Chapter 404
The main unit of the raid team, which crash landed midway up the Silent Volcano due to the intrusion of Demon’s Edge, surveyed the remaining distance to the crater.
They were a bit aways, but still close enough to cover in a single dash.
However, despite each of them knowing that, not a single hero of the main unit moved a single step—because they couldn’t.
Rumble-
A Perfect One and a monster beginning to understand its own potential stood in a tense standoff right in front of them, completely dominating the area.
If we make a single mistake here...
We’ll die on the spot.
Even though every hero had already braced themselves for death when they agreed to take on the mission, that didn’t mean they weren’t afraid of it. Worse, a careless death now wouldn’t even serve as a stepping stone to victory—it would only weigh down their allies.
Watching the suffocating standoff, sweat trickled down the heroes’ faces as they fixed their gazes on Jason and the Demon’s Edge, tracking their every move.
Whoosh-
The two vanished from before their eyes.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion then rocked the battlefield, sending shockwaves in every direction. The stillness from just moments ago now seemed like a lie.
Losing sight of them, the heroes frantically followed the echoes of movements with their eyes. All they could see, however, was the shattered ground that had been crushed beneath fists and torn apart by blades. The battle was so fast that even their shadows couldn’t be tracked.
CRACK!
All they could do was pray not to be caught in the storm. Before those two, even the highest-ranking heroes, handpicked for the mission, stood frozen in helplessness.
However, there was one among them.
Aria sharpened her senses to the extreme, determined to follow the battle’s rhythm.
Clang!
Jason’s relentless fists struck in rapid succession, barely deflected in time by Demon’s Edge’s greatsword.
The battle was clearly in Jason’s favor from how he had yet to suffer a single wound. However, there was a real problem beneath their feet—which spanned across the entire volcano. Demon’s Edge had spread roots throughout the land that absorbed the power of the planet to revive the corpses of the demons surrounding them.
And since the heroes were immobilized, the resurrected demons could freely attack them—
BANG!
Jason’s fists rained down mercilessly as if he had been waiting for the exact moment they were about to attack. Just like that, the demons that had barely been reborn were crushed into pulp before they could even react.
It was an endless, meaningless slaughter. However, to Demon’s Edge, each fleeting second Jason spent dealing with the resurrected demons granted it more opportunities.
Clang!
A punch that should have shattered Demon’s Edge’s skull barely grazed the greatsword instead.
Seizing the moment, Demon’s Edge launched a counterattack.
Under normal circumstances, Jason would have blocked it before the strike even fully formed. But the time spent fighting off the resurrected demons had given the enemy’s sword a chance to slip past his guard.
Did I react too late...?
That was why, to protect the heroes behind him, Jason had no choice but to face the blow head-on.
BOOM!
Jason flew backward. Seeing that, Demon’s Edge rushed after, pushing the offensive.
A hostile battlefield, seemingly useless allies, and his compromised power—all of those factors compounded, causing the once-dominant Jason to be slowly dragged down by Demon’s Edge.
“...”
Observing the flow of battle, Aria’s instincts rang a chilling alarm.
While Jason was still in control for now, at the current rate, the tide would turn within a minute. To prevent that, she had to disrupt the battle. However, even Aria, one of the few who was able to follow their movements, had limited options.
I might be able to land a single strike...
Unfortunately, she was the only one capable of that. The others couldn’t even grasp the fight, let alone intervene. Their incompetence was dragging both her and their strongest ally down.
Her frustration deepening, Aria’s gaze went cold as she observed the battlefield.
If things continue like this, we’re all going to die.
Then, wouldn’t it be better to help Jason—even if it meant sacrificing some of their own?
Although half of the raid team belonged to the Myers family, Aria still didn’t think twice. She was all too aware that hesitation would only create openings for the enemy.
The scale in her mind fully tilted to a decision, and her hand slowly reached for her sword.
Sli—
But a hand blocked hers. Startled, Aria turned to see the owner of the hand: Jake. Standing beside her, he gazed straight ahead.
