“I’LL BE WITH YOU TOO!”

  From several meters behind the main group preparing to repel the Daimonas, a powerful shout rang out. Everyone immediately recognized who it belonged to.

  “Light Magic: Light Arrows.”

  Valentina became enveloped in a radiant aura, tiny particles of light rising toward the sky like celestial fireflies. In her eyes shone pure conviction.

  With the release of that spell, countless arrows made entirely of light tore through the air at incredible speed. They flew straight toward the hated enemy, striking the Daimonas’ body without mercy.

  “RRROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.”

  The Daimonas convulsed violently and staggered backward several steps. Its roar of pain erupted from all its mouths, louder than before. That spell had truly hurt it, and the way the monster writhed made that painfully clear.

  The pain seemed so intense that three of its six legs buckled, forcing it down to its knees.

  “VALENTINA!” Alexander shouted when he noticed her behind the others. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be leading our people to safety!”

  “Someone else is already taking care of that!”

  “But… they depend on you—”

  “SHUT UP!” Valentina yelled, visibly furious. “I am also the leader of Gignit! And I will never run from an enemy that wants to destroy my beloved town and slaughter my people!”

  The beautiful elf’s eyes blazed with uncontrollable fury, a vein throbbing visibly on her forehead.

  “ESPECIALLY NOT WHEN THE ENEMY IS A DAMN DAIMONAS!”

  She drew in a deep breath, filling her lungs, and gave her final order:

  “SO TURN AROUND… AND ATTACK ALREADY, DAMN IT!”

  No one argued. No one stopped advancing. No one looked at her with admiration.

  They simply obeyed and moved forward.

  The only person who smiled—even if just slightly—was Alexander. He did so as he turned, but that smile vanished the instant his gaze returned to the front. Now his sharpened stare locked solely onto the Daimonas.

  “YOU ALL HEARD YOUR OTHER LEADER!” Alexander shouted from the front. “LET’S ATTACK!”

  Everyone advanced. Everyone attacked.

  Once again, countless spells were hurled at the Daimonas, who was now wounded.

  “Water Elemental Magic: Water Needles.”

  “Fire Elemental Magic: Fire Bomb.”

  “Earth Elemental Magic: Crusher Rock.”

  “Air Elemental Magic: Wind Cut.”

  “Light Magic: Light Arrows.”

  BOOOM. BOOOM. BOOOM.

  The attacks exploded the instant they struck the Daimonas’s body. The light magic cast by Valentina seemed to make it suffer far more, as if those attacks were especially effective against its corrupted existence.

  But the Daimonas had no intention of dying without a fight.

  It began using its grotesque arms to shield itself. It covered the large eyes on its shoulders with its cadaverous limbs, while using its more massive arms to guard its deformed and horrific head.

  “THE HEAD!” Alexander shouted as he noticed how fiercely the monster was protecting it. “THAT’S ITS WEAK POINT! IF WE DESTROY IT, WE’LL KILL IT!”

  That’s how we were supposed to defeat it last time… Hermán thought, watching as everyone redirected their attacks toward that area. But it didn’t work back then… there has to be another way.

  “Valentina, you too!” Alexander ordered.

  She nodded without hesitation and unleashed another rain of light arrows.

  The enormous arms protecting the head began to take hit after hit, weakening little by little… until finally the first one gave in under the relentless assault.

  It disintegrated into a dark cloud of malice before vanishing completely.

  At that moment, the attention of everyone who had participated in the first battle focused on that detail.

  “That didn’t happen before,” Jhon commented.

  “And this time its lost arm isn’t regenerating… we can do this!” Mansot added, a huge grin spreading across his face.

  “It’s the light magic!” Alexander exclaimed, filled with hope. “That’s right — light magic is considered one of the few forces capable of exterminating a Daimonas in a single strike.”

  “That’s true, but it’s not fully working on this Daimonas,” Hermán added, shifting aside to dodge falling debris. “Lady Valentina has hit it with many of those arrows. She’s hurting it, yes… but she hasn’t killed it.”

  “You’re right…” Alexander frowned as he clenched his fists.

  Meanwhile, Valentina continued attacking the Daimonas’s head area, trying to strike it from every possible angle.

  This is impossible…

  With an agile leap, she made use of wind magic.

  “Air Elemental Magic: Flight.”

  Her body lifted into the air, and she began flying around the monster. Seeing her, several others understood the tactical advantage and made the same decision.

  Everyone capable of using the flight spell activated it, rising into the sky to surround the Daimonas from above.

  The battlefield had turned into chaotic hell, with countless magical attacks striking the unnatural body of the Daimonas without mercy.

  Alexander smiled as he saw everyone giving their all to bring down the enemy. He clenched his fists once more and, now with a clear mind, enveloped his sword in magical energy.

  “Let’s keep this going.”

