NOVPUBAs Artorias' blade snapped between the Spirit King's fingers, the world held its breath as everything slowed down. As if time had been slowed down by something.
And then, he was gone.
There was no shifting. No distortion in the air. No sign of energy.
He simply ceased to be. And then he began to be.
Between Monica and Beatrice.
They didn't even see him arrive — they only realized that the world had grown colder, quieter. And when their eyes searched for the reason… he was already there.
And then all hell broke loose.
Without a word, the king's left arm advanced like a living blade, his fingers sinking into Beatrice's shoulder with the ease of someone cutting through wet paper.
They cut through muscle, bone, and soul. As if her body were made of still-wet clay.
She didn't even scream. Not right away.
Because the scream came with the pull.
A crack that sounded like dry wood being torn apart by a fire echoed. And then
Her arm was ripped off. Whole.
Blood exploded like a jet of boiling oil.
Hot. Dark. Uncontrollable.
The flesh hanging from the shoulder joint opened like a sickly flower, and the humerus bone came out with a chunk of the scapula still hanging on—as if the King had dug up a root with his hands.
"UHHRR!!!!!" Beatrice screamed. And she fell to her side, thrashing on the ground, drowning in her own blood.
But the king was already turning.
With his other arm, he struck Monica like a bolt of darkness. His hand dug between her collarbone and neck, fingers sawing through nerves and vessels like steel needles.
And then he tore.
He didn't pull. He tore.
Monica's shoulder was torn apart, part of her ribcage being ripped off along with her arm, in a spectacle of flesh, bone, and sparks of electrical energy — as if she were a reactor breaking from the inside out.
Monica didn't scream. She simply... blacked out. Her eyes rolled back, her skin pale, her mouth open in shock that never even manifested itself. The pain was so great that her soul screamed before her body.
The King dropped both of her torn arms on the floor, as if they were dirty rubble.
"You're too noisy," he said. His voice was dry, almost bored.
"And I hate noise."
And then, he disappeared. 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝖕𝖚𝖇.𝖈𝔬𝔪
Samira felt the cold first.
A hole. An absolute absence.
A moment later, she felt the pain.
She looked down.
A hand. A damned spectral hand.
Coming out of her. Piercing her.
Her fingers glowed with the same light as her soul—only darker. Twisted. Corrupted.
She tried to scream, but only bubbles of blood escaped her throat.
"Fire is beautiful... but it's just empty heat." He pulled.
He ripped out part of her stomach—a hot, viscous mass, glowing with faint flames that died in the air. The organ fell to the ground with a wet, grotesque sound, sliding across the ground like a piece of meat thrown on hot stone.
Samira fell to her knees. Flames leaked from her mouth, her eyes burning from within. Her soul twisted.
Then her target was another… Bellatrix turned too late.
The king was standing next to her.
Motionless. Calmly motionless.
He just raised his open hand and struck her chest with a soundless force.
CRRRACK.
The front ribs had snapped and twisted inwards like traitorous blades. Five bones had been broken, three piercing the lung and two hitting the heart.
She flew backwards like a doll thrown in anger—blood spurting from her mouth, her eyes, and her nostrils.
Each subsequent breath was a drowning in itself. But did he stop? No, he kept going... He kept going while time still ran in slow motion.
Daniela and Cassandra backed away, panting. But the king was already there.
Daniela was the first.
A bare foot rose—stained with the blood of other souls. And came down with a sickening smack on her knee.
Her leg buckled backward.
It broke in four places.
Tendons snapped. Bones popped out of her flesh.
She screamed—not in pain, but in sheer terror.
Cassandra tried to fight back—but the king was already crushing her thigh.
Her femur shattered like stone under pressure.
The bone exploded from her skin, ripping through it like a spear.
She fell screaming, blood bubbling between her fingers as she pressed against the open wound.
Two warriors on the ground. No legs. No chance. No hope.
And then... he was there.
In front of Scarlet.
She didn't see him coming.
But she felt it.
The air grew denser. Heavier. The chains began to break on their own. The seal... was dying.
Scarlet tried to look at him. But her vision was already blurring. Blood was running down her eyes. Her hands were still trying to hold the link. Foolish fingers trying to contain a god.
The king stared at her.
And for an instant... his expression was one of mourning.
"You are strong. A great threat."
The sword formed. And in a single movement—quick, clean, merciless—he cut.
Scarlet's head flew off.
A trail of black blood. A slow spin in the air. The eyes still open. Still conscious. They saw their own bodies fall to their knees... and then fall over.
Time returned.
But not in a hurry.
Not like a spring released.
It returned... dragging itself along. Like a corpse just awakened.
