The blade's song ended as suddenly as it began.
One moment Julius was an unchained tempest — steel blurring, the world dissolving into blood and screams — and the next, it was as though the earth itself pressed down on his shoulders.
His knees nearly buckled.
The fire that had filled his veins guttered out, leaving him with nothing but the leaden weight of his body and the unbearable silence that followed slaughter.
[Heroic Ascension Ended]
[Power Level: Restored to 75]
The system text faded from his vision, but its meaning hung heavier than any wound.
The Heavenly Demon Rain sagged in his grip, no longer alive, no longer eager.
Just steel again.
Julius stabbed it into the mud to steady himself.
The battlefield stank of iron and smoke and burning flesh.
For the first time since he'd come to this world — not on the night of his summoning, not even in the bloodied wars against Visigoth, Greecia, or Ramie — Julius felt bile rise in his throat.
