“Hey! Isn’t she the girl the Demon Emperor’s been asking all warriors to look for?”

“Yeah! She’s definitely the one alright.”

“Poor girl. So, young and already a bounty on her head.”

“Don’t say that! Remember the others? They somehow got killed by her!”

“You’re right. This girl isn’t a girl! She’s a monster!”

“Whatever! Let’s just take her over and get our reward!”

They were speaking indifferently as if the young child was nothing more than a tool used for earning their reward. It was a sad treatment to show to someone that was from the same clan as them. Ash stood whilst being surrounded by them with her eyes cast down with a lifeless look in them as she had completely given up hope of survival.

Having lost her family and any chance of survival, she fell into despair and accepted her fate of being killed. Even so, she refused to go quietly and stood there with a clear intention of denying their intention to take her away. Noticing this, they kicked her in the chin and caused her to fall over before groaning and clutching the area she got kicked at.

“Worthless worm! Come on!” the man that kicked her shouted with an angry look on his face.

He knelt down and stretched his hand out as if he was going to force her upright, but instead grabbed a bunch of her hair before pulling her up. Feeling intense pain from her pulled hair, Ash began wailing only to be beaten twice on the face that caused intense bleeding to form around her nose, which seemed to have been broken.

“Atrocity…!” Sevedant muttered after silently witnessing the brutal treatment towards her. Gripping his sword firmly in his hand, his red eyes glinted through the mask as he muttered, “Death…!”

Quietly, moving forward as if he was gliding over the ground, he reached the spot Ash was at and swung his sword at her assailant. In a split second, the man’s face split in half and blood began spilling everywhere as his entire body collapsed on itself. This caused for a moment of silence as his comrades stared at his dead body with shocked expressions on their faces.

“No!”

“What happened?!”

In the midst of the confusion, Sevedant turned towards the girl that looked up at him with a bewildered look on her face. Her eyes still had no life in them, but she still registered surprise at the scene of her attacker seemingly killed out of nowhere. Sevedant, who noticed this, inwardly sighed in relief as he recognised that she had not fallen into total despair.

“You… will be… fine…” he said slowly, speaking in the Demon Language in as much of a soothing voice as he could muster, which further surprised the girl.

“Dammit! Where the hell did that guy come from?!”

Sevedant straightened up and turned to see the group readying their weapons in order to attack him. While they did that, he felt a tug at his cloak and glancing downward, he saw the girl gripping his cloak with her small hands while trying her best to hide behind him.

“Kill… them…” the girl said finally, speaking in a small voice that was both cute and shaky due to the fear. “They… killed… mommy… daddy… They… die… must… die… must…”

Tears appeared in her eyes and steadily streamed down her face as she further tightened her grip on his cloak. While Sevedant remained silent, the group heard her muttering and became enraged.

“Stupid maggot! Blame yourself for being blacklisted by the Demon Emperor! Your parents were just weak and got killed by us, but then you go and kill our friends! We will kill you and this man if you don’t come out of hiding this instance!”

At this violent demand, Ash further shrunk back into Sevedant’s cloak and shook her head vehemently. She had a clear inclining of her fate once she allows herself to be taken away, so she found it comforting to put her faith in the black cloaked stranger that seemed to come to her rescue. It was a strange feeling of comfort she had felt only once, which was when she was under the protection of her parents.

The Death Titan turned his head towards them and in an emotionless voice that was filled with black coldness that could ice water, said, “All of you. Perish.”

In the next instance, his sword glowed with black light, and he swung it in their direction. In an instant, several black slicing waves of energy got unleashed and they instantly minced the enemies into pieces. There was no time to react because the attacks were moving so fast and thus, they were reduced to small meat fragments that fell on the ground with blood polling everywhere.

While the young girl gasped in shock at the massacre, Sevedant indifferently glanced down at her and asked, “Will you come with me?”