“...Sister,” muttered Jake in a quiet voice.
That single word was enough. Aria instantly understood what her younger brother was trying to say.
“Are you being serious?”
Seeing that she couldn’t understand why they should save those who were nothing but dead weight, Jake kept his eyes forward and elaborated. “Se-Hoon told me earlier. That they’d all be useful one day.”
Aria frowned. Then, upon thinking about it again, she realized Se-Hoon wouldn’t have sent them into battle if they truly were nothing but a liability.
But while she acknowledged Se-Hoon’s unique foresight, she couldn’t stand that her brother was relying on trust in others rather than his own judgement.
How naive...
She clenched her sword again, ready to push forw—
“Besides.”
Jake’s gaze, too, followed the battle between Jason and Demon’s Edge. He smiled.
“I’m pretty strong now, too.”
“...”
Aria stopped. She turned to her brother, her expression shifting.
She knew her brother was having a hard time tracking the two’s movements. Yet, here he was, pretending to be relaxed, his lips curling into a grin, as if mimicking a certain someone.
It was a sight that made a chuckle escape Aria’s lips. “That look doesn’t suit you.”
“It makes me seem trustworthy, though, doesn’t it?”
“...Kind of.”
Jake removed his hand.
Relaxing slightly, Aria gripped her sword and turned back to the battlefield.
“Who’s going to go in first?”
“I’ll leave it to you.”
With the order of attack settled, there was no need for further discussion. Jake and Aria heightened their senses, waiting for the perfect moment.
In the meantime, Demon’s Edge had gradually pushed Jason toward defeat. His greatsword began flickering with an eerie glow, signaling the decisive shift in battle—
Snap-
The planetary energy surging through the Silent Volcano came to an abrupt halt. It had been stopped by the transferring of administrator privileges during the interaction between Se-Hoon and Terra.
However, the flow was restored almost immediately by Tuner, creating a delay so quick that the heroes didn’t even notice—except for Aria.
Now!
The delay served as more than enough time to strike.
Clench-
Her consciousness accelerated to its limit and locked onto her target.
She tensed up her muscles as her mana surged inside her body. Then, conjuring a blade from her synesthetic mindscape, a golden flash erupted from her waist. Aria gripped it tightly, the light threatening to burst apart in her grasp as she drew and slashed across space, descending upon Demon’s Edge.
BOOM!!
The golden blade, moving faster than sound, slammed into Demon’s Edge’s eerie, flickering greatsword, dissipating the glow. And in that fleeting gap, Jason drove his fist forward without hesitation.
BOOM!
Alas, somehow, Demon’s Edge had managed to avoid a direct hit. However, his left arm that blocked the blow and nearly a third of his torso were obliterated without a trace.
The devastating power had heavily injured it, causing Demon’s Edge to abandon the regeneration of his wounds. Instead, he funneled all of his strength into his right arm, gripping his greatsword tightly.
I can still turn this around.
His plan was simple: with Aria exhausted from her initial attack, he would cut her down along with her blade, and then, controlling the Sword Essence stored within his body, he would force Jason into a defensive counterattack to buy time.
Of course, the attack alone wouldn’t be enough to harm Jason. However, forcing him to react would disrupt his momentum just enough to regain control of the fight.
Woong!
The Harbinger Shard fused into the greatsword began gathering energy once more, resulting in the greatsword taking on a twisted hue that amplified its cutting power explosively.
Having prepared a slash seemingly capable of slicing through even the powers of the Perfect Ones, Demon’s Edge swung the cursed blade forward, seeking to carve through Aria. However, at that moment...
Soul Sword Manifestation
A turquoise sword pierced through the gap.
Shunk!
Demon’s Edge’s body stiffened as his heart was impaled. Not missing the opening, Jason launched his fist into the monster’s core, accelerating it until it had the force of a meteor.
BOOM!
Demon’s Edge’s form was utterly shattered.
