Only after seeing his wife's injury did Ras finally blame his own peaceful, complacent self, and after confirming his wife was alive, unlike the mere shell he had been using until now, he used the 'Heart' he had employed to rend space, wrapping himself in about eight layers of a barrier
as he charged at the Cult Leader, manifesting not just the shell but also the full content of his Bloom E.G.O, engulfing his entire body in a dark crimson flame that seemed ready to devour everything.
He charged at the Cult Leader clad in the armor of the Mad Dog.
Watching this, the Cult Leader swung his arm to strike Ras, trying to stop his charge, but....
- Schk!!!
Something was wrong...
- Schkkkk!!!!!
The sensation that should have been felt from his arm wasn't there. All he felt was the sensation of flesh being sliced and his arm itself being severed, accompanied only by a horrifying pain...
And what met his eyes when he faced reality was....
His own arm, already in pieces, looking as if it had been savagely torn and hacked off, its cross-section appearing roughly severed.
And what came into his field of vision again was...
Ras and the 3rd Family Head. The Cult Leader activated his Ether to heal all his wounds and prepared to fight the two, but all he saw was....
- Schkkk!! Schkkk-kk!! Schk!!!!!
Thanks to their swift swordsmanship and skillful techniques, he was being sliced apart and severed once more. All he saw were his arms being dismembered and the two approaching figures he thought of as (Executioners), Ras and the 3rd Family Head.
Witnessing this, the Cult Leader, as if in denial of his own terror, kept healing and launching attacks at Ras and the 3rd Family Head, but what returned was.....
- All-Slayer!!! Hunt the enemy!!!
- Swoosh!!!!!!
Only the merciless slashes of Ras and the 3rd Family Head. And even if he barely blocked a slash, the two attacking him were like a blender or a shredder, merely grinding and shattering everything of the Cult Leader.
But the Cult Leader, relying on a seemingly inexhaustible recovery from an unknown source and his gradually increasing defense, tried to stand in an advantageous position to kill and eliminate Ras and the 3rd Family Head, yet...
- All-Slayer!! Massacre and hunt the enemy!!!
- Click!!! Whirrrr!!!
The Cult Leader couldn't handle Ras's All-Slayer, which ignored all defense and concepts,
nor could he handle the thousands of sword strikes following the 3rd Family Head's Iaijutsu. Amidst the pain of his body being ground and shattered, the Cult Leader was desperately trying to find a way to survive and escape in disgrace, but...
- Crunch!!!!
A sudden, tremendous pain shot through his solar plexus...
- Keeeiiiiing!!!!!!
The prosthetic arm [Glare Buster] that Ras had implanted in his severed limb in the past was embedded in the Cult Leader's solar plexus, letting out an ominous hum...
- Kigiiiiing!!! Tick!!!!
With a 'Tick' sound, the device equipped on the prosthetic ignited and
- Boooom!!!!!
It caused a massive explosion right within the Cult Leader's body, blowing away half of his upper torso completely.
After delivering such a powerful attack, Ras reloaded his arm.
- Drrrruk!! Chk-clank!!
At that moment, [Glare Buster] was ready to unleash the same high-powered force and destructive power, and just as he was about to fire it again,
- Ta-da-dak!!
The 3rd Family Head stepped forward, pointed his sword at the Cult Leader's body, then sheathed the blade he had seen before, a Yōdō, and soon after,
he unleashed a space-rending slash towards the fleeing Cult Leader. The Cult Leader who was struck by that slash...
- Keuheooook!!!!!!
Was split in half and died just like that. But the Cult Leader, no longer human, tried to escape with his severed body, but
- All-Slayer Extinction!!!
Ras shouted at such a Cult Leader, having enlarged the All-Slayer into a sword over 100 meters in size, its re-establishment complete.
- {[ This is to kill you!!! Endure it!!! ]}
Immediately after, the sword over 100 meters long sliced and cleaved the Cult Leader once more, killing him, and while everyone was cheering at the death of the Praise Assembly's Cult Leader, Ras alone hurriedly ran to where his wife, Ares, was.
-
-
-
Ras ran. He ran quickly towards where his wife was, and from afar, through his senses, he felt that fortunately, she was not dead. Ras was relieved that his wife was at least alive, and
approached Ares, but the closer he got, the more he felt something was wrong. Hurrying to Ares's side, what Ras saw was.... quite serious....
Clearly, the Ether crystals that had been forming on his wife's body had disappeared, but the crystal on her head remained, not disappearing, and continued to stay.
Seeing this, Ras asked a medical officer belonging to the Defense Corps what had happened, and the answer that came back was something he didn't want to hear or believe...
Ares's body was currently in a vegetative state with a time limit, and she was gradually losing consciousness. Her consciousness could occasionally return, but even that lasted less than a few seconds.
Hearing this, Ras weakly fell to his knees and began to sink into despair. His Bloom E.G.O. began to twist and distort, but....
- Pat...
Someone gently held Ras's face and stroked it, and the one who stroked Ras's face, filled with comfort, was...
- Ras.....I'm...okay.....Ehehe...
Ares, who from within her fading spirit had somehow managed to rise to comfort Ras, saying she was okay.
- Ras...I'm okay...so...please stay...the Ras...I know... .....I don't like scary things...Ras....
Before losing consciousness, Ares pleaded with Ras not to turn into a monster, and with her last bit of strength, she spoke to Ras...
- Ras....I love you.....
Immediately after, Ares's hand fell limp as she lost consciousness.
And Ras, who witnessed this scene before his eyes, was engulfed in the pain of loss. In that moment, memorizing all the pain and anger he felt, Ras ruminated on this rage and hatred.
He did not become a monster, honoring what might be his wife's final request, but he directed all these emotions towards the Praise Assembly and the Syndicate. From then on, Ras was called Rage and became known as the Destroyer of Syndicates. Afterwards, Ras, driven solely by his anger and hatred towards the Syndicate and Praise Assembly, annihilated hundreds of Syndicates. Even after the Cult Leader fell, he indiscriminately destroyed the still-active Praise Assembly wherever he found it, becoming the nightmare and calamity of the Praise Assembly.
Together with the Marcel Group's Chief Executioner, 'The One Who Brings the Sun', he eliminated the hovering Hive Road Syndicate in the sky. Along with the Wand Corps' Bike Colonel, Commander Dang Jung-ryeong, and the Falkenheim Mercenary Corps Leader, he pushed back the Black Wall.
After that, seeking a cure for his wife or anything related to Ether, he worked with Professor Arche to uncover things and passed through the Divine Labyrinth with Zoyers.
Vowing to cure his wife, he traveled everywhere, and since then, he achieved numerous feats, but not a single one provided a means to cure his wife's condition....
And now, Ras, without fail, went to the hospital room where Ares was every day, holding his wife's hand, wishing for a miracle. Until now, thanks to the immortality bestowed by her husband, his wife, despite her terminal state, somehow resisted erosion and continued her life, but even that was gradually reaching its limit.
Ras had no one to blame for the fact that what was given to Ares was immortality, but he blamed himself nonetheless, yet the situation remained unchanged.
And when only a few days remained until her final moments, Ras made an extreme choice:
through suicide, severing his own immortal life, he would go with Ares.
With a heart grown desolate, he resolved that when his wife died, he would die beside her corpse under the moonlight.
Three days remained until her final moments arrived.
Ras, as always that day, cared for Ares, imprinting his wife's image in his eyes, and holding her hand, he could barely fall asleep.
That night, within the dark hospital room where everyone slept and moonlight lingered, someone entered who would perform a miracle.