Each strike tore something vital away.
There was no escape. No miracle waiting. This was death.
Shame burned hotter than the pain. He had stepped forward as a protector, only to fall like this. A hero who couldn't finish the fight.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
Then...
Something snapped. Ethan's eyes rolled back… then forced themselves forward again. Vision returned in fragments. Sound came distorted. Pain became absolute.
With a feral scream trapped in his chest, he drove every remaining ounce of will into his hand.
Press it.
Blood spilled from his body in torrents as he crushed the Lifestone Elixir against his palm. This wasn't healing anymore, this was self-destruction.
Kill me or save me… I don't care—JUST WORK!
Herod paused, He watched, fascinated.
He had never seen a human push past this boundary. Never seen one refuse death so violently.
Ethan's bones cracked, one after another.
His fingers bent at impossible angles, his wrists twisted, veins burst.
Blood sprayed, soaking the shattered stone beneath him. His eyes rolled wildly, on the verge of shattering completely.
Yet still, he pressed, harder, hard enough to break himself.
Ethan's body finally gave in. He collapsed face-first into the blood-soaked earth, unmoving, lifeless, his pulse a whisper on the edge of silence.
But he had done it.
The Lifestone Elixir shattered in his crushed palm, its fragments dissolving into light that seeped into his broken flesh.
Herod laughed.
"What a foolish human," he sneered, lowering his blade. "To kill yourself after coming this far."
He turned away, bored. "You were going to die anyway."
Slowly, deliberately, Herod faced Zane and the remaining soldiers. They were barely standing battered, bleeding, weapons trembling in their hands.
"Don't worry, my friends," Herod said, spreading his arms mockingly. "I'll make your deaths quick and painless."
He tightened his grip on his sword.
Mana roared into the blade, compressing until the air screamed around it.
The ground cracked beneath his feet, light bending toward the weapon like it feared what was coming.
Zane's heart sank. This is it.
The power pouring from Herod's sword eclipsed anything he had ever felt.
Almsworth, its people, its history, was about to be erased in a single strike.
Herod raised his sword.
Herod raised his sword. "This ends now."
He immediately swung. A blade of pure destruction tore through the battlefield—and froze midair.
The slash trembled violently, stalled as if striking an invisible wall.
"What—?" Herod's eyes widened.
A black blade crossed its path. Another dagger followed, metal screamed, mana shattered.
CLANG!
— SYSTEM MESSAGE —
[Fatigue: 0%]
Ethan stood there, looking very much alive and unbroken.
With a black blade blazing in his right hand and Fangpiecer clenched in his left, he held back Herod's ultimate strike through sheer force of will.
His cloak had changed, darkened, reinforced, chains of black armor weaving through the fabric like living metal. He looked… untouched.
Zane staggered back, his breath catching.
"He… he looks uninjured," he whispered, fear and disbelief twisting his voice.
"Who… who is this kid?"
Herod's lips trembled. "No… impossible. I watched you die."
The stalled slash surged forward again, grinding closer to Ethan's chest, inch by inch.
Ethan snarled, veins glowing beneath his skin.
With a violent roar, he twisted Fangpiecer, and ripped the attack apart, negating it and hurling the remnants into the sky where they exploded like a dying star.
Silence fell.
Dawn broke over the battlefield, golden light spilling across Ethan's glowing eyes and newly armored form.
DING!
— SYSTEM MESSAGE —
[Demon Armour: Acquired]
[Authorisation: Approved]
Ethan felt it settle over him, the armor was Devon's.
He looked at Herod and smiled.
Not the smile. The smile of something far worse.
"Hey, Demon," Ethan said calmly, black mana curling around his blades.
"I think it's time for a rematch."
Herod slowly raised his sword again.. this time, his hands were shaking.
"This.. This isn't human" he said, fear of who Ethan truly was scared him.
Because whatever Ethan had become…
…this fight would decide whether Almsworth would be saved, or erased forever.