Beside Ash, two more spheres of light appeared again, increasing the cleanup of the area as he slowly walked toward them like before.
This scene completely broke the soldiers, who were already filled with fear, when their hope was crushed once again.
Some soldiers were so scared they collapsed onto the ground. Their pants were soaked with urine, yet they did not even notice. Finally... one soldier could no longer endure the pressure. With a scream, he threw down his weapon and turned to run.
That act was like the first snowflake that caused an avalanche. More and more soldiers followed. For a moment, the sounds of armor and weapons hitting the floor rose one after another.
Even officers, knights, and mages ignored their dignity and fled in panic.
Amid the chaos, Joanna could not clearly see what was happening around her. She only noticed that the number of companions beside her kept shrinking, while she herself did not seem to have survived this long through her own ability.
When she saw Ash again, most people had already escaped. Ash also suddenly stopped using killing magic. His figure flashed, and he instantly arrived before them.
He was so fast that they had no time to use magic. After losing the protection of most of the melee fighters, they had no way to resist.
No... with Ash's speed, even those melee fighters could not have protected them.
But he was clearly a mage, so how had he become a warrior too? This was something the ancient mages could not understand at all.
After all, a mage who could reach his level would never have the time to train martial skills. A human lifespan was not enough to master both.
Without realizing it, only three ancient mages, seven court mages, and around ten knights remained on their side.
Without exception, as they looked at the young man who had closed the distance in the blink of an eye, there was nothing in their eyes besides fear and despair.
At this critical moment, a few people who still had not grasped the situation acted on instinct or unwillingness and tried to cast magic or swing their swords.
Ash remained expressionless as the long blade in his hand cut a cold arc through the air.
The blade flashed like lightning.
In an instant, several heads flew high into the air. Blood burst out like fountains, forming a cloud of red mist in midair.
Those mages preparing to cast magic and those knights trying to step forward only managed to let out short cries before the light of their magic went out together with their lives, and the swords in their hands fell as well.
The headless bodies paused for a moment before dropping backward like dead trees, crashing heavily onto the floor and splashing blood everywhere, making the people instinctively retreat several steps in terror.
At this point, even the three ancient mages who did not understand the situation realized it. This man was not only a mage, but also a warrior surpassing the Empire's strongest fighter.
The magic attacks had merely been humiliation.
If he had fought as a warrior from the start, there would not even have been this brief exchange. Not to mention anything else, the twelve of them would never have had a chance to resist while sharing the same hall with him.
Yet now Ash still walked over at an unhurried pace as though taking a stroll, coldly looking at the three remaining ancient mages, including the old noble who had been shouting earlier and whom he had deliberately left alive.
"The strongest humans of every era? Legendary mages? You? Maybe people from the age of myths could count, but old relics like you still dare call yourselves legends, the strongest? In the end, your era ended long ago. You... are just outdated antiques."
The difference in information between both sides made a mocking smile appear on Ash's lips. To the mages, who had been hastily restored and understood neither the current magic system nor their enemy, that smile looked like a demon's sneer.
His voice was cold and calm, yet every word felt like a blade stabbing into the mages' hearts.
The old noble widened his eyes, but the anger inside them had already been replaced by fear. His staff fell to the ground with a clang. There was not a trace of his earlier arrogance left. He even looked somewhat pitiful.
They knew clearly that their fate was now controlled by the young man before them... like a demon. Their former glory and pride had also been trampled underfoot at this moment.
Still, Ash did not feel particularly happy about defeating these old relics so easily, people who did not understand the situation and had suddenly run into him in battle.
Instead, his gaze unconsciously fixed itself on the magic circle on the ground, the thing he had not understood from the beginning. But this time it was obviously not for self-destruction, so what exactly was it for? Bluffing?
———
For these old relics who had already lost their nerve, Ash had little interest. He only stared at the magic circle, thinking hard about why something like this would be set up in a place like this.
But if it was spatial magic, directly teleporting himself away, then maybe, humans would definitely want to do that if it were possible, but that was impossible.
This had been mentioned before. Although demons had members capable of spatial transfer, there was no fundamental difference between their magic and human magic.
Not even Flamme or Serie had it. If they did, he would have learned it long ago.
Because demons could teach themselves magic. They did not need a pile of theoretical foundations and could build it from zero to one hundred on their own. Humans could not do that, and humanity did not even possess the most basic theories regarding spatial magic.
Or rather, the foundation had been cut off from the start. After all, the space in this world seemed too stable. Theories that should have worked all lost their meaning in the end, so they were completely abandoned and considered impossible.
