Chapter 303: The Moment Zeri Stopped Smiling

Location: Yuno City

Place: Street

"Shadow Corps, attack!"

Raven’s command echoed across the ruined street as she drew her sword and launched herself forward.

The Assault Division moved with her almost simultaneously, several dark figures rushing toward Zeri from different directions while the soldiers positioned across the rooftops kept their weapons trained on him.

Zeri’s smile widened when he saw them coming.

The first Shadow Corps soldier reached him from the right, swinging his blade directly toward Zeri’s neck.

Zeri casually leaned backward, allowing the sword to pass only inches above his face before stepping aside from another blade coming toward his stomach.

A third soldier immediately attacked from behind, but Zeri ducked beneath the strike without even turning around.

Raven came next.

Her sword cut through the air toward his shoulder, but Zeri twisted his body just enough for the blade to miss.

Raven immediately changed direction and attacked again, forcing him backward as two other soldiers closed in from both sides.

For the first time, they had completely surrounded him.

Yet Zeri still hadn’t taken his hands from behind his back.

He moved between their attacks almost playfully, stepping around one sword before bending beneath another.

Whenever someone came close to hitting him, he slipped away at the last possible moment, his relaxed expression making it increasingly obvious that he wasn’t struggling to keep up with them.

One soldier attempted to kick him from the side.

Zeri hopped over his leg.

"A little higher, Uncle!" he laughed while landing behind him.

"You need to stretch more!"

The soldier immediately spun around and attacked again, but Zeri had already moved away.

Another Shadow Corps member rushed from the opposite side. She swung her sword toward his chest, forcing Zeri to jump backward before she followed with a kick aimed directly at his head.

Zeri ducked.

His black eyes briefly moved toward her leg.

"Aunty, your legs are really thick."

The soldier’s expression twitched.

"You little...!"

She attacked again, this time with considerably more anger behind the strike.

Zeri laughed as he slipped underneath her sword.

Another female soldier tried to catch him while his attention was elsewhere, but Zeri suddenly leaned sideways and avoided her blade as well. His eyes briefly moved across her before he smiled.

"Your Chest are Flat."

The woman froze for half a second.

"What?!"

That half-second was enough for Zeri to disappear from directly in front of her.

"Don’t listen to him!" Raven shouted. "He’s deliberately distracting you!"

Raven rushed toward Zeri again, her sword moving rapidly as she attacked from several angles. Zeri finally removed one hand from behind his back, but only to place a finger against his chin while continuing to avoid her attacks.

"Hmm..."

Raven swung toward his neck.

Zeri ducked.

She immediately followed with another slash.

He stepped aside.

A third attack came toward his chest, but Zeri bent backward before straightening again with an amused smile.

Raven’s irritation grew.

"What are you doing?"

Zeri stared at her chest for a moment as though seriously calculating something.

Then he raised both hands and spread his fingers.

"Six.... Seven."

Raven’s eye twitched.

"What?"

"Six-Seven, Old hag." Zeri repeated happily, waving both hands.

Raven didn’t even understand what he was referring to.

She never got the chance to ask.

Zeri’s leg suddenly moved.

Raven barely saw it.

His foot struck her before she could properly defend herself, sending her flying backward across the street. Her body traveled several meters before crashing into the wall of a nearby building with enough force to crack the surface behind her.

"Captain!"

Several Shadow Corps members immediately turned toward her.

"Don’t stop!" Raven shouted.

She pushed herself away from the damaged wall, one hand briefly pressing against her side as she struggled to understand what had just happened.

That kick...

He had been joking around only a moment earlier.

Then, without warning, he had completely broken through her defense.

Raven looked back toward the battlefield. Zeri was already surrounded again, but the same situation continued. Swords approached him from every direction, yet he kept slipping between them with that ridiculous smile on his face.

It can’t be...

They had almost no information about this demon.

Raven searched her memory for reports, wanted lists or descriptions matching his appearance, but nothing immediately came to mind. His behavior only made the situation stranger. The childish insults, the jokes and even the strange expressions he used sounded almost modern compared to many demons Raven had encountered.

Who is he? And why is he this strong?

Zeri jumped over another attack before landing lightly on the road.

"Too slow, Uncle!"

The soldier gritted his teeth and rushed him again.

