Frey lifted his head toward him.
Fulghor stepped in front of Frey, evaluating him, then nodded.
"Yes.
Your power has grown greatly .. befitting a true king."
Frey lowered his gaze to his palm...
then clenched it into a fist.
"I feel like my body is overflowing with power...
but my mind is in chaos right now."
His eyes narrowed as memories of the Aether World flashed through his thoughts.
The more he tried to understand himself...
the more he realized how much he didn’t know.
But as he tightened his fist, Frey regained his composure .. his resolve becoming frighteningly sharp.
"Whatever the truth is... it won’t change anything."
He lifted his gaze toward the sky.
"I know what I have to do.
And I know the path I must walk."
As he examined his body, everyone gathered around him.
"Now that you’ve successfully broken through, we can finally plan our next move properly,"
Nova Starlight said.
Frey nodded.
"That’s right... but first—"
He turned his head to the right .. toward a dark corner hidden among trees and grass.
"Let’s deal with this unwanted guest."
His cold words stunned everyone .. even Gehrman and Fulghor.
But Frey paid no attention.
In the next instant...
He vanished, using instant teleportation.
Frey appeared in the very same dark corner he had been staring at moments ago.
Then .. without the slightest warning ..
He extended his hand, forming his weapon as a massive surge of aura erupted through it, slashing straight at whatever lurked before him.
BOOOOOOOM!!
With a single swing of his sword, Frey obliterated the entire right side of the forest, unleashing an overwhelming torrent of destructive force.
Everyone stared at him in shock .. both at the magnitude of his power, and at why he had attacked out of nowhere.
But only a few seconds later...
They understood.
Fulghor was the first to notice it.
Then the rest saw it one by one.
From the place Frey had struck, a strange being emerged.
A shadow-like creature—its body formed entirely of darkness and shadow, with a blank white face devoid of features, nothing but empty, lifeless hollows.
It rose from the cracked earth and faced Frey.
"You..."
The creature shrieked, its voice sharp and grating like metal scraping.
"How did you detect me?!"
Frey tightened his grip around Dark Sister.
"There’s no point answering. You’re going to die anyway."
Slash!
Frey unleashed a massive wave of black hole Aura, cleaving the shadow in two.
Such an attack would have been fatal to any ordinary being ..
But this shadow was not ordinary.
Its upper half merged instantly with the lower, reforming as it leapt backward.
Yet it still couldn’t escape.
A nuclear-like arrow detonated against it as Fulghor intervened.
Fulghor’s aura was crushing, its destructive range enormous.
"Be careful, Frey. That creature is dangerous."
Gehrman warned him from atop Fulghor’s shoulder, concern flashing across his face.
"That is a member of the Hell Duchy... the assassin Vex."
Fulghor stepped protectively in front of Frey.
"That bastard can completely erase his presence, making him nearly impossible to detect.
And he possesses multiple techniques capable of killing his targets in a single strike."
Gehrman clenched his teeth.
"I didn’t expect them to send someone like him this quickly..."
Vex had likely been among them from the very beginning ..waiting for the chance to assassinate either Frey or Gehrman.
The only reason he hadn’t moved sooner was the sheer number of fighters present—
and Fulghor himself, whose power was overwhelming.
"Everyone, get back! He can kill you with a single hit!"
Gehrman shouted at the Shadow Sect warriors.
At that moment, a sinister wave of aura surged through the air, numbing their senses.
"Indeed, Saint Gehrman... normally no one can detect me."
From the site of the last explosion, a colossal shadow erupted.
Vex expanded his form to a monstrous size, towering far above even Fulghor.
"The only one who ever sensed me before was the Demon King Agaroth ... when I attempted to assassinate him and failed.
Other than him, no one has ever perceived my presence."
His hollow gaze shifted to Frey.
"Until this strange young man appeared."
He pointed directly at Frey, who stepped forward, ignoring Gehrman’s warning.
"How did you do it?"
Frey didn’t bother answering.
The V-shaped sigils glowing in his Void Eyes were answer enough.
The Void had revealed Vex’s existence, no matter how perfect his concealment was.
"I don’t fully understand what’s going on here... but you’re one of the strongest demons, aren’t you?"
Frey said calmly as his body ignited with Soul-Flames and black hole Aura.
"Perfect. I was looking for someone to test this power on anyway. You just saved me the trouble."
At the speed of light, Frey charged at the colossal Vex.
Dark Sister carried an immense, unrestrained force as Frey swung without holding back.
Vex didn’t move.
He seemed completely defenseless.
Yet as Frey closed in, his Void Eyes perceived something strange ..
An invisible power rushing straight toward him.
Frey dodged at the last instant.
"Oh?"
Vex hissed.
"You didn’t just detect me... you can even see my invisible attacks."
Void Eyes were no simple ability.
They saw what could not be seen.
And now that Frey possessed an SSS-rank body, he could fully process the overwhelming data those eyes provided.
Like a black storm, Frey tore through Vex’s enormous body, shredding it as if it were nothing more than meat on a butcher’s table.
Despite Vex’s size, Frey dismembered him in less than a second.
Yet...
It didn’t feel like he had struck a physical body at all.
"You’re reckless... Nameless’s vessel."
Vex’s serpentine voice echoed as his face reappeared from a completely different part of the torn body.
"If my hidden attacks won’t hit you... then I’ll simply surround you from every direction."
The shadow Vex that Frey had sliced suddenly expanded, forming a gigantic prison of darkness around Frey.
Inside it, countless shadow tendrils lunged at him from every angle.
But Frey remained unmoved.
He gathered all his power into Dark Sister, his eyes blazing.
"Frey Starlight’s Style: Nameless Judgment."
His voice was calm ..
But what followed was not.
After breaking into SSS-rank, Nameless Judgment now carried both
Black hole Aura and Soul Power.
The result...
Was catastrophic.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!
Through his sword, Frey unleashed a colossal aura bomb that swallowed Vex, the land, and the sky alike ..
a devastating attack that left everyone who witnessed it in awe.
The force was so immense that even Dark Sister and Balerion’s Arm trembled for the first time ever under the sheer pressure.
The strike erased Vex completely, along with a vast stretch of the surrounding terrain.
Yet despite having annihilated his enemy, a faint frown appeared on Frey’s face.
"Once again... it didn’t feel like I struck a physical body."
Frey turned his head, activating his Void Eyes to their maximum range ..
but he detected nothing. No trace of Vex remained.
By all logical standards, he had killed his opponent.
But Frey was not naïve.
"Your instinct is correct. That filthy assassin escaped once he realized he couldn’t win."
Fulghor spoke from behind Frey, his gaze fixed on the epicenter of destruction.
"The assassin Vex is extremely powerful, but he never reveals his full strength unless he is absolutely certain he can kill his target.
He’s an irritating enemy .. one that’s notoriously hard to eliminate."
"Assassins like him are always the most dangerous in lightning-fast wars."
Frey nodded.
"Even if he ran this time, he’ll show himself sooner or later in the coming war.
We’ll deal with him then."
It was unlikely that Vex would be able to approach them again ..
with Frey’s Void Eyes, the Duke of Hell had lost his greatest advantage: perfect concealment.
After the brief battle, everyone returned to the Shadow Sect, preparing for the next phase.