Chapter 76. Axe of Judgement

Chapter 76: 76. Axe of Judgement

The remaining two demon generals saw the black fire vanish under Lily’s water and turned their mounts at once.

The horned general on the spike-covered Hell-Boar raised a heavy iron cleaver that glowed with dull red mana.

The scarred warlord on the Brimstone Charger drew a long, curved blade of blackened bone.

Both beasts dug in and charged, the Hell-Boar’s tusks lowered, the Charger spitting fresh embers as it ran.

Lily and Lina met them without hesitation.

Lily guided her Titan forward, white gown shifting around her legs, wooden staff still in her hand glowing.

Lina’s yellow dress flared as her own Titan surged to meet the Brimstone Charger.

The two pairs closed the distance in seconds.

The impact of Titan against demon mount shook the ground and sent nearby E-rank rankers stumbling.

The Hell-Boar’s tusks and the Charger’s claws tore through the lower human lines with brutal ease.

Several E-rank fighters never even raised their shields.

Bodies were crushed or thrown aside like broken dolls.

Blood sprayed across the ground in wide arcs.

Seraphine moved through the chaos with steady steps.

Her battle dress stayed clean of hesitation.

The dagger in her hand flashed once, twice, three times.

Each stroke opened a throat or removed a head.

Her crimson eyes showed no change of expression.

Demons fell around her without a single wasted motion.

Brianna planted her wooden staff in the dirt and spoke a short command.

Binding Of Earth

Thick green vines burst from the ground and wrapped around the legs and arms of the nearest lower-rank demons.

The vines tightened until the demons could no longer swing their weapons.

Seraphine stepped in behind each one and finished the work with a single clean cut across the neck.

Gurgle. Thud.

Kael kept to the edge of the main press, spare steel sword in hand.

The basic forms Amber had drilled into him settled into his muscles.

He coated the blade with a thin, even layer of mana, using only what was needed.

Instead of using too much mana, he used it within a limit learning from Amber.

He cut the first demon across the throat.

The second lost its head in a single horizontal stroke.

The third tried to raise a club and died with the sword buried under its ribs.

Each kill felt different from the mindless beasts in the dungeon.

These demons had faces. They had voices. Kael’s fingers trembled once against the hilt.

’If I want to live in this world I have to kill. If I don’t kill them, they’ll kill me. So it’s me or them and ain’t no way I’m choosing them over my life.’

He forced the tremor down and kept moving.

A demon swordsman pushed through the press toward him.

The fighter’s deep-red skin was marked with fresh cuts.

His eyes locked on Kael with raw anger.

"Y-you Bastard, you killed my friends like some ants. I will kill you and bathe in your blood. Ahhh..."

The demon came in hard, blackened sword swinging in short, heavy arcs.

Kael met the first blow with a clean parry.

Clang.

The second and third followed in rapid succession.

He gave ground one step at a time, letting each impact slide off the blade.

The demon pressed harder, breathing loud, determined to overwhelm him with force.

Kael waited for the next downward cut.

When it came he stepped inside the arc, raised the tip of his sword, and poured a dense node of mana into the final three inches of the blade.

One-Point Sever

The concentrated cutting line released in a single flash.

It punched straight through the demon’s chest where the heart sat.

A clean, round hole opened.

The swordsman looked down once, eyes wide, then dropped without another word.

Thud.

Seraphine glanced over from a short distance away, dagger still wet red with blood.

High on the Titan Eira watched with both hands pressed to her mouth.

Amber’s sharp eyes tracked the entire exchange and fixed for a moment on the faint, residual shake still present in Kael’s fingers as he lowered the sword.

----

Deeper in the jungle the trail of broken trees led to a small clearing.

The cambion general sat with his back against a thick trunk, blood running from the corner of his mouth.

The spiked club rested across his knees.

When Mira stepped into the open he looked up and smiled, the expression wide and ugly.

"I have changed my mind. I’m not going to kill you anymore. Rather, I’ll make you and your daughter slaves for our army’s sexual relief."

Black mana poured from his body in thick, oily waves.

The spiked club turned completely black.

The same darkness coated his hands, wrists, and legs until the skin itself disappeared under the flowing energy.

He spoke a short name as he rose.

Blackened Desire

The ground under his feet cracked and shook from the sudden density of mana.