He knew she was the Demon Titan without a doubt now that his enemies so conveniently told him everything he had to hear, which was about the Demon Emperor blacklisted her and wanted her captured at any cost. Since she was the only one that had a bounty on her head at that time, it solidifying his belief and so, he extended his skeleton hand down to the young girl as if he was offering her salvation. The girl hesitated for a moment, looking at the bloody scene, before tentatively raising her small hand and touching his.

Thus, their paths crossed and they left together and throughout their journey, she was trained strictly under his watch until ten years passed, and he eventually decided to leave the Demon World to return to his home world.

***

The Testament of Loneliness discharged an extreme level of lightning that struck Sevedant, who was down on the floor and writhed in agony while being affected by the Heart Fall spell. It was the first time in his life where he no longer had any control over his feelings as they burst out from their cage to reveal the pain he was feeling from the magnitude of the attacks.

“You’re a liar!” the Testament of Loneliness shouted down at his writhing enemy. “You’re not a loner! You have something worth protecting, someone to care for and possess the unforgivable feeling of wanting to be with them!”

While writhing in agony and suffering from the pain of the Heart Fall, Sevedant glanced up at his enemy and cried out, “W-What?!”

“Something worth protecting? Someone I care about? The feeling of wanting to be with them? What does he mean?”

He kept asking the questions to himself multiple times, repeatedly trying to find an answer to them. In all of his lifetime, Sevedant only ever thought of protecting, caring about and wanting to be with his parents, but they were dead and could not be returned. So, the questions left him feeling blank and confused until an image of a young girl so many years that had grown up to become a teenager in the present year.

“Ash…” he thought quietly.

It had to be her because he could not think of anyone else that he cared about at present. He did indeed like and respect Lakshman and wanted to help him, but it was not to the point that he would die for him or anything. It was a simply feeling mutual trust and friendship, however, it was completely different with the Demon Titan. Over the years, spending time with her and seeing the young girl growing to become an energetic teenager, he was filled with a strange feeling he had never felt before.

He did not know it yet, but the feeling he felt was similar to that of a father caring deeply for his child. While Sevedant, himself, did not understand it entirely, he did recognise those feelings he had for the person whom he believed to be his adopted daughter. He was always concerned for her health, safety and welfare that he taught her many strong magic spells to kill if the need arose without remorse.

“I see now… I finally understand… All this time, I thought I was a loner, but in reality, I stopped being one the moment I accepted her into my life. That child, no—my daughter… I want to see her smile, I want to see her laugh, I want to see her marry, I want to see her have children and finally I want to see her become a great woman, a splendid wife and a caring mother, far away from all of this violence! Yes…! I want to see it happen!”

A solid form of determination filled Sevedant’s mind and it made him decide on his next course of action. At the same time, he recognised the other members of the Nine Pillars of Power were more than comrades; they were like a family to him. They are participating in this battle to protect what they care about, just like him. As such, this puts them on an even footing and perfectly makes them a family that’s fighting for their ideals.

While writhing in pain, he gritted his skeleton teeth tightly and spoke from behind the mask, “You’re right… I… I was fooling myself…! I didn’t realise…! I am no longer… alone…! I…. My family… is here… fighting like me! UUURRRRAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!!”

Screaming with great intensity, he began to surge with power while radiating a dark aura that surrounded him. He held his hand out and instantly summoned his sword, which quickly transformed into his Death Scythe weapon that stood upright. Grabbing it with his skeleton hand, Sevedant began pushing himself up while grimacing sharply as he fought the spell that’s affecting him from within and the lightning that made him feel like his bones were going numb.

Seeing his enemy trying to rise off the ground, the Testament of Loneliness narrowed his eyes in hatred and said, “Fine! Die here with the rest of your pathetic family!”

While continuing to use the Thunder Down magic spell, he aimed his right hand at Sevedant while holding it firmly with his other hand before shouting, “Death Wiper!”

In an instant, an immense power was unleashed before an enormous energy formed in the palm of his hand before a massive black wave of destruction was fired. The wave soared forward and seemingly consumed the Death Titan into it before continuing on its way towards the other side of the room. Smashing forcefully against the wall, it shook the entire room and caused great cracks to appear all around the tower.

