chapter 358 - Boss Rush: 14 Consecutive Battles
1.
[The city’s chaos level has reached 100%.]
The ghostly spirits regained their senses.
Even the most deeply ensnared demons, lost in the extreme clash of blood and energy, cannot fall into delusion amid such catastrophic turmoil.
The fetters and confusion that had bound their minds were shattered the moment the two forces collided.
"Those lying Dream Demons!"
"To deceive us with trash and gold!"
"Rip their filthy bodies apart and take revenge... will we...?"
With their physical freedom stripped away, their true forms ripped from them, only the remnants of their souls remained—a pitiful handful of spirits.
They instinctively realized.
Their long-held grudge paled in comparison to the appearance of truly powerful boss-level demons.
The Executioner, wielding an axe.
An assassin from the outer world of Half-Demon King.
The ghostly spirits who remembered him trembled in fear.
"Is that the one? The monster who slaughtered a hundred thousand demons alone."
"Crazy. Why would the Queen of the Dream Demons release such a monster?"
"The Great Demon isn’t even here. No one can control a monster like that here!"
Boom!
Thick blood winds surged as the axe swung, sending shockwaves.
The Silent Swordsman realized.
This was the true power of the Executioner.
The strength of a failed man who had chosen death.
The restrained power for humanity’s final hope, coming from the outer world.
Thwack!
The true essence of the Executioner was far too young for the Silent Swordsman to reach.
With enemies growing stronger, the silent warrior raised her martial skills, and this level of power became nothing but a nightmare.
Screech!
Thus, the Executioner unleashed his tentacles.
With broken bones forcibly aligned, tendons and muscles were replaced by reinforced tentacles, granting him a strength capable of blocking even the Silent Swordsman’s powerful sword techniques.
Following the Executioner’s assault, the enormous Soul-Crusher Leader and the ominous Demon Sage joined the fray.
Their strength, feared by other demons, had been molded from nightmares, and the Silent Swordsman’s eyes burned with rage as she exchanged blows.
‘Nightmare? This is nothing but an insult.’
They were strong.
If strength means raw power, then they had certainly grown strong.
Strong, if the increase in physical power means anything, they had certainly become stronger.
But in the true battle for life,
in the battle where one stakes everything,
they were weak.
‘The nightmares forged from fear and terror are so one-dimensional.’
Once, her own powerful belief—sharp enough to send chills down her spine—had driven her to become a monster to protect someone.
The long years spent in silence at the threshold of the Half-Demon World had nurtured that despair.
But such forms, molded only from strength and fear, had no more value to her.
With the surge of blood that raged like a storm, all three forms collapsed in an instant.
The two powerhouses of the Demon World.
Even these formidable bosses of simultaneous battle didn’t escape defeat.
‘You don’t understand. The resolve behind them.’
What made them strong?
No matter how wicked their power, what beliefs, what suffering, and what hatred lay beneath that power?
Power without understanding or reflection was nothing more than a large toy.
[Strong rage brings unity of mind and body.]
[Current Unification Rate: 95%]
As the Silent Swordsman stood, not defined by others but by herself, her rage at the defeated enemies swelled, propelling her heart with intense focus.
At the end of the apocalypse, the lone beast reigns over the world’s end.
Now, the Demon General’s true strength, known only to the Silent Swordsman who personally witnessed his might, was brought to bear once again.
Recalling the demon general’s immense power, she sought to replicate it.
Break the heavens! Sink the earth! Destroy humanity!
With a heart that unites heaven, earth, and self, the technique shattered the world.
The profound technique of the Nine Pillars Alone at the Summit was reinterpreted through nine movements, an immense force.
Boom!
With each thrust accompanied by three shockwaves, the blood surged in a violent spiral.
In the face of this overwhelming power, the Demon General’s massive form staggered.
Thrum!
As the blade pulled inward, the dense sphere of blood intensified, coloring the world crimson.
