The figure suspended at the heart of the storm was not especially tall. He was young enough that, from behind, he almost looked lean.
Yet to every soldier of Antares Command, that silhouette now towered higher than any mountain.
Once a person became powerful enough to overturn common sense, there was little left for those watching except blind, fervent worship.
"This is what a Frontier Marshal should look like..."
"Brothers!"
Alar shot a stray Carrion Wolf through the throat and roared until his voice cracked.
"Move too slowly and there will be nothing left to kill!"
"Kill!"
Thousands of battle cries merged into a single wave, meeting the edge of the Beast Tide head on.
At the very front, Joren stood like a reef in a black sea. Thunder raced behind him, cutting the main body of the horde in two.
The lower rank Voidbeasts that slipped past the lightning thought they had found easier prey.
Instead, they charged straight into a grinder made from thousands of human soldiers with bloodshot eyes.
Flesh burst across the ground.
Then three terrifying presences locked onto Joren at once.
High above, the Golden Dragon Falcon circled beneath the clouds. Its dark golden pupils narrowed to needle points.
It did not want to admit it.
But when the power inside that human youth erupted, something in its body had trembled.
The feeling was horribly familiar.
A predator had found it.
"We cannot keep watching."
The Abyssal Blackscale Python flicked its tongue.
"This brat is growing too quickly."
"If he survives today, our heads will be hanging from his belt within a month."
The Shadow Fiend shifted in and out of the darkness.
"Then kill him."
"This is our best chance."
"The three of us together can force even Kyo to retreat. What can this child do?"
The decision was made.
No warnings.
No challenge.
They attacked from ambush.
The sky split apart.
The Golden Dragon Falcon struck first.
There was no probing attack. Its opening move was meant to kill.
Its wings snapped outward, releasing a storm of dark golden feathers.
These were no ordinary feathers.
Sharp force flowed through every one of them. Driven past the speed of sound, they became thousands of explosive armor piercing rounds.
Enough to shave a small city flat in an instant.
At the same time, the ground burst open.
The Abyssal Blackscale Python did not charge. It opened its jaws and exhaled.
A flood of dark green poison poured out, but instead of spreading, the mist condensed into a solid dragon of venom.
It twisted over the ground and sealed every route beneath Joren.
Concrete dissolved into boiling black sludge wherever it passed.
Even that was not the deadliest threat.
The true killing blow came from the shadows.
The Shadow Fiend vanished.
No trace of its presence remained. Not even the dust on the battlefield stirred.
The perfect assassin.
At that moment, it hid inside Joren’s own shadow, its reaperlike blade raised toward the center of his back.
A rain of blades above.
A poison dragon below.
Death waiting behind him.
The three beast kings had fought together for years. Their timing left no opening at all.
Even a Half Step Rank Six expert would have been forced into a desperate defense.
Joren tightened his hand around the hilt of his blade.
"Compared with Kyo..."
His voice carried clearly through the thunder.
"Is this really all you think of me?"
Violet light appeared in his eyes.
[Divine Mammoth Might].
[Ruinous Radiant Thunder].
Endless violet plasma erupted from every pore of his body and expanded into a sphere of lightning a hundred meters wide.
The dark golden feathers entered the field.
Then vanished.
Crackle!
A dense chain of explosions filled the air.
Every feather melted into liquid metal and evaporated.
Joren raised his right hand, palm facing down.
"Fall."
One word.
A column of violet lightning as thick as a water tank crashed from the sky.
It struck the poison dragon squarely on the head.
There was no struggle.
The venom that could have killed an entire city hissed beneath the pure destructive force of the thunder and broke apart.
Joren slowly lifted his gaze toward the Golden Dragon Falcon.
The indifference in his eyes carried open contempt.
It cut directly into the beast king’s pride.
"Die!"
The Golden Dragon Falcon folded its wings and became a streak of gold.
It crashed toward Joren at supersonic speed.
A direct collision.
It trusted its body completely.
As a metal aligned Voidbeast, its feathers were ten times harder than the strongest alloy. At full speed, it could shatter a mountain.
"Good."
Joren moved forward instead of retreating.
He pulled [Heaven’s Sin] from his back.
The black heavy blade swallowed the surrounding lightning, radiating a weight that seemed to press down on the entire sky.
Muscle rose across both arms. Even the nano armor around him creaked beneath the strain.
No elaborate Bladecraft.
No complicated technique.
He simply swung.
As though hurling an entire mountain into the golden streak.
Clang!
The impact shattered the clouds for a hundred miles.
A visible ring of force exploded outward and erased everything within a thousand meters.
Ruined buildings, broken pavement, loose stone, all of it became powder beneath the Shockwave.
Then came a piercing cry.
The golden streak was smashed backward.
The Golden Dragon Falcon tumbled through the sky more than a dozen times, dark golden feathers scattering everywhere.
A deep dent had been carved into its chest, exposing bone beneath.
The body it had always believed unbreakable had folded before Joren’s blade like a crushed metal can.
"How is that possible?"
The Golden Dragon Falcon steadied itself, and fear finally appeared in its eyes.
That was pure physical strength.
More monstrous than even Rank Five beast kings famed for raw power.
Voidbeasts had always dominated humans in body and blood.
Yet Joren’s flesh was stronger than its own.
He did not pursue.
Because the death hiding in his shadow moved at the exact moment his swing ended.
The Shadow Fiend seized the narrow gap between one burst of power and the next.
A black sickle slipped through the lightning around Joren and cut toward the back of his neck without a sound.
Fast.
Precise.
Poisonous beyond measure.
The blade was almost touching his skin.
A cruel smile formed inside the black mist.
One scratch would be enough.
Its poison attacked the soul. The slightest wound would reduce this genius to an empty shell.
Then the sickle passed through nothing.
There was no resistance.
Joren’s body had become unreal an instant before contact.
Not an afterimage.
He had left this dimension.
[Voidshadow Execution].
[Void Walk].
The Shadow Fiend’s pupils contracted violently.
That power belonged to its race.
How could a human possess it?
Before the thought finished, cold settled above its head.
Joren appeared from empty air, one foot resting lightly against the top of the Shadow Fiend.
He looked down, mockery at the corner of his mouth.
Crack!
An ice blue ring burst outward beneath his foot.
[Glacial Boneplate].
[Winter’s Burial].
[Absolute Zero Field] activated at once.
The Shadow Fiend’s body should have been as intangible as smoke.
Under the extreme cold, it froze into solid form.
Black ice raced across it, sealing every part of its body in place.
"Damn it! Save me!"
The Shadow Fiend screamed.
Death was here.
This human could suppress beast kings with brute force.
He wielded thunder, the void, and extreme cold in one body.
On the ground, the Abyssal Blackscale Python had been preparing another ambush.
It stopped.
One exchange.
The ruler of the skies had been smashed away with a single blow.
The assassin of shadows had been frozen in place.
What was there left to fight?
Joren stood atop the imprisoned Shadow Fiend and slowly raised [Heaven’s Sin].
The point of the heavy blade turned toward the giant python that had not yet dared to move.