A great explosion occurred at the point of impact, making the room shake violently and spread smoke everywhere. Several seconds later, the smoke slowly dissipated and returned the view to normal, which allowed the Testament of Loneliness to observe the room. He spotted the Death Titan lying on the ground with his face down as small cracks of what appeared to be pieces of a mask lay everywhere.

To his surprise, he saw Sevedant begin to push himself up once more with great difficult while groaning. The pain that the Death Titan felt was immense because the earlier attack would have destroyed him if it were not for him using his Death Scythe as a shield to reduce the damage significantly. Even so, it hurt him, but despite the pain, he pushed himself up and managed to stand while using his weapon as support with both of his skeleton placed around it.

“I… will not lose…! I… will not… fail…! I... will… survive!!!!” Sevedant screamed with firm determination.

His yelling caused him to suddenly surge with violently power that shook the entire tower and made the Testament of Loneliness stagger backwards in shock. The black aura began to split and form around him like a ball, causing Sevedant to stare at his enemy with his skeleton face as his mask was destroyed in the blast earlier.

“Feel the wrath of the deadly power of the unsealed Death Titan!” Sevedant said fiercely, his red eyes glinting dangerously. Taking a deep breath, he yelled, “Death by Destruction!”

He soon began to scream and as he did, the radiating black aura suddenly surrounded him and took the form of a black sphere. It began growing larger and larger at an incredible speed. Soon, it was so large that it cast a shadow over the Testament of Loneliness, who tilted his head high up with his mouth gaping open in shock.

“What the?!” he exclaimed before the mass of black energy covered him in an instant before he could react.

As soon as the black sphere touched the walls of the tower, it began to flash violently before an enormous wave of black energy was release everywhere. The wave flooded the entire tower and soon began to push outward with great intensity as the magnitude of its power was immense.

Soon, cracks spread everywhere and almost a moment later, the entire tower exploded and the released black energy rocketed high into the sky. The clouds got parted by it as the power soaring into unseen heights, causing the nearby fighting armies of Vampires and Werewolves and Demons to freeze and turn towards it. The power lit up the entire area, which was alarming for such an amount of energy to be unleashed, which scared many of the demons.

The Vampires and Werewolves sensed that it belonged to one of the Nine Pillars of Power, specifically the Death Titan, which further encouraged them. As such, the Vampires activated their vision to paralyse their victims and drain them off their blood while others used magic to attack on as the Werewolves mowed the enemies down with brute force.

“For the sake of our world! We shall not be defeated!” the combined forces of Vampires and Werewolves yelled as the battle raged on and only intensified.

At the location where the tower had exploded, the black wave slowly thinned as a great billowing smoke spread in all directions. As it slowly disappeared, the vision revealed the rubble remains of the tower that was destroyed by the immense power of death. A few seconds later, from out of the rubble, a hand pushed out before it pulled with great strength the body of its owner out into the open, who was the Testament of Loneliness, Ezhno.

“W-What the heck…?!” he exclaimed, sporting bruises and cuts on his body while he looked around at his surroundings. “I’m outside…? Wait… Doesn’t that mean… the tower…? Yes…! It’s gone!” he finally whispering, realising the significance of finding himself outside.

At that moment, he heard an unfamiliar voice from the other side that said, “This is the result of awakening my full powers, fool.”

Ezhno turned to face in the direction the voice came from, which was covered in smoke, but it slowly cleared to reveal someone he had not met before.

This person wore a full plated armour that covered his entire body which had an emblem of a skeleton on his chest. His face, which could be seen under the helmet on his head, was that of a human with blonde hair that covered one side of his face while a red cape, attached to his armour, flowed behind him, but the pressure coming from him made it clear who he was.

“Now you see this form, your death is guaranteed, oh loner of disaster!” Sevedant said, narrowing his dashing eyes with his handsome face making a serious face as he stared at his enemy before surging with power that radiated dark aura that surrounded him while, at the same time, black lightning burst around him randomly to emphasise the immense power he possessed in his current form.