"Don’t let up!" Standing in the burning fray of corrupted and rotting corpses, Kang led the charge forward, his blade slicing through several corrupted guards at once in a single sweeping motion, the impact scattering ash and blood across the scorched floor.
As for Ethan, his blade moved in a steady, unbroken flow state as he cut toward the advanced corrupted standing before him, each strike measured despite the chaos surrounding him on every side, the sounds of screaming and collapsing stone blending into a single continuous roar.
For them, what mattered most now was time. Given enough of it, the corrupted would only continue growing stronger with each passing second, and once they crossed into tier 4, they would become far too dangerous to stop through conventional means, forcing an escalation none of them were prepared for.
"Hahaha, you’re strong, child, but I am your doom." The advanced corrupted beast bellowed, its voice warped and layered, as it suddenly appeared directly in front of Ethan without warning.
Startled, Ethan dashed several steps backward before dropping into the Judgment style’s first stance, weight settling low, blade angled with practiced precision.
He could feel it clearly.
The corrupted standing before him had just crossed into tier 6, the shift in its presence unmistakable.
"Annoying." Ethan cursed under his breath.
But he didn’t back down. Instead, he forced Vlad and Morgana to his side in an instant, both summons materializing with sharp precision, weapons already drawn before their feet fully touched ground.
Chains reached upward from the ground moments later, and all three of them attacked simultaneously, coordinating without needing to exchange a single word, the rhythm of it practiced from countless fights before this one.
Of course, Ethan carried no illusions about the difficulty ahead. Killing a tier 6 opponent was an extremely difficult task under any circumstances, let alone one already corrupted and strengthened by a foreign will.
However, he had a trick prepared. One careful step at a time, Ethan closed the distance toward the corrupted man, using Vlad as a shield to absorb the worst of the retaliation and Morgana to pull its attention elsewhere, but he closed the gap regardless of the cost.
Until the moment arrived.
Killer Zone.
At any given stage of growth, a summoner could take one skill from each of their summons to strengthen themselves directly, folding a fragment of that bond’s power into their own arsenal permanently. From Vlad, Ethan had taken Bat Eyes Evasion. From Morgana, Spellcaster.
And now, from Arthur.
Ethan had claimed a one-shot skill that, once activated, would leave any opponent within range dead in seconds, no matter how strong they appeared on the surface, the kind of power he’d been saving for exactly this situation.
The advanced corrupted beast never had the chance to react before several blades shot into it from every direction at once, tearing through flesh and leaving it staggered, broken, and barely upright.
Before it could recover even slightly.
"Judgment style, second stance. Evidence." With a single swing, Ethan’s figure reappeared directly beside the corrupted man, his blade cutting through its head in one clean, unhesitating motion.
[You have slain a vessel of the Blood Serpent God.]
[Due to your relationship with the Blood Serpent God Clan, a title has been bestowed upon you.]
[Blood God Nemesis]
[You have angered the Demon God "Blood Serpent." Congratulations, you have received two blessings from Zarth.]
As the chaos raged on in the background, a series of notifications flickered through Ethan’s mind in quick succession. His expression remained steady despite them, his gaze already sweeping across the battlefield as though something had warned him before it happened.
Suddenly, a massive crash tore through the main door, shattering it outward and scattering debris across the battlefield beyond.
There were two figures standing in the wreckage, silhouetted against the ruined doorway behind them.
One was covered in mutilated flesh and visible rot, blood dripping steadily with every slow, deliberate movement it made, the smell reaching Ethan even across the distance separating them.
The second was a woman wreathed in blazing, uncontained flame, a dragon coiled beside her, its jaws locked around a torn piece of flesh ripped from the other figure entirely, the heat radiating off both of them warping the air.
"Demi-Gods."
For the first time since arriving, Ethan understood what true power actually felt like. Simply looking at the two of them left him instantly dizzy, his balance failing as he dropped to one knee without meaning to, the pressure pressing down on him from every direction at once.
However, he understood clearly that losing himself now, even for a moment, meant waking up as nothing more than a corpse among the rest scattered across this hall. So he steadied his breathing, forced his gaze back into focus, and looked toward the two figures again, refusing to let his knee stay bent for longer than necessary.
"You’re already dead, man. What use is there in resisting? Fall to me now." The woman bellowed the words as she seized the mangled clump of flesh with her bare hands and shoved it violently back into the main hall, away from everyone else watching, her grip leaving trails of blood along her forearms.
The next sound Ethan heard was a man’s voice, screaming in agony, straining with everything he had left not to give in to whatever was consuming him from the inside out.
But eventually, inevitably, he lost himself entirely, the scream cutting off mid breath and leaving behind only the crackle of flame and the distant clash of steel still echoing through the ruined hall.
No one needed to spell it out to them, as they saw the result visibly in the fall of the other corrupted after the scream.
The battle had been a success.
Also at the same time
Two men standing above the clouds sighed in relief a heavy weight lifting from their chests as they saw this happen.
One of them turning to the sky to give it the middle finger before disappearing.
They didn’t know it yet, but they had just saved all of humanity from a grevious plot.
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