  He dashed toward the Daimonas, preparing what appeared to be a magical technique.

  “Cutting Crescent.”

  The blade of energy shot forward at high speed, aimed directly at the cadaverous arms protecting the area around its eyes.

  Fiushhhh.

  One of those arms fell heavily to the ground, bouncing at least once before going still.

  “YEEEEEEEEES!”

  The others shouted, euphoric after inflicting yet another terrible wound on the enemy of all. And once again, that limb did not regenerate.

  Meanwhile, high above, flying from side to side, Valentina continued attacking with light magic. Her expression remained serious, her gaze sharpened by concentration as she coordinated with the others to maintain the assault.

  Suddenly, she paused for a moment when she saw another of the Daimonas’s arms fall to the ground. Shortly after, new magical attacks struck the monster, making it roar in pain.

  From everyone’s perspective, including hers, they were winning.

  This is very strange… The Daimonas is only defending… it isn’t trying to attack us, Valentina thought. But even stranger is that it should be far more injured. We’ve hit it with everything we have, and we’ve definitely used powerful spells.

  At that moment, she saw yet another of its cadaverous arms being severed. One less. It fell to the ground… but it did not disintegrate into a foul, blackish cloud of smoke.

  And that’s even after I hit it with my light attacks… Light magic is supposed to deal massive damage to it…

  Her gaze traveled across the twisted anatomy of the Daimonas. The monster’s back split open like a zipper, and from within emerged numerous tentacles — the same ones that had caused them so much trouble before.

  However, instead of attacking, it used them to shield itself again, protecting especially its eyes and head.

  And now it’s not even attacking… it’s just enduring everything we throw at it… Something… something isn’t right.

  Valentina frowned, quickly shifting to the side. Her body became wrapped once more in that luminous aura as she prepared another spell.

  “GET OUT OF THE WAY!”

  She spun in midair, raising both hands toward the sky as the light flowing through every part of her body intensified.

  “Light Magic: Light Impacts.”

  She thrust both arms forward, aiming her open palms at the Daimonas, which reacted this time.

  This spell did not fire directly from the caster’s hands like others. Instead, it manifested near the target, as long as it was within the caster’s range.

  If I can tear off its arms, Alexander will be able to destroy its head.

  After the incantation activated, for a fleeting instant a small, extremely bright sphere of light formed just centimeters from the Daimonas’s right side.

  In less than a second, the sphere grew to the size of a ball… and then exploded. It was not a thunderous explosion, but the flash was so intense that everyone had to cover their faces for a few seconds.

  What was truly lethal was the luminous shockwave the spell released.

  That burst of light did manage to wound the Daimonas brutally.

  “ROOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR.”

  Its horrifying roar betrayed pain… and something very close to desperation.

  Valentina smiled as she saw the Daimonas hurled to one side, leaving behind a massive trail of dust and torn earth lifted by the weight of its body, along with fragments of itself it had lost.

  “I hurt it!” she exclaimed, smiling as she confirmed that the Daimonas had lost all of its upper limbs and the lower ones on the side where the magic had detonated.

  “She did it!” Alexander’s face lit up with joy as his gaze shifted between his wife and the battered form of the monster. “She even disintegrated all those damn tentacles!”

  And indeed, those limbs and the tentacles dissolved into a thick black cloud, vanishing forever.

  “Now it’ll be much easier to destroy its head!” Even Hermán wore a wide smile.

  “Yes! Everyone, attack all at once!”

  Once again, magical attacks streaked across the battlefield, striking the twisted anatomy of the Daimonas — especially its weak point: that deformed head.

  Alexander and Hermán tried to sever the long spinal column that served as its neck, while Mansot, Tobías, UNO, DOS, and even Jhon did everything they could to deflect the new tentacles emerging from the monster’s back.

  “Those damn tentacles again…” Tadeo complained, squeezing one eye shut in pain after using a devastating spell minutes earlier.

  “I thought Lady Valentina’s light magic had injured it badly enough for us to finish it off… although…” Tobías looked up, watching Alexander struggle with all his might to cut through the Daimonas’s grotesque neck. “Even wounded, we forgot that a Daimonas is extremely hard to defeat.”

  “Doesn’t this feel strange to you?” Jhon asked while dodging a tentacle whose mouths were chewing at the air.

  “What do you mean?” Mansot replied.

  “When we fought this same Daimonas the first time, we were able to defeat it with far fewer complications.” He moved to the side and immediately thrust his double-edged sword into a tentacle, deflecting its trajectory. “It’s true it was still difficult back then, but now it’s different… or rather, it seems far more resistant than before…”

  UNO lifted his gaze and, for the first time, stopped to observe the Daimonas more carefully.

  “Hey…” he called out while pointing at the monster. “Now that I look at it closely… it’s not just more resistant… it also looks much bigger than before.”

