—Frey Starlight’s POV—
"Man... I slept like a baby" Snow yawned and stretched as he walked beside me.
Morning had already broken, and we were pushing toward the next battlefield.
"You definitely did," I said, sighing.
Just as I’d expected... I hadn’t slept a single minute. I spent the whole night scrolling through the system, drowning myself in every scenario and possibility.
"Frey... don’t tell me you didn’t sleep at all," Uriel asked, worried. I shook my head.
"Not a minute. Terrible insomnia, as you can see." I gave a faint, self-mocking laugh .. but Uriel took it seriously.
In a blink, she reached out, and her golden, sacred power flowed through me.
It was soothing; the fatigue and heaviness melted away as if by magic.
"It won’t make up for the sleep you missed, but at least you’ll be able to fight at your best."
"Ah... thanks."
I thanked her honestly; she waved it off. I didn’t know what to say after that.
There was a strange, awkward air between us ..honestly harder to manage than fighting the Ultras.
Thankfully, Daemon cut in as usual ..as he strode near.
"Quit loafing and get ready .. from here on we move at full speed."
His voice carried, hard and commanding, to every soldier present.
"Our goal is to link up with our comrades on this front! Reports say they’re facing the Hollows head-on right now, so we move fast!"
"Sir, yes sir!!" the soldiers roared as one. Aura flared around them, cloaking their bodies as they broke into a full sprint.
Our feet hammered the ground, shaking it as we tore across the barren wastes at staggering speed. Up front, the three of us ran with Daemon, leading the entire battalion.
"Daemon, which Hollow are we facing?" I asked.
"Pontiff Sulyvahn. And there’s a chance Simon is nearby as well."
"Two Hollows at once, then."
"What’s this? Is the great Frey Starlight afraid of a few Hollows?"
At that, a frightening smile crept over my face before I noticed ..enough to make Daemon freeze for a heartbeat.
"The opposite, Daemon. Better this way—I won’t have to hunt them one by one, and we’ll finish fast."
"That’s a scary thing to say... but I won’t comment," he muttered, then glanced at me, serious.
"I don’t mind you butchering our enemies however you like, Frey ..but remember, your enemies are everywhere. We’re about to join the rest of our forces, and who knows—some among them might want you dead."
They might not be the same ones Aegon whipped up against me before, but the odds that some answer to him are high. I’d already accounted for it.
"No need to worry. We’ll handle it if it happens," Snow cut in.
"Fight the enemy in front and watch your back for a knife ..annoying, but within what we can bear."
Snow wasn’t wrong—but I couldn’t help prodding him.
"You sure you can manage that? At the rate you sleep, the war might end without you noticing."
"You’re not going to let that go, are you?" he sighed, annoyed.
"No."
...
Under the morning sun, with a chill in the air reminding us winter had only just passed, our march lasted a few hours ..yet at our pace we reached our destination quickly.
"We’re here," Daemon said as we halted beside him atop a low ridge.
From there we had a clear view of what lay ahead: a wide, barren plain—the kind you see everywhere on the Ultras Continent. A brutal battle raged below; we could hear its echo and feel the Aura shockwaves.
"Looks like we made it just in time ..the fight’s about to peak," Snow said, scanning the field.
A force far larger than Daemon’s was deployed there thousands strong ..
and facing them stood an army that outnumbered them by far: the puppet host, backed by Ultras fighters. Among them, I sensed several strong presences in the distance.
"Let’s go," I said, and leapt from the ridge with the others.
"Our aim is to support and cut down as many enemies as we can! Prepare for battle!" Daemon barked as we plunged into the fray.
The field was chaos. Aura shells detonated from every direction without pause.
With each passing minute the sky filled with thousands of element-laced arrows—fire arrows, lightning arrows, every kind of projectile. Parrying them was easy for me... but dozens of soldiers died with every volley.
"Let’s see what the Ultras have to offer this time."
Their numbers were massive, as always, and I had to resist the urge to erase them all with Nameless judgement. No one knew what might surface among them, and I had no desire to repeat what happened with Blattier.
So I took the hard way ..cutting them down one by one.
Slash!!
We punched through the Ultras’ flank, and Snow, Daemon, and I drove deep into their ranks. Most were metal puppets, but my blades slid through them with ease.
The Ultras noticed us and prioritized our elimination, turning their full aggression our way ..yet it didn’t slow my pace in the slightest.
The heat of battle. The echo of war.
Those moments ..the press of blades from every side, enemies racing to cut me down ..
I realized I’d missed this feeling. This was real war.
The Church had been strong, but the Ultras were different...
It’s like playing a war game and having a favorite kind of enemy you love to kill every time.
The Ultras were that kind of enemy for me.
Without noticing, that same terrifying smile crept back onto my face ..the one that planted fear in the Ultras’ hearts and plagued them with nightmares.
"He’s back..." one of them gasped, shock plain on his face.
"The Black Death has returned..."
So that’s what they call me? The Black Death?
Am I some kind of plague?
Hearing the nickname they’d given me, I laughed without meaning to.
"What a damned title."
Slash!
With a quick sweep of Dark Sister, a dozen heads spun away ..among them the unlucky fool who’d just announced my title.
Beside me, Snow Lionheart unleashed natural disasters of destructive elements, wreaking havoc among the Ultras.
Likewise, Daemon handled anyone foolish enough to lay a hand on him.
His power had surged to a shocking degree; I saw him laughing like a madman as he crushed enemies with his bare hands.
"I am the pinnacle of human evolution!"
That’s what he said.
I still don’t know what exactly he did ..or how his armor became part of his body—but among our generation, he was truly evolving the fastest.
Seeing the two of them hold their own, I decided to push ahead and target the Ultras’ strongest rather than waste time on common soldiers.
Unleashing SSS tier Aura,
I spread a colossal violet dome across the entire battlefield, sealing everyone inside.
Within this field, I could see and hear everything.
No one could escape me ..and needless to say,
finding the Hollows wasn’t difficult.
Deep in the far lines... a brutal fight raged, imperial soldiers being crushed beneath the savagery of one of the most vicious Hollows ..Pontiff Sulyvahn.
Locking onto him, a wide smile tugged at my lips as I triggered teleportation.
"Found you."
...
...
...
Deep within the battlefield ..on the front where the violence burned hottest ..
a man ran like a beast on three limbs, dragging a massive greatsword behind him with his one remaining hand.
He was unique ..matchless in all the world.
A man whose face no one knew, clad in broken black armor from which black, rotten blood seeped.
From behind his shattered helm, he spoke no words ..only a beast’s howl tore out of him,
a howl stitched to a scream that spelled madness.