Small stones lifted and hung for a moment before dropping again.

The general stood fully upright, black energy coiling around every limb and the whole length of the club.

Mira moved with swift.

Her speed left no clear afterimage for ordinary eyes.

The short blue dress snapped once around her thighs as she closed the distance and swung the axe straight at his neck.

The general sidestepped at the last instant.

The blade cut only air.

She did not stop.

The axe came around again in a tight horizontal arc, pale blue wind gathering along the edge.

Gale Edge

Whoosh

The general shifted half a step back.

The physical blade missed, but the wind that followed still struck.

He raised the blackened club and met the cutting air head-on.

The wind vanished on contact, dissolving into scattered sparks that died against the dark mana.

The general’s smile faded.

Anger settled into the lines of his face.

He stepped forward and brought the club down in a heavy vertical smash.

Mira angled the axe and let the blow slide past her shoulder.

Dirt exploded where the spikes struck the ground.

She answered with a rising cut aimed at his ribs.

He blocked, the impact ringing through both weapons.

Clang

They separated for half a breath, then closed again.

Mira’s style stayed light and continuous, each swing feeding the next, wind always present around the blade.

The short blue dress moved with her, never slowing the precise footwork.

The general fought with heavier, more brutal strokes, every swing backed by the dense black mana that coated his arms.

Each time their weapons met the ground trembled a little more.

He forced a sudden burst of speed and aimed a backhanded sweep at her waist.

Mira dropped low, the axe already turning for a counter aimed at his lead knee.

The general pulled the leg back and brought the club down toward her exposed shoulder.

She rolled aside to avoid the attack.

The spikes tore a shallow trench in the earth where she had been.

Both fighters reset their stances across the small clearing.

Blood still marked the corner of the general’s mouth.

Mira’s breathing remained steady, the devilish smile returning to her lips as the wind around her axe began to gather once more.

"Entertain me more, you weak demon. Is that all you got?"

She said it mocking him as they met again in a continuous exchange that lasted a full minute.

Black mana and pale blue wind collided with every strike.

The residual force of Mira’s cuts sliced through nearby trunks, sending clean sections of wood toppling into the undergrowth.

Sparks of conflicting energy lit the clearing in brief flashes.

The general’s breathing grew heavier. Mira’s footwork never lost its rhythm.

Then she changed the pattern.

The axe began to rotate in both hands at a speed that blurred the blade into a continuous circle of pale light.

The surrounding air compacted inward, drawn toward a single dense point in front of her.

The pressure made the leaves on the remaining trees flatten.

The general felt the terror of the gathering force at once.

Every instinct told him the next release would not be something he could simply block.

He poured everything into a final counter.

Black Volcanic Torch

Black mana surged from the club and flooded over his entire body in a thick, liquid rush.

The energy gathered for a fraction of a second, then exploded outward toward Mira like a splash of burning tar.

Mira finished the compression and released her own technique in the same instant.

Axe of Judgement

The compacted wind and the black splash met in the exact center of the clearing.

BOOOOM!!!

The collision rooted out the trees on both sides.

Trunks tore free of the ground and toppled outward.

The two forces pushed against each other for a long, grinding second, black and blue light flashing in violent pulses.

Then Mira’s wind broke through.

The residual blade of air severed both of the general’s hands at the wrists.

The blackened club fell with the severed limbs still gripping it.

"Aaaargh!"

The wind entered the open wounds and twisted through his body in a violent spiral as he screamed in pain.

His bones cracked and muscle tore.

The general tried to flood the damage with remaining mana, forcing the internal motion to stop the spiral of wind inside his body.

For a moment he believed he had succeeded.

Then he saw the axe already descending toward his neck.

The blade passed through cleanly.

His head struck the ground and rolled once before coming to rest on its side.

From that low angle he saw his own headless body still standing for a single heartbeat.

’She was not an ordinary B-ranker. She probably did not even use her full strength. I have to warn...’

The thought ended there.

Mira stood over the fallen body, axe lowered, breathing a little deeper than before.

The short blue dress clung to her skin with light sweat.

She looked down at the corpse with mild disdain.

’So much talk for a weak demon.’

The effort of the final technique left a thin thread of tiredness in her arms, but her stance remained steady as the wind around her still moved like it belonged to her.