“Cough! Cough!” Death Hand climbed out of the water, apparently instead of being teleported to a location with a foothold, he was transported right over the body of water. Ending up falling into one of the lakes connected to the rivers was anything but expected.

His body was unharmed, but being soaked in water from head to toe was one unpleasant way to wake up.

“Eugh! What’s up with this water? Tastes like one of those beverages from inns…”

Death Hand ended up spitting out water from his mouth, luckily enough, he managed to close his mouth before he landed in water, so the amount of water that he ended up accidentally swallowing was bare minimum. Still, why did water here tasted and stung like alcoholic beverage?

Then, he felt something steaming. The heat was coming from the top of his head.

Feeling the hot sensation on his face, Death Hand quickly removed the mask perched on his forehead, revealing face of Shengyn underneath it. He proceeded to throw the mask on the ground and watched it slowly dissolve into nothing.

“Oh, great, now another mask is ruined. Why every mask I acquire ends up inevitably destroyed? Is this some kind of a curse, the one that makes me unable to keep wearing the same mask for too long?”

Apparently this mask was made from skin of lizard demon, so it naturally ended up dissolving after coming into contact with Holy Water.

Yet, to Death Hand, Holy Water was nothing to worry about.

“I suppose not every participant was that lucky” Shengyn muttered.

There were countless corpses of demons nearby, many of them were dead or were about to die due to the effects of Holy Water. For a pure demon, coming into contact with Holy Water was a swift way to die. Stronger demons could build up some resistance, but even they would be severely harmed. Holy Water’s potency as a poison to demon-kind has been known and taken advantage of by humanity for centuries.

According to Silver Sparrow, some locations within the Kalkan kingdom were battle-fields between human beings who invaded the Kalkan kingdom and demons defending their world.

Humanity was aided by gods, who used their power to turn many water sources into Holy Water, to their advantage.

This place must have been one of those battlefields. Even after hundreds of years, the Holy Water is still potent to this degree, says a lot about the power that gods wielded. Gods and Demon Lords fought each other fiercely, while there were many accounts of what happened to the Demon Lords, next to nothing was known of what happened to the gods that aided humanity in invading the world of demons.

Maybe they perished or retreated, none knew for certain.

Looking at the demons who managed to survive, Shengyn proceeded to crack his neck a little, brandishing his sword. His sword was an ordinary sword with a sharp edge, a weapon he took from a corpse of a fallen demon.

“Well, it looks like I can have some fun.”

Nothing could describe the amount of blood and screams that followed.

If anything comes close, it would be symphony of suffering and bloodshed.

* * *

“I told you that the next time we meet, we would be foes!”

A rather muscular man with ash gray hair spoke in a loud voice, his most distinguishing feature was his huge upper body. He wore chain-mail armor with no helmet. From his battle stance, it was obvious he was looking for a fight, in other words, he was clearly an enemy.

He did not seem to be carrying any weapons. No, from his appearance, it seems like he specializes in fighting bare-handed, a monk type, perhaps?

“And who are you supposed to be?” Death Hand asked with a bored tone of voice. His opponent was not a demon, nay, he seems to be human.

It seems like the Selection had attracted not only the natives of Kalkan but the residents of Alem, the human world, as well

“Less than two months was enough for you to forget all about me? Figures…I should have expected as much from a vile demon.”

The muscle-man now flexed his biceps and now glared at his enemy.

“My name is Long Siur. Remember it well, demon, because it is the last name you shall ever hear.”

“We will see about that.”

Long now proceeded to attack his enemy, his speed was not exactly remarkable, but at the moment Death Hand dodged his punch, Long’s attack landed on the ground, destroying the impacted area in the process.

Now there was a crater in the area he ended up hitting.

‘This guy, he is crazy strong.’

Shengyn calmly remarked. But having remarkable strength and being able to use it effectively are two different things.

“I will not let you get away!” Long attacked again, stomping on the ground, causing the ground to rupture.

Apparently the physical strength was not limited to his upper body.

As Death Hand jumped up to avoid the crack in the earth from swallowing him, Long jumped up as well, throwing a punch, aiming to crush his opponent mid-air.