The refraction of light was distorted by the overwhelming power, filling the inner courtyard with sheer force.
"R-Run!!"
"Something big is coming!!"
"If we get swept up in this, we’re finished!!"
The demons, who had been stunned, snapped out of it and fled in all directions.
Even the Dream Demons, startled by the world-shattering power, spread their wings and frantically flew away.
Boom!
It was too late.
Dust rose, sand and pebbles lifted, and trees snapped while rocks were dragged along.
As the center of the power pulled with increasing strength, the demons crawled, flapping their wings in place, slowly being dragged toward the center.
"Noooo!!"
"AAAHHHH!!"
The spirits of the dead, including the Dream Demons, were ripped away.
The second phase of the suction intensified, and the demons were dragged into the center, battered by sand, rocks, and rusted weaponry, bloodied.
Those who had struggled to escape, reaching for freedom, were engulfed by the screening process at the heart of the storm.
Crack!
Thud!
Under the explosive power, their flesh turned into blood, transforming into raw blood and fury.
‘The power of two lifetimes. I cannot replicate that with internal energy. But with rage...’
What if I could pull every last ounce of power from the slaves of desire, the cunning Dream Demons who fed on their own desires?
Would that still not be enough?
No, it wouldn’t.
Even the colossal strength that surpasses two lifetimes, reaching three lifetimes, could be attained.
This was a power that the Demon General could never reach, but if the Silent Swordsman had surpassed him, maybe someday, in the distant future, she would reach this point.
When an unmatched technique reaches its peak.
The immense blood-filled core of the center spun, and like an enormous wheel, the blood surged like a torrent, breaking through the barriers.
With two rotations, the demons could not even hold their shape, scattering into pieces.
Following the Demon General’s fall, the White-Faced Demon, Hell King, and Giant Champion were also shaken.
‘There are three gates to the heart of the technique.’
Those lacking strength cannot open even one gate.
Those lacking mind cannot open the second.
Those lacking resolve cannot open all three gates.
Three gates, designed to be the reverse of the heart’s path.
The tri-level lock for the management of energy.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Silent Swordsman, having forcefully opened all three gates, stood at the center as the space itself began to rotate.
The power of spiral condensation, the culmination of her training, clashed with the Demon General’s final technique.
What followed was a powerful energy burst, negating all the effects of their previous techniques.
The attack wasn’t fast.
Anyone could avoid it with enough time.
The world collapsed slowly.
Like a sloth's disaster, it was only ridiculous.
But no one could escape it.
"□□□!!"
"□□□□□□!!"
"□□□□!!!"
The space was severed, isolated, as if cut out of time itself.
The Solar Beam flashed, instantly incinerating the powerful vision of the White-Faced Demon.
Now, the ultimate culmination of the Nine Pillars Alone at the Summit marched forward, unstoppable.
The nightmares of the bosses crumbled and shattered.
Even if they returned, no one could defeat the Silent Swordsman—those who had once been defeated knew that their fate was sealed.
The final five generals, emerging from the rift, could not withstand the force of this strike.
Those who did not grow stronger from defeat met their end here.
The heretic of boss battles.
The strongest loser who had experienced countless defeats.
Excluding the hidden raid boss, the form of the King of the Abyss.
Kiiiaaa!!
Light flashed.
Flash!
The earth collapsed.
Flash!
A giant cloud of dust shattered the walls and devastated the buildings.
Flash!
Following that, a ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ wave of heat incinerated demons outside the high-level protective range.
Flash!
The blood-cloud, swelling massively, had yet to reach the ground.
The ultimate destruction radiated across the land, sweeping everything in its path.
The greatest force, charged with blood-soaked energy, pierced through the King of the Abyss’s form, overpowering it.
‘Not bad.’
Thinking that in her mind, the Silent Swordsman passed by the King of the Abyss’s form.
A simple pat on the shoulder, and the form of the King of the Abyss shattered into dust.