Chapter 1176: The Demon: Level 80
Chapter 1176: The Demon: Level 80
Even if they fortified the fabric of space itself, Souta would tear it apart.
The blessings burning within him granted more than strength—they gave him form-shattering abilities that elevated every movement, every thought, into pure destruction.
It wasn’t that easy to lock him down.
Cracks webbed across the air like splintered glass. From each fissure, violent energy erupted, devouring everything it touched. The weaker demons nearest the rifts didn’t even have time to scream—they were instantly erased in a flood of chaotic power.
Boom!!
The sky convulsed as Souta collided with the remaining demons, his form blurring between strikes. The clash was so fierce that shockwaves rippled outward in concentric waves, warping the ground below.
In the span of a heartbeat, thousands of blows had already been exchanged.
Then, with a sound like the tearing of reality itself, the spatial structure collapsed.
The battlefield vanished.
Swoosh!!
In the next instant, they were somewhere else—a realm of half-light and shifting color, where the air rippled like water and the ground dissolved beneath every step.
The Dream Realm.
The demigod demon realized it first. His eyes darted across the distorted horizon as they flickered in and out of existence, passing between the real world and dreams realm with every swing of their weapons.
The boundary between reality and illusion had shattered. Mountains flickered into being, melting into rivers; phantom cities rose and vanished; screams echoed from nowhere.
Ohm!
Souta kicked the demon to his left, sending the creature tumbling into a fading mirage. In the same motion, he brought his scythe down on the demigod demon ahead of him, cleaving through armor and energy alike.
Two more demons lunged from behind—only to be torn apart by the backlash of Souta’s passive retaliation. Dozens of bloody gashes appeared across their bodies before they even touched him.
He was fighting seven in total—each one a Freedom Realm or Demigod-rank.
But at this level, rank barely mattered. The line between the two was blurred; some Freedom Realms were weak as dust, others could rival demigods themselves.
The air split apart with every clash.
Each strike between Souta and the seven demons shredded both space and dream, tearing open rifts that bled light and shadow. Their weapons carved through floating fragments of dreams—a half-formed mountain, a crumbling temple, a starless sky—only for those fragments to dissolve and reform somewhere else.
The Dream Realm bled into the real world, overlapping until neither could be told apart.
Roars echoed from unseen places. Blades collided in flashes of light that stretched into infinity before snapping back like a mirage.
"Keep him contained!" one of the demigods roared, his body half-submerged in the fabric of dream. His form flickered—first solid, then transparent, then something monstrous that wasn’t him at all.
"Contain him?!" another spat, parrying Souta’s scythe as a storm of blood and lightning burst from the impact. "He’s already tearing the boundary apart!"
Souta’s eyes blazed with feral focus. The runes carved into the stronghold’s foundation glowed even here, their energy bleeding into the fractured sky as if the structure itself refused to collapse.
Crimson bolts leapt from his body, clashing with the violet lightning of the demons. The collision twisted the air into spirals of distorted gravity.
For every blow Souta landed, another would smash into him—armor cracking, bones shaking, blood spraying out in fine mist before it evaporated into glowing dust.
He didn’t yield. Neither did they.
The demons unleashed an onslaught of skills—dark sigils, infernal flames, lightning that split space apart—yet Souta countered each one with precision. His weapons carved through the storm, blood-colored arcs splitting flame and shadow alike.
For the weaker demons watching from afar, the fight looked like a blur of light and sound—less than a minute had passed.
But for the combatants locked in that realm, time itself seemed to stretch. Each heartbeat contained a thousand exchanges, each breath a clash between monsters and gods.
The seven high-level demons moved as one, their synchronization honed by centuries of battle. Souta, blood-soaked and relentless, matched them step for step.
And then—amid the chaos—his eyes flickered toward the system.
> [Random Card: Activated]
A glimmer of hope flashed across his vision.
> [You’ve obtained: 1,000,000 EXP!!]
Souta’s expression darkened. "Tch... not what I needed—but enough."
He felt the surge immediately. The experience from the quest, the slaughter, and now this final reward—all converging in his core.
> [Level Up: 80]
He didn’t hesitate. Not now. Not when Alice’s life was slipping away.
"Come what may," he muttered, clenching his fists. "I’ll deal with it later."
