Chapter 315: For the First Time, He Felt Death

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

The dark-blue patterns covering his body seemed to pulse as an overwhelming demonic pressure poured from him. The broken road trembled beneath his feet, loose stones vibrating across the pavement while the tentacles rising from his back spread wide behind him. His clawed hands lowered beside his body, and his golden eyes remained fixed entirely on Yuuta.

Yuuta stood opposite him with Raven's sword in his hand.

The green aura surrounding the blade was fading.

His breathing had become ragged, his arms felt impossibly heavy, and every muscle in his body screamed from exhaustion. The recovery potion had already given him everything it could, and even his aura was beginning to weaken after being forced through one attack after another.

Still, Yuuta didn't lower the sword.

Their pressures collided in the middle of the ruined street, sending dust and fragments of debris rolling away from them. Neither spoke. Neither needed to.

Both understood.

The next exchange would decide everything.

Zeri moved first.

BOOM!

The road exploded beneath his feet.

Wrapped in his demonic aura, Zeri launched himself forward like a missile. His speed was completely different from before. The air cracked around him as he crossed the ruined street, his four tentacles spreading behind him while his clawed hands remained ready to attack the moment he reached Yuuta.

Yuuta's crimson eyes narrowed.

Then he rushed forward as well.

His exhausted legs protested immediately. His aura flickered around him instead of flowing steadily, and for the first few steps it felt as though his own body were trying to drag him backward.

Yuuta forced it forward.

Move.

Every step brought Zeri closer.

And with every step, Yuuta could feel something he had only experienced inside his nightmares before.

Death.

Not the strange death of those trials, where failure meant eventually opening his eyes again and being forced to face another nightmare. There would be no awakening this time. No second attempt. No mysterious place waiting to throw him back into another challenge.

This was reality.

If Zeri's attack reached the right place, Yuuta would die.

Strangely, he wasn't terrified.

His heartbeat was violently fast and every instinct understood what was approaching, yet there was no desire to turn around. Yuuta tightened both hands around Raven's sword and continued running directly toward the High Demon.

Then something happened.

Yuuta's eyes widened.

What...?

For one impossible instant, it felt as though something deep within him had opened.

It wasn't the familiar sensation of his aura.

This came from somewhere much deeper.

Yuuta couldn't understand it. It felt as though an entirely new source of power had suddenly become accessible somewhere within his very soul, and the moment he became aware of it, energy surged through his exhausted body with terrifying intensity.

His failing muscles suddenly responded.

His fading senses sharpened.

The world around him seemed to become clearer.

Yuuta nearly stumbled from the sudden change.

What is this?

He didn't know.

He didn't have time to know.

Zeri was already coming.

Yuuta clenched his teeth.

I don't know what it is...

The strange energy erupted through his body.

But I'm going to use it.

His speed suddenly increased.

Zeri's golden eyes widened.

Yuuta, who had been visibly exhausted only seconds ago, accelerated so violently that the remaining distance between them disappeared almost instantly. The strange power surged through his body and into the sword in his hands, causing the aura around the blade to intensify.

For the first time since his transformation, Zeri's expression changed.

The four tentacles behind him shot forward.

One targeted Yuuta's left arm.

Another went for his right.

The remaining two attacked his legs, each approaching from a different angle. Zeri wasn't trying to knock him away this time. He intended to tear away Yuuta's limbs before the sword could reach him.

Yuuta didn't dodge.

He continued straight toward him.

The sword came around.

The air between them distorted beneath the pressure.

For that single instant, both attacks were committed. Yuuta's blade was moving toward Zeri's neck while the four tentacles closed around Yuuta's limbs. Neither could retreat without giving the other the advantage.

Then Zeri saw it.

His eyes widened.

No.

The sword was faster.

It would reach his neck first.

But that wasn't what terrified him.

Zeri had already been beheaded once.

Losing his head wasn't supposed to matter.

Yet as that blade approached him, every instinct inside Zeri suddenly screamed that this time was different.

The strange power surrounding Yuuta wasn't like Raven's Black Fusion. It wasn't like the Aesthor Stone, and it wasn't the dark-green aura Zeri had already witnessed.

He didn't know what it was.

But something deep within him understood the danger before his mind did.

If that hits me...

For the first time, regeneration didn't feel like an answer.

Zeri's body reacted instinctively, but there was no time left. Yuuta's sword was already approaching his neck, carrying something that made even Zeri's soul recoil from it.

Just a little farther.

Yuuta saw Zeri's neck.

His hands tightened.

Now....

"Papa!"

Yuuta's heart stopped.

His eyes widened.

That voice.

It was small. Frightened. Familiar enough that Yuuta would have recognized it anywhere, no matter how much destruction surrounded him.

Elena?

His concentration broke.

Only for a fraction of a second.

But at this level, a fraction of a second was enough.

