Ethan crawled, his knees scraped violently against the shattered stone, skin tearing open as blood smeared across the ground with every desperate movement. Pain screamed through his body, but it meant nothing to him now.
He dragged himself forward, fingers clawing at the floor, reaching.... reaching.... For his parent.
Herod watched in silence.
Then he smiled
A deep, satisfied smile, the kind born only from absolute cruelty. He enjoyed the way Ethan struggled, the way hope refused to die even whenever it should have.
Herod lifted his sword and placed its cold edge against Zane's neck.
"Say your last words," he said calmly. "Quickly. I'll make it painless."
"No....!" Ethan tried to scream, but his voice broke apart, turning into a hoarse gasp.
Inside his mind, he shouted.
System.... respond! Anything... skills, items, power—anything!
The system that had guided him.
The power that had made him feared.
The strength he had relied on....
All of it abandoned him.
Ethan lay there, trembling, useless, drowning in helplessness.
Freya slowly raised her head. Despite the blood, the ropes, the terror choking her, she smiled.
It was soft and warm. A mother's smile.
Tears streamed down her face as she looked at Ethan, really looked at him, as if trying to memorize every part of him before the world ended.
"Ethan…" her voice trembled, barely holding together. "Make sure you survive."
Her lips quivered.
"Live well. Eat properly. Go to school… enroll in an academy."
Her tears fell faster now, soaking into her clothes.
"Get rich," she said with a weak laugh through her sobs. "Marry someone you love…"
Her voice broke completely.
"And…" she struggled to continue, breath hitching violently, "and most of all…"
She looked at him with pride so deep it hurt to witness.
"Make yourself… my son..... I love you"
Ethan's heart shattered into dust.
"Mum—!" he cried, reaching out with blood-soaked hands that could never reach her in time.
Zane smiled, with only one eye left to see, he turned his gaze toward Ethan and in that gaze was no fear, no regret. Only pride.
"Ethan…" his voice was calm, almost gentle. "Remember who you are."
Tears gathered, slipping slowly down his cheek as he continued.
"You're from the Cole family. Just like your mother said, take care of yourself. Always."
His breath trembled.
"I wish…" Zane swallowed hard. "I wish I could stay. Watch you grow. See the man you'll become."
His voice cracked, but he forced the words out.
"Just remember this, don't let hatred consume you. Live. Live happily."
A weak smile curved his lips.
"I'm proud… proud to be your father."
Ethan's scream tore through the battlefield.
A raw, broken sound, filled with regret, helplessness, and agony beyond words.
Tears streamed down his face as his body shook.
If only… if only I were stronger, he thought, his mind collapsing under guilt. I could have saved them. I could have saved everyone.
Herod immediately raised his blade.
"Now." Zane snapped his fingers.
Fire burst instantly, burning through the ropes binding him and Freya.
Before Herod could react, Freya dropped the baby and lunged forward, gripping the demon's sword with bare hands. Blood poured from her palms as she struggled against him, teeth clenched, refusing to let go.
At the same time, Zane grabbed Ethan.
With every strength left in his broken body, he hurled him into the air.
"RUN, ETHAN!" Zane roared.
Ethan's scream echoed as he flew helplessly away.
Zane turned back, stepping beside Freya, flames already swallowing his body.
"OBLIVION."
Fire exploded.
A storm of blazing mana engulfed Zane, Freya, and Herod, raging outward, devouring everything within its reach.
Ethan hit the ground, rolling, screaming, his hands clawing uselessly toward the inferno.
All he could see... Was his parents, burning, with a smiling. The little baby cried, caught up together in the fire.
Their bodies consumed by flame, their faces peaceful, free of fear, free of regret.
"No… no…"
His voice shattered.
"NOOOOO!!!"
****
Ethan woke up.
The world swam in haze and distortion, colors bleeding into one another as though reality itself was ashamed to be seen. His body refused to answer him—no matter how hard he tried, not a single finger moved.
Then....
DING!
— SYSTEM MESSAGE —
[Lifestone Elixir: Approved]
He didn't feel relief, his teeth began to tremble uncontrollably, like a man freezing in the dead of winter.
My parents…
My little brother…they're all gone.
All of them, erased in a single night.
Ethan's chest convulsed. His heart rejected the truth with violent denial, as if refusing it could undo it. He screamed, and the scream broke into sobs so raw they tore through his throat.
Blood leaked from the corners of his eyes, streaming down his cheeks like crimson tears.
"Why…?" his voice cracked.
"Why is this happening to me?"
"Why didn't you help…?" he whispered, his gaze empty. "Why didn't the system help…?"
His cries echoed through the ruined battlefield, until footsteps answered them, slow and heavy.
Ethan's vision sharpened just enough to see a silhouette emerging from the smoke.
Herod, unarmed and unburned. He was very much alive.
"Tch." The demon scoffed, brushing ash from his shoulder. "Stupid humans. Did you really believe a fire like that could kill me?"
He laughed, low and cruel.
"So much for your wasted little sacrifice."
The words pierced deeper than any blade.
Ethan's jaw tightened. His lips split as he bit down too hard, blood flooding his mouth. Veins bulged red in his eyes as something feral clawed its way up from his chest.
"You…" His voice shook.
"I'll... I'll kill you."
His hands slammed into the ground.
Skin peeled. Flesh split.
Pain screamed through him—but he welcomed it.
Then...
— SYSTEM MESSAGE —
[System Override]
[System Override]
Ethan's breathing grew uneven. His vision darkened at the edges as hatred swallowed reason whole.
The binding relic at his chest cracked.
Then shattered.
Fragments scattered like glass as something inside him snapped completely.
