Chapter 497: The Might of One Axe

It could even cleave space itself. Could his own Undead possibly stop it?

‘Get real. They’re not even on the same level!’

He gulped, swallowing hard.

He patted his chest, feeling incredibly relieved.

‘Thank goodness, thank goodness he’s on my side. After spending the last few days together, I guess we could be considered friends.’

If he had to face an enemy like that, Li Ziyu was sure he’d go insane.

‘Honestly, that single axe strike… if he’d put a little more power into it, made it a bit longer and wider, he could have split my Fortress in two.’

‘So damn brutal.’

Damenevsky walked toward Bebuta. A skittering sound rose from the grasslands as the Void Beetles began to close in.

Seeing this from the Great Tomb, Li Ziyu shot to his feet, ready to dispatch his Undead.

He couldn’t let Damenevsky face so many beetles alone.

Just as Li Ziyu prepared to act, Damenevsky stopped in his tracks and cast his gaze across the plains.

The skittering sound vanished. The Void Beetles froze.

He lifted his War Axe again and gave it a swing through the air.

The skittering sound returned, even more frantic than before.

But this time, it wasn’t directed at Damenevsky. It was moving away.

The Void Beetles had lost their nerve.

They didn’t dare get any closer. Instead, they turned tail and fled, scrambling away as fast as they could.

Rifts in the Void tore open, forming Wormholes. The Void Beetles scrambled over each other to dive in, vanishing to parts unknown.

‘Damn. The power of a single axe swing… horrifying.’

With the Void Beetles routed, Li Ziyu’s fears were assuaged, and he sat back down.

Once the rabble had been driven off, Damenevsky finally crouched beside Bebuta and stared at the two halves of his body.

“Cough… cough…”

Though he had been split in two, Bebuta suddenly coughed twice and spat out a mouthful of blood.

He was in two pieces, yet he still wasn’t dead.

The Life Force of insectoids was always tenacious, to say nothing of a Void Lord Level being like Bebuta.

Damenevsky’s earlier strike had been slightly off-center. Or rather, he had intentionally avoided Bebuta’s head, cleaving him apart from the shoulder down.

It was a gruesome sight, but for Bebuta, it was merely a grievous wound.

“Let me… die… like a Warrior.”

Bebuta said, struggling, trying to keep any hint of weakness out of his voice.

The lifespan of Void Creatures was immense. Bebuta himself didn’t know how long he had lived.

He had evolved from a mundane Void Beetle into the intelligent, humanoid creature he was now. He had experienced so much.

Bebuta had his own creed. Unlike other Void Creatures, he didn’t seek a longer life. Instead, he yearned for the battlefield, hoping to die in a truly satisfying fight.

He had always considered himself an excellent Warrior, and a Warrior could only realize the value of his life on the field of battle.

A powerful Human expert he had fought long, long ago had told him this.

Back then, he was still weak, a mere Void Beetle in the midst of its evolution, and he hadn’t understood the meaning of those words.

The Human expert had been strong, killing many of his companions and leaving a deep impression on him.

It wasn’t until he evolved into a humanoid form that Bebuta gradually came to understand the Human’s words, and he adopted them as his own creed.

Always fighting, always seeking battle, craving battle, endlessly fighting.

Even among the Void Lords, he was firmly in the pro-war faction.

He had traveled to many places and fought many excellent, powerful Warriors, but in the end, he had always survived.

‘Am I unkillable?’

Bebuta often wondered.

But today, he could feel death, so close he could touch it.

That powerful Human… all he had to do was raise his axe and strike one more time, and Bebuta would die. He would die the death of a warrior on the battlefield.

Damenevsky ruffled his own short-cropped hair and thought for a moment. He didn’t deliver the final blow Bebuta expected. Instead, he grabbed Bebuta by the head and began dragging his body, step by step, toward the Undead Fortress.

“What are you doing?”

“Let go of me!”

“I am a Warrior! You can’t insult me like this!”

“Deliver the final blow! Let me die!”

Bebuta screamed himself hoarse, but Damenevsky paid him no mind, simply continuing to drag him along.

The Void Beetles were gone and the crisis was averted. Li Ziyu emerged from the Great Tomb and led a contingent of Undead out of the Fortress to greet Damenevsky.

From a distance, Li Ziyu saw Damenevsky dragging the body of the humanoid Void Creature and waved to him.

Damenevsky waved his War Axe in response.

When he got closer, Damenevsky dropped Bebuta on the ground.

“I think we can still save him,” Damenevsky said, pointing at the bisected Bebuta.

“Uh… he’s only half there. How can he still be alive?” Li Ziyu had assumed Damenevsky was bringing back a corpse, not a grievously wounded prisoner.

‘But still… is this Void Lord’s Life Force really that tenacious? He was cut in half, and he’s still alive?’

Damenevsky nodded. “I can feel that the Life Force inside him is still strong. Mmm, he should be able to grow back.”

Li Ziyu was stunned. “Grow back what?” he asked, his face a mask of astonishment.

“The other half of his body,” Damenevsky said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “It can grow back.”

‘Wait, are you kidding me?’