That's right—despite being a headless knight, Beldia did, in fact, have a head.It simply wasn't attached to his neck.
Even in the midst of battle, Beldia had always been holding his head in his other hand. The same had been true when he used his skills—his head was the medium through which they were activated.It was obvious that although the head itself had no mobility, it was the true core of his power. The body, by contrast, was little more than a vessel that supplied brute strength.
"I get it. Yes, I understand now," Beldia said stiffly. "Let's call the undead wyvern incident settled. The matter of the Explosion Magic—we can forget that as well. I'll choose another place to recuperate.So how about we end things here? Let this battle end in a draw. If we keep going, it won't benefit either of us."
His words sounded firm and dignified—but even the adventurers of Axel could tell at a glance.
He was scared out of his mind.
The moment Ren Kuroda bluntly pointed out that Beldia's head was his greatest weakness—and then, after firing White Lightning, began gathering an even higher-tier Kidō, Crimson Fire Cannon, Beldia truly panicked.
Of course he knew his head was his weak point.He also knew that whenever he activated his curse, his head—left defenseless in midair—became a perfect target.
Normally, while his head was casting, his body on the ground would restrain the enemy.And to be fair, he had tried to do exactly that.
Unfortunately for him, the opponent this time was Ren Kuroda.
Even while clashing with Beldia's body, Ren was still casually weaving in fully chantless Kidō, blasting Beldia's airborne head again and again.
The poor headless knight was now drowning in regret over ever tossing his head into the air in front of Ren.Every time it was about to land, Ren would simply blow it back into the sky with another spell.
Thanks to his undead nature, he wasn't dying outright—but the relentless waves of agony were enough to nearly drive him insane.
In the end, Beldia abandoned all pretense of dignity. He stopped talking about a draw and outright begged Ren to stop, admitting defeat.
But Ren—who hadn't leveled up in far too long—was staring at what was essentially a deluxe experience piñata that had come knocking on his door.
There was no way he was letting this go.
As for Axel's adventurers, they were already completely dumbfounded by Ren's display.
They knew how terrifying the Demon King's Army was.Otherwise, the kingdom wouldn't be perpetually on the brink of collapse, and those Demon King Army officers wouldn't be regarded as the strongest beings short of the Demon King himself.
Even so-called "heroes" had fallen in droves against them.
And yet now, right before their eyes, a Demon King Army officer was being utterly crushed—one-sidedly—by a handsome young man who looked like the friendly boy next door.
Beldia's head had been subjected to an endless barrage of multi-attribute magic, never once allowed to touch the ground.His body on the ground, despite its formidable combat skill, was completely suppressed, unable to fight back at all.
Ren's seamless style—blending swordsmanship and magic simultaneously—left the adventurers of Axel gasping in awe.
"So… the Magic Sword Adept class can be this strong? Supreme swordsmanship plus chantless magic? Isn't this advanced class way too broken?"
"Are you an idiot? You've seen Magic Sword Adepts before—none of them were anywhere near this ridiculous.Forget chantless magic and absurd sword skills—what normal person has that much mana, that kind of speed, and that level of strength?!"
Up until now, Axel's adventurers had only judged Ren's strength based on the monster materials he brought back. Few had ever witnessed him fight seriously.Today's battle completely shattered their understanding.
"I am undead," Beldia insisted desperately. "Even if you've discovered my head's weakness, magic at your level can't truly kill me. Why don't we shake hands and make peace?"
It wasn't just the adventurers who were shocked by Ren's power—Beldia himself was reeling.
He had originally estimated that while he couldn't defeat Ren, he wouldn't lose badly either.
Reality proved far crueler.
This wasn't a contest—it was a brutal, one-sided beating. If not for his undead nature, he would have been dead long ago.
Even now, as Ren continued bombarding him with magic, Beldia still clung to a shred of confidence.As an undead, ordinary magic wasn't enough to finish him off.
The Crimson Demon girl's Explosion Magic might have done it—but she was already completely drained of mana.Wiz could also manage it—but as a Demon King Army officer, she couldn't openly betray her position.
