Boom boom boom boom!
The black gale Zeke unleashed swept through the Black Knights, sending a sandstorm surging upward from the wasteland.
Rumble rumble rumble!
As the black gale tore across the wasteland alongside the Black Knights, the thick poison miasma that had blanketed the area scattered and vanished.
The swept-away Black Knights lay crumpled in heaps of earth, their limbs twisted in unnatural angles.
Zeke gazed at the horrific scene he had created with an emotionless expression.
But moments later, the Black Knights, who had seemed dead, began to stir once more.
Crunch crunch!
A red glow flickered from within their black helmets as their mangled limbs twisted back into place.
Thud!
Aside from the dust clinging to their armor, the Black Knights had fully restored themselves to their original form. They reformed their ranks in orderly rows and columns.
They raised their swords, aiming them at Zeke, who looked down upon them.
Whoooong!
The demonic auras from hundreds of Black Knights resonated with one another, merging into a single wave that surged toward Zeke.
Zzzzzing—
The shockwave carried by the resonance swept across the wasteland, hurtling toward Zeke.
Zeke raised his hand with a calm expression as the shockwave barreled toward him.
Kiiiiiing—
The mana reversal field Zeke generated repelled the incoming shockwave, sending it rebounding in the opposite direction.
Whoooong!
The shockwave Zeke deflected expanded in scope, rising into the sky and engulfing even the vulture-like magical beasts flying overhead.
Kieeeek—
The magical beasts struck by the resonance-laden shockwave let out piercing shrieks, spewing blood as they plummeted from the heavens.
Rumble rumble rumble!
With the magical beasts that had been observing Zeke now gone, the Black Knights froze in place for a moment.
Zeke moved first toward the motionless Black Knights, his sword at the ready.
As he unleashed Elemental Sword: Chamber of Metal Power, immense pressure bore down on the clustered Black Knights.
Crunch crunch crunch!
Crushed by the chamber of metal power Zeke had conjured, the Black Knights' bodies crumpled and slammed into the wasteland floor.
The Black Knights began to move again, struggling to escape the domain, but breaking free from the intense gravity field was impossible.
It was then, as Zeke watched the Black Knights pinned and fully crushed into the ground—
The wasteland suddenly began to shake violently.
Rumble rumble rumble rumble!
The surface of the wasteland cracked open, and two black towers buried beneath thrust upward.
Thud!
Fully emerged above ground, the black towers each bore a sharp lightning rod-like spire at the top.
Black currents like lightning flowed from those spires, soon connecting between the two spires and swelling in size.
Crackle crackle crackle!
The black currents between the towers coalesced into a black orb.
In an instant, a powerful bolt of lightning erupted from the black orb toward Zeke.
Crackle crackle crackle—
Zeke retreated, dodging the black current hurtling at him.
But that was not the end of it.
The ground shook once more, and more black towers of similar design began to emerge.
These black towers also unleashed currents toward Zeke, launching attacks.
Before long, over a dozen such black towers had appeared across the wasteland, all assaulting Zeke.
And that was not all.
Doors formed at the bases of the towers, from which hundreds of Black Knights emerged in formation, charging toward Zeke.
From above, the towers rained down powerful currents, while below, the Black Knights —unkillable no matter how many times they were slain—surged endlessly.
In response, Zeke summoned thousands of shadow summons from the shadows with an impassive face.
The translucent shadow summons obeyed Zeke's command and charged at the oncoming Black Knights.
The Black Knights unleashed their demonic auras, slicing through the rushing shadow summons in a single stroke.
As the struck summons wavered and dissipated, Zeke summoned more from the shadows.
It was while Zeke was holding off the towers and Black Knights with his shadow
summons—
In a concealed area far from the scene, Zeke observed the situation alongside Shadia.
"As Boris said, their defensive systems are more formidable than expected."
Zeke had sent his clone straight into the fray as bait to draw Narak's attention.
From Narak's perspective, no one posed a greater threat than Zeke, so they committed their full forces to stopping him.
The emergence of over a dozen towers to attack Zeke suggested his calculation had been at least partially correct.
"But this isn't enough. To allow the operatives to infiltrate, I need to shake this place up once more."
Zeke issued a command to his clone, and the clone raised its sword in response.
Whoooong!
The power of the full power technique gathered in the sword the clone held.
Though not as potent as the original, the pressure emanating from the sword was enough to push back the approaching Black Knights entirely.
The clone gripped the sword infused with the full power technique in reverse and plunged it into the ground, murmuring.
"Full power technique. Triple spell. Great explosion."
At that moment, pure white light erupted from where the sword had pierced, and light began seeping from spots across the wasteland.
Rumble rumble rumble rumble!
The massive light surged violently, shaking the entire ground as chain explosions ripped through.
Boom boom boom boom boom!
The explosion of light engulfed not only the Black Knights but also the surrounding black towers.
The tremendous storm of light swept toward the enemies and even the hidden intelligence operatives in the vicinity.
Rumble rumble rumble rumble—
Without the makeshift barrier device Hades had created, they too would have been caught in the great explosion's aftermath—the power was that immense.
Zeke, seeing a huge chunk of his spiritual power depleted from the single triple spell, pulled out previously collected blood tear stones from his inventory and absorbed them into the shadows.
He had discovered that absorbing blood tear stones restored spiritual power and prepared them in advance.
Seeing the wasteland utterly devastated by the great explosion, Zeke sent a telepathic message to Boris.
—Boris, now. Find the gap and infiltrate.
