The whole battlefield was quietened.
A pin-drop silence descended, one that could be felt for miles.
The ten-thousand-man army that the Drakesville Kingdom had brought forth was annihilated, and the Generals, who were supposed to be a force to be reckoned with, had been about to make their move when they suddenly halted.
A voice so chillingly haunting and otherworldly graced their ears, making every single person freeze as if they were under a paralysis spell.
The Emperor shifted subtly, his golden eyes already gleaming with a sharp, regal intensity.
Before he could react, however, Kael placed a firm palm on his father's shoulder, stopping the man from moving from his position.
The three Generals tried stiffly to turn around, desperate to get a glimpse of who or what was speaking behind them.
Before they could fully rotate, they froze—unable to complete the motion.
Then, to everybody's horror and shock, a thin red line appeared across each of their necks.
Within a second, their heads slid off their shoulders like smooth butter.
Their armored bodies remained standing for two seconds longer before toppling over after their severed heads with heavy, tallic thuds.
The collapse of the Generals allowed everyone to get a clear look at what had been lurking behind them.
Ba—thump… Ba—thump.
The figure before them did not look like it belonged in the world of the living.
Its form stood tall, yet wrong in ways the mind struggled to fully grasp, as though it had been shaped by sothing that never understood what a human body was ant to look like.
Its limbs were long—far too long—bending at unnatural angles, and each movent was slow but deliberate, like a predator that knew it had all the ti in the world.
Its skin was dark, not just in color, but in its very presence.
It absorbed the surrounding light rather than reflecting it—a dull, shifting black that seed to breathe faintly, as if sothing beneath the surface was alive and restless.
Faint cracks ran across its hide, glowing dimly with a deep crimson hue, like veins filled with molten fire.
Then there was its face—if it could even be called that.
The features felt misplaced.
Hollow eye sockets burned with a sinister red glow, lacking pupils or emotion, yet carrying an overwhelming sense of awareness.
Its mouth stretched wider than humanly possible, lined with jagged teeth that looked less like sothing ant for eating and more like sothing designed for tearing through bone and spirit alike.
When it moved, there was no wasted motion.
Each step was silent despite its size, and every shift of its body was unnervingly smooth, as though it wasn't bound by the sa physical laws of weight or balance.
The air around it grew colder and heavier, tainted by a presence that pressed against the chest until breathing felt… optional.
And then there was the aura.
It leaked from the creature—slow, suffocating, and undeniable.
It was a pressure filled with malice.
Not rage, not chaos, but sothing far worse: intent.
It was a pure, unfiltered intent to destroy, to corrupt, and to consu.
Even without attacking or speaking, it felt as though death itself had taken a physical form.
While the creature lacked eyes, a bright red number was branded onto its face, appearing like a glowing mark of ownership.
Squinting closer, Grey could make out the figure clearly.
It was an 8!
"Wh—What—What is that?" Vanica muttered, a frightful look etched onto her face.
She was quivering, and it was understandable; the sheer pressure was soul-crushing.
Even Scarlet's expression tightened in confusion and alarm.
Where had this figure popped out from?
Sol was perhaps the most shaken person on the field.
She knew the power the cracked-toothed General wielded; she had felt firsthand how strong that bastard had been, yet this strange creature had decapitated him and his peers so effortlessly.
Kael and Viktor were equally perplexed.
They didn't rush forth, instead choosing to stand their ground while tracking each and every one of the creature's movents with wary eyes.
While the others remained in a state of total oblivion, Grey had a clear idea of what this figure was.
'A demon.'
The aura, the number on its face—everything scread its race.
'Lower Echelon eight, huh?'
His mind flashed back to the day he had battled a lower echelon ten during his ti at the Aetherian academy.
And now, a demon with significantly more power had appeared before him.
But what was it doing in the mage world?
Shouldn't it only appear in the world of warriors?
Seeing as the Emperor was totally confused, it ant that the world of mages had never encountered a demon before.
So how had one appeared here?
Even without eyes, the creature seemingly caught a whiff of sothing familiar.
Soon, its head tilted, directing its hollow gaze toward where Grey stood.
"Ah… it took a while to track you."
Sniff—! Sniff—!
The demon turned to look around for a mont, absorbing the environnt, before returning its focus back to Grey.
"This isn't Vayun. Is this your original world?"
The humans nearby all slowly turned to look at Grey, confusion etched into every feature.
"Er… Grey. Is he—is he your uhm… buddy?" Raze questioned, beads of sweat falling down his face.
He had never seen sothing so repulsive and ugly before.
Yet, the aura it carried made it clear to him that this was not sothing he should be ssing with.
This was far above his pay grade.
"Well, there's not much ti left. Let's get down to business. Lucifero awaits your head."
Grey finally reacted, raising a brow in genuine curiosity. "Lucifero? Is that the na of the leader of the demons?"
"Demons?" Julius turned his head to look at the warrior mage as if he were losing his mind.
Kael, however, caught on imdiately.
Recalling Grey's narration of his ti on Vayun, he rembered the ntion of such entities.
"You an this is one of those demons? Is this as strong as the one you faced?"
"Stronger. I faced a lower echelon ten and this is a lower echelon eight," Grey declared with total calmness, acting as if the dire situation wasn't affecting him at all.
The mont Kael and Grey finished speaking, Scarlet, Greg, Raze, Jay, Arthur, and Vanica imdiately understood, their minds racing as they recalled Grey's tale of the warrior world.
The demon chuckled, its tone nacing and deep as it looked at Grey with a fierce intensity. "And I have co here to claim your life."
"Ah… you speak too much," Julius interrupted with a cold, piercing glare.
His eyes began glowing brighter by the second, and his robes fluttered recklessly in the rising wind.
"Emperor Julius! What are you doing?" Amir shouted in horror, sensing the shift in the atmosphere.
The Emperor just let out a knowing smirk, turning his head slightly to catch the Captain's eye. "Taking down a threat."
BOOOM—!
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