As for Axel's other adventurers? Beldia didn't even bother counting them. In his eyes, they were trash—incapable of casting magic strong enough to kill him.
What he failed to realize, however, was that among those "trash" adventurers lurked a hopelessly incompetent goddess.
She might be useless—but her god-tier mana reserves were very real, even surpassing Ren's.And more importantly, the water magic and purification skills Beldia feared most just happened to be her specialties.
Of course, Ren's current objective was to defeat a Demon King Army officer. There was no way he'd let Aqua steal his kill.
"I may not use so-called holy magic," Ren said calmly, "but I don't believe there's anything in this world that truly can't be killed.You're not invincible—and I haven't even gone all out yet. So let me see just how resilient this so-called undead life really is.
"Hear the howl of the divine wind—Witness the momentum that shatters armies!Swift as the wind—Breaking Army!"
The flowing wind seemed to answer his call, gathering and compressing into a single point.
As Beldia's body charged forward once more, a massive green slash—dozens of meters wide—came roaring straight at him.
From its sheer size and pressure alone, Beldia immediately knew—
This attack was on a completely different level from before.
The colossal crescent-shaped slash carved a deep trench into the earth as it hurtled directly toward him.
Facing Ren's Swift as the Wind — Breaking Army, Beldia dared not underestimate it. He shifted from one-handed to a two-handed grip, bracing his longsword horizontally to block the attack.
The instant the green slash collided with his blade, sparks erupted violently, and the warhorse beneath him screamed as it struggled to hold its ground.
After unleashing that overwhelming strike, Ren did not press the attack.Instead, he turned his gaze upward—to Beldia's head still floating in the air—and slowly raised both hands.
"O Lord who reigns above…Mask of flesh and blood, myriad forms, beating wings—Bear the name of Man.Carve twin lotuses upon the wall of azure flame,And from the distant heavens descend into the abyss of blazing fire.
Hadō #73 — Twin Lotus Azure Flame Fall!"
As Ren's chant echoed, two enormous spheres of blue fire suddenly manifested in the sky.Their heat was so intense that even the surrounding air warped and distorted.
With Ren's current mana reserves, a fully incanted Hadō #73 was nothing short of catastrophic.The difference between a chanted Kidō and a chantless one was like night and day.
The moment Beldia saw the twin azure flames overhead, his instincts screamed danger.
Death.
He wanted to move his body to shield his head—relying on his physical resistance and blessed armor to survive the spell.
But his body was completely pinned down.
The massive green slash still suppressed him, rendering him utterly unable to move—unable to save his own head.
"BOOM—!"
The twin azure flames fell like meteors, merging midair and erupting into an even greater inferno.
The sky itself was dyed blue by the raging fire, and the temperature soared as scorching heat washed over everything.
Reality proved Beldia's claim wrong.
It wasn't that only holy magic could kill him—as long as the attack was strong enough, there was no such thing as an unkillable existence.
Under the searing heat of Twin Lotus Azure Flame Fall, Beldia didn't even get the chance to scream.
He was reduced to ash.
The moment his head was destroyed, his body—still resisting Ren's slash—went limp like a puppet with its strings cut, instantly bisected by the raging wind blade.
With even a Demon King Army officer slain, the remaining undead knights finally broke.
They scattered like startled birds.
"Witness the roar of divine flame—The ravenous wolf that devours all!Advance like fire—Ravenous Wolf!"
Ren turned and swung his blade once more.
In an instant, howling flames surged forward, swallowing the fleeing undead knights before they could escape.
Flaming wolf-shaped infernos thundered across the battlefield, racing over blazing ground and overtaking the mounted undead.Each leaping wolf meant one knight being completely consumed by fire.
"So strong… This isn't just Axel's strongest adventurer anymore. You could call him the strongest in the entire kingdom, and it still wouldn't be an exaggeration."
The adventurers of Axel had never fully grasped how powerful Beldia truly was.
But the undead knights?
They knew.
Each one had taken entire squads working together to barely bring down.
And yet now—before Ren Kuroda—those same undead knights couldn't even survive a single exchange.
They were annihilated like insects.