But at the last moment, Shengyn disappeared, Long’s fist ended up hitting nothing as he ended up roughly landing on the ground.

Long sustained visible scratches from landing on his back, he proceeded to quickly stand up and prepare to fight back again, but his enemy was nowhere in sight.

“Well, while you are strong, it seems like you are far from invulnerable.”

As Long heard the voice of his enemy he turned behind, only to see Shengyn standing three meters away from him, casually standing there, waiting.

“How did you do that?” Long was obviously taken off guard by how fast Shengyn managed to disappear and reappear somewhere else. It seems like Long has no idea about Shengyn’s powers, that meant Shengyn held an enormous advantage.

“Please don’t ask stupid questions when you know that they will not be answered.”

Shengyn’s left eye was glowing white; he had activated his demon eye.

“KYAAAAH!”

Long clenched his fists and proceeded to charge again.

Shengyn blocked Long’s fist with his sword, the impact pushed both of them back.

“Interesting” Shengyn looked at his sword, it was obviously cracked, and more impacts like this and it will be broken in half altogether.

Long did not stop and attacked once again.

Yet, this time, instead of disappearing, Shengyn simply side-stepped Long’s attack and delivered two consecutive flying spin kicks upon Long’s head, which made Long loose his balance.

Shengyn did not stop there.

Before Long could drop to the ground, Shengyn proceeded to slash Long’s left leg with his cracked sword.

When Long tried to retaliate with a punch, Shengyn landed an upper cut on Long’s jaw area, sending Long flying up and landing on the ground.

Now with his leg damaged, Long was struggling to stand up, but mustering all the strength he had left in his body, Long put his hands together as he concentrated his energy within his body.

It was time to use his trump card.

The strongest technique he could currently use, the power to unleash the beast within his soul, the spiritual form, he had to use it now.

Crimson aura started to overflow out of Long’s body, taking on the shape of a gigantic avatar with the upper body of an ox.

Spiritual form-the power that only few have mastered is a power that allows one to unleash the beast within a person’s soul and manifest it as a battle avatar that protects the user and fights for him.

Anyone who possesses a complete soul possesses a form within their soul, in a sense a beast. With demons, their beast within is usually the type of demon they are, with some exceptions. For humans, beast within is rather random, but those who mastered them could unleash their spiritual form.

By mastering the beast within the soul, the user gains two powers, one is the common power of spiritual form, the capacity to manifest a battle avatar that coats, fights, and protects the user.

As for the other power, the beast within allows the user to manifest a single power that is unique to them and only them.

Long’s crimson spiritual form now manifested as a gigantic avatar, with the humanoid arms, upper body of an ox, the lower body was not manifested, the avatar manifested from the waist up, protecting Long’s body.

The battle avatar of the ox proceeded to roar as Long was making a desperate attempt to win the battle at any cost.

“I see, so you have mastered your inner beast, so that’s where your enormous power comes from, and you even mastered the art of spiritual form, you have my regards. Yet, do you really think this will change anything?”

The gigantic battle avatar now proceeded to attack; the enormous crimson arm proceeded to slam the ground Shengyn was standing on just a second ago.

“My, my, so impatient…. Did you know? While spiritual form is a very strong technique, it has a very huge risk.”

Shengyn now teleported away from another attack by the battle avatar, he landed on the ground behind Long.

Touching the ground, Shengyn proceeded to use earth magic in order to manifest earth spikes, which proceeded to pierce into Long’s spiritual form.

As his spiritual form received damage, Long gasped as he was bleeding out of his mouth.

That was the weakness of the spiritual form, any damage taken on the spiritual form is felt upon the body. If the spiritual form is destroyed, then the body will receive such enormous pain that the user might even die from it.

Spiritual form might be powerful, depending on the user, but it was also a technique that left the user extremely vulnerable as it increased the amount of area that could be attacked. In a sense, it was a double-edged sword.

“I am not done yet!”

Shengyn proceeded to use his earth magic to harden his sword, enhancing the cutting power of his sword several-fold. His sword was already damaged, but it should be good enough for several more enhanced swings.

