Don's body expanded to match Uzgoth's size, his enhanced form radiating power that made the air shimmer. The Sovereign charged with berserker rage, all four arms reaching, the dark energy around him crackling with murderous intent.
They collided in the center of the throne room.
BOOOOM!
The impact created a shockwave that leveled everything within fifty meters. Bone pillars disintegrated. The obsidian floor vaporized. The ceiling collapsed in sections, massive stone blocks crashing down around them.
Don's Valdris's Oath met Uzgoth's upper right fist.
The blade carved through green flesh, cutting deep into bone—but not severing. The density of Stage 3-5 flesh, even weakened, was too much for a single strike.
Uzgoth's upper left hand grabbed Don's face and squeezed.
Don's skull began to compress. His enhanced Vitality was the only thing preventing instant death.
His eight Executioner's Edge blades struck simultaneously—four targeting Uzgoth's arms, four targeting his torso.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Deep cuts opened across Uzgoth's body. Green blood sprayed. But the Sovereign's berserker state meant he felt no pain.
His lower right arm grabbed Don's left leg.
Twisted.
Don's femur snapped like a twig. The bone broke through skin, white fragments visible in the wound.
[HP: SEVERE DAMAGE]
[IMMORTALITY: ACTIVE]
[MANA: 32,858 → 32,358]
[HP: SEVERE DAMAGE]
[IMMORTALITY: ACTIVE]
[MANA: 32,858 → 32,358]
Don didn't scream.
His Emotion Suppression filtered the agony to distant data. Instead, he activated Blood Magic.
[BLOOD MAGIC: ACTIVATED]
[COST: 150 MANA]
The green blood pouring from Uzgoth's wounds—Don's blood weapons had carved dozens of cuts—suddenly moved.
Not flowing naturally. Controlling.
The blood rose from the wounds, formed into razor-sharp tendrils, and struck inward—burrowing back into Uzgoth's body, but targeting vital organs from the inside.
One tendril pierced through a lung. Another wrapped around the Sovereign's heart, squeezing. A third wormed toward his brain through a neck wound.
Uzgoth's eyes widened.
"WHAT—"
His grip on Don's face loosened fractionally.
Don didn't waste the opening.
He drove Valdris's Oath forward with his full Strength of 3,626—the blade burning with corrupted holy flames, empowered by King's Wrath against goblins.
The sword pierced Uzgoth's chest—missing the heart by centimeters, but punching through a lung and out his back.
[CRITICAL HIT]
[DAMAGE: EXTREME]
Uzgoth roared and released Don entirely, all four arms grabbing at the sword impaling him.
Don let go of Valdris's Oath—leaving it embedded—and activated Shadow Step.
[SHADOW STEP: ACTIVATED]
[COST: 50 MANA]
[MANA: 32,208 → 32,158]
He stepped through the shadow cast by Uzgoth's own massive body and emerged behind him.
His eight Executioner's Edge blades converged on a single target:
Uzgoth's lower right leg.
The limb that bore most of the Sovereign's weight during berserker charges. The support structure for his massive frame.
The weakness.
All eight blades struck the back of Uzgoth's knee simultaneously—the joint, the tendons, the vulnerable point where even Stage 3 flesh couldn't protect completely.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
The combined force of eight Executioner's Edge blades, each one enhanced by Don's Stage 3-3 power, struck the same point within a fraction of a second.
CRACK!
Tendons severed. Muscle tore. Bone fractured beneath the overwhelming assault.
But the leg didn't come off completely—not yet.
Uzgoth's regeneration was already working, trying to repair the catastrophic damage.
Don activated Berserker's Fury's remaining power, his Strength surging to maximum.
[STRENGTH: 3,626 → TEMPORARY PEAK]
He grabbed the damaged leg with both hands—enhanced grip backed by Titan Form's density—and pulled with every ounce of power his transformed body could generate.
The partially severed joint screamed under the stress.
Flesh tore. Bone splintered. Regeneration fought against raw force.
For three agonizing seconds, it was a stalemate—Stage 3 regeneration versus Stage 3 strength.