The sound returned too, but distorted. As if someone had plunged the entire world into a shallow lake of agony.
Breathing. Moans. Crying. The clanking of broken chains. The spectral whisper of blood still flowing.
Strax... had been temporarily sealed, without even realizing it... that's why he did nothing... he couldn't... His face was strange. His eyes? Blind for an instant. Then, too wide to comprehend.
The world he knew had died in seconds.
He saw Monica first, fallen into the fetal position, her face white as paper, her mouth still half open in a scream that never came out. The blood beneath her was a pool. No arm. No pulse.
Then Beatrice—writhing, the stump of her shoulder pressed against her body, gasping like a roadkill animal. Each spasm brought more blood. More suffering.
Samira was on her knees, her hands on her stomach. Not trying to contain the wound, but... searching for something that was no longer there. The hole where her stomach had been was releasing ethereal vapors. Faint flames died in the air like candles in a desecrated temple.
Bellatrix was panting on a pile of rubble, her chest sunken. Each breath was a sob of blood. Her mouth trembled, but no spells came out. Only red bubbles.
And then he saw Daniela.
Her leg at an unnatural angle, her eyes unfocused, her nails scratching the ground as if digging a tunnel with her hands would save her from the pain. Beside her, Cassandra was trying to crawl. She was trying. Because the broken femur made her scream with every movement.
They weren't alive.
They were suspended.
In a purgatory without logic. Without relief.
And then...
Strax saw Scarlet.
Her kneeling body. Her head fell... to the side.
Her eyes are still open.
As if they could see.
As if her spirit was trapped there—in the final seconds, reliving her own death in an eternal cycle.
Strax fell to his knees.
The sword slipped from his hand, sticking into the dull floor. He couldn't feel his own body. Only the dull throb of guilt in his ears. The pressure in his chest. The weight on his back. The emptiness.
"No..." he whispered. "No. No. No..."
"No..."
Strax repeated it, once more, as if the word could nullify what he saw.
As if denying it would reverse time.
As if wishing it were enough... for them to come back.
But they wouldn't.
He raised his hand to his head, his fingers digging into his hair, pulling as if trying to tear the pain from inside his skull. His throat closed. His eyes watered, but no tears spilled—they evaporated before they fell, burned by the energy that began to build inside him.
"It can't be like this…" His voice cracked. Weak. Almost childish.
"This can't be real." But it was.
The smell of burning blood. The sound of moans. The taste of iron in the air. It was all real. And then came the sound.
Not external. Internal.
A muffled rumble, like a wall cracking under the pressure of an endless sea.
Strax gasped. His body gave an involuntary jerk. The earth around him shook.
The ground beneath his knees cracked—a web of fractures spreading out from where he knelt. As if reality itself were giving way to what was being born there.
"They…" he whispered through gritted teeth. "They were my family…"
His eyes burned. Not with tears.
But with light.
A golden and crimson light—like fire that had been contained for ages. And then…it tore.
The skin began to glow, cracking in places like tectonic plates breaking.
The muscles tensed until they snapped.
Strax's back arched—the roar that tore from his throat was inhuman. It echoed through the hall like thunder trapped in flesh.
His arms grew.
The fingers lengthened, the nails turning into claws curved like scythes.
The legs lengthened, the knees split the armor, and the bones reshaped themselves.
Scales slowly appeared—first on the chest, then on the neck, then all over the back, replacing the skin like living blades.
And the wings…
They burst from the back like celestial scythes—two colossal structures, black at the tips and incandescent at the joints. The entire room filled with wind. The air swirled around him, as if to suck everything in a whirlwind of fury.
The jaw snapped. Strax's face began to elongate, the teeth reforming, the fangs breaking through the tissue of his mouth. His neck thickened. His chest exploded sideways.
His heart beat like a war drum.
THUMM. THUMM. THUMM.
Each strike caused the ground to vibrate.
His eyes were now pools of primordial energy. No pupils. No visible soul. Only power. Ancient. Absolute.
[You have broken the last seal.]
[You have reached the Emperor stage.]
[You have surpassed the limits of body and soul.]
[You have broken the racial limitations imposed by "Scathach Antares."]
[You have destroyed the Blood Essence of a Vampire.]
[You have destroyed the Blood Essence of "Ouroboros, the Dragon of Infinity."]
[You have destroyed the Blood Essence of "Tiamat, the Dragon Queen."]
[You have destroyed the Blood Essence of "Kallamus, the Indomitable."]
[You have created an Essence [Essence of the Supreme Divine Demonic Dragon].]
[Error…] [Error…] [Error…] [Error…]
[A being from another sector is interfering with its essence.]
[The Hades system is being taken over by an entity called "A?* D#**?a."]