Receiving Zeke's order, Boris led his operatives through a pre-scouted entry route, slipping in stealthily.
Once they infiltrated and installed detonation devices at the central supports holding the underground labyrinth together, Zeke intended to enter, wipe out Narak, and collapse the entire place.
Confirming they had entered safely, Zeke turned to Shadia beside him.
"I'll enter through another route as well. Wait here, and eliminate any dark mages that appear immediately."
"Understood, my lord."
Zeke watched as Shadia concealed herself stealthily with the Salmak assassins, then activated his authority of spiritualization to slip into the dimensional boundary.
He probed the shaken boundaries of the underground labyrinth and burrowed downward.
Shooo—
Moments later, he emerged in a remote corner of the underground labyrinth.
Looking around, it appeared to be a warehouse storing unused, worn armor and weapons.
As he opened the warehouse door and stepped out, he saw several dark mages rushing through the corridor.
"Damn it! Spread the word! Emergency! Zeke Draker, that madman, is attacking!"
Zeke evaded the dark mages' notice and sought a path downward rather than up.
Given the structure of the blood tear stone factory, the true depths were likely connected by portals.
As he descended with that thought, Zeke sensed an extraordinary aura ahead. "This is?"
A familiar energy.
It was the aura of the fallen constellation, the harbinger of blood and madness.
The true name of the harbinger of blood and madness was "Werinom," a brutally savage demon without equal.
He was one of the most dangerous constellations, close to an archdemon, ruling the notoriously harsh Gehenna region of the demon realm.
But after Zeke attacked his main body and sealed a portion of his soul in the ring of Solomon, he had not appeared in the phenomenal world.
Feeling Werinom's aura here surprised Zeke.
"With this level of energy... does that mean Werinom's avatar is present?"
Zeke proceeded cautiously downward, tracking the source of Werinom's aura.
Beyond the wall lay a vast cavern, occupied by Narak's dark mages and what appeared to be Siemens knights.
Then, a sharp voice echoed from within.
"D-Damn it! He's broken free!"
"Run!"
At the same time, a colossal roar shook the entire cavern.
Rooooar!
Zeke observed from hiding as events unfolded in the cavern.
Dark mages and knights stood around a massive cage, from which Werinom's aura emanated strongly.
As he peered closer at the cage, one side crumpled completely, and a single arm—skin flayed, flesh exposed—burst forth.
Crunch crunch crunch!
The enormous arm, bulging with blue-tinged muscles, thrashed as if trying to escape outward.
A knight who failed to evade in time was seized by the massive arm.
"Argh!"
In an instant, the knight—whose lower body was gripped—was dragged into the cage.
Crunch crunch crunch!
A gruesome sound followed, along with the beast's wailing cry.
The dark mages hurriedly tried to reseal the cage, but the reemerging arm widened the gap further.
Rooooar!
As the breach grew, two more such arms protruded outward.
The dark mages retreated, shouting at the knights.
"B-Block that thing!"
They issued only the order to hold the line before fleeing in terror.
The dark mages bolted toward the door where Zeke hid, and he watched them scramble up the narrow stairs. Stealthily, he summoned shadows.
Shiiiing—
In a flash, the shadows sharpened into blades, swiftly severing the dark mages' necks. "Gurgle!"
The fleeing dark mages collapsed, foaming blood from their throats.
Zeke located the one who seemed highest-ranking among them and used Dragonʼs Wisdom to read his memories.
Shooo—
Moments later, having scanned the dark mage's memories, Zeke uncovered the identity of the entity in the cavern.
"Narak, you mad fools... You've tracked down Werinom's nail and sacred blood remnants left in the phenomenal world, proliferated them, and created an avatar directly?"
They had gone beyond summoning demons, attempting to craft an experimental subject capable of wielding a fallen constellation's power.
Narak's dark mages had conducted experiments transplanting replicated sacred blood and nails from Werinom into ancient variant magical beasts, enabling the use of his authorities.
The problem was that the experimental subject's power had grown beyond expectations, proving uncontrollable and forcing them to seal it away.
When Zeke assaulted the headquarters, they had released it to attack him, only for it to turn on them instead.
"An experimental subject capable of wielding Werinom's power. If they could control it, they might have produced beings surpassing high-rank demonkind indefinitely."
If Narak's research had progressed further, they could have even perfected methods to fully control experimental subjects replicating fallen constellations' powers.
Zeke felt an urgent need to collapse the labyrinth entirely and dismantle Narak as soon as possible.
Rooooar!
Now fully freed from the cage, the experimental subject wildly swung its arms at the knights before it.
Crunch! Snap! Snap!
The monster, now in the cavern's center, devoured the knights it had snatched with its massive hands.
Zeke slowly entered the cavern.
The muscular abomination had no skin, its flesh and sinews fully exposed.
Lacking intelligence, it was still not to be underestimated, possessing a demon's authorities.
As Zeke approached, the monster sensed his presence and turned its head.
Grrrrrr—
Its horrific form was flayed of skin, its mouth torn wide with jagged fangs protruding.
The monster pivoted toward Zeke, slowly raising its upper body.
Rooooar—
The experimental subject, roaring like a beast, advanced on Zeke.
It extended a hand forward, claws gleaming sharply.
Shiiiing—
The arm elongated abruptly, lunging to seize Zeke.
In that instant, a black shadow rose from the floor, severing the monster's extended arm.
Shiiiing—
The severed arm, spraying blue blood, arced into the air.