Yuuta's eyes instinctively shifted toward the direction of the voice. His grip changed ever so slightly, and the perfect path of Raven's sword slipped away from Zeri's neck.

The blade missed.

Zeri's golden eyes widened as the terrifying edge passed beside him.

Then his tentacles connected.

Yuuta felt all four impacts almost simultaneously.

His body was ripped away from the ground before he could even understand what had happened. The force sent him flying backward through the ruined street, Raven's sword nearly slipping from his fingers as buildings and broken vehicles blurred past his vision.

Then his back struck a building.

BOOM!

The wall exploded inward.

Concrete shattered around Yuuta as his body tore through it and disappeared into the building. A thick cloud of dust burst from the opening, spreading across the ruined street as chunks of broken wall continued falling onto the rubble below.

Then silence fell.

Zeri didn't move.

His golden eyes remained wide as he stared at the hole Yuuta had disappeared through. The four tentacles behind him slowly lowered, but his entire body was trembling violently.

He had won that exchange.

Yet there was no smile on his face.

For those final few seconds, Zeri had genuinely believed he was going to die.

He slowly raised one clawed hand toward his neck. There wasn't even a wound there; Yuuta's sword had missed him completely. Still, his fingers trembled as they touched the exact place the blade had been about to pass through.

Zeri swallowed.

What was that...?

That last power hadn't felt like Yuuta's earlier aura. The moment the blade had approached his neck, something deep inside him had screamed that regeneration wouldn't save him. For the first time, Zeri hadn't merely experienced an unfamiliar fear.

He had felt death.

His gaze moved across the street as he finally noticed movement that he had completely ignored during the exchange.

"Papa!"

Elena was running.

"Papa! Papa!"

The little girl rushed toward the collapsed building, her frightened voice echoing through the devastated street. Tears were already gathering in her crimson eyes as she climbed over pieces of rubble, desperately trying to reach the place where her father had fallen.

She didn't understand what had happened. ℴℴ𝘮

She didn't know that her frightened cry had reached Yuuta at the worst possible moment. She didn't know that his blade had been only an instant away from Zeri's neck, or that the slightest distraction had changed the outcome of the attack.

All Elena knew was that she had seen her father get thrown through a building.

"Papa!"

Inside the ruins, Yuuta could hear her.

Barely.

His body had landed among shattered concrete, broken steel and dust. He tried to move one arm, but nothing happened. When he attempted to move his legs, he couldn't even tell whether they had responded.

There was simply no strength left.

Every breath sent pain through his chest. It felt as though several of his ribs had shattered under the impact, while the rest of his body had been struck by something far larger than Zeri. The sensation reminded him less of being punched and more of being hit by a speeding train.

Yuuta's fingers twitched weakly.

That was all he could manage.

The mysterious power he had felt only moments earlier was gone.

He searched for it instinctively, trying to reach whatever had suddenly awakened inside him during that final charge, but there was nothing. He couldn't sense it anymore. Even his normal aura felt distant beneath the overwhelming exhaustion swallowing his body.

His vision began to blur.

How...?

Through the broken opening in the wall, Yuuta could barely make out Zeri's silhouette.

The High Demon was still standing.

Alive.

Completely alive.

Yuuta's unfocused crimson eyes remained on him.

I was so close...

He remembered the sword approaching Zeri's neck.

He remembered the terror in Zeri's eyes.

For that one instant, Yuuta had known not hoped, but somehow known that if the blade connected, something would happen. Whatever power had emerged from within him had made even that seemingly immortal demon afraid.

Then he had heard Elena.

His concentration had broken.

And now he couldn't even lift himself from the rubble.

How are you still alive...?

Yuuta wondered weakly.

Zeri had been shot, cut, pierced and overwhelmed. Raven's Black Fusion had wounded him. Yuuta had severed his tentacles repeatedly, crushed his hand and finally cut his head completely from his body.

And the demon was still standing.

You're really a monster...

Strangely, the thought made Yuuta smile.

It was a tiny, exhausted smile.

His eyelids slowly lowered.

For so long, his body had been running on things that shouldn't have been enough adrenaline, the recovery potion, aura, anger, desperation, and finally that mysterious power he couldn't even understand.

Now there was nothing left.

The exhaustion finally caught him.

So... this is it.

Yuuta's breathing gradually slowed.

The pain was still there, but even that seemed to be growing distant as his consciousness began slipping away. The ruined building, Zeri's silhouette and Elena's desperate voice all became increasingly faint.

No more pain...

His eyes closed.

No more fighting...

His fingers finally loosened around Raven's sword.

No more suffering...

Yuuta stopped resisting.

And slowly, quietly, he drifted into darkness.

___________

Place: Agency Headquarters

The Agency headquarters no longer resembled the controlled command center it had been only hours earlier.

Officers moved rapidly between stations while enormous screens displayed damage reports, casualty numbers, evacuation zones, and the locations of surviving demon forces.

