The Imperial Guard stepped out of the crater as if rising from a grave burning with blood. Red stone fragments burst around him, and thick waves of stone smoke rolled outward, while his imperial robe peeled away completely—torn, burned, soaked in his own blood and that of others. Dozens of shallow wounds covered his body, with a thin crust of clotted blood flashing over them before fading in seconds, healing as if nothing had happened.
His expression was calm… calmer than any battle of this scale should allow. His eyes looked at Ashen and at the giant abomination with the same boredom… the boredom of a killer who had not yet needed to use even a quarter of his power.
He raised his right hand. A blood spell flared behind him, a long chain of red symbols weaving together and rising into the sky before exploding in a sharp flash. In an instant, the entire stone forest shook with a sharp metallic echo as a blood-red sword flew toward him like an arrow, cutting the air until it settled into his hand as if returning to its rightful owner.
He vanished. He did not run, jump, or step forward… he simply disappeared.
He appeared in front of Ashen at the same moment, the air behind him bursting like a pressure bomb. His fist, burning with blood energy, crashed into Ashen's chest. The strike felt like a volcano exploding inside his body. Ashen's ribcage bent inward as he was launched upward and backward, flying a hundred meters through the stone forest, smashing through dozens of stone pillars.
The guard did not even look at the result of the strike. He turned immediately toward the giant abomination running toward him, its four side-eyes blazing with blood, and its vertical eye glowing with a sickening light.
The Imperial Guard gripped his sword tightly.
The sword ignited. A dense blood-red glow covered the blade, radiating heat like burning flesh. He took only a single step—but that step felt like it tore through space itself.
He struck.
One attack… yet not one. Two crossing wounds—two blood-red lines forming an X—split the air in front of him. The attack tore through space, stone, and everything ahead as it shot toward the giant abomination with merciless speed.
The abomination let out a roar that shook the mountains. It raised its four blades—massive blood weapons, each longer than Ashen's body—but the moment they met the attack, they split apart like paper. The strike hit its chest, tearing through flesh and bone, carving a massive X-shaped wound. Blood gushed out in a dark black stream, then the wound burst into blood flames, which began to eat away at its skin and flesh at a terrifying speed.
Before it could even fall, the Imperial Guard vanished again.
He appeared… above it. Fifteen meters in the air, directly beside the vertical eye, which was focusing its destructive beam.
The eye flared. A narrow, deadly red beam shot out, destroying everything in its path.
But the guard did not move to dodge. He simply swung his sword—one cut.
The cut pierced the beam itself. It tore it, scattered it, broke it into blood sparks, then continued forward to slice across the abomination's face. A new wound opened from the top of its forehead down to its jaw, as if the guard had tried to split its face in two.
At the same moment, the guard descended with brutal force. His fist slammed into the abomination's face with crushing pressure. Half its skull exploded from a single strike.
The giant abomination was thrown seventy meters backward, crushing rocks, breaking stone pillars, dragging a long trail of blood and smoke until it stopped inside a large pit carved by its body.
It stood up.
Even though its chest was completely open… even though the blood flames were eating its heart before its eyes… even though its face was half destroyed… even though its vertical eye was leaking endless streams of blood…
It still stood.
The abomination roared, and the sound shook the entire stone forest. Then it released a cloud of toxic blood mist—thick, corrosive, melting the stone and rotting the air itself. As the mist expanded, hundreds of blood arms burst from the ground, reaching for the Imperial Guard, while dozens of massive blood blades formed above the abomination and fell toward him at once.
The stone forest was drowned in destruction. Pillars bent, stones cracked, and the ground melted under the toxic mist.
But the Imperial Guard only raised his sword.
Then… he started cutting.
Strike after strike. Faster than a flash. More violent than a volcano. Everything around him—blades, arms, mist, rocks—was cut apart, evaporated, and destroyed.
He vanished again. Appeared in front of the abomination.
Everything was happening at a speed beyond human limits. The abomination tried to retreat, but there was no time.
Hundreds of blood wires shot out from the guard's hand, as if his body opened to release a network of red roots. They wrapped around the abomination, pierced its flesh, bound all four limbs, and slammed it to the ground like a slaughtered beast.
The guard moved. He cut all the abomination's limbs in a single instant. The limbs fell, rolling across the ground and bursting into black mist.
Then he drove the sword into its chest.
The sword stretched… its length growing to seven meters, piercing straight through the abomination's body into the ground. Blood flames ignited again, engulfing its body, preventing regeneration, consuming it slowly… like an eternal punishment.
And as the screaming began—
Ashen appeared.
He arrived beside the guard in a flash, his fist wrapped in savage intent, swollen with seismic force. But the guard turned—dodging the blow as if he could see the future. A single kick hit Ashen's chest… launching him dozens of meters across the stones.
Ashen rose again. His chest was bent inward, bones cracked… but he healed quickly. A wild aura surrounded him, like a storm of primal madness. He looked at the Imperial Guard with cold eyes.
The guard smiled. A warm smile… unfitting for the scene, the blood, and the death around them.
Before the fight could continue—
Ashen heard a voice inside his spirit:
Corpse-Purification Faction Leader: "Boy… this is an Imperial Guard at the peak of the first rank of Blood Warrior. He is not fighting you… he is playing with you. I might be able to help you escape… but you will owe me. But first… remove your damn aura from our ritual. It is suffocating us to death… and distorting the formation."
Ashen turned toward him… and nodded coldly.