  “Bigger?” Hermán, already exhausted, had to step aside before focusing his attention on the Daimonas’s dark figure.

  His eyes widened in shock as he noticed parts of the monster’s body stretching and expanding.

  “It can’t be…” he muttered, his expression filled with alarm. “It really is getting bigger…”

  Alexander did everything he could to cut through the hated enemy’s neck, but each attempt seemed more useless than the last. Suddenly, the disgusting skull turned… and looked directly into his eyes.

  “What does this mean…?”

  Alexander’s skin prickled like a porcupine’s. Feeling the Daimonas’s gaze fixed on him caused such deep revulsion that he had to step back a couple of paces to avoid losing his sanity.

  Suddenly, he felt a warm liquid sliding down his cheeks, falling to the ground and leaving a tiny crimson mark.

  “This… this is…?” he murmured, bringing a hand to his face.

  His fingers came away red.

  Blood.

  It was flowing from his eyes after holding that creature’s gaze for just a few seconds.

  Crack… cruck… crack.

  Shaken, and with his vision still blurred, Alexander focused again on the Daimonas—more specifically, on that deformed, diabolical skull. Cracks began to spread across its surface, and from them seeped miasma.

  But this miasma was different.

  Darker.

  Denser.

  More wicked than anything they had felt before.

  The skull trembled uncontrollably, and the pain the Daimonas seemed to be experiencing was so intense that its massive body began to writhe. Its bone structure swelled, stretching to its absolute limit… only to snap back to its original form, repeating the process again and again.

  “What’s happening to this damn abomination…?”

  The Daimonas was no longer trying to devour him or attack him. It didn’t even seem aware of Alexander’s presence. Its entire existence was focused on enduring the torment erupting from within its own body.

  “THAT’S IT! LORD ALEXANDER HAS WOUNDED IT!” one of the fighters shouted.

  “AT LAST, WE CAN DEFEAT IT!” another cried out.

  “I KNEW A DAIMONAS WAS NO MATCH FOR THE UNITY OF OUR VILLAGE!”

  And like them, many others began to cheer. Hope, hatred, resentment, and memories of past tragedies blended together in their voices as they watched the enemy of humankind writhe in agony.

  “SUFFER! YOU KILLED MY SISTER!”

  A man with tear-filled eyes cast earth magic from a safe distance, sending massive chunks of rock crashing into the Daimonas’s body.

  “A DAIMONAS DESTROYED MY VILLAGE AND DEVOURED MY FATHER!” a human woman screamed, her voice breaking with rage as she pointed her scimitar forward. “NOT EVEN YOUR ENTIRE MISERABLE EXISTENCE CAN REPAY WHAT YOU’VE DONE!”

  She unleashed a fire spell that engulfed the monster in flames, tearing yet another agonized roar from its many mouths.

  “LET IT FEEL WHAT WE FELT!” shouted another woman—a feline semihuman—her eyes burning with hatred as she released blades of wind toward the enemy.

  The gusts sliced into the Daimonas’s corrupted flesh, releasing even more of that dark essence that stained the battlefield.

  Not everyone shared that overflowing fury.

  Some watched from farther back, silent, their expressions tense. Even so, they took grim satisfaction in seeing a Daimonas—a creature that viewed people as nothing more than food—finally suffer.

  For many, this was not cruelty.

  It was long-awaited justice.

  And proof that, someday… the Daimonas might be eradicated forever.

  ? ? ?

  Alexander had to make a tremendous effort to regain his senses. For a moment, his mind had been lost in that infinite ocean of death and darkness that dwelled within the Daimonas’s gaze.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Breathing with difficulty, he forced himself to focus on the battlefield once more.

  This was no longer just a fight.

  It was revenge.

  “These are the ones who lost someone because of a Daimonas…” he murmured, watching as a pair of elves fired arrows that sank deep into the monster’s flesh.

  “Does it finally hurt now…?” he added, his stomach churning. “Something very strange is happening.”

  He raised a hand to shield his vision as a rain of fire spells descended from the sky, crashing into the Daimonas’s body and engulfing it in flames.

  “Hermán!” he called out.

  “Are you bleeding from your eyes?”

  “That doesn’t matter,” Alexander replied, his voice tense. “Tell me, do you understand what’s happening to the Daimonas?”

  “My friend, if you don’t know, then neither do I,” Hermán answered. “It suddenly started feeling pain… and now it looks like it’s lost all its strength.”

  Hermán fell silent for a moment, his eyes fixed on the twisted figure of the Daimonas.

  “This didn’t happen last time… I don’t understand why it’s suddenly become so weak. Just moments ago it seemed impenetrable, and now every attack wounds it brutally.”

  “Hermán… I have a terrible feeling… This isn’t normal… Something bad is coming… My heart… my body… everything is trembling like it’s trying to warn me…”

  “RRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.”