His skill points and free attribute points disappeared.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
A cascade of system notifications flooded his mind, overlapping into an incomprehensible chorus.
And then—
BOOOOOOM!!
The entire stronghold shook.
The seven demons were hurled backward as a crushing aura exploded from Souta’s body. The air shattered like glass, the ground beneath him fracturing into glowing cracks.
Spatial structure bent.
Dream and substance merged, unable to contain the force bursting from within him. The weight of his presence alone drove lesser demons to their knees, blood pouring from their eyes and ears.
"What—what is this power?!" one of the demigods shouted, raising his arm against the pressure.
Amid the collapsing walls and roaring energy storms, Souta stood in the center of it all—
his lightning red as blood, his eyes burning with the will to tear through gods themselves.
"All that matters..." he whispered, gripping his sword and scythe tight, "...is saving her."
And then—he moved.
The second clash began, shaking both dream and reality to their foundations.
"What is actually with this monster?!"
"This is insane!!"
The demons’ cries were drowned beneath the roar of destruction.
Runes shattered in a wide radius as if torn apart by unseen claws. The massive formation—once the backbone of the stronghold—was ripped open, collapsing in on itself.
BOOOOM!!
The ground convulsed. Spires of black stone exploded upward. The intricate formation that bound this region—the one crafted by a Demon Pillar himself—was blasted into fragments of burning light.
The demons froze, horror dawning on their faces.
Without the formation, without the countless runes empowering them...
they had no defense left.
"That formation was made by the Demon Pillar... a being equivalent to a Deity!" one screamed, voice trembling. "And he—he destroyed it like it was nothing!!"
A hiss ripped through the air.
Then came the wave.
A blinding surge of energy swept across the stronghold, erasing everything in its path.
HISSSSSHHHH!!
In a heartbeat, every demon below the Ninth Shackle Realm was vaporized—bodies turned to dust, souls scattered into the void.
From the heart of the chaos, Souta emerged.
Blood-red lightning coiled around him like living serpents, and the air warped beneath the crushing weight of his presence.
[You’ve obtained the Cosmic Authority: Ophiuchus]!!
[All stats have increased by 1,000 points]!!
The shock of the unsealing tore through reality itself. Space bent, light distorted, and entire sections of the stronghold disintegrated around him.
Inside his body, the transformation began.
His [Cosmic Body], [Star Veins], [Nebula Heart], and [Galaxy Veins]—once perfect—were evolving again, reshaped by divine authority.
[The Thirteenth Sign has been fully born]!!
[Serpent Dominance has transformed into Serpent Annihilation]!!
[Serpent Annihilation: Erases the target from space and time. Even if history is rewritten, the annihilated being shall not exist.]
A stillness fell.
Then, Souta exhaled and the air trembled.
Power overflowed from him, devouring the light, devouring the air. His shadow stretched across every surface, a silhouette that defied reason.
He lifted his head, eyes burning like dying stars, and the sound that tore from his throat was not human—
ROOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!
The heavens shook. The ground split open.
Every demon still standing fell to their knees, trembling before the birth of a new cosmic authority—a monster whose name would echo through worlds.
There was no time to think—no time to breathe.
Souta surged forward, his entire being consumed by a single purpose. The air rippled around him as his killing intent flared, merging seamlessly with his power until it became a tangible force that devoured the light itself.
BOOOOM!!
He collided with the front line of demons like a meteor crashing through the heavens. The shockwave blasted through the hall, tearing through walls and runes alike. Dozens of barriers shattered as the demons were hurled hundreds of meters away, blood spraying into the air like mist.
But Souta didn’t stop.
Not for a heartbeat.
He tore through the stronghold like a storm of blood and lightning—walls crumbling, corridors bending under the weight of his power. His senses locked onto one thing: Alice. Every motion carried him closer to her, every strike was a step toward her.
Behind him, the surviving demons staggered to their feet, horror etched on their faces.
"H-He’s gotten stronger... again?!" one gasped, wiping blood from his lips.
"This isn’t possible! Even the formation can’t suppress him anymore!"
Their voices trembled as the ground quaked under Souta’s advance. Each encounter with this monster only made him more terrifying. It was their first time experiencing something like this.