Chapter 46: The Massacre

Front. Back. Above. Below. Left. Right.

Every single possible evasion route, every physical escape vector, was flawlessly covered by lethal steel.

Then—

Kōya vanished.

The assassins’ red eyes widened in sheer panic as their daggers struck empty air, sparking against each other. "Where—?"

He had not used teleportation magic. He had simply moved at a velocity that completely bypassed their optical processing speed.

His body flashed through the confined room like a phantom.

One assassin turned frantically. Too late. Kōya was already standing directly behind his spine.

Another looked frantically upward toward the rafters. Too late. Kōya was already descending from above.

His physical power had risen dramatically. The perfect, impossible synergy of the ancient Hero’s Sword channeling his awakened Heroic Aura alongside the boundless, terrifying depths of his Demonic strength had elevated him entirely. Everything inside his physical vessel had fundamentally evolved.

These elite assassins were no longer fighting a talented human prodigy. They were fighting an apex predator far beyond their comprehension.

Kōya materialized directly in the dead center of their broken formation.

He planted his boots and spun his hips. The massive Hero’s Sword followed his flawless rotation perfectly.

A solid ring of blinding golden light formed a complete, unbroken circle in the air. A single, devastating 360-degree circular slash erupted from his core, expanding outward.

The six assassins were struck simultaneously.

Black blood exploded violently into the air like a macabre fountain. Their hardened bodies, armor, and cursed weapons were instantly pierced, shattered, and deeply lacerated by the holy light.

They staggered backward, shrieking in agony. The holy burns incapacitated them; none of the six could stand properly.

Kōya didn’t give them a single second to recover or breathe.

He dropped the sword and utilized pure demonic physical brutality. He stepped forward and executed a devastating front kick into the sternum of the nearest assassin. The demon’s ribs shattered, and it flew backward like a cannonball, entirely clearing the shattered doorway.

He pivoted, driving a reinforced, brutal punch directly into the skull of another. The demon crashed violently through the wooden wall, obliterating the timber before being launched out into the dark yard.

He grabbed a third by the throat, lifted it effortlessly with one arm, and hurled it through the window frame.

Another crushing kick. Another bone-shattering punch.

One after another, with methodical, terrifying efficiency, the six catastrophically wounded assassins were violently hurled from the interior of the house.

Kōya’s dark, suffocating demonic aura wreathed his arms and legs in violet-black fire. The kinetic force behind every single one of his movements was utterly monstrous, defying physics.

The broken assassins flew through the night air like artillery shells.

Outside, the remaining perimeter demons barely had time to process the slaughter.

One wounded, airborne Assassin Demon slammed violently into an unprepared perimeter guard.

BOOM!

Another mangled body collided directly with the center of the remaining formation. One of the grounded assassins was instantly crushed beneath the horrific, high-speed impact of its comrade.

The muddy courtyard erupted into absolute, panicked chaos.

Another flying assassin was struck mid-air by a wildly flailing body and collapsed into the dirt in a tangle of broken limbs. The surviving, terrified demons raised their weapons and began attacking the flying bodies purely on blind, panicked instinct.

One of the six wounded assassins flew on a direct trajectory toward the massive Orc General commanding the rear of the siege.

The General looked up, tracking the incoming projectile. With a roar, he raised his enormous, jagged weapon.

SLASH!

The Orc cleaved the flying Assassin Demon cleanly in two mid-air. The two severed halves of the body continued flying past him on pure momentum, smashing brutally into two thick silverwood trees directly behind the General.

CRASH!

The General slowly lowered his bloodied weapon, breathing heavily, staring at the destroyed house.

Absolute, terrified silence followed the barrage. The surviving demons tightened their grips on their weapons, staring at the shattered doorway.

Then, the remains of the front door were pushed aside.

Kōya stepped outside onto the porch.

He moved slowly. Deliberately. Perfectly calmly.

The pale moonlight fell heavily behind his shoulders, casting a long, terrifying shadow over the muddy yard. His clothes were still soaked and heavily stained from the rain and the morning’s desperate battles.

His left hand held the massive Hero’s Sword, resting the flat of the blade casually against his shoulder. A faint, pure golden radiance surrounded the steel, humming with dormant power.

But beneath that holy light, something significantly darker was rapidly returning to the surface.

His suffocating, violent demonic aura began to aggressively spread outward across the muddy ground, killing the grass beneath his boots.

The remaining demons stood paralyzed, staring at him. Five hulking Orc Demon Generals. Two elite Assassin Demons.

Kōya looked at them, his gaze slowly panning across their terrified ranks. Then, he looked down at the mangled, bleeding bodies scattered haphazardly around the ruined garden.

His dark eyes were devoid of all human warmth.

"You came here tonight to hunt me," Kōya stated, his voice carrying easily over the wind.

He took another slow, heavy step down into the mud.

"But you came to the wrong house."

The ancient Hero’s Sword flared with brilliant golden light. Simultaneously, Kōya’s violet-black demonic aura surged upward, twisting into the holy light like dark smoke.