  The roar the Daimonas unleashed this time was worse than all the previous ones.

  More harrowing.

  More painful.

  And at the same time… darker. More macabre. More diabolical.

  It wasn’t just a sound.

  It was a message.

  Somehow, the hearts of everyone—bound together by terror—understood its meaning.

  Everyone is going to die.

  No one attacked.

  No one moved.

  They all remained frozen… and, just like Alexander, blood began to flow from their eyes.

  “This thing is worse than we thought,” Alexander said hoarsely. “We have to find another way to kill it… fast!”

  The miasma, darker than the night itself, continued to pour from the Daimonas’s deformed skull. But now it behaved differently.

  It swirled above it.

  Spun.

  Condensed.

  Forming a circle… no, something closer to a gigantic halo of darkness, nearly a meter wide, suspended above its head.

  In that instant, only one person understood what was truly happening.

  Valentina.

  And it was already too late.

  “GET AWAY FROM IT NOW!”

  Her scream, filled with panic and terror, fell from the sky like a bolt of lightning. The elf’s voice pierced through the paralysis gripping everyone.

  “THAT DAIMONAS IS NOT NORMAL! ALL OF YOU, GET BACK AND PREPARE TO FINISH IT OFF ONCE AND FOR ALL!”

  “NOW!”

  When Valentina shouted like that, no living being dared ignore her. That was the jolt they needed. One by one, they forced their bodies to move. To retreat. To get away from the area.

  “VALENTINA!” Alexander shouted, his heart racing wildly. “WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO!? WE HAVE TO FIGHT TOGETHER!”

  “YOU NEED TO DRAW IT AS FAR AWAY FROM THE VILLAGE AS YOU CAN! TAKE IT FAR ENOUGH SO THIS WON’T AFFECT GIGNIT!” Valentina yelled, her face tense as she extended her arms out to the sides, angled slightly downward.

  At once, two different magical auras wrapped around her and began to swirl. Their colors blended in an unsettling harmony with the tone of her hair. One was a dreadful darkness, the other a wintery cold that seemed to bite at the very air.

  Valentina, known among her enemies as the Woman of Frozen Darkness, was preparing one of her most powerful attacks. Alexander recognized the signs instantly and knew exactly what spell was coming. His eyes widened, brushing the edge of panic.

  “IT’S TOO DANGEROUS!” the leader of Gignit shouted. “IF THAT FALLS ON THE VILLAGE—”

  “THAT’S WHY YOU HAVE TO DRIVE IT AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE! TAKE IT TO THE EDGE OF OUR ISLAND AND WE’LL ATTACK IT THERE!”

  “THAT’S TOO FAR!”

  “IT DOESN’T MATTER!” Valentina shouted again. “THIS DAIMONAS IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS! IT CAN DESTROY GIGNIT IF WE LET THIS CONTINUE! WE HAVE TO KILL IT NOW!”

  “WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?” Hermán demanded. “GET TO THE POINT!”

  “THAT DAIMONAS CAN EVOLVE! LOOK AT THE HALO FORMING ABOVE IT! THAT’S THE CLEAREST SIGN OF ALL!”

  Valentina’s eyes began to glow, each shining in a different color.

  “IF WE DON’T KILL IT NOW, IT WILL EVOLVE AND BECOME A LORD DAIMONAS!”

  “AND THEN WE’RE FINISHED!”

  Silence spread like a crushing weight over everyone present. Those words… those two words… entered through their ears and began to wreak havoc inside their bodies.

  They were enough to make more than one person double over and vomit. That was exactly what happened to a reptilian-clan semihuman, a snake guard of Gignit. She had heard the worst thing that could exist, and her mind simply collapsed. She—a member of a clan famous for its cold blood, its unreadable gaze, and its mental resilience… she, a trained guard—broke.

  Her body couldn’t bear the weight of those two words announcing absolute tragedy, and she emptied the previous night’s dinner onto the bloodstained ground.

  No one looked at her. No one mocked her. No one could help her—because everyone, without exception, was screaming inside.

  For a Daimonas to evolve is one of the worst pieces of news any living being, regardless of race, can receive. It is a calamity. A catastrophe for Kosmos. A cursed insult to life and to creation itself. And that Daimonas, it seemed, was capable of committing such an atrocity.

  “What did you say…?” Alexander murmured, almost too weak to keep speaking. “Valentina… what did you just say…?”

  Even Hermán, his right hand, was in that same state. He wasn’t breathing; fear had seized his very existence. His soul was unable to accept what his ears had just heard, and he couldn’t even understand how his eardrums were still intact after listening to something so diabolical.

  Tobías, Tadeo, Mansot, ONE and TWO, Jhon… all of them stood catatonic. No one took their eyes off Valentina. They stared at her in utter disbelief while an indescribable dread gnawed at them down to the marrow of their bones.