Then something gave.
RIP!
The leg tore away from Uzgoth's body with a sound like ripping canvas mixed with breaking branches. Green blood sprayed in arterial pulses, painting the already-destroyed throne room floor.
Uzgoth's massive body tilted.
His balance failed. Seven feet of muscle and bone and accumulated power crashed to the ground like a falling tree.
BOOM!
The impact cratered the floor further. Dust and debris filled the air.
Don stood over him, holding the severed leg—a limb easily two hundred kilograms—and for a moment, he just looked at Uzgoth.
The Devourer King. Murderer of kingdoms. Eater of innocents.
Now on the ground, missing a leg, three arms scrambling to push his body up.
Don's voice was flat. Empty. Final.
"You like eating your defeated enemies."
He raised the severed leg, green blood still dripping from the ragged wound.
"How does it feel to experience the same thing?"
Uzgoth's burning coal eyes widened—first with confusion, then understanding, then something that might have been fear.
"You... wouldn't dare—"
Don activated Blood Magic again, this time targeting Uzgoth's three remaining arms.
[BLOOD MAGIC: ACTIVATED]
[COST: 150 MANA]
The blood weapons reformed from the pools of green covering the floor—crystallizing into chains that wrapped around Uzgoth's upper right, upper left, and lower left arms.
Then pulled.
The chains yanked the arms down, slamming them into the obsidian floor and holding them there with the combined force of Don's blood manipulation and Stage 3 essence.
Uzgoth struggled, his berserker strength fighting against the restraints.
But he was weakened now. Missing a leg. Impaled through the chest. Blood loss starting to affect even his vast reserves.
The chains held.
Don's eight Executioner's Edge blades positioned themselves strategically—four pinning the restrained arms to the ground by driving through flesh and bone into the obsidian beneath, four hovering defensively to intercept any desperate attacks.
Uzgoth was immobilized.
And Don bit into the severed leg.
The taste was overwhelming—not like the other Generals. This was Stage 3 flesh saturated with two centuries of accumulated essence. Raw power compressed into every cell, every fiber, every drop of blood.
Each bite contained more power than entire bodies of lesser beings.
And Don was doing it while Uzgoth watched.
[DEVOURING LIVING STAGE 3 ENTITY]
[WARNING: TARGET IS CONSCIOUS]
[WARNING: THIS WILL BE EXTREMELY PAINFUL FOR TARGET]
[MADNESS INCREASE: INEVITABLE]
Uzgoth's eyes went wide with shock, then rage, then something that might have been genuine terror.
"YOU DARE—YOU DARE DO THIS TO ME?!"
His three remaining arms tried to move—tried to break free, to grab Don, to stop him—but the blood chains held firm, reinforced by the Executioner's Edge blades pinning them.
His lower right arm—the only one not restrained because it didn't exist anymore—should have been regenerating.
But Don's consumption of the leg was faster than Uzgoth's regeneration could work.
The essence fueling the leg's reformation was being absorbed before it could complete.
Don kept eating, his enhanced jaw strength backed by Titan Form tearing through Stage 3 flesh that would have been indestructible to anyone weaker.
Uzgoth screamed—not in physical pain (his berserker state blocked that), but in existential horror.
For two hundred years, he had been the devourer.
He had eaten humans while they watched.
He had consumed Princess Lyanna in front of her father.
And now—
"STOP! STOP THIS! I AM THE SOVEREIGN! I AM THE DEVOURER KING! YOU CANNOT—"
Don swallowed another bite, his expression unchanged.
"I can."
He continued eating.
Each bite sent waves of power flooding through his system. His essence layers absorbed Uzgoth's accumulated strength—two hundred years of devouring humans, of accumulating power, of growing beyond normal limits.
[ABSORPTION IN PROGRESS...]
[STAGE 3-5 ENTITY (LIVING)]
[ESSENCE OVERFLOW DETECTED]
[STRENGTH: 3,626 → 3,726 → 3,826 → 3,926]
The leg took eight minutes to consume completely.