Dark mana erupted from his body, exploding.
Ethan screamed as the ground beneath him split apart, fissures tearing through stone and earth like scars carved by an angry god. Shadows poured from his body, wrapping around him, stitching flesh, sealing wounds, reforging him into something unnatural.
His cloak reformed, darker, heavier, very much alive.
Even Herod staggered back. Cold sweat slid down the demon's face as his smile finally died.
That aura…
Oppressive, ancient, bottomless.
This kid… He's not human.
Ethan rose to his feet in silence.
Crimson eyes burned beneath his hood, blood still dripping from one eye as if reality itself couldn't withstand his gaze.
DING!
— SYSTEM MESSAGE —
[Percentage of Power Enhancement: 8%]
[Cost of Use: Unknown]
Ethan tilted his head slightly.
"Allow it," he said calmly. There was no rage in his voice now, only execution.
The boy named Ethan was gone.
What stood before Herod was a calamity ... a slaughterer born from grief, waiting to erase everything in front of him.
— GRAND QUEST —
[Defeat the Demon Empire]
[1/2 Demon Emperors Executed]
Herod raised his blade..... and Ethan vanished.
The air screamed.
A blow crashed into Herod's ribs before his mind could register movement, launching his massive body into the sky like a broken doll. Stone shattered beneath him as he tore through the air.
This power…
Herod barely twisted in time to block the next strike. The impact rattled his bones, numbing his arms to the core.
Too fast, far too fast.
Ethan moved like a distortion in reality, appearing, disappearing, striking from impossible angles. Steel clashed against steel in violent flashes of light, the shockwaves tearing through streets and reducing already ruined buildings to dust.
He descended on Herod like a living calamity, each blow heavier than the last, each strike screaming with intent to kill. Herod staggered backward, no longer enjoying the battle, he was surviving.
Is this really the same child…?
The one I defeated twice?
Ethan's black blade howled as it struck again.
Crack.
A fracture crawled across Herod's sword.
Again.
Crack.
The ground exploded beneath them as their blades met once more. Herod searched Ethan's face for fear, rage, anything.
There was nothing, no emotion, no hatred, no joy. Only void.
Herod's sword shattered in half.
Fragments spun into the air, clattering uselessly against the stone.
Yet even then, Ethan couldn't pierce the demon emperor's armor. So he changed tactics.
A second weapon slid into his grip.
Fangpiecer.
Ethan moved in a blur, dragging the dagger across Herod's chest. Sparks screamed as the enchanted armor tore open inch by inch.
Herod roared and kicked Ethan away, turning to flee...
Too late.
Ethan was already there. He seized Herod by the collar and drove his elbow into the demon's face.
Once.
Twice.
Again and again and again.
Bones cracked. Blood sprayed.
Then the blades came down.
"Die."
A stab.
"Die!"
Another.
"DIE!"
The black blade and Fangpiecer moved together, tearing, carving, ripping through armor and flesh alike. Herod screamed as his defense finally collapsed, his body torn open again and again.
Ethan didn't stop. He didn't slow or hesitate.
He stabbed until the screams faded.
Until resistance vanished.
Until the Demon Emperor became nothing more than a butchered corpse on the ground.
Herod's hands twitched once..... Then fell limp.
Silence.
DING!
— SYSTEM MESSAGE —
[Grand Quest: Successful]
[2/2 Demon Emperors Executed]
[Total Kills: 17,009 / 20,000]
[New Item Acquired: Rage Mask]
[Achievement Unlocked: Demon Executioner]
[Power Up!]
[Power Up!]
[Power Up!]
[Black Cloak: Updated]
A mask formed over Ethan's face, black, seamless, forged of dense magic and unknown metal. The moment it settled, the violent tide of mana within him was crushed inward, sealed, suffocated.
[Explanation: Rage Mask;
A high-grade magical mask that suppresses mana output and conceals the user's identity.]
None of it mattered. Not the mask, not the power, not the system's rewards. Nothing could drown the images burned into Ethan's mind.
His parents, smiling as they burned.
A newborn's cry, cut short before it could grow.
Bolivia, Ane. The villagers of Almsworth, faces frozen in terror.
Through the shadowed hood, blood leaked steadily from Ethan's eyes, tracing thin crimson lines down his cheeks. He didn't wipe them away. He barely noticed.
It'sover… Ethan thought.
No parents, no friends, no village, no place left in the world that would ever call him home again.
Almsworth was gone.
The black cloak unraveled into smoke, the blades dissolving into shadow as they returned to his body. The Rage Mask followed, sinking into him like a brand burned into his soul.
And then—finally..... Ethan broke.
He collapsed to his knees, a broken sound tearing from his chest as sobs wracked his body. He cried openly, violently, the kind of grief that tore through bone and spirit alike.
The system watched.
It did not speak, It did not comfort, It didn't even care.
His strength failed him completely. Ethan fell forward, coughing blood onto the ruined stone, his body trembling from exhaustion and backlash.
[Cost of Use: Partial Blindness]
The world vanished.
Darkness swallowed everything.
"My eyes—!"
Panic clawed at him as he dragged his hands across his face, smearing blood and tears together. He blinked. Again. And again.
Nothing.
No light, no shadow, no dawn.
"I can't see… I can't—!"
His fingers dug into the ground until they bled, nails scraping against stone as if sight itself could be torn back into existence through sheer will.
His fingers dug into the ground until they bled, nails scraping against stone as if sight itself could be torn back into existence through sheer will.
Only silence remained.
A blind boy kneeling in the ashes of his home....
Bloody victory, victor of a war, survivor of nothing, and executioner cursed to walk forward alone.