  “Th-that… that can’t be true…” ONE murmured, feeling as if his skin were being pierced by hundreds of thousands of needles at once.

  His brother, TWO, couldn’t utter a single word.

  “No wonder we couldn’t defeat it from the start…” Tobías fixed his gaze on the nauseating figure of the Daimonas. “It was always a Lord Daimonas… our attacks were never enough…”

  “What are we supposed to do now…?” Jhon asked, unable to look away from the monster, which from his perspective seemed to be offering the most horrifying of smiles.

  It was nothing more than an illusion born from terror; Daimonas knew neither laughter nor smiles—only chaos and death.

  Alexander had no answer. He simply looked at his wife, seeing that two-toned magical aura swirling around her body.

  Their eyes met, and despite the distance between them, he was able to read her trembling lips.

  “Alexander… do something…”

  In less than a second, his mind tore through everything: he scolded himself, cursed himself, blamed himself, hated himself… and in the end forced himself to react.

  He turned around. He was no longer looking at his wife, but at the enemy threatening his village, his people, his life.

  No speeches. No hesitation.

  He took a step.

  Then his legs moved on their own, launching him forward at full speed.

  Fear, unease, and despair vanished from his face. Those feelings no longer had any place in this Alexander.

  Only absolute seriousness remained as his mind calculated the most effective attacks to destroy the enemy.

  “Air Elemental Magic: Aerial Walk.”

  He stopped relying on the ground and began moving through the air, advancing from above.

  “Earth Elemental Magic: Descent of Stone Fists.”

  Dozens of stone fists emerged around the Daimonas and, without losing a single instant, began striking it from every direction, floating in the air through magic. The echo of each impact thundered across the battlefield.

  Alexander watched as the stone fists struck relentlessly, especially around the area of the deformed head, causing it pain and forcing it to writhe.

  The attack left no part unpunished, not even the areas touching the ground, as fists also burst forth from the earth, rising up to continue the assault.

  And the offensive only intensified: more and more stone fists appeared, multiplying the damage.

  “Seal Magic: Duplication.”

  The characteristic aura of Seal Magic wrapped around Alexander and embraced him. It manifested as chains of energy that seemed to bind him, while others spun around him in a constant dance, and more spiraled up from the ground like a rising tornado. Countless ancient keys floated among them, clinking like echoes of a forbidden power.

  With that spell, his earth attacks were duplicated.

  Now the stone fists were countless, and they had a single purpose: to smash the Daimonas to pieces.

  Alexander didn’t stop to admire the effect of his assault. He kept moving, shifting positions without pause so he wouldn’t become the target of a counterattack.

  He continued attacking mercilessly, with the implacable seriousness of a leader fighting for his people.

  An instant later, another magical aura enveloped him—fire. Blazing and scorching. Red, gold, and orange flames burned around his body, while at the base, from his feet upward, the glow shone an intense blue. To anyone watching, it looked as if Alexander himself were on fire, but it was nothing more than the pure manifestation of his magic.

  He extended his left arm forward and pulled his right arm back, forming a cross with his stance.

  “Fire Elemental Magic: Great Lance of Fire.”

  A line of fire appeared along the path of his arms, then instantly expanded and condensed, growing until it reached nearly five meters in length. The flames compressed violently, swirling along its magical body, taking the shape of a colossal lance.

  It was released in the blink of an eye.

  It traveled so fast that no one saw the exact moment of impact. Alexander cast the spell… and the Daimonas’s body was already engulfed in a blazing inferno.

  My attacks hurt it… but it’s not enough… This Daimonas is enduring it. And besides…

  He strained his eyes, trying to focus through the chaos, and managed to make out the black halo floating above the monster.

  Its evolution hasn’t stopped… The halo is still growing…

  He shifted to the side when a tentacle broke through the storm of attacks and lashed out at him. It missed. After dodging the strike, Alexander ran again.

  It can still attack!

  Beads of sweat slid down his face. Fatigue was beginning to take its toll, and his breathing grew heavier with each passing second.

  What they say about Daimonas is true… They don’t tire. They can keep fighting until you kill them… or until they kill you…

  He took in the damage his spells had inflicted on the enemy, then forced his mind back to the present.

  Don’t get distracted. Getting it away from the village comes first… If I position myself in front of it, will it try to follow me?

  His eyes scanned the battlefield. The Daimonas’s lost limbs had not regenerated.

  I doubt it… It hasn’t regrown arms or legs… but could it crawl using the tentacles? Damn it… Now I really regret not learning Arboreal Magic…

  He let out a breath heavy with tension and resignation, then his gaze hardened once more.

  Then I’ll have to do this my way.

  The aura of Water Magic wrapped around him, cold and dense. Alexander pointed both arms at the Daimonas and began to chant the next spell.

