The Author's POV-Novel

It all should’ve ended with a swipe of my hand…

That was what, Mercurion, a Marquis ranked demon thought as he swiped down at the human before him.

He had a rather strong body. 

One that was difficult to break with a single attack and that required quite a bit of strength, in spite of him being a rank lower. Even so, it should not have been impossible for Mercurion to overcome.

In the end, orcs had a similar level of toughness and he was easily able to kill them. 

Clang—!

Mercurion was taken aback when he felt his claws strike something solid and felt a vibration emanating from his hand as a result of the impact.

“What’s going on?”

He wondered aloud as he lowered his head to look at the human.

At this precise moment, Marcurion was astounded to see that the human’s body had turned completely black, and thin yellow lines began to appear around the human’s body.

They glowed a faint tint of yellow and brought rise to an indescribable sense of oppression.

‘What’s going on?’

Mercurion stared in disbelief as he sensed that something was off about the situation.

Bang—!

Before he could even begin to make sense of what was happening, he felt a strong force envelop his entire body as he was pushed several meters backward.

“Hyak!”

***

“Haaa…haaa…”

‘It hurts!’

As Hein laboriously gulped for air, he was suddenly overcome with excruciating pain throughout his entire body.

Particularly, he was able to feel the throbbing and searing pain in his veins, making it hard for him to even utter a couple of words.

Nonetheless, with the pain came an indescribable amount of power.

“Aaaakhhh…”

Hein yelled out in agony as the muscles in his right hand began to twitch in an uncontrollable manner.

He was starting to lose focus and his vision was starting to blur.

The pain was that intense.

‘Damn it …I didn’t expect to use this so early into the war.’

Hein muttered a curse under his breath as the shaking in his right knee and the growing darkness in his vision continued.

‘Remember Hein, don’t ever use it unless you’re in danger. Since you are only learning about the body part, using it will result in excruciating pain that will make you want to commit suicide.

Hein started recalling a few words Han Yufei had told him in the past.

‘Not only that, since you haven’t fully mastered it yet, the pain will be even worse than I can describe…remember, don’t ever use the Gravar style unless your life is really in danger.’

“Haha…I should’ve listened to him.”

Hein let out a strained laugh.

The Gravar style.

Yes, what Hein was currently using at the moment was the Gravar style.

Well, at least a small part of it.

He couldn’t actually learn the Graver style since he didn’t use the sword and it didn’t fit his fighting style. However, with Han Yufei’s permission, he was able to learn a small part of it.

The part that focused on the body.

“Ughhh…”

The throbbing only got worse with time.

‘…I don’t have much time.’

The twenty minutes he previously had had now turned to a couple of minutes.

Hein was aware that he was in a difficult situation; however, when confronted by a demon with the rank of Marquis, he knew that he could not show any restraint at all.

Boom!

With just a single step, the ground beneath him tore into shreds and his vision distorted. Before he knew it, he was in front of the Marquis ranked demon. He raised his arm and, curling his hand into a fist, he punched with all he had.

His movements were so fast that when he threw a fist, the demon could do nothing but stay firm on his spot as he crossed his arms together to block the attack.

“Heukk!”

As a result of Hein’s attack, the demon was forced to retreat several meters in the opposite direction. When he finally came to a stop, he had a look of complete and utter surprise on his face.

“H..how “

He wondered aloud while maintaining a blank expression on his face. However, before he could even begin to comprehend what was taking place, Hein appeared in front of him once more and delivered another powerful punch.

Bang!

Hein’s attacks were relentless. He didn’t even leave a single moment for the demon to catch his breath. His fighting style perfectly resembled Han Yufei’s. Relentless and destructive.

The only difference was that Hein was slowly losing strength with each second that passed.

Nonetheless, it was enough for him to deal severe damage to the demon.

Booom!

Hein smashed the demon’s head against the ground with his hand while his right foot pinned the demon’s body to the ground.

“Hiek!”

When the demon crashed into the ground, he let out a pitiful screech and his eyes widened in shock as he stared at the ground in disbelief.

‘How…how is this possible?’

Hein was able to tell what the demon was thinking simply by observing the expression on his face as he mounted the demon’s body and began to punch the demon with everything he had.

Bang!

One punch.

Bang!

A second punch..

Bang!

A third punch…

As the demon’s head was smacked to one side and then the other, the pace of the punches began to quicken and eventually reached a frenetic state. The blows were so powerful that the demon couldn’t even scream as his eyes rolled back into his head and blood flew everywhere.

“Khhh…”

‘This should be enough.’