"You have come to your deathbeds."

His eyes narrowed into terrifying, abyssal slits.

"You’ve awakened the Destruction Lord."

He raised the massive golden sword, pointing the tip directly at the commanding General.

"I am going to kill every last one of you."

The demons snapped. Driven by absolute, primal terror, they attacked.

One massive Orc General charged first, roaring to conquer its fear. It closed the distance in three massive strides and brought its enormous, iron sword crashing down in a devastating overhead strike aimed directly at Kōya’s skull.

Kōya casually raised the Hero’s Sword horizontally.

CLANG!

The kinetic impact was catastrophic. The muddy earth beneath Kōya’s boots cratered violently.

But Kōya himself did not move a single inch. He had effortlessly stopped the enormous, two-handed weapon with one hand.

The Orc General stared down at him, its jaw slacking in sheer, unadulterated disbelief.

Kōya looked directly up into the beast’s terrified eyes.

"You bastards didn’t see Hell today," Kōya whispered, his voice laced with venom.

His free right fist began glowing aggressively. Viscous, violent black flames crawled rapidly over his scarred knuckles. These were the highly condensed remnants of the same dark energy he had meticulously used to preserve his father’s ruined body.

Kōya smiled faintly, a terrifying, humorless expression.

"I was born in it."

BOOM!

He drove his right fist directly upward into the General’s armored chest. The localized dark explosion launched the massive Orc backward through the air like a discarded toy.

Kōya immediately flowed into his next movement. His left hand pulled the heavy Hero’s Sword back behind his shoulder. Blinding golden energy gathered violently along the edge.

He swung.

The massive crescent blade of holy light tore across the yard, effortlessly bisecting the flying General mid-air. The Orc collapsed into the mud in two burning pieces.

The remaining four Generals roared in fury and desperation. They opened their maws, and searing, unnatural fire erupted from their throats. At the same time, crackling red lightning filled the night sky as they channeled their dark arts.

Multiple, devastating high-tier spells flew toward Kōya simultaneously from every direction.

He moved.

A massive bolt of red lightning struck the exact patch of mud where he had stood a fraction of a second prior, turning the earth to glass.

Kōya leaped high into the air. A roaring fireball passed inches beneath his boots, incinerating the air.

He rotated his body flawlessly mid-air, spotting a secondary lightning spell tracking his trajectory. He swung the Hero’s Sword directly into the incoming magic.

Instead of safely absorbing the dark energy, the holy blade acted as a violent mirror. It forcefully redirected the volatile lightning, changing its trajectory entirely.

The redirected red lightning slammed brutally into one of the flanking Assassin Demons attempting to climb a tree. The demon screamed in agony as its nervous system was flash-fried, dropping dead into the brush.

Kōya landed smoothly in the mud.

Another heavily armored Orc General charged him from the blind side. Kōya didn’t block; he ducked smoothly beneath the sweeping horizontal arc of the enormous weapon. He stepped aggressively into the beast’s guard and drove his shoulder brutally into the General’s chest plate.

The massive Orc staggered backward, its balance broken.

Kōya pivoted on his heel. A blinding flash of golden light illuminated the yard. The heavy sword cut effortlessly through the General’s thick side, severing its spine in a single, flawless motion.

A third General roared, unleashing a sustained torrent of dark flames from its maw.

Kōya vaulted directly over the inferno, the heat singeing his clothes. He landed perfectly behind the massive beast. His right fist instantly ignited with roaring black fire.

He punched the General squarely in the back. The dark kinetic blast sent the massive beast flying face-first into the mud. Kōya followed his own strike seamlessly. The Hero’s Sword flashed downward in a golden arc, severing the General’s head before it could stand.

The two remaining Assassin Demons, realizing direct combat was suicide, attempted a desperate, synchronized pincer attack from opposite sides.

Kōya didn’t even look at them. He simply turned his torso.

He parried the first assassin’s plunging dagger perfectly with the flat of his heavy sword. As the second assassin struck at his exposed back, Kōya violently twisted his body, driving his elbow backward directly into the demon’s jaw, shattering the bone.

Without missing a beat, he caught the stunned demon’s wrist, pivoted, and hurled its body directly into the path of an incoming lightning spell cast by the final Orc General.

The assassin disappeared in a blinding explosion of red magic and gore.

The final Orc General and the last bleeding assassin attacked together in a final, desperate frenzy of fire, lightning, and cursed steel.

Kōya moved through their desperate assault like water. Every single frantic attack missed by a fraction of an inch. Every minor opening in their guard was brutally, lethally punished.

The Orc General fell first, its chest caved in by the flat of the Hero’s Sword.

The final Assassin Demon dropped its weapons, turned, and tried frantically to flee into the dark tree line.

Kōya slowly turned his head. His dark eyes flashed with violet light. He disappeared.

The terrified demon barely had time to look over its shoulder.

Kōya materialized directly in its path. The heavy Hero’s Sword passed cleanly through the creature’s torso without a sound.

The Assassin Demon collapsed into the wet grass, dead before it hit the ground.