  “Water Elemental Magic: Great Water Prison.”

  A mantle of water rose above the Daimonas and crashed down over it, completely enveloping the creature. Instantly, the fluids it had lost began seeping into the mass of water, which bubbled and evaporated with a constant hiss.

  Alexander dropped to the ground, planted his feet firmly, and tensed his arms as if he were pushing against something invisible.

  “Damn it!” he snarled, forcing his whole body forward. “I can’t push it back!”

  POOOOOOFFFFF.

  The water prison exploded in every direction. Just before it could crash down on him, Alexander rolled to the side. The moment he got back on his feet, he had to move again—advance, veer aside, duck, leap, and run once more. The Daimonas had resumed its attacks.

  For a brief instant, a stabbing pain pierced his eyes when his gaze met those mouths that occupied the place of eye sockets in the deformed skull.

  Pushing it with water didn’t work… Then I’ll have to use force, he thought as he kept moving. But I need it distracted for a second… Got it.

  He sped up even more and positioned himself directly behind the monster, on the side facing Gignit’s wall.

  “HEY, YOU DISGUSTING FILTH!” he roared at the top of his lungs. “COME AFTER ME, YOU DAMN ABOMINATION! YOU’RE TRASH! YOU SHOULDN’T EXIST! THINGS LIKE YOU DESERVE TO DIE IN THE MOST PAINFUL WAY POSSIBLE!”

  The spinal column that served as its neck twisted with a wet crack, turning that hatred-filled eye toward him. The mouths began drooling immediately.

  The neck stretched, emerging from deep within its repulsive anatomy. The skull lunged toward Alexander, dripping thick saliva, driven by an instinctive urge to devour him on the spot. To the Daimonas—incapable of reason—that human was alone, seemingly defenseless.

  The perfect prey.

  The primitive instincts of that living sin ignited. The mouths in its twisted eye sockets opened wider than their structure should allow, tearing flesh, dislocating bone, splitting the skull itself just to open farther. From within, two tongues shot out, long and rigid like stingers.

  Made to tear flesh apart.

  “That’s it… come closer… a little closer, you filthy aberration.”

  The enormous mouth in its torso remained aimed toward the village; it was the head that had stretched toward Alexander.

  The Lord of Gignit’s eyes gleamed when the Daimonas entered the perfect range.

  “Got you…”

  With his double-edged sword, he launched a horizontal slash straight at the huge eye protruding from that aberrant mouth. The blade sliced through soft flesh and corrupted tissue. Nauseating fluids splattered across the ground.

  Without wasting a second, he spread his arms out to the sides, almost forming a cross, angled about thirty degrees. His body became surrounded by the magical energy that signaled the use of Earth Elemental Magic.

  “Earth Elemental Magic: Terrestrial Crush.”

  The ground groaned, cracked, and then gave way. It all happened in the blink of an eye as two massive, solid earthen walls rose on either side of the blasphemous creature’s body. Then they surged forward in unison and slammed shut with brutal force, crushing the Daimonas from both sides and tearing a savage cry of pain from it.

  That much was clear from its roar.

  “ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR.”

  The agony was so intense that blood began pouring from its two grotesque mouths—who knew what else the other mouths scattered across its unnatural body were spewing.

  “Earth Elemental Magic: Great Earth Gauntlets.”

  Alexander’s arms, from hands to shoulders, transformed into enormous gauntlets of rock, so large that the Daimonas’s deformed head could fit entirely inside a single hand.

  “SUFFER, DAMN YOU!”

  He slammed at least six brutal blows into the twisted skull before grabbing it with all his strength. First with one hand, then with the other, and immediately he began pulling backward with his entire body.

  “IF I RIP YOUR HEAD OFF, IT’LL BE EASIER TO THROW YOU AWAY FROM THE VILLAGE!” he roared, leaning back as he strained against that unnatural joint. “WITHOUT A HEAD, YOU WON’T RECOVER AS FAST, AND WE’LL HAVE THE ADVANTAGE…!”

  The moment he finished shouting, the gauntlets exploded.

  Alexander stumbled back several steps before regaining his balance and lifting his gaze to understand what had happened.

  From the Daimonas’s mutilated eye, structures resembling twisted, hardened spinal columns began to emerge—sturdy enough to shatter the magical gauntlets.

  The creature attacked immediately. But experience mattered.

  Alexander evaded by the narrowest margin.

  “I CAN STILL COUNTERATTACK!”

  “Earth Elemental Magic: Terrestrial Trap.”

  Stone pincers and jaws burst from the ground and, without hesitation, clamped onto the spinal column that served as its neck. They yanked downward with violent force, smashing the Daimonas’s head against the cold, unforgiving earth.

  “This time, you’re not getting away!”