For the first time since the battle began, Jason could finally be seen clearly. Aaron, having confirmed Aria and Jake’s conditions first, quickly grasped the situation.
“Run!”
No sooner had the command been given than the battlefield plunged into eerie silence as every hero sprinted forward with all their might. They knew instinctively—the current moment of fear was their last chance.
So what if I die? It’s better than standing still!
Even if I do die here, the Eternal Nocturne will revive me...!
Snatching up Aria and Jake on the way, the heroes charged toward the crater.
At the same time, the entire Silent Volcano Demon Realm began trembling violently.
CRACK!
From beneath the earth, Demon’s Edge’s roots burst forth.
When the battle had begun, the raid team had been racing against a clock, the planet itself held hostage.
But now, after Se-Hoon’s intervention with Terra, that time limit has been transferred to the Demon Force. Having found out, Demon’s Edge abandoned all restraint and began trying to devour every ounce of energy within the Silent Volcano.
RUMBLE!
Not only the lava titan, but even the power resisting the corruption of Netherworld was absorbed; all of it surged toward the crater. The roots, now bloated with stolen energy, turned toward the assault force, ready to unleash devastation.
The compressed energy fired—
“Set-”
A single incantation echoed from the heavens, targeting the thousands of roots ready to burst at any moment.From beyond the Gate of the Netherworld, the support unit’s artillery strike rained down, targeting the roots with deadly precision.
BOOOOOM!
Explosions erupted across the battlefield, the impact shaking the entire volcano.
Caught off guard, Demon’s Edge immediately abandoned the attack. He changed course, turned his focus toward duplicating the Demon’s Edge Corps.
But the moment he did that...
A vast gray mist unfolded across the sky. From it, countless gray swords then poured down like rain.
Kasar’s Smoke Heaven Rain—once feared as the nemesis of the Demon’s Edge Corps in an erased past—fell upon the battlefield.
Rumble!
The gray swords rained down relentlessly. At first, the Demon’s Edge Corps blocked the attacks with ease. However, once some time passed, the situation sharply changed.
“Wait... why is my strength...?”
“Ugh... my mana...!”
The gray swords, embedded in their bodies, released a lingering smoke. And the more it spread, the weaker the Demon’s Edge Corps became—until they fell to their knees.
Infused with Demon’s Edge’s Essence of the Sword, the Demon’s Edge Corps were basically living bioweapons—making Kasar’s Ashen Smoke a deadly toxin to them.
Woong!
Even when shattered into millions of fragments, Li Kenxie’s synesthetic mindscape remained embedded within the gray blades. Like a cancerous force, it infiltrated the Essence of the Sword imbued within the Demon’s Edge Corps and made it spiral out of control.
“Damn it...!”
Panicking over the fact that his forces were permanently disintegrating, Demon’s Edge funneled all his remaining energy into the crater.
Woong!
He regenerated his body with the magma. While he felt stronger than ever after drawing power from the entirety of the Silent Volcano Realm, he failed to see a single way for him to walk out alive.
So this was all a trap...
Looking back upon the entire confrontation, he realized that every one of his attacks had been countered from the start. Perhaps even his current state—all of his strength gathered into a single moment—was nothing more than another planned outcome.
For once, he felt as if he had been backed into a corner. Yet, beneath the despair, he felt a different emotion stirring: awe.
Woong!
He had momentarily glimpsed the “end” of the world once. And having tasted that twisted blend of terror and exhilaration, he realized that if he could overcome the current moment, he would reach that “end” once again. He could bring about the destruction of the world.
Driven by a newfound feeling of certainty, he gripped his greatsword once more.
CRACK-
Forged from the resentment of his ancestors, tempered through the flesh and souls of his descendants, the greatsword was now awakening to the Harbinger Shard imbued within.
Basking in that strength, Demon’s Edge stepped out of the magma.
“You're a bit too late.”
Only to be met with the Warhound, a bioweapon clad in silver armor, forged together by Se-Hoon and the Seeker.
With a single strike from it, Demon’s Edge’s skull was shattered.