Chapter 519: Ten Thousand Steps Into Madness (3)
The Ultras ..fanatics in their own right. A cursed order, bound to endless suffering.
But just as the Empire had their heroes, so too did the Ultras.
And perhaps the clearest example... was that masked youth, the one in whom the common folk placed all their hopes.
"You’re running out of time, V," Gavid Lindman had told him.
"From now on, every failure will cost a life. I’ll kill them myself—so go. Don’t come back until you’ve become like him... a monster on Frey Starlight’s level."
"This is your last chance, Viny Sparda."
Lindman’s words—his threat—never left V’s mind.
That same young man now approached the main imperial camp.
Step by step, he passed through the outer barricades, encountering his first target.
"Huh? Who the hell are—?" the soldier began, but V cut him down in a flash.
As the man’s blood spilled across the ground, the rest of the soldiers began to realize ..
An intruder had slipped past their defenses.
And they had never even noticed.
"A monster on the level of Frey Starlight..." V muttered, his eyes glowing red.
"That’s what you meant, isn’t it, Lord Lindman?"
To infiltrate the enemy camp alone, to drown it in rivers of blood and pile the corpses into mountains...
V was no tactician.
He was far simpler than that. The young man had never known kindness. He never lived the life others his age were supposed to live.
All he had done until now—was survive... and destroy.
He escaped the rat trap and carved out a name for himself, but it wasn’t enough.
Now, as the soldiers of the Empire charged toward him, V drew the Moonlight Blade, his eyes flashing white ... surrendering himself to madness.
"Berserker Mode."
Out of nothing, a jet-black armor wrapped around his body, while black flames erupted all around him.
With a war cry that shook the skies, he surged forward ..ripping through dozens of enemies in a single strike, his dark flames devouring everything in his path.
The ground burned beneath him. Everything turned upside down as that berserk monster tore through the enemy camp alone.
He didn’t speak. He just screamed like a mad beast ..like a predator unleashed for one purpose only: to kill.
Many tried to stop him. All of them died.
His destructive power was overwhelming. His sword was no ordinary weapon.
And those black flames... they were hell itself.
Flames that did not just burn flesh—but scorched the soul.
Alarm sirens blared, and chaos spread under the wings of night.
The signal was clear...a rabid beast had been unleashed among them.
He leapt from place to place, crushing anyone in his way. Body parts scattered. Blood painted the earth.
There was no pattern to his fighting. No technique. Just raw slaughter. A maelstrom of chaos and fury that struck down anything that entered his range.
Some attacks struck his body—but left no mark. The strange armor shielded him from everything.
The only sounds echoing across the camp were the brutal grinding of steel, his inhuman roars, and the dying screams of soldiers. Some fled. Others died trying to resist.
It lasted only minutes. But for those less fortunate...for those forced to face him
..those minutes felt eternal.
His sword had not stopped once since the slaughter began.
But now for the first time ..it was stopped.
By another.
A golden one.
Out of nowhere, she appeared. Completely blocking his path.
Crimson hair flowed beneath her golden helmet. Her greatsword blazed with radiance, brighter than ever.
"That sword... I see. So you’re the one who attacked the temple that day."
Before V stood the wielder of one of the legendary swords..
Melina, bearer of the Claymore. The one who once trained both Snow and Frey.
She was never one for many words. And V, under the thrall of his berserk state, said nothing at all.
The two clashed immediately—exchanging blows at terrifying speed. Each time their legendary swords collided, the ground beneath them shattered further.
V fueled himself with black flames that surged to consume Melina’s body..but she deflected them with her aura.
"You place far too much faith in your strength, boy... to dare storm our base alone like this."
Gripping the Claymore with both hands, she extended it ..lengthening it until it exceeded ten meters.
Wielding it effortlessly, Melina unleashed a blindingly fast horizontal slash toward V.
He tried to block...but the sheer force of it sent him flying, destroying everything in his path.
Melina chased after him without pause, her body glowing with brilliant golden light.
"Thank your own foolishness ..for thinking your meager power would be enough to survive here."
BOOM!
She slashed downward from above, aiming straight for V’s head. He barely managed to raise his blade and block—but the weight of her blow drove his feet deep into the earth.
It was surreal...how someone like Melina could control a sword that massive so perfectly.
"Shrink—Claymore."
At her command, a strange phenomenon occurred: the gigantic sword vanished ..and in its place, a golden dagger, no longer than five centimeters.
Capitalizing on the shock, Melina landed directly in front of V ..who was still holding his blade aloft, unable to keep up with her speed.
Seeing the opening, she thrust the dagger at his chest.
"Extend—Claymore."
BOOOM!!!
On her command—like a merciless golden beam ..
The Claymore extended at blinding speed, piercing through V’s chest and launching him into the ground with tremendous force.
It didn’t stop.
The sword continued growing, dragging V’s body across the earth ..grinding the land with his flesh.
Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, the Claymore vanished once more.
V struggled to rise, a gaping wound now torn through his chest.
Melina’s technique was terrifying—and this was only the beginning.
"Extend—Claymore."
He heard her voice clearly ..and within less than a second.
V saw the golden beam once again ..piercing through his chest.
The speed of the Claymore’s expansion bordered on insanity—practically instantaneous.
Melina alternated between shrinking and extending her weapon with expert precision.. displaying a duelist’s mastery at the highest level.
After being completely cornered by a single woman, V let out a primal scream from the depths of his soul, unleashing a blazing bomb of black flames.
"You’re holding a sword ..so I assume you’re a swordsman," Milena said calmly.
Extending the Claymore once more, she cleaved the fireball in two and walked through it with unshaken confidence.
"But when I look at you closely, all I see... is a beast craving death."
Milena was a terrifying duelist ..so much so that not a single imperial soldier dared to interfere. They feared standing in her way.
In response, V unleashed everything he had. A tidal wave of black flames surged from his body—an overwhelming flood of destruction directed solely at Milena. She readied herself to take the full brunt of it...
But before she could even move, crimson flames descended from the heavens.
Fierce, volcanic fire clashed against V’s dark inferno, neutralizing it completely.
"The Ultras must really be underestimating us... sending this whelp alone, hoping he’d make a difference."
Iris Sunlight floated in the air, his body ablaze, eyes locked onto the monster he was tasked with hunting down.
"Looks like they’ve run out of options, haven’t they?"