Chapter 314: What Are You, Uncle?

Zeri's lips moved.

A smile slowly spread across the severed face.

"Got you, Uncle."

Yuuta's eyes widened so violently that for a moment he forgot to breathe. He stared at the severed head lying only a short distance from him, watching those golden eyes move normally and that familiar childish smile remain on Zeri's face as though having his head cut off meant absolutely nothing.

"H-How...?" Yuuta's voice trembled despite himself. His gaze shifted toward Zeri's headless body and then immediately returned to the talking head. "How are you still alive?"

Zeri's smile widened, but there was something almost pitying in the way he looked at Yuuta.

"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you something, Uncle." He paused for a moment, as though he were about to reveal some small and unimportant detail. "I can't die."

Yuuta's face went pale.

"No..."

Behind Zeri's severed head, his body began to move.

Yuuta could only watch as the headless corpse pushed itself upright. The tentacles extending from its back twisted across the pavement before one curled around Zeri's severed head and casually lifted it from the ground. The body brought the head toward the open neck, placing it back where it belonged.

Flesh connected.

Muscle regenerated.

Within seconds, the cut Yuuta had made disappeared completely.

Zeri tilted his head from one side to the other.

Crack. Crack.

He rolled his shoulders afterward, testing his restored neck before turning his golden eyes toward Yuuta again. There was no wound left. No scar. Nothing to suggest that only moments ago his head had been rolling across the road.

Yuuta remained frozen.

Everything they had done flashed through his mind. Raven's Black Fusion, the Aesthor Stone, the Shadow Corps sacrificing themselves to create openings, his own aura, the plan they had risked their lives to execute and finally that perfect strike.

He had cut Zeri's head completely off.

And it hadn't mattered.

"To be honest, Uncle..." Zeri rubbed the back of his newly reattached neck. "I really didn't think you'd behead me like that. You surprised me."

There was almost admiration in his voice.

"You know, there aren't many people who've managed to do that." Zeri lifted one hand and began counting casually on his fingers. "General Malakar... His Majesty the Demon King... Elders" He looked at Yuuta and grinned. "And now you."

He pointed toward him.

"Congratulations, Uncle. You joined the list."

Yuuta's fingers tightened around Raven's sword.

His arms were trembling.

Not from fear alone.

His body had reached its limit. The recovery potion had only temporarily pushed away his exhaustion, and after everything he had forced himself through, even remaining upright was becoming difficult. Every breath burned his lungs, his muscles felt heavy, and his grip on the sword was weakening.

Zeri noticed all of it.

"Anyway..." He tilted his head. "What are you going to do now?"

Yuuta slowly forced himself onto his feet.

His knees almost gave way, but he refused to remain down.

Zeri watched with interest.

"You used your strange power. You cut my tentacles. You and Captain came up with that clever little plan. You even cut my head off." His smile returned as he spread his arms. "But I'm still here."

Yuuta raised the sword.

"We can still kill you."

Zeri blinked.

Then he looked around.

"We?"

His expression became genuinely confused.

"Who's 'we,' Uncle?"

Yuuta said nothing.

Zeri's eyes slowly moved toward the ruined building across the street.

Then understanding appeared on his face.

"Ohhh."

His smile returned.

"You mean Captain?"

Yuuta's grip tightened.

Zeri stared at him for another moment before speaking with disturbing casualness.

"But, Uncle... Captain died a minute ago."

Yuuta froze.

"What?"

The word escaped his mouth before he could stop it.

For the first time since Zeri had reattached his head, Yuuta looked away from him.

His eyes immediately turned toward the building Raven had been thrown into.

"No..."

He had been so focused on Zeri's impossible survival that he hadn't looked.

Now he did.

Several figures had gathered among the rubble.

The surviving members of the Shadow Corps.

They could barely stand themselves. Some were limping, others were bleeding heavily, and several had injuries that should have left them lying on the road. Yet the moment Raven had been thrown through that wall, they had forced their broken bodies to move.

Because she was their captain.

Yuuta's heart began beating faster.

One soldier was kneeling beside Raven.

Another stood nearby with one hand pressed against his own wound, his entire body trembling. A third had dropped his weapon completely.

None of them were looking at Zeri.

They were looking down.

Yuuta's lips parted.

"Raven...?"

One of the Shadow Corps soldiers slowly turned toward him.

Yuuta immediately saw the tears beneath the man's damaged mask.

That was enough.

He already knew.

But some part of him refused to accept it until the soldier's trembling voice finally reached him.

"Captain Raven..."

The soldier swallowed, struggling to force the words out.