Eight minutes of Uzgoth watching as part of himself was erased from existence—not killed, not destroyed, but absorbed into the being who'd invaded his domain.
When the leg was gone—
Don moved to Uzgoth's lower left arm.
The Sovereign's voice had lost its rage now, replaced by something closer to desperation:
"Wait—wait, we can negotiate—I have treasure, power, knowledge—anything you want, I'll give you—"
Don grabbed the arm.
His blood chains shifted, releasing it just enough for him to wrench it from Uzgoth's body.
The partially-healed wound from Valdris's Oath reopened.
Muscles tore. Bone cracked. The arm came away with a wet, tearing sound.
[STAMINA: 270 → 220]
More green blood sprayed. Uzgoth's regeneration tried desperately to seal the wound, but Don's blood magic fought it—keeping the injury open, forcing the Sovereign to bleed.
Don held the severed arm in front of Uzgoth's face.
"No negotiation."
He bit into it.
Uzgoth's scream this time was different.
Not anger. Not fear.
Anguish.
The sound of something ancient and powerful realizing—truly, finally realizing—that it was going to die.
And die in the exact manner it had inflicted on thousands of others.
Don consumed the arm methodically. Six more minutes of eating while Uzgoth watched, his two remaining arms still pinned, his body unable to escape, his regeneration losing the battle against systematic consumption.
[VITALITY: 1,034 → 1,084 → 1,134 (+100)]
[STAMINA PARTIALLY RESTORED]
[MADNESS: 33% → 35%]
When the second limb was gone—
Uzgoth had stopped screaming.
His voice, when he spoke, was barely a whisper:
"How... long... have you... been planning... this..."
Don wiped blood from his mouth, his expression clinical:
"Since I learned what you did to King Aldric's family."
"The... princess..." Understanding dawned in those dimming coal eyes. "You... came here... for revenge..."
"No." Don's voice was cold. Final. "I came here to survive. The revenge is just... efficient."
He activated Life Steal—active mode.
[LIFE STEAL: ACTIVE MODE]
[COST: 42 MANA]
[DRAINING ESSENCE DIRECTLY]
Dark energy flowed from Uzgoth's body into Don's—not just blood, not just flesh, but essence itself. The Sovereign's cultivation, his accumulated power, his very existence being siphoned away.
Uzgoth's body began to wither visibly.
His muscles deflated. His skin turned from dark green to ashen gray. His two remaining arms—still pinned by blood chains and blades—became skeletal.
The burning coal eyes flickered.
"You... won't... survive... what you're... becoming..."
Don leaned closer, his mismatched eyes—amber-gold and crimson-gold now shot through with silver threads—meeting Uzgoth's fading gaze.
"I know."
He didn't elaborate. Didn't explain. Just let Uzgoth see the truth in those transformed eyes:
Don knew what he was becoming. Knew the cost. Knew the price of every power he'd claimed.
And he'd chosen it anyway.
Uzgoth's final expression was something between respect and horror.
His last words were barely audible:
"The... Abyss... will... claim... you... like... it... claimed... me..."
Then silence.
The burning coal eyes went dark.
The massive body went still.
Uzgoth the Devourer King—Stage 3-5, ruler of the Shadowfen for two hundred years, murderer of kingdoms, consumer of the innocent—
Was dead.
[UZGOTH THE DEVOURER KING: DEFEATED]
[+50,000 XP]
[+100,000 KP]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL 16 → LEVEL 17]
[EXPERIENCE: 11,884 + 50,000 = 61,884]
[REQUIRED FOR LEVEL 17: 18,000]
[REMAINING: 43,884]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL 17 → LEVEL 18]
[EXPERIENCE: 43,884]
[REQUIRED FOR LEVEL 18: 20,000]
[REMAINING: 23,884]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL 18 → LEVEL 19]
[EXPERIENCE: 23,884]
[REQUIRED FOR LEVEL 19: 22,000]
[REMAINING: 1,884]
[CURRENT LEVEL: 19]
[EXPERIENCE: 1,884/30,000 TO LEVEL 20]
Don stood over the corpse—now a withered husk, barely recognizable as the monster it had been.