Communication channels remained crowded with reports from divisions scattered across the country, but compared to the chaos at the beginning of the invasion, the situation was finally beginning to stabilize.

The Agency had managed to contain most of the damage.

More than a thousand demons had already been slain, and emergency divisions had successfully evacuated a large portion of the civilian population from the worst combat zones.

The victory had come at a terrible cost, however. Hundreds of civilians were confirmed dead, many Agency soldiers had fallen, and an alarming number of people were still listed as missing.

Sara stood before the central display, staring at the numbers with a grim expression.

In all her years within the Agency, she had never witnessed an invasion this brutal.

Still, for the first time that night, she allowed herself a small breath of relief.

Most of the invading forces had either been destroyed or forced back, and the remaining divisions were steadily reclaiming the affected areas.

There was now one enormous threat left unresolved.

Leviathan.

Sara's gaze moved toward the live reports coming from the battlefield where Erza was fighting.

Once the Supreme Commander kills Leviathan, this invasion should finally be over.

But Sara knew that wouldn't mean peace.

The moment this invasion ended, the Agency would have to begin preparing for what came next.

War.

There was no longer any point pretending it could be avoided. Too many demons had crossed into human territory, too many civilians had died, and the scale of tonight's attack had changed everything. Whatever fragile balance had existed before was collapsing.

As soon as Erza finishes this, we'll have to prepare for war, Sara thought.

There's no negotiating our way around it anymore.

"Chief!"

A voice suddenly pulled her attention away from the screen.

Sara turned toward one of the communications officers, who had risen abruptly from her station. Several files had appeared across the woman's monitor, marked with emergency priority.

"What is it?"

"An urgent combat record just came in from Captain Erika's division."

Sara's expression immediately hardened.

"Erika? Give me the report."

The officer quickly opened the transmission.

"Captain Erika encountered an Upper Blood Demon during her operation."

Sara's eyes narrowed.

"Which one?"

"Mae-hwa. Upper Blood Demon Number Six."

"What?"

Sara immediately stepped closer to the terminal.

"Where is Mae-hwa now? What's Erika's condition? Did you dispatch reinforcements?"

The questions came so quickly that the officer barely had time to answer.

"Chief, Captain Erika reported that she's alive. Her division suffered casualties, but she says the immediate engagement has ended. Mae-hwa withdrew before they could finish the battle."

Sara's tension eased only slightly.

"Why would an Upper Blood Demon withdraw in the middle of a fight?"

"That is what Captain Erika considered important, Chief." The officer hesitated before continuing. "According to her report, this invasion may have been a diversion."

Sara became completely still.

"A diversion?"

"Yes, Chief. Captain Erika encountered another demon during the battle. Based on what she overheard, the demons aren't simply here to invade the cities." The officer looked at the report again to make certain she had understood it correctly. "They're preparing some kind of ritual."

Sara's eyes widened.

"Ritual...?"

For several seconds, she said nothing.

Then something clicked.

"No..."

Sara turned back toward the enormous tactical display. Her eyes moved across the numerous cities attacked simultaneously, the demon deployment patterns, the civilian casualties and the amount of Agency manpower that had been pulled into different combat zones.

Suddenly, the invasion looked different.

"No, that actually makes sense."

"Chief?"

Sara barely heard her.

A memory had surfaced.

It hadn't been that long ago that something disturbingly similar had happened in Japan. There had been another ritual something on a massive scale and at the time, her team had managed to stop it before whatever was being prepared could be completed.

Sara had almost forgotten about that incident amid everything happening tonight.

But if they're attempting another ritual now...

Her relief vanished completely.

The demons hadn't simply thrown thousands of their own kind into human cities without purpose. If Erika was right, all this destruction could have been meant to keep the Agency occupied while something far more important happened elsewhere.

Sara immediately turned toward the communications officer.

"Send Erika's entire report to my terminal. Flag every reference to this ritual and compare it with our records from the Japan incident. I want to know if there are any similarities."

"Yes, Chief."

Before Sara could issue another command, the doors to the command center suddenly opened.

A woman from the Shadow Corps monitoring division hurried inside.

Sara immediately noticed something was wrong.

The woman was breathing heavily, as though she had run the entire way there. Her face had gone pale, and tears were visible in her eyes despite her desperate attempt to maintain composure.

"Chief!"

Several officers turned toward her.

Sara frowned. "What happened? Why are you in such a hurry?"

The woman stopped several steps away from her. She opened her mouth, but for a moment no words came out. Her hands were trembling at her sides.

Sara's uneasiness immediately grew.

"Speak. What happened?"

The woman swallowed hard.

"Chief... I have something to report."

Sara stared at her.

The officer's eyes filled with tears.

"Captain Raven..."

Her voice broke.

"Captain Raven is dead."

The command center fell silent.

To Be Continued...