When Hein had already delivered his fifteenth punch within a span of two seconds, he could feel his body on fire and realized that he needed to put an end to the situation at this very instant.

He had to put an end to things right away if he wanted any chance of surviving this and making it out alive.

He raised his hand and made preparations to put an end to everything right at this very moment.

“…Huh?”

His hand frozen in mid-air as he was about to swing it.

Hein blinked once, and during that brief moment, his eyes came into contact with those of the demon. It came as a complete shock to Hein when the demon’s eyes, which had previously been red, suddenly turned yellow.

At the same time, Hein felt his entire body suddenly become lethargic.

“A..are you feeling tired?”

The demon opened his mouth and his voice quietly entered Hein’s head in a low whisper.

The corners of Hein’s eyes began to droop, and the hand that was still in the air appeared to be on the verge of falling at any moment.

“You’ve had your fun with me already, haven’t you? I think it’s enough, don’t you think?”

The demon’s voice continued to ring inside of Hein’s head like multiple whispers.

‘Right…I’m indeed tired.’

Hein murmured inwardly as he heard the demon’s voice.

The demon’s eyes began to shine with an even greater brilliance, and Hein’s hand, which had been raised earlier, began to slowly lower itself.

“I know that you have used a lot of energy, how about you go to sleep? I think you deserve some sleep after everything that you did…”

The demon’s voice gradually became softer over the course of the conversation, and Hein didn’t even notice when his eyelids began to close before it was too late.

‘Right…he is right… ‘

The demon’s words made sense in his mind.

At this point, his strength and stamina were almost entirely depleted. As a matter of fact, his mental clarity had already begun to diminish well before this moment. He hadn’t been able to think clearly in quite some time, and the voice of the demon completely resonated with what he was experiencing on the inside.

Not only that, but he somehow felt even more tired when the demon’s eyes turned yellow.

“…How about you take a small nap, I think you deserve it.”

“I…agree..”

Hein mumbled something as he eventually nodded his head and closed his eyes before collapsing next to the demon with a soft thud.

Thud-!

***

“Haaa…”

Mercurion exhaled deeply as he felt the weight of the human being lifted off of his body. The glow that had been in his eyes vanished, and as soon as it did, he jerked his head around to glare at the human that had been beating on him from above just a moment ago.

“How embarrassing.”

He quietly mumbled.

For a Marquis ranked demon like him to suffer such an embarrassing beat down, he felt various emotions.

Shame, anger, resentment…

‘This human is dangerous.’

He slowly stood up and looked at the human who was passed out on the ground.

Mercurion was a member of the Sloth clan, and he had a lingering fear that if he hadn’t been able to use his abilities at the precise moment that he did, it could have been him lying on the ground instead of the human.

Naturally, the idea that he was going to die never entered his head at any point in time.

He was a Marquis ranked demon while his opponent wasn’t. Despite his sudden rise in strength, it still wasn’t enough to deal with the large gap in rank the two of them had.

Sure, he did get beaten down on the ground, but that was all part of his plan. He just needed to find the opportune time to use his powers and render his opponent immobile through the usage of his powers.

…and he succeeded.

“Let’s get rid of him.”

Mercurion glanced at the battlefield around him and decided to kill the human in front of him.

His next set of actions was rather quick. Raising his foot, he stomped toward the human’s head.

“…huh?”

…or at least tried to.

The moment his foot was about to crush the human’s skull into a pulp, it suddenly froze in the middle of the air, preventing it from doing its intended damage.

‘What’s going on?’

Mercurion slowly turned his head, and as he did so, his eyes fell upon a beguiling figure that had two large horns growing out of her head. Her eyes had a rosy gleam that shone brightly.

“If you don’t mind, how about letting him go?”

Her seductive voice echoed throughout the air as she slowly made her way toward Mercurion.

“…What?”

Mercurion gave a single blink of his eye as he caught a glimpse of the demon approaching him from behind. When he felt something out of the ordinary, his heart began to race, but he was unable to move, and all he could feel was his head slowly nodding.

“How sweet of you.”

The demoness murmured something in his ear in a low voice. Before Mercurion could even realize what was happening, she was already standing in front of him.

Leaning her head closer to his ear once again, she whispered something else.

“…Now that we’re at it, why don’t you do me another favor?”

Mercurion experienced chills down his back as he listened to her words, but it seemed as though his body was frozen in place and he was unable to move at all.

The demoness tilted her head to the side and smiled seductively in his direction. She lowered her voice and cocked her head slightly as she spoke.

“Why don’t you die?”

Everything turned black after that.