Guts did not immediately deal the killing blow. Instead, he channeled the Power of the Five Gods within his body.
An invisible force, one that transcended the laws of reality, invaded Griffith's Demon King's Body, which was forged from Abyssal energy.
Analyzing. Stripping away.
"Ahhh—!"
Griffith let out a bloodcurdling scream.
He could clearly feel his connection to the great Abyss being forcibly severed by an overwhelmingly tyrannical power.
The power of the Abyss receded from his body like a receding tide.
The magnificent black armor covering his body began to shatter inch by inch, dissipating into motes of black light.
His muscles atrophied, his bones grew brittle, and his skin sagged.
In just a few breaths, the mighty Fifth Demon King, Femto, completely vanished.
In his place was the original, crippled husk slumped on the ground—his tendons severed, his tongue cut out, his body twisted and deformed from prolonged torture, and his skin covered in festering wounds and filth.
Griffith was beaten back to his original form.
But physical torment was merely the appetizer.
Guts's eyes, burning with golden flames, stared down at the pathetic heap of flesh on the ground.
The power of Slaanesh quietly activated.
A surge of pink psychic energy instantly enveloped Griffith's already fragile soul.
An inescapable, infinitely looping illusion was constructed in an instant.
Within the illusion, Griffith found that he could "see" everything.
However, he was no longer the lofty White Hawk, nor was he the newborn Demon King.
His perspective belonged to that of the most ordinary member of the Band of the Hawk.
He watched with his own eyes as his former self—the commander he revered as a god—uttered the word "sacrifice" in a chillingly cold voice.
Then, hell descended.
A mantis-like Apostle sliced him in half at the waist with its razor-sharp scythe-like legs.
Agony washed over him.
His upper half struggled on the ground, but he could only watch helplessly as his lower half was greedily devoured by another monster.
He wanted to cry for help, but the excruciating pain rendered him mute. He could only feel his life slowly slipping away.
The next second, the illusion reset.
This time, he became Pippin.
He swung his fists with all his might, smashing the skulls of one low-level Apostle after another, only to eventually be pinned down by several stronger monsters, torn apart, and eaten alive.
Indescribable agony once again submerged his consciousness.
The cycle repeated, over and over again.
With every death, he would be reborn as another member of the Band of the Hawk, only to be brutally slaughtered in the most gruesome manner imaginable.
He personally experienced the pain and despair that every single one of his comrades endured in their final moments.
In reality, Griffith's body convulsed violently, meaningless, guttural gasps escaping his throat.
Cloudy tears and drool flowed uncontrollably, mixing with the dirt on the ground and making his once-handsome face look utterly repulsive.
"Swish—!"
A sharp whistle tore through the air as the remaining four members of the God Hand seized the opportunity to attack Guts.
Four lingering streams of authoritative power merged together, transforming into a gray beam of chaotic energy that blasted toward Guts's back.
However, Guts's Protective Magnetic Field, fueled by his Nine Hundred and Seventy Thousand Horsepower, activated on its own.
Boom—!!!
The moment the chaotic beam made contact with the invisible force field surrounding Guts, it collapsed inch by inch, ultimately turning into a shower of light that dissipated into the air.
"Pfft!"
The projections of the four God Hand members trembled violently in unison, becoming even more ethereal.
The immense recoil worsened their already depleted reserves of power.
"Im... possible..."
Unable to maintain their projections any longer, they let out roars of sheer unwillingness before completely dissipating and returning to the Abyss.
On the other side, the extreme physical agony combined with the endless cycle of mental torture had taken its toll.
This dual torment finally shattered Griffith's will completely.
His eyes lost all their light, reducing him to nothing more than a living husk.
But Guts was not going to let him off that easily.
A surge of golden life force flowed from his fingertips, injecting itself into Griffith's broken body.
The extinguished flame of life was forcibly reignited.
His crumbling consciousness was stabilized once more.
"What a truly spectacular performance. It's the best play I've seen in a while."
A smiling, somewhat playful voice suddenly echoed across the dead silent battlefield.
The voice wasn't loud, but it reached Guts's ears with absolute clarity.
Guts's pupils, burning with golden flames, abruptly contracted.
He quickly spun around, instantly pushing his power to its absolute peak and entering a state of maximum alert.
Not far away, a black-haired young man had appeared out of nowhere.
He was smiling and clapping lightly, as if he had just finished watching a highly satisfying stage play.
To his horror, Guts realized that his perception, which was capable of seeing through all things, could not read the man before him at all.
He couldn't sense any hostility from the man, nor could he detect any fluctuations of power.
He just stood there ordinarily, like a traveler who had wandered into the area by mistake.
Yet, Guts's combat instincts were screaming the most frantic, unprecedented warnings.
Danger.
Extreme danger.
The man standing before him was a thousand, no, ten thousand times more terrifying than the projection of the Abyssal God.
It was an incomprehensible, unfathomable terror, as deep and boundless as a sea of stars.
Just as Guts tensed his entire body, he suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity with the man's voice and face.
Right, it was from the memories that had flooded his mind.
The entity who had taught him the Killer Whale Overlord Punch and bestowed upon him the Power of the Five Gods.
It was him.
"Long time no see, Guts."
Ian stopped clapping and greeted him with a smile.
He glanced around the devastated battlefield, his gaze sweeping over the mutilated corpses of the Band of the Hawk members.
"Although the process was thrilling, the ending... seems a bit too tragic."
As Ian spoke, he casually snapped his fingers.
Snap.
A crisp sound echoed.
The next second, a miracle occurred.
The members of the Band of the Hawk, who had just died in the shockwaves of the battle and whose bodies were left in pieces, suddenly materialized out of thin air right where they had fallen.
In a mere instant, all of his fallen comrades reappeared on the battlefield, completely unharmed.
A trace of bewilderment and confusion lingered on their faces, as if they didn't understand what had just happened.
"This..."
Even with Guts's current state of mind, witnessing this scene sent towering waves of shock crashing through him.
Ian waved his hand dismissively. Then, he raised a finger and pointed toward the spatial rift slowly healing in the sky.
That was the rift leading to the Abyss.
Ian looked at Guts and asked, "Do you want an opportunity?"
"An opportunity to personally descend into the deepest depths of the Abyss and slaughter that so-called 'God,' along with those God Hand members."
Faced with his resurrected comrades and this unfathomable man, the shock in Guts's heart had long since surpassed its limits.
He didn't answer immediately.
Ian wasn't in a hurry. He began to explain the "truth" of this world to Guts.
The so-called Abyss was no sacred domain.
It was merely a massive "garbage dump" formed by the convergence of all the negative emotions, pain, and despair in this world.
And that so-called "God" was nothing more than a consciousness born within that garbage dump.
"As long as pain and despair exist in this world, this garbage dump known as the Abyss will continue to exist."
"As long as the Abyss exists, 'The Eclipse' will stage itself again every two hundred and sixteen years."
"Everything you experienced today will be experienced all over again by countless others in the future, just in different ways."
"The tragedy is endless."
"The despair is never-ending."
At this point, Ian looked at Guts.
"So, do you want to go into the Abyss and kill the so-called Abyssal King?"
"And then... take its place."