"Captain Raven is dead."

Something inside Yuuta went silent.

He stared at them without moving, Raven's sword still hanging from his hand. The sounds of the ruined city seemed to disappear from his ears as his mind rejected what he had just heard.

Dead?

Only moments ago, Raven had been standing beside him.

She had argued with him because his plan was suicidal. She had worried about what she would tell Erza if anything happened to him. She had trusted his plan despite every instinct telling her not to, and when it succeeded, she had smiled and told him that they had survived.

We survived.

Yuuta remembered his own words.

Didn't I tell you? We'd survive together.

His fingers began trembling.

"No..."

He had promised that.

He had actually smiled when he said it.

And now Raven was lying beneath the rubble while the soldiers she had led stood around her crying.

Yuuta slowly lowered his head.

Behind him, Zeri continued speaking, but Yuuta no longer heard the words.

Something hot spread through his chest.

Not fear.

Not despair.

Rage.

His trembling fingers tightened around Raven's sword until his knuckles turned white. The exhaustion remained. His wounds remained. His body was still screaming at him to stop, and the enemy standing behind him had just proven that even decapitation couldn't kill him.

Yuuta didn't care anymore.

His crimson eyes slowly lifted toward Zeri. The exhaustion tearing through his body, the pain in his arms, and the burning in his lungs were all still there, but they had been pushed somewhere far behind the rage consuming his thoughts. His fingers tightened around Raven's sword until his knuckles turned pale.

"I'm going to kill you."

There was no shout in Yuuta's voice.

That somehow made the words feel heavier.

Zeri's smile remained on his face, but something inside him shifted for the briefest moment. His body remembered the strange fear it had felt before, and as he looked into Yuuta's crimson eyes, an absurd thought entered his mind.

He can do it.

Zeri blinked.

For one ridiculous second, despite everything he knew about himself, despite having just reattached his own severed head, he had genuinely felt that this exhausted human standing before him could kill him.

What the hell was that?

Before Zeri could think any further, Yuuta moved.

His sword was already at Zeri's neck.

Zeri jerked backward, and the glowing edge passed so close that several strands of his blue hair were sliced away. He had barely avoided it when Yuuta turned his wrist and brought the sword back from the opposite direction.

Zeri ducked.

The blade passed above his head.

Yuuta stepped forward.

Another slash came immediately.

Zeri's eyes widened as he retreated again.

There was no pause between Yuuta's attacks anymore. He wasn't swinging wildly in anger, nor was he simply relying on the strength of his aura. Every movement flowed into the next. When Zeri avoided one strike, Yuuta was already adjusting the sword for another. A horizontal slash became a downward cut; the downward cut changed into a thrust; when Zeri twisted away from that, Yuuta stepped after him and attacked again.

Zeri's expression gradually changed.

How is he moving like this?

This wasn't the same Yuuta from moments earlier.

His body should have been exhausted. Zeri had watched him struggle to stand after their previous exchange. The human had been breathing heavily, his hands had been trembling, and whatever temporary strength that strange blue potion had given him was clearly disappearing.

Yet now Yuuta fought like none of that mattered.

Zeri sent two tentacles from behind him.

Yuuta didn't stop.

His sword flashed.

Both tentacles were cut apart.

The severed pieces hadn't even touched the ground before another pair came from opposite directions, one aiming for Yuuta's chest while the other swept toward his legs.

Yuuta stepped over the lower tentacle and turned his entire body with the movement. Raven's sword followed him in a clean arc, its aura-covered edge passing through both tentacles with almost no resistance.

They fell apart like pieces of jelly.

Zeri immediately regenerated them and attacked again.

Yuuta cut them again.

"What...?"

Zeri sent four this time.

Yuuta continued forward.

One came toward his face, and he tilted his head just enough to let it pass. His sword cut through the second before it could reach his stomach, then reversed direction and severed the third. The fourth tried to curl around his back, but Yuuta turned with it and sliced through the thick flesh before continuing toward Zeri without breaking his rhythm.

Zeri backed away.

For the first time since the fight had begun, Yuuta wasn't the one being hunted.

Zeri was.

How is he moving like that?

He couldn't understand it. Yuuta's technique wasn't perfect, and his exhausted body was clearly struggling to keep up with what he was demanding from it, but the human simply refused to stop. Every time Zeri created distance, Yuuta closed it. Every time he regenerated a tentacle, Raven's sword cut it apart. Every time Zeri thought he had finally found an opening, Yuuta's next attack forced him to defend instead.

"Uncle, you're getting a little....."

Yuuta's sword came for his face.