"But then what kind of spell is this? It doesn't look like self-destruction. It's not even an attack..."
He stared at the magic circle beneath his feet and casually kicked at it, wiping away part of it, though that no longer had any meaning.
Because the magic circle had already fully activated. A strange effect appeared in midair, yet he felt no sign of anything appearing, nor any sense of something being summoned.
Ash did not move, and naturally the Imperial side members standing there also did not dare move. They only stood there trembling.
The entire hall was covered in the presence of death, like a grave about to bury them all, making everyone lower even their breathing, afraid of drawing his attention.
This overly silent and tense state did not last long.
Dozens of purple beams suddenly shot over soundlessly like meteors chasing the moon, reaching them in the blink of an eye.
'Huh?What's going on?', Only when Ash looked up and truly caught sight of the beams did he realize something was wrong and notice the attack.
During the entire process, there had been no sign of activation at all. At this moment, magic detection seemed completely useless, and even his instincts appeared to vanish.
This sudden attack made his whole body feel uncomfortable.
Ash had no time to use defensive magic and could only choose to evade instantly.
However, the "net of death" was too dense. With a "puchi!" one beam pierced through his shoulder, and another grazed his thigh, bringing him a sharp pain he had not felt in a long time. He could even see his own blood spraying out.
At that moment, he finally understood. This magic circle had been prepared for this follow-up attack.
His magic iron wall was stronger than ordinary defensive magic, yet it had still been pierced, even punching through his body. If he had been slightly slower, even his heart might have been pierced.
If it had been a pure mage, survival would have been impossible. Even if their mind could react, their body definitely could not keep up.
Because, the remaining old acquaintances before him, along with those who still wanted to fight but had lost their will, were almost instantly riddled with holes. They did not even have time to scream before collapsing into pools of blood together.
"I can understand my senses being blocked, but where exactly is this attack coming from?"
He looked at the dead old acquaintances with regret, but before he could figure things out, the "corpses" behind him suddenly leapt up soundlessly.
Two swords, two long blades, one halberd, every one of them aimed at vital points from different angles.
Their speed was astonishing, but more importantly, with his senses stripped away, or rather blocked, the shadow warriors skilled in assassination moved without the slightest sound. Earlier, they had not even possessed any presence at all, so even though Ash had been on guard, he still could not detect them.
The instant the fastest sword silently slashed toward him and touched his shoulder, Ash immediately noticed the problem and reacted, trying to dodge sideways.
But before his magic defense could recover, a long blade still cut through his clothes and left a deep wound across his back.
Right after that, the halberd thrust fiercely from his right like a venomous snake. Unable to avoid it in time, he hurriedly leaned back, letting the blade scrape across his chest, tearing open his clothes but... failing to break the skin.
"Damn it!", Ash muttered, a trace of anger rising inside him.
He did not mind getting hurt on the battlefield, nor did he care about injuries of this level. He had suffered worse before.
But these people were really a little too... irritating.
It did not matter that the halberd could not hurt him, but damaging his clothes gave him a feeling of little harm, but great insult.
Even though the injury from earlier had unexpectedly left his right hand unable to lift the blade, he threw the long sword aside and moved forward instead of retreating.
His left arm suddenly swung out like a black bolt of lightning, striking first with shocking speed despite moving later.
Bang! Bang!
Two loud explosions rang out as the heads of two shadow warriors instantly burst apart under Ash's powerful punches.
Blood mist spread through the air as shattered bone and flesh flew everywhere.
The remaining shadow warriors were all startled by the sudden scene and reflexively stopped moving.
The effect of the surprise attack had already disappeared, leaving the shadow warriors at a disadvantage instead.
Looking at the young man before them, who was clearly injured yet still looked like a demon god, the expressions on the remaining shadow warriors became uglier one after another.
They knew very well that the situation was extremely unfavorable for them, yet there was nothing they could do. They could only silently pray that the deadly poison on their weapons and in the air would take effect and bring them a chance to turn things around.
———
In the hall covered with corpses, Ash had never expected these shadow warriors to have been hiding here.
Because, while he had been slaughtering people earlier, they had definitely been hidden among the crowd.
Most of them had simply died together with everyone else without showing the strength they should have possessed, making him think they were all guarding the Emperor.
He had not expected these death warriors to endure so much humiliation, dying silently without making a sound until they seized this chance to strike at him... and all their weapons had been coated in deadly poison.
"What a boring bunch... nothing but petty tricks. It's annoying."
Although their fearlessness toward death deserved praise, their excessive reliance on tricks only left Ash looking impatient and disdainful while moving his injured right arm.