His Titan Form ended as the essence integration completed, his body returning to normal twelve-year-old size.
But the power remained.
The throne room was completely destroyed. Every pillar fallen. The ceiling mostly collapsed. The floor more crater than surface.
And in the center of it all—
Don Valdruun.
Level 19. Stage 3-5.
Covered in green blood that was already evaporating from his transformed body heat.
His mismatched eyes glowing faintly in the dim light.
The silence was absolute.
No more screaming. No more war drums. No more anything.
Just... stillness.
Don took a breath—his first truly deep breath since the battle began.
The air tasted like ash and blood and death.
It tasted like victory.
He dismissed his eight Executioner's Edge blades, letting them fade to semi-transparent and return to their resting positions behind his shoulders.
Then he waited.
The System would process his victory. Calculate rewards. Provide the next step.
He just had to—
The world shifted.
Not gradually. Instantly.
The destroyed throne room—gone.
The Valdris Capital ruins—gone.
The entire Shadowfen—gone.
Don stood in nothing.
Absolute void. No ground beneath his feet, but he wasn't falling. No sky above, but he could breathe. No light source, but he could see perfectly.
Just... emptiness.
And floating before him, materialized from the void itself—
A message.
Not written on paper or carved in stone. The words simply existed in the space before him, glowing with faint blue light:
╔═══════════════════════════════════╗
TRIAL COMPLETE
FIRST TRIAL: THE FALLEN KINGDOM
╚═══════════════════════════════════╝
TRIAL STATISTICS:
• Time Elapsed (Abyss): 17 Days, 8 Hours, 43 Minutes
• Time Elapsed (Reality): 17.15 Minutes
Objectives:
• ├─ Survive the Shadowfen: COMPLETE
• ├─ Kill Minimum 150 Goblins: COMPLETE (4,974/150)
• ├─ Eliminate Generals: COMPLETE (6/6)
• └─ Defeat the Sovereign: COMPLETE
Kill Statistics:
• Total Eliminations: 6,174
• ├─ Stage 3 Entities: 1
• ├─ Stage 2 Entities: 6
• ├─ Stage 1 Cultivators: 1,513
• └─ Non-Cultivators: 4,654
Combat Performance:
• ├─ Average Time Per Kill: 4.1 minutes
• ├─ Efficiency Rating: EXCEPTIONAL
• ├─ Tactics Rating: RUTHLESS
• ├─ Survival Rating: PERFECT (0 Deaths)
• └─ Completion Method: TOTAL EXTINCTION
Advancement Achieved:
• ├─ Entry Level: 5 (Stage 1-5)
• ├─ Exit Level: 19 (Stage 3-5)
• ├─ Level Increases: +14 Levels (5 → 19)
• ├─ Stage Advancements: +2 (Stage 1 → Stage 3)
• └─ Power Increase: +847%
TRIAL GRADE: S+
Completion Status: PERFECT CLEAR
Special Achievements:
• [First Trial Perfect Clear]
• [Zero Deaths]
• [Sovereign Slayer]
• [Kingdom Purge] (Eliminated 100% of hostile entities)
• [The Devourer Devoured] (Consumed Stage 3 entity while alive)
CALCULATING REWARDS...
The blue text pulsed, numbers scrolling too fast to read as the System processed Don's performance.
Don watched silently, his transformed body still radiating the heat of consumed Stage 3 essence, his mismatched eyes reflecting the blue glow.
Seventeen days in the Abyss.
Seventeen minutes in reality.
Six thousand one hundred seventy-four kills.
Fourteen level increases.
Perfect clear.
The numbers told the story better than words ever could.
He had entered as a desperate Stage 1 cultivator seeking power.
He was leaving as something that had consumed a Sovereign.
The calculation continued, the blue text shifting and reconfiguring as it determined appropriate rewards for such an unprecedented performance.
CALCULATING...
CALCULATING...
CALCULATING...