Hours passed in a blink since Yuto's journey to the frontier city. He continuously pushed his mobility art and the Qi within his body beyond their limits.
His breathing turned heavy, cold sweat poured down him, and his vision began to blur, but his mind refused to collapse, and he gritted his teeth, speeding forward like the wind.
Each step he took felt as if invisible chains caught him in place.
'Not yet! I can still do it!'
Undeniably, running to cover a three-day distance from Margrave's territory was still too much for him.
The aura that enveloped his body began to dim, almost disappearing.
However, whether by miracle or something else, Yuto's eyes widened when he saw a tall, octagon-shaped wall looming from afar.
At that moment, his body tensed as if a new power surged from within.
'I've arrived!?'
His eyes narrowed, seeing hordes of humanoid and beast monsters swarming over the walls. Above, he could see hundreds of arrows raining upon them.
'They're still fighting.'
Glancing forward, the thick gate between the towers was still sturdy, without even a single scratch visible.
His lips curled into a smirk. Realizing the city's murky air, due to the many scattered monster corpses exhaling thick miasma.
With a wave of his hand, a black sword appeared in his right hand, and Yuto plunged directly into the battlefield.
From above, he heard a shout when someone noticed his arrival.
"Hold your fire! Someone's down there!"
"No, keep attacking!"
Yuto's voice, mixed with a hint of Qi, echoed like thunder.
The soldiers above immediately exchanged glances, hesitating to fire their arrows.
He took a deep breath, filtering the spreading miasma in the area to replenish his dying red sun.
"This is good!"
Crimson Qi clad the black sword; and Yuto imbued his sword with the 'Intent' to cut down anything in his path.
He swung the sword sideways, decapitating several goblins whose blue blood splattered. The boy stopped, his brows furrowed in surprise.
'What's going on here?'
Not a single monster in the horde noticed him, even though he had already killed some of them.
Usually, monsters would obey their instincts and swarm him in numbers, but that wasn't the case right now.
From the monster's eyes, Yuto could see its light dimming, having no shred of consciousness.
The monsters moved like controlled puppets; their objective must be the Frontier city.
But why?
Why were they targeting the city, not people?
Or were they targeting both and ignoring Yuto because he came from an unfamiliar place?
If so, Yuto no longer needed to hold back and inhaled large amounts of miasma from the air to replenish the Demonic energy in his body.
In one breath, half of the vessel in his dantian was filled, and his blue Qi vessel was a quarter full.
'Still not enough. Let's harvest some more!'
A red aura emanated from Yuto's body; his pupils shrank as his consciousness slowly drowned in madness.
However, thanks to the blue Qi flowing through his head. Yuto managed to keep his sanity from being taken over by his raw emotions.
'Heavenly Severance Art - First Chapter - Demonic Intent!'
His body disappeared, leaving behind a trail of afterimages. A flurry of crimson slashes mercilessly split the monsters in front of him.
With the speed of Netherworld Art, Yuto was like a ghost bringing calamity.
Heads and limbs of monsters flew, blue blood scattered in the air, displaying the ominous festival.
Yuto kept swinging his sword until he reached the towering stone wall.
"Hey, you! Boy over there?"
A loud voice echoed on the battlefield, drawing Yuto's attention upwards.
"Get out of there! It's dangerous!"
He thrust his sword into a green wolf with horns on its head.
"Oi, hurry up and get out of there!"
Without answering, Yuto threw the wolf's body and then vanished from his spot.
He jumped dozens of meters and then used the wolf's body as a foothold to reach the top of the wall.
"W-Woah!"
"I-Intruder!"
"How dare you..."
In this tense and exhausted situation, the soldiers immediately pulled their bowstrings and aimed their arrows at the boy.
But everyone gasped when they saw how calm the boy was, even in front of many knights.
Yuto put away his sword and showed his Guild card as identification.
"I am an adventurer affiliated with the Empire. I came from the Coldsteel territory after hearing about the monster invasion."
Silence spread until one old knight cut through the crowd and stood before Yuto.
From his calm expression, Yuto could tell the man was a veteran.
The man looked down at the place where the bloodshed occurred—a straight path riddled with corpses, sending shivers down his spine even for a veteran.
And all of it was done by the boy in front of him.
'An adventure, huh? Such a waste of talent.'
He quickly dismissed his thoughts and turned to his troops.
"What are you doing! Continue your attack!"
Immediately, the atmosphere shifted as the soldiers regrouped, drawing their bows again.
Seeing his subordinates move as they should, the man crossed his arms on his chest, sweeping his gaze at the boy.
"What's your name, kid?"
"Yuto, I returned because I was worried that monsters had plundered the city. But it seems this place is tougher than I expected."
His statement was filled with relief, but in the soldiers' ears, it sparked a fire of anger in their hearts.
'Hmph, a country bumpkin. I like that!?'
Before he could finish his thoughts, an earth-shattering roar shook the ground they stood on and flooded the atmosphere with absolute dominion, forcing them to fall to the ground, crawling like insects.
All the soldiers, including the captain, were thrown down, but the man's eyes widened when he saw Yuto standing still with a frown on his face.
'How!?'
He had many questions in his heart, but the boy jumped back from the wall and plunged into the crowd of monsters.
'Who is that kid?'
Yuto, stepping on a pile of monster corpses, glanced north, to where the horror originated.
'No wonder that black cat ran from its habitat.'
He swallowed hard to wet his dry throat and summoned his sword. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead.
A dense crimson aura burst out from his body, and a monster's life disappeared with one swing.
Yuto charged like an unstoppable gale. His snow-white hair was drenched in blue blood, and the emotions within him began to gnaw at his mind bit by bit.
The red vessel in his dantian was already full, while the blue one was still one-eighth full.
Within the chaos, Yuto's mouth widened as he couldn't help but burst into laughter.
Sounds faded from his ears, with himself being consumed by his own power.
Yuto kept pushing forward, his hands ceaselessly swinging the blood-stained black sword.
Downward slashes, side slashes, diagonal slashes, thrusts—every time he did that, a monster fell, and its miasma entered Yuto's body, causing an imbalance in his equilibrium.
With his speed in absorbing and refining raw energy, Yuto was not a typical cultivator, although he still didn't realize it.
A silver shooting star struck the ground in front of him, sending monsters flying within a radius of tens of meters. He raised his sword to protect his eyes from dust.
"Stop your foolish battle! No matter how strong you are, in war, numbers will always prevail."
The commanding yet composed voice struck Yuto's consciousness, causing the blue Qi in his dantian to surge and wrap around his heated head.
The smoke parted away, revealing the figure of a man in crimson armour, holding a silver spear in his hand. He stared directly into the boy's eyes.
Both were silent, seemingly lost in each other's presence.
"Save your strength; I'll need your help in another battle."
The man shifted his gaze north. Yuto followed his gaze, and his eyes widened.
A chill ran down his spine at the sight of the monstrous being.
"What is that creature?"
"I don't know..."
Both warriors who recognized each other's strength stood firm on the battlefield.
Deep in their hearts, neither could imagine that the Abyssal monster was merely the beginning of a catastrophe that would flip the continent upside down.