  The Lord of Gignit used wind magic to propel himself into the air, treating empty space like solid ground. He extended his sword to one side and swung with lethal precision, striking exactly at the exposed neck his trap had revealed.

  All calculated in a matter of seconds.

  Alexander’s eyes widened as the blade descended toward the Daimonas’s cadaverous neck.

  Finally.

  After everything, the battle seemed to tilt—if only slightly—in their favor.

  After so much punishment, he had earned that breath of relief.

  But in a war against an aberration like this…

  Things rarely go the way you hope.

  When the sword was only centimeters away from severing the neck, the black aureola expanded violently. It brushed the blade—and that was enough. The steel melted instantly, dissolving like wax before disintegrating into dark dust that the wind scattered.

  Alexander froze. Only centimeters had separated him from gaining the advantage… and once again, that cursed creature slipped through his fingers.

  “THIS ISN’T OVER YET! I CAN STILL DRAG YOU AWAY FROM THE VILLAGE!”

  He used wind magic again to propel himself through the air, trying to position himself in front of the Daimonas’s body while its neck and head were still restrained.

  “Reinforcement Magic: Total Strengthening.”

  His body burst with power. Muscles swelled unnaturally, and tiny blood vessels in the whites of his eyes ruptured, staining them a vivid red.

  Without wasting a second—even in that state—he invoked earth magic again. Dense brown energy wrapped around him once more; his gaze burned with fury, and every fiber of his body trembled from the strain.

  He drew his left fist back and, as he descended toward the ground in what felt like slow motion, unleashed his attack.

  “Earth Elemental Magic: Giant Stone Fist.”

  From the ground behind the Lord of Gignit, a colossal fist of stone erupted and shot forward violently toward the Daimonas’s body, still trapped by the earthen walls and stone restraints.

  It was the perfect moment.

  But every eye scattered across the Daimonas’s body snapped open at once and fixed on the incoming blow. Even restrained, its grotesque vertical mouth split wide open.

  From within burst countless bone-like structures—elongated, spine-shaped growths—that intertwined in front of it like a living shield.

  THUM—CRASHHHHH…

  Alexander couldn’t believe it. Those reddish columns, formed from blackened bone and decaying flesh, shattered the gigantic stone fist.

  An instant later, before he could react, he felt something punch through his left shoulder.

  One of those cursed columns had pierced him.

  “…Damn it.”

  He didn’t look at the wound. Dark, foul Daimonic miasma began seeping from his shoulder. His eyes locked onto the Daimonas, which was starting to break free from all restraints.

  “This has to be some kind of sick joke…” he muttered, breathing heavily. “It even countered that attack? This Daimonas can already think… Has it evolved that much? At this rate, we won’t be able to defeat it…”

  He let out a breath thick with rage and exhaustion.

  “No, Alexander… If I think like that, I’ll never find a way to throw it far enough away… There’s always a way to fight an enemy. I just have to discover it… or create it.”

  He exhaled again as more of those bony columns began emerging from the Daimonas’s open mouth, which seemed to convey a single message:

  I will devour you.

  “I know that’s all you want—kill me and eat me… That’s not happening, filth. As long as I can think, you’ve already lost… I just need to confirm one last thing before I kick you out of my home.”

  Blood began to trickle from his nose, and red tears slid from his eyes, blurring his vision. Even so, he didn’t dare wipe them away; he preferred enduring it over looking away from an enemy this dangerous for even a second.

  “This fight is dragging on too long…” he muttered. “My body… I can feel it. It’s only a matter of time before it starts failing. And… I’m getting more exhausted by the second.”

  He focused on the Daimonas, especially on those spinal columns now forming a defensive barrier.

  “Those things protect it from everything… They’re insanely tough, and on top of that, they can infect me with Daimonic miasma… If we don’t defeat it soon, I’m going to die. Fine… focus on its defense… If I distract it with… and if I could lift it and tilt it… strike here and… yes… this could work.”

  The pieces clicked into place in his mind. A smile appeared on his face, this time filled with genuine determination.

  “Listen to me, filth… You might be learning, but you’re still nowhere near our level… trash.”

  Alexander leaned forward, right leg ahead, left leg back. Magical energy—like dust suspended in the air—swirled around him as he launched a new offensive.

  “Earth Elemental Magic: Sharp Stone Barrage.”

  As he ran, countless sharp rock fragments formed around him and shot toward the Daimonas like a deadly storm. His lips curled into a grin—something was finally working. The Daimonas was forced to use all those spinal columns to shield itself from the relentless hail of attacks.

  And focused on that, it failed to notice Alexander closing the distance at terrifying speed.

  First running.

  Then launching himself into the air, kicking off the empty space to gain even more velocity.

  “Reinforcement Magic: Total Strengthening.”

  His muscles swelled again, veins bulging as if they might burst. But he didn’t stop there. He pushed further, driving his body beyond its limits.

