Chapter 1166: The Demon: Death of Hero-rank experts

Boom!!

The fearsome eruption of blood-colored lightning rippled across the battlefield, shaking heaven and earth alike. Tens of thousands turned their heads toward the source—where a massive storm of crimson lightning spiraled upward, flooding the sky with its dreadful glow.

A wave of silence passed through the warring armies.

Some faces turned grim with dread. Others lit with desperate hope. But every soul understood what they were witnessing.

The cause of that devastation.

The epicenter of this war...

was none other than the Blood Lightning Monster.

The strongest fourth-stage being in history.

The one who had done the impossible.

The sea of crimson lightning shifted, its radiance consumed by a sudden surge of white smoke that spread like mist across the land.

Ohm!!

Everyone who knew the Blood Lightning Monster understood what this meant.

He had invoked his Dreamscape.

Within moments, the four experts were swallowed by the smoke, their presence vanishing as reality itself twisted.

Swoosh!!

Then, two figures emerged from the haze.

Souta stood at one end, crimson armor pulsing faintly with living energy. Opposite him was a tall man with long black hair, his halberd gleaming with deadly light.

The man’s breath came ragged. Sweat beaded his brow. His heart pounded like a war drum in his chest. Every fiber of his being screamed danger.

"Y–You...!" he snarled, teeth clenched, his body trembling under the suffocating pressure.

Souta’s gaze was steady, cold, absolute.

"You’re going to die."

"Argh!!"

The man roared and unleashed his power without restraint. Energy burst from him in waves, tearing cracks in the ground beneath his feet. He had no choice but to fight—

just a few more seconds, and reinforcements would arrive.

The other four experts were still trapped inside Souta’s Dreamscape. They wouldn’t break free anytime soon.

That meant, for this fleeting, terrifying moment...

He was alone.

Alone with the Blood Lightning Monster.

Souta slowly drew his sword back, his expression calm, voice low and sharp as a blade.

"Tell me..." he said, eyes gleaming with crimson light. "Do you think your flesh is tougher than a fifth-stage monster’s?"

...

Inside the Dreamscape.

Four experts were trapped within the strange, shifting world. Even the one who had deflected Souta’s spider limbs found himself caught here, his instincts screaming that something was terribly wrong.

"This is bad...!!"

"I know!"

"At this rate, he’ll pick us off one by one!!"

They all knew what awaited them if they hesitated. The Blood Lightning Monster would not face them together—he would dismantle them piece by piece.

This was a dreamscape. A world entirely its own.

Every being possessed one. Their consciousness entered it when they slept, but only a rare few could manipulate its fabric and manifest abilities within it that affected reality itself.

And Souta was one of those few.

A being who had mastered the power of dreams.

Within this realm, his will shaped the world. With enough power, he could even kill a man here and that death would be absolute.

The only hope for escape was to destroy the dreamscape from within.

"There’s no time!!"

The four of them roared as their auras flared, shaking the crimson mist around them. They poured every ounce of power into a single desperate assault, launching fearsome attacks that tore through the shifting space.

Explosions rocked the void, sending ripples through the surreal landscape.

They didn’t care about Souta anymore—

their only goal was survival.

They could fly for eternity and never reach an edge. The horizon curved in on itself, endless and mocking.

The only way out was to break the dreamscape apart.

Or die trying.

...

Outside the Dreamscape.

Souta faced the lone Seventh Shackle Realm expert. Blood-colored lightning rippled across his body, each spark hissing with destructive intent. He leveled his sword at the man, the air trembling beneath the weight of his killing aura.

The expert felt a chill crawl up his spine. His instincts screamed danger—absolute, inescapable danger.

"If your body’s tougher than the fifth-stage monster I fought," Souta said coldly, "then you might survive this. If not..."

He tilted his head slightly.

"...pray to your god."

The four spider limbs spun rapidly around the tip of his vajra sword, forming a deadly spiral of crimson light. The air screamed as Souta kicked off the air behind him, hurling himself forward with unstoppable force.

[Archetype: Great Blood of the End]!

[Second Form: Blood Lightning—Piercing Through the Heavens]!

The air split open.

A flash of blood-red light tore across the sky. The Seventh Shackle Realm expert’s defenses shattered the instant the blade met his aura. The piercing strike burst through his chest, blood lightning surging through every vein of his body.

