"Huff… that's a lot," Damon muttered to himself as he stood atop the gate, gazing at the black ocean of undead stretching beyond the horizon.
"Killing the Mountain Zombie solved one challenge, but…" dealing with this many undead was a trial just as great—if not greater.
Damon checked his magical reserves. His fire and light elements were almost completely depleted. Earth and space, though still full, remained only at the intermediate rank.
"It's enough…"
Even far from his best condition, Damon felt no hesitation in facing the endless undead. His physique alone filled him with confidence. Anything below monarch rank was no longer a threat in his eyes.
He leapt straight down into the horde.
Damon's figure erupted with silver light.
Dark-silver radiance flared as space beneath his feet warped violently. Dozens of undead were crushed into pulp, reduced to a grotesque smear of gore.
"Collapse: Hell's Offering."
Damon slammed both hands into the ground, unleashing his unique primary spell.
The earth around him shifted violently. It quaked as the land beneath the undead began to collapse.
In a single spell, dozens of zombies plummeted into a yawning abyss of golden-black earth, impaled upon sturdy spikes capable of piercing even warrior-class hides.
But the spell did not end there.
As more undead surged forward, the collapsing ground followed them relentlessly. The edges of the shattered earth suddenly shot upward like jagged pillars lined with golden spikes, before crashing back down and engulfing hundreds of undead in one devastating motion.
Damon's mutated earth element—Royal Earth—was no ordinary mutation. Unlike typical earth mages whose primary spell was Earth Wave, a mobility-type spell, his was Collapse: a purely offensive art.
Collapse: Hell's Offering was a fifth-tier spell that caused a designated section of land to cave in, forming a spiked abyss below before closing like a massive, devouring maw.
Hundreds of zombies died instantly.
Yet Damon felt not even the slightest joy.
He shot forward at full speed.
Earth surged over his arms, forming massive claws of golden-black stone in place of his hands.
The ground collapsed beneath his feet as Damon launched himself forward faster than any human could follow. Like an arrow released from a bow, he tore through the undead formation, shredding everything in his path with nothing but his claws.
In a split second, he crossed several kilometers.
Boom!
Damon slammed into a Corpse Official—a commander-tier undead—sending its massive body flying, bones shattered.
Without slowing, Damon leapt again, catching up to the airborne Corpse Official and smashing its head straight into the ground.
Boom!
The earth cracked outward like a spiderweb as Damon unleashed his full power. A crater hundreds of meters wide formed beneath his feet as the land collapsed inward.
Devour.
The Corpse Official vanished instantly. Its magical energy surged into Damon, replenishing his exhausted elements. Its soul essence was stored in his inventory, along with its grotesque remains.
"Hahaha!"
Damon laughed.
In the middle of the battlefield—stained with blood, surrounded by ravenous undead—he laughed.
His heart pounded faster than ever. At this moment, he was free to unleash his full power.
He felt free.
He felt powerful.
It was a strange sensation—one that only came with overwhelming strength. Strength so immense that even the tides of billions of undead felt meaningless.
Power surged through his mind.
The exhilaration was intoxicating.
Addicting.
"What all can I do?" Damon muttered to himself, a maniacal grin stretching across his face. His body felt unbelievably strong as countless techniques and possibilities flashed through his thoughts.
'Can I do this…?'
The moment the idea formed, a strange confidence flooded his mind.
'I can.'
The sensation was familiar.
It was the Envy of Beelzebub speaking—its ability to use any skill at maximum potential allowing Damon to wield magic in ways no one else could.
He looked down at his hands.
The earth claws shattered and dispersed as spatial energy flooded in, replacing them with brilliant silver radiance.
"Heh…"
Damon smirked as he shot into the sky. His hands gleamed brightly with silver light as he swung them sideways like claws.
A shadow followed the motion.
In less than a second, the shadowed claw slash traveled over half a kilometer.
It cut straight through several kilometers of battlefield, slaying every undead in its path. Along the line of the spatial shadow, every undead was torn cleanly in half.
A massive fissure of unknown depth split the street apart, while countless bisected corpses lay scattered on both sides. A heartbeat later, blood finally erupted, spraying into the air.
It was impossible to tell how many undead had fallen to that single strike, but their blood soon filled the fissure, turning it into a river.
Most were still alive.
Their undead crystals remained intact. Even with their bodies destroyed, they writhed on the ground, bathing in blood and agony.
Damon threw his head back and laughed maniacally before diving down once more.
Claws of energy tore through the undead ranks. Brute force crushed commander-tier monsters. He killed and devoured thousands without pause.
For the shattered undead, he did not even bother finishing them off. He devoured them alive, draining their energy to refill his elemental reserves.
For an entire hour, Damon massacred the undead without rest.
Like a god of war.
The nemesis of the undead.
He fought against billions, slaughtering hundreds of thousands—perhaps even a million—in an incredibly short span of time, continuously recovering his power as he went.
{A/N: Killing a million, but injuring far more than the kill count}
The number of undead Damon killed was enormous, yet before an army of billions, it still seemed insignificant.
But Damon was not discouraged.
He was exhilarated.
Just as he prepared to charge once more, space beside him twisted violently.
To his right, several kilometers away, a familiar silver vortex reappeared.
"Hah… seems like the fun's over," Damon muttered with a sigh.
Yet the grin on his face only widened.