Raven watched for several more seconds before reaching a decision.

They weren’t going to accomplish anything like this.

"Everyone, fall back!"

The Shadow Corps immediately created distance from Zeri.

Zeri stopped as well, looking almost disappointed that his game had suddenly ended.

Raven raised her sword.

"Prepare Black Fusion."

Several Shadow Corps members looked toward her in surprise.

"Black Fusion, Captain?"

"Yes." Raven’s eyes remained fixed on Zeri. "We’ll create an opening. The moment we do, Group C will take the Supreme Commander’s family somewhere secure."

"Roger!"

The Shadow Corps immediately began changing formation. Team C tightened its protection around Yuuta and Elena while the remaining soldiers moved into position around Zeri.

Zeri watched them reorganize.

Zeri’s disappointed expression disappeared almost immediately.

His eyes widened with childish excitement the moment Raven mentioned the technique.

"Black Fusion?" Zeri repeated, leaning forward eagerly.

"What is it? What is it? Is it something that can actually hurt me?"

Raven didn’t answer.

Her eyes narrowed as she watched him carefully.

Even after being surrounded by the Shadow Corps and learning that they were preparing something specifically against him, there wasn’t a trace of concern on Zeri’s face. If anything, he looked more interested than before.

Zeri noticed Raven’s expression and suddenly straightened himself.

"Oh! My, sorry." He placed one hand against his forehead in an exaggerated soldier’s salute.

"I’ll follow the plan, Captain."

No one responded to him.

The Shadow Corps immediately began moving into formation. Several soldiers created distance between themselves and Zeri while others spread toward the surrounding rooftops. Defensive barriers appeared around the outer positions as each member took their assigned place, leaving Zeri standing alone in the center of the street.

Yuuta watched from behind Group C.

"What are they doing...?"

Elena remained silent against his chest, her small fingers clutching tightly at his clothes. Yuuta kept one arm securely around her while his crimson eyes followed Raven.

Then he saw her reach into her equipment.

Raven pulled out a black stone.

Yuuta’s expression immediately changed.

The stone itself wasn’t particularly large, but the moment it entered his sight, everything else seemed to become less important. A thick aura was swirling inside it, so concentrated that even the naked eye could see the dark energy moving beneath its surface.

Yuuta’s eyes froze on it.

That stone...

He knew that aura.

Raven tightened her fingers around the Aesthor Stone before suddenly launching herself forward. She crossed the distance rapidly, using the momentum of her movement to throw the stone directly toward Zeri.

The Aesthor Stone shot through the air with unnatural force.

Zeri’s black eyes followed it.

"Hm?"

BAM!

The stone slammed directly into his chest.

For the first time since the fight began, Zeri stopped moving.

He looked down at the stone, then at Raven, seemingly trying to understand what had just happened. Several seconds passed before his expression suddenly twisted dramatically.

"Ouch!"

He grabbed his chest with both hands.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch! It hurts!" Zeri stumbled backward, clutching himself as though he had suffered a terrible injury.

"Captain! What have you done to me?!"

Several Shadow Corps members instinctively tightened their weapons.

They knew exactly what the Aesthor Stone contained.

Raven, however, wasn’t fooled.

She slowly stepped backward toward the rest of her formation, keeping her eyes fixed on the demon.

"Stop pretending."

Zeri paused.

Raven’s expression remained cold.

"The aura hasn’t been released yet."

Silence followed.

Zeri slowly removed his hands from his chest.

"What aura?"

Raven stared at him.

Zeri stared back.

Then realization seemed to hit him.

"Oh."

He scratched the side of his head.

"Okay, I’m sorry. I thought I was supposed to be hurt already."

No one laughed.

Zeri gave Raven an awkward smile,

Then his entire body stiffened.

The smile remained on his face for another second before gradually fading.

Zeri looked down.

Thump.

His heart beat harder.

He blinked.

Thump.

Thump.

Zeri’s eyebrows slowly drew together. He could suddenly hear his own heartbeat far more clearly than before, pounding faster and faster inside his chest.

"What...?"

His fingers twitched.

Zeri stared at his hand.

It was trembling.

At first, the movement was so small that he thought he had imagined it. But within seconds the trembling spread through his fingers, traveled up his arm and reached his shoulders. His legs began shaking next, forcing him to adjust his balance.

