Argos was pushed to his absolute limit, forced to dodge a relentless barrage of attacks. Despite its massive frame, Brutal moved with unnatural speed, each swing of its arm carrying enough force to make the earth shudder beneath their feet.
Argos's breath came in ragged, desperate gasps. Age was finally catching up to him. Sweat poured down his face, and his legs felt like lead. He was forced to pause for a microsecond to catch his breath—a microsecond that nearly cost him his life.
"Dammit... the pressure is suffocating."
Brutal gave him no quarter. Gritting his teeth, Argos leaped backward to create distance and, in a sudden blur of motion, hurled his longsword straight at the monster's head.
[SFX: THWACK!]
The blade buried itself deep into the demon's eye.
Brutal let out a blood-curdling shriek of agony. It wrenched the sword from its socket, black ichor spraying across the grass. Argos watched, his expression darkening with grim resolve.
"Just as I thought."
Infuriated, Brutal slammed the sword into the dirt, crushing the steel into a thousand fragments. But in that exact moment, Argos's body erupted in light.
The Essence had returned.
The brilliant aura enveloped him as the silver watch on his wrist ticked down relentlessly—25 seconds.
"I have to end this in 25 seconds..."
Argos clenched his fists. The air behind him vibrated violently as dozens of ethereal light-blades manifested, hovering in a lethal, shimmering halo.
"Ares's ability... it really is a cheat code."
The blades launched like a storm of falling stars. Brutal roared and tried to guard its face, but the sheer force of the impact drove it back until its spine slammed into the cliffside. Dust and debris choked the air as the mountain itself began to fracture.
Seizing the opening, Argos spun around and sprinted toward Lio. Lio reached out, grabbing the Commander's hand.
The yellow gemstone on Argos's forehead flared with a blinding radiance, wrapping Argos, Lio, and the unconscious Shinji in a cocoon of light. The space around them began to warp—the teleportation back to Heavenfield had been triggered.
At the edge of the clearing, Brutal swatted away the last of the light-blades. It was barely scratched, its fury now a burning inferno. It roared, preparing to lunge at the vanishing trio.
The light grew blinding. Their bodies began to fade.
Then—Shinji moved.
A second ago, he was a corpse. Now, his eyes snapped open. He stomped his foot into the earth, using every remaining ounce of strength to violently shove Lio and Argos away.
Before they could react, the light consumed them. Argos and Lio vanished into the void.
Shinji was left behind.
The Najarin Forest fell into a deathly silence. Ahead of him stood Brutal, trembling with rage, as lesser demons began to crawl back from the shadows.
But something was... wrong.
Shinji stood up. Slowly.
The catastrophic wounds on his body were closing at a supernatural speed. His shattered ribs snapped back into place. His left arm gave a sickening CRACK as the bones realigned, as if they had never been broken.
Shinji stood tall.
A layer of dark, crimson flesh began to creep over his skin, crawling up his neck and covering half of his face like a living mask.
Then, his right eye—the one that had always remained closed—opened.
It wasn't human. The iris was a burning, malevolent red, with a vertical slit pupil like that of a prehistoric predator. Even Brutal froze, its primal instincts screaming of a predator far higher on the food chain. It took a slow step back, hesitation flickering in its eyes for the first time.
Shinji... was no longer Shinji.
A gravelly, ancient voice emerged from his throat—cold, hollow, and utterly alien.
"It's been a long time... since I've had a chance to move."
The low-level demons immediately lost their minds. They shrieked in terror and fled into the darkness, leaving only Brutal to stand its ground, let out a desperate roar against something far more terrifying than a High-Level Demon.
HEAVENFIELD
Argos and Lio tumbled onto the cold floor of the transport hub. Lio sprawled onto the ground, his mind struggling to process the fact that they were safe—and that Shinji was gone.
Argos didn't waste a heartbeat. Every instinct told him the world was about to break. He sprinted through the corridors, heading straight for the highest office in the city.
The watch on his wrist hit 0.
"Dammit... my borrowed power is gone."
Argos kicked the doors to the Supreme Command chamber open.
Inside, amidst a garden of hanging flowers and lush greenery, Odin—the ultimate authority of Heavenfield—sat peacefully sipping tea, gazing out over the sprawling city below.
He glanced sideways, unfazed by the intrusion.
"Don't kick the door like that, old friend. It's bad for the hinges