  “Reinforcement Magic: Total Strengthening, One Hundred Percent.”

  The aura around him—like layered muscle fibers—grew thicker and denser than ever before. His strength increased brutally, so much that his own body looked ready to tear itself apart under the pressure.

  “Earth Elemental Magic: Stone Pillar.”

  A pillar of rock erupted from the Daimonas’s right side and slammed into it with such force that the creature finally toppled sideways, exposing the underside of its body—the part that had always remained pressed against the ground.

  Alexander gave one final burst of speed in midair and, in an instant, was right in front of it. Though the bony columns still tried to intercept him, they weren’t enough now.

  He dodged them all.

  His fist—along with his entire right arm—drew back. A monstrous punch was taking shape.

  Everything seemed to move in slow motion. But it wasn’t time that had slowed…

  It was Kosmos itself bearing witness to the magnitude of that blow.

  His shoulder reached the limit of its elasticity, building devastating tension that would drive the strike with overwhelming violence. Every detail aligned toward a single purpose: launch the Daimonas far away from the town.

  The twist of his hips.

  The placement of his feet even in midair.

  His fist clenched like solid stone, knuckles pale from pressure.

  The pull of his elbow.

  The follow-through of his forearm.

  Even the rhythm of his breathing contributed to making the attack savage and catastrophic.

  And on top of all that, Alexander pushed himself even further—shattering his own limits.

  “Reinforcement Magic: Total Strengthening, One Hundred Five Percent.”

  His magical aura exploded outward. The shapes resembling muscle fibers tore apart like real muscles under impossible strain. The fibers ripped… and then burst.

  With that, Alexander’s power surpassed any human boundary.

  The pain was immediate and unbearable. His eyes bled, blood streamed from his nose, and a dark thread escaped from the corner of his mouth.

  But he didn’t care.

  He only wanted that punch to land.

  To finish it, he invoked one final technique.

  “Three Delayed Strikes.”

  BOOOOOOOOOM.

  The impact was so brutal, so savage, so inhuman that the sound resembled thunder ripping through a stormy night.

  Alexander’s right arm sank so deeply into the Daimonas’s body that it was impossible to tell where his fist ended and his shoulder began.

  He was breathing hard, but he had done it.

  The Daimonas gave in to pain.

  “ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR.”

  THUUUUUUUUM.

  A circular shockwave burst outward from the point of impact. The Daimonas was launched several meters into the air by the force of the blow before crashing into the inner walls of the town.

  THUUUUUUUUM.

  A second shockwave erupted from the same wound, much larger than the first. The Daimonas accelerated even more, blasting through the wall and into the forest, bouncing along the ground as it smashed through trees in its path.

  THUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM.

  Finally, the third shockwave detonated.

  It was the most devastating of all.

  The Daimonas was hurled far into the distance, tearing through trees uncontrollably like a mass of flesh thrown with overwhelming force, leaving a long trail of destruction behind.

  Spinning.

  Bouncing.

  Unable to stop.

  “VALENTINA, THIS IS THE MOMENT!” Alexander shouted, his voice torn raw. “FINISH YOUR SPELL AND LET’S KILL IT ONCE AND FOR ALL!”

  Without wasting a second, Alexander plunged into the forest, following the path of devastation the Daimonas had carved through the land.

  Even though he had called to her, Valentina needed nearly a full minute to regain control. She stared into the distance, watching pillars of fire rise above the forest and crash down upon a single unseen point among the trees.

  “Alexander…” she whispered, still unable to process what had just happened.

  “Y-you heard him! Everyone go help! This is the moment!”

  During all the time Alexander had given everything he had in that battle, no one had been able to move even a single finger. They had been frozen, mesmerized by the struggle of Gignit’s leader. Alexander had given absolutely everything to drive the Daimonas away from his town.

  And he did it alone.

  Now they looked at one another, stunned, still in disbelief.

  “EVERYONE, LET’S GO HELP OUR LEADER!” Hermán shouted, taking the lead while still trying to shake off the paralysis the battle had left in him.

  Valentina allowed herself a faint smile when she saw them react. Then she exhaled, finally preparing to unleash the spell she had been charging.

  But her eyes flew open in shock.

  A pillar of daimonic energy shot up into the sky.

  Blacker than the night.

  More wicked than wickedness itself.

  Her eyes filled with tears, because she understood instantly what had caused that manifestation.

  “My Alexander!” she cried, forgetting everything else as she hurled herself toward the battlefield to help her husband.

  And amid the devastation, Alexander was on his knees, staring in horror as that pillar of daimonic miasma rose into the sky as if proclaiming the birth of a new god… one born from the abyss.

  “I couldn’t stop it…” he murmured, his voice breaking. “In the end… it evolved. It became a Lord Daimonas.”