With his brandished weapon, Shengyn now proceeded to cut Long’s spiritual form in half.

The sword now ended up being broken in half, with only half of the blade remaining attached to the hilt.

Long’s eyes turned inside out, the pain was too much to take, for a second that his mind blanked out, his spiritual form dispersed, leaving his damaged and drained body lying on the ground.

Now Shengyn walked up to Long, with his sword in hand.

“I don’t understand…How did you get so strong?”

“You don’t need to understand anything. The only thing you need to know that this is the end.”

Shengyn now plunged his broken sword into Long’s throat.

“Saaaaaabbbbbggggggggyyyyyyyynnnnnn” Long was now choking on his own blood, trying to unintelligibly call out his foe’s name.

After a full minute of struggling to breathe, Long finally succumbed to death, his death by far was not a pretty sight to see.

“Sorry, I couldn’t hear you. Dead people don’t talk. And living ones don’t listen.”

Shengyn now proceeded to cut off Long’s head, making sure that his enemy would not survive.

After all, master Morphus did warn him that if left to die, some enemies might come back for his head, so each death had to be made completely certain.

* * *

“Who are you?”

Three dragon type demons of Draco clan were unlucky enough to cross paths with a terrifying foe.

They saw that behind him were countless corpses, and with the way he was calmly walking forward, they were sure, he was the one responsible.

He had no horns on his head, his sword was broken, both his hands were bloody, in his left eye, he had his demon eye activated.

With the amount of corpses behind him, they could tell, he was strong.

They could feel that unless they fight together, they had no chance of beating him.

“It does not matter. All that matters is that you are my prey.”

“We will not let you!”

“Then come at me!”

Shengyn gleefully laughed as he charged forward. These demons are simply rodents that have stumbled into cat’s den.

For a man like him, who took pleasure in battling against his foes, this was nothing short of a parade. A parade of blood and violence, that is.

* * *

“Where is everyone?” Shaula looked around, raising her wings to fly upward. She was stranded in a strange, unfamiliar location, with none of her clan nearby.

“Akjan? Aijasyl? Orin? Ren?” She called out the names of her clan members, but none answered.

Then she saw bodies of countless demons floating above water, Shaula gasped. The bodies were quickly dissolving into nothing.

“Holy water.” She whispered. This place seems to be especially dangerous. If she touched that substance, she was sure, she would die.

“I must fly higher.” She flapped her wings to get a clearer view of what was going on, besides, staying right at that place, right next to the bodies of so many dead demons floating in water was very unnerving.

‘Where are my allies? Did they land safely? Did they perchance end up falling into the Holy Water?!’

Just imagining her best friend Akjan dead was enough for Shaula to clutch her fist on her chest.

‘No, she wouldn’t die so easily, if anything, out of all of us, she is most likely one to be safe.’

There were so many dead bodies, but they were not floating in water, they were on land.

As she flew, she ended up finding a trail of dead bodies.

‘To think demons would start killing each other as soon as they ended up on the trial grounds…did Altyn clan do this?’

She followed the trail of blood and scattered body parts, making sure to look around so that she would not get attacked by surprise.

‘Maybe my clan is somewhere nearby.’

After a few hours of unsuccessful search, Shaula’s six ears on her blue haired head picked up a noise.

It was a sound of battle.

Making sure not to be seen by the ones who were fighting, Shaula ended up seeing that it was a three on one fight.

Three dragon type demons were fighting against a single black haired person.

But somehow, the black haired man did not seem to be at a disadvantage, instead he was fighting them off efficiently and swiftly.

‘He is strong; I wonder who could that be?’

Shaula focused her eyes on the black haired man’s face, but what she saw made her jaw drop down from surprise.

“R-r-ren?”

She ended up hesitantly pronouncing the name of the de-facto leader of the Tengu clan. What she saw right now was the last thing she expected to see.

Karatengu Ren, the one she dismissed as a weakling, was fighting alone against three powerful demons, and he was winning.

She always thought of him as a weak fool, someone who relied purely on luck without any will, intellect, or strength to back him up.

But here he was, fighting against three demons at the same time seemingly without even struggling.

“He is a battle maniac!”