The playful look disappeared from his face completely.

"What is this...?"

Zeri looked down at himself in genuine confusion. He wasn’t pretending anymore. His entire body had begun vibrating violently, responding to something his mind couldn’t understand.

Then the Aesthor Stone reacted.

A thin stream of black aura escaped from its surface.

Yuuta’s breath caught.

More followed.

The aura poured outward rapidly, no longer remaining trapped inside the stone. It spread around Zeri’s body before rising into the air like a violent black storm. The ruined street darkened beneath its presence as the dense energy continued expanding, twisting around Zeri from every direction.

Zeri slowly raised his head.

His eyes were wide now.

There was no smile.

No joke.

No childish excitement.

For the first time since he had appeared, Zeri simply stood there trembling beneath an aura he didn’t understand.

Raven had been waiting for exactly that moment.

"Now!"

Every member of the Shadow Corps immediately looked toward her.

"Proceed with the plan!"

Group C reacted the instant Raven gave the order.

The Shadow Corps members assigned to Yuuta and Elena turned toward them, already preparing to move. Two soldiers positioned themselves at the front to clear a path while the others tightened their protective formation around the father and daughter. With Zeri trapped inside the storm of black aura, this was the opening they had been waiting for.

"Sir, we’re moving! Stay close to us!"

But Yuuta didn’t move.

The soldier nearest to him took another step before realizing something was wrong. Yuuta was staring past all of them, his crimson eyes fixed entirely on the enormous black aura raging around Zeri.

His eyes were trembling.

"That power..." Yuuta whispered.

One of the soldiers looked back at him. "Sir?"

Yuuta slowly raised his hand. Even his finger trembled as he pointed toward the storm.

"That’s him..."

The words left his mouth almost unconsciously.

A memory flashed through his mind.

Darkness.

Those nightmares.

That shadowy figure he had seen again and again, never clearly enough to recognize its face, yet always surrounded by the same suffocating presence. Whenever that figure appeared, the darkness around it carried a horrible pressure something filled with such raw killing intent that Yuuta could barely breathe beneath it.

And now that same feeling was standing in front of him.

That black aura...

Yuuta’s breathing became uneven.

I’ve seen it before.

He remembered it surrounding the shadow in his nightmares. He remembered that crushing sensation, the instinctive fear that crawled through his body whenever it appeared. He had never understood what it was or why those dreams continued haunting him.

But he could never forget that aura.

Before Yuuta could make sense of the connection, something inside him reacted.

A faint dark-green light leaked from his body.

Yuuta’s eyes widened.

"What...?"

He looked down at himself. Thin traces of dark-green aura were beginning to seep from his arms and shoulders, faint enough to almost disappear beneath the surrounding darkness but unmistakably there.

"What is happening to me?"

A sudden pain tore through his head.

"Ah....!"

Yuuta’s knees nearly gave out. He managed to keep himself from collapsing completely by catching himself with one hand against the ground, while his other arm instinctively loosened around Elena.

The pain intensified.

Yuuta grabbed the side of his head, his fingers digging into his hair as another violent pulse struck him. Tears gathered involuntarily in the corners of his eyes, his vision blurring while he stared down at the pavement.

What is happening...?

"Papa?!"

Elena immediately panicked.

She slipped from Yuuta’s loosened hold and stood beside him, grabbing his arm with both hands.

"Papa! What happened? Papa!"

Yuuta heard her voice.

He wanted to answer her.

He wanted to tell her that he was fine and pull her back into his arms, but his thoughts felt strangely distant. Something inside him was responding to the black aura, pushing against him as though it had suddenly awakened and was trying to force its way out.

"Sir!"

Two members of Group C immediately knelt beside him.

"Sir, can you hear me?"

Yuuta didn’t respond.

"We have to move! Sir, please look at me!"

One soldier reached toward his shoulder while another carefully moved Elena a little farther from him. Yuuta remained hunched over, breathing heavily as the dark-green aura continued leaking from his body.

"Papa!" Elena cried again. "Papa, look at Elena!"

Still nothing.

Yuuta could hear all of them, yet their voices seemed far away.

The Shadow Corps member beside him immediately activated her communicator.

"Captain!"

Raven, still watching the black storm surrounding Zeri, touched her earpiece.

"What happened?"

