After cutting across the continent with his army, several flawless white structures in the middle of a wasteland entered Ryzel’s sights. He had finally made it to Galvane. He knew the importance of it, that Galvane was where the strongest in the continent gathered, and victory in this battle would be the turning point for his ambitions. If he took over Galvane, the rest of the continent would inevitably follow.

(That was a pain in the ass,) he thought. To get to this point and amass an army of ten thousand demons he had had to kill several heads of the demon clans that still remained loyal to Zieg. This is where everything would begin. He planned to start The Second Holy Crusade, only this time the ones on the receiving end would be everyone else but the demons.

He could no longer hold back his excitement. He had been patient for long enough. Ryzel turned, and faced the army of demons behind him. He could see it on their faces, and feel it in the air. They have waited long enough as well. They were seething with a plethora of emotions, but they all had one thing in common. Each of them were filled with complete and absolute bloodthirst.

“HOW MANY OF YOU?! HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE HAD FRIENDS AND FAMILY TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU? THE BLOOD SPILLED OVER FIFTEEN YEARS CANNOT BE FORGOTTEN! THIS BLOOD CAN ONLY BE PAID BACK IN BLOOD. I WILL SUCCEED WHERE ZIEG HAD FAILED. I WILL TAKE ON HIS LEGACY, AND RECLAIM THE CONTINENT FOR OUR PEOPLE. LET THE BLOOD OF OUR BRETHREN BE WASHED AWAY WITH THE BLOOD OF THEIRS! KILL! KILL THEM ALL! LEAVE NOT A SINGLE ONE ALIVE!” he shouted to his army, raising their morale to their peaks. They had waited for a new Demon King to reclaim their place on the continent, a beacon of hope. They found one in Ryzel. As long as he remained fighting, each and every single one of them would fight until their last breath.

“UOOOOOOH!”

“FOR DEMON KING RYZEL!”

“ALL HAIL RYZEL!”

“DEATH TO ALL HUMANS!”

His army roared in response and charged forth.

“Let the Second Holy Crusade begin, and let there be blood,” Ryzel muttered under his breath while turning back around to face Galvane. He had a bloodred sword sheathed on his back, the artifact Bloodwhistler, and wrapped around his fingers were invisible strands, an artifact known as “The Endless Wire,” the artifact Ginkumo.

“There will be no escape. Only death,” he said, and joined the assault, “Worldbreaking technique: Hell’s Net.”

Invisible wires completely surrounded the academy. Thousands of strands of wires enclosed and attached themselves to the buildings of the academy. They were virtually unnoticeable unless one focused mana into their eyes. It seemed like a cage, a spider’s web, and the prey were those within it.

Within moments of Ryzel’s invasion of the academy, Chase’s skill, Astral Invasion, sounded out into the minds of every student.

“The academy is under attack! You kids do your best, I’ll be cheering for you!” his voice resounded, waking a certain reincarnated student from his extended meditation.

…

Galvane was a scene of carnage. The once majestic white buildings completely sliced in halves by moving wires, students and demons alike flying across the skies, the remnants of corpses, gargoyles, and golems littering the marble floors. Unsuspecting deserters had their bodies dissected by the invisible wires looming around the radius of the academy. Countless colors and magic flashed about, almost making the assault seem festive if not for the smell of death and pensive moods of everyone present lingering in the air.

A bloodred sword found itself lodged into the body of a resisting student, before being quickly retracted. The body of the dying student was quickly separated and kicked to the side.

“Tch,” Ryzel clicked his tongue while wielding the artifact, “This useless sword won’t resonate with me.” The artifact wasn’t approving Ryzel, no matter how many he killed.

He had seen the artifact in action before. He recalled a scene of the past. At that time an unknown imposing demon seemingly radiating with confidence, Zieg, had waltzed into the competition to coronate a Demon King. The Demon King was decided by an elimination tournament to determine the strongest demon in the continent. In the midst of the competition, Zieg had ignored all the other competitors and stood in the middle of the arena, boldly declaring himself to be the strongest, and that they should all come at him at once.

The Ryzel at that time could only see red flashes of lights when the competitors swarmed him, and the moments of pause where the menacing artifact, Bloodwhistler was bathing in the blood of its enemies. The sword appeared to gain strength by soaking in blood. For the first time in his life he had felt a sliver of fear from the artifact and its wielder, and had withdrawn from the competition.

The brief recollection of fear sparked a hint of anger within him. He tightly clenched both of his fists, tightening his grasp around Bloodwhistler, causing his dark fingers to whiten.

(I’m the strongest demon now. Zieg is gone) he consoled himself with these thoughts to ease his anger. Taking his mind off of the past, Ryzel sensed a considerably strong presence at a distance behind him, an immortal of the academy, and he smirked.

“Why is a coward like you confronting me now? Aren’t you going to flee again, just like last time?” he mocked while turning around to face the insolent student.

He saw a single white-haired boy, Cain. Cain was standing with a calm look on his face while standing across from Ryzel despite the chaos going on around them. It was like he was unaffected by the threat of death. The corner of Cain’s lips slowly and slightly curved upwards into an arrogant smirk. His expression was mirroring Ryzel’s. He almost seemed to be looking down on Ryzel. Ryzel was briefly stunned by his arrogant and carefree attitude.

“You thought I ran because I was afraid?” Cain coldly chuckled. “I only chose to leave because someone was in my way of going all-out, but now it’s war. I doubt anyone would care enough if I made any unintentional casualties of my surroundings. You’ll be the perfect opponent to test myself with.”

(Test himself with? The student thought himself an equal to be the opponent of me? I’ll show you how wide the world is, and how insignificant you are) Ryzel had already contemplated numerous painful methods of killing Cain to pay for his arrogance. He flexed his knuckles, making the threads twined around them gleam with a deadly aura. The only one who could stand on equal footing with him was Zieg. Those were his true thoughts.

“You’ll be the first immortal I deem worthy enough to use my artifact on, be grateful. Bear witness: Aegis,” Cain’s calm voice resounded.

A large, white artifact materialized and wrapped itself around Cain’s arm. A shield. Three separated pairs of white wings adorned themselves on the surface of the large kiteshield. Small whirlwinds were depicted coiling itself around each wing. It’s pure whiteness perfectly matched Cain’s hair, although the pureness it gave off was contrary to Cain’s personality.

It was an artifact that Cain found in the remnants of an Ancient Dungeon. Up until now, he hadn’t found an opponent that threatened him enough to use it on, and had always stored it away.

The legendary artifact shield, Aegis. Famous in legends as the “Absolute Defense.” Aegis moved with a will of its own in order to protect its wielder, disregarding whether the wielder was aware of being attacked or not, it would predict any and all attacks, and with a will of its own, move its owner’s arm in order to block every attack as if it were in control of the arm. The speed and precognition Aegis had in blocking attacks was at a frightening level, so frightening that it would have been able to block and fend off every single one of the millions of Alistair’s “Excalibur’s” blade fragments as long as the wielder still had enough energy left to move their arm.

Countless arrows of ice appeared in the air, levitating above Cain. The arrows hovered about like sentinels, ready to be launched at a moment’s notice.

“Worldbreaking technique: Zero Stream,” A steam of frozen water flowed and coiled around Cain. The stream possessed attributes of liquid nitrogen, but the temperature it emanated was unnaturally low.

“I’m expecting to gain some insights from you, don’t let me down,” Cain’s voice sounded out, with a poorly restrained tinge of excitement.