Chapter 13 Part 2: The Right Hand
The earth trembled. Every footfall of the monstrous figure sent a deep, reverberating shudder through Blue's chest, gnawing at his bones.
The air thickened around him, heavy, oppressive, as if the atmosphere itself had become a tangible thing.
Then, through the suffocating dust, it emerged.
A hulking nightmare in spiked armor, a horned skull that gleamed under a sickly sheen, its hollow eyes glowing with an unrelenting cold. There was no mercy in them, no flicker of humanity. Only emptiness. An end.
Blue's heartbeat quickened. His senses sharpened in an instant. Something far darker stood before him, a threat beyond anything he could have prepared for.
Beside him, Ross froze. His eyes were wide, raw terror written across his face. He gasped for breath, panic bubbling to the surface in shallow, unsteady gasps.
His voice trembled, barely a whisper.
"What… what is that?"
Blue's gaze never wavered, his mind quickly dissecting the scenario. He couldn't afford to be distracted by Ross's fear—not now.
The air felt like it had sharpened to a knife's edge, closing in around him, suffocating him with a sense of inevitability.
Then came the voice.
It cut through the air like ice scraping metal. Smooth, cold, taunting.
"You defeated a low-tier general," it said, laced with venomous amusement. "Impressive."
Blue's brow furrowed slightly, a brief flicker of disbelief tugging at his features. He turned to Ross, his voice deadpan, a quiet challenge.
"That was a low-tier general?"
The demon's smile spread slowly, cruel and deliberate, a predatory thing.
"Yes. There are low-tier generals, mid-tier generals, and high-tier generals."
Ross's hands clenched at his sides. His breathing quickened, a rush of panic rising in his chest. Blue could feel it—the panic gnawing at Ross—but it was insignificant.
He focused on the creature before him, the shifting threat that felt so far beyond any scale of power he'd ever seen. His eyes never left the demon's cold, calculating gaze.
"Stronger ones?" Ross managed, his voice barely a breath.
The demon's smile deepened, something darker flickering behind his hollow eyes.
"Indeed. Only ten high-tier generals. Each one serves directly under one of the Ten Royal Demons who rule our kind."
The words hit Blue like a sudden weight, anchoring his thoughts. A realm of power far beyond what he had understood.
He was a player in a game so vast and alien that he could barely comprehend the rules.
His mind flicked to King Fen's name, the pieces of the puzzle slowly turning.
But there was no time for answers. Not now.
His senses flared as the pulse of the rings on his skin screamed a warning—a violent thrumming, an urgent cry of leave.
His body tensed, but it was too late.
Too late to escape the inevitable.
Blue's voice was cold as steel, cutting through the rising tension.
"I assume you're one of them?"
The demon's eyes flickered for a moment—something ancient and cruel shifting in their depths. His smile turned almost bored.
"Yes," he drawled, savoring the moment. "I am Bazal."
The name struck the air like a shard of ice, its weight sinking into Blue's chest.
Bazal.
This wasn't just a test. This was a reckoning, and it was far too swift.
"Restoria had a new S-Rank," Bazal continued, his tone casual, detached.
"And since you were appointed by King Fen—who typically ignores weaklings—we took an interest."
Blue's mind spun, each fragment of the revelation sinking deeper into the pit of his stomach.
Why would they care about him?
The questions whirled, but none of them mattered in this moment. Not when Bazal's presence pressed down on him like a vice, suffocating him, demanding attention.
This wasn't a battle. Not yet.
Ross, still frozen, found his voice in a strangled whisper.
"What do you want?"
Bazal's grin stretched wider, a hunger in his eyes.
"Should I kill you before you become powerful?"
Before Blue could respond, Bazal moved.
The demon was a blur, a streak of motion faster than the eye could comprehend.
In an instant, Blue was lifted off his feet, his throat crushed beneath Bazal's foot.
The weight of the blow lifted him from the ground, tossing him through the air like a ragdoll. Trees splintered, branches snapped, the forest erupted into chaos as Blue was hurled, weightless, from one tree to the next.
The world spun in a sickening blur, every impact a violent shockwave that cracked the earth beneath him.
The ground shattered beneath him as he slammed into it, the force of the impact shuddering through his body.
For a moment, everything went dark.
Silence.
His body lay in the fractured earth, the world around him a twisted mess of chaos and destruction.
The pain didn't come at once. It was a distant sensation, buried beneath the overwhelming weight of his own body.
His skull had struck the earth with a sickening crack, the world around him blackening.
The lingering aftershock of the blow pulsed through him, dragging him deeper into the abyss.
Ross stood, paralyzed, his mouth agape, eyes wide with pure, unfiltered terror.
The forest seemed to hold its breath.
Blue could feel it—the pulse of fear radiating from Ross.
But the terror that gripped him was nothing compared to the emptiness that filled Blue's mind.
This wasn't a fight.
This wasn't a contest of strength.
This was something darker.
Something personal.
Bazal's voice sliced through the stillness, casual, detached.
"Well, since you're here…"
His gaze flickered to Ross, a glint of cruel amusement in his eyes.
"I might as well kill you too."
Ross's breath hitched, his body locking in place.
The tension in the air was unbearable, thick with the promise of death.
Then, just as it seemed Ross's heart would burst from his chest, Bazal stopped.
A flicker of calculation crossed his face. His smile faded, replaced by a distant, almost bored expression.
"Tch. Time for me to leave."
And in an instant, Bazal was gone.
One moment, he stood before them; the next, nothing remained but the shattered earth and the eerie, suffocating silence.
Ross stood, his chest heaving, the world around him still.
His mind scrambled to process what had just happened, but there was no clarity. Only the gnawing realization that the world he'd known was far darker than he'd ever imagined.
For Blue, it was worse.
The silence around him wasn't just the absence of sound.
It was the absence of certainty.
The world had shifted in an instant.
This was no longer about survival.
It was about something much more dangerous.
This was a warning.
The world was far darker than he had ever imagined.