"Something’s wrong with the Supreme Commander’s husband. He suddenly collapsed. He’s conscious, but he’s barely responding to us."

"What?"

Raven immediately turned.

At first, all she saw was Yuuta kneeling on the road with several Shadow Corps members surrounding him and Elena desperately clinging to his arm.

Then Raven saw the color.

Dark green.

Her eyes widened.

The same dark-green aura she had briefly witnessed earlier was leaking from Yuuta again.

This time, she knew she wasn’t imagining it.

There it is again.

Raven’s attention shifted between Yuuta and the black storm surrounding Zeri. She didn’t understand why Yuuta’s aura had suddenly appeared at this exact moment, but the timing couldn’t be coincidence.

"Captain, what should we do?"

Raven opened her mouth to answer.

Before she could.

A figure stepped out of the black storm.

Raven froze.

Zeri stepped out.

Completely unharmed.

The dense black aura continued raging behind him, but there wasn’t a single visible wound across his body. His clothes remained intact, his skin showed no burns, and there was no blood anywhere on him.

Yet his body wouldn’t stop trembling.

His fingers shook violently at his sides. His legs occasionally twitched beneath him, and even his shoulders trembled as though his entire body had lost control of itself.

Zeri looked down at his hands.

The playful smile was gone.

He slowly opened his fingers, stared at them, then closed them again as if he couldn’t understand why they refused to stop shaking.

Raven stared at him in disbelief.

The amount of aura released from the Aesthor Stone should have done something. Even if it wasn’t enough to kill him, there should have been some kind of damage.

Instead, Zeri had simply walked through it.

"That shouldn’t be possible..." Raven whispered.

Zeri slowly raised his head.

His black eyes moved across Raven and the Shadow Corps surrounding him, but the usual amusement was nowhere to be found. His entire body continued trembling uncontrollably, his fingers twitching at his sides as he tried to understand the sensation that had just passed through him.

For the first time since he had appeared, Zeri looked genuinely disturbed.

"What..."

His voice came out unusually quiet.

Zeri stared down at his shaking hands before slowly looking back toward the black aura raging behind him.

"What... was that?"

Raven’s eyes narrowed.

Something was wrong.

The attack hadn’t injured him. There wasn’t a single wound on his body, yet whatever Zeri had experienced inside that aura had affected him far more deeply than any physical injury could have.

Zeri placed one trembling hand against his chest.

His heartbeat was still racing.

That feeling...

For those few seconds inside the black aura, his body had reacted before his mind could understand anything. His muscles had stiffened, his heart had pounded uncontrollably, and something unfamiliar had crawled through every part of him.

He couldn’t understand it.

He hated that he couldn’t understand it.

"What was that...?" Zeri whispered again.

Nobody answered.

The Shadow Corps remained in formation, weapons pointed toward him. Raven watched every movement he made, but even she couldn’t understand what she was seeing. Only moments ago, this demon had laughed while dozens of trained soldiers attacked him. He had mocked them, insulted them and treated the entire battle like a game.

Now there wasn’t even the slightest trace of a smile on his face.

Zeri’s trembling fingers suddenly curled into fists.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!"

BOOM!

The street exploded beneath him.

Cracks tore outward from Zeri’s feet as the pavement collapsed under the sudden force. A violent shockwave blasted through the surrounding street, throwing dust, broken concrete and debris in every direction.

"Defend!"

The Shadow Corps immediately raised their barriers.

Several soldiers were still thrown backward despite them, their boots scraping violently across the road. Windows shattered throughout the nearby buildings, damaged street signs bent beneath the pressure, and loose pieces of rubble were sent crashing against walls.

Raven drove her sword into the ground and braced herself, one arm raised in front of her face as the shockwave tore past.

When the dust finally began to settle, she slowly looked forward.

Zeri stood at the center of the cracked street.

His head was lowered.

His hands were clenched so tightly that his arms trembled, while the pavement beneath his feet had been completely shattered.

Then he raised his face.

Raven’s expression hardened.

Zeri wasn’t smiling anymore.

There was no playful grin. No childish excitement. No ridiculous joke waiting to leave his mouth.

Only confusion and something far more dangerous beginning to emerge beneath it.

Zeri stared directly at Raven.

"What... was that feeling?"

To Be Continued...