Among the shadow warriors, the one-eyed man disguised as a mage removed his human-skin mask at this moment, revealing half a disfigured face.
This person was the middle-aged noble from Rasen's memories who usually wore a neat suit, a pirate-style eyepatch, and a small blond ponytail behind his head.
"The lord of the northernmost territory of the Empire, Lorbeer... Lowe, huh? A noble actually using tactics like this?", Ash narrowed his eyes slightly.
"I may be a noble, but I am also a shadow... and shadows should fight like shadows. Deeds that will never be carved into history do not need beautiful decoration. One only needs to fight like the undead, cast aside pride and glory, and pursue victory with everything."
The one-eyed noble and shadow warrior, Lowe, did not bow like a noble or do anything of the sort. He only calmly looked at Ash and gave his answer in a flat voice.
Even though he had not become a noble because he was the Empire's strongest existing warrior. Rather... he had first been a noble, and only then become a warrior.
Still, during battle, he seemed to value the methods of a shadow warrior more.
After openly stating his belief without hesitation, Lowe stared at him expressionlessly as though he already had him cornered and said, "Surrender. Besides deadly poison, your body has also been exposed to many drugs that cannot really be called poison, only paralytics and sleeping agents. Even if you can resist poison, you cannot resist those drugs."
"I see. So you're talking to me now because you're waiting for the drugs to take effect?", Ash said with surprise while skillfully bandaging his wounds. He laughed mockingly, "I thought you were just waiting to die."
"If you join the Empire now, I can still request His Majesty's forgiveness and spare your life. You may even get the chance to serve the Empire," Although puzzled by why Ash was still standing, Lowe continued trying to provoke him into losing his composure while carefully watching him.
However, not only did Ash not get angry, his gaze even carried a hint of pity.
"Do you really think that just because I got a few injuries, or because I've been poisoned and maybe weakened a little, you can definitely beat me?"
"You truly don't know your place. This is our territory. Injured and poisoned as you are, it's impossible for you to defeat us here... or rather, defeat me," Lowe also showed no anger and calmly looked at him.
In his eyes, Ash had already reached the end of his strength because of the poison. No matter how powerful he was, he could not escape their siege. As for the possibility that he was not poisoned, that was impossible. After all, as long as one was human, immunity was impossible.
Then with only a glance from him, the surrounding shadow warriors charged at Ash once again.
Whether disguised as soldiers or other roles, even though they had not resisted much earlier, every shadow warrior who survived that situation was an expert. Even if all they did was stall for time, it should have been possible, yet...
BOOM!
"Even I am getting a little annoyed now," Ash only looked at them coldly as overwhelming repulsive force exploded outward in every direction like a raging tsunami.
The attackers were instantly blown away like leaves swept up by a storm, flying back even faster than they had come.
Only Lowe remained. His speed surpassed the speed of sound, and he coated his sword in magic, forcing his way through the repulsive force as he tried to stab straight through Ash's heart.
But before he could reach him, he suddenly noticed the figure before him swelling and changing at shocking speed, even, turning into a demon.
His will behan to falter, and a fear unlike anything before crawled up his spine like an icy snake.
Yet his attack had already been launched. The instant he saw Ash transform, he hesitated briefly, but there was no turning back once the arrow left the bow. He could only force himself forward and hope this full-powered strike would break through the defense again.
But before he could touch him, lightning burst beneath Ash's feet in that split second.
The exploding lightning instantly tore apart the indestructible floor. At the same time, terrifying gravity crashed down like an invisible mountain, making Lowe feel as though the air above him was crushing him down. His body was forced tightly toward the ground, and his movements stalled at once.
Yet Ash himself was unaffected, appearing before him without warning as though crossing space instantly.
Before Lowe could react, Ash's left fist smashed into his face like a cannonball, carrying the explosive sound of breaking the sound barrier with overwhelming force.
The absurd power made it impossible for him to maintain his balance. Without any ability to resist, he was sent flying far away. His body bounced repeatedly across the ground like a skipping stone, crashing down and flying onward again and again.
As for the other shadow warriors who had just been blown away, before they could even get up, Ash raised his palm slightly upward.
They suddenly felt anti-gravity pulling at them, causing them to lose balance as they floated into the air together with all the corpses, even smashing into the ceiling.
Before they could understand what was happening, the next moment... Ash slammed his hand downward.
BOOM!
Every corpse and shadow warrior in the entire hall crashed heavily onto the floor together with the motion of his palm.
Gravity beyond imagination brought with it impact even harder to imagine.
Their eyes widened one after another as nearly every bone in their bodies shattered instantly, and their limbs were almost embedded into the broken floor.
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