For a heartbeat, he felt nothing but searing brilliance.

Boom!!

Then his vision twisted.

He saw the clouds above him and then realized he was already falling.

He couldn’t feel his limbs. Couldn’t feel pain. Only emptiness. His fading sight caught one last glimpse of the Blood Lightning Monster standing amid the swirling white smoke—cold, still, and untouchable.

Then darkness claimed him.

His body fell, lifeless, vanishing into the mist below.

A Seventh Shackle Realm expert had died.

The explosion of energy upon his death rippled through the atmosphere, spreading like a shockwave across the battlefield. Soldiers and experts alike turned their heads toward the towering column of white smoke.

They felt it—the sudden disappearance of that powerful signature.

One of their strongest had perished.

Another Seventh Shackle Realm had fallen to the Blood Lightning Monster.

On the other side of the battlefield, Doranjan and Erkigal turned their gazes toward the pillar of white smoke. They both felt it—the sudden disappearance of a powerful aura.

"Another one has died..." Erkigal muttered grimly.

This wasn’t just any fallen warrior. A Hero-rank expert—someone who stood near the peak of power—had perished in this chaotic war.

"Let’s go! Fight them!" Doranjan roared.

He spread his massive wings, the gust shaking the air as he launched himself skyward. Erkigal remained below, her focus sharpening as she increased her firepower. Around her, other Hero-rank experts surged forward to engage the enemy.

"Block it!!" Erkigal shouted.

She thrust both hands forward.

A wave of scorching flames erupted from her palms, spreading outward like a blazing wall. The inferno twisted into a fiery barrier, forcing the enemies to halt their advance and disrupting their formation.

Meanwhile, five hundred meters above the ground, Doranjan glanced down. He saw Erkigal surrounded, her flames flickering amid the chaos.

His eyes narrowed.

Swoosh!!

A surge of power burst from his body as he flapped his wings, vanishing into a streak of greenish light.

The Hero-rank experts below froze and looked up. Their hearts trembled as they saw a massive dragon diving from the heavens, its scales shimmering with violent energy.

"Prepare yourselves!!" someone shouted.

But it was too late.

Doranjan’s speed spiked once more. The pressure around him distorted the air, and a roaring gust burst forth. The energy swirling around his body condensed into a towering, greenish tornado that engulfed everything in its path.

[Primal Sentence]!!

The tornado expanded with a deafening roar. Those too slow to flee were pulled into its violent current, their defenses cracking under the crushing energy.

Bang!!

Without hesitation, Doranjan twisted his neck and unleashed a concentrated beam of energy straight into the heart of the tornado.

[Bestrou]!!

The next second, a chain of violent explosions erupted. The tornado burst apart in a flash of green light as waves of destructive force spread across the area.

Boom!!

The shockwaves tore through the battlefield, scattering debris and energy in all directions.

Erkigal flew up beside Doranjan, her flames flickering around her. "Did you get them?" she asked, her voice tense.

Doranjan shook his head, his eyes narrowing. "No. They’re still alive. But they should at least be injured after that strike."

He turned his gaze toward the Guardian Fortress in the distance. It was already beginning to move—just a little more, and it would completely leave this place. The rest of the Astros’ forces had already withdrawn from the battlefield.

Then—

Ohm!!

A sudden burst of overwhelming energy erupted across the field, shaking the very air before slowly dispersing into the atmosphere.

Doranjan and the other powerful beings turned their heads toward the source, their expressions hardening.

"What—?"

"Another one has fallen!" someone shouted.

Their eyes widened as they saw the cause. A colossal hydra with nine heads loomed in the distance, each head glowing with a different hue of energy.

Kessa.

She had just slain another Hero-rank expert.

The opposing army faltered. The realization struck them like thunder. The Nine-Headed Hydra was the most dangerous among the monsters on this field—her strength was beyond what a group of Seventh Shackle Realm experts could handle.

To bring her down, they would need at least an Eighth, perhaps even a Ninth Shackle Realm powerhouse.

Fear began to creep into their hearts as they stared at her towering, menacing form.

The enemies could only hold their ground, frozen by the sight of the monstrous hydra whose nine heads moved in perfect, terrifying harmony.

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