Draco clan demons had advantages such as tails and wings, but Ren was fighting them off relentlessly, he seemed to disappear and appear from different directions, striking them when they least expected it.

He was fast, faster than any of them, and in his hands, even the broken sword seemed to do its job just fine.

Draco clan demons were visibly struggling, Shaula could sense that their leader, the lady demon, was a bronze ranked, while the other two were iron ranked.

They were strong, in fact, by demon standards, aside from Demon Lords; they would be at the top. But they were no match for the crow demon fighting them.

“Amazing” that was all Shaula could say to describe the scene before her.

Dodging strikes from dragon type demons, he delivered a strong punch to one, jumped up to dodge a magically enhanced fire breath, and then landed a kick on the demon who cast the spell.

“He is strong, no, more than just strong, he is a prodigy!” Shaula couldn’t believe her eyes at what she was seeing, the demon she thought of as the weak link was fighting at a level befitting of a Demon Lord right before her eyes.

“Did the others see his true strength while I was so ignorant? I thought he made it this far merely by luck and chance, but to think….”

As Ren dodged an attack by one dragon type demon, he proceeded to land a devastating stab with his bare hand into dragon demon’s chest.

“That technique, crow’s claw!”

One of the advanced techniques of Karatengu clan, a user concentrates earth type mana upon a single part of their body in order to enhance the durability and hardness of the body part. If used right, the user’s entire body would become a weapon.

“He mastered this technique. I can’t believe it. Maybe he is Ymit’s son after all.”

She knew this technique quite well. It was the technique of Ymit Karatengu, Ren’s father. At night, when Ymit though everyone was asleep, he used to train by using this technique to harden his hands and strike trees and large rocks with them.

Masters of this technique are said to have diamond claws, able to pierce, shatter, and pulverize any obstacle that comes their way.

With his hand embedded into dragon demon’s chest, dragon demon struggled against Ren’s hand, stabbing into Ren’s hand with his sharp claws, but Ren simply proceeded to use his hardening on his other hand, and with a swift motion he beheaded the dragon type demon.

The other two demons now were visibly afraid, one was barely standing, the female one, the other one was supporting her with her arm across his back.

Knowing that they could not win, they opted to raise up their wings and fly away.

Watching them retreat, Ren just smirked, ignoring his right hand bleeding.

“Weaklings”

That was the only thing he said after fighting such powerful foes.

‘He fought three dragon type demons and defeated all of them, he even killed one. Is this what you truly are, Ren?’

But now, Shaula’s eyes caught sight of Ren’s bleeding hand.

“Young master! You are injured; please let me treat you…”

But she was stopped by a broken sword pointed at her throat.

His eyes were filled with murderous intent; Shaula thought that if she made a wrong move, she would die.

Maybe it was due to having fought many foes he would mistake her for an attacker as well?

“Young master, I am not your enemy. I am your ally. Please let me tend to your wounds.”

Now Ren’s battle-hardened expression changed, he lowered the broken sword slightly as he spoke.

“Silver Sparrow said nothing about outside aid. If she is not responsible then it must mean…did our master ask you to aid me?”

“Of course, he asked of me to aid you as far as it is within my capacity to do so.”

“In that case, pardon the rudeness. I did not expect to receive support; usually I take care of all tasks alone.”

‘He does it all alone? Does that mean all the things Ren has been doing were him fighting against all the enemies all by himself?’ Shaula was shuddered from the realization.

“Young master, please, I don’t know where the others are, but I am confident if we go together…”

“So you wish to come with me? Fine, if master says so. But don’t get in my way.”

“Uhm, young master, your hand, could I please examine it?”

“Go ahead.”

Ren extended his hand which Shaula took into her own.

‘Such powerful hand, the power, I can almost feel it, the boundless strength overflowing from within his body…How could I not notice before?’

Using the disinfectants, ointments, and bandages, she managed to treat his damaged right hand.

‘So the tomfoolery he puts up is merely a façade, huh? Is this him showing his true colors?’

Shaula couldn’t know that the one she thought of as ‘Ren’ was actually Shengyn, member of Divine Lords, and the man who killed the Demon King Akil Ras.