Zeri stopped talking and leaned backward.

The blade missed his nose by centimeters.

Yuuta stepped closer and swung again.

Zeri blocked with two tentacles.

They were severed instantly.

A third wrapped toward Yuuta's sword arm, but Yuuta rotated his wrist, cut through it and continued the same motion toward Zeri's shoulder. Zeri twisted away, yet the blade still tore through his clothing and opened a cut across his skin.

Zeri's smile finally disappeared.

He jumped backward.

Yuuta followed.

"Seriously, Uncle, how are you..."

The sword descended.

Zeri raised his right arm instinctively.

The glowing blade passed through it.

For a moment, neither of them reacted.

Then Zeri's severed hand hit the road.

He stared at the stump.

Yuuta landed in front of him.

Zeri immediately grabbed his severed wrist with his remaining hand and jumped backward, finally creating several meters of distance between them.

Yuuta looked down.

Zeri's severed hand was lying beside his foot.

Without saying a word, Yuuta lifted his boot and brought it down.

CRUNCH!

The severed hand was crushed beneath his heel.

Zeri stared at him.

The playful High Demon who had spent the entire battle laughing, insulting soldiers and treating death like entertainment was silent for several seconds.

"How...?"

His golden eyes moved across Yuuta's body.

"How can you still move like this, Uncle?"

Yuuta didn't answer.

"What are you?"

Still nothing.

Yuuta simply stood there with Raven's sword hanging beside him.

Inside his head, he could still hear her voice.

I can't believe that actually worked.

We did it, sir.

Then his own answer returned.

Didn't I tell you? We'd survive together.

Yuuta's jaw tightened.

Raven had trusted him.

She had known his plan could get both of them killed, yet she had followed it. She had waited when he told her to wait. She had thrown him her sword when their plan failed. She had trusted him until the very end.

And he had told her they would survive together.

He knew what happened wasn't his fault. He knew Raven had made her own decision to fight, just as he had. None of that changed the image burned into his mind of that tentacle tearing through her body immediately after they had believed the battle was over.

Yuuta slowly raised his face.

His crimson eyes began to glow.

Zeri's body stiffened.

There it was again.

That look.

For an instant, Zeri no longer felt as though he were staring at an exhausted human. There was something predatory in those crimson eyes, something that made the instinct buried deep inside his body warn him that the person standing across from him was dangerous.

Yuuta lifted Raven's sword again.

Zeri stared at him before his surprise slowly disappeared.

Then he smiled.

"Ohhh..."

His severed wrist suddenly began regenerating. Flesh extended from the stump, followed by bone and muscle, and within moments a completely new hand had formed. Zeri flexed his regenerated fingers several times before rolling his wrist as though nothing had happened.

"So Uncle really has stopped playing around."

He looked at Yuuta's glowing eyes and grinned wider, revealing the beginning of his sharp teeth.

"Maybe I should stop playing too."

Yuuta's expression changed slightly.

Something was happening to Zeri.

The color of his skin began to shift.

Dark blue spread from his neck across his chest, arms and face, growing deeper with every second. Strange patterns appeared across his body like demonic tattoos, winding over his skin in unfamiliar shapes as his aura rapidly intensified.

Yuuta tightened his grip around the sword.

Zeri's fingers changed next.

His nails lengthened into dark claws, each one curving into a sharp point. His mouth stretched into a grin as rows of shark-like teeth filled it, making the face that had once looked almost like that of an ordinary teenage boy increasingly monstrous.

Then his back moved.

The flesh beneath his clothes bulged.

Tentacles erupted directly from behind him.

They twisted through the air like living creatures, larger and more threatening than before, no longer emerging from his arms. His newly regenerated hands remained completely free, both ending in vicious claws while the tentacles spread behind him.

The strange patterns covering his dark-blue body seemed to settle as the transformation finished.

Zeri flexed his clawed hands.

Then his golden eyes locked onto Yuuta.

This time, he looked ready to fight seriously.

Yuuta's breathing grew heavier.

He could feel it.

His body didn't have much left.

Whatever strength the recovery potion had given him was almost gone, and if this fight continued much longer, he knew his body would eventually stop moving whether he wanted it to or not.

Yet Yuuta didn't step back.

He tightened both hands around Raven's sword.

Aura slowly rose from his exhausted body, flowing across the blade as his crimson eyes remained fixed upon Zeri.

Across from him, Zeri's demonic aura erupted as well.

The two pressures collided in the middle of the ruined street.

Neither moved.

Both understood.